Raising Cash Smart Kids

Still waiting on word from the publishers …. nothing ever happens when promised! Sigh.

Meanwhile, I want to remind everyone of the great opportunities which are available to entrants in the competition – for example, having your business mentioned in a magazine which goes out to 6 million readers!

Whether you win or not, being in the competition has all sorts of ongoing benefits. For example, young Rhiannon’s video has been seen by news outlets all around the world, and is currently featured on Peter Economy’s blog.

I know there are lots of people out there intending to put entries in, but procrastinating.

Do it NOW!

The longer your video is online during the competition, the more exposure your business will get.

Following on from last week’s conversation about “helicopter parenting”, I was thinking about some of the other, unintended consequences of pouring so much energy and effort into making life easier for our kids.

Kids are far more savvy than most of us give them credit for. If their parents are running themselves into the ground, pouring all their energy and focus into providing every possible opportunity and advantage for their kids, the kids know that they are darned-well expected to return that investment in the form of material success – getting good marks, getting into the right college, getting a good job, even marrying the right kind of spouse.

The more effort the parents put into their kids at the cost of pursuing their own interests and dreams, the more pressure the kids feel to follow the path their parents have laid out for them, whether or not that path is a good fit for them.

Even when the path is a good fit, and the young person would have chosen it of their own volition, pressure to perform can leach the joy and self-expression out of what might otherwise have been a satisfying and fulfilling career.

Kids can feel this pressure in their business activities, as much as in their schooling.

If you are encouraging your kids to branch out into business, or they have started of their own accord and you are supporting them, it is vitally important that you, the parent, do not get focused on results and accomplishment.

The greatest value from running a business is not the income, or the accolades, or the value it adds to a resume. The greatest value from any business journey is the fabulous growth and learning opportunities which arise from the journey – and the confidence and self-reliance that result from making use of those learning opportunities.

Just as your child can benefit from a few years of ballet training, even if he or she doesn’t ever progress beyond the end-of-year concert at the local church hall, because of the habits of good posture, grace, and core strength it develops, your child can benefit from a few years of running a business, even if that business never makes more than nickels and dimes.

Focusing on the journey, and the lessons learned along the way, will free your child from the burden of parental expectations, and allow him or her to blossom according to their own design. It is this freedom which the children of helicopter parents do not have, and it is this freedom which we yearn for when we look back to the time when kids were left to be kids while parents got on with their lives.

Our kids can have the best of both worlds – interested, involved, protective parents and the freedom to make their own choices and learn from their own mistakes. As long as parents are aware of the downsides of anxious hovering, parents can curb their tendencies to overprotect and work on checking the training wheels and then letting go.

Photo: carf

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait…

Today we welcome back Amanda Van Der Gulik, Mompreneur and enthusiastic advocate of teaching kids good money habits from an early age.

“Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees!”

Does this saying sound familiar to you?

I bet you are probably one of many who heard this often growing up, right?

If not, you were lucky.

Let’s turn a new leaf and start raising our own children a little differently.

How about we change the way we answer our kids when they want something that requires money that we do not have or refuse to give.

For example:

Jonny wants a new pair of brand-name, high-endurance, running shoes.

“Dad, I really need a new pair of ‘brand-name’, running shoes. They are the coolest and all the kids have them. I want a pair too! If I don’t get a pair of them, then Shawn’s going to beat me at basket ball and you know, I’m 10 times better than him at basket ball!”

Here are two different replies:

Dad replies with,

“What do you think I’m made of?  Money doesn’t grow on trees you know!“

or

Dad replies with,

“Well son, if those shoes mean that much to you and you truly feel that Shawn will have an unfair advantage over you in basket ball, then what is your plan? How do you plan to buy those shoes?

Can you think of something that you can do, or make, or service, that can raise you the money so you can buy your own pair?

If you really want those shoes, son, then you’re going to have to come up with a good way to buy them. I believe you can do it.

Come back to me when you have a plan and we’ll see if we can work it out together.

Good luck kiddo.”

In Dad’s first reply, Dad shuts Jonny’s hopes down but ALSO teaches him, although unintentionally, that life is all about ’scarcity’. Jonny learns from these negative replies that money is hard to come by. That it is difficult to get what you want in life. That other people will always have more than you.

