Helping the Little Entrepreneur

Your son comes to you. He wants to open a lemonade stand. In today's market, he's more likely to want to start his own website, but you still face the same issues as a parent. You can let him have a go at it on his own, or you can offer some adult assistance. Offering to help him can start him on the path to becoming a lifelong entrepreneur, one of the best ways to gain real wealth and satisfaction.

If your child does want to become an entrepreneur, you should help with the basics. Be sure that you don't take and make decisions for your child. Instead, you should guide him or her through the process of starting a business, letting your child make the major decisions with only your help. The first task will be to make sure that your child has a plan. Maybe your daughter says, "I want to start a website." It's your job to guide her through how she plans to make money with her site as well as the subject for the site. Let your daughter decide what she thinks she enjoys and would like to work with on a long-term basis. If the decision is not to have a website, but another good or service offered offline, you will go through the same issues. If your son wants to have a pet sitting service, you should walk him through various options, such as grooming, walking, and washing, so that he can hone his business plan.

Your daughter or son should become familiar with a budget as well. You will need to guide him or her through a budget. Make sure that your child considers all of the costs. He should purchase supplies, such as pens, paper, and other basic office supplies for the business as well as an advertising budget and products specifically for the business. Have your child look at various suppliers for these materials and explain the importance of bargain shopping for the supplies. At this point, it is acceptable for Mom and Dad to loan money to the child for start-up costs but explain that as in all businesses, this loan must be repaid. Once you have a budget and the funding in place, your little one is ready to get down to the nuts and bolts of the business.

Most children who start businesses do not do so legally. They simply head out and hawk their lawn care or babysitting services without considering taxes and the other legalities. You may opt to permit your child to operate without a business license, but it is a better legal option to go through the legal channels now. Not only will it teach your child how to maneuver government bureaucracy, it will show him or her to make the ethical decision in these situations. You may have to register the business under your name or at least be a co-signor with your child, but still he or she will learn how the government works in such matters.

Once you have run through the legal issues involved, it's time to get down to business - literally. Help walk your child through creating a marketing campaign. Again, be sure that you don't do the work for your child. Guide her with questions about who she thinks will purchase her service, where she can find them, what makes her company unique from other similar ones. Use these questions to come up with an advertising idea and put it into motion.

Your child should now be at the point that he or she has everything needed to get the business going. When the business starts up, you will need to be there then as well, primarily for support. Go over customer service issues with your child, explaining how to be polite and how to deal with unhappy customers. You also will need to be there if the business doesn't go as planned or takes off more slowly than your child expected. Don't coddle him or her but require realistic expectations. Businesses don't take off overnight, so you need to be there to make your child feel better if no sales come in. Remember as you are going through this process that businesses start everyday, and many of them don't make it. Your child's business may be one of those business, or it may be something that stays with your child for a long time. Either way, it is vital that you are there for your child in this most exciting of childhood endeavors.