It’s really never too early to teach your kids to become future entrepreneurs! And not just that, there’s so many positives in teaching your kids how to work hard for the things they really want. Chore charts and pocket money are all great ways for kids to contribute to your household and earn a little cash for themselves. But what about kids who want to strive for more? The kids who have the creativity and inspiration to create something bigger? Well, let me tell you, no matter what age your kids are at, if they’re up for it then they can do it!
And my 7 year old is living proof of that!
You might say that entrepreneurialism runs in our blood. I swear my husband was born with the gift of the gab and the ability to make anything into an opportunity. He was known at school for talking his way into all the other kids’ lunch boxes, trading and bartering for better snacks than he was given in his. He started a car window cleaning business when he was age 10. And he managed to save all his money to buy his own car when he got his license at age 15.
Some kids can just see value in everything. And just like him, some are born with that drive to go about and create something in order to sell it. So it’s no surprise that my daughter has that same drive within her. She has been known to create stalls outside our house and sit for hours selling her old toys to kids passing by in order to make money to buy herself new ones. At age 7, we are already trying to engrain in her the value of working hard for things that she wants. That nothing in life comes for free but she can have anything she wants as long as she is willing to work hard and go out and get it.
So when she requested that we buy her some new bunk beds the other day, we spelled out pretty quickly that we don’t just go down the road and buy her whatever she wants, whenever she wants it. However, unlike my parents who would’ve just thrown out the term ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees you know,’ we instead threw some options her way. We let her know that, if it is bunk beds that she really wants, then she can have them but ……. she would have to find a way to save the money to buy them for herself.
Keen as a bean, we looked up some sites to see how much a set of bunks generally costs and she soon realised that her weekly pocket money allowance was not going to cut it if she was to get some any time soon. So, we sat down with her and together we brainstormed all the ideas that we could come up with for her to make some extra money.
Of course, the general ideas fell among things such as doing extra chores, washing cars, offering services to neighbours who might pay her to do things for them …. all good opportunities to make some extra money, but again we discussed that it was going to take a lot of effort, a lot of work and a lot of different chores to get the amount that she needed to buy herself a set of bunk beds.
So at this point, we decided to encourage her to come up with ways that she might be able to create something bigger, in order to allow her to make more money to contribute to her savings.
A bit of a business plan if you like. And to help, I created a blueprint for her to follow, to go from brainstorming ideas, to developing and selling a product.
We started to come up with bigger ideas such as a kids car washing business she could start with her friends, dog walking or lemonade and cupcake stalls. All good ideas. But what she really needed was an idea that would enable her to sell either a service that people would continually use her for or a product that would appeal to a lot of people to buy.
Eventually, we stumbled upon an idea. She remembered that her school was now a litter-less school. And we had recently purchased her some beeswax wraps to wrap her sandwiches in, in order to keep them fresh in her lunch box. I asked how many kids also had them in their lunch boxes and she said they were fairly common. But not everyone had them. I personally love beeswax wraps and I knew that they would be in demand by many mums especially now that plastic bags and plastic wrap are becoming less commonly used. And litter-less lunches are now being encouraged in most New Zealand schools. What I do know is that they are quite expensive in the shops so we wondered if it would be possible to buy the materials ourselves and make our own to sell around the community.
Brainstorming for ideas was complete. So, when we realised that this was a go and that she was fully motivated to set out to create a beeswax wrap product and sell it, we worked our way through the mini business plan that I had created for her.
The blueprint included very clear guidelines and steps that she would need to take in order for her to move from brainstorming, to market research, to developing, marketing and selling her product. And of course tracking her savings in order to reach her goal saving target.
Obviously this particular project required quite the input from me too but I am always up for helping my kids out with big goals like these. And what fun we had in the whole process together.
I helped her source a small amount of product to trial the idea. It turns out bees wax wraps are a little more difficult to create than what we had expected. But it was a nice afternoon of creating together. And with just a little help from me when it came to working the oven, we ended up with 5 beeswax wraps that she could package, present and sell.
Once the wraps were dry, we folded them, wrapped them tightly in a bit of ribbon and attached her own little Bees Wax Wraps Business card to it that she created and designed herself. And off we went with our large whiteboard with her marketing ploy she had hand written on it to sell her product to her customers.
It was a blistery, cold winters day but this little girl was determined to sell out of her product she had worked so hard to create and as my husband and I sat out of selling reach, she ended up recruiting her little brother to do some of the selling for her with his cute 5 year old face and his confidence that he had to approach people to sell them.
People are pretty generous when it comes to seeing kids putting in initiative as such. We sat for an overall of 2 hours because of the limited foot traffic on that particular day. But once the last wrap was sold and due to donations from the few passers by, the kids came out with a whopping $77.20 for their efforts.
It’s safe to say that they experienced that winning feeling that day. And although we have decided that Bee’s Wax Wraps may not be the right product for her business, we are on the hunt for the next thing that she can create in order for her to reach her savings goal.
If your child is keen to create something too, here are some steps you can take them through to becoming a successful KIDPRENEUR. You can teach them to gain some experience in creating, managing and growing a successful business venture. It’s never too early to teach your kids the basic tools and strategies to give them the confidence to start their own business and reap the rewards of their own entrepreneurship.
Download the Successful Kidpreneur Business Plan below.
Good luck kids! You got this!