Volume 1, Issue 7

Money – From A Woman’s Perspective

Hi. Thank you for joining me again here at The Money Case.

I believe that it is very important to recognize the entrepreneur in your child, and to nurture that spirit.

If you are an entrepreneur you will, of course, seize the moment when you realize that your child has such a tendency and you will do everything in your power to foster this skill.

However, if you are not an entrepreneur you need to be keen when your child starts to give off those signals and set your antennae to full reception.

I fell into the latter category. I was working in a secure environment, with good salary and benefits plus a generous pension plan. So I was oblivious to fact that my son was a budding entrepreneur, at age five.

Over the years his business ventures were many, and seasonal. It started out one Spring, when he and his friend went around my garden collecting water frogs. I saw them for a whole week, after school, busying themselves in my rose gardens but I thought nothing of it. By the end of the week, someone came to my door trying to sell me a magazine subscription, and singing the praises of the young lad selling water frogs at the bottom of our driveway. She said there were fifteen tiny frogs and she bought them all for her neighbour who wanted frogs in her garden, at a total cost of fifteen cents. I was speechless because I wasn’t aware of this business venture going on under my nose. Needless to say, I felt obliged to take out a subscription with the saleslady. Later I found those fifteen cents scattered on the garage floor.

It’s summer now, and time for a new business; a pink lemonade stand. My son organized every detail for this business, all done without our knowledge or consent. I only became part of his plan when it was time to make the lemonade. And he wanted pink coloured lemonade. He set the date, the time, made directional signs to his lemonade stand, recruited his mate from two doors down, set up the stall with an umbrella at the bottom of the driveway, and arranged for his dad to video the venture. As luck would have it, that Saturday turned out to be the hottest day in July, and neighbours were moving in next door. Within minutes he was sold out, and placing an order for me to make more lemonade. Amazing, when I look back. I can’t report on how much money he made because I’m don’t know.

There was a lull in autumn, but come winter, the snow shovel was out, and he was clearing snow for one buck after school. Imagine getting your two-car driveway and walkway cleared for a dollar? Well, I wasn’t too keen on this labour-intensive business in bitterly cold weather. So I would employ him to clear our driveway and walkway first, by which time it was too dark for him to take on other jobs. And I would pay him the dollar. He subsequently did take on jobs for some of our neighbours. What a deal they must have mused.

There are numerous business ventures that my son undertook, and he continues to develop phenomenal business models.

You would have noticed two things missing in every example.  First, parental  encouragement for this young entrepreneur, and secondly the money part was missing. However, I know for sure that his water frogs, fifteen of them, brought in fifteen cents. I’m not sure how much he earned from his other business ventures.

In my first blog, Issue 1, I wrote about my fear of money. And unfortunately, during my children’s formative years I was oblivious of my relationship with money and hence I was unable to advise my very young entrepreneur son about financially managing the income from his business ventures. I must say, however, that on his own he has learnt money management and budgeting after some very difficult money lessons.

I would advise that if you have a budding entrepreneur in your family spend the time to talk about the ventures, and the financial side of the business ideas. Talk about the need to develop a budget process for each venture. Discuss how your daughter or son can invest the profits, regardless of the amount. This little bit of guidance on the money side of things will cause that young entrepreneur to enjoy the fruits of her or his brilliant ideas, while introducing and cultivating a new perspective in their business ventures. This will ultimately encourage and enhance their entire experience of entrepreneurship.

Until next Tuesday.  Enjoy your week, and we’ll meet again here at The Money Case.

Tags: budget, entrepreneur, lemonade stand, snow removal, water frogs

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