Starting a business with your children can be a fun way to promote creativity, responsibility, and business skills.
My eight-year-old and I love to watch Boss Baby on Netflix; I’ll even admit that I find myself watching it without her from time to time. She’s completely in awe of the boss baby being able to run a team and call the shots. From watching the show she was inspired to start a business, UniPops. UniPops originally started as a candy business, but after research and realizing neither of us were candy makers we switched the concept. Stay tuned for further updates.
Creativity and entrepreneurship has definitely been passed on. She has a private chef for a dad and a writer for a mom, so it was destined that one of our children would take the entrepreneurship path. #superproudmom
Starting a business with children provides great life experience and skills. They are able to set goals, problem solve, think outside the box, and best of all, create a vision that will come to fruition.
Jenny Craig used to catch three-dozen crabs a day to earn her own money; she would earn a penny for every crab she caught and sold them to her mom. In 2006, Jenny Craig sells her business to Nestlé for $600 million—not bad for a kid entrepreneur.
If we teach our children early, they can become some of tomorrow’s most successful entrepreneurs.
Here Are 6 Ways to Teach our Next Generation of Leaders.
Turn their passion into profit
Your child has to have interest in what they are doing. Passion is a must. This will be the driving force pushing them forward when the going gets tough. Brainstorm for ideas; no matter how crazy they seem trust your child. Thinking outside the box is a great business skill. Great businesses are birthed from crazy ideas.
Becky O’Neil started with dog walking and has grown her passion for pets to a $3.6 million-dollar business.
Let’s make a business plan
Now that we have a business idea, let’s create a plan to turn it into a reality. Have your child write down what they will need for the business. If you want to bake cookies, you will need food supplies, a kitchen, permits, and a place to sell them. Set business and financial goals for thirty, sixty, and ninety days. Create a one-page business plan to explain the business, its mission, and goals.
“You identify the talent, do your homework, carve out your playbook and then execute and have fun”, says Val H., Talent Manager on working with your children on starting a business.
Funding
This is the perfect time to introduce money management to your child(ren). Now that you have a business plan it’s time to tally up how much this will cost to start. Parents, you may have to financially invest in your child(ren). If so, this is also the perfect time to teach them about sacrifice. Money for movies, toys, their allowance, this should all be going into the business pot. I told my daughter she needs to contribute 10 percent of her monthly earnings toward her UniPop’s business.
Related: 10 Creative Ways to Fund Your Business
60-second pitch
Communication is key. Help your child develop ways to articulate their business under sixty seconds. Being an effective communicator even as a child is essential to becoming a strong entrepreneur. The adult market loves children’s businesses, so you’re already at an advantage. Teach your child(ren) to speak clearly, enunciating each word correctly, to use eye contact, and have a strong firm handshake.
Embrace the big NO
Adults struggle with rejection and hearing the word no. Imagine a child who has invested so much into their business hearing a string of no-no-no-nos. It feels like your parents telling you no all over again to the second cookie serving. Help your child(ren) to understand that no doesn’t mean failure. No doesn’t mean they don’t like you. This is a part of business. A business, any business, has a certain demographic and market, some will say yes and some will say no.
Have fun and involve the family
My daughter calls monthly “business meetings” with the entire family to distribute our assignments. We are allowed a one-hour (coffee, for me) lunch break and get paid $3 an hour. Yeah, still working on how to tell her that New York’s minimum wage is $15/hr. *smiles* My son is a huge help with doing designs and mockups for her ideas. Allowing them to be in charge and create something from their vision is remarkable and makes the accomplishments even more fun. The more the business blossoms the less you will have to motivate them to do this and that; they will naturally flock to the responsibilities of their business. Dinner conversations and rides to school will be about business versus the latest Nintendo Switch game or LOL doll that’s out.
There are no secrets to raising children with an entrepreneurial spirit. The secrets are finding their interests, having conversations, and being involved.
“I love having my mom with me on this new journey because we get to bond and create something together; plus she is a super cool mom and is like a friend”, says Justin H. an aspiring child actor.