Teen Entrepreneurship

By Angelica Laurio

A unit study in teen entrepreneurship will equip young aspiring entrepreneurs with the knowledge, skills, and experiences to lay the foundation for a successful professional life. In this elective course, students can even plan their own teen-based business.

I firmly believe teaching kids about money, entrepreneurism and business is beneficial. I also believe they should try for themselves. I have helped my oldest son Miguel the most in this area since his 8th grade year. Here is my list of best methods to teach teens about entrepreneurism and business.

Above is a picture of most of the materials I supplied Mig with. I also checked out books from my library. He only read half of The Motley Fool Investment Guide and Laughing at Wall Street. He also read:

Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki
Rich Dad Poor Dad for Teens, by Robert Kiyosaki
Midas Touch, by Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump
Richest Kids in America, by Mark Hansen
Growing Money: A Complete Investing Guide for Kids, by Gail Karlitz and Debbie Honig
Money and Banking book with video lectures from The Great Courses

I have had very good experiences using The Great Courses. My daughter loved the Human Anatomy series I gave her during her Allied Health class for high school. These are very thorough although very boring (they are university lectures after all). I let him pick which ones interested him. I hate for my kids to be bored.

The game Cash Flow is very good but very long, and there are lots of rules. My family played this for several evenings. It is the game that Robert Kiyosaki made to reinforce what he teaches in his books. I will advise anyone reading his books that teens should only read the ones I listed above and show in the picture. My son could not put these down. He read all 3 Kiyosaki books cover to cover – he was that interested! These were some of Kiyosaki’s first books and absolutely great for teaching kids business and money skills. It’s these that brought him fame and are pretty politically neutral. All the other books he has written start treading into VERY controversial political waters. I strongly advise any other of his books to be read by parents first. Of course Monopoly is an all time favorite.

The most effective method to teach a teen about business (in my opinion) is to:

Take them to get an ID.
Take them to start a bank account (or two).
Take them to a financial advisor.
Have them write down questions.
Have them ask their own questions.
Have them make a few phone calls (not all) but it is important for them to overcome their phone shyness.
Have them follow their favorite businesses and brands (there are lots of apps these days for that).
Have them read and watch anything related to kids and business.
Have them make stuff for a craft show. (My son Manny made Circuit Kits and sold out as well as received lots of donations.)
Have them make their own business card templates. (Manny made his own before creating them with Word software.)
Have them brainstorm in notebooks.
Have them create prototypes.
And last but not least have them participate in any contests or challenges that fit their business. For example there were a few young men who invented something to help their family farm better (farming vertical using computer boards to time the watering systems or something like that).

I also created a YouTube playlist for kid entrepreneurs that I had my kids watch. They are super motivated by these. You can find my playlist here:

Kid Entrepreneur Motivation

I am including the same flyer template that my son uses. He made it himself so it is slightly imperfect. We take this template on a thumb drive to Staples and have them print it on heavy cardstock. We save money by cutting them ourselves. I took out all of the personal information and have made it available to download, fill in your own data, and print. It would be an awesome freebie for teens just starting out. Here it is:

fill in quad business cards to give away