Kidpreneurs – if you didn’t get it immediately, a portmanteau of ‘kids’ and ‘entrepreneurs’ – are young people who are starting businesses, gaining online followers, and leading movements in spaces traditionally dominated almost exclusively by adults. Deep down, nearly every one of us wants to be an entrepreneur. However, forgoing your monthly wages to follow your true passion takes lots of self-confidence. Many of us lack that confidence. Therefore, a great portion of our lives may be spent working to build someone else’s wealth or in other words being employed by someone else’s company. If that confidence was instilled within us at a younger age, we might all have the courage to open up a business. Give your children the opportunity to truly be in charge of their lives by encouraging a sense of entrepreneurship in their youth. Encouraging entrepreneurship within your children can teach them to be: • Self-sufficient • An effective leader • A strong decision maker • Confident in their ideas and ability to succeed Raising an entrepreneur or Kidpreneur is more than teaching your child to make money; it’s about telling them to go against the crowd and follow their own intuition. Since many parents have instilled this sense of confidence in their children, the sight of self-made wealthy teens is becoming more and more common. When encouraging entrepreneurship within your children, the only thing you have to fear is the embarrassment of declaring that your 15-year-old son earns a higher yearly income than you! |
The Story of Henry Patterson
Henry Patterson (now 14 years old)
Henry Patterson’s business, Not Before Tea, began when Henry wrote a book at the age of just 10 years old, titled “The Adventures of Sherb and Pip”. Henry was able to get a government grant to help with the self-publishing of his book.
The book sold thousands of copies and Henry was able to expand the business by selling products such as bags, cards, nursery décor and nappy pouches based on the characters in his book.
Henry has since appeared on many TV shows and had the chance to meet Richard Branson during his appearance on the One Show. A piece of advice Henry regularly brings up in his interviews is to be “be brave and get out of your comfort zone”.
He is now a multi millionaire
Raising a Young Entrepreneur
Teaching your children about entrepreneurship need not require a huge investment. In fact, the basis of an entrepreneurial mindset is self-sufficiency. Therefore, children can come up with the money to start the business through their own efforts.
If your children are old enough, they can get an after school job or help around the house in exchange for an allowance. Many business ideas can be funded for less than £100.
Once your child has invested time, effort, and their own money into their business startup, they are more likely to see it through and become successful business owners.
They’ll learn each step of the way and tweak their business until it becomes profitable. When your child embraces failure as a learning experience rather than a collapse, you’ll begin to see a flourishing entrepreneur growing before your eyes.
You can encourage entrepreneurship within your kids by teaching them that:
• Any idea is a valid business idea
• Failure is okay as long as you keep improving
• A profitable business requires continuous learning and tweaking • Creativity is what counts
• Being innovative makes you stand out from your competitors
Some of your child’s business ideas will lead to great success, while others provide little more than a tremendous learning experience. Some ventures will prove to be highly profitable, while others may only produce a few dollars. The key is to teach your children to be resilient and keep moving forward toward their dreams.
If your child’s business ideas succeed, continue to encourage them to seek greater levels of success. Along the way, continue to promote self-sufficiency, independent thinking, and confidence within your kids. With these three traits, success is theirs for the taking!
A warning
It is also worth pointing out that the rise of the kidpreneur has come hand-in-hand with an increased potential for exploitation! Over the past few years, there have been many stories of kids being taken advantage of by parents who are too forceful in encouraging kids to create, edit, and upload videos and who see their child’s YouTube success as a lifetime meal ticket. This type of pushy parenting boils my pee pee! Theres’s a few I could mention.
It has to be the child driving it forward with encouragement from the parent.
For more information on Kidpreneur’s in the UK visit www.kidpreneuruk.com
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