Developing the entrepreneurial skills in your children

Helping your children develop entrepreneurial skills is one of the best ways to invest in their future. It’s often true that entrepreneurs are better earners than the average employee. Like the popular saying, entrepreneurs rule the world. It’s therefore important to cultivate these entrepreneurial skills into our kids especially now that they are young so that when they grow up, it becomes second nature. Plus it is always easy to catch them young. 

Developing entrepreneurial skills in your children will not only help them develop entrepreneurial habits, it will also help them in problem-solving, analytical skills, in their academics and competing in life generally. 

Steps to Developing Entrepreneurial Skills in your children

1. Teach them to set goals: make them understand why it is important for every entrepreneur to be excellent with organizing, planning and goal setting. Teach them to set goals and work towards achieving them all, you can use their exams as a starting point. Teach them how to break the goals into smaller achievable goals. For example, they may set a goal to be excellent at ten subjects in school. Work along with them in achieving whatever goal they set, it’s cool for them to be guided at such a young stage. 
2. Teach financial education: let them know the importance of being prudent especially with money. It does not mean they would save all they have, it simply means planning their money well. Encourage them to save part of the money mummy and daddy gives them, this also applied to monies gotten from aunties and uncles. Also make them understand how bank savings and investments work, get them acquainted with financial education at a very tender age. It is important for an entrepreneur to learn the art of financial literacy. Not all money that comes in is meant for consumption purpose, if not business may crumble. 
3. Help them start enterprises as early as possible in life: it could be what they have been showing interest in OR just anything you feel they would be good at. This would help them get familiar with the pros and Cons of entrepreneur and other things such as; handling risks, how to sell themselves, responding to customers, business etiquette and how to make their own money. 
4. Teach them to recognize opportunities: Be sensitive to what they show dissatisfaction in, this might be an opportunity of having a problem they could profer solution to. Ask them questions concerning what they feel about any problem whatsoever, this may build up problem-solving skills in them. They need to understand that a problem isn’t really as bad as we as they think because problems arise for us to find a solution. 
5. Encourage the spirit of teamwork in them:  Make them understand the importance of teamwork as this will be necessary at some point in every individual’s life and business. They will need to work with people at one time or the other, so building team spirit is a great need for every entrepreneur.
6. Communication skill is essential to developing entrepreneurial skills in your children: Communication is an important tool in any business, they would need good communication skills to have a good relationship with their customers, business partners, family, employees etc. Communication is not limited to speaking, it also includes writing. 
7. Mentoring: you could let them choose one or two successful entrepreneurs in their chosen fields as mentors. You may get them books written by these mentors, get them to follow these mentors by reading about them, following them on social media, depending on their age. In all, let them be open to people they can look up to. 
8. Games: there are games that put children in the right position to grow as emerging entrepreneurs, these games help them build entrepreneurial skills, so while they are playing, they are also learning.

Developing entrepreneurial skills in your children is an important task every parent/guardian should give to their children.