How To Help Your Kids Learn Important Life Skills Through Home Business

Copyright ©2003 by Henri G. Schauffler
http://www.familybizbuilder.com

Would you like to find a willing, enthusiastic source of
free or very inexpensive labor for your Internet Home Business? Would you like to find a fantastic way to help your children learn things like self discipline, goal setting, integrity, financial management and communication skills? Then read on, dear reader!

What I'm getting at is, of course, the idea of involving your kids in your Internet home business, or helping them start one of their own. Instead of having them be a source of distraction and/or trouble as you labor to build your business, try a new approach - consider your children your potential allies and even potential employees.

Also, consider the many character building benefits of involving kids in your home business. Steve Mariotti, Founder and President of The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE -http://www.nfte.com) started a ground breaking program over two decades ago that set up disadvantaged New York City youth in modest businesses of their own, such as
Manhattan hot dog carts. Here is their mission tatement:

"NFTE's mission is to teach entrepreneurship to low-income young people, ages 11 through 18, so they can become economically productive members of society by improving their academic, business, technology and life skills." To say the least, this program has been *extremely* successful.

Wouldn't you like your children to learn some of these life skills and help you out as well? The question, of course, is,"Practically speaking, what can my kids do in my Internet home business?" I'm glad you asked! Let's look at pre-teens and then teens.

Pre-Teens

Your 11-13 year olds are just beginning to get old enough to begin learning about business. Talk to them one-on-one about their interests. See if you can find a connection with what you are doing in your business. Here are some examples of what I mean:

If your child plays or is interested in sports, encourage him or her to begin going to sites on the Web that talk about sports or sell sports gear. Start to ask them questions about the sites - "Do you like this part; do you see how they are trying to get you to buy something here; do you see this banner ad there?" You'll begin to get them engaged, and soon, you can start to show them how you are doing the same things in your family's business.

Another way to involve your kids is to get them actually doing some work for you - even pay them a little bit! Most kids these days are itching for a chance to earn extra money. If we pay them to do the lawn and help with chores, why not hire them for helping in our home business? As they work, of course, they'll begin to be involved in the business! I did this with my then 13 year old a few years back, and guess what? He now has a thriving EBay business of his own! More on
EBay in a moment.

The main point with pre-teens is to engage them in some way with your Internet business and/or other Internet businesses. For some children, this is just the spark they need. Don't forget - they're always going to learn important life skills as they work in a business environment.

Teens

If you don't get your pre-teens too excited, don't worry - just be patient for a couple of years. When they become 14 and older, you'll have a whole new set of opportunities...

By now, their computer and Internet skills should be fairly well developed - most kids learn with their friends and at school these days. And, their desire to make money has intensified as well! Use this desire to get them involved with Internet business.

Here are two ways:

As with pre-teens, you can hire them to do some of your administrative chores so you can concentrate on the single most important part of your business: *marketing*! You can get your teens doing data input, getting stats from ad-trackers, doing research, and even search engine submission and other tedious marketing tasks. Believe me; they'll be well worth the money.
And even more important for teens, they're going to be developing those ever important life skills!

The *best* way to get teens involved with Internet home business is to do what Steve Mariotti does - get them set up in their own business! My son Ted has a thriving EBay business. He buys damaged DVD players very inexpensively on EBay, fixes them, and sells them for a sizeable profit, again on EBay. EBay is a *fantastic* place for kids to learn business and make money. Here's a link to a useful free e-book on how to do business on
EBay for you and your teen to look over. Here's the link:

http://www.familybizbuilder.com/ebooks/ebaybook.exe

Another good idea for teens: you might help your teen sign up for and begin to market an affiliate program. These are strong, established businesses that sign you up for free, give you your own pre-made websites and even free learning programs. Here are several sites with good resources and freebies you or your teen should check out:

Family Biz Builder.Com (yep, that's my site!)
http://www.familybizbuilder.com

Push Button Publishing
http://www.pushbuttonpublishing.com/affiliates .php?rid=9945

Plug In Profits
http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-580

Here's a company that will give you a great free "bundle" of books and CD's, just for dropping by. It'll be very educational for your teen (maybe even you!) Here's the link:
http://www.quickinfo247.com/8300900/SIM

We've covered a lot of ground here. The next thing to do is act! If you act on even *one* of the suggestions herein, I guarante things will start happening with you and your child. Talk with them about their interests, get them working in your business, download the e-book, visit some websites. Take action
now and the rest will begin to unfold.

Here's to you, your kids and your Internet family business!