Teach the kids about your business

Our kids have their holidays from school – 8 weeks of free time. They have almost no idea what to do and the weather is not helping (rain) 😉

Our son is 15 (almost 16) and wanted to become an architect but since last year he does not want to do that anymore. He does not know what he wants to do and lost his goal to work for at school.

Now he thinks about becoming a director of a business or something with programming. To see if ‘programming’ is his thing I have found a task for him.

kids at computer

For this task he needs to do a few things:

  1. Learn about WordPress
  2. Install WordPress
  3. Make a website with WordPress
  4. Review my WordPress manual and mark what needs to be updated

For this last point I will pay him.

There are plenty of guides online where he can learn about WordPress. So I sent him an email with some examples and a video course.

For the hosting he can use my account. By the end of this week I want to look at the website with him. Every day I will give some soft guidance and tips what to do and how to move forward.

The brains of boys his age are often not yet developed in planning individually. So I will support him on this point.

Then he needs to go through my WordPress manual and mark all the points that require updates, especially the images. This way I can update this manual and prepare it as a new product on my website.

I will share with you how he did on these tasks and how the website looks.

Your kids and business

How are you involving the kids with your business? Do you want them to become an entrepreneur?

Share your ideas about your kids and business below.

Credit photo: Sam Howzit Computers in Japan

By Erno Hannink

Sparring and accountability partner for entrepreneurs who create sustainable positive impact. Explores decision-making. Shares his insights on this in, articles, books (Dutch), podcast, newsletters, and tools. Has a life mission to reduce social and ecological inequality. Father of two children, husband of M., runs, referee for the national soccer league, and uses stoicism for calm. Lives in the Netherlands. Speaks Dutch, English, and German.

10 comments

  1. Hi Erno,

    last week I assigned one of my daughters (17) a task for the business. She reviewed my website and stored certain pages I was looking for in Evernote. A daunting task going through 520+ pages. In the end it took her 6 hours and I now have an Evernote database that requires my attention. It saved me a lot of time though and indeed she has been rewarded for the work. Also before I have involved my children in tasks for the business. My experience is that it gives them a different, more inside, view on what a business is what needs to be done and so it is a good learning experience. For me it are real tasks that need to be done, but no high priority hence not my first attention, but getting them done in this way is helpful for me too.

    On your last question: “Do you want them to become an entrepreneur?”, that’s totally up to them. If they want to fine, if they don’t fine. As long as they are happy in what they do!

    Regards,
    Peter

    1. Great idea Peter. Love how you involved her and got a task don that you now can continue.

      Agree, it is of course up to them if they want to become an entrepreneur or not. Do you see some entrepreneurial signs in (one of) your kids?

  2. Hi Erno,

    Hello Erno,

    Well my kids are 2 and 4 years old, so they are still too little to get involved. However our 4-year-old she knows exactly what I am working with, the sales and distribution of a wonderful healthy (childrens) snack. I would not mind them becoming entrepreneurs. I think it will suit our oldest quite well. A while back we had a neighbourhood party with lots of children. At one point our daughter went inside the house and came out with a bag of the snack and then screamed out loud ‘It’s Maisboogie-time!’ and then she went around with the bag so everybody would taste!

    Kind Regards,
    Ofelia

    1. Hi Ofelia, you have the product that fits the age of your kids so well. Nice that she promotes your products to the kids. Eventually the parents will come to you 🙂

  3. Good topic Erno, as my husband and I both have businesses, our daughter has picked up that entrepreneur spirit early. when she was 10 she designed an advert for a dog walking service and put it in the local pet shop. Within a couple of days she had a client who had two small dogs. She and her friends walked those dogs 4 times a week for 2 years until she went to senior school.
    Now we have them as lodgers at our house each year when the owners go on holiday. Its a great little earner for her, and she loves the job, too!
    best wishes
    Jane

    1. Wonderful story Jane. You can see that kids pick these things up quickly, not all of course. Our daughter has a more entrepreneurial mind, compared to our son. Do you see an entrepreneur in your daughter?

    1. Thank you Vinil. Yes, I agree. Practical training is really important. Now our son is learning some php to see if he likes the coding. Maybe I can add him to my army of freelancers in a few months 😉

    1. Hi Sam, I am not really talking about toddlers here. Think teenagers and how you can involve them in your business so they learn about you, get involved, learn about work, learn about money….

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