Family business ideas can start with something simple, practical and close to home. For Flynn, that opportunity came through raw honey, a family connection and a very enterprising plan that helped him learn real money lessons.
This is the beginning of Flynn’s honey business story — a family enterprise project where he learnt about opportunity, product value, buying wholesale, selling retail, confidence and taking action.
Family Business Ideas: Flynn’s Honey Enterprise Begins
Flynn is a natural budding young entrepreneur and he is never afraid to chase an opportunity. He often comes up with brilliant enterprising ideas, and the idea he planned to take on with Enterprise for Kids was a definite money spinner.
Before I tell you all about Flynn’s awesome enterprising idea, I want to introduce some food for thought.
Why Family Business Ideas Need a Different Money Mindset
Prior to us starting Enterprise for Kids, our children were following the same conditioning around money that we had: earn money, spend money, borrow money. Society encourages this greatly.
Whilst many people may not see anything wrong with this, many of us actually spend far more than we have coming in. The cycle never gets broken, and by the time we reach retirement age, we have very little to show for the many years of hard work we have put in.
That is why building an entrepreneurial mindset is so important. Breaking old conditioned habits is even more important. The younger you are, the less conditioning you have.
So while we want to develop in our children a great work ethos — working hard and with integrity — we also want to help them move beyond that. We want them to learn how to spot an opportunity, take action and then help others achieve success as well.
This system moves a person from being the worker, to seeing an enterprising opportunity, to switching on their entrepreneurial self, to finally becoming the expert in their field.
This is exactly why we care so much about raising entrepreneurial kids and helping them learn through real-life projects. Family business ideas give children a safe, practical way to begin that learning at home.
Entrepreneurial Thinking Behind Family Business Ideas
An entrepreneur’s focus is in the development of a great system and finding great people to run it. They use other people’s time and other people’s money to do the work for them.
Their systems can continue even after they pass from this world. A classic example is Thomas Edison’s formula for General Electric. He is no longer with us, but his empire continues.
That is one of the powerful lessons behind family business ideas. Children can begin to see that a business is not just a product. It is also a system, a process and a way of creating value for other people.
A Queen Bee Is Entrepreneurial
A Queen Bee most definitely comes under the bracket of entrepreneur. She controls her entire empire from within her hive.
Thousands of honey bees — the workers — head out of her hive each morning collecting nectar, pollen and other resources for the hive, such as water. The worker bees will risk life and limb and literally work themselves to death. A worker bee only lives a few weeks.
The Queen Bee will have employees whose main job is to guard the hive from danger. Others clean the hive and many fan the hive to keep the temperature controlled. The queen will have workers who care for the nursery and for her own needs.
All she has to do is eat and lay eggs!
A beehive is a unique system consisting of many specialised individuals that each have a job to do. The system performs like it is one large living organism. If the Queen dies, then she will be replaced by another Queen Bee, the workers keep working and the hive goes on.
Not a lot different to General Electric, Apple or Ford Motor Company!
Flynn’s Honey Family Business Idea
So what has Flynn’s idea got to do with a Queen Bee?
Flynn’s enterprising idea has everything to do with our Queen Bee and her empire.
In fact, his plan was to use her company’s product: honey.
Flynn intended to buy raw, unprocessed honey at wholesale in bulk and sell it in smaller jars at retail. He worked out his figures and could see excellent profit potential.
Once his business got underway, he could also see the potential for it to grow quite substantially.
I won’t tell you any more about his plans here, but if you missed the link above, you can listen to Flynn himself in this short video of Flynn explaining his awesome enterprise idea and business plan.
This is one of those kids business ideas that starts small, but teaches a lot: product value, buying wholesale, selling retail, confidence, negotiation and understanding profit.
Why Raw Honey Was a Clever Family Business Product
Seeing as we are on the topic of honey, I thought I would share a few facts about honey, and in particular raw, unprocessed honey.
Raw, unprocessed honey is pure, natural, unpasteurised and unadulterated. It is extracted from the beehive in its natural form and bottled. It is not filtered or heated.
Unlike many processed honeys, raw honey can retain more of its natural qualities from the hive, including pollen, propolis, minerals and flavour.
Mmmm… appears to be a fantastic product!
For Flynn, the clever part was not just that honey was useful and delicious. The clever part was that he could understand the product, buy it in bulk, bottle it in smaller jars and sell it in a way that made sense to customers.
That is why this became such a useful example of family business ideas in action. It was simple enough for a child to understand, but rich enough to teach real lessons about value, pricing, supply, confidence and profit.
Flynn’s Honey Business Series
This article is Part 1 in Flynn’s honey business series, a family enterprise story about family business ideas, product value, money lessons and learning by doing.
- Part 1: Honey Pot of Gold — you are here
- Part 2: Flynn’s Honey Investment Continued
- Part 3: Flynn’s Honey Turns to Gold
These family enterprise stories show how children can learn by doing, rather than just being told about business, money and opportunity.
Key Takeaway: Family Business Ideas Can Start Small
Key takeaway: Family business ideas do not need to be complicated. A simple product, a real opportunity and a child willing to take action can become a powerful lesson in entrepreneurship, confidence and money.
Where to Next?
If you enjoyed Flynn’s honey business story, you may also like:
- Flynn’s Honey Investment Continued — the next stage in Flynn’s honey business story.
- Flynn’s Honey Turns to Gold — part three of Flynn’s honey enterprise.
- Kids Business Ideas: Amber’s Kids Biz Program — another real family enterprise story.
- Financial Education for Kids — a practical lesson about money, assets and liabilities.
- Entrepreneurship for Students: How Entrepreneurs Think — why mindset matters for young people.
So, what do you think? Is Flynn onto a real Enterprise for Kids success story? Follow along with the blog to see how he goes.
In our next blog, you’ll be inspired by another budding entrepreneur, four-year-old Chayse, as he showcases his business idea. It is as sweet as Flynn’s enterprising ideas!