And the list goes on and on…

On the other hand in Dad’s second reply, you can see that Dad is turning on the creative juices in his son’s mind, “okay, so I want these new shoes,  how can I go about making the money to get them myself?”.

And as well as getting Jonny’s creative juices flowing on some easy ways for kids to make money, Dad is also teaching some other incredibly valuable life lessons.

Like: Abundance, Optimism, Faith in his son to find a way to fulfil his desire.

He is teaching him to be responsible for himself as well as encouraging him to come up with a plan and then to work together on making that plan come to action.

This alone will diminish any thoughts of theft as an option.

So how are you talking to your own kids when it comes to money?

See if you can pay attention to the next time your child asks you about money.

Listen to your own reply and then meditate on it for a minute or two.

How did that answer come across to your child?

Was your child turned off of money, or encouraged to take responsibility to come up with a creative way to attract their desired goods?

I hope you have enjoyed this thoughtful session, and I look forward to writing the next. If you have any specific topics that you would like me to talk about please just leave a message and I will do my best to answer your topics of interest where concerned with kids and money.

Cheers…Amanda van der Gulik…Excited Life Enthusiast!

=========================================
For 50 Free Money Making Ideas for Kids click here!
=========================================

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait…

We had a rush of people coming to look at the competition rules last week, so I am guessing that someone has been publicising the competition, or the press release – or maybe we have had some press coverage that I haven’t heard about yet.

If you happen to have seen a new story about the Cash-Smart Kids YouTube video competition somewhere, please drop me a line in a comment on this blog, or via the contact page and let me know!

We’re still waiting to hear from the publisher we like the best, after an initial warm response – who knows how long it might take them to come back with an offer?

In the meanwhile, though, keep the entries coming in – so far I have seen about one percent of the entries that people have spoken to me about actually materialise, so I know there are an awful lot of good intentions out there.

Let’s see those good intentions turning into some ACTION!

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait…

Ben Casnocha posted an interesting link on his blog last week, to an essay by Joseph Epstein. Epstein is a university professor, and in his essay he was reflecting on the shift in parenting styles among middle-class parents, and the effect of that shift on the behaviour and attitudes of the “Millennials”, or Generation Y – the kids currently in high school, college, and up to about age 25.

Those kids have grown up with an unprecedented level of parental attention and involvement, and they continue to expect a high level of attention, praise and affirmation from other adults as they enter college and the workplace.

Epstein’s observations echoed those in that fabulous ode to the kids of the 50s, 60s, and 70s – the kids of yesteryear who had lead-based paint on their toys, rode in the back of station wagons without seat belts, and went out to play on the weekends – unsupervised – without a mobile phone or any expectation that they would be dropped off, picked up, or in communication between leaving home after breakfast and returning at sunset.

Epstein’s essay also evoked a longing for those simpler times, when parents were just parents, and weren’t expected to also be their kids’ chauffeur, best friend, counsellor, performance coach, careers advisor, and lender-of-first-resort. Back before the advent of encounter groups and “inner child work”, kids got on with their lives and adults got on with theirs.

I’m not advocating a return to that lifestyle – there were some major disadvantages to living in families which simply never discussed or acknowledged emotions.

One advantage of those times, however, could be reclaimed.

We could return to thinking of kids as capable.

The pendulum has swung so far in the direction of protecting and nurturing kids that there is a reasonably widespread phenomenon called “helicopter parenting”. This refers to the form of anxious hovering and over-helping which flowers, in the fullness of time, with parents phoning their college-aged kids who are living in dorms to wake them each morning so they are not late for class.

The message kids get from this type of parenting is not that they are loved and respected. The message they get is that they are incapable, and that the world is too much for them to handle on their own.

One of the greatest benefits to my kids from their business activity is the sense it gives them of being capable – of being able to do adult tasks in way that adults respect and acknowledge.

Business activity also breeds emotional resilience. Kids who have active businesses have all tried things that didn’t work out, processed the disappointment, and moved on to try something else. In most cases, they get accolades for trying, whether or not they ever make much money.

Who is better placed for a life of accomplishment – the child who has tackled adult challenges, and learned that failure and disappointment are part of life, and part of the process, or the child who believes they are incapable of getting out of bed without outside assistance?

Image: silver.and.gold

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait…

Eight-year-old Nzinga Ajamu has her very own jewelry-making business.

