5 Reasons to have Your Children Work In a Family Owned Business
I have two children, a 23-year-old daughter and a 19-year-old son. All of their lives I’ve had the enjoyment of having them work with me in our family-owned office cleaning and lawn care business.
Here are 5 great benefits to having your children involved in your business.
They will learn adult skills. There are lots of smart kids in this country, but there are also a lot of intellectually challenged ones; ones that aren’t able to string together two sentences or clearly communicate with adults. Letting your children perform some “adult work” will give them new skills beyond what they might traditionally learn in school. My children are learning public speaking, supervision, scheduling, and so much more.
You will grow closer your children. Too many of us (or our spouses) are ‘commuting, working-staying late, commuting’ while we’re spending less and less time with our children. By having your children work in your family business, you spend time with them and strengthen your relationship.
Teach your children business principles. My children know the value of a dollar. They’ve learned early on what the gross revenue from as cleaning account is, what it costs to get the job done, and what the net profit is.
Advancing entrepreneurship. Every year thousands who have the taste of entrepreneurship in their blood start their new businesses. They really don’t know how to build a business, make sales or manage their cash flow. Real-life experience in entrepreneurship is sorely lacking and the more parents can teach their children, the better off the world will be.
Teaching your children responsibility. Seeing what it takes to manage cash-flow, have both family and business emergency funds (Thanks, Dave Ramsey!); my children learned to save.
My daughter spend a year and a half in Europe and my son bought his first car, a 1991 Mustang convertible, with cash went he was 17. Not a penny out of my pockets for either one.
