Tag: teen entrepreneurs
Sep
03
10 Ways To Survive The Family Business
The family business. Has somewhat of a ring to it, doesn’t it? I don’t mean the ‘ding’ you hear at a boxing match, either. It’s a dream of 82% of Americans to have their own business. It usually includes the hope of at least one other family member being a part of it, too. However, the reality of the day to day life can be a rude awakening and can surface personality traits we didn’t know we had!
If you homeschool then you already have some good experience with working together as a family. I’ve heard parents say they don’t homeschool because they would kill each other. I’m sure we all have our moments, but I think I can speak for most homeschoolers when I say we generally enjoy being with our children. I’m not saying if you don’t homeschool you don’t enjoy your children, but it’s already a natural part of our day, so working a business together as a family would seem to be a natural transition. So you would think.
Maybe it’s the time pressure that business can bring, or it could be the money thing, or a host of other excuses. There is no question that working a business with children can be frustrating. There. I said it. I know that there are many character building lessons for children that can be developed when you work a business with them, but I think it’s more a refining device for us. So, keeping in mind our children are really just on loan to us from the Lord, training them also trains us.
I guess it all boils down to loving one another more than ourselves. It may be very difficult and hard work, but the rewards far exceed any monetary gain. It may also be a way to pay off some debt or take that family mission trip or vacation. Whatever your motivation, here are some ways to survive the “Family Business”:
1. The purpose-filled life business. If you don’t already have a business, try to choose a business that helps others, one that gives your family a sense of purpose. This may sound idealistic, but I’m convinced that if you sit down as a family and pray about something you can all do to serve others you’re sure to come up with something. It may not make you rich, but if it’s a need in the marketplace, there will be business. Resist the urge to give your services away, unless of course your family can afford it. You are thinking of an entrepreneurial venture that does good, not a ministry (at least right now).
2. Assign work according to ability. Sit down together and list all the tasks that need to be done and what abilities or talents are needed to accomplish them. Then discuss what talents and abilities each family member has. Make a list of the positive qualities each member has and be generous with the adjectives. Keep it positive. Let each family member add their own weaknesses and/or tasks they absolutely detest. Do not mention anyone else’s weaknesses except your own to keep the peace. Make encouragement the rule. Oh, one more: remember that children are children – not miniature adults.
3. Respect each other. When you live with each other 24/7, it’s easy to get too comfortable with each other. It’s not hard to be courteous to people at church that you hardly know, but will find it easy to be abrupt with those you love most. Respect is a good habit to develop if you haven’t already.
Don't forget to take much needed breaks!
4. Pay children for the work they do. If you get paid, they should be paid if they contributed. Taking children for granted when you work at home is one of the reasons many adults who grew up in a family business want nothing to do with it. If they kept the baby happy and the house clean so you were able to work, there should be some reward. Yes, families help each other out, but if there is a business involved, a worker deserves their wages. Payments should be made in a timely manner and not be withheld for reasons not related to the work. Hope deferred makes a heart sick…
5. Delegate a portion of your family income for something special. It may be a charity or mission that is dear to your heart, or maybe a mission trip for your entire family. You could use it as your field trip fund to go places ordinarily out of your price range or a special vacation. I’m sure you can think of something!
6. Have a set time that your business is ‘closed’. It’s too easy to work 24 hours a day when you work at home. When you work for yourself, the work is never done. Your children will soon resent the family business if it always consumes your attention. Have at least one night a week as “Family Night” and make it special. If you have several children, make a point to have regular one on one, or one with Mom AND Dad’s sole attention.
7. Set frequent goals with rewards they can look forward to. Going out for pizza after a job everyone worked hard doing for weeks makes finishing it a celebration.
8. Try to keep things light and joyful. If the atmosphere has been stressed, or everyone is getting tired and cranky but there is work still to be done, take an energy break. Set the timer for 15-30 minutes and have a nutritious snack do the opposite of what you have been doing. In other words, if you have been sitting doing a repetitious job, get up and take a walk, or go shoot some baskets or just have fun for a few. If you have been up and around working physically, have everyone get comfortable and rest for a few and encourage each other with what they are all doing right. Put some praise music on if you just can’t take a break.
