My Children: Entrepreneurs in Training

My children see their mother earning a living online with the things that I'm passionate about: homemaking and motherhood. They inspire me now with their efforts.

It is said that teaching your children to be entrepreneurs is one of the important things you can teach your children as it involves: planning, discipline, math, organizational skills, money, people skills, etc. I took this to heart and bought my children the book "Beyond the Lemonade Stand: Starting Small to make it Big". It is written to teach and inspire children to earn money on their own. It is filled with creative ideas, stories and testimonials from other children. My kids cart this book around everywhere, and especially when they are setting up their next "selling booth".

Several years ago, my kids set up a lemonade stand on our street corner on a hot, sunny Texas afternoon. They had a table, chairs, ice cold lemonade, paper cups and a big colorful sign. They had people literally lined up to buy lemonade. As it neared supper time I had to drag them and the stand back inside. They didn't want to stop earning money! We counted up their till. They earned over $40 and each glass of lemonade was only 25 cents!

Every time we have a garage sale, my kids make up brownies and cookies to sell at the garage sale. They never seem to price the items above 25 cents and they sell like hotcakes. All the kids are there with their money and the adults love homemade baked goods!

Last month, the girls decided they wanted to sell baked goods again. I told them the best time was in the late afternoon when all the kids were out. They made two varieties of cookies with a sample plate. The cookies were brown sugar shortbread cookies and coconut macaroons. They set up their table in front of the house and make a bright colorful sign. They borrowed my red and white checkered tablecloth to make it more homey since they were selling fresh baked goods. Immediately the sales rolled in. No one even cared about the samples. At 25 cents a cookie no kids could resist and most kids have that much change lying around. The adults were buying too. When a car would drive in or out of our court, they would stop and buy a cookie or two. Just when I had come outside to tell them to wrap it up, a woman pulled up in her jeep and said she wanted all the cookies left. She bought them all for her and her kids to snack on while they traveled home. The girls were super excited by that last sale! They made over $20 on cookies!

My two eldest daughters, Cailynn and Chrisy, have a mentor teaching them how to crochet. They are both excellent at the chains and I'm trying to be patient with the long chains all over the house. They finally came up with a use for this talent too. They are making belts, bracelets, toe rings, and anklet "chains". They reasonably priced them at, you guessed it, 25 cents! They had so many kids lined up tonight when I called them in, that they promised to finish the "orders" tomorrow.

"It goes to show you that every business venture- no matter how small- is worthwhile. And every entrepreneur, no matter how young, can become a big success!" - Bill Rancic, Beyond the Lemonade Stand