“I discovered my passion for making jewelry during my jewelry-making class in school,” she told the Daily News in Memphis, referring to a cultural arts curriculum course she took last year. “I enjoyed making jewelry so much that I asked my parents to buy beads for me so I could make more jewelry. Also, I made a necklace, bracelet and ponytail holder to wear to school. … When I would go places people would compliment me on my jewelry and they would say, ‘Where’d you get that jewelry?’ and I’d say, ‘I made it,’ and they could not believe that I made it.”

Nzinga’s creations were so attractive that people asked her to make jewellery for them as well, and before long she has a thriving business.

Nzinga comes up with the designs for the jewelry – sometimes, she said, the ideas come at night while she sleeps. She also sets her own prices and keeps up with all the orders.

“It’s her company and she handles everything herself,” Veda said. “And we do everything we can to keep it that way.”

But school always comes first, Nzinga’s mother, Veda, told the Daily News.

Education, Nzinga’s parents are teaching her, is the foundation to achieving the high goals the girl has set for herself. Nzinga doesn’t see Queen Nzinga’s Creations as just a fly-by-night business. This is just the beginning for what she hopes to achieve as a “grown-up.”

Already, Nzinga is envisioning having her own retail space to run her business, and developing a broader market and a larger production capability.

Meanwhile, she markets her creations through her website, www.nzingascreations.com.

Keepin’ it brief today – we have the flu in the house.

We have had a nice, positive response from at least one publisher about the book, the project, and this competition. Peter and I are going to be interviewed by Costco magazine in a few weeks’ time – this goes out to over SIX MILLION readers.

If you want a chance to have your business mentioned in that interview – get off your tootie and put your entry in!

Check out the competition rules if you haven’t already. The rewards just for entering are very, very worth it.

Shonika Proctor, teen business coach, shares her knowledge of ways for kids to make money, even when they are under 16.

Po’ No Mo’

5 Tips on How Youth Under Age 16 Can Make Money

In his internationally best-selling book Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out, Dr. Farrah Gray, a self-made millionaire by age 14, discusses how, in one of the first of his many business ventures, he painted rocks and sold them as door stops door-to-door for $1.50 each when he was only 9 years old.

Despite common misconception, you do not have to have money to make money. All you need is a great idea and a persistent willingness to put that great idea into action. Here are 5 ways you can make money in the 21^st century, even if you’re not yet 16 (or 14, for that matter), and even if you don’t have a dime to your name.

1. Competitions: Enter business plan competitions such as the ones offered by NFTE.com and BlackEnterprise.com. All sorts of contests and competitions exist for young budding entrepreneurs, and the cash or scholarship prizes you may receive are only half the benefit. The other half is the name recognition you can carry with you into your burgeoning business life as being the chosen winner amongst all the many entrants in such illustrious, business-related competitions.
2. Advertising: Seek sponsors and advertisers for your product or service. For example, sell advertising space on the flyers, postcards, and – yes – websites you put out there to promote your own business. The advertising funds you generate will pay for the production, printing, distribution, etc. of your own promotions, essentially making it free advertising for you!
3. Sharing Your Experience: It doesn’t matter how young you are. We all have expertise in something, even if that something is simply being ourselves. We’ve all lived unique lives and we all have an important story to tell. Get the word out about your endeavors by writing articles on the subject for your local newspapers. Write about the subject of your business. Write about your own experiences starting a business. Usually small local newspapers are looking for filler content. With just a single publication credit, you will instantly start to become known as an expert at whatever you do. You may even get paid a few dollars or more for your efforts, though that isn’t the point. The point is to get more free advertising for your business by writing about what you know best – you and all that you are up to.
4. Technology Training and Consulting: Put that way it sounds so lofty and complex, but it isn’t. As a member of the younger generation, you have natural abilities to work with computers that may seem like nothing but second nature to you but are a hot and valuable commodity to people of older generations who didn’t grow up with all this newfangled technology in their homes. You’d be surprised how many people older than you don’t know how to make a web page (or maybe you wouldn’t be surprised). The point is, even if you can do it in your sleep, there are people who will pay you big bucks to teach them how to do it, or more – do it for them. YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and all the other social networking and bookmarking sites as well as blogs, newsletters, and ezines are the new media. And guess who the experts are in this new media? That’s right – you are! And as a related bonus tip, you can even offer a free course for small business-people at your local library on the importance of having online presence, and then at the end of the class offer to sell your expertise to build their pages. Give them a discount if they order your services on that day.
5. Odd Jobs: This is one suggestion that never goes out of style. Random odd jobs like cutting grass, raking leaves, dog walking, shoveling show etc. may not be the most exotic, novel, or interesting forms of making money. But they’ve been around forever for a very good reason – because they work. This type of work may not be directly related to your business or business idea, but you can take heart that the entire time you’re toiling away at some seemingly boring task for some extra ducats, what you’re really doing is serving a much higher purpose – raising valuable funds for your business’s success.

