This blog post, Mini-preneur to Entrepreneur Activities for kids at home, is dedicated to the parents who want to share some fun entrepreneurial lessons with their kids at home.
Right before the world changed due to COVID-19, I was preparing for our local Children’s Business Fair annual educational session. A year ago, the coordinator of our local fair had contacted me because she wanted to add an educational component to the business fair so that the young entrepreneurs could learn more about business (besides just selling their products at the annual fair). We had our first one last spring. This would have been the second one – which is unfortunately postponed until the crisis subsides.
Since that is the case for many events and many kids are at home, I thought I would take a moment and share a version of the activities that were planned so that you could do them at home with your own mini-preneur to entrepreneur!. These activities will work well for kids ages 5-8 and depending on age and the number of kids you have at home, may need parent assistance.
If you would missed our last blog post that listed activities for older kids CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!
Mini-preneur to Entrepreneur Activity Unit #1 – What is Your Dream Business?:
Work with your child to answer the questions below to come up with their dream business.
List 2 things you like to do for fun or when you’re bored:
List 2 things you are good at:
List a problem you know of at home, school or your community:
What are some ways you could put them all together to come with your dream business that will help change the world?
List your Dream Business here:
Mini-preneur to Entrepreneur Activity Unit #2 – Getting money to start your business:
Work with your child to explain that there a few ways that people obtain money to start their businesses. The most common include: 1) Bootstrapping – they save up their own money and start small. Kids can do chores around the house (in addition to the ones already expected of them) to earn money. 2) Angel Investor – this is someone who is interested in them and usually wants to be paid back or wants some equity (a percentage) of their business. This could also be a friend or family member. 3) Banks – this is called debt financing and is the most common for businesses. They will lend money if the person or business has collateral or is putting some of their own money into the business. The borrower has pay back the amount borrowed plus interest. The interest rate depends on the market and the credit rating of the person borrowing the money (The better the credit rating, the lower the rate.) 4) Venture Capitalist – if your child watches Shark Tank – these investors are venture capitalists. They are investing to make money and don’t usually invest in start-up businesses. They want a proven record of sales and growth before they will invest.
Here are 3 fun activities you can do with your child:
1) Have your kids come up with a list of the things they need to have to start their business and look up costs online. These are called start-up costs.
2) Develop a business funding chart. Create a list that you and your child agree on that they can do around the house to earn money. List the items, how much they will be paid and a due date.
3) Have your child visit the banker (you as the parent will play the banker role) and tell them about their dream business and why they chose that idea.
-Have them tell the banker how they will earn money to put toward their business.
-Then ask the banker about getting a loan to help them start it. You could have the kids Roll a dice for the banker to give them a loan.
-Banker gives the kids $100 per number on the dice.
Mini-preneur to Entrepreneur Activity Unit #3 – Creating a Marketing Flyer
Have your child create a one-page marketing flyer for their business. Answer the questions below for information they want to include on the brochure.
-Who is their customer and what problem are they solving?
-What is included in their product or service (how are they solving the problem)?
-What are the benefits to the customer (example: save time, save money, less stress).
-What colors do they want to use?
-Think of some ideas for a business name:
Mini-preneur to Entrepreneur Activity Unit #4 – Play the Biz Ops Game to learn how a business operates
-Play the Biz Ops Game: Do It Yourself – abbreviated version. Note: This is more fun with more than one child at a time. For Setup you will need: Play money (you can make it or pull from a game you have at home), sheets of Plain Copy Paper, Duct Tape, A sheet to list sales and expenses, colored markers. Set up a duct tape runway that is about 10-15 feet long with an X at the end as the target. (NOTE: you can click here to watch a video of the game being played ). You as the parent, will be the customer they sell their paper airplanes to and the person that sells the paper (raw materials) and the colored markers.
-Your child(ren) starts with a $200 loan (you can create some play money or pull some from another game you have at home) from the bank.
-Tell the children they are running their own paper airplane business where they will make, test, fly their airplanes on the duct tape runway and sell them to customer. Quality counts so they will get more if it lands on the X (and flies straight).
-They need to come up with a company name – have them write it on the top of the sheet that they are going to list their sales and expenses.
-Tell them they will need to buy raw materials (paper) and supplies to decorate them. The paper is $100 a sheet. Also, tell them that the customer likes color and creativity so they will get more if they decorate them so they will need to buy colored markers for $20 each.
-Help them with their sales skills and writing down their expenses and sales so they can figure out their profit at the end. They should write down how many planes they sell, how much they got from the customer when they sold them and how much they spent on the materials and supplies. This can be played multiple rounds as time permits. At the end have them add up their sales, expenses and calculate net profit by taking total sales minus total expenses. The child with the highest net profit wins.
If you like the game and want a more formal version – Click here to order The Biz Ops Game Home edition
If you would like to learn more about youth entrepreneurship, you can click here to take the first 3 lessons of our new online Business Bootcamp for kids Free!
Julie Ann Wood is the Chief Cultivator at Eseedling and has been empowering kids through entrepreneurship for the past 15 years. She has turned her knowledge and experience into books and materials for teachers and organizations so that they can implement entrepreneurship and empower youth to change the world. You can learn more at eseedling.com.
