Help Your Children Start Their Own Business

No matter who you are,  you know our current school system does not teach our children everything they need to know. It falls terribly short on real life lessons. If we as parents don't step up and help teach these lessons,  we are doing our children a disservice.

One of the lessons we should be teaching our children the value of work and creativity. How do you do that? Encourage them to start their own business. I am talking a real business in miniature, also called a micro-business. When you want your children to learn real lessons don't always let them sell something and keep all of the money. That is for younger children, but for older children it doesn't teach them the true nature of business. I have done it with my children and my parents did it with me. This did teach me that work produces rewards, but it did not teach me about all of the other things involved with business.

Even taking business classes doesn't give anyone the knowledge and wisdom that real world experience can. I believe my college degree just proved I was willing to do what was necessary to get through. There is nothing I learned in school that I couldn't have learned in life.

What things do running your own business teach you? Hang on we are going to cover quite a bit.

Expenses Come Off the Top

Like I said above I remember selling things when I was a kid and keeping all of the money. It wasn't til much later that I realized the materials I used to make things cost money. Money my parents spent. Of course most of my projects were made from recycled materials and still are, but some portion is new.

We found an idea for a business for our kids. Both are artists. They have different styles, but both are very good. They are going to start making wall art.

I make the canvases and get them ready for them to work their magic. They come up with designs and then have to assemble the supplies they need to make their design. As soon as the first one sells they have to pay back what was spent on supplies. Anything over that is profit.

Advertising

You cannot expect people to buy something they do not know exists. You have to let people know. Today this is a lot easier than when I was a kid. I mowed yards for extra money. I remember going to people and asking if they needed someone to mow their yard. Today we have the internet. You can let thousands of people know about a product just by writing.

There are also craft shows. A craft show teaches then to make a lot and have a delayed return. There is also the expense of booth rental. All of this is paid before a sale takes place.

Production

You cannot expect people to buy a product they have not seen. I let them know there is a custom made market put there, but until they establish themselves and have a solid portfolio of products they have made they cannot expect people to order things unseen.

Also since they have shown an interest in craft shows they will have to produce enough to fill a booth. I have never seen a crafter's booth with only two items. You have to have enough items to make a good showing.

Pricing

Just because you think your work is priceless doesn't mean everyone else does. If the world based prices on me not much would cost what it does today. My children can set any price they want, but if people won't pay what they are asking they will make no money.

The reverse of this is also true. You can price your items too low. People may buy what you have like crazy, but if you have not included a high enough profit margin you will not be in business for long.

Sales and Customer Service

I am willing to help my children all I can, but I am not going to do it for them. At least not without price. If my children want to keep more of the profits they have to do the sales. If they want me to sell for them I should get a commission. This is just the way life works. My daughter is quite shy, but she will learn at the very least cordial communication.

Investment

Just because you have repaid your initial start up costs does not mean you get to spend all of the profits. You must take part of the money you make from each sale and apply it to supplies for future projects.

Just having stated this outright to my children made them look at business differently. People do not get to keep all the money they make.

Hard work can and should pay off. There are tons of lessons to be learned by your children starting their own business. Who knows, maybe you could learn some things too.

The best thing about your children starting their own business is they learn to relay on themselves. That alone helps them have a brighter future.

Maybe a family business could help you achieve your Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

If you would like to purchase some of my daughter's artwork please contact me at theruraleconomist@gmail.com

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Make it at Home Gifts #1 (suitable for children)

This year my wife said that I shouldn't spend any money for Mother's Day. I agreed but could not let her celebrate the occasion without some type of gift to show how much I appreciate her. So what do I do? I got to the work shop.

I know it is too late to use these ideas for this year's Mother's Day, but I couldn't post them ahead of time or she would have known what I was doing. These ideas can be used as gifts for any occasion or just to show you care for someone. In all I am going to cover three projects. I will assign difficulty levels, list materials needed, cover costs and offer step by step instructions. I hope you enjoy these posts. I will make sure they are all linked.

All of these projects were made from reclaimed pallets. Despite what many people say on Pinterest I very rarely find pallets for free, but I can consistently buy pallets any where from 25¢ to $2.00 depending on size and shape of the pallet.

