5 reasons to involve your children in your small business
I don’t know if everyone does it, but in my little world, I’ve involved our children in the business from the get-go. Here’s five reasons why doing including them was and still is important to me.
In my mind, my children should be involved in my business. There are just so many learning opportunities for them and us.
Managing time
I think because we started this business while the kids were little (although they weren’t babies), we needed to involve them from the start to manage time well. We generally saved making the fudge until after the kids went to bed, but as they’ve gotten older we’re doing more and more while they’re around, and it’s important they understand boundaries, as much as for us to be able to manage our time effectively and still spend time, quality time together as a family or one on one.
Money motivation
No, not in the child labour sense, but in teaching them the value of. We work hard as a family, both running our fudge business, running the home, and both still working ‘day jobs’ at the same time. By including the children in the production, and talking about money, value for money, the cost of living, the boys understand more that money doesn’t just appear, we earn it. We also set goals, that involve the whole family. For me, as much as money should be a goal, it just doesn’t motivate me, I’m not emotionally invested in it, but a family holiday, on a bucket list, that I need money for, yep, that works, and now the whole family is as invested in taking this trip as I am. And isn’t that a motivator!
Work ethic
We need to work to earn, and it’s not always that we end up in a job we love. If I loathe working, what am I teaching the kids? Life sucks? It’s all a grind? I absolutely love making Mhudge, and everything to do with the business, it’s all such a personal achievement. Doesn’t that show my children something better? “Find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day”, clearly I work hard, and this is a job, but it teaches them that you can work hard, it’s important to work hard, but you can enjoy it.
Fostering entrepreneurs
Who knows what they will end up doing for a living, they might develop an interest in food, in food business, in the family food business… or they might, as a result of seeing us working in fudge, develop something that will change the world of fudge making? If I involve them at this early stage they can see us at work, see how we work, and develop their own ideas to take them places in life and start up their own business at some point.
Goal setting
Goal setting wasn’t something I ever knew about till so much later in life, I’ve never been a natural planner, always more of an ‘I’ll see where life takes me’ kind of person. This apathetic way of looking at things isn’t something I want for my children. They’ll be who they want to be, but if I can instil goal setting and goal getting in them at this stage, then I feel that’s a huge win, they’ll hopefully develop into adults that go after and achieve what they want.