There are many ways for kids to make money, but have you ever wondered the advantages of teaching your kids how to do this?  Beyond just getting paid kids are learning some vital skills that could never be learned in a classroom.  Let take a look at some of these:

1.     Money Management – When your kids are making money they will have to learn what to do with that money.  Do they spend it?  Do they save it?  Do they give to help someone in need?  These are decisions you make every day as parents and your kids can now begin thinking about these types of things.

2.     The Value of Money – It is amazing how people will spend differently when they are spending their money.  When someone else is paying spend freely.  When you are paying, spend wisely.  When kids have their own money to spend.  Money they have earned.  They realize there is no bottomless pit of money.  They also learn that buying this item may mean I sacrifice something else.  What a great lesson to learn especially as a child.

3.     Time Management – When you consider the different ways for kids to make money usually it is in addition to activities they already have on their schedule, whether that’s school, church, sports or family time.  Kids will soon realize that there are only 24 hours in a day and you can’t be everywhere and do everything.  Hopefully they will learn how to prioritize what’s important even though this is sometimes very difficult to do, even for us parents.

Some parents will help their kids start businesses and for these kids there are skills they learn in addition to the ones above.  Here are some of these

1.     Marketing Skills – Marketing is a wonderful skill because kids are learning how to create excitement and branding for whatever product or service they are promoting.  Companies spend huge sums of money to get the message out about their product or service.  Think of all of the millions of dollars spent on advertising every year, whether it’s print, TV or internet?   Marketing professionals are vital to the success of every company and your child is learning these skills at a very young age.

2.     Sales Skills – Selling is an invaluable skill that can help your child in every area of life, both professional and personal.  You can use these skills whether it’s persuading a customer to use the product or convincing the college interviewer that you are the right choice for that college.  Selling happens all of the time.  People often say they don’t like to sell, but they usually don’t realize they do it all of the time.  Having your kids do it and recognize they are doing it can give them a world of confidence and an advantage in every situation they face in life.

You see parents, finding ways for kids to make money is about more than just making money.  It really is about preparation for life.  Not just teaching your kids how to support themselves but helping to develop skill sets that are vital to success in every area of life.

For the past three years, my business partner (Helene Kempe) and I have been researching, looking for the answer to the question "When is a good age for teaching kids about money"?

What we've discovered is that any age is a good age to start and the earlier the better.  As you may already know, the first 7 years of a child's life is known as the "Imprint Period" where they unconciously model everything you do without any conscious awareness.  Therefore, whatever you do, they do without questioning why.

We recently interviewed a 4 year old (georgeous) little girl named Kayla.  She regularly played shop with her grandmother and had an EFTPOS machine where she would ask you (the customer) for the money and swipe the card in the machine.  When we asked her where money came from, her response was "Out of the hole in the wall".  This was simply because she had seen her mother take money from there repeatedly over the past 4 years of her life.

As soon as your child is able to speak and understand concepts, start introducing them to money.  Ask them questions such as "where does money come from?" and see what your child's response is.

A friend of mine has a very talented 19 year old (Ashlee) who can create, act and produce a video in a VERY short period of time by using her video camera and Apple Mac computer.   I was in the process of looking to create some videos to upload on You Tube and came up with a brilliant solution….

I hired Ashlee to create some videos for me to put up on You Tube which cost me less than than $50 a video!  The amount of time and effort I saved far outweighed the cost to pay Ashlee to do it.

If you have a business and are looking to create videos, hire a teenager to do it.

Check out the video as an example of what they can create by clicking on the You Tube link. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnF_dnn0Ja0