Also please also realize that difficulty levels I assign are based on use of hand tools only. I do not have a table saw or router or anything like that. Difficulty level will probably go down with more advanced tools. 

Project: Photo Zigzag Displayer

Difficulty Level: Beginner (if an adult cuts the pieces this is an excellent project for children)

Cost: $3.00 to $12.00 dependent on if you have any of the materials on hand before beginning.

Actual cost: Maybe $1.00 (you will have enough supplies leftover to do another project.)

Take a 6 inch wide board, normally the outside crossboards in a pallet and cut 3, 7 inch pieces. 

Sand each individual piece.

Nail the pieces together at right angles creating a zigzag pattern. Then paint. You can use any color you want, I chose black. Lowe's has a can of gloss black paint for $0.99 from Project Source. Small box of nails less than $2.00, you will only have to use 12 nails. There will be a lot left over for other projects.

Select the pictures you want to use. Remember if you use actual photos you will not be able to get them off later. I printed our photos from the computer. A good quality photo paper with a matte finish will work best. Allow your photos to completely dry before you continue.

Cut your photos to size and glue a photo to each section. I used wood glue because that is what I had on hand. Any white school glue will do nicely. Allow to dry completely. A small bottle of glue can be bought at the Dollar Store for, you guessed it $1.00.

After the glue has completely dried spray with high gloss varnish or lacquer. When it dries you are done. A spray can of gloss lacquer costs anywhere from $3.00 to $9.00 depending on name brand.

That is it.

I hope you enjoy these projects and I wish you...

Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

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Just a Little Crafty and A Crafting Fail

I am not what most people would call artsy. With me function is king. When my wife told me she really wanted a bedside table I said, "We have those old potato crates that can be stacked and make a real nice bedside table". I thought it would look nice, but that was not the look she was hoping for. She still doesn't have that table, it was not that high on the priorities list.

If I were to try to define my style, I would call it Rustic Chic. Before today I didn't even know that was a term and I still believe it was only coined so folks like me could feel like we are at least a little in style with something. In fact the term is being debated as to whether it is a complement to rural/country people or an insult. Let's see, city people buying things to decorate their homes or offices to look like what they think country peoples homes used to look like. Hum, I don't care. Some people just want to be offended. I wouldn't care if they called it Rural Chic. Hey I may have coined a new term.

It is the holiday season and we are rapidly coming up on Christmas. Fresh cut Christmas trees have arrived by the thousands at local home improvement, department stores, and even vacant lots. Before these beautiful trees go to homes and are decorated for the season the bottom branches are removed and part of the lower stump is cut off and discarded. That is where the gears should start turning in our heads.

As you can see in the picture above I took some of the limbs that were trimmed and decorated the hearth. We had the artificial poinsettia blooms and the painted pine cones already. Total cost of this decoration zero dollars.

On To The Trunk

From the trunk I decided to make drink coasters. I am not sure where I got the idea, but a friend of mine and myself both decided to do the same thing. He was lucky enough to work the Christmas trees on Black Friday, so he was able to use the electric chainsaw and cut pieces to the right thickness from the very beginning. I wasn't so lucky so I took all of the larger pieces I could find. I have found that larger pieces are easier to work with and you can get more coasters out of each piece.

This would be really easy if I had a band saw, but I don't so I am using the fold-able pruning saw that I keep in the truck with me. The most challenging parts are trying to keep a consistent thickness between the pieces (or at least close enough) and keeping each piece the same thickness all the way across. Some variation is acceptable and adds character to the coaster, but I do not want the glass to look like it is leaning. I had to throw a couple away due to uneven thickness.

There you go. Just a little sanding and a coat or two of spar varnish and these coaster will last for years. Great for the home, great as gifts and if you don't varnish them they only cost you some time and sweat. By the way you cannot find coaster like this on Amazon, at least I have not been able to and on eBay a set of 4 runs from $10.00 to $20.00 a set.

The coaster pictured above is large enough to be a pot holder as well.

A word if warning if the 12 coasters I cut 9 cracked. I don't know if this is unique to Douglas Fir. I have never had wood crack this bad before.

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May you have Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes.

For instructions on making a homemade wreath you can go here. You can always scale it down to fit your need.

http://learningandyearning.com/2010/12/11/evergreen-christmas-wreath/