There are so many reasons why you want to involve your kids with your enterprise. First of all, by giving them responsibility for the family business, you’ll get them involved with it and increase the chance that they’ll, one day, want to succeed you at its helm. Second, it will help make them more responsible and give them a chance to earn, rather than just get their allowance. Lastly, it will give them some insight into exactly what you’re doing for the family, which might help them appreciate you more. With that in mind and without further ado, here are five ways your kids can help with your business.
Give them a “special” task
The first thing you need to understand is the fact that any task carries the amount of responsibility that the person in question believes it does. Regardless if you’re giving them the task of making some wall art for your office or helping you lick the envelope that you have to send, it can make them feel like they’re doing something special, as long as you deliver it in the right way. Just make sure that you stress out that it’s incredibly important and that you just can’t do it without them.
Spending some time with them
Regardless of what you’re doing at the moment, chances are that you could at least allow your kids to keep you company. This way, you’ll spend some quality time with them, and they might even pick up a skill or two along the way. Sure, kids might be too distracting for tasks like doing your taxes, nonetheless, if you can explain to them the gravity of the situation, they might understand it. Also, once they come of age, you might want to include them in the process. Sadly, this is one of those essential skills that conventional education won’t provide them with. Therefore, the task itself falls to you.
Make them into brand ambassadors
You don’t have to give them tasks to actively perform in order to have them contribute to your business. For instance, you can give your kids branded backpacks, thus helping them spread the awareness of your business around the neighborhood. Keep in mind that in order for this to remain effective, you need to A) explain to them what they’re doing and B) explain that this helps them contribute to the business as a whole. Naturally, you want their consent and approval.
Teach them basic business principles
You would be surprised at just how simple the basic principles of business are. Sure, there are some financial and entrepreneurial concepts that your kids may be too young to understand. Nonetheless, the basics like the concept of supply and demand, what is profit and what is the break-even point are fairly simple to understand. By helping them figure out what exactly you are doing, they might understand you, as a person, a lot better. Keep in mind that the majority of these lessons can also be applied in many other scenarios in life.
Don’t forget to compensate them
The very last thing you need to take into consideration is the importance of compensating them for the job that they’ve done. Previously, we’ve mentioned several tasks that you can entrust them, however, if you want them to stay motivated, you need to treat them as you would your employees. When the time comes to give them their allowance, make sure that you remind them that they’ve earned it. Also, give them some verbal appreciation for a job well done.
Conclusion
There is probably no better way to keep your kids develop a work ethic and ambition than to implement these entrepreneurial values into them while they are still young. Later on in life, they might find that this gives them an edge over the majority of their peers and they will have only you to thank. Of course, we’re not endorsing child labor or exploitation, yet, you would be surprised at how much difference even a mild involvement in the family business can make.
