How To Start A Business For Kids
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Useful Websites
- Ideas For Businesses Suitable For Kids
Getting kids started in business - Using Cashflow 101 Ideas With Kids
Teaching kids Rich Dad's wisdom about money and business - Creating Financial Literacy In Your Kids
Ideas for teaching kids about money and business - Ideas For Businesses For Kids
Information and suggestions about getting kids started in business - Kids And Money - How To Break Through
Teach your kids how to escape from the rat race
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You Call the Shots: Succeed Your Way-- And Live the Life You Want-- With the 19 Essential Secrets of Entrepreneurship
Price: $1.15
List Price: $24.00 |
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What Color Is Your Piggy Bank?: Entrepreneurial Ideas for Self-Starting Kids (Millennium Generation Series)
Price: $6.03
List Price: $10.95 |
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The Kids' Business Book (Kids' Ventures)
Price: $3.79
List Price: $9.95 |
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The Totally Awesome Business Book for Kids, Second Edition
Price: $8.02
List Price: $12.95 |
Ideas From Other Young Entrepeneurs
- Young Entrepreneurs Of Asia
Asia has been the world's economic powerhouse in recent years, driven by strong growth in China and India. Recently, a new group of start-ups have wowed the region. This new generation of young entrpreneurs is globally aware, extremely Internet savvy, and willing to work hard and take considerable financial risk in their teens and twenties. - 5 months ago
- Young Entrepreneurs - David Wilkinson
David Wilkinson has been blogging since his summer holidays in 2006, when he was just 12 years old. In an interview with Michael Dunlop of Retire@21.com, David explained the appeal of starting out in business... - 6 months ago
- Young Entrepreneurs - Romero Bryan
British designer Romero Bryan started designing clothes at the age of thirteen. In 2003 he was listed number 5 on the Bank of Scotland Rich List 2020, with the prediction that he would be worth 30 million pounds by then. - 5 months ago
- Business Ideas For Kids
Resources for parents to help their kids get started in business - ways for kids to make money, how to start a business for kids, how to teach kids about money and business, and how to build good money attitudes in your kids. - 6 months ago
- Young Entrepreneur - Declan Galbraith
Traditional ways for kids to make money have focused on household chores, but busking led to multi-million pound recording career for Declan Galbraith. - 2 months ago
- Young Entrepreneurs - Cameron Johnson
Young entrepreneur and teen millionaire Cameron Johnson was born to sell. From his first venture selling vegetables door to door, to a series of dotcom successes before he graduated high school, Cameron has shown a sharp business mind and a strong work ethic. - 5 months ago
- Young Entrepreneur - Alexa Kitchen
Alexa Kitchen became the world's youngest professional cartoonist at the age of five. Alexa Kitchen, age 8, promoting her book Drawing Comics Is Easy (Except When It's Hard), Alexa Kitchen cartoons, Alexa Kitchen photos. - 2 months ago
- Young Entrepreneurs - Rachael Ford
Rachael Ford (right) with her twin sister, Erin.Hi, my name is Rachael Ford, and I am a Cash-Smart Kid! I am 12 years old and live in Sydney, Australia, and this is the story of me and my businesses. ... - 4 months ago
The First Step
If you only ever teach your child one thing about business, here is the one business idea that will make the greatest difference:
First demand, then supply.
Find a market, find out what the market wants, and then work out how to provide it.
A vast, vast proportion of businesses are started completely the wrong way. Someone has a great idea, or an invention, or something they are good at, or something they enjoy, and then they go about trying to find someone to sell it to.
This is a recipe for heartbreak, if not bankruptcy.
From the very first lesson in the very first week at Cash-Smart Kids, we are teaching kids this vital, vital concept.
We don't start out throwing around words like "demand" and "supply", of course - that comes later. We make sure that the child is doing the right thing, even if he or she doesn't know what the right thing is called. Kids learn by doing, and the basic ideas in business are not rocket science. Economists and MBAs like to throw around the big words, but in truth, the big words aren't necessary.
I introduced my kids to this concept by means of a simple Q&A session, which went like this:
Why do you want to have a business?
To get money.
Where does the money come from?
Customers.
Where are the customers?
Out there.
And where is the money?
In their pockets.
Why would they take the money out and give it to you?
Because there's something they want.
What is it that they want?
Ummmmmm ...
And suddenly they understood why we do market research!
If you don't know what the customers want, you can't offer it. And if you don't offer it, the customers won't hand over the money. And if you don't have customers handing over money, you don't have a business.
Encourage your kids to brainstorm the things that people are willing to spend money on - things they will pay other people to do, things they want a lot (like a cool drink on a hot day - more than one young entrepreneur has made their start selling cool drinks to captive groups of adults, for example at local markets, car boot sales, or sports fields), or things they love (their hobbies, pets, and other passions).
Then have them go out and actually ask questions of their prospective customers. Find out what the market wants to buy, and what they would be willing to pay.
