Entrepreneurial Kids

Posted by Lisa Russell Oct 5, 2008

My husband has never been a “work-for-someone-else” kind of guy. Being raised by my Entrepreneurial father, I knew first hand what some of the self-employment challenges were, and I was eager to face them. What a trip this marriage has been. Some of our children are showing signs of an entrepreneurial spirit, and we’re hoping to nurture their preferences, while also making sure they don’t learn too much the hard way. So our goal is to counsel, advise and make sure that they have the resources and opportunities to excel in whatever they chose. When they were 9 and 7, they opened up a lemonade stand. They filled out a loan form from the “Bank of Mom & Dad” and bought cups and lemonade mix. My woodworking husband built them a really cool stand. The loan was satisfied and they enjoyed making money for several summers, remodeling the stand and eventually passing the stand down to their sisters. Our 11 yr old has had a dog sitting business for a few years. One of her regular clients is a Yorkshire terrier and his Lhaso Apso brother. She’s invented a few small-dog products and we’re making prototypes, test-marketing them and she’s using Wordpress to build a website, and blogging her progress. We’re hoping to pitch the products to a distributor by the end of the year. Our 14 year old has always been an amazing artist. She has created some paintings and drawings and is in the process of building a Café Press store, and an accompanying website to sell her products. So much of the help we’ve given them is simply product recommendations, and help starting a financial records accounting process. They’re using excel spreadsheets to document their expenses and income. The question “How much would I make if…” Is often answered by punching a few numbers into the spreadsheet and seeing what happens. I’m sure that if they continue to be entrepreneurs, they’ll stumble upon learning lessons we haven’t prepared them for. Hopefully when they figure it all out they’ll share their knowledge with us!here's a great resource for Homeschooled Teen Entrepreneurs.