LIFESTYLE: TEACH YOUR KIDS
10 WAYS TO TEACH YOUR KIDS TO BECOME ENTREPRENEURS G
lobalisation, economic crises, decreased earning power, high-speed technology and dynamic employment markets are the markers of today’s world. The traditional model of a university degree followed by a stable job and a steady progression up the career ladder has become outdated. Simply put, for today’s generation, the future seems really daunting. Students graduating from top universities often struggle for months to find a decent job. Unpaid internships abound and often amount to nothing even after the six-month sacrifice. How can we teach our children to create their own opportunities? Here are 10 lessons from entrepreneurs and seasoned parents on how to improve the confidence levels of our children, turn them into leaders and help them create successful lives through entrepreneurial education and opportunities.
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GOAL SETTING IS VITAL FOR FUTURE SUCCESS
Teaching your children how to set and accomplish their goals can be a fun and highly effective activity. Studies show that written goals are over 80% more likely to be achieved. How: Ask your children to define and write down their top five goals. In order to increase effectiveness and feeling of accomplishment, make sure that each goal is S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely). Next write down five actions necessary to accomplish these goals. Don’t forget to put them up somewhere where you and your children can easily see them. Encourage and support your children in reaching their defined goals and be sure to enjoy the rewards together.
KIDS MUST LEARN HOW TO RECOGNISE OPPORTUNITIES
Many people never meet their full potential because they fail to recognise opportunity. Teaching your children to seek out opportunities and seize them will directly contribute to their level of future success. How: Praise your children for pointing out small problems or setbacks in their lives that cause them distress: from losing unsaved essays to not being able to reach items on a high shelf. Brainstorm solutions on how to resolve what’s troubling them. Turning crisis into opportunity teaches children to focus on creating positive solutions rather than the problem itself. Every problem has a solution so rather than accepting life as fact, teach children that they can always have an impact. This habit will allow them to develop profitable ideas in their future businesses.
An atHome anecdote: A student from La Chataigneraie recently signed up to atHome offering his IT services. His parents and parents’ friends were always asking him to help out with their computer problems. Things that were simple
LIFESTYLE: TEACH YOUR KIDS
and obvious for him were causing others a lot of hassle, such as struggling to download photos from their phones to the computer. Instead of seeing these constant requests as a problem, he decided to get paid for his skills and signed up to www. serviceathome.com. Something that had the potential to be a nuisance instead became a valuable and profitable skill for both him and his atHome clients.
SELLING IS INVOLVED IN EVERY PART OF LIFE
The ability to sell is an invaluable life skill. It applies to every human interaction whether in a business sphere or over the course of a career. From selling products and services to customers to raising capital from investors, this skill is vital to the success of any business. How: Encourage your children to start with small projects like selling their old toys, starting a lemonade stand, or offering their pet-sitting services. Let them price their products, sell to customers, and facilitate the transactions when sales are made.
An atHome anecdote: I was so impressed when one of our enterprising babysitters offered to bring along several arts and crafts
activities to keep kids busy in a fun and interesting way. She worked out the cost of materials and added a small fixed cost to the hourly sitter rate for parents who were interested. Parent’s loved it! Adding that little bit of extra service just goes to show that Patricia already knew a thing or two about sales and customer value.
FINANCIAL LITERACY IS A MUST
This is one area that we all could use help with. Teaching children about money at an early age will give kids a solid grounding in finance, something that schools often don’t give enough attention to. How: Give your children the opportunity to earn their own money through chores, their own small business or helping you in your business. Educate them about investing to show them how their money could be used to create more money in the future. Help them set up a bank account and let them learn how to budget their income.
An atHome anecdote: Pet-sitting, babysitting, tutoring or teaching a new skill... let your children offer their skills to their community to earn their pocket money. atHome makes it easy for everyone to learn how to manage
their mini-enterprise by providing them with all the tools necessary to manage their own business. These include setting their prices, managing their schedules and appointments and promoting their own services.
INSPIRING CREATIVITY WILL BUILD MARKETING SKILLS
Teaching kids about marketing is a great way to help them attract customers to their future business. As we all know, without customers, even the greatest business will fail. This is a very beneficial skill to learn while young. How: Motivate your children to start analysing the messages behind marketing materials like billboards, promotional banners in front of businesses, printed advertisements in magazines, and television/ radio commercials. Ask them what catches their attention about the message and see if they can identify the meaning behind the logo, tagline, and “call to action.” Encourage them to create their own marketing materials for their business ideas.
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LIFESTYLE: TEACH YOUR KIDS
An atHome anecdote: While reviewing a new listing one evening, I smiled as I read, “If I cannot fix the problem you get your money back! As with many teenagers, I am doing this to get some extra pocket money but also to meet more people and know more people in my community.” We loved that this teenager’s listing was so authentic, honest and customer-focused. He even promoted his service on his Facebook page. Marketing one’s skills is important and atHome offers all sorts of fun ideas and tools that your children can use to get the word out about the services they are offering.
SCHOOLS ARE WRONG ABOUT FAILURE
In school we’re taught that failure is bad. In the entrepreneurial arena, failure can be a great thing if a positive lesson is learned. Napoleon Hill, author of Think And Grow Rich believes that, “Every failure carries with it a seed of equal or
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greater benefit.” Allowing your children to fail will force them to create new ways to accomplish their goals and learn from their mistakes. This will lead to confident children who know how to persevere when times are tough. How: This lesson is simple. When your children fail, instead of punishing them, try discussing which factors lead to the failure and brainstorm ways to prevent it from happening again in the future. Always try to find the “learning lesson” in every adverse situation and encourage your children to NEVER give up.
