8-Year-Old Opens Bakery in Hopes of Buying His Mom a New House
— -- A California boy has opened a home bakery with an ambitious goal in mind: to earn enough money to buy his mother a new house.
"I just want one that me and my mom can be happy in," Jalen Bailey, 8, told ABC station KFSN-TV in Fresno.
Jalen makes the cakes, cookies tarts and muffins out of his and his mother's home in Fresno.
"He's very excited," mom Sharhonda Mahan told ABC News. "It seems like the more orders he gets, the more excited he gets and the more serious he gets about his business."
Mahan said that her son has been baking for two years. Recently, he decided he wanted to begin raising money so he and his mom can move into a larger home, something that makes Mahan emotional, she said.
"I guess I would wrap it into feeling overwhelmed with joy," Mahan added. "I've always wanted to raise him to be a selfless individual."
On July 1, Jalen's Bakery officially opened for business, complete with its own website. Baked goods are priced from $5 to $15.
With his mother's help, the young, aspiring entrepreneur had to obtain permits in order to prepare goods in his private kitchen.
Jalen's specialty is his peanut butter cookies, Mahan said, proudly.
Recently, Jalen went to his first business mixer, where he networked with other local bakers and raised money for his back-to-school drive for homeless children. One man offered to donate an oven so Jalen could bake even more cookies, KFSN-TV reported.
“I said I wanted to be a millionaire, I thought that wasn’t possible, but now I think it is,” Jalen told KFSN-TV.
Jalen's business has been booming from of all the media attention. He has filled 40 orders in three days, his mother said.
In the future, Jalen has dreams of competing on a cooking show.
"I hope that when he grows up, he keeps the same values at his core," Mahan said of her son.
