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All good parents want their children to succeed in life. And while encouraging your child’s education through school is a crucial part to promoting success, the education system often neglects teaching fundamental business and financial skills. In today’s digital economy, however, there has never been a greater opportunity for young people to create an online business centered around their unique interests. Here’s how you can encourage the next generation of leaders by inspiring your children to become kidpreneurs.

Foster Their Interests

No matter how old your child is, there’s likely something they feel strongly passionate towards. Whether it’s art or cooking or something else altogether, the best businesses derive from passion. Because nearly any interest that turns into a skill can be monetized, it truly doesn’t matter what your child’s interests are. For instance, a child interested in drawing and design could master the skills that become the building blocks of a freelance graphic design business.

For that reason, it’s less important what your child’s interests are and more important that you encourage their growth. In addition, fostering your child’s interests communicates that you care and inspires them to further purse what they love. Talk to your children about their interests and hobbies and take the chance to share any valuable knowledge to them you may have. Connecting your child to valuable educational resources in their areas of interest can be one of the most important things you do as a parent.

Get More Involved

Talking to your child and encouraging their passions only goes so far without further involvement. Starting a business is hard, and your child may quickly get discouraged without further help and guidance. Because of that, it’s crucial to find ways to aid your child’s dream. And the best part is that there are tons of ways to get more involved.

It would be a little challenging to create an online business without actually being online. For that reason, one way parents can invest time in their child’s business is by helping them build a website. Aside from assisting in the design and layout, you can offer money to pay for the domain name and hosting. Registering payment gateways, such as PayPal and Stripe, also require the involvement of a legal adult.

In addition, parent involvement is also crucial to educate children about legal requirements, as well as obtaining a business license. Although most countries allow minors to register a business, legal restrictions pertaining to the right to sign contracts form a serious obstruction. Completing the paperwork involved can also be challenging for someone with no prior experience. However, you can help your child out by registering the business in your name and allowing them to run it.

Find Online Resources

One challenge to starting a business, especially as a minor, is finding the right resources to get started. Fortunately, the rising digital economy has sparked the innovation of helpful online platforms to launch a company.

One amazing platform for kidpreneurs is Mighty;

Founded last year, Mighty is a Los Angeles-based startup that provides the opportunity for kids to get involved in e-commerce. In its current state, Mighty allows kids to operate an online store and sell a variety of goods produced by its manufacturing partner Printful. Although the platform does not yet allow users to sell their own homemade goods or promote services, the company has future plans to implement these features.

Social media like Facebook and Instagram can also be valuable resources for children to promote a business. Creating business profiles on Facebook and Instagram provide great opportunities for kids to learn about marketing and advertising. However, this does require parent involvement due to age restrictions set on these platforms for registering accounts.

Lifelong Educational Benefits

Even if your child decides to move on from the entrepreneurial path, the experience of running their own business provides lifelong educational benefits. Business-related skills such as marketing are crucial to succeed in the real world and are best taught through hands-on experience. In addition, learning basic financial skills like budgeting set your kids up for future
adulthood success.

Regardless of whether the business takes off, these life lessons are extremely impactful. Every business venture involves risk, and while risk can lead to reward, it can also lead to failure. Kids can learn about managing risk at a time when failure won’t be as devastating. Even a failed business can teach your child the fundamentals of supply and demand.

Overall, inspiring your child to start a business not only creates unique learning opportunities, but also encourages them to creatively use their interests in the future. With powerful online resources such as social media and the kid-friendly
e-commerce site Mighty, there’s never been a better time to inspire kidpreneurs. With these helpful tips, you can get involved with your child and help encourage the next generation of leaders.