Girl Scout Cookie Program Tips, Tricks & Activities for Daisies

Troop Leader / Cookie Manager Getting Ready Steps

• Sign up for a Cookie Rookie Training Session (in person, scheduled webinar or on-line training at your

convenience)

• Get familiar with your Troop Cookie Manager training guide.

• Be sure you are receiving Cookiegrams. You can always access these emails online.

• Schedule your kick-off parent / caregiver meeting prior to program start date. This is the time you gather

your support team for encouraging deadlines, sending reminder / support emails along the way and begin

to decide if you want to do booth sales (potentially needing additional chaperones). Here are some helpful

steps for your parent / caregiver meeting.

• Review special marketing tools, decide what you want and place your order for business cards, thank you

cards and thank you stickers as desired. Other downloads available too.

Options for Stepping Into the Cookie Program A BRAND NEW Daisy troop might not be totally ready to go all in their first year of the Cookie Program. Some troops are and that’s great! Follow all the steps in your training guide and don’t hesitate to lean on the expertise of your Service Unit Product Program Manager. If you aren’t ready to go all in, that’s OK too! Consider the following ideas to help your Daisies step into the program.

• With your parents / caregivers in support, decide on a specific number of boxes for each Daisy. Each Daisy

sells, 12 boxes+ and you order to that number.

• Hand out the order cards and notify parents / caregivers, you will only order to what’s on the order card

when the initial order is due. Because you have to order in full cases, you will have some extra boxes and

you all agree to sell those. This helps ensure you don’t have an excess of unsold cookies.

• You decide with parent / caregiver support that Daisies who wish to participate will do so through the on-line program only. This way, you have no physical inventory you have to be responsible for and your Girl

Scouts can still work toward troop / individual goals. Just remember that all cookies purchased will be

shipped to the customer (he / she will have to pay that shipping cost… GSKSMO does subsidize by 50%

when 5 or more packages are purchased).

• Decide to participate in a booth sale or two only. Review booth sale details in your Troop Cookie Manager

training guide, enter the booth lottery or schedule your own following guidelines and order a limited

amount of cookies helping you with inventory control.

Try Out Some Fun Activities to Kick-Off / Throughout the Season Daisies want to have FUN! They are just learning what it means to run a cookie business. We want them to get a taste of The 5 Skills:

Business Ethics - Girls act honestly and responsibly during every step of the cookie sale. This matters because employers want to hire ethical employees—and the world needs ethical leaders in every field.

Goal Setting - Girls learn how to set goals and create a plan to reach them. This matters because girls need to know how to set and reach goals to succeed in school, on the job, and in life.

Decision Making - Girls learn to make decisions on their own and as a team. This matters because girls must make many decisions, big and small, in their lives. Learning this skill helps them make good ones.

Money Management - Girls learn to create a budget and handle money. This matters because girls need to know how to handle money—from their lunch money to their allowance to (someday) their paycheck.

People Skills - Girls find their voice and build confidence through customer interactions. This matters because it helps them do better in school (on group projects, on sports teams, and on the playground) and, later, at work.

We also encourage working toward Daisy Leaves and the Cookie Entrepreneur Family Pin. For the pin, do a couple steps in troop and then encourage parents / caregivers and their Daisy to work together on the remaining steps. Find Out the Cost of Fun Sometimes the things we might enjoy doing with our family or in Girl Scouts cost money. Discover how much some of these fun things cost and how to plan for these expenses. *Steps toward the Money Counts, Count It Up & Talk It Up Leaves Materials:

• Look at www.gsksmo.org/community (fun community partner programs)

• Look at other local opportunities / activities girls would be interested in (Build-a-Bear), etc.

• Calculators

• Paper to prepare your budget worksheet

• Pencil / markers

• Goal Thermometer

Directions • Have the girls work in small groups of three. Help split them up if needed.

• Explain to the girls that they are going to find out how much some of the things they might like to do with

their troop would cost and decide how many boxes of cookies they need to sell in order to do these

activities.

• Have each group pick one of the activities you / the group have pre-chosen. Place the activity on the sheet

of paper (budget worksheet) and determine the initial cost of the activity.

• With the help of an adult, determine the other expenses that might be associated with this event: food,

transportation, other. Record the costs on the budget worksheet.

• Tally up the total cost of the trip for one person.

• With the help of an adult, have the girls determine how many boxes of cookies they would need to sell in

order to reach that amount: Troops earn $1.00 for each box of cookies sold. For example, if the activity

would cost $15 per girl, each girl would need to sell 15 boxes of cookies in order to attend that activity.

• As a troop, Daisies can visually see the cost of each activity and then can decide which one to work

toward. Adults can always say… here’s our initial goal, but if we do this, we can choose this. Sometimes

the first thing said is an activity super big. So this activity helps them see the differences and feel

achievement if a lower cost objective is met. That’s a win!

• Daisies can also think about service...maybe choosing something good they want to do. Take some

proceeds and buy pet supplies for a local shelter, etc.

• With the remainder of the time, Daisies can fill in the troop and even an individual goal thermometer.

