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Teaching Your Kids To Be Successful Part 3: Perseverance

July 23rd, 2013


A baby learns to walk by falling over many times. An entrepreneur learns to succeed after stumbling along the way. Teaching yourself, and your kids, to be successful in business requires Natalie’s fourth P: Perseverance (perseverance on their part, and yours!)

 

For example, Cathy and I have learned that in the business of referring people to an opportunity, many people will just not be interested. With enterprising teens watching, how do parents set an example to persevere in the face when people say “No”? Well, the mindset for success is to celebrate the “No.” After so many of them, a “Yes” will inevitably follow. One of my mentors, David Wood, says to do the Happy Dance whenever you get a “No,” because the rejection only moved you one step further towards the “Yes.”

 

 

Your kids, whether entrepreneurial or not, are going to like to see that Happy Dance, making it a practical way to help seal the behavioural pattern of success in their mindsets. Being able to overcome rejection in business, rejection from friends and rejection from family is paramount for kids to be successful.

 

Our vocabulary also plays a huge part in our ability to persevere. In our family “Can’t” is a swear-word and not allowed to be used at any time; “Can” is encouraged. Many people, including kids, are quick to give up when the going gets tough, saying, “I can’t” rather than “I can.” The little kids in my family actually believe “Can’t” is a swear word, right up there with the other big four letter words!

 

Another phrase to abandon is, “It’s too hard.” Natalie showed us a little trick she used to change her perception of what is hard. She bought a toy button that calls out, “That was easy!” when you press it.  Natalie would strap this toy button to her volleyball net pole. Whenever she did something very well that was also very difficult, she would run up to press the button: “That was easy!” Try it for yourself… press the button below!

 

 

Being the best in the world at your sport certainly has its challenges, and my kids would love to try out one of those buttons. You can get them from Amazon.com. But whether or not, the point is not to say “That was hard!”

 

These tactics to increase the level of perseverance in kids and keeping them on a successful track comes easier when you have a Plan. This is the fifth P we’ll talk about next week.

Make sure you have a look at the short video (click the image above) we made of Natalie Cook giving a special message to our kids. Can you spot the BLOOPER?

If you missed last weeks article “Amber’s Reflection of Green SuperCamp” here it is.

 

Kit and Chayse and a Lesson on Self Efficacy!

November 1st, 2012


Kit has decided to form a partnership with Chayse with his Lolly Bag Enterprise for Kids Business! He figured that his Dog Walking business was moving too slowly, and he saw how easily Chayse was making an excellent profit. So they joined forces and together visited the local supermarket to spend their capital on buying large bags of confectionary. This time they were very serious and bought $230 worth of lollies!

The Production Line

Once again the family pitched in around the dining table to sort and bag all the lollies. Before long Kit and Chayse, in partnership, were ready to go out to the sporting grounds and sell their product. Click here to view a video of Kit and Chayse’s production line!

This time round was a little different though! Our kids had been taught and now understood the value of gifting (An Entrepreneur’s Conscience). Taking a small portion of their profits and giving it towards a worthy cause, teaches the kids about generosity and about appreciating their own good fortune. We also believe that by giving, the universe in turn will give back in some way or form. Flynn, for example, is putting money to one side to give to our African sponsor child Cheroko. Amber has chosen to give to the Cerebral Palsy Association because she has a school friend with this disability. Kit and Chayse have chosen The Flying Doctor Service as their charity because the Flying Doctor really helped us out when Kaitlin was born in a very remote Kimberley town. (Kalumburu).

Designing the For Sale Sign with RFDS as the beneficiary....

All the soccer lads checking out their lollies.

Watching Jai in action at the soccer fields!.........

 

 

 

 

 

.....whilst the boys sold their wares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So armed with renewed confidence, the two boys did the rounds of the sporting grounds and sold box after box of lollies. They were magnetic – attracting people from all over the place. Just like the Mr Whippy Van!

The boys were very good at counting money and giving the correct change. They did at first need prompting to approach groups, and to say thank you. However, after a while their confidence grew and they happily spoke with customers. There were lots of questions about what they were doing and why they were selling lollies. Kit and Chayse would tell people that it was their business and that they were also giving a little money towards the Flying Doctor’s Service. People were all very happy to support their business and some even bought lollies just to have a chat with them!

On a later trip to the sporting fields I was super surprised to find that young Chayse had taken it upon himself to gather up his heavy box of lollies and head off down the lines of spectators. I had no idea that he had gone as I had been focused on watching Flynn playing his soccer game. I was suddenly alarmed to notice that the lolly box had gone from under my feet and that Chayse was no where to be seen! Looking around I could see some commotion about fifty metres away. It was Chayse with a crowd of people buying his lollies.

I was very proud of the little “fella” as he had proven that he was developing his self efficacy with being an entrepreneur. Through many weeks of shyly putting himself out there with his customers selling lollies, he had finally built the confidence to go it alone!

