When 11-year-old Vineel Bhat saw his business opportunity present itself at Rachel Carson Elementary, it didn’t take him long to pounce.

“Almost everyone in my class had a stress ball,” he said. “I thought if there was so much demand, I could make a stress ball company. I came home and told [my parents] the idea and then went straight downstairs and made my first prototype.”

And so began Vineel’s foray into business. Vineel is the creator of the Squshy Ball, a stress reliever he sells through his online company Bluelvo Products.

Vineel, who turned 11 last July, will begin sixth grade at Inglewood Middle School this fall. He lists Warren Buffett as an inspiration, having read the book “Warren Buffett: Financier” and portraying Buffett for a class project in the third grade. He says when he grows up, he wants to be “an investor, a business entrepreneur and I want to be a lawyer, too.”

He has a good jump on two of those professions. Vineel takes investing classes at home led by his father, Thirumalesh, and helps his mother, Kripa, with her food business EarthJoy Snacks.

The Squshy Ball is Bluelvo’s first product, though the young entrepreneur has more ideas in store, but he’s keeping his ideas close to the chest. His Squshy Balls are colorful, smiley-faced, oval-shaped rubber balls with cloth hair. When they are squished, they mold into shape. Vineel points out his squishy balls do not retract back like other stress balls.

When Vineel began creating his first prototype of the Squshy Ball, he started by spooning flour “inch by inch” into a balloon.

“I guess he wanted to prove it can be done,” Kripa said.

“I was thinking about this for a long time before I actually decided I should do this,” he said. “Every single day, people kept on bringing it, three-fourths of the class, they bring it and keep it at their desk. After awhile, I started thinking about making it myself.”

From there, Vineel refined his product with some help from his parents, particularly with licensing and setting up his website. But Kripa is adamant that the Squshy Ball, as well as his Bluelvo website, is very much from Vineel’s own vision.

“He’s very involved,” Kripa said. “He’s not going be happy with what we do. He wants to be checking everything.”

Vineel has sold his Squshy Balls at a garage sale this past summer and at Carson Elementary’s Winter Bazaar. He is planning to expand to local retailers and is targeting a few gift shops in the area to sell his Squshy Ball, which he says goes for $2.

“I might add more products than [the Squshy Ball], but I don’t want to change it because this looks nice for me,” he said. “I just want to expand and go to more stores.”

Kripa believes Vineel watching his mother start her own business helped give him the confidence to start his own when the desire arose.

“It’s natural for him,” Kripa said, mentioning Vineel will help her sell products at her own booth. “He’s an outgoing guy. He likes selling, he loved [working at] the garage sale. It comes easy for him, conversing with people, other adults or small kids.”

“It’s fun,” Vineel said, adding he enjoys talking with people. “Instead of just sitting around, you have some action going on. You get to bring some people in and you feel nice when someone buys your product. Some people just come in and talk to me for 10 minutes just because.”

“This stress ball is a beginning for him,” Kripa said.

For more on the Squshy Ball and Bluelvo Products, visit http://bluelvo.net/index.html.