4 Ways to Get Your Tween Involved in Your Family Business

An at home business provides many benefits.  As a work-at-home mom, you get to spend more time with your children, and your children get to see firsthand what is required to be an entrepreneur and small business owner.

If your child is interested and you are willing, you could involve your child in helping you run your business.  In a few years, your business could very well become a family business, and you could be imparting important life and business skills to your child.

Involving your child in your business can help teach them drive and initiative as well as discipline.  However, before you begin working with your child, make sure he is truly interested in working for you.  If not, you may cause more harm than good.

If your child does want to work with you, she could start as early as ten or when you think she is responsible enough.  Start slowly and gradually add on responsibilities as your child proves worthy. 

Here are some easy ways to get your tween involved in your at home business:

1.  Let them take pictures. 

If you blog or maintain a website and need pictures for visual interest, let your child take the pictures.  This is a good job for a tween because if the pictures don't turn out as you'd like, no harm is done.  They can be taken again.  If they do turn out good, you've handed over one job to your child.

2.  Let them help with the accounting. 

Of course, most tweens aren't ready to do the bookkeeping, but they can sort receipts, organize spending in categories, etc.  As your child become more familiar with the job, you can teach him to input data in your accounting software (making sure in the beginning to check the work he's done carefully).

3.  Teach them to handle the phones. 

If your business receives incoming calls, let your child work as the phone operator and answer the calls for you.  You'll handle the calls, but she'll get the experience of answering the business phone.  As her expertise grows over the years, she may be able to handle a few phone calls completely.

4.  Have them fill orders. 

If you own a business with inventory, your tween could easily process and organize the inventory.  As he gets older, he could also fill orders, with your supervision.  I listened to a man at a homeschooling convention who sold motivational CDs.  His son started in the business  receiving and organizing inventory when he was 12.  Now, that son is in his twenties, and he works full-time with his dad, even presenting at conferences right alongside his father.

The way that your tween can help you depends on the nature of your business.  These are just some ideas to get you started; there are likely many other ways your child can help.  If you think of jobs an assistant could do for you, that's the place where you can start looking for duties for your tween or teen.

Does your child assist you with your business?  If so, in what capacity?