The most enterprising family ever?
August 28th, 2008 by hbourneRuth Drapper, who home schools her children, and is clearly an enterprise champion, tells us more about working from home and how to inspire your kids to make their mark! I hope other parents take note…This article also appears on Enterprise Nation
Never too young to start a home business!
I don’t know about you, but running a business from home is amazing. Let’s pass that on to our children and start training them in business skills and success principles that they will need to be able to do the same one day.
I am a mother of 11 children and as each one grows and matures I have encouraged them to think about how they can run their own business from home.
Here’s what I do:-
1. Find something they love to do, are good at, or a gap in the market.
2. Sit together around the kitchen table and brainstorm ideas.
3. Dream and plan together to begin to form a firmer idea of the business.
4. Set a long term goal for a years time of how they want to see their business running.
5. Work backwards and plan the months, weeks, days etc until you get back to today.
6. Find out what things you need to get started and GET STARTED!!
My 9 year old loves gardening. He wanted to grow plants and sell them at the top of the lane. He had £10 to invest and so bought some compost, plastic cups and seeds. He planted tomatoes, antirrihnums, and coriander, and took cuttings of our raspberry canes. Then he put them on his windowsill until they were big enough to sell.
He covered a table with plastic and made a sign for donations and in his first 2 days made over £20. With the £20 he has reinvested his money and bought some plug plants that he has potted on and will sell in a few weeks time. In the meantime someone gave him an old 8ft by 8ft greenhouse for free and he’s excited about his the future.
My 13 year old is selling a children’s TV idea to the BBC. She’s been to London (paid for by the BBC) to present her idea and awaits their come back. In the meantime BBC3 are making an hour long documentary about her!! She’s excited about her future.
My 15 year old had £25 to invest. He bought himself a URL and started his own website and logo design business. He has had several customers and made over £700 in his first 3 months, part-time, while sitting in his bedroom doing the thing he loves doing. (Beats working as a paper boy!) He is excited about his future.
My 21 year old runs her own life coaching business from home. She’s now married with a little baby and loves the fact that she can be at home with her baby and work. Her and her husband have big plans and are both very excited about their future.
There is nothing more satisfying for a parent than seeing your children excited about their future. When your children have a goal and see a purpose beyond their SATs and GCSEs they work hard and succeed in life. Working from home gives us more time with our family. So let’s use that time to dream, plan, work and play together, and when they’re happy the whole family is happy. Let me encourage you to help your children to get excited about their future too!!
August 30th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Hi. I think that advice for women starting a business is great, but i have this to say, not just for women in business but women everywhere:
If you have a support network of family and friends then all is well and good. But if you are alone with children and become sick or injured, especially long term sick, then the State is no help whatsoever. Being rich enough insulates anyone from government policy. When you need help then there is no social welfare in this country, no social service, only judgement and danger.
The Conservative Party has promised more Sure start, health visitors and child care. Sure Start and Child care may be welcomed by readers of this blog as it allows someone else to care for your children while you go do something else. Ok, fine. We already have health visitors so I can’t see the need for more unless it’s an initiative to fill vacancies created by a growing population swelled by immigration, I don’t know. But whilst I enjoyed the visit the fact is they don’t offer practical help. If you are sick or injured you all may imagine hospital and yes, care is needed for children then. Social Services will put your children into foster care. They have an adoption quota set by the government. You might not get them back. The Conservative party has no plans to change this.
Recovering from an operation or illness may mean you are at home and not earning, especially if you have recently set up a small business. You may be able to do light jobs such as lift a bottle of milk and make meals, bath children and give love. But you may need help shopping, ironing and with errands such as going to the post office.
There is no help.
The only option for you is for the State to rip your children away from you and make them suffer the added trauma of a strangers house while they leave you without help to heal as best you can through the tears. If you’ve been a good mother and have well behaved, well adjusted children then hey, many children up for adoption are in care due to abuse in the home or trauma and they have emotional problems – did I mention the there are targets for adoption? Babies are the most sought after, the younger the better but like anything in a market the best go first. Would you get yours back? Would you like to take the risk? Would you like to be without your children at all??
The Conservative party conference is on sept 28th and I won’t be going as I can’t afford to (and i’m not a member of the party, though I’d like to go and hear what they have to say). I sincerely believe this issue should be raised. i can’t raise it, I won’t be there. I hope one of you here will consider this. There should be an initiative to keep families together, through difficult times, through illness and injury. Friends have their own lives and can only support so much – and what of the woman who may have just moved into the area and knows no-one?
The initiative could be a local home help service in partnership with the government – I don’t know. I just know this issue should be considered and raised in Westminster. I hope one of you will.
Many thanks.