Most six-year-olds spend their weekends playing games, riding bikes or watching cartoons.

But one entrepreneurial young Sark resident has spent her summer holidays doing something a little bit more grown up – running a business.

For the past few months, Phoenix (6) has been operating a pop-up art shop outside her family home, selling hand-drawn pictures, books and crafts to passing tourists and locals.

Armed with a cardboard box, handmade signs and a growing range of products, she can often be found spending an entire afternoon chatting to customers and pitching her latest creations.

As well as earning surprisingly good money – she made nearly £20 on her best day – it’s also helped to bring the previously timid six-year-old out of her shell.

“Before I started the shop, I was quite shy talking to people.

“But now, when I start the shop, I’m not very shy,” she said.

Her own idea

Her customers are mostly tourists passing along the road near the family’s property, although plenty of locals have stopped by too.

When someone walks past, Phoenix doesn’t just sit and wait.

“I always talk to people to ask them to come to my shop,” she explained.

Phoenix’s parents say the pop-up shop was entirely her own idea.

At first, they assumed it would be a short-lived phase.

Instead, she’s spent months patiently setting up her stall, keeping accounts, chatting to customers and reinvesting her profits.

“I would have said she wasn’t financially ready and didn’t understand money well enough,” her mum admitted. “But I take that back – I’m very, very impressed.”

Phoenix agreed, adding: “I got quite a lot of money, didn’t I?”

Learning business the fun way

Although it began as a fun project, Phoenix is already picking up lessons many adults spend years learning.

She keeps hand-written accounts, buys supplies and has discovered the importance of balancing costs against income.

After using some of her early earnings to buy an ice cream, she quickly realised how much work had gone into making that money in the first place.

After buying the treat, Phoenix turned to her mother and said: “That was so much money.”

These days, much of her income goes straight back into the business.

“I’m going to spend everything really on pens and papers,” she said.

Even employing staff

Like any growing enterprise, Phoenix has even started to expanded her workforce.

When her friend Nala helped run the shop during a sleepover, Phoenix rewarded her assistant with a share of the profits – a generous 20%.

The arrangement proved successful, helping the pair achieve Phoenix’s record sales day of £18.69, netting Nala nearly £4.

Not that business is always fast-paced.

Sometimes the precocious young shopkeeper spends hours waiting for customers, reading books or listening to stories while keeping an eye on the road.

Not that she minds, as a keen reader and history buff with a reading age “nearly as high” as her dad’s.

That patience, she says, is one of the secrets to success.

Bigger plans ahead

Phoenix has already started thinking about ways to expand her product range.

While she began selling her own pictures, she’s already expanded the product line to include hand-made models, second-hand books, brightly coloured feathers and even rocks.

Next, she hopes to start making bracelets, jewellery and other handmade crafts to sell.

And while most businesses begin with business plans, market research and investment, Phoenix’s started with a handful of drawings, a table by the road and the confidence to give it a go.

Judging by her success so far, there may be a few grown-ups who could learn a thing or two from Sark’s youngest shopkeeper.