My determined entrepreneur

[Jean in Newcastle]

Ds12 started a business when he was 8. He makes quick breads. His first (and main) clients are neighbors, friends and family.

 

Dd7 (almost 8) has been dreaming of her own business for the last 2 years. She has decided (adamantly) that she wants to have a dog training business. She works for hours with our dogs. She watches "The Dog Whisperer" DVDs and has done an on-line dog-training course. She has checked out almost every dog training book in the library (and there are a lot).

 

She wants to market her business to families who have puppies. She wants to train the children to train the puppies. She has made countless prizes for the children to reward their good efforts. She has put so many hours into this.

 

Both dh and I have gently talked to her about how her business may not find clients. We only know one family in all of our neighbors, friends and family who have both a puppy and children - and who knows if they would be interested in such a thing? She wants to advertise in "The Times". We've told her that there may be problems with people accepting an 8 year old teacher. We've done everything except for outright forbidding her from pursuing this. She is so determined. Dh says I just need to let her try and be ready to help her pick herself up if it fails.

 

Any advice? Could we be setting ourselves up for legal problems if she even advertised to people outside of our neighbors, friends and family?

 

I do not want to break her spirit but I don't want to set her up for abject failure either.

[ChristusG]

The one thing I would definitely veto is advertising in the paper. Who knows what sort of strangers you could get that way. And I would not want them interacting with my 8 year old daughter.

 

Other than that, I'm not sure what to tell you. I have a determined little one too. She's five. We had a garage sale last weekend and she spent the weeks leading up to it creating all sorts of things to sell at her own little table at the garage sale. I kept trying to gently tell her that people will probably not buy the sorts of things she was creating. One man purchased something from her, and then my parents and sisters stopped by and bought her out. :D So in the end, she was happy. But I think she would have been sad had she not sold anything.

 

What your daughter is doing definitely may be hard to market....but maybe you can allow her to market only to people on your street, and to people that you know. Gently tell her that she may need to branch out and do other things rather than just training kids to train their dogs.

[Sahamamama]

Seriously, I think you should go to Cesar's website and ask him what he thinks you should do.

 

http://www.cesarmillaninc.com

 

Any young child with this amount of passion deserves to be honored, advocated for, and encouraged, IMO. You and your husband must be an amazing set of parents, to have such ambitious, passionate, hardworking, and intelligent children. I commend you! :thumbup:

[LauraGB]

That is difficult. My dd started making dog treats and selling them to friends and family around that age, too, so naturally ds wanted to start his own business. The problem with ds's business ideas are very similar to what you are going through - what market for a small child with really big ideas?

 

We gently tried to explain that to pursue a business like that requires a *lot* of experience. People work very hard and go to school for very long hours to get proficient enough at the job to be hireable. I guess we more or less just put it off for a while by preaching the "practice makes perfect" mantra.

 

Hope you get better advice than mine; its all I could come up with!

[PhunandFonics]

Jean,

 

Trying to think of some alternative ways that she could channel her energy... what about helping her write an e-book and then selling it online? 4-H also has some great opportunities and perhaps you could explain that people must have a resume and that she must continue to build hers before opening for business. She could do some of the dog projects for 4-H, attend local dog shows, or volunteer for a shelter. Where we live there is an all volunteer organization that helps people with dog training. They offer everything from puppy training to intervention with aggressive dogs.

 

I admire her gusto, she's just too young to understand all the pros and cons. I just hope you can find a way to help her continue her dream, just via a reasonable detour. :lol:

[cougarmom4]

Could she perhaps start a business to take care of pets when owners are out of town? Or a dog-walking business?

[Anne]

I have a cat and I go out of town frequently. I hire a neighbor child to come in and take care of the cat while I'm gone. I would hire a responsible 7 yo if the parent was prepared to back her up. My cat is thrilled when I go out of town - the cat sitter gives him way more attention than I do!

 

Anne

[Caraway]

Could she do it online? She could have a whole website with advice, techniques etc... Kids could send her questions to answer on the site.

