My son was four years old, playing with cars under a chair at my earliest memories of me speaking. My daughter (and son) have been all over the world with me and my wife seeing me speak at events. They’re familiar with invoicing and other mundane aspects of business.
Being an entrepreneur, managing a business, and balancing family life can be a daunting task. One of the challenges that entrepreneurs tend to face is figuring out how to talk to their children about their business. It can be difficult to explain to children why you are always busy working, why you have to go on business trips, and what exactly it is that you do. However, talking to your children about your business can help them understand your work, appreciate the effort you put in, and feel involved in your life. In this blog post, we’ll discuss some tips on how to talk to your children about your business.
Why are you doing it?
Children are curious and tend to ask a lot of questions. You can take this opportunity to explain to them why you’re working so hard. You can tell them that your work helps provide for the family, pay for their education, and buy their favorite toys. Children tend to appreciate their parent’s hard work when they understand just how much it contributes to their life.
Educate them on your business
Children may not understand what a business is, so it’s essential to educate them. Explain to them the basics of what your business does. This can mean explaining your services, products – the result of which pays the bills. Keeping language simple and true to their level of understanding can assist them in grasping the concept of what your business means and what it stands for.
Take them on business trips
If you have to go on a business trip, consider taking your children with you. While business trips are primarily for work, the experience can be a learning opportunity for children. They can see how business meetings take place, witness presentation delivery, and understand the importance of promptness, preparation, and etiquette.
Let them see how you work
Children are naturally curious about what their parents do during the day. You can invite them to your work setting or your office and let them see why and how you get work done. Seeing their parents work will give them a sense of pride and appreciation for what you do.
Let them help in the business
Children love to feel involved and useful. Depending on the type of business you have and its needs, you may be able to get your children to help. There are a variety of tasks that you can give them, such as packaging up items for customers, doing light cleaning, or even coming up with fun marketing ideas. It will help them feel involved in the process, and they may even learn a thing or two.
Related: How To Integrate Your Family Into Your Business
Add your children to your payroll
If your children help you in the business, you can consider compensating them for their time. This is an excellent way to teach them about the value of hard work and provide them with some pocket money. Make payments for a particular amount of work done. Children will get a sense of accomplishment on the completion of work.
Let them know how their toys and food and other things are provided for by your business – Children sometimes think the world revolves around them, and adults have their needs and wants met without any real effort. Letting them know how much effort goes into providing for their needs will help them appreciate everything you do.
Having a business while managing a family can be a challenge, but talking to your children about your business can help them understand and appreciate the effort you put in. By explaining to them why you are always busy working, educating them on what a business is, taking them on business trips with you, letting them see how you work, letting them do something for you, adding them to the payroll, and teaching them how their toys and food are provided for, your children will develop an understanding of how the world works. Ultimately, your actions can help instill a good work ethic and a sense of responsibility in them.
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