Nothing prepares your teen for the real world better than teaching them how to start their own business. Reality shows that being a teenager is expensive. Clothes, sports, saving for college, and fun nights out with friends aren’t free. And after a while the parents aren’t going to fork over unlimited amounts of money.
There are ways for teens to start their own business, while they are still young. Here are some tips for teaching your teen how to start their own business.
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Weigh the Options
Before your teen can start a business, they need to know what options are available. Your teen could start anything from a lawn care business to a cleaning business, it depends on what they feel comfortable doing. Remind them that this isn’t forever, but it is a way to buckle down and earn some cash while they are still in their teens.
Go Through the Motions
Running a business is all about happy customers. Talk to your teen about how a business works. They are providing a service for someone and in exchange they are getting paid. Walk your teen through what it’s like to own a business, get paid, and then deal with the ins-and-outs of the admin part of the business (billing, customer service, responsibility).
Start the Marketing
Making a business as a teenager is a little different than a big cooperation would use. A teenage will most likely use old fashioned marketing tactics like word of mouth and flyers. Social media also opens up a creative way to market to people in their area. Have your teenage decide how many customers they’d like to start out with and then from there they can grow as they see fit.
Be Firm, But Supportive
As a parent, you will experience many emotions watching your teenager work hard for their own cash. It’s important that you, as a parent, remain firm but supportive. Help them when you can, but don’t coddle them. Let them learn from their own mistakes, but don’t throw them under the bus either. It’s best to have a middle man approach. The more you teach them now about owning a business and making money now, the more independent they’ll become later.
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Now Comes the Budgeting
When payday arrives from owning their own business, it’s important that they know a few things.
Expenses need paid (gas for the mower, paying for the cleaning supplies, paying the person that drove them from client to client).
Saving, Spending, and Sharing
Money should be broken up into three categories. Allow your teen to budget as they see fit. However, your opinions are allowed.
Show them that just because they are making money it doesn’t mean it should be spent all in one place.
Who knows, this business that your teenager starts now could help them work their way through college or even provide for their family one day. Do you have any tips to add?
These are great ideas I think fostering a entrepreneurial spirit is so important.
These are very good ideas to share with teens who are interested in this! It’s great to encourage teens to be responsible with their money.
I think it’s a wonderful idea to teach teens how to start their own business. The sooner kids begin to learn about money, how to make it and how to handle it, the better.
I think it’s awesome to teach them these skills when they are young. They are more prone to listen and learn.
It’s such a great thing for teens to learn these lessons while they’re still at home and have a safety net. Running your own business is a risk at any age, but kids can learn a ton if they start when they’re young.
These are such great tips and I think every teen should know about starting their own business. It’s a really great way to make them more aware of their options as they consider a career.
These will definitely help guide them to entrepreneurship. They don’t always mention these things in school.
Great tips. I told my kids about my work a bit. I want them to be responsible about money and know the balance between work & life. I really hope they will start their own business and give it a try
Great ideas, I know my husband will be very encouraging if Ali wants to do something entrepreneurial when she is a Teen and I will need to be a good balance to keep him in check. 🙂
What great tips and it also teaches teens responsibility! What a great idea to start your own business as a teen!
I think this is a really cool idea to teach kids responsibility at a young age! I started working at an office when I was 16, but I think that starting your own local business is a great alternative.
Great post, with great tips! 🙂 There are so many opportunities today for teens and adults alike to start their own businesses. It’s important to have a support system. Great job!
These are all great tips. I don’t have any teenagers yet but this is great advice for the future.
Awesome tips! I love this post! I wrote a similar one many years ago when I was teaching my kid about entrepreneurship. Just want to hone in at that early age that there is no fear in starting your own business.
Teaching your teens to start their own business is a good idea. This will teach them how to manage their money well.
These are some really great tips!! I would love to teach this kinda stuff to my daughter when she’s older!
Great post and great tips! We should definitely raise our children to have entrepreneurship in mind.
Sadly most kids are so technologically advanced that they can all probably teach US how to run a business for sure! LOL 🙂
Prepping teens to be entrepreneurs, love it! Great article!
Great tips! Teaching them at an early age gives them time to think and prepare properly for business, and have a much greater chance of actually succeeding. It’s also a great idea of having your parents backing you up.
I think this is an excellent idea and it’s really great for teens to learn how to do this. I think it’s great to encourage entrepreneurship.
I’m trying to start my own business so some of these tips can apply to me as well! MArketing and a budget is SO important!
Thanks a lot for these tips! My daughter has been bugging me to sell her pre-;pved items online so maybe I’ll start doing that and involve her in the process.
These are great tips for teaching a teen how to start their own business. I think this is a great idea for those teens wanting to start their own business. Now days too kids have a bigger fight head of them for having a career than we did at them ages. Thanks for sharing.
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