If he keeps this up he will be an awesome young entrepreneur when he grows up!

Cathy and I have been learning the importance of self efficacy at our Money Mastery Course from our mentor Paul Counsel. He explains that it is very difficult to just switch and be an entrepreneur. What we need to do is to build up to being one by pushing our upper limit continuously. That is done by doing things that take us out of our comfort zone. Take on new challenges and then celebrate the success, then repeat it over and over again. Eventually you become comfortable with being uncomfortable, which in turn open up new possibilities and attracts opportunities. This is exactly what has been happening with our four year old son Chayse… in fact it has been happening to all of us!

Kit also demonstrated his growing confidence only a few days ago. He said that he wanted to take his Enterprise for Kids lolly business down to the local skate park all by himself. We agreed to his request and let him go. His big brother Flynn was instructed to follow behind at a distance to make sure he was OK.

Self Efficacy!

Well Kit sold a bunch of lolly bags and on returning he announced, “A Granny gave me a big cuddle and kiss!” Not sure what he was going on about we asked him to explain. Kit said, “She was really happy to see me doing my business.  She bought some lollies and then gave me a cuddle.”

 

 

 

Two young Entrepreneurs....

....share their rewards.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

......with the RFDS.

You can donate directly to: www.flyingdoctor.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

We believe that our enterprising children are experiencing mindset shifts to think more and more like entrepreneurs. It will be interesting to see how this changing mind set effects the way they approach their enterprise for kids ventures. It all takes a lot of practice and confidence. In later blogs we will talk more about self efficacy and how our other children are moving along with it and we we also share our own enterprising endeavours!

Children Earning Pocket Money… the Candy Man!

August 12th, 2012

We thought it was time that we revisited our little Candy Man Chayse! When we last followed his enterprising adventure he had bought his lollies and bagged them up ready to sell.

If you missed that article, then click here.

Now he has to find a market for his product and learn to be a salesman. Before we share Chayse’s exciting adventure we thought that it would be interesting to consider the benefits of children earning pocket money through enterprise as opposed to children receiving a weekly allowance.

Children earning pocket money through enterprise will develop the mindset and skills of an entrepreneur! Giving children a weekly allowance conditions them to be “workers”. Robert Kiyosaki describes a worker as someone prepared to give their time for money, whilst an entrepreneur builds systems and businesses that produce a cash flow. Workers are more often than not time poor and cash poor, whilst entrepreneurs are generally time rich and cash rich.

Why is it then that the vast majority of us leave school and become workers?

A child receiving a weekly pocket money allowance is equivalent to a worker receiving a weekly salary. Relying upon a weekly allowance won’t encourage children to look for opportunities for enterprise. Their pocket money may or may not be aligned with doing household chores, just as a worker receives payment for doing work. Many kids leave school and slot into jobs for the rest of their lives because they have not been able to explore the entrepreneur within themselves!

Chayse with his box of candy!

Children earning pocket money through enterprise develop a whole different mindset. Parents of these children will encourage their children to look around to find opportunities. These kids learn to identify problems that they can solve and they’ll learn the art of negotiation. Enterprising children understand assets, liabilities, cash flow and profit. They will understand markets and customer service and they will develop the confidence to promote themselves.

Children earning pocket money though enterprise are more likely to value their profits and spend their money wisely. Weekly allowances are easily received and easily spent (knowing that more money will follow). This conditions kids to be reliant on a salary.

Enterprising children become self motivated to make money, and as they celebrate their successes, they quickly come to understand that they can in fact make a lot more money than their friends receiving weekly allowances.

According to entrepreneur, Cameron Herold (ted.com), parents wanting to raise entrepreneurial children won’t give pocket money to their kids. They will encourage their kids to go around their home or community and identify opportunities. These kids then make a plan and negotiate with either their parents or people in the community to provide the service or product for payment.

Getting prepared with his helpers.

Selling to customers.

Kids may not be motivated to do this at first, especially if they have been used to receiving a weekly allowance. The trick here is to make sure they have a big “Why!” They need to want something badly enough. This then becomes their goal and reason.

So back let’s get back to Chayse’s enterprising story! Was he able to earn his pocket money through his Lolly Bag business?

He had his first opportunity to sell his lolly bags at his big brothers’ soccer games. During the game the spectators (his potential customers) mill around on the sidelines. So we primed him on what to say to customers. We also enlisted the help of his brothers, Amber and friends. It was all great fun and soon enough the customers came rolling in!

Now who could knock back buying lollies from a cute smiling four year old!

His lolly bags sold like hot cakes for two dollars each. Chayse couldn’t hold up the box because it was too heavy, so he managed the money jar, whilst his helpers held the box. He had to take his customers money and give change.

