Girl Scouts learn business, people skills selling cookies

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Every year, Girl Scouts across the country help satisfy our sugar cravings with their annual cookie sale. Girl Scouts of Nassau County CEO Rande Bynum says the cookie program teaches girls how to be entrepreneurs.

"Girls get to work in their communities with their family and their family, friends to sell cookies obviously," Bynum says. "But they also get to learn great skills like goal-setting, money management, entrepreneurship, business skills, people skills, the art of persuasion—and it's pretty amazing."

Alexandra McCormick, a 7trh grader, agrees.

"I'm learning to be a CEO. That's pretty cool," Alexandra says. "That's great life skills, you know."

The girls learn how to work as a team and solve problems. As a result, they build confidence.

"I meet these young women today, young girls, and just hear their determination and their drive, and the things they want to do and the goals that they set are just so big," Bynum says. "They're just dreaming much bigger than I could have ever imagined."

Nassau County has about 18,000 Girl Scouts; 14,000 of them participate in the cookie program, selling 1.3 million boxes a year.

Isabella Inzinna, an 8th grader, is the top seller in Nassau County having sold 5,000 boxes of cookies. she has a strategy.

"We do a lot of grocery stores and we'll go sometimes to 7-Eleven and sell there early when people go to work and get their coffee," she says.

And 6th grader Karina Ramnauth has hers.

"My strategy for selling cookies is to always have a big smile on my face," Karina says.

The majority of sales are made through booths like one at Westfield Sunrise Mall in Massapequa. The girls also ask family and friends and about 10 percent of sales are done online.

With their sales, they win experiences like a trips to Washington, D.C., Savannah, Georgia, and the Girl Scouts Convention.

And, of course, they have fun along the way.