Cash-strapped youths launch summer business cleaning mailboxes




ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT—Westlake Village residents Nicole Fulgentis and Emma Fleming, both 13, clean mailboxes in the Three Springs area to earn extra cash during their summer vacation.

ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT—Westlake Village residents Nicole Fulgentis and Emma Fleming, both 13, clean mailboxes in the Three Springs area to earn extra cash during their summer vacation.

A foiled shopping trip and a little observation were all it took to inspire two young Westlake Village entrepreneurs to start a summer business.

About two months ago, Oaks Christian eighth-grader Emma Flemming and her friend Nicole Fulgentis, who attends eighth grade at St. Jude the Apostle School in Westlake Village, started a mailbox cleaning business in their Three Springs neighborhood. As of mid-August, the girls had polished more than 50 mailboxes at a charge of $2 each.

Nicole, 13, said the idea came to her when she asked her mom for a video game a few weeks ago and was told she needed to use her own money to buy it.

“We were driving back to my house, and I was still bummed because I couldn’t get the game. Then I looked at a mailbox and it was really dirty. I realized that housekeepers don’t clean mailboxes, so I could do it,” the eighth-grader said.

Brainstorming business ideas is not new for Nicole and Emma, who also do occasional pet-sitting. Though the girls had contemplated other ideas to earn money, none of them panned out until now.

“When Nicole came up with this idea to clean mailboxes, I was all for it,” Emma said.

“Earning my own money makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something. Now I have my own money to spend, and I don’t have to ask my parents when I want something,” Emma said.

She added that having to work for funds makes her think twice before she spends her income.

Armed with cleaning supplies, the girls go from house to house and knock on doors to solicit work.

“The very first house, we met a really nice couple who said yes. This inspired me to continue,” Nicole said.

Three Springs resident Marjory Small is impressed with the girls’ work ethic.

“The day they came was very hot, and they were riding their bicycles from house to house and immediately cleaning mailboxes when hired to do so,” Small said.

“I found it very refreshing to see two young ladies take the initiative to conceive of a way to earn money and to be willing to expend the energy, in spite of the heat, to follow through with their plan,” she said.

Nicole’s mom, Jennifer, said the girls’ idea took off because it’s unique.

Many people have been approached with requests to paint mailboxes before, but no one thought of just cleaning them.

Fulgentis said Nicole and Emma both take after their fathers, who came from modest backgrounds but worked hard to start their own companies.

“(Their fathers) have instilled in them work ethics and how important it is to not rely on other people, work hard, save money and get a good education,” Fulgentis said.

The girls have to be creative to find work because they’re too young for most baby-sitting jobs.

“That’s why (the mailbox cleaning business) is such an ideal job,” the mother said.

Nicole is the daughter of Jim and Jennifer Fulgentis and has three siblings. Emma has two siblings. Her parents are John and Leigh Fleming.

The girls said that once school starts they’ll put their business plans on hold to focus on academics and extracurricular activities. They will canvass the neighborhood again next year in quest of dirty mailboxes.

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