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Your parents talk about work all the time and truthfully, it doesn’t seem like much fun. All the things you hear, the problems, the good and the bad and, well, you’re not sure work is for you. Then again, how else will you make any money?
You need money to buy stuff, so maybe the solution is to own your own business. In “The Startup Squad: You’re the Boss” by Brian Weisfeld and Bonnie Bader, you’ll see how that’s possible right now.
When she was just four years old, Mikaila Ulmer had a bad encounter with a bee. Rather than staying scared of them, she started studying bees and learned a lot. When she was a little older, her parents suggested that she make plans for a couple of area children’s business fairs.
Remembering her love of bees, Mikaila took a family recipe and created a tasty drink that she started selling. Ten years after that first unfortunate sting, she’d sold “more than a million bottles of her award-winning lemonade...”
She has a successful business today. So why can’t you do the same thing? (Hint: you can!)
Grab a journal and write down “your WHY.” Aside from making money, why do you want to start a business? Do you see a problem that needs solving? What do you like to do in your spare time? How enthusiastic are you about the things you like?
Next, learn to make a “mind map” and bring your skills and interests together into one great idea for a business. Know who your customer is – and on that note, remember that parents are often buyers for their kids. Have your story ready to tell but keep it short.
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Brian Weisfeld
Think of a slogan or a way to “brand” your business in your customer’s minds. Know your competition. And remember this: lots of businesses fail. If yours does, that’s sad but don’t let it stop you from creating another one!
Every year, you participate in Take Your Child to Work Day. So maybe now’s the time to put your library where your mouth is and give your child “The Startup Squad: You’re the Boss.”
From the basic nugget of an idea to the hoping-for-happy end result, this book dares kids to dream of success through entrepreneurship, and everything that goes with it.
That includes the hard parts: detailed bookkeeping, work-life balancing, and dealing with the end of that dream and the beginning of another one which, for the kid who’s paying attention, serves as a nice, subtle warning.
On that note, authors Brian Weisfeld and Bonnie Bader offer more U-Rah-Rah than comfort, but the handful of anecdotes of “grit” they offer could inspire a right-minded kid to dig back in. A proffered website helps, too.
For the business-focused parent who wants their 8-to-12-year-old to follow in their footsteps or for the parent who wants to foster dreams, “The Startup Squad: You’re the Boss” is a great introduction to the world of entrepreneurship. For an adult, that’s promising. For a kid, that could be fun.
Terri Schlichenmeyer is the reviewer behind “The Bookworm Sez.” Reach her at bookwormsez.com.
