Teach Your Kids to Be Entrepreneurs
When I was a kid, I did all kinds of entrepreneurial activities. I set up lemonade stands at the end of our alley; I sold candy, cards, and seeds (each at different times) door to door.
Even my days of selling Girl Scout cookies helped me to learn about building a business.
Did you do these kinds of things as a child? I would love to hear about your experiences in the comments below!
Unfortunately, children are consistently hearing messages at a young age that can have huge consequences on their entrepreneurial futures: Color inside the lines, don’t talk to strangers, wait your turn, etc., etc., etc.
In school, children are taught to get a good job, with benefits; and that 80% of new businesses fail. That’s really an exaggeration, as 80% don’t fail. Sure many businesses start and close, but closing a business is not necessarily failure. But even so, this type of language that is taught in school is not encouraging to kids thinking about being entrepreneurs when they grow up.
Teaching kids to launch a business is important because knowing the basics of entrepreneurship can make a huge difference in their lives and the potential that lies ahead of them. And most of the knowledge people have about entrepreneurship comes from hands-on experience, which means helping your kids start early is a great thing to do for them.
Even if your kids don’t become an entrepreneur as adults, the skills learned will help them in every endeavor in life, from being a good parent to excelling in their career.
Here are some ways in which entrepreneur skills can help your children:
Self-Worth –
Learning how to create value for the marketplace helps a child understand that they can make or do things that other people consider valuable. With that understanding comes a personal sense of worth.
Engaging in business building activities gives a child an opportunity to solve problems, come up with ideas, deal with people and make an income. These things also strengthen their sense of worth.
Control Over One’s Life –
In today’s market, unemployment is a very real concern. Employees are never sure about their jobs from one week to another.
An entrepreneur has control over their future. They can’t be fired or laid off, and if they want a raise or vacation, they have the power have to make it happen for themselves.
When a child understands how to start and run a business, he’s building the skills to take care of his economic needs for life. Of course there are challenges with being self-employed as well, but being an entrepreneur puts you in the driver’s seat and not at the mercy of a company’s bottom line or change in priorities.
Leadership –
Leadership skills will help them in whatever they do in their life. If the entrepreneur wants to succeed, they must get other people to buy into and follow their vision for the future. They have to get people to take a step of faith and work hard to make their goals materialize. Starting a business as a child helps them learn these skills early, putting them way ahead of everyone else.
Skills that will help them in any situation –
Many kids who wrestle with subjects like math, science, history and language, suddenly find that they understand them better, and even enjoy them, when it has a practical application and is used in building their business. Entrepreneurialism gives them that opportunity.
And don’t forget skills such as handling money, keeping records, managing time, developing processes, dealing with difficult people, and even learning about ethics. All of these can help him no matter what field he decides to go into when he grows up.
Motivation –
How many times have you had to tell your son to clean his room? You’ll find he’s much more motivated to do tasks that directly connect his actions to success or failure in his business.
For a child exploring entrepreneurialism, sometimes all it takes is making that first $20 to make the connection between their actions and their situation. It’s doesn’t take long for that lesson to apply to other parts of his life, including his bedroom.
Problem Solvers are Always in High Demand –
Entrepreneurs learn to solve problems on a daily basis. To launch their business they usually have to come up with an idea about some problem that they can solve better than others. Then, they have to solve all kinds of problems just to get their business off the ground.
Common obstacles include things like lack of money when getting started or having enough people (employees) to do all the necessary work. And, once their business is up and running there are the common problems that any businessperson deals with, like unhappy customers, running out of product, employees quitting and unreasonable deadlines to name just a few.
Learning to be an entrepreneur, even on a small level, will give your child an understanding of the importance and process of solving problems.
Wouldn’t it make sense to spend time when they are young and teach them about entrepreneurship? Get them started in their own home business… especially one online. The younger generation practically lives online these days anyway. Why not teach them how to make some money while they are there?
The truth is… starting an online business can make you a lot more money than most regular jobs, but it does still involve work, time and dedication. This is something that kids sometimes want to skip. Make sure they understand that a home business is a real business. The more time they dedicate to it, the better it will be.
Helping them build a home business gives them options. Show them the differences between working out in the “Rat Race” and working on a home business. Be realistic. It’s easy for kids to want to choose a “Safe” way rather than something that may take a little extra effort. Actually, most adults are like that as well. 🙂
The last thing is to always be positive and encouraging with kids about running their own business, especially if they’re working from home. Most kids still have dreams when they are young. They want accomplish great things. Somehow as they get older they settle for mediocrity… that is unless they have a good example to follow. So be the kind of person who inspires those youngsters to go for it and build their dreams.
With the job outlook looking bleak these days, young kids (and many adults) should really focus on a home business to help them go after their goals and dreams. Help them keep those dreams alive by being a positive role model to them always.
If you are looking for a business that is positive, makes great money and can be started part-time, please watch the video below or share it with someone who you think could benefit from an online home business.
…fill out the form below, and follow the simple steps. It’s working for me, and thousands of others out there online.
And, if you already have a business you’re happy with, I will still cheer you on!
——> Did this article help you? If so, it would mean a lot to me if you would share it with others!!! And, share your comments below! I would LOVE to know more about you and your thoughts on this subject! <——
Let’s have some conversation!
EXPECT Success!
By Lynn Huber
p.s. Teaching your children to seek out opportunities and take action on them, will directly contribute to their level of future success.
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