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I was fortunate to be exposed to the importance of the entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. Though I had no idea what an entrepreneur was or what they did, I was influenced by my schoolteacher parents, who involved my brother and me in our family's side hustle: renovating homes.
My parents came from humble backgrounds. My mother was homeless for part of her childhood, and my father was an immigrant who came from few resources. When they were married, a home represented much more than a place to live. It was safety and security.
Almost every summer growing up, we would move into a new home that met the threshold of being the worst house on a nice street, with the goal of renovating and updating it before the start of the school year.
To my brother and I, it seemed like a great adventure to move into a new home every summer and help our parents scrape paint, sand floors and hang wallpaper. We didn't realize at the time that our parents were helping the family live more comfortably and teaching us about the importance of hard work and channeling our entrepreneurial drive.
Today, as a parent of three young boys, I'm also trying to foster an early understanding of financial literacy, business concepts and entrepreneurism in my kids. Not just because I want my children to be financially secure as adults but also because I know having that entrepreneurial drive is a great foundation for whatever they pursue as they get older.
My oldest is a budding chicken farmer at the age of seven. My family lives in the country, and he wanted to try raising chickens and selling their eggs to our neighbors.
As basic as it sounds, it's become a fun way for him to learn responsibilities like feeding the chickens and cleaning their coop while being exposed to the concepts of buying and selling products. It's fun for him, but it's also helping to ingrain a level of financial literacy, just as reading to him as a baby and toddler contributed to his traditional literacy.
While some effort has been made in recent years to integrate financial literacy into elementary and high school curriculums, there remains a significant gap in educating children and youth about personal finances, business principles and entrepreneurship.
According to a 2024 report by The National Financial Educators Council, not one American state meets even the basic standards for educating students in financial literacy, stating: "While standards for K-12 education have been reformed, no state applies those same standards for rigor, instruction time, or teacher preparation to its financial literacy requirements. Not a single state prioritizes financial education as a core subject area."
The report also notes that this failure to address a critical aspect of basic education has consequences: "Only 57% of Americans are financially literate, ranking the country 14th in the world on that metric; and four out of five U.S. adults say they were never given an opportunity to learn about personal finance."
Those numbers can lead to extremely poor financial decisions like taking on too much debt, entering into high-interest loans that can never be paid off, and, in the most extreme cases, bankruptcies, which rose 16% in June 2024 compared to 2023.
Just because schools aren't measuring up on teaching financial literacy, there are steps parents can take to help educate the entrepreneurs of the future.
Related: How to Raise Entrepreneurial Minded Kids
1. Give your own lessons on financial literacy at home
From the old-fashioned piggy bank to a basic savings account to creating a budget to buy a prized toy with a weekly allowance, there are lots of ways to get kids thinking about how money works.
Parents often shy away from discussing finances with their kids, which can do them a disservice. You don't need to discuss your 401k, but even just getting them to find the cheaper peanut butter at the grocery store or showing them how your car payment works can go a long way toward establishing a foundation for understanding finances.
2. Encourage entrepreneurial reading
There are dozens of great books you can give or read to your child to help teach basicfinancial literacy lessonsy. One of my sons' favorites is the Lawn Boy series by Gary Paulsen, about a 12-year-old who uses his grandfather's riding mower to create a neighborhood lawn care empire one summer. Other great options include Investing for Kids: From Piggy Banks to Portfolios, Bunny Money by Rosemary Wells, or The Berenstain Bears' Dollars and Sense.
Related: These Are the 3 Things That Make Daymond John Want to Give You Money
3. Help your child start a small business
Most of us remember trying to sell lemonade from a table on the front lawn at some point during our childhood, or we had enterprising friends who tried it. While people may be less inclined to buy food or drink from strangers these days, kids can offer to mow neighbors' lawns, rake leaves, shovel snow – or yes, even start a chicken coop.
Making signs and flyers to promote their business is a great way to teach kids about marketing, setting prices in line with demand, interacting with "customers," and exchanging services for cash.
Related: 4 Pillars for Raising Entrepreneurial Children
While some parents feel finances and business are not a subject for kids, I believe offering basic, age-appropriate lessons to kids can have a huge impact as they grow up.
Just like exposing them to a second language from a young age can create language pathways that make learning languages easier later in life, the same philosophy holds true for educating children on the basics of economics and business.
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