I have two children, 7 and 4, and I’m separating from the military with separation pay and just took the Boots to Business Course. I want to start a business and put my children to work so they can learn about earning and work ethic. My wife thinks we should start a fruit stand or restaurant. I envision a small commercial gym. What ideas do y’all have or seen that is attainable and children will get the most out of
Family Business Idea
byu/Consistent_Handle823 inEntrepreneur
Posted by Consistent_Handle823
7 Comments
Restaurant especially since you don’t know what you’re doing have low profit margins and high turnover. If you want your kids to learn about earning and work ethic I don’t think investing in a business the sole purpose of having them be financially literate at a young age seems like a reasonable excuse to start a business. I have no idea what the course you took is but it doesn’t matter. The enormous amount of time and energy spent to run a small business and not to mention the investment. There are much better ways like having them work at someone else’s food service company . To prepare them for whatever real world you’re envisioning I image they wouldn’t be typically employed by mom and dad when they get older. A business run properly is a lot more work than a job. Thr example you would be setting is investing a lot of money in a business you don’t have a passion or concept for otherwise your wife and you would know what you wanted to do and employing your children wouldn’t be the main reason.
Child labor laws?
Jokes aside, I pulled weeks and mopped floors for my dad all growing up. Whatever you do you’ll find small ways to include them.
Like ASL when I was younger.
Location, skillset, hobbies, etc?
gun sales
Depends on where are you living. It may be worth to do a some type of “market research” and find out what is missing/ what could use an improvment in your neigbourhood/town.
Standard advice is never do business with friends, family. Again and again people counter with, “You don’t know my friends, family.”
When they post how their special snowflake ass was not actually the exception to every rule and all business advice, it comes out more like, “I don’t even KNOW you people.”
Now for the bad news. Everybody who ever put a pot right-side-up on a stove thinks they can launch a successful restaurant. What they will never do is anything successful restaurants do, like a pop-up market experiment.
The wrong way is dump all your money into a venture up-front, market blind. That means any venture. Run a cheap, quick, economic experiment called a smoke test — pop-ups are just one type.
This *way of starting* beats getting the magical ‘right’ answer when …you never mentioned the location …the competition …or anything else about business. That’s not learning about work. That is learning about belief.
For a restaurant you would run the pop-up. If it was a success, then move to a food truck to scout locations. Only with these two pieces in place would you ever even think about the sit-down everybody wants to start with and dump all their money into, right away.
You should learn about business. Try working smart rather than hard and pointlessly. Never start as a business owner with an employee frame of mind.
[Is a small business the way to do it, these days?](https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1cvhwt6/is_a_small_business_the_way_to_do_it_these_days/l4pgomg/)
[Let’s Talk About Pop-ups](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on407hjn1xw) Because if I don’t nobody else here will.
[Owning a restaurant: I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy](https://www.reddit.com/r/restaurantowners/comments/17kzg11/owning_a_restaurant_i_wouldnt_wish_it_on_my_worst/)
Hey brother, hit me up. I’m a vet who loves entrepreneurship. I’d be happy to hear more about your situation and see what you can monetize most effectively.