Entrepreneurship – is it worth the hassle?

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Welcome to the December 2011 edition of A Living Education E-zine!

Perhaps I should begin by defining what an “entrepreneur” is so that we are all on the same page before I launch into my thoughts on the matter.

According to WIKI an entrepreneur “is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative”. The rest of the article can be read here and makes very interesting reading, in particular the list of people who fit into this definition.

An entrepreneur can also be a person who either sees or isolates a need in the market place and then sets out to fill the gap with a business, providing labor or a service to the community. Further to this an entrepreneur is a person who is willing to take a risk, spend some time and often some money to pursue an idea.

Why entrepreneurship?

The benefit of entrepreneurial thinking is that besides for not being dependent on someone else for you paycheck, an entrepreneur also becomes a job creator. In our country we have a 25% unemployment rate, but more startling is that between the ages of 15 and 24 at least 57% of them are unemployed. We need job creators in this country, but in other countries where the rates are better there are other reasons for parents to raise entrepreneurs…

Worldwide, since 2008, people have been struggling financially because of the different economic meltdowns. Debt ridden societies, paycheck dependent people, unemployment and other issues have caught up with most world economies.

Yes, I am not so naïve to say that entrepreneurs have not been impacted, but those who have always needed to rely on their own wits, ideas and guts are able to morph with the changing tides far better than those who have only ever worked payday to payday.

Charlotte Mason Style Entrepreneurs

Because a Charlotte Mason education focuses on using whole books as a learning method, it gives the parent the opportunity to read about the lives of great men and woman from the past with their children.

From missionaries like Gladys Alyward through to inventors like Edison, Carver and Franklin, these kinds of stories inspire our children to ask the question: “What can I do for mankind?”

Growing your entrepreneur

How can you go about raising children who will be job creators, entrepreneurs and independent of paycheck thinking? Can you believe that it all starts off with chores?

Well, yes it does! By teaching our children to be hard workers in our homes we can be sure that they will learn the diligence, problem solving, decision making and task completion that they will one day need in any job – their own or as an employee.

You can also encourage entrepreneurship through holding market days with your children. Every year for the last 11 years we have organized a homeschoolers market day where the children can sell their crafts, baked goods, set up games stalls, sell second hand items, do face painting or any other idea relevant to the day.

As they move into the teen years you can begin to expose them to careers by trying this idea.

You can also encourage them to try part time work which could perhaps be one or another of what our children have tried – babysitting, giving horse riding lessons, teaching guitar, gardening jobs, washing cars and waitrons. Others we know have part time jobs at stores or elsewhere.

They could also sell their own crafts – our one daughter makes cards to sell and used to make soap for others.

A special offer for growing entrepreneurs

At 13 years of age, my daughter created her first website on horses. She used the same company as I did when I created my sisterhood of sites.

Today at 17yrs of age she has a website with great potential to be a passive income source for many years to come and it only takes her about 4 hours a week to maintain.

From now until the 25th of December, Sitesell is running a special offer for those who are looking for a way to create their own online business using their own specific knowledge or interests.

The cool thing about this offer is that you and your children can learn together...

Buy-one-get-one-free offer from Sitesell means that if you buy a package to create your website on anything from gardening to sites in your hometown, you can give your teen a lifelong gift when they learn to build their own website on their interests.

If you would like more information before hitting the purchase button please feel free to contact me via my website and I will do my utmost to help you with your decision.

Remember the offer is only on until the 25th December.

Can you help?

Here are some recent queries which could do with more input from other homeschool moms.

Scheduling help needed

Understanding nature study

Do you have any homeschool questions? What about a curriculum or resource you would like to review? You can ask your questions here and post your reviews here.

Take care until next time,
God’s richest blessings to you as you homeschool,
Wendy

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