Your kids will then be in a great position to invent a business idea that will actually make them money from the get-go - very important for keeping them motivated!
Teaching Kids About Money And Business
This does not appear to be a valid RSS feed.Kids In Business - News
- Young Entrepreneur Spreads Cheer, With Oprah's Blessing
At age 9, Cameron Johnson started his first business, making greeting cards and party invitations on the Compaq computer he got for Christmas. Three years later, the Virginia native was making $50,000 a year selling Beanie Babies online from his parents' garage. - 3 months ago
- Student entrepreneur wins $40,000 national scholarship
Manitowoc Lutheran High School senior Jake Lindemann will be attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee next year at the expense of the McKelvey Foundation. - 3 months ago
- Lemonade Brigade wants to help raise money for local charities
The Lemonade Brigade is the brainchild of Mary Brent, 12, and Beverly Brown, 9, two sisters who have devised a way to help charities using lemonade this summer. - 3 months ago
- Young Entrepreneurs Could Win $10,000
The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards will provide ambitious and creative Australian students a chance to test their business savvy. - 3 months ago
- Students, teacher earn national entrepreneur awards
DaMarra Underwood, 15, of Sheraden, a student at Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, and Ben Bergel, 17, of White Oak, a senior at McKeesport Area High School, have been selected as recipients of the 2008 Global Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, spons … - 3 months ago
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Comments
Thanks for the comment, Mark.
I can understand that perspective. Our culture certainly seems to think that managing money is something best left until adulthood. And adults who have businesses often appear burdened.
I can only speak from my own experience here, but the kids I see out there doing creative things to earn money don't seem to regard it as burdensome, or even as work.
For my observation, it seems that to kids, earning money is as natural as spending it, until we adults and our cultural programming interfere and make it all serious and stressful.
Of course, if parents are pushing kids into it, that's just as bad as pushing them into beauty pageants or sporting teams or anything else to serve the parents' agenda instead of coming from the child's own interest. I blogged about that recently, actually, parents who seem to want to use their kids to make money for the parents.
I hear you on the growing up too fast, though - my girls started talking about having "boyfriends" at 10 or 11 years of age! It was interesting that once they started getting involved with adult activities, both in business and in community activism, their interest in become prematurely adult in their dress and behaviour dropped right off.
Of course, I only have girls - I'd love to hear from someone who has a boy. Is it the same with boys? Do they seem to want to grow up too fast?
Jenny
P.S. Your Forex page is really great - I wish there was more level-headed educational material around. Unfortunately, people don't seem to appreciate it, and advertisers don't want to advertise beside it. We tried to get a print magazine going a few years ago that would be all just like your Forex page, covering property, debentures (don't get me started!!!), shares, currency and futures trading, business, and whatever else people get into to try to get ahead. We just couldn't get enough advertisers to cover the cost of printing it. Good on you, and may you do many more like it!
Running a business and managing money are not the same thing in my book. I do think that kids should be taught the value of money. All girls over here too :)
I guess my issue with teaching them to run a business is that it is stressful and the only way to let them do it without the stress is to let them have free food, a free bed, no taxes to pay, a free computer to run the "business" on etc, and this will give them a skewed perspective.
It's a bit like the "free practice accounts" that you can set up at a forex site. If there is no money on the line, you act differently and there is little to be learned. Same thing. If they are not going to be thrown out of the house if they lose all their money, they will make different decisions. Therefore it's not really teaching them how to run a business. What do you think?
And thanks for the compliment - I try and say it as I see it. Costs me money sometimes, but I would rather do it that way.
I agree with you that it would be stressful to expect kids to launch into running a business as an adult does.
Just as we teach them to ride a bike by running beside them and holding it up until they get the hang of balancing, or do the handling of sharp knives and hot things when they are learning to cook, parents need to allow kids to expand into business activities safely and according to their capability.
I think most parents would already provide their kids with free food, a free bed, tax-free income, and the use of a computer. If the kids use those resources to learn ballet, nobody complains that it's a skewed perspective because professional dancers have to pay their own rent and food out of their earnings.
Business is an activity like any other, and it may or may not end up being a child's primary source of income as an adult.
I never had the build to be a professional ballet dancer, but I gained strength, poise and confidence from my ballet lessons, which I use for other things now. Kids will gain knowledge and skills from their business activities, in the same way.
Exposure to the process of creating value for a customer is a vital part of learning how money works. Even if someone spends their entire life as an employee, understanding that a business only exists to provide value to its customers makes that person a much more valuable employee than someone who thinks that money comes from showing up, doing the minimum required, and talking your way out of any trouble you might get into (aka employee mindset).
Just my 0.02, YMMV and all that ...
Jenny
P.S. Yes, I'm with you - you can't put a price on your integrity.
im very confused about those last few comments but this article really inspired me!
I'm glad you're inspired, Casey - I hope you turn that inspiration into something great!
working
Mark Knowles says:
6 months ago
Not a fan of this idea. Kids grow up too fast as it is. Why not let them be kids?