Why Entrepreneurial Skills Matter For Children

Children today are being marketed to all the time. Marketing professionals spend a lot of time and money to market to your children, and turn them into consumers. That’s not always a bad thing, but parents today need to break things up a bit. Entrepreneurial skills lend themselves very well to dividing up the marketing elements that kids get hit with, and teach them so much. There are several reasons why these skills matter so much for kids of all ages, including the following elements.

Pushing Creative Spark

When you teach children about business, and pursuing ideas, they get creative. Instead of just assuming that they can buy everything, their ideas can solve problems. At the core of business is the notion of answering problems. Businesses that do well, address a problem that people have. Children can learn how to answer problems creatively, which will allow them to grow their ideas and address issues that they may see. Sometimes, that little spark can turn into a huge idea and even stem into a product.

Enhancing Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is a great tool for a child, as it will last a lifetime. One of the hardest things to teach adults, even in collegiate settings is critical thinking. The reason why it’s tough is because most people assume that they have this in place inherently. But when you teach children entrepreneurial skills, they will start to critically look at things they would otherwise not consider. This lends a hand in problem solving, math, and so much more.

Entrepreneurship Shows How To Overcome Failure

Children will learn about failure. They’ll learn that failing is not the end, but rather a teaching mechanism that follows through life. The best business people in the world don’t give up after failing. They take each misstep as a way to figure out how to succeed. Children that can successfully navigate failure, will develop better overall confidence. They won’t sweat the small stuff, they’ll take things in stride, and will learn from the issues that they may face in their everyday life.

The reason why entrepreneurial skills matter today is because they aren’t taught in school. Children have the capacity to learn so much at young ages. Focusing on the elements that make business move, will showcase benefits that start in youth and lead through the rest of their lives. It’s a beautiful thing to see, and could very well be the firm foundation for the future.

Two Easy Ways To Teach Your Child About Business

Being an entrepreneur today can teach a lot of lessons. Whether you’re just starting out, or you’ve worked on it in the past, business has a lot of elements that you can learn from. It’s not just adults that can learn, either. Children can learn some things that will stay with them for a lifetime. From gaining confidence to learning social skills, a lot can be learned from experiencing business elements first hand. There are several ways that you can start teaching children about entrepreneurial pursuits, but which ones are the easiest? Consider a few of the easier options that you’ll find today.

Play Mock Business

There are a lot of toys and kits that you can purchase that help kids play business owner. Many of these are branded by existing franchise companies, but you may find generalized options. Things from beauty salons, fast food restaurants, and several other solutions are made for children that want to “play” business owners. You can join them in playing, and they’ll learn simple lessons from interacting with customers, to how to price things, etc. These may seem like rudimentary things, but they’ll come in handy over time.

Identify A Problem and Solve It

Watch your child and see if they are struggling with anything. Then join them in figuring out a solution. This is exactly what companies do all the time. Identifying problems and fixing them with creative solutions can not only help them in the immediate future, but it could help them down the line as well. Brainstorming is a critical teaching element that is worth exploring, just make sure that you give them some space to figure things out so that they can come up with solutions on their own.

Of course, these are just a couple easy ways to introduce children to business elements. There’s a lot more to explore, but if you’re just starting out, consider the above options. As long as you spend time with them, you’ll see their minds develop critical thinking skills.

Parenting Mistakes To Avoid When Teaching Business Skills To Kids

Parenting is not an easy task. No parent today is going to tell you that it’s all a cakewalk. In fact, there are a lot of stress points that you’re going to run through. As children grow up, they become more and more difficult to manage and you’ll have your work cut out for you. There are a few things that you can start teaching them today, that will help them in the future. For instance, you can teach them about entrepreneurship, and business. There are a lot of skills that translate beyond business, and parents can teach kids to establish amazing connections that will help them through life.

But with the option to teach them about business, and all the creative elements that come with it, there are some issues. Parents can make mistakes that can stifle the forward progress of children. You don’t want to make mistakes when teaching them certain skills, because they can take that with them onwards to the future. Here are just a few mistakes to avoid.

Pushing Too Hard

It happens to the best parents, you push too hard. You want your child to pick things up fast, you want them to learn quickly, but they aren’t interested. Some parents push so hard, they end up damaging the creative thinking process of a child. You don’t want to push kids into something they just aren’t interested in. You’ll need to cajole them in a genuine manner. Find ways to relate what they love to the business lessons that you want to show them, and you’ll find new avenues that work.

Not Bringing Things To Their Level

You may understand the bigger lessons that come with business. You may even be an entrepreneur, and have a set of vocabulary words engraved in your mind. If you aren’t a beginner, you will need to revert to being one in your mind. Teaching children requires you to take complex ideas and make them simpler. If you can simplify the complexities that come with business, you’ll end up with a positive push forward.

Losing Patience

In conjunction with the first mistake mentioned above, consider the patience element. You have to be very patient when teaching a child about entrepreneurship and business as a whole. They may not pick up things fast, and they may seem frustrated with the bigger picture. It’s the role of a parent to be there to calm anxieties, and be patient while they learn. Some lessons take a great deal of time to fully understand and teach, which is why it’s so critical that parents do not push too hard or lose sight of the bigger picture.

