From an early age, children begin to show interest in certain activities. If they are especially interested in a specific subject or demonstrate a talent it is a cue for their parents to help nurture those interests and talents. Just as some children are naturally good at soccer, or talented artists, some are also naturally cut out to be entrepreneurs; demonstrating some of the personality traits and characteristics from a young age. Since nurturing entrepreneurial skills in a child is not a simple as enrolling in art classes or joining a soccer club what steps can parents take to help thing budding young entrepreneur flourish?
Financial Literacy
Teaching your child about the value of money, how it works and how to manage it is the first step to helping nurture their entrepreneurial mind. After all, in order to start and run a business you need to know how to manage money and protect your investment! Financial literacy can be taught in a number of ways:
- Have your child learn to identify different values of money.
- Use shopping opportunities as a way to teach them how to calculate percentages related to taxes and discounts and change owed when paying cash
- Teach them money management by giving them an allowance encouraging them to save some and only using the remaining for things like lunch or treating themselves
- When age appropriate teach them about taxes. Some parent have even taken a practical approach to this by giving an allowance and deducting taxes from it. Others include their children in tax preparation so they learn not only how to do their own taxes eventually but also to help them understand what happens to your money when your work.
Create opportunities
Creating opportunities for you child to practice their entrepreneurial skills can be fun, easy and most importantly cost effective.
Lemonade stands are a great way to teach children how to start and run a small business. The overall cost to start it is very small and allows them to take on a task that they can manage on their own. Working with small denominations of money makes it an easy way for children to learn how to add and subtract using money.
Seasonal jobs such a mowing lawns or shoveling snow for homeowners in the neighbourhood are another easy and low cost way to teach your budding entrepreneur how to run a business. This gives them the opportunity to learn how to create a price list and put a value to the services they are providing, how to set goals for how many jobs per day they would like to complete or how much money they would like to earn, and how to manage their time to meet said goals.
Goal Setting and Planning
No matter what career path your child chooses in the future, goal setting and planning play an important role in helping them along that path to achievement. It is therefore also important to encourage your child to set goals and make a plan for how they intend to achieve them. Doing this helps young ones to really reflect on how they currently see themselves and how they see themselves in the future which in turn helps them develop a forward thinking approach. The skill of forward thinking is beneficial to anyone who intends to climb the ladder of success and is especially beneficial for entrepreneurs. In fact, one of the top personality traits of an entrepreneur is forward thinking. A fun way to help your child think ahead and set goals for themselves is by creating a vision board. Vision boards are a tangible way for your child to see and understand what they want. It also gives them something to look at regularly, reminding them of the path they’re on and to keep pushing through even when they are having a difficult time. This is also an activity you can do with your child, providing an opportunity for bonding while giving you some insight into what your child’s hopes and dreams are!
The next generation of youths truly have the world at their fingertips. The profound advancement of technology has already proven to be an asset for Gen-Z giving them an outlet for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship often times all from the comfort of their bedrooms. With access to so many unique resources, and the continued advancement of technology, the futures of our children, grandchildren and beyond is more than promising. It is therefore up to us to guide them along the way and nurture the interests and talents in any and as many ways possible!