Fisher’s Mini Donuts

Opening a business is no easy feat especially for an 11-year-old. Fifth grader Fisher Carter opened Fisher’s Mini Donuts food truck a little over a year ago and hopes to open more businesses in the future.
The inspiration for this business came from his time in Boy Scouts when he was selling popcorn for his troop. Selling came naturally to Fisher and he believes that is what inspired him to open this business to begin with.
“I feel like donuts would be a good thing because you don’t really see that many donut businesses around. It’s just like Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts and those aren’t really around that much,” he said.
Fisher explained that he has a lot of time over the summer and that is another reason he wanted to start this business.
“It’s a sweet treat and no one can really say no to donuts,” he said. “It’s like a mixing of ice cream. You want it, but a lot of the time you just don’t get it and it’s not really around that much.”
When Fisher told his family that he wanted to start his business, his family was shocked but they were supportive all the way through the process.
For Christmas, Santa gave him a donut machine that would help him make his dream of opening a business come true. The food truck was given by a friend of Fisher’s dad, Clint Carter.
“I told him, ‘look, I’ll finance this for you and I’ll pay for it up front and when it’s done, we’ll talk about how you’re going to pay it back when we got it done,” Clint said. “I sat him down and I said, this is what we spent, and everything. I told him as we went, you know, look, this is how much this cost and this is how much it’s going to cost to do this.”
Although his parents helped pay for this project, most, if not all, decisions were made by Fisher himself.
“As far as building it and then after we got done, I sat him down, I said, ‘this is our total of what you have in the trailer and you can make payments, you can set your own payment at what you want it to be,’” Clint said. “So, he told me that he wanted to make payments at $200 a month. So that’s what we set the payment at and he’s almost got it paid off.”
It took almost a year to complete the truck to repair it and make it fully functional for Fisher’s business.
“I had an idea of it when I was younger but it wasn’t really this big, it wasn’t donuts,” Fisher said. “All I had dreamed was me selling a product, basically becoming a business (owner). But not specifically donuts or that sort of food.”
He shared that he is most excited for the future of his business and expanding it and maybe even becoming a worldwide business.
“It feels like an achievement but it’s just a lot harder at my age because you have to worry about school,” Fisher said. “So, for anyone who really wants to start a business at a young age, you have to make sure that school comes first because if you don’t go to school, you can’t really become a business (owner). You need to learn the basics of school before you do anything.”
Clint explained that his son is very independent and self-sustained with his business practice and he is very proud that he wanted to support himself at this young of an age.
“He’s just got good work ethic and he’s never really minded helping out at home and stuff like that,” he said.
The first year of business for Fisher has been an achievement and he has even already bought a second donut machine and wants to start the process of making another trailer. Fisher is thinking of maybe even franchising it out to his brother, Hunter.
“When they get to talking and they talk percentages, I just stay out of it,” Clint laughed. “I told him, ‘you can franchise it to your brother and your brother can pay for his own.’ His brother is 16.”
Even though the business is year-round and has multiple events that they attend throughout the year, Clint explained that Fisher has full control on what events he would like to do; however, he hasn’t turned anything down so far.
“Young people who want to sell or to make a business need to have work ethic. Our generations depend on you but they don’t depend on them themselves, not other people and other generations,” Fisher said. “So, what I have seen is our generation is not wanting to work, they need to work and try to be successful.”
To learn more about Fisher’s Mini Donuts, go to facebook.com/FishersMiniDonuts.