I’ve been reading Robert Kiyosaki’s books lately. You’d know Rich Dad Poor Dad. I’ve read another six of them. In so doing, the topic of teaching your kids about money and even business came up. Now, most of us, when faced with thinking about teaching our kid about business, think about chores, or maybe a lemonade stand. Those are all great ways to do it. In my case, I went a bit more modern.
In our case, Violette decided to start an eBay business, because it’s online, because it’s based on learning about sales and marketing, and because she likes shopping at yard sales (and her idea is to find items that might be hidden gems and sell them via eBay with her Mom). We picked up my friend Marsha Collier’s eBay Business All-in-One For Dummies (amazon affiliate link). It’s not exactly 8-year-old reading level, but she’s excited about it because she knows we’re treating her like a big kid with big plans.
Here’s a quick video of her with the book:
She loves drawing and playing and running around outdoors. Before reading parts of the first chapter, we were throwing around a little football. So, it’s not like she’s not getting a chance to be a kid. But she’s learning business early. Schools don’t teach it. And frankly, our public education system is setting kids up to be employees, not entrepreneurs.
My own parents did what they could to teach me about business growing up. Instead, I’m going to do what I can to educate mine with as many skills as I can wedge in there.
What’s your take?
(Oh, and if you want the book she’s talking about for yourself, or for your kids, here it is:)
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It’s nice to know that parents are now teaching kids about business. I like the idea.
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It's nice to know that parents are now teaching kids about business. I like the idea.
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It's nice to know that parents are now teaching kids about business. I like the idea.
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E-bay isn’t as profitable for as many people as it used to be, but it’s still a great business lesson — how to set up a business, market it, nurture it. Yeah – I agree, good choice.
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This is great. Rich Dad Poor Dad is a fantastic book. Children that are taught young about finances and business will have a huge advantage over their peers.
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E-bay isn't as profitable for as many people as it used to be, but it's still a great business lesson — how to set up a business, market it, nurture it. Yeah – I agree, good choice.
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E-bay isn't as profitable for as many people as it used to be, but it's still a great business lesson — how to set up a business, market it, nurture it. Yeah – I agree, good choice.
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This is great. Rich Dad Poor Dad is a fantastic book. Children that are taught young about finances and business will have a huge advantage over their peers.
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This is great. Rich Dad Poor Dad is a fantastic book. Children that are taught young about finances and business will have a huge advantage over their peers.
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Great idea! I think kids are never too young to learn the value of money or spark some entrepreneur spirit into them. My 15 year old is setting up a blog this summer. $60 for domain/hosting is cheaper than summer camp, and I think he’s going to get a lot more out of it.
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Great idea! I think kids are never too young to learn the value of money or spark some entrepreneur spirit into them. My 15 year old is setting up a blog this summer. $60 for domain/hosting is cheaper than summer camp, and I think he's going to get a lot more out of it.
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Great idea! I think kids are never too young to learn the value of money or spark some entrepreneur spirit into them. My 15 year old is setting up a blog this summer. $60 for domain/hosting is cheaper than summer camp, and I think he's going to get a lot more out of it.
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I love this! I’m starting to talk over the idea of starting businesses with my daughters, (ages 10 and 12). As we homeschool, I’m making this art of their “school work”. Whether they choose to be employees or entrepreneurs, I want them to have the choice.
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I love this! I’m starting to talk over the idea of starting businesses with my daughters, (ages 10 and 12). As we homeschool, I’m making this art of their “school work”. Whether they choose to be employees or entrepreneurs, I want them to have the choice.
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My daughter (age 8) raises chickens and sells the eggs at our local Farmer’s Market. She tracks her sales and expenses on a spreadsheet and this year we’ve started teaching her to save and give a percentage of her profits every month. She’s been expanding steadily since she started and has big plans to buy a bunch more hens this spring. She’s even supplying a local restaurant! She’s got a lot of regular customers and counts on them to call her regularly to see if she has eggs – but I’m thinking of setting her up on Mail Chimp so she can send out regular updates. It’s never to early to start thinking about database management!
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My daughter (age 8) raises chickens and sells the eggs at our local Farmer’s Market. She tracks her sales and expenses on a spreadsheet and this year we’ve started teaching her to save and give a percentage of her profits every month. She’s been expanding steadily since she started and has big plans to buy a bunch more hens this spring. She’s even supplying a local restaurant! She’s got a lot of regular customers and counts on them to call her regularly to see if she has eggs – but I’m thinking of setting her up on Mail Chimp so she can send out regular updates. It’s never to early to start thinking about database management!
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I really enjoyed your story regarding your daughter, it is a great example of the guidance children need in a modern economy. Ebay is a great resource as it also familiarizes your daughter with e-commerce tools and other business expenses and fees. Also I feel that the lemonade stand is becoming a slightly outdated paradigm for children’s business. In our contemporary society where children grow up using computers, smartphones, and tablets it is logical that these are the tools, which they should master. It is very unfortunate that traditional education is failing in many aspects. One key point which you mentioned is “frankly, our public education system is setting kids up to be employees, not entrepreneurs.” This point is very true, it was also mentioned in depth in the rich dad poor dad book (a must for budding entrepreneurs).
I also wanted to mention a few other business ideas for children. I work for Youngpreneur, an educational company that teaches business to children and recently some children came up with a few interesting services that I would also recommend for young entrepreneurs. Children can provide either products or services, but I think there are less barriers to entry when offering a service (less inventory and startup cost). Anyways, one of the students a 6th grader in my class decided to create a breakfast delivery service. They wanted to provide this service in conjunction with their local newspaper route. They came to the conclusion that if they were going to houses in their local community anyways they would also have the opportunity to upsell additional services. I thought this was relatively creative, they also figured out that they could also be paid as a flyer delivery service. I just wanted to share this example, because here was a student that saw one opportunity and decided to add on two additional services. It wouldn’t really detract from their normal paper route either, which is a great benefit to efficiency. When I inquired further to how they gained customers for their flyer delivery service they explained that they would determine the exact cost for 3rd party companies and their local graphic design firms, and copy/print shops and simply illustrate to interested businesses that their service was clearly less expensive. I just wanted to share this example. I think parents should understand that children are much more innovative and resourceful than many parents give credit for on a daily basis.
If anyone wants some additional help please feel free to gain some free resources at http://www.youngpreneur.com
Again, thanks for the great story regarding your daughter.
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