"Kidpreneurs - Young Entrepreneurs with Big Ideas" A FamilyMint Book Review
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How would you like to be able to say one of the following about your own kids?
- My 11 year old son is making $150 per month on his own.
- My daughter’s fledgling online business already has 500 customers and she’s turning 13 tomorrow.
- My kids are working together after school on a new service they created, and at this rate, they’ll earn enough money to put themselves through college.
If so, you might want to take a look at a book called Kidpreneurs by Adam and Matthew Toren. I was offered the opportunity to review this book and jumped at the chance. Adam and Matthew are serial entrepreneurs and have boiled the subject of kids starting businesses down into 60 short and enjoyable pages. The look and feel is like that of a fun, colorful scrapbook rather than boring business book. I would definitely recommend it for parents with kids between the ages of 7 and 14.
The book covers subjects such as start-up costs, pricing, customer service, advertising, and writing a one-page business plan. It also covers topics such as ethics and giving back, which is great to see in a book like this. The illustrations are perfect for the target age range. I'm also impressed with the emphasis on planning. The book even makes the point that sometimes grown-ups end up doing something different than they thought they would because they didn’t have a plan to help them make their dreams become a reality. Kidpreneurs motto is “It’s Never too Early!” The sooner you start learning about business the better.
Some people view businesspeople and entrepreneurs as being all about money. Money is important, but it’s certainly not the most important thing in life. Learning and gaining experience are more important. Being an entrepreneur is a constant learning experience that is guaranteed to enrich anyone who has the will to pursue it. The tween and teen years are perfect to start learning about entrepreneurism.
The overall message for kids is simple: find what you love and build a business around it. That's great advice for adults too. That’s what we did with FamilyMint! By the way, while their businesses are small and simple, kids can use FamilyMint to track cash coming in (income) and cash going out (expenses).
I asked my 12 year old son to read Kidpreneurs and he ended up with two pages of handwritten notes for future reference. I have never seen him do this before on his own initiative! And although we've talked about entrepreneurship and what his Dad does, he said he didn't really understand what an entrepreneur really did until he read this book. I'm so glad he read it, because now I know he's thinking about the world of possibilies for his own future in a bigger way. He’s already thinking about what he likes to do and how he might make a few dollars over the summer. Woohoo!!
I encourage you to pick up a copy and let your kids get inspired. www.kidpreneurs.org
