How to Get Your Children More Involved in Your Business

Many people have a dream of running a family business. They want a legacy to leave with their children.

The problem is that your dream is not your child’s dream, and I don’t believe in forcing a child to participate in a family-run business.

Sure, at a young age, it could be worth encouraging them to help with a few chores, in the way that they would help around the house. But to force them to work within the business in an attempt to push them to take it over isn’t something I am for.

Children need to discover their own paths and their own enjoyment.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t open the door for them to follow your dream. You may find that they want to, and here’s how you can encourage them to get involved in your business.

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You want to get your children involved early on. This means encouraging them to do some tasks, whether it’s doing a bit of cleaning around the office where you can explain the nature of the work you do, or organizing the shelves if you have a customer-facing business.

This can be a little harder with digital businesses.

When I worked as a Weight Watchers Leader, I would get my daughter to help with putting out the chocolates at the meetings and organizing the weekly magazines that were given at each weigh-in.

Now that I do everything online, I encourage my daughters to help with some social media tasks as they show interest, and I explain a few of the tasks that I’m doing. They also help with rearranging bookshelves when I have new deliveries that I need to find a home for.

The younger they are, the more they’re going to be exposed to the work you do. However, you want to make this as fun as possible.

As they get older, they can start doing more work-based tasks. For some, it’ll be to create marketing campaigns with Canva and other tools. They may have a key design eye.

With my eldest, we chat about social media and strategy. She has her own YouTube channel now, so we talk about how to market things and about the algorithm.

When it comes to my youngest, she is more into reading, and we talk about the books. I can add a few of her thoughts if we’ve ended up reading the same novel — I get a lot of YA books — and I make sure to credit her with any of the words she says.

Their dad runs a business, and the eldest will go out to help with any markets and fairs that he does. She can answer some of the basic questions and encourage people to come over to the booth. As the youngest gets older, she’ll be able to do something similar. For now, she spends time handing out flyers and business cards, because that’s an age-appropriate task for her.

It’s all treated as work. They’re viewed as part of the company her dad runs, or they’re viewed as an extension of me when it comes to my work. They’re held to the exact same standards I’d hold myself and others to.

As they get older and look for paying jobs, it’s time to have a discussion about them helping with this family business.

Do they want to see about getting a job on their own, or do they want a job with you? The former can help with in other life skills, and it is worth encouraging them to apply to other places. They get a chance to go through the application and interview process, as well as facing any rejection they experience.

Keep the door open for them to work with you. Some children could use this as a back-up, while others may be interested in the work that you do based on what they’ve seen from a young age.

Don’t get mad if they decide that they want another career path. They may find that after some time on that new career path, it’s not what they expected, and they’ll want to know that the door is open to return.

The last thing you want to do is just expect them to take over the family business. It’s not their dream, but you can help encourage them to work there so they can see what they can gain.

What do you think about children working within the family business? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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