At what age should children be taught entrepreneurial skills? According to Dutch Postbank, any age is a good time to start for young entrepreneurs. Dutch Postbank is providing children that open a new bank account with a briefcase full of supplies to help them start their first business. The briefcase includes materials for printing t-shirts, stickers, letterhead, flyers, and business cards. Dutch Postbank website also provides these budding entrepreneurs with templates to choose a business name, create a business logo, and advertising and promotional material, which they can print out and distribute (possibly door-to-door and in neighborhood mailboxes). Postbank offers suggestions to these kidpreneurs as to what businesses they could start, including washing cars, mowing lawns, dog walking, and household chores. I think that programs like these do wonders in terms of ensuring future business success for children. Schools cant teach hands-on experience like these types of programs could. This is real-world experience for kids. There is no better way to teach kids business skills like handling money, selling, and advertising then to have them do it themselves. I'd like to see more institutions and even governments expand on programs like this. An entrepreneur that starts off at a young age can have a better chance at entrepreneurial success as an adult. Not only that, I think it would be quite cute to see neighborhood children walking around distributing flyers and promotional material with their new business briefcases. |