Adventures in Parenting

My husband and I both had parents who owned their own businesses.

So it seemed natural that my husband and I carried on the entrepreneurial spirit.

At the time when I was pregnant with our 3rd child, my husband gave up a stable job in hospital administration and started our real estate business. Just as we opened the doors, the real estate market plummeted. With all the expenses of a growing family, it was rather bad timing, wouldn’t you say?

Well, we’ve been riding the ups and downs of the real estate market for almost 20 years now.

I think our kids have inherited a bit of that entrepreneurial spirit from us. My son went to a Start-Up School at Stanford for a weekend last year, started a small internet site and sold it for a modest amount, enough to cover about a year of college. My two daughters has aspirations for making and selling their creations at their website Cookies ‘n Muffins (under construction).

While not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, I think it is a good thing to encourage our children to be creative, to take initiative, and to try something new.

In our area, the days of the ol’ lemonade stand and paper route are gone. But there are still ways for children to be enterprising.

Here are some suggestions for children to experience having a “business” and earning money: (Doing chores for the family for money does not count as a business! )

1. Sell what you grow. Once in a while, I’ll see kids in our neighborhood selling lemons from their tree. I wish someone would sell avocados from their tree. I would be the first in line!

2. Use their skills. If you have a son like mine, he was able to fix people’s computers at a young age. If your children are older, they can tutor younger children.

3. Provide a service. Pet sitting, baby sitting, yard clean up, and collecting recycling are just a few money-making ideas that children can do.

4. With the internet, kids can also sell things. There’s eBay, Craigslist, and other sites where you can post and sell things that cost you nothing. My friend’s son makes a few hundred dollars selling people’s discards on eBay. He once sold a set of old golf clubs for $200.

5. Even holding a garage sale is a great way for kids to get the idea having a “business.” They learn marketing by choosing prominent places for signs. They learn to set prices, negotiate, and offer customer service.

Of course, our children will need assistance from us. We can put them in touch with neighbors, friends and family to get them started.

What other ideas do you have to fan the entrepreneurial spirit in our children?

Photo by rochelle, et. al.