An atHome anecdote: During my studies, I used to tutor IB and IGCSE students. I figured that I had written so many exams that I
knew a few tricks about studying efficiently for exams. The problem was that it took me so much time to find, manage and tutor the students, that I eventually stopped tutoring altogether. Perhaps I failed as a freelance tutor but I didn’t give up. This personal experience is one of the reasons we built atHome. We
wanted to offer people a platform that removed the hassle of finding and managing customers so that they could focus on what they do best. We now have a growing list of university students who able to focus on their tutoring and share their vast knowledge without wasting time on admin. The other bonus is of course that, in case your child is struggling at school as we have some very bright minds that can offer your child the extra support to excel in his studies. Have a browse on www. serviceathome.com
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IMPROVES ALL RELATIONSHIPS
Because of the popularity of social media and text messaging, most children today tend to be terrible at face-to-face and telephone communication. Successful businesses require that people actually speak to one another. Teaching your children to communicate effectively will give them a winning edge in business and in their personal relationships. How: First, lead by example. Teach your children to be polite and respectful. Most importantly, practice maintaining eye contact when speaking in person.
LIFESTYLE: TEACH YOUR KIDS
When using the telephone, teach your children to speak slowly and clearly. Another useful activity is to practice communicating with your children in e-mails. Don’t let them abbreviate words and phrases and encourage them to write grammatically correct sentences that flow together clearly and logically. Explain to them the importance of always proofreading their written communications to check that their message is conveyed clearly.
An atHome anecdote: Good grammar is important: One of our service providers advertised her service as “Cleaning women”, we were pretty sure she was offering to clean homes rather than members of the female gender and helped correct the mistake before any misunderstanding could happen. Here at Service atHome, we make it our job to help our service providers in conveying their messages as clearly and professionally as possible and firmly believe in the power of proofreading to avoid any ambiguous situations.
THE ART OF GIVING BACK CREATES HAPPINESS Why start a business if it doesn’t support a greater cause? It’s important for children to understand the importance of helping others. It’s an attribute that will allow them to stay humble during periods of great success and will help them realise that a successful business provides benefits to more than just its owner. People that contribute to the success of others live happy and content lives.
why we built Service atHome. We wanted to give people the opportunity to share their skills so that those looking for help could easily find the best people to assist them. It’s about “living a richer life” for all and giving back is part of that. We’re a community and as such, we love organising events and workshops to empower, connect and help people become better at what they do.
INDEPENDENCE CREATES CONFIDENCE
How: When brainstorming business ideas with your children, ask them to choose a charity or special cause to support with a portion of the income that they generate. Explain the concept that contributing to improving the lives of others benefits society as a whole.
An atHome anecdote: Improving the lives of others is
Who doesn’t want their children to be independent and successful? Entrepreneurial thinking shows kids how to depend on themselves for their own success which in turn leads to well-rounded adults and future leaders. How: The next time your children ask for money to buy their favourite toy or gadget, ask them to brainstorm ways to create the money through entrepreneurship. This will AUTUMN 2013 ISIS Magazine
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LIFESTYLE: TEACH YOUR KIDS
inspire creative thinking and get the entrepreneurial juices flowing.
An atHome anecdote: If your child wants a new toy and his pet-sitting or gardening service is still a bit slow, encourage him to experiment by lowering the price, updating his photo or rewriting the description. Simple actions can improve his ranking, visibility and bookings. He will learn that by finding ways to make his business successful, he can achieve the things he wants.
GET THE ADVANTAGE BY BECOMING A LEADER NOW
turning them into leaders at an early age. This results in better opportunities, higher income and improved self-confidence later in their lives. How: Give your children the opportunity to lead their friends in fun activities like outdoor sports, book clubs, music practice or small business projects. You can also encourage them to propose toasts and small speeches at family dinners and birthday parties, providing them with invaluable experience in public speaking!
An atHome anecdote: Launching a company from the ground up has taught me one key skill “roll up your sleeves and get it done”. One evening after
dirty and doing what needs to be done. We strive for excellence in everything we do and are proud to be empowering others to become leaders in the services they offer.
ABOUT SERVICE AT HOME: Lindy Abittan, along with her busines partner Itamar Weiss decided to create a Service at Home (aka atHome) to transform today’s home services market Users can browse, book and enjoy reviewed service providers quickly and easily. For the first time, they are bringing trust to this market and expanding it beyond the word of mouth network which is the predominant way to find quality service providers today. Their vision is to enable people to get more out of life by leveraging the pool of available underused talents in our community.
In school, children are generally taught to go with the flow and follow the rules. They are often programmed to learn and memorise facts instead of becoming independent thinkers. Entrepreneurship forces children to think “outside of the box” and create unique solutions,
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spending the afternoon outside the conservatoire of Geneva in an effort to recruit music teachers we decided to get their attention by attempting a duet with the harmonica and violin. My dad asked me “Don’t you get embarrassed doing these things?”. I guess if I did, I probably wouldn’t be here. It’s all about thinking outside the box, getting your hands
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