Power Places & People Girls will learn how to develop a sales strategy to help them reach their goals faster by considering the different customer categories and planning how to reach them. Girls reach their goals faster when they seek out customers from a variety of places. Encourage girls to brainstorm different ways to reach customers, encourage them to select 5 they would like to try this year. *Steps toward the Talk it Up Leaf Materials:

• Paper for each Daisy

• Crayons / markers / colored pencils

• Magazines if girls are ready to do a collage of places

Directions: • Talk to Daisies about places / people they could sell cookies to. You might get them started talking about

their family first.

• Once they get a good idea of people and places, ask each Daisy to draw five places / people she could sell.

Then ask her to circle her first choice.

• Following the time to create, let each Girl Scout share her picture with you and each other

• Encourage each Daisy to take picture home share with parents / caregivers and hang in a special place to

remind her of her marketing strategy.

Mock Booth Sale / Sales Practice Girls learn how to interact with customers while learning the basics of money management and being a successful business woman. *Steps toward the Talk It Up, Count It Up & Money Counts Leaves Materials:

• Table Set Up Like a Booth / Sales Table

• Cash Box

• Booth posters displayed that show cookies / cost) (Gluten Free version)

• Have G.I.R.L. play money ready to go.

• Prior to the playtime, have Girl Scouts create posters. Draw what they are excited sell / what they want to

do with proceeds / why customers should buy GS Cookies

• Wallet / purse

• Empty GS Cookie boxes or mock boxes

• Paper

• Markers / crayons

Directions: • First have Daisies work on their booth posters, talking through what they want customers to know about

their cookie business (why they love selling cookies, what they are doing with the proceeds, what’s their

favorite cookie)

• Hang the posters and then let Girl Scouts take turns asking each other to buy cookies

• This experience will allow them to get comfortable with the ask

• They can also see the money and start counting change

• This is an opportunity for Daisies to have some free play, get comfortable and each take home their posters and a set of their G.I.R.L. money.

Keep the Fun & Skill-Building Going

• Turn to the next page and begin working on the Daisy Cookie Entrepreneur Family Pin

• Join and share & get ideas from the GSKSMO Daisy Facebook Page.

• See so many more activities and games on Pinterest (Search Daisy Girl Scout Cookie Program activities).

gsksmo.org/cookies | cookies@gsksmo.org

Check off the boxes as you complete each activity with your family—

you can earn a different pin each year! Adults, look for the throughout

for special ways you can help!

FIVE STEPS TO EARN YOUR

Daisy Pins

1. Set a goal. Goal setting is the first step to making dreams

a reality. Look at the Girl Scout Cookie Program rewards with your

family, think about your troop goals, and pick a reward to try for. Once

you decide on the number of cookies you want to sell, fill in the goal

tracker—then color it as you sell cookies!

My troop goal is __________ packages so we can _________________________

________________________________________________________________________.

My personal goal is __________ packages.

2. Decide how to reach your goal. Who do you want to sell

cookies to? Practice decision making by choosing who to reach out to

first and in what way. Write a list or draw a picture of the people you’d

like to sell cookies to. Put a star by your first customer!

Keep it real. Be sure

she sets a realistic goal, but

remember that not everybody

always meets their goals—and

that’s OK! This is a learning

opportunity, and there’s a lot

to learn even if she doesn’t

achieve all she sets out to.

Work it. If she wants to sell to

your coworkers, either bring her in to

pitch them in person or have her draw

a poster or make a video that you can share with your colleagues. She

could even share her Digital Cookie® platform link or Smart Cookie link. Let

her build decision-making skills by choosing the method right for her.

Co

ok

ie G

oa

l Tra

cke

r _______________ packages

_______________ packages

_______________ packages

_______________ packages

_______________ packages

_______________ packages

_______________ packages

YEAR 1

YEAR 2

3. Practice with money. Use your math superpowers to count

and identify coins and bills with a grownup in your life. Don’t worry if

you need help at first—that’s what your family is for! Use this space to

write down how much each cookie costs so you can tell customers and

count money as they make their payments.

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

4. Learn to talk to customers. Ask a family member

to pretend to be a customer. Many

customers would like to learn about

your cookie goal and what your troop

might do with the money.

5. Think like a Girl Scout. The Girl Scout Law

reminds us to be responsible for what we say and do.

You can do that by filling in important deadlines below

and then keeping track of them with help from your

family. That means starting your sale on or after the

official start date and turning in your orders and money

on time!

Make money make

sense. Counting one- and five-

dollar bills will take her a while,

but letting her handle money

at home with supervision

will sharpen her math skills

and make her a star money

manager.

Navigate “no.” Some people won’t want to buy cookies,

and that’s OK. Help her think of what to say to people who say

no—business people don’t always make the sale!

Prepare her to lead. For more business

ethics basics, take another look at the Girl Scout

Law. From reminding your girl to be honest and

fair to telling her to use resources wisely, it’s full

of cookie boss wisdom!

My Important Cookie DatesGirl Scout Cookie season starts on: ________________________________________________________________________

Cookie order deadline: _____________________________________________________________________________________

Cookie pick-up: ___________________________________________________________________________________________

Money due date(s): _______________________________________________________________________________________

My other deadlines: _______________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Check with your troop leader about how your girl can get each pin,or head to girlscoutshop.com to purchase it.

The GIRL SCOUTS® name, mark, and all associated trademarks and logotypes, including the Trefoil Design, G.I.R.L. (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader)™, and Cookie Pro™ are owned by Girl Scouts of the USA.