Being a business owner is one of the most self-gratifying things we can do. Not only will you be your own boss, but you have the opportunity to do something more. If you play it smart, it might bring you great financial wealth. And for many of you that are business owners and have kids, the question of how to get them involved in the family business will eventually come.
If your family business is quite successful, then you’re no doubt thinking about this day and night. So that’s why we’re here to give you our 5 tips on how to get your kids involved in the family business. With all that said, let’s start.
Educate Them
No doubt some of you reading will be more eager than others to get the kids involved. This might be because your kids are older and ready to take on the mantle of being business co-owners. While you won’t certainly leave them alone, it’s important to start educating them on what your business is.
Education is an important aspect of entrepreneurship and since you’re a successful entrepreneur with a flourishing family business, there is no better place to start. Even if your kids are younger, teaching them early is a smart move. Plenty of parents follow the traditional route of separating personal from professional life. But for family-owned businesses, the lines are blurred due to the need for early involvement.
Sharing everything about your business with your kids will help them better understand what the business is and how to run it. Learning takes time, obviously, so you should also focus on teaching them from an earlier age.
Include Them In the Day-To-Day Business Dealings
This is the natural next step to take. Education is important, but it’s only a matter of time before you give them their “first day” at work. This will help them understand even more what a day in the life of running a family business looks like.
Even more so, it will help them learn the family business much quicker. If you’re planning on getting your kids involved full-time, then it might be smart to include them in the decision-making process. A smart thing to do is have a sort of “board meeting” every week. Here, you and your family will discuss business dealings and how to improve them. These sorts of activities might prove to be better suited for some of your kids. Others might find it easier to engage with customers.
Regardless of what your family business is, including the kids in the day-to-day dealings is a great way to get them involved even from an earlier age.
Hire Them
Once you give them their first day and they become of employable age, the natural third step is to hire them. This will do more good than harm. If your kids are serious about it, then they should be paid for it. Not only that, but once they start earning they will get a sense of what it means to make money. They will start respecting the money more and will learn how to save to pay for things.
Even more so than that, they will become accountable for their money and actions. This is a valuable part of their financial education. By paying them for their services, you are making it easier for them to make their own financial decisions.
Give Them Individual Tasks
If you have more than one kid and look to get everybody involved, then you will need to assign tasks or roles. If your family business is quite successful, then you should consider expanding. This brings heaps of challenges on its own. From planning how to expand to where to expand and what would be the financial implications of doing so, there are tons of things to take into account.
And this is where the kids come in. Although you should still be the one doing the planning, a great way to introduce them to management is to give them supportive roles. For example, why not give one of your kids the task of finding suitable locations for a new store? Give another kid the task of coming up with social media banners for your online business, and let the third kid come up with ways to promote the opening of the new store. There are tons of opportunities to get them involved in your family business, and there is no better way to do that than to give them a specific role within the business.
Let Them Come Up With New Ideas
There will eventually come a point where your kids will have to inherit the family business. This is far bigger than to simply be there with you. When your kids become THE business owners, you will no longer be there to guide them and give them tasks to do. They will be the ones responsible for all the business dealings. So a great way to prepare them for such a responsibility is to start early. While you’re the boss and you have the final say, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t encourage them to do their own thing. Allow them to come up with business ideas that will ultimately improve the family business.
