When you think of an entrepreneur, what is the picture you get in your mind? Someone like Richard Branson or Mark Zuckerberg? A business visionary who has a range of experience and qualifications like an MBA and a Six Sigma Master Black Belt level certification? Perhaps an inventor with an amazing new product? Well, chances are what you don’t envisage is a child, however there are already some successful child entrepreneurs out there. Of course, not every kid is thinking about making money rather than playing games or watching cartoons when they’re still in school, but there is a lot of value to giving children some early insights into what entrepreneurship means, and allowing them to consider it a viable career option for them in later life.
Initiatives for Kids
Across America, including here in KY, there are lots of initiatives to help schools include some lessons in entrepreneurship in lesson plans for even the youngest children. By doing projects like running lemonade stands or making things to sell at school events, children are learning the basics of commerce and even business management, and this is an important thing for both their futures and our own as a society.
An Alternative to Traditional Employment
In society, there has been a shift in recent years to more people owning and running their own businesses. Because it is easy to sell things, set up a website and even market your own company online, a lot of people who previously wouldn’t have had the resources to start a business can. This, coupled with a troubled job market in much of the country has caused people to start seeing entrepreneurship as a very real alternative to traditional employers, and of course, many people who start small businesses end up creating jobs for other people in the process. This change in the way we view our options on how to make a living is one children today are growing up with, and so it is important to prepare the next generation of entrepreneurs with early introductions to commerce and business much as it is important to prepare the more traditional employees of the future to do things like go to law school!
Inspired
Children who have already shown a talent for business or innovation are already actually running successful businesses of their own – of course, with the help and support of their families, schools and communities. With the right support, children who feel inspired can actually try doing things like making products and selling them on the web, or running their own websites. They may not hit the big time with the ideas and capital they have now, but even by selling a few batches of cookies they made or getting a good number of visitors on their website they can learn a lot and get a sense of achievement that may inspire them on to big things as adults!
With all kinds of ways to teach children about entrepreneurship, schools around the country are working hard to help prepare the next generation of business leaders.
