Background
Decades of poverty have condemned many families into a depressing resemblance of a ‘merry-go-round’ in their wealth-building exercise. Over time, we have watched as pockets of business-minded individuals in families try to build generational wealth to no avail. What makes it difficult is how much they end up drowning in more expenses than the money they make. Imagine such an individual, aged 30, and starts a small business that earns them $3,000 after tax every month. In the beginning, this looks OK, but as kids come along the way, it becomes tricky. They grow as expenses they take up also grow. Suddenly, you find your income becoming less and less sufficient for your household. As this unfolds, a better solution, or rather another income stream in the family, is needed. And, this is in the form of kids entrepreneurs!
According to the Department of Agriculture, in 2015, a family spent approximately $12,980 annually per child in a middle-income ($59,200-$107,400), two-child, married-couple family. They also cited that middle-income, married-couple parents of a child born in 2015 would spend $233,610, assuming non-inflation related costs. This expenditure is for food, shelter, and other necessities to raise a child through age 17. This did not include the cost of a college education.
In 2016, a middle income earner made $78,442. And, looking at my above example, my 30-year-old guy only makes a fraction of that, at $36,000 annually. With that amount, he can raise two children and keep some change for himself. But sadly, there is no money to reinvest into the business and grow it to become generational wealth. You see now, this is where my ‘merry-go-round situation comes in. They make money enough to spend at home, but there is nothing to reinvest to build lasting wealth.
Why should you encourage your children to get into the business?
Therefore, the above takes me to where I want to focus on in this article – kids in business! We have long lived with this misconception that children cannot own businesses. There are many young geniuses we live with at home, we just don’t know it. Because we don’t know about this as parents, we haven’t had the opportunity to nudge them in the right direction. Yes, parents must identify their children’s passion and talents so that they point them towards that direction, in terms of monetizing what they have, and see what unfolds. Hannah Grace, the founder of BeYOUtiful, started her business only aged ten years! And guess what? It’s her dad that nudged her in the right direction after realizing her passion.
He challenged her to create the same products she loved from her favorite health and beauty stores.
I looked around myself, my team, and my clients in the past weeks and learned something really important. I learned that we are all paid for the things that we are good at. I am good at doing my clients’ numbers, helping them with taxes, and so forth, and I get paid for that! The same applies to my clients; they are good in fields that they excel in and get paid for that. This all got me thinking, especially when looking at my kids. There’s got to be many things they are good at. I see this every day – and importantly, they do have things that they stand out at. Besides what they are good at, Hannah’s story also showed that kids can invest in what they love to see/have/use.
Just discovering what your kids are good at is not enough. There is a point where you got to find ways to get them paid through doing that. Business is not just for you alone, as a parent. But business is also something for your kids. Rich people have their children investing in the things they are either talented or gifted on. You, too, can identify these things in your children and have them building generational wealth early.
Remember, as for us, we learned many things by doing. I know, we learned these things well in our twenties through to thirties. But I am saying that the sooner you begin, the better. Imagine if we knew the things we know now when we were aged 10 years old? We could have made millions of dollars by now. Knowing this now, I know that once we ‘catch our kids’ young and help them get into the business, they could make these millions themselves.
In closing, here are the benefits of having your kids get into the business.
- They earn their own money – this is the money they can use for their own expenses. You could say goodbye to paying for their every expense. We are talking massive extra income to build generational wealth because of this.
- If they get into the business, they work hard for it, and it teaches them about the power of working hard.
- Kids in business know that money does not grow on trees. That alone helps them become financially literate.
- Kids in the business help you build generational wealth by bringing more money into the family.
- Kids you help get into business live happily. This is because you show them their passion or talents, and people are happy working on what they like already.
- Many kids in business work with their parents for guidance. Doing this helps them see the value of working together. They become good team players when they are grown-ups leading their own teams.
In a nutshell, there are many reasons you must help your kids get into the business. But the need for them to help the family build wealth must be above all. I say this because many families can’t seem to get it right when building wealth. In fact, building wealth is difficult in itself – it takes decades to accomplish. Therefore, including new ideas and new income streams into the family through your child is a master move. If black small business owners are to eradicate poverty from their families, this is the right thing to do. If you want to know more about getting your child into business, get in touch with us now! We have many ways or business ideas your child could pick up.
