Bringing out the Entrepreneurial Spirit in Your Kids

Kids these days have it too darn easy. Oh no, I’ve become my parents. Ha ha! We’re living in an age where access to information is just as available as the air we breathe, and yet they are giving all their time away to searching the web for memes and playing Fortnite. I will never forget the day when I asked my youngest daughter what she was doing on her laptop and she told me was watching Minecraft. I couldn’t believe it, she was spending hours watching another kids video on YouTube showing off their Minecraft skills. Whatever happened to climbing a tree, playing in the mud, or flying a kite? In the era our kids are growing up in, motivation is lacking, creativity is being drowned by stagnance, and hard work is being sacrificed for complacency. Furthermore, kids are having a harder time understanding the value of a hard-earned dollar. The good news is that just because our standards for excellence are going down doesn’t mean your child has to settle into the complacent average. You can help your kid reignite their creativity, develop their motivation, inspire their work ethic, and understand the value of a dollar by bringing out their inner entrepreneurial spirit.

Risk and Reward

The foundation for entrepreneurship is the understanding of risk and reward. Parents have a tendency to protect their children from risk while still giving a reward. To effectively develop an entrepreneurial attitude in your child, this type of behavior needs to be avoided. You need to establish a motivation (reward) for your kids to get creative and think outside of the box (risk). Naturally, their creativity will begin to drive ideas that although may seem completely ridiculous and hilarious to us, are a step in the right direction.

The Value of a Dollar

If you have been reading my blogs for a while you know that every year I facilitate a 4 day family retreat where we disconnect from technology and spend time together mapping out our plans for the next year. It’s one of my favorite times of the year. At the last annual retreat, money and budgeting came up as a hot topic. I spent time with my oldest daughter, Lexi, talking about what it would cost for a car. She was blown away by the expenses besides the car, such as gas, maintenance, parking, insurance, etc. Together, we mapped out what it would cost her to buy an appropriate first car and what she needs to make each month to cover her expenses.

My plans are to help her each month but I wanted her to have appreciation for the car so I will make her pay the bulk of the expenses. We talked about what she could do now, two years before she gets her permit, to make it easier to afford the car and it worked out to about $200/mo she would need to save. I was blown away by what happened next. She made a list of all the work she can do, ranging from extra chores around the house, to selling slime (yes, that is a real thing), to hosting kids parties and babysitting. We mapped out together how much of each she would need to do and off she went.

Next thing I know she had convinced a few families to hire her. As I write this blog post about 6 months later, she has been making an average of $260/mo with all her work. Her 2 favorite experiences were to do hair and nails for a birthday party, and there are two families she LOVES their young kids and she babysits for them 2-3 times a month. The pride she has going to the bank every 2-3 weeks to deposit her savings and looking at her savings balance makes me a very proud dad.

Even better, when we go out shopping now and she knows that if an items she wants is not a “need” but instead a pure “want” like a toy or makeup she has to decide if it’s really worth taking money out of her savings to pay for it. I make her pay for all the “wants” and I have found since doing that she has significantly reduced wanting to buy wasteful things.

Support Their Dreams

Whether their idea is a babysitting/makeover business, lawn mowing/weed pulling business, or something as simple as a lemonade stand, you should always take their ideas seriously and encourage them to do their best work. Help them use the computer to create a logo and print flyers, and drive them around to post the flyers and attract business. The more you encourage their ideas, the harder they’ll work, and the more they’ll make.

As a kid, nothing compares to the feeling of earning a dollar that you have worked hard for. This feeling will inspire further motivation, and better ideas will arise. Bringing out the entrepreneurial spirit in your kids will help them develop understanding for the value of money as well as business skills that will push them forward in life.

I’d love to hear from you and how you bring out the entrepreneurial spirit in your kids!