I recently found myself at a relatively unusual conference where children who operated businesses gathered to be mentored and generally learn more about business.
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I took my 14-year-old son to the conference, which was held in Sydney. My son runs a business that is all about manifesting luck, courage, love, healing, prosperity and protection. This is done through a set of four white handmade dolls, the business is called DooVoo Dolls. The dolls have the special insides made of freshly dried herbs from our garden (which he grows).
When I ask my son about the conference, he said he learned:
- to outsource the production as soon as possible;
- no matter how small the group of people is, there will always be demand for the product;
- delaying gratification was a good thing and
- business success happened as a result of the work you put into it.
These are lessons we can apply to all our businesses.
Take, for example, 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio, an Australian app developer who sold his company Summly, which summarises the news, to Yahoo for $30 million. Or Adora Svitak, an American writer, speaker and advocate who was introduced to the world at the age of six, and whose 2010 TED talk "What Adults Can Learn From Kids" has had millions of views.
Because of technology, their "lemonade stand" can be on any street corner of any city in the world.
I would love to see more schools and more parents supporting children when they show an interest in running a businesses. The skills they learn will be invaluable in later life.
My son says he loves running his business because it is fun, and it gets him money. Great reasons to run a business.
Michelle Crawford is the founder of Newcastle-based human resources firm Being More Human