We have written about this topic previously, but as our children grow and as the face of homeschooling and future careers change in South Africa, it is worthwhile readdressing.
We are great believers in entrepreneurship because of the skills that children learn, the jobs it creates and the life lessons that are taught, but we recognise that starting your own business, or helping your child to get one going, can often be a daunting endeavor…and... is it true that everyone should be an entrepreneur?
A significant benefit of initiating entrepreneurial thinking in your home is that besides not being dependent on someone else for her paycheck, an entrepreneur also becomes a job creator. In our country we have a 25% unemployment rate, but more startling is that at least 57% of the youth between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed.
Starting from a young age, we have encouraged our children (Shirley’s 6 and Wendy’s 4) to earn their own money. Over the years, different children have pursued a variety of ventures such as:
1. Teaching horse riding
2. Selling popcorn
3. Children’s markets
4. Food markets
5. Making and selling boerewors rolls at events
6. Working for food caravans during summer holidays
7. Making and selling aprons from upcycled jeans
8. Working as a waitress
9. Working as a pizza delivery person
10. Selling homeschool curriculum
11. Writing books and selling them
12. Selling magnets
13. Selling toys and games
14. Starting their own online business selling free range meat
15. Selling digital art online
16. Coaching gymnastics
While some of these are situations where they were employed by someone to do a job, they were still learning good business skills and developing a good work ethic, which will benefit them in their future businesses.
For some parents it may raise issues such as:
1. Safety
2. Start up costs
3. Finding a niche business
4. Time constraints
These are all obvious concerns, but they can be addressed with wisdom as opportunities present themselves. Wisdom also dictates that parents screen prospective places, employees and clients for younger children.
There are many reasons why all children should work in the home doing chores, work at their schoolbooks and have a source of income…
1. Teaches them to manage time well
2. Helps them to work with people outside their family group
3. Earns income for later use towards study, car or housing
4. Learns skills from the safety of home before the school of hard knocks
5. Teaches them interpersonal and professional skills handling clients
So whether your children end up running their own businesses or not, the skills they will learn along the way will stand them in good stead, even if they choose to study and enter employment with a firm.
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