Let me preface this episode by saying that I’m one of those crotchety older millennials that complain about young people coming into the real world not knowing anything, so this episode hold a special place in my heart. And that’s because in this episode we’re going to be talking about things that your children will learn by working that will make them better workers in the future whether they choose to be employees or entrepreneurs and I think, really, better adults in general. So today we’re going to talk about 3 things your kids will learn by working with you in your business, and we’re also going to talk about one benefit for you (because I couldn’t leave you out).

First, your kids will learn the value of a dollar. Now I know y’all know how it goes. Kids think dollars grown on trees but as soon as they get their own money they all of a sudden don’t want all the things they felt like they needed before. Now they start thinking “okay I got McDonald’s money but we really do have food at the house sooooo I’m just gonna go make me a sandwich”. Suddenly they don’t need the latest popular video game or Jordans or whatever kids want these days.

You can start teaching them budgeting, how to save, and how to manage their own money. Teach them about tithing or giving back to the community, if that’s your thing. If you plan to invest their earnings into an IRA or a mutual fund or whatever, sit down with them regularly and show them how the balances change month over month or week over week or one period to the next. Get your kids started early with financial literacy using their own money that they worked for. The earlier the better. If you don’t know enough about budgeting and saving and investing, there are some good financial literacy for kids books and programs out there. I have a few listed in the resources section toward the bottom of the show notes.

Second, your kids will learn the value of hard work. I always find myself saying that people nowadays, especially the younger generation, want to get paid but they don’t want to have to work for the money. Creating opportunities for your kids to work helps them learn the value of hard work and teaches them a good work ethic. This can be achieved by household chores too, but there’s so many more opportunities to work in your business and you might even be able to find something that they actually want to do (cause who wants to do chores, right?). 

Third, your kids will learn a marketable skill or several that they can expand on. I feel like when people think about hiring their children in their business they think about having the child do busy work or janitorial work, like filing paperwork or taking out trash. But you can and should give them a real job to do. Even if it doesn’t end up being something that they want to do long term, it can be something that they have in their back pocket to make some part time income or something that they can earn a living on teaching others. They have their entire childhood to perfect this skill – they’ll practically be gurus by the time they’re eighteen if you start them young enough.

For example, if you have them managing your social media, they can parlay that into a job as a social media manager for a company or even their own business taking on clients. If you have them learning about Facebook ads it could spark an interest in advertising and they could eventually run their own advertising agency. Have them learn about writing sales copy. Have them learn about building and maintaining websites. Have them learn how to create graphics. You could even teach them how you make your soaps, how you design your jewelry, how you layout your journals, how you set up a photo shoot, how you determine what inventory to carry and how much of what you should order… basically turn them into your apprentice. Then they may one day decide to take over the business or start their own.

We see a lot of people saying that you should create an LLC for your kids so they can learn the ins and outs of running a business. Another (maybe better?) idea is to have them work in YOUR business and learn the ins and outs of operating a business as an apprentice under you, instead of trying to manage another project.

So that point leads us to the last and final benefit that we’re going to talk about today and that’s a benefit for you. You’ll be able to spend more time working on your business and not in your business. I know for me personally, I wear several hats in my business. I’ve always worn all the hats in every business that I’ve had over the years. Even when I tried to let somebody else wear one of the hats, the hat still somehow ended up on top of all of the other hats that I was wearing. I feel like this metaphor is getting weird now so… moving on. Anyway, when you hire your kids in your business you can delegate certain tasks – age appropriate of course – that might take up a lot of time but aren’t really income producing or just aren’t really the best use of your skillset or time. You can instead spend your time focusing on tasks that will actually grow your business.

So that’s all the things I have for you today! If you’re interested in more information about hiring your kids, check out my ebook How to Hire Your Kids at www.themillennialtaxpert.com/hireyourkids. One question that I get a lot about hiring your kids in your business is “What can I have my kids do?”. So I kinda talked about a couple things you can have them do here in this episode, but next week I’ll talk about 5 more jobs you can delegate to your children in your business, so make sure you tune in next Wednesday on your favorite podcast platform.

Talk to you then.

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