9. Invest in your workspace. Again, keeping your work area light and joyful, bright and clean organized. It pays for itself when the work area is pleasant. If you are on your feet a lot, there are special mats you can buy that cushion your stance. There are shoes that are better for your feet that you can buy. A stereo and some good worship music can make all the difference, too. Keeping things organized sometimes only takes a set of drawers or a new cabinet. Headphones that WORK are nice if you are one the phone much.
10. Accept each other for who they are, and know there will be times everyone will not get along. Make it a family and business rule to never let the sun go down on a disagreement. Parents set the example here. Try to make it a habit to begin and/or end each day with a brief time of prayer for each other. Not a prayer for the business, or more customers, or that the equipment will hold up, but for each other. It’s hard to stay mad at someone you pray for daily.
If you homeschool then you probably already have a list of your own that keeps things running smoothly. Adding a business to the mix can really bring out the best…and the worst… in all of us. That’s our human condition. It’s how we handle it that are the lessons we are really teaching our children.
Some other resources to help you on your journey:
Mom Advice encourages parents that they can indeed homeschool and run a home business, but not with out organizational skills. She gives some advice in her article, Homeschooling and Home Business, and offers some tangible tools including a printable planner and other downloads you can use (free) at: http://www.momadvice.com/resources/downloads.aspx
Entrepreneur.com offers an article, Running a Successful Family Business From Home that tells us 6 ways that 5 family businesses have made it work.
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Jul
28
“Teach Them While They Are Young” -Inc Mag’s Revitalization Program
When I received the July/August 2010 issue of Inc Magazine, I could hardly contain the excitement when I read their feature article, “Bring On The Entrepreneurs! Our highly practical, eminently doable, totally reasonable plan to revitalize the American dream and create thousands (upon thousands) of new companies and millions of new jobs”. Why the excitement? (other than being a total business-geek) While I thought all the ideas in their plan to revitalize America via entrepreneurism (there’s a new word for Wiki…) had value, I was ecstatic when I read that two of the ideas at the forefront of their plan involved entrepreneurial education.
For those of you new to the site, Homeschool Entrepreneur started with a dream of seeing entrepreneurial education as a required part of every balanced educational program. As a veteran homeschool parent, naturally I saw the homeschool environment as an ideal springboard for this ‘out of the box’ idea. The flexibility of homeschooling coupled with the progressive nature of most that embrace this alternative educational environment, seemed to be a perfect fit. I was sure others like myself would see the benefits. What I didn’t realize was it turned out to be an idea before it’s time. Inc’s article encouraged me that maybe that time is finally here. Now, that’s exciting!
Education, much like religion, is fraught with tradition. Many homeschool parents will tell you they have had a hard time breaking away from the traditional model of “school” and ended up simply doing ‘public school at home’ – especially at the beginning. I’m not saying that is a bad thing, but when the true nature of homeschooling is embraced, the experience is so much richer. Likewise, entrepreneurial education has yet to break out of it’s stereotype and become the educational tool it can truly be. (more on that soon!)
Maybe, just maybe, the understanding that entrepreneurial education isn’t just for business geeks has finally made it to the big presses. Inc Magazine is one of the first I’ve seen to embrace this possibility. I’m not talking about those that deal directly with entrepreneurial education like The Kaufman Foundation and our own Homeschool Entrepreneur. The number of college-level entrepreneurial programs has certainly increased substantially, as well as a sprinkling of high school level programs. However, it’s still considered education solely for the imminent start-up. Think of all the courses you have had to take throughout high school and college that had nothing whatsoever to do with what you were aspiring to do in life. All in the name of a balanced education. Somewhere along the line the entrepreneurial mindset was completely washed out.
Several years ago it was the chatter among entrepreneurs and some economists that small business would be the key to America’s economic recovery. So, why hasn’t America quite recovered yet? I think Inc’s Reviltalization Plan included a few statistics that might shed a little light on why the power of free enterprise hasn’t quite lifted us out yet.
