It’s Never Too Early To Think About Starting A Business
Over at Escape from Cubicle Nation, Pam Slim suggests that you bring your kid to your start up day. The point of the Slim’s post is that by showing our children and others what we do, we lay the seeds for potential entrepreneurship.
I’ve always adopted Slim’s approach, more by necessity than choice. My daughers have never seen me in court (though now that they’re older, they’ve stayed home alone while I’ve attended hearings). But they’ve accompanied me to meetings and some evenings, we’ve worked side by side; they on their homework and I on my blogs. So you can imagine my pride when my daughters announced earlier this week that they’d started their own business – a pencil loaning service at school (perhaps not the best business model, because if the pencils are returned timely, there’s no fine and no revenue).
Perhaps your children may never start a business. But that’s not the point. By teaching entrepreneurship, we are teaching children how to take initiative, how to take charge and how to empower themselves. Those skills can help them advance whether they ultimately decide to work for others or work for themselves.
I have had a similar experience with my daughter, who is in 5th grade and will be 10 years old in December.
Over the past two years, Zoe has observed me and my husband/business partner launch and run The Billable Hour Company. She understands that we do some of the work and look to other independent professionals (for example, our graphic designer) to provide us with the skills we lack.
Zoe loves writing stories, and has recently teamed with friends to provide illustration and sales support for a series of self-produced “books” about the middle school experience.
She is also interested in pioneer life, and has started a blog at http://www.pioneergirlsclub.wordpress.com.
I agree with the idea that teaching entrepreneurship will help to discover and develop the valuable personality features in children. All the guides and books on how to start a business provide the examples of ambitious and determined people who know what they want, for example check out this one on starting your business with no money at all http://www.askwiki.net/How-to-Start-a-Business-with-No-Money Even if your child won’t start his own business he may make a qualified professional, since getting a profession requires the similar qualities. http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/09/12/50-tricks-to-study-better-faster-and-with-less-stress/