As word spread that there were lollies for sale, kids came racing in from all directions to buy Chayse’s product. The box became lighter and the money jar heavier…  but despite the weight, he wasn’t going to relinquish it!

Chayse looked after his helpers by giving them each a lolly bag. Hopefully they will be willing helpers the next time he sells something.

Chayse also paid back the money his Dad lent him as capital to buy the lollies and plastic bags from the supermarket.

All up he was delighted with his fifty dollars net profit! He is now well on his way to reaching his goal to buy toy Nerf Guns. In fact his business was so successful, that Kit has recently decided to partner with him for his next endeavour! And under their mother’s guidance, they will research and decide on a charity that could benefit from some of their profits. So, stay tuned for that one!

Chayse is one of those children earning pocket money through enterprise. It would have taken him five weeks, with a weekly allowance of $5 a week to save the equivalent to what he profited at the soccer grounds during a soccer game.

In our next Enterprise For Kids blog we’ll introduce you to a self made millionaire who has some excellent tips for parents wanting to raise entrepreneurial kids. Don’t miss this article!

Flynn’s Honey Turns to Gold!

July 5th, 2012

When we last visited Flynn and his Honey Enterprise, he had just acquired 90kgs of quality raw honey from his Grandad’s bee hives in Geraldton. Flynn had also placed a bulk order for plastic honey pots. He was now ready to fill them up and make his first sale!

Warming the honey.

Honey pots ready to fill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His honey was held in buckets that weighed over 10kgs. To get the honey from the buckets into the 400gm honey pots was not going to be that easy. Firstly the honey was very thick, making it tedious to decanter into the pots, and secondly it required strength to hold the honey bucket for pouring.

The production line.

Quick! Gimme another pot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flynn called on his mates to help. He poured the buckets into a large pot and heated it to 50 degree Celsius. This temperature wasn’t high enough to destroy the enzymes that make raw honey so beneficial, but it was high enough to make the honey fluid.

Mmmm... smells good!

Giving each pot a rinse in fresh water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kitchen table was wiped down and set up for the honey pot production line. The team were excited about finally seeing the product in the pots. I helped pour, whilst Flynn and his gang filled and capped jars. The jars were washed on the outside to ensure there was no stickiness and then labelled with Flynn’s “Howitt’s Honey” labels.

First batch stacked and ready to label.

The labels!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flynn’s product looked clean, pure and professional. He understood that to get a market edge and to be able to sell his honey for a premium, his first class product needed to be well packaged and hygienic.

Flynn carefully drew up a poster pointing out the benefits of his product. This he attached to the boxes containing the honey pots. He had researched what honey sells for in the shops and online. He worked out what he could sell his honey for and still make a decent return. To provided an incentive to customers, he offered a special price if they bought more than one pot at a time. Marketing his honey required little effort. In fact visitors to our home took an interest in his honey and his honey began to sell. He gained permission from his school Principal and left a box in their staffroom. He organized with a teacher friend of ours from another school, to place a box in their staffroom, and he approached the local General Store where he was allowed to sell his pots of honey for a small commission.

Developing the brand "Howitt's Honey".

Flynn's first sale!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His honey was selling well and it wasn’t long before he needed to re-stock all his boxes. As word got out about his product, people even began placing small orders via the telephone.

Flynn’s “Howitt’s Honey” business went very well except for one problem which I’ll explain here…

Raw honey has many health benefits that you would be hard pressed to find with processed honey. However, a downside with raw honey is that, over time, it will candy (begin to solidify). This occurs especially when the room temperature drops, like during winter. Flynn’s honey that had been waiting to be sold began to candy in the honey pots. People don’t generally want to buy honey that has hardened (hence why commercial honey producers process their honey using heat, as this stops it from candying).

Luckily this problem only happened to the last remaining pots that had been awaiting sale. He brought these home, opened them up and scraped the honey into a pot and heated it back to 50 degrees. This again, liquidized the honey and he returned it to the pots. We bought those last pots for our family. The lesson learned was that Flynn needs to sell his raw honey product before it shows signs of candying and he needed to inform his customers as to what to do if their honey does so.

Profits from Flynn's Honey Enterprise

Flynn’s net profit from his honey enterprise was outstanding!! He achieved his goal that he set before he embarked, plus much more. He learned many lessons along the way and recognized that it was a lot of work, but satisfying work! Flynn has become an expert in the honey business and has gained enormous skills and understandings of how to run an enterprise.

Flynn may now be ready to take his honey enterprise to another level. We hope to guide Flynn to move from being a small business owner to being an entrepreneur! How we do that will be shared in another Enterprise for Kids blog!

For those of you interested in having your own honey enterprise, or you would like your own bee hive for a regular supply of raw honey for your family and friends; then you could seek out an expert (such as Flynn or his Grandad) to get you started, or do a course. Or you could simply download an ebook written by a professional to your kindle. Here is one I found that looks like it covers everything anyone would need to know.

