I was just talking to a childhood friend. We have known each other since age 14. He knows me better than anyone, and knows a lot about my childhood that I have simply forgotten like my coin collection for one. But, we were talking about the good old days. I told him that the best thing I did as a child was my landscaping business. It taught me business skills which I would not have survived without. I had a difficult time getting a job as an adult. But, since I had my own business since I was 14, I had the skills to drum up customers and get jobs done! My mom, dad, friends, and others tried to talk me out of doing my business and just focus on study or getting a regular dumb minimum wage job. I am so glad that I didn’t listen to these nay-sayers. I would have been ruined if I had.
I started when I was 14 with a small lawnmover. I got half of my neighbors to hire me. I didn’t charge much, but I made fast money because their lawns were small. As time went on, I purchased a huge lawnmover that could mow huge lawns in twenty minutes. I bought a small pick up truck and started doing lawns in other neighborhoods ten minutes or more away. I was not so smart how I ran my business. If I ran it with my consciousness I have today I would be rich. But, that is okay. As a child, you are expected to make tons of dumb mistakes. The point is that I learned how to get clients, run a business, hire people, buy equipment, and more at a very young age. The other kids talked about dumb things all day long, but I was up to date on lots of political issues, business, and more!
As an adult I started a tutoring business, notary business, and several online directories — one of which makes a lot of money. Without that foundation I created as a child, I never would have succeeded as an adult. I would have been a complete failure. When your kid has a crazy idea to do a business. Don’t talk him out of it. Just talk him into thinking about the business in a reasonable and cautious way. Some people want to be millionaires overnight without understanding the complexities of growing a business. Step by step is my way, and leads to really knowing what you are doing before your business gets out of hand. And that is something to learn from!