The Fairy Blood Blog

Copyright ©2003 by Henri G. Schauffler
http://www.familybizbuilder.com

Would you like to find a willing, enthusiastic source of free
or very inexpensive labor for your Internet Home Business? Would
you like to find a fantastic way to help your children learn
things like self discipline, goal setting, integrity, financial
management and communication skills? Then read on, dear reader!

What I’m getting at is, of course, the idea of involving your
kids in your Internet home business, or helping them start one
of their own. Instead of having them be a source of distraction
and/or trouble as you labor to build your business, try a new
approach - consider your children your potential allies and even
potential employees.

Also, consider the many character building benefits of
involving kids in your home business. Steve Mariotti, Founder
and President of The National Foundation for Teaching
Entrepreneurship (NFTE -http://www.nfte.com) started a ground
breaking program over two decades ago that set up disadvantaged
New York City youth in modest businesses of their own, such as
Manhattan hot dog carts. Here is their mission tatement:

“NFTE’s mission is to teach entrepreneurship to low-income
young people, ages 11 through 18, so they can become
economically productive members of society by improving their
academic, business, technology and life skills.” To say the
least, this program has been *extremely* successful.

Wouldn’t you like your children to learn some of these life
skills and help you out as well? The question, of course,
is,”Practically speaking, what can my kids do in my Internet
home business?” I’m glad you asked! Let’s look at pre-teens and
then teens.

Pre-Teens

Your 11-13 year olds are just beginning to get old enough to
begin learning about business. Talk to them one-on-one about
their interests. See if you can find a connection with what you
are doing in your business. Here are some examples of what I
mean:

If your child plays or is interested in sports, encourage him
or her to begin going to sites on the Web that talk about sports
or sell sports gear. Start to ask them questions about the sites
- “Do you like this part; do you see how they are trying to get
you to buy something here; do you see this banner ad there?”
You’ll begin to get them engaged, and soon, you can start to
show them how you are doing the same things in your family’s
business.

Another way to involve your kids is to get them actually doing
some work for you - even pay them a little bit! Most kids these
days are itching for a chance to earn extra money. If we pay
them to do the lawn and help with chores, why not hire them for
helping in our home business? As they work, of course, they’ll
begin to be involved in the business! I did this with my then 13
year old a few years back, and guess what? He now has a thriving
EBay business of his own! More on EBay in a moment.

The main point with pre-teens is to engage them in some way
with your Internet business and/or other Internet businesses.
For some children, this is just the spark they need. Don’t
forget - they’re always going to learn important life skills as
they work in a business environment.

Teens

If you don’t get your pre-teens too excited, don’t worry - just
be patient for a couple of years. When they become 14 and older,
you’ll have a whole new set of opportunities…

By now, their computer and Internet skills should be fairly
well developed - most kids learn with their friends and at
school these days. And, their desire to make money has
intensified as well! Use this desire to get them involved with
Internet business.

Here are two ways:

As with pre-teens, you can hire them to do some of your
administrative chores so you can concentrate on the single most
important part of your business: *marketing*! You can get your
teens doing data input, getting stats from ad-trackers, doing
research, and even search engine submission and other tedious
marketing tasks. Believe me; they’ll be well worth the money.
And even more important for teens, they’re going to be
developing those ever important life skills!

The *best* way to get teens involved with Internet home
business is to do what Steve Mariotti does - get them set up in
their own business! My son Ted has a thriving EBay business. He
buys damaged DVD players very inexpensively on EBay, fixes them,
and sells them for a sizeable profit, again on EBay. EBay is a
*fantastic* place for kids to learn business and make money.
Here’s a link to a useful free e-book on how to do business on
EBay for you and your teen to look over. Here’s the link:

http://www.familybizbuilder.com/ebooks/ebaybook.exe

Another good idea for teens: you might help your teen sign up
for and begin to market an affiliate program. These are strong,
established businesses that sign you up for free, give you your
own pre-made websites and even free learning programs. Here are
several sites with good resources and freebies you or your teen
should check out:

Family Biz Builder.Com (yep, that’s my site!)
http://www.familybizbuilder.com

Push Button Publishing
http://www.pushbuttonpublishing.com/affiliates .php?rid=9945

Plug In Profits http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-580

Here’s a company that will give you a great free “bundle” of
books and CD’s, just for dropping by. It’ll be very educational
for your teen (maybe even you!) Here’s the link:
http://www.quickinfo247.com/8300900/SIM

We’ve covered a lot of ground here. The next thing to do is
act! If you act on even *one* of the suggestions herein, I
guarante things will start happening with you and your child.
Talk with them about their interests, get them working in your
business, download the e-book, visit some websites. Take action
now and the rest will begin to unfold.

Here’s to you, your kids and your Internet family business!