Our next post will definitely energize you! We met an inspirational man who presented “tips to being highly successful” that are well worth thinking about!

We would love to hear from you all, so please leave a comment!

The Candy Man Entrepreneur!

June 3rd, 2012

Enterprise for Children can be a lot of fun, especially if it involves a four year old and a mountain of lollies! After you read this blog you’ll understand why Hansel and Gretal gave in to temptation to eat the witch’s candy house.

The Candy Man with his $50

... outside the supermarket!

"Let's eat!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chayse and I headed off to the supermarket with his $50 just as he had planned. We walked the Candy aisle and Chayse picked out the lollies he thought would be the yummiest. He bought everything from snakes, milk bottles to musks, liquorish and lollipops. Next he added to the shopping trolley 50 plastic sandwich bags and some packets of brightly coloured balloons. His whole investment of $50 was spent in no time. The check out lady asked him if was his birthday! Chayse nodded.

The production line!

Chayse’s brothers and sisters were at the car ready and waiting to escort him into the house and feast their eyes on all his lollies. Chayse was really enjoying all the attention! He bossed his brothers and sisters around as they bugged him for a lolly and offered to carry his bags.

It was all hands on deck. Jaxon and Mitchy from next door came over to help out and a production line was organised around the kitchen table. The lollies and balloons were placed into fifty piles and bagged up.

Chayse’s intention was to sell each bag for $2. So if all goes to plan he should make a 100% on his investment.

The production line team!

Cathy and I helped him with a sturdy box to display his product. We attached a strap to the box to help him hold it up and then made up a sign.

Mitchy and Jackson ran off home and immediately returned with money to buy a bag each. Chayse’s first customers! 98 candy bags to go!

Chayse’s brothers and sisters also wanted to buy a bag each with their pocket money. We had to put a halt to that as it was going to create troubles, especially as Chayse wanted to buy his own lollies too! So the compromise was that they were able to polish off the left over lollies… and of course Chayse was in charge of sharing them out to his drooling family.

Chayse's first customer, Mitchy.

Chayse’s enterprise for children business was now all set to go. His next job is to market and sell his product. We will share that story in a later blog.

Next up we’ll tune in with Kit the Dog Whisperer and see whether his enterprising idea has evolved!

THE $100 Family Enterprise Project!

May 3rd, 2012

For our kids to develop the skills and habits of an entrepreneur, they need to begin somewhere. But where? The beauty of Cathy and I having a wealth creation Mentor at our disposal, is that we could take the invaluabe information we had been learning and apply it in small pieces to developing the mindset of our kids.

This process also involved us having a good, hard look at how we operate in our own lives in regards to planning, organising and taking ation. Cathy loves to plan things out in her head and on paper before starting a task, and once satisfied, will start when all structures are in place.

I, on the other hand, like to dive in and see where it leads. So a happy compromise was met and we decided that the kids just needed to come up with an enterprise idea and just get started. We could refine the process later.

Getting the kids to kick off with an enterprise project (when they have little idea as to where to even start), was easier said than done. But I knew that some of the things that had held us back over the years was “waiting” until all conditions were right. This saw us miss many great opportunities that were out there.

So we just “started”. Admittedly it was a bit like the blind leading the blind…but we went in with an open mind and decided to see what would happen and where it would lead.

Goal setting for "Enterprise for Kids"

Chayse and Kit drawing their goals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out our very first videos. The filming is pretty rough as we had our 15 year old daughter using her “creative” license whilst filming, but you’ll get the gist of what our project is all about if you watch them. Here they are…

Handing out the $100 notes!

Kids considering their goals

For those of you who would prefer to read, I’ll give you the run down…

I presented of the kids with $100 each! (except the baby….as all she would do is try and eat it!)

 

$100 Family Enterprise project

Raining $50 Bills

... and more!!

Wow!!!” was their first response. An early Christmas present!

“Ohhhh” was the next response. More sedate now that there seemed to be a catch. But they listened to my proposal.

They were to use the money as start up capital for an enterprise, and (much to their disappointment), weren’t to spend it on themselves. In fact they were to pay me back once they had attained their business goal.

I was a bit soft on them though. I also said that I would take the risk and if they were unsuccessful and weren’t able to pay back the $100, then I’d accept that and absorb the loss. I did this because I wanted them to give their enterprise a go and I was conscious that if they were hung up about having to pay me back, then they may worry about their loss and as a consequence not find the courage to even start to play the game.

Loaning the $100 was the first step in our elaborate plan to give our kids a shot at being entrepreneurial with their kids enterprise project.

Check out our next blog for the subsequent steps in our entrepreneurial quest………

enterpriseforkids.com

Inspiring kids to be entrepreneurial.