[angela in ohio]

I think it is vital, even while we teach an entrepreneurial spirit, that we teach our children reality. The reality of the business model is that you generally start with a need and then create the product. I know many adults who are struggling because they have their dream, but it doesn't match the market. Sometimes they will do okay for a while, as children do, because friends and family feel sorry for them and support their business. It generally doesn't end well, though. I think it is far better to teach our dc right from the beginning the truth about the business model.

 

As her parents, I would explain to her the reality of the situation and steer her into another area. Start by brainstorming possible needs in the community that she is capable of filling. At seven, there will not be many, and you can talk, like a PP said, about the need for training and experience, and you can talk about doing well in her school work so that she learns what she needs.

[Beth in OH]

Jean,

 

Trying to think of some alternative ways that she could channel her energy...

 

perhaps you could explain that people must have a resume and that she must continue to build hers before opening for business. ....

 

I admire her gusto, she's just too young to understand all the pros and cons. :

 

:iagree:

 

My suggestion for volunteer resume building is with a breed rescue that fosters dogs. We recently completed a search for a rescue puppy, and through it we discovered a wonderful collie rescue in which the organization's leadership is very into developing responsible pet owners and adopting out well-behaved rescues. The foster families in this organization (I'm becoming one :lol:) would probably welcome her into their home to work with a dog on a weekly basis. After she develops a reputation with the organization, they might let her attend a dog "meeting" where a prospective family meets the dog for the first time. Those families often have children who aren't used to being around dogs--she might be able to do a presentation with them on how to interact with pets so that they don't jump, etc. From there, she might be able to develop a client base--who knows!

 

The caveat with this plan is that all dog rescues are not created equal. Some are very formal and structured and probably wouldn't have a spot for a young child. Others are more of a front for puppy mill dogs. You'd have to do some research. And, invest a lot of mom time :001_smile:

 

 

Good luck! Your dd's spirit will bring her great things as she gets older!

 

Beth

[bkpan]

All I can tell you is that if you were friends of ours and your dd was as passionate and committed as you say, I would hire her to help train our dc in a heartbeat! So, with all of the effort she is putting forth, I would really try to encourage her. That also means trying to keep her expectations realistic - that she probably will not make much money for quite a while, but if she remains determined to grow in her experience and skills, by the time she is a teenager she may be able to have quite a business going!

 

In the meantime, I would definitely support her and be actively pursuing finding a volunteer job somewhere that would help her grow in her field. Perhaps as someone else suggested, a dog/cat-sitting business or something related.

 

HTH!

 

Kim

[Jean in Newcastle]

Thank you so much for the advice and encouragement. She already does pet sitting. But I may suggest that she concentrate on that aspect right now.

 

I will look around at volunteer opportunities. I did ask at the Humane society and they only take teens.

 

I'll look at the Cesar Milan site too.

 

Angela - I agree on the reality. We have been talking to her realistically but gently. She adamantly insists on wanting to charge ahead anyway. But then where would we be if Columbus, Amelia Earhart and many others who forged ahead where it was unrealistic, listened to the realistic advice they had gotten! (I say that to counter-act my own very practical, realistic nature.)

 

Hmmm. Doing it online? I'll have to ask Tech Support (aka ds12) about the possibility of this.

[mammaruss]

My husband started training his own dogs (he had 4 dogs) at 9yrs old and that is how he provides for our family today--he is doing something he LOVES to do! Training methods have changed since he first started in the "old" days.... :001_smile: so he had to be flexible to make those changes. When he was a teenager he volunteered his time helping out a few different Pro Dog Trainers--as he volunteered he just picked the brains of these trainers--until one trainer realized how serious he was about training dogs and actually hired him. By the late 80's he had his own kennel. Training dogs is similar to homeschooling children--no 2 dogs are alike and they do not have the same learning curves. The best advice my husband has ever received was to remember to train each dog as an individual--what one dog learns quickly, another dog might need a LOT more repitition!!

It is great that she has the passion!! The only thing I would worry about is the liability --in this day and age people are very sue happy!! We spend a LOT of $$ every year for an attorney to provide us with release forms. You need to be aware of who is responsible--for the times that she has someone elses dog in her care. The liability is different in every state. Feel free to pm me if you have questions.