Teaching Kids to be Entrepreneurs

It is really important to me to teach my kids to be entrepreneurial.  I want them to know how to take care of themselves and we live in the greatest country in the world with unlimited opportunities for, well, for opportunity!  They don't have to own businesses and they don't have to invent some new gadget, but I think it is very important to have an entrepreneurial mindset.  I have 12 kids.  I own a thriving business that my kids have watched me build and to some degree that all by itself encourages the mindset we want.

An entrepreneurial mindset is summed up in the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, and really has not so much to do with how much money one makes as it does the attitudes behind what you do.  In my way of thinking (and his) it includes perspectives toward security. What makes one feel secure in terms of their income?  An entrepreneurially minded person feels secure when there is a set back they have control over how to respond and can go out and work harder or build their business to make more money.  Someone without that mindset might hope for a raise or go look for a better job.  Their security is based on someone else giving them more money for their work.  Mine is based on digging in more to grow my business.  Perspective is all it really is.  I don't like (at all!) the idea that someone else can take away my income by cutting my salary, laying me off or firing me.  I feel more in control when that is my decision not someone else's.

We have worked very hard on teaching our kids how to go get what they want.  Want a vacation?  Find a way to earn some money.  Want a car?  Earn one.  Got an idea?  Work it through and find a way to see if it will work.  They don't all work.   Try anyway.  Fail.  Figure out how to try and sometimes fail.  And then do it again.  Until you find that perfect combination of idea and execution that will succeed.

We have taught them the most important thing there is to learn about earning money and owning a business and that is how to sell.  You can have the best idea for a product or service in the world but if you can't get someone to buy it, you don't make a dime.  We have sold glowsticks at fireworks shows, rocks, paper airplanes, window washing, weeding, and today David presented me with a business plan to ask for me to invest $300 in a business to build Go Karts.  The kids have learned how to figure profits and what constitutes a good margin.  When they want something the first thing they do is find a way to sell something to earn the money.

I LOVE THAT!

One summer they wanted one of those giant blow up water slides.  It cost around $500.  They asked for me to invest in enough glowsticks at 4 cents each to earn the money.  I bought them and they paid me back out of the first nights sales.  They paid me for gas and snacks for the evening.  We went and they worked HARD to sell glowsticks at the fireworks shows all over town during the summer.  Each stick sold for $1 each but there was always some waste and some that had to be sold at a discount.  They had to figure out the profits and any amounts needed to reinvest in supplies.  One night at around midnight I drove to the local WalMart and we purchased a water slide!  Bonus plan is that we sure saw a lot of fireworks!

Learning how to approach people to offer them a product or service, presenting the benefits, evaluating your market, reaching the market with an appropriate product is all part of the process and crucial to their education in my opinion.  The sales skills learned and the excitement of making money for yourself ingrained during those evenings at the fireworks shows are absolutely invaluable and priceless.  It is a life lesson.

Give a man a fish and he eats for the day.  Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.

Give a kid a car and he drives today.  Teach him to earn his own and he feeds his family for a lifetime.