Tired of being po’? Of course you are! Well, get over it – literally! Because you can easily be po’ no mo’. All it takes is a little innovation and a willingness to make it work. Problems equal opportunities. Be resourceful and creative. Make money by solving problems that exist around you, and before you know it you’ll have solved the problem of being poor and well on the way to your well-deserved riches.

Shonika Proctor, aka the Nika’Nator, is a youth and teen entrepreneur coach. She helps aspiring and emerging young entrepreneurs to demolish drama and build dreams. www.renegadeceos.com.

It is sometimes really difficult being a parent.

Who am I kidding? It’s OFTEN very hard being a parent.

We had one of those difficult situations at our place last week. My oldest, who has been quite sick and unable to work on her business for the past few months, is basically trying to keep up with her friends and their lifestyle on her “sickness benefit”, aka her allowance of $20 per month.

This weekend was a three-day weekend, and her group of friends has planned two trips to the movies and a shopping trip to the city. She didn’t have any money, and she asked if she could borrow some.

Now, as you know, we don’t do loans. And especially since this loan would have been an advance of three months worth of allowance!

I explained to her that she has to live within her income, even when it’s small.

We have a close friend who came down with chronic fatigue a couple of years ago, and Sam is well aware that we give this friend money each month because the government sickness benefit is not enough to cover her basic rent and food needs, let alone pay for medical treatment.

I pointed out that Sam is in the same situation, and her friends need to understand that she simply can’t afford to do these things. The real friends will understand.

This developed into an interesting conversation about another girl in her group of friends who is getting a job because her parents won’t just keep giving her money any more. This girl would rather not be doing the expensive stuff, either.

It seems that there is a whole group of kids doing expensive things like going to the movies and ice skating, spending money they don’t have, all because they don’t want to be “left out” of the group. I suggested that it might be a simple thing to turn the whole group around to low-cost activities, if my daughter and the other girl just took a stand.

Of course, at fifteen, that’s a scary prospect. Being accepted is everything.

But, to her credit, she went off to talk to this other girl, and in the end three of them opted out of the movies and did something low-cost instead. Along the way, they stopped on at a local indoor playground and filled in job applications.

She has wisely decided that working for someone else is lower-energy and more manageable for her than being entrepreneurial right now. I think it’s the right decision, and an enjoyable job is a good stepping-stone to bridge the gap until she is fully well again.

It would have been so easy to lend her the money.

I mean, she has been sick, poor kid.

But what a benefit she gained because I didn’t – she has taken steps to change the culture of her group of friends from pointless spending and keeping-up-with-the-Joneses to being on the lookout for low-cost fun. The benefits will not only flow to her, but to all her friends who get the message.

In the long run, she will have a group of friends who are much more supportive of her goal of financial responsibility, and the confidence which comes from challenging a group norm and shifting it. For the rest of her life, she will know that she doesn’t have to do what everyone else is doing, just so they won’t reject her. She has learned that if she leads, others do come with her.

Absolutely priceless lessons.

And if I had lent her the money, she would have had none of those lessons.

It was emotionally very difficult at the time, but she and I are both glad now that I stuck to my guns and didn’t lend her the money.

It has been a quiet week on the entries front this week – so many people tell me they are working on entries, but only a few have actually submitted them!

We have another proposal going off to a publisher this week, so the deserving winners will have a publisher worthy of their efforts by the time the competition closes.

I have emails from people all over the world, including places like Puerto Rico and Malaysia, with kids who have English as a second language working hard on pulling together their entries.

If it all comes through as planned, we should have a real United Nations among the finalists!

The Americans are still running behind, though, given how many Americans there are, and how many have internet access. Where’s your national pride? Come on, Americans! Get your entries in!