How parents can guide their young entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is not just for adults anymore. It's never too early to start teaching kids about business and developing their dreams. Kids are full of ideas, and you should encourage them, according to Dr. Lynne Kenney. Kids will normally start a dream dialogue, but you should reinforce their thinking.

Sarah Cook, founder and CEO of Raising CEO Kids, shares reasons why she believes it is so important to be raising young entrepreneurs.

1. The process of becoming a successful entrepreneur creates confidence in kids and confident kids are happier and healthier.
2. Entrepreneur kids are more independent and have a greater understanding of finance then children who are not in business.
3. As your work with your kids to assist them in growing a business, your relationship with them will grow also.
4. Young entrepreneurs are the leaders of tomorrow.  Teaching them within the home to be honest, giving, courageous, and confident will be an asset for future generations.

Cook also has 5 things you can do to start the process of raising CEO kids:

1. Encourage them to embrace their gifts and passions and create a business from that.  For example, my oldest son loves technology and now he has a business fixing computers, doing tech reviews, creating and editing video and more. They can even start small by doing things for a parent who owns a business or doing extra work around the house or neighborhood.

2. Engage them to determine their “WHY” for being in business. When they love that they do and they know WHY they are doing it, they will find true joy and will be able to overcome the obstacles that come with having a business. Ask them why they want to earn money or start the charity work.  Keep asking them why after each answer until they have really developed a clear picture for themselves of what is motivating them.  My daughter’s “why” at one point, was to raise money for kids who have cancer.  She was able to overcome her fear of the phone and talking in public all because it was so important to her that she raise money for kids with cancer.

3. Let them be responsible for the business they are creating.  I have seen too many times where the parents step in and take over the business for the kids and this doesn’t do anyone any good.  Model, teach, and encourage the kids to raise the capital to start the business, keep good business records, and do marketing via social media, phone and in person.  Kids really can do most of it themselves as long as we provide encouragement, and education and mentoring where we are able.

4. Praise, encourage and love them in a way they receive it.  All people need love, praise and encouragement but everyone receives it differently.  Study Gary Chapman’s book called, “The Five Love Languages of Children” to know whether your child needs: quality time, words of affirmation, physical touch, gifts, or acts of service.  When we learned that my oldest son preferred verbal affirmation and quality time we were able focus on scheduling time and making an effort to tell him what he needed to hear.  My daughter prefers gifts and quality time.  I now make sure to put little surprises on her pillow and take her on “mommy daughter” dates.  My youngest loves all of them but he prefers quality time. I also schedule time to take him on outings and them give him encouragement and love in all the other languages as well.

5. Provide Leadership and Service Opportunities Within the Home.  Every successful CEO that I look up to is someone who is a servant leader. They truly care about the people they are leading and they make a difference in the lives of others.  We develop leadership in our family by holding family councils and rotating the responsibilities each week so that everyone has an opportunity to lead, speak, delegate, serve, and to be accountable.

We also look for ways our entire family can be of service to others in the community. This allows us to have the quality time together that our children desire as well as model for them how important that aspect is in becoming a successful leader in business and in life.

There are so many more things we can do but starting with the 5 I mentioned above will get you on the right track. 

Sarah Cook, is the Founder & CEO of Raising CEO Kids. She is an in-demand speaker, business and parenting coach, and soon-to-be author. Sarah has been married for nearly 17 years and she and her husband are the parents of three young entrepreneurs. For more information you can go to http://RaisingCEOKids.com .