“Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life.”
– Sophocles –
Did you know that this upcoming Thursday, April 23, 2020, is Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day in the United States?
No? It’s okay. A few days ago, my answer would have been the same.
However, as a mother who’s invested in using a home business to protect my family’s financial resilience, this isn’t a day that I can afford to ignore. I’ll explain why, but before I can do that I have to tell you a story.
To start, we’ll need to rewind time back to a much younger version of myself – to my very earliest memories of entrepreneurship. Surprisingly, it wasn’t until recently that I realized my earliest lessons of entrepreneurship came from my family, my grandmother to be exact.
It was summer, and as was typical, my family had traveled to visit my grandparents’ home. We kids would typically spend the days eating through my grandmother’s cooking, playing with cousins, and then eating some more. She was an excellent chef and baker, which meant that our visits to her home always went great!
However, our eating and rambunctious play were occasionally interrupted – by ladies who would knock on the front door asking for my grandmother. If she wasn’t already working with another client, my grandmother would tell us to have her guests take a seat in her shop in the basement. Not long afterward, we would hear the sound of conversation and the shampoo bowl as my grandmother would begin the process of dressing her client’s hair. You see, my grandmother had a complete hair salon built into one side of her basement.
Both my grandmother and grandfather worked day jobs. She also kept a lovely flower garden. One would think that my grandmother’s hairdressing would have been enough of a side venture to occupy her free remaining time. However, that was not the case. On days where there were no clients knocking on her door, my grandmother would call us down to the other side of her basement, fill two tubs with water, and have us assist her in hand-washing (with insertable agitators and washboards) and then hang-drying laundry. She would then proceed to iron and hand-deliver some of the items to private homes for additional income.
… But those weren’t her only sources of income. Occasionally, I would see my grandmother leave the home with a bucket containing assorted spray bottles, gloves, brushes, and other cleaning supplies – because she also made income from cleaning residential homes.
I suppose some people would be ashamed to have this kind of origin story, but I’m proud to be related to such an enterprising and self-reliant woman. Despite this fact, it wasn’t until about a year ago that I realized that I had witnessed my grandmother working three different “side hustles” as a child. What didn’t surprise me was learning she and my grandfather owned their home. I also wasn’t surprised to trace the ripple effect of my grandmother’s influence in the professional agencies, refinishing shops, and other small business ventures of my parents, aunts, and uncles.
Despite all of these positive effects, the thought finally occurred to me that very few of my grandmother’s grandchildren knew of her side businesses. Even fewer of them knew how to follow in her footsteps or realized that their grandmother had blazed a trail into entrepreneurship for us.
The sad fact is that none of my grandmother’s children passed on the knowledge of her business acumen, ethic, or methods to my generation. Most of the information had simply been lost to time. It wasn’t until I went back and spoke to my parents that they confirmed that my memories of my grandmother’s side businesses were correct.
I’ll be honest. This realization left me shaken. It was awful to think that two generations could be all that would separate my descendants from returning to indebtedness and financial insecurity. The idea was unbearable. I needed to find a way to prevent that process from happening.
It was at that moment that I discovered my “Why?” for creating a small business. I realized that I desperately wanted my business to accomplish something in addition to earning money. I needed to create a system that would teach my descendants the principles of building successful businesses, while also teaching them how to pass that knowledge to the next generation. For me, it’s only been an added bonus that I have the opportunity to share this information with other people’s children as well.
All of this brings us back to Take Your Daughers and Sons To Work Day in the United States. Personal demonstration plays a large part in teaching our children about the role of home and small business in personal finance. It isn’t enough to simply tell your children about what you do. They need to see you in action – working in your business. As your children grow older, it also involves you engaging them in the business. It doesn’t have to be all work. Appoint your child “Chief Assistant Of The First Order” for the day and give them fun, colorful assignments that would interest someone of their age and ability level.
The point is to give them an early start in learning about designing, running, and growing a business. Don’t think that because you’re self-employed (or stuck in quarantine), there’s no reason to have your child join in your work this Thursday (or any day thereafter). If you fall into that thought trap, you’ll look up later in life only to find that you’ve built a business that your children do not appreciate and/or lack the abilities to manage when you are gone.
As the entrepreneurial trailblazers in our families, our responsibility is greater than simply building the business that changes the family’s financial trajectory. We must also teach our descendants how to preserve the legacy. The reason is painfully simple. If we don’t teach the next generation proper principles of entrepreneurship and financial stability, we leave them in the unfortunate position of having to reinvent the wheel.
That outcome is simply unacceptable.
As a result, I’ve decided to approach my kids and home business with the following considerations in mind.
- If I want to permanently change my descendants’ financial standing, I need to teach my children two things – how to responsibly manage business ventures and personal finance as well as how to successfully pass that knowledge on to the next generation.
- As in so many other areas of life, I suspect that my children will learn the most by observing what I do. If I first learned about entrepreneurship without even realizing it, I can only hope to do the same for my kids. I hope to have them participate in my business whenever possible because “More is caught than taught.”
- Finally, I hope to teach my children the importance of understanding their primary motivation for owning a business. A significant determinant of business success involves having a big enough “Why?” For me, money is only partial justification for investing the time, energy, and dedication required for growing a business. My determination to achieve entrepreneurial success has always been motivated by the desire to change the financial legacy left to my family and to leave a positive imprint on the world.
Granted, that list is a bit much to cram into one Take Your Child To Work Day, but it’s not too much to fit into a lifetime.
So enjoy your April 23rd! Give thanks for what you have while working toward even bigger goals. Hopefully, you’ll allow this week to serve as a reminder to involve your kids in your business for generational success in your money tree growing!
D’Loreyn