The past couple of years have been eye-opening for all of us on how precarious the global economy can be and the precautions we can take to be more financially secure. As an artepreneur, I have been thankful for all the opportunities that have come my way recently, which has helped me strengthen my financial stability unlike a lot of people out there.
This gratitude comes with a realization that perhaps we are not equipping the future generations with the right tools and knowledge to be more entrepreneurial and financially aware. I can imagine how incredibly helpful it would be for children and young adults to have entrepreneurial education being introduced to them early on, so they can become adults knowing what is possible for them out there in the world.
So, before we actively petition to change the curriculum of every education board out there, I thought why not write a blog about tips that we can utilize in making our children more entrepreneurial. They are quite simple, but definitely effective. Here’s what we can do…
- What’s money?
We all want to protect our children from the harsh economic realities of life as long as we can, however this overprotection can result in them being completely unprepared for challenges up ahead. I would recommend, as part of their early education, to start teaching them about the concept of money and how it affects various aspects of our lives. We can help them understand that you work to earn money, which subsequently helps in paying bills and buying things that we enjoy together as a family.
You can even further make this entire discussion more practical and fun by making them “earn” their allowance by doing errands around the house and helping them budget on how to spend that money for an expensive toy that they want.
- Teaching them on how to capitalize their talents and skills
It is important that we encourage and hone the skills that our children have been naturally blessed with or gravitate towards. Once we give them the freedom and space to go after their passions, we can show them how people with similar skillsets and interests have been able to create successful businesses out of them. This will help them get an understanding of how much is possible if they continue to focus and develop their interests and passions. The focus here is not to make them hyper-focus on monetizing something that they enjoy but making them realize the possibilities available to them.
- Start with the basics
An effective way of letting children understand the mechanics of starting and running a business is getting them to start a mini business of their own. You can teach them how to come up with business ideas and how they can be drafted into business plans. This can lead to helping them coming up with budgets, assisting them in acquiring things that they might need to get the ball rolling on a business and then explaining what revenues, expenses and profits are. This will all be done in a fun and practical manner which will make their entrepreneurship education even more effective.
- Utilize the internet as young education resource on entrepreneurship
As we all know, the internet is an incredible place to help supplement your effort in parenting and teaching your children. On teaching your kids about entrepreneurship, there is nothing more useful of a resource than the internet. You can find tons of activities and exercises that you can do with your children to help them embrace their entrepreneurial side. You can also show them examples online of the youth out their who have become successful business owners through diligence, hard work and following their passions.
There you go! A couple of handy tips to try out with your little ones and before you know it, you would have a young entrepreneur on your hands. Let them learn and let them explore, they are the future after all!
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