Most of us made money selling lemonade when we were young, but not little Eve Hobsbawm. She's eight years old, and she's already a life coach in the making. She has her own website, called EveProblemSolver.com, which describes itself as, "A problem-solving consultancy founded by Miss Evie Mouse." Most adorably useful business ever!
Eve, who lives in London, says she was inspired by her dad, who owns a tech start-up, "As soon as I saw his business and understood the kinds of things businesses do, I thought that's what I'm going to do." Ah, yes, it's just that easy—but it actually is when you're eight, and you don't have any hang-ups about why you might fail. It was equally easy to come up with the kind of business she wanted to start. She thought about it for a while, and, "Then it just popped into my head: problem solving." Voila! Her first customer came last December, back when Eve was only seven:
The first person I exchanged business cards with said her husband was really annoying. So I said: "It all cancels out. You might do stuff to him that's also really annoying." She was really impressed.
And now you can get that same kind of insight into your own problems. Eve will help you with whatever is troubling you, but she does warn you at the outset that some problems like "Does space ever end?" and "I have a relative who died, can I get her back?" cannot be solved. She specializes in "Problems about love, life, and work-balance," which actually an eight-year-old would probably have a lot more clarity than most of us with a few decades of muddying experiences under out belt. She does not, however, help with school work questions.
Her prices vary depending on the difficulty of your problem. Hard problems run £1 (or about $1.50), with "everyday problems" running even cheaper than that. It sounds like a bargain, but does it work? Well, a reporter for The Guardian tried her services to help him find his keys and plan a dinner party. She said he'd find his keys in the hall—which he did—and she advised him to make spaghetti for his friends. Problems solved! With solid advice like that, she's bound to be in business for a very long time.
Meet Eve, the eight-year-old agony aunt [Guardian]