Why entrepreneurs have not pulled us out . . . yet:
A quote from this Inc Magazine special report:
Young companies — those younger than six years old — provide the bulk of new jobs; in 2007, they accounted for 64 percent of them, according to a 2009 survey by the Kauffman Foundation that looked at start-up formation since the 1970s. (italics ours)
. . . Unfortunately, creating new companies is easier said than done. The rate of business creation has remained stubbornly constant over the years. Since the early 1990s, the number of start-ups has hovered at about 500,000 a year, according to a survey by the Kauffman Foundation. This has been the case during booms and busts, whether taxes were rising or falling, and whether venture capitalists were irrationally exuberant or largely recalcitrant.
“Clearly, some new thinking is required.”
OK, so what is this new thinking? It’s proven out that increasing the availability of entrepreneurship courses in universities has had no effect. The fact that the increase of schools offering relevant courses from 500 in the 1970′s to over 2000 schools in 2005 resulted in little or no increase in the number of start-ups speaks for itself. What Inc did point out were two programs that offer hands on training that are making an impact: The Launch Pad at the University of Miami and MIT’s Entrepreneurship Center.
Simply offering more practical training is only part of the solution to this ‘new thinking’ to encourage business start-ups, but I believe Inc hit on something that even they may not realize the impact of – Get them while they are young.
Finding the Bill Gates of the sixth grade?
Inc’s report targeted middle school aged students as the ideal age group to teach entrepreneurial principles. Personally, I think the younger the better, while appropriately increasing the level of education as the child grows. While Inc’s ideal is to find the Bill Gates of the sixth grade, I think we need to find the hidden gold in each of our children at the earliest possible age. Creating real life work scenerios in the form of mock or real business as educational projects can reveal a child’s inner talents faster than any other extracurricular activity. Why? Because the rewards of such activities are very real, measurable, and are directly related to what they see in their everyday life. A boy may love cars, but how does he translate into productive, real life work?
Inc’s bottom line on educating young entrepreneurs:
“Putting ideas into action may be the biggest challenge for entrepreneurs. Teaching youngsters how to do it is among the best investments we can make.”
Homeschool Entrepreneur’s bottom line:
Making practical entrepreneurial education a relevant part of every child’s education from a young age does much more than teach them how to create a new business. It provides children with an understanding of how the economy actually works, because every job either involves running a business, or working for someone that does. Would it make a difference if everyone understood how business success or failure affects everyone, especially our economy? We study history to learn from the past to avoid repeating historic mistakes. To study entrepreneurship in the same manner will encourage a new mindset – a mindset that is mindful of building America’s economy by either building strong businesses that create good jobs, or being an employee that does the best they can to help their company grow resulting from the belief that their contribution really does make a difference. Entrepreneurship education isn’t just for business owners, because a strong economy also relies on good employees supporting those businesses. When everyone understands what is at stake, some ‘new thinking’ will naturally take place. Then, if a time comes that anyone wants to start a business, they will know exactly where to start and success will be much more likely. Replacing the ‘worker bee’ mentality with a dedicated attitude towards success. Creation of business incubators, launch pads and practical start-up resources will be encouraged and common place, easy to find, and a valid tax deduction. The knowledge void that currently plagues many would-be entrepreneurs will be a thing of the past.
Please read the entire article on Inc’s Revitalization Plan. I realize I was a little biased by only elaborating on the educational aspects. Their take on providing more practical tools to encourage start-ups are inspirational. Matching ideas and investors, tax incentives to help all involved, and wait till you read about the TechShop in Menlo Park, California. We could use one of those in every major US city. Let me know what you think of the article, and your ideas about how we can start teaching our children now how they can impact our economy by thinking entrepreneurially.
Sep
11
Scholarships For Teen Entrepreneurs
The term ‘teen entrepreneur’ was hardly used 10 years ago, if at all. The thought of a teenager with a business usually brought to mind images of an ambitious young man mowing several lawns per week, or a geeky 10 year old genius in a suit about to enter Harvard Business School. There weren’t very many of them, and no wonder, there were few places they could go to learn what they needed to know.
