Several days ago, I asked our Homeschool CEO community members a question. I asked them to share how they encourage entrepreneurship in their kids and they gave some amazing and inspiring suggestions.
Their suggestions inspired me to write this article for the benefit of fellow Homeschool CEOs who are looking for ideas. Below are some tips on what you can do to encourage your kids to be entrepreneurs.
Teach them to set a financial goal.
You know how kids are always asking you to buy them something? Use that as a teachable moment and tell them they can have it if they are able to save money for it. This will inspire them to think of ways to make money.
One example is the 4-year-old daughter of Homeschool CEO mom Natasha Hartman who asked if she could sell bows to earn money to go to Disneyland. It took them 15 months but they succeeded!
Encourage them to pursue their interests.
When a child is already passionate about something, it’s often easier to encourage them to turn that passion into a money-making venture. It will seem like a lot less work for them because it’s something that they already love to do.
For instance, Homeschool CEO Pienky Du Toit has a bug lover son who’s passionate about mealworms. For 3 years now, he has been breeding and selling mealworms from his own mealworm farm.
Include them in your team.
You already own a business. What better way to expose your child to entrepreneurship than by showing him or her what you do? This opportunity will not only be a way to teach your child about business but also a great bonding time with you too.
Wendy Zanders does this with her 13-year-old son who’s becoming part of her team taking courses on building websites and doing social media among others.
Another example is Renée Tiemann’s 16-year-old son who loves writing compositions. She encourages him to compose for her client videos and pays him for his work.
Expose them to business-related content.
Make business-related content easily accessible to them. When they see it all the time, they’ll learn more and more about it and hopefully be inspired to build their own business. For instance, leave entrepreneurship books at the coffee table that they can freely browse.
Don’t stop with books though. Hillary Vaillancourt, for instance, watches Shark Tank with her toddler, and she knows of another homeschool mom who watches the stock market open every morning with her daughters.
Be a good role model.
By simply being parents, we’re already being role models for our kids in terms of values and character-building. Why not kick that up a notch and be role models in business too? By seeing you do the things you do, they will naturally learn some things from that, so make it count.
That’s what Laura Lines is doing. They are unschooling as she starts her business and her kids are learning right alongside her.
There are many different ways to teach our kids how to become an entrepreneur, but as Homeschool CEOs, we are in a unique position to do so because we can offer so much knowledge and insight from our experiences. Use those to help you inspire your kids.
