Teaching Children Entrepreneurship and Business Skills
Teaching children about entrepreneurship, business, and being resourceful with the items they own is a valuable life lesson to learn. I personally like to use hands-on and real-life situations as teaching opportunities.
Have Your Children Put Their Unused Items to Better Use
If you recently purchased camping gear, a new bike, or an RV, I’d say you are pretty lucky. In all of those categories, supply has far outstripped demand. Now that your kids have scored those new bikes, what’s next?
Our family is one of the lucky ones that was able to purchase one of the last pairs of kids bikes from our local bike shop a couple of months ago. We had to buy the premium ones too. The entry-level bikes were already all sold out.
If your kids are anything like mine, the first few weeks they ride them 3x a day and explore everywhere they can reach with them. At some point, the newness starts to wear off and you see them starting to sit idle more and more often. Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed they even go days without being used.
How to Train Children to be Entrepreneurial and Resourceful
We are working hard to instill an entrepreneurial growth mindset into our daughters. My bike was already rental ready and listed on RentItems. These are their bikes though. While I did purchase them, what happens to their bikes is their decision. So, I approached them to see if they would be interested in renting their bikes as well. What really got them onboard was the community impact with a financial benefit. We talked about how there are many kids who either can’t afford new bikes right now or can’t find one to buy. They had already loaned their bikes to some friends in this situation. The community sharing point just made sense to them. Then we discussed that when people rent stuff they actually pay you money! Because the bikes are theirs, I agreed to give them some of the rental income. We would split the rental income and split the cost (if they ever arose). When my daughter heard she might get $20 dollars for sharing her bike her eyes lit up and she was sold!
Rental Risk and Reward
They did ask, “What happens if it gets broken?” I was transparent that it is a real possibility. I shared my experience with hundreds of thousands of rentals over the last 20-years and how rare damages are. It turns out, people actually take good care of other people’s stuff! We also discussed the economics of the situation and how the rental income helps cover the cost of any damages. I also explained the RentItems coverage options. They decided to take it initially, just for peace of mind.
Simply Share It. Simply Rent It. Simply Love It!
Next time you are lucky enough to own that expensive item or buy the last one of something that your community wants and needs, consider sharing it. We already share with people we’d hug. It can be a bit more uncomfortable when it’s someone you don’t know well. It’s a handshake relationship, not a hug. At RentItems, we turn a handshake into a hug and teach kids to be young entrepreneurs!
Josh Nickell is a Rental and Sharing Expert at RentItems. He has over 20-years of rental industry experience. He helps business leaders, city leaders, and community leaders understand how the sharing economy intersects with the rental industry. Josh also helps leaders leverage rental technology to drive positive change and growth. Josh’s deep knowledge and understanding of the sharing economy and circular economy and how they relate to the rental industry is a unique expertise.