The internet has been a huge factor in leveling the playing field for all of us, teens included. However, credit is due to entrepreneurial foundations like The McKelvey Foundation, who awarded $40,000 to entrepreneurial teens this year. I recently read an interview with Christine McKelvey, president of the foundation and encourage you to take the time to read it, too. The numbers of applicants for the scholarships are rising every year, and how the image of a teen entrepreneur has changed are a few of the insights given. (She also gives you some tips in case you are thinking of applying for one of their scholarships!)
There are many other foundations that award scholarships to teen entrepreneurs now, and many more are applying for these than ever before. Teens are finding out that they really can start a successful business, and there are people out there that really want to help them succeed.
Some other places to look for scholarships and funding for teen entrepreneurs:
Business-minded high school seniors can win scholarships of up to $10,000 in an award program sponsored by the National Federation of Independent Business Young Entrepreneur Foundation.
Another site for scholarships and college information is http://www.morethangrades.com With their new re-release, they will be posting the “Show us why you are more than a grade” contest. The award will be $20,000. Besides that scholarship, there are numerous other scholarships based on talents and skills.
A list of resources for young entrepreneurs can be found at http://www.score.org/resources_young.html
Check with your local Chamber of Commerce and Scholarship Search portals like FastWeb for many more privately funded scholarships programs directed at entrepreneurial-minded teens.
Aug
19
48 Days To The Work You Love?
Do YOU love your work? I’ve never seen the statistics, although I know they are out there, but I would guess the majority would answer a resounding ‘NO’. I have read that the Amish train up their children to purpose to enjoy their work because it’s what they will spend the majority of their life doing so they might well find fulfillment in it. My children have heard me attempt to impart that wisdom into their hearts many times, but how do you get it from their head to their hearts?
Kids learn best by example. So if they are watching you go through life enduring a job you are miserable at, what is that saying to them? OK, responsibility is also at the top of the list of traits to teach our children and I’m not saying that everything we do needs to be enjoyable. Far from it.
If the Lord gives us the ‘desires of our hearts’, have you ever thought that that business or new profession you dream about might be what you were created to do in the first place? I believe we are all created for a purpose, with a unique set of talents and abilities to carry it out. It can be challenging to make a change midstream, but when it’s the desire of your heart, you’ll find energy you never thought you had. Do it for your kids, do it for yourself, or most of all, do it for your Heavenly Father. What parent doesn’t want to see their child working and succeeding at work they thoroughly enjoy?
I know what you’re saying, that it all sounds great, but HOW do you get from point A to point B? Dan Miller started his company to help people make the transition. He knows you can’t just quit your job and go off doing whatever feels good. It’s a deliberate process and he gives great advice on how to do it. You can sign up for his newsletter at http://www.48days.com/newsletter.php, or find his books on Amazon.
Teaching your children to find their talents and purpose is the fun part of parenting. One of the most enlightening questions you can ask your child is: “If money was not an issue, and you had to spend 8 hours a day working at something productive, what would you want to do?” It’s not only a question that could begin one of those memorable conversations, but you may be surprised at their answer!
Of course, I’d be foolish not to remind you of our 9-week Entrepreneurship 101 course we offer that helps your teen find their life purpose and start a home business from start to finish. See more details and a video tour at http://homeschool-entrepreneur.com/entrepreneur_course.html . We have scholarships available for those that can’t afford it because we believe that everyone needs to ‘think entrepreneurially’ – it’s the backbone of our economy! (that backbone may need an adjustment, though!)
I’d love to hear how your family has started a business, or found the work they love!
We teach what we know, but we reproduce who we are. -John Maxwell
Jul
25
Look At Junior Biz For 18 Good Teen Business Ideas
Sometimes combining talents with a few of your talented friends makes a good mix for a business. JuniorBiz.com was founded by Nick Tart, a student at Colorado State University. With six years of experience as General Manager of a teen lawn mowing and snow removal service under his belt, he now works for World Marketing Solutions developing several successful websites. His co-founder, Paul Gigliardi, is another successful teen entrepreneur that ran his own computer repair business in high school. Diane Ellsworth has a passion for what kids can do and is in charge of sales for their website.
Visit their website, Junior Biz.com, and take a look at what they are doing. You may find some information for your next business!
Here’s 18 ideas to help get you started!
http://www.juniorbiz.com/general-business/18-teen-business-ideas
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