3 Life Long Skills Children Can Learn From Entrepreneurs

Children soak up information faster than adults. They are sponges for learning, and you can help them along the way right now. Parents, teachers, and anyone that takes care of children will want to show them things that they can take with them for the rest of their lives. With so many distractions on the way to adulthood, it can be hard to engrave certain lessons. One of the paths that can help them improve today, and help them in the future is learning lessons from entrepreneurs. There are some specifics that come with this, and the roots go deep within the mind of children. Consider the following 3 lifelong skills they can learn from those that have paved their own path in business.

Self-Motivation

This is a skill that is essential for everyone. Some people don’t get to the point where they are motivated until they are older. Others never learn. Entrepreneurs have to motivate themselves to work, especially those that are working in a freelance or remote position. Without that motivating factor, many would not make any money or would have to succumb to dealing with a lackluster career path. Children that can learn how to be self-motivated will be able to succeed in nearly any arena that they find themselves in.

Math Skills

When looking at the lifelong skills that children need, you may be stumped. But if you’re honest, you’ll admit that math is one of them. Math can be a struggle for children of all ages, but when you frame it within the confines of entrepreneurship, you’ll see that it matters a great deal. Even basic math, fractions, and simplified algebra is used in business all the time. Bookkeeping alone takes up a lot of time because it measures whether or not someone is successful or failing at business overall.

Social Skills

The key to success for entrepreneurs comes with socializing with others. They not only have to work with customers, they need to network all the time. Children that learn social skills at a young age are more confident down the road, and can benefit when they go to college, or enter the work force down the line. Social skills beyond social media are critical today, and those that can navigate that element of communication will find success in any industry. This is one thing that is missing with a lot of individuals, which is why it’s important to teach children at a young age.

Goal Setting: Creating Goals With Your Children

One of the most important aspects of life that you can teach your children is planning. Setting goals, working towards milestones, and rejoicing when things are accomplished is a great thing. Many parents struggle with the chaos of so much going on, but there are things that can be done to ensure that children can learn this valuable part of life. The following guide can help with setting up a simple plan towards goal setting in a monthly arena.

Choose A Calendar

The first thing that you should do with your children is simple, get a calendar. Focus on a wall calendar that they like, and let them pick it out. This is going to be the foundation of planning, as  it will allow them to write in the dates, and schedule things that should get worked on. This allows them to have a little more control over their projects and planning overall, so let them choose just about anything here.

Write Small Milestones

After you have the calendar up on the wall, write in some small milestones that lead to a larger project. For instance, let’s say that you wanted to have a month-long project of cleaning up the house. On each week write down 1 task per day, and that’s it. By the last day of the month, 30 or 31 projects will be done, making the larger goal completely done. The same can be done to break up month long chores, school work and more. When a small element is done, put a red line through it to make sure that it’s done, and the visual is in place.

Fill Up The Calendar

The options mentioned above can’t work unless you follow up on the process. Setting weekly milestones with 7 steps forward is a good way to start. But over time, you’ll want to fill up the calendar with more and more tasks. By doing this, and crossing out the things that are done, you’ll show children how to set up a goal, follow through on steps to complete it, and finally cross it off a list. This is the most basic way to teach planning, and follow through.

If you’re not an organized person, or you have trouble setting goals and accomplishing various tasks, don’t worry. You can join your child in setting up a calendar, and crossing things out as you accomplish them. You can even rejoice together when you both have done everything on the list!

Wishing you an amazing year!

Is Your Child Too Busy? The Pitfalls of a Constantly Busy Child

Parents today are stretched very thin at times. With work, social demands, and so much more pulling at the strings of parents, it may be a good idea to keep a child busy. But that poses problems as well. Children that are too “busy”, could very well lose a part of childhood that lets them build self-esteem, self-reliance, and even confidence. There are some pitfalls to doing too much as a child, and many parents are finding out the hard way. Instead of going overboard, consider a few notes on why you should balance a child’s activities to allow them some down time from the grind of everyday life.

Play Time Is Diminished

One of the biggest hurdles of the ever-busy child is that they don’t have play time. You may not think that this could be productive, but it’s very important for a young person. As a child grows up, they use this time to use their imagination and creativity. They do this to ensure that they are dealing with a variety of positive elements overall. They create environments and structures that help their brains develop. Even if you think it’s a waste of time, to them, it’s a grand element that is full of wonder. Encouraging children to imagine, and be creative in play time is a great way to build personality constructs and more.

Friendship and Social Time Suffers

Friendships take time to build. Creating long lasting friendships is a great thing for a child. However, if they are constantly busy, moving in and out of classes, going to extract curricular activities, and never allowed to have down time to play with others, they may have a void in communication. You want to allow your child to flourish socially, and that is done by letting them have some time away from the serious nature of some of the activities they may be involved with. Building relationships that last start at youth and develop in time.

Growing Up Resentful

Adults that have busy childhoods, often end up resenting their upbringing. They cite things like, not being able to be a kid, or not being allowed to have a bit of fun. These things way heavy on the minds of millions of people, and through therapy they can be helped. Professionals, however, agree that when raising children, they should be left to have some fun, downtime, and use their imagination to create lavish worlds and more. Suffice to say, kids should have time to be “kids” sometimes.