I think entrepreneurs are born and everyone is born an entrepreneur. The problem is our society screws us up by grooming us to be employees. So although we are all born with an entrepreneurial spirit that spirit must be inspired, groomed and guided. In a sense this means entrepreneurs must also be made.
I have never seen this truth better than today when my 4-year old son started his first business and is now my best business partner.
Ever since we traded cable TV for the Dish network my son Jace has been driving me crazy asking for every toy he sees on a commercial. Instead of constantly being annoyed and frustrated I decided to turn it into a learning opportunity. We discussed how he needed to earn money to make the purchases he wanted. It didn’t take long for him to start saying “I want to make money so I can buy that” instead of the previous “I want that, I want that”.
I then taught him that the essence of business is to buy something at one price, increase its value and sell it at a higher price. We began brainstorming ways he could go into business to earn money.
With Mother’s Day approaching we decided to buy 10 small clay pots, decorate them, plant sun flowers and sell them at a garage sale. He diligently did the work watering them for about 10 days and watching them grow in anticipation of his business début.
Today was our garage sale and the day my little entrepreneur was born (and made).
It took a couple of hours to make his first sale but as I watched he soon courageously began to approach our shoppers and ask if they would like to buy a sunflower. If they said no he kindly walked away and waited for another shopper.
I was so proud to watch him as he uninhibitedly approached each person showing his beautiful flower pots and asking if they would like one for $5 dollars. With each sale his courage and enthusiasm doubled and tripled.
Today he sold 7 of his 10 flowers earning $40 which he then got to take to Toy’s R Us to buy one of the toys he had his eye on. Today will be the day I remember as the day my son started his first of what I hope will be many successful businesses!
Link to this page
I LOVE this! What an awesome lesson to teach your child about earning money. My parents did this with me and I also plan on doing this with my children.
By the way, I never heard back from ya about the sites. Let me know if you need anything. Here is my new graphic design site. http://www.dpk-graphicdesign.com
Have an awesome day!
DAWN