One of the best things we did as we raised our nine children was to encourage them to be entrepreneurs. After reading the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Richard Kiyosaki, we taught our children about the benefits of having multiple streams of passive income. When we studied inventors, inventions, and innovations, the wheels in our children’s minds began to turn. My husband has always been self-employed so including our children in our businesses was natural and very beneficial. Allowing them to try their hand at businesses, beginning with lemonade stands, was educational and often monetarily beneficial. When my daughters began selling garnet and gold items at FSU games the items became so popular that the products ended up in ten local stores. That was a great learning experience that also provided income for our family.
We attend Rhea Perry’s first ever entrepreneurial conference dragging along two teen boys ages 14 and 16. This was over 14 years ago! Although the boys were not at all excited about this event, once it began they enjoyed every minute of every workshop we attended and hated to see it end! Now that our nine children are grown, most of them are quite entrepreneurially minded! Our oldest daughter is pursuing a patent on a product she has created. Our oldest son makes knives from scratch. One of our sons owns his own business and flips houses, boats, cars, and more. Several of our children own Airbnb rentals (as do my husband and I) in addition to other real estate properties. One of our daughters (along with her husband) owns a successful videography business in Colorado (also an Airbnb owners). Our youngest son, heading to college this fall, is already quite experienced in construction and he recently changed my outside lights to motion sensor lights and added four new outdoor electrical plugs in a very short amount of time. All of our boys (we have 5 boys, 4 girls) know how to run a lawn business.
As we raised our children, if and when they came up with ideas, we encouraged them to pursue them (even when we had our doubts). For instance, after our daughter made $10 selling lemonade in a short amount of time, her brother wanted to sell something as well, but he wanted to sell something more “manly” than lemonade. So he decided to sell firewood. The problem with that idea is that it was August and we lived in Florida. Not to be dissuaded he set up his table and it began to rain. He put an umbrella over his head and continued to attempt to sell firewood in Florida in the rain in August. Two people stopped and bought firewood. He learned about pity purchases that day!
If you want to encourage your children to think entrepreneurially, then study inventions and inventors. Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad to your children. Toss around business ideas! Try all the ideas suggested when possible! Attend entrepreneurial conferences! I am excited to announce that Rhea Perry now offers a 12 month course for students (whether adult or child) to learn about entrepreneurship! But wait, there’s more! When a family signs up one member of the family for Rhea’s course, the entire family can attend one of her conferences! She holds an “Educating for Success” conference for homeschooling families in February of each year and a business conference in August of each year. In August of this year (2017) the conference will take place in Huntsville, Alabama, and entire families are welcome to attend. There are more than a few great workshops planned, and one of the guest speakers is John R. Erickson, author of Hank the Cowdog series!
If you have budding entrepreneurs, you may find the guide I wrote called Planting a Seed, Grow an Entrepreneur helpful! Contact me for ordering information. The sooner our children become financially prepared for life, the better! And, when young adults have multiple streams of passive income, they are free to go, do, and pursue their gifts and talents to the max!
Homeschooled Students for Bryan College 