Twelve Weeks To Midnight Blue by Steve Searfoss - Blog Tour, Excerpt & Giveaway:

Twelve Weeks to Midnight Blue JustRead Blog Tour

Welcome to the Blog Tour for Twelve Weeks To Midnight Blue by Steve Searfoss, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: KidVenture Twelve Weeks To Midnight Blue

Series: KidVenture #1

Author: Steve Searfoss

Publisher: Independently Published

Release Date: Jan 26, 2020

Genre: Middle-Grade Fiction

Chance Sterling launches a pool cleaning business over the summer. Join Chance as he looks for new customers, discovers how much to charge them, takes on a business partner, recruits an employee, deals with difficult clients, and figures out how to make a profit. He has twelve weeks to reach his goal. Will he make it? Only if he takes some chances.

KidVenture stories are business adventures where kids figure out how to market their company, understand risk, and negotiate. Each chapter ends with a challenge, including business decisions, ethical dilemmas and interpersonal conflict for young readers to wrestle with. As the story progresses, the characters track revenue, costs, profit margin, and other key metrics which are explained in simple, fun ways that tie into the story.

EXCERPT
Finding Customers

As I walked over, I practiced what I would say to get a new customer. May I interest you in our pool cleaning service? Do you need more than just a clean pool? Do you need reliability, promptness and peace of mind? How would you like to have a clean pool every week? There are clean pools, and then there are clean pools. Clean! Clean! Clean! And for the low, low price of $20.

When I got to the first house on the street I paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door. No answer. This time I knocked more forcefully. Still no answer.

Ok, no problem. I moved on to the next house and knocked. No response. I knocked again. Still nothing. I knocked louder. Oh well, on to the next one. I knocked on the next door. Three times. No answer. Ok, so maybe this was going to be harder than I thought.

Five more doors and I finally got a response. A nice old lady opened the door and before I could get two words in she disappeared into her foyer and returned a couple minutes later and handed me some candy.

“You seem nice,” she said. “Have some candy.”
“I can clean your pool.”
“Oh you don’t need to do that,” she smiled. “I’m happy to give it to you. I keep a bowl of candy in my kitchen for guests. It’s leftover from Halloween. You’re welcome to have some.”
“I mean for $20.”
“You want me to give you $20?”
“Yes.”
She was horrified.
Oops. “No, no,” I said. “I don’t want $20. I mean, I do want $20.” I stammered. “But I don’t mean for you to just give me $20. I mean I will clean your pool for $20.”
She still looked confused.
“I’m grateful for the candy, Ma’am.”
“Oh, why didn’t you say so. I don’t have a pool.” She seemed relieved.
“Oh.” I smiled awkwardly. “Well, I’ll be going now. Thank you for the candy.”

I sat on the curb and as I bit into one of the candy bars she gave me. I had to admit I wasn’t feeling great. They always made it look so easy in the movies. I thought for sure I’d have a new client by now. After all, I was a vendor now, not just a kid. I was offering a clean pool and peace of mind at a good price.

After a few minutes of feeling sorry for myself I got back up and knocked on the next door. And the door after that. And the door after that one. And four more doors after that. Finally, someone answered. A pimply teenager wearing a backwards baseball cap.

I started telling him about my pool cleaning services when he said, “hold on a second”, pulled out his phone and start taking notes.
This is good, I thought. He’s really interested. I explained it’s a weekly service, he could pick the day and time and I would be there at that time to clean his pool.
“So it’s not just a clean pool, it’s peace of mind for the low, low price of $20.” The last part I sang like a jingle. Just like I’d heard on the radio.
“That’s really good,” he said.
“Awesome. So you’ll do it?”
“Oh no,” he said quickly. “I need some money this summer and this sounds like a good way to make some extra money.”
“Hey!” I shouted. “No fair! It’s my idea.”
“Cleaning pools is your idea?” he asked sarcastically.
“Yes!”
“No it’s not. Anyone can clean pools.”
“Not like this, not like I can.”
“Whatever dude.” He waved his hand dismissively.
“Yeah dude, whatever.” It was all I could think of saying and stormed off.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

steve searfoss

I wrote my first KidVenture book after years of making up stories to teach my kids about business and economics. Whenever they'd ask how something works or why things were a certain way, I would say, "Let's pretend you have a business that sells..." and off we'd go. What would start as a simple hypothetical to explain a concept would become an adventure spanning several days as my kids would come back with new questions which would spawn more plot twists. Rather than give them quick answers, I tried to create cliffhangers to get them to really think through an idea and make the experience as interactive as possible.

I try to bring that same spirit of fun, curiosity, and challenge to each KidVenture book. That’s why every chapter ends with a dilemma and a set of questions. KidVenture books are fun for kids to read alone, and even more fun to read together and discuss. There are plenty of books where kids learn about being doctors and astronauts and firefighters. There is hardly anywhere they learn what it’s like to run a small business. KidVenture is different. The companies the kids start are modest and simple, but the themes are serious and important.

I’m an entrepreneur who has started a half dozen or so businesses and has had my share of failures. My dad was an entrepreneur and as a kid, I used to love asking him about his business and learning the ins and outs of what to do and not do. Mistakes make the best stories — and the best lessons. I wanted to write a business book that was realistic, where you get to see the characters stumble and wander and reset, the way entrepreneurs do in real life. Unlike most books and movies where business is portrayed as easy, where all you need is one good idea and the desire to be successful, the characters in KidVenture find that every day brings new problems to solve.

CONNECT WITH STEVE: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

TOUR GIVEAWAY

(1) winner will receive a $25 Amazon Gift card! (10) winners will receive a paperback copy of Twelve Weeks to Midnight Blue!

Twelve Weeks to Midnight Blue JustRead Blog Tour

Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. The full tour schedule is linked below. The giveaway began at midnight on January 25, 2022, and lasts through 11:59 PM EST on February 1, 2022. The winner will be notified within 2 weeks of the close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of the prize. US/CAN/UK/AUSTRALIA only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

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