We started on this 2 days ago. To read up on the first part, click here.

5. Let your child know that goal setting is vital for future success
People who don’t have personal visions and goals for their future usually don’t achieve much. Let your children define and write down their top 10 goals and then choose the one goal that would make the biggest positive impact in their life. That goal should be their main focus. Work with them to write down the steps necessary to accomplish this exciting goal and encourage them to start taking action on those steps immediately. A good way to work at this goal is to use a vision board. It might be just be easier for younger kids to flow with pictures as they may not be able to articulate their top goals yet. It is also fun working with them on this.

6. Allow your child to sell
Selling is one ability that will last a lifetime because it is applied to all types of businesses and careers. It could be selling products and services to customers or even raising capital from investors. Selling is a vital to the success of any business. You can make this a reality by encouraging your children to start with small projects like selling toys, starting a lemonade stand, selling handmade goods, selling books, etc. Let them price their products, sell to customers and facilitate the transactions when sales are made. It will help to define a lot of things when they are grown-ups.

7. Allow your child to lead
Children are taught in school to follow the rules. They are taught to learn and memorize facts instead of becoming independent thinkers. Entrepreneurship forces people to think “outside of the box,” create unique solutions, and lead others. Therefore it will make sense to ensure kids know how to lead from when they are young. Give your children the opportunity to lead their friends in fun activities such as outdoor sports, book clubs, music practice, and small business projects. You can also encourage them to propose toasts and small speeches at family functions and birthday parties. This will give them experience in public speaking and make your children leaders at an early age. This will result in more income, opportunities and self-confidence in their lives.

8. Teach your child effective communication
Most children today are terrible at face-to-face and telephone communication because of the popularity of social media and text messaging. Successful businesses require that people actually speak to one another. Teaching your children to communicate effectively will provide them with the winning edge in business and in their personal relationships. You can teach this by leading by example first of all. Be polite and respectful. Most importantly, practice maintaining eye contact when speaking in person. When using the telephone, teach your children to speak slowly and clearly. A bonus activity would be to practice communicating to your children with e-mails. Do not allow them to abbreviate words and phrases, but instead, write grammatically correct sentences that flow together and express a complete message.

9. Inspire your child to be creative
Inspiring creativity in your child will help them build marketing skills. Teaching children about marketing is a crucial way to prepare them to attract customers to their future business. As you know, without customers, even the greatest business will fail. This is a very beneficial skill to learn while young. Let them be motivated to observe marketing materials such as billboards, promotional banners in front of businesses, printed advertisements in magazines, and television/radio commercials. Encourage them to create their own marketing materials using what they learn daily for their business ideas.

10. Let your child know that giving back creates happiness
Why do you start a business if it doesn’t support a greater cause? Life is about giving back. Like Adeolu Akinyemi, a successful entrepreneur, said Thomas Edison didn’t put the world in darkness, yet he took charge for lighting it. We all need to take responsibility for the greater good of all. It is, therefore, important for your children to develop the characteristic of helping others. This concept will allow them stay humble during periods of great success and also give them the insight that a successful business provides benefits to more than just it’s owner. People that contribute to the success of others live happy and content lives. To develop this skill, work with your child to choose a charity or special cause to support with a portion of the income that they generate.

– Gbonjubola Sanni