Help Your Teens Start a Business

If your teens have ever considered starting a business, there is no better time. While your kids are growing in their entrepreneurial skills, you can also count all the hard work on your homeschool transcript. It’s a great summer activity while schedules are more flexible. Here’s what you need to know to help your teens start a business.

Benefits of Entrepreneurship

There are so many benefits that your teens will experience if they start a business.

First, they will learn character qualities that will serve them throughout their lives. Perseverance, hard work, and serving their customers are all valuable traits that will be grown in your teenage entrepreneur. Starting and running a business is hard work! Pushing through the tiring days and grumpy customers will help your kids in the long run.

Second, teen entrepreneurs will be able to stand out from their peers when applying to college or the job market when their transcript or resume shows that they’ve started a business.

Finally, what’s not to love about the profit that can be made by starting a business? While it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, with dedication and hard work (and a profitable idea) your kids can earn their own money.

Teen Business Brainstorm

Even if your teen is convinced that starting a business is a good idea, the hardest part can be just getting started. Finding the right teen business ideas takes a fair amount of brainstorming.

What things should your teen consider when finding the right niche in which to start a business? 

Have him ask these questions:

• What am I good at? What talents do I have? Am I an “expert” in a field (this just means you have more knowledge and know-how than the average person). Examples include: teaching, sports, crafting, interviewing
• What resources do I have at my disposal? What do I have that can be used for my business? Examples include: lawn mower, sewing machine, good neighborhood for walking dogs

Once your teen has brainstormed the answers to the above questions, have him select his top three business ideas and calculate approximate start-up costs for each one. Finally, figure out the next steps for actually launching one of these business ideas into the world.

You can download a FREE Summer Business Brainstorm for Teens that includes 18 specific ideas for teens to consider along with some brainstorm questions to get the process fleshed-out.

Start Learning About Business

While your teen is brainstorming some ideas and possibilities, they can also be adding to their business knowledge. It’s easier than ever to learn business principles because of the amazing resources available via books and podcasts. Here are some of my favorite suggestions.

Check out these books and include the time spent reading them toward an entrepreneurship credit! These can be your teen’s business “textbooks” as they start out.

Business Boutique: A Woman’s Guide for Making Money Doing What She Loves by Christy Wright

Building a Storybrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim & Renee’ Mauborgne

Gaining business inspiration and strategy through podcasts is another great suggestion for teens who are starting out. Here are some of my favorites for entrepreneurs.

The Side Hustle Show

Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast

Smart Passive Income Podcast

There you have it! I hope you encourage your teen to pursue entrepreneurship during the high school years. There’s no better time to start than now.

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Abby Banks

Abby is a former public school teacher, now homeschooling her five children. She’s in the trenches just like you and knows it can be challenging to be home with your kids all day while you struggle to keep up with the housework and educate your kids (and maybe even work on the side!). She blogs over at www.4onemore.com and hosts the Homeschool with Moxie podcast.