The Lemonade Stand Millionaire: A Parents' Guide to Encouraging the Entrepreneurial Spirit in Your Kids

By Gail Haynes

When Gail Haynes became a single mother with two kids under six years of age, she vowed that her kids would never go through the financial hardships she was experiencing and immediately began teaching them how to make money work for them. By the time her daughters were seven and nine, they had started their own business. Seven years and several expansions later they are still managing their business completely debt free. Based on the simple but vital financial principles Gail taught her own children, The Lemonade Stand Millionaire is a practical guide to help parents to start conversations about money and business with their kids of any age—even as early as two years old. Rather than just telling kids what to do and how to do it, this highly interactive approach shows parents how to teach their kids to handle money challenges and disappointments, as well as wonderful successes. Of course, parents are also learning at the same time! When children are ready to venture into self-employment, these fun and interactive  exercises teach them what it takes to turn a recognized need into a bona fide business. Many multimillion dollar businesses started with a simple idea! Not every child will want to start his or her own business, but every child needs to understand how money works and how to make it work for them. The Lemonade Stand Millionaire will set them up for financial success with skills and habits that will make the difference between a life of financial struggle and a balanced way of thinking about and handling money.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781614483892

Book preview

The Lemonade Stand Millionaire

A Parents’ Guide to Encouraging

the Entrepreneurial Spirit in Your Kids

Gail Haynes

NEW YORK

The Lemonade Stand Millionaire

A Parents’ Guide to Encouraging the Entrepreneurial Spirit in Your Kids

© 2013 Gail Haynes. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from author or publisher (except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages and/or show brief video clips in a review).

Disclaimer: The Publisher and the Author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the Publisher nor the Author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the Author or the Publisher endorses the information the organization or website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that internet websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

ISBN 978-1-61448-388-5 paperback

ISBN 978-1-61448-389-2 eBook

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012951720

Morgan James Publishing

The Entrepreneurial Publisher

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Illustrations by:

Adonis Howard

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Cover Design by:

Brenda Haun

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Interior Design by:

Bonnie Bushman

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In an effort to support local communities, raise awareness and funds, Morgan James Publishing donates a percentage of all book sales for the life of each book to Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg.

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 Welcome to the Lemonade Stand

Chapter 2 How to Use This Book

Chapter 3 The Mind-set of Financial Success

Chapter 4 Teaching Your Kids How to Handle Money

Chapter 5 Their First Job: Start at Home

Chapter 6 A Job versus Self-Employment:

Chapter 7 Discovering the Right Business Idea

Chapter 8 Getting Started with a Small Business

Chapter 9 Growing Up

Chapter 10 My Beginnings as an Entrepreneur

Chapter 11 Amazing Kids’ Stories and Interviews

Conclusion

About the Author

Appendix A. Advantage of Early Investing

Appendix B. Money Tracking worksheets

Appendix C. Cash jars worksheets

Appendix D. What Goes Where

Appendix E. Household Chores Contract

Appendix F. Supplies Chart

Appendix G. Resources

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Preface

When my daughters were 2 and 4, I became a single mom. It was a devastating blow in my life. Although I know it happens to many, I didn’t see it coming—it blindsided me both emotionally and financially. With a large property and house and a business of my own, my husband and I had bitten off more than we could chew. Together we were struggling financially, but separately we didn’t have a prayer of keeping up.

Ignoring the bills works only up to a point, and one midwinter day, the electricity was cut off. Two days later, I was out of heating oil. Luckily, we had a woodstove that would keep the house warm (as long as I got up through the night to keep it burning). It was a horrifying episode in my life.

It was during this time that I made a solemn vow to myself: my kids would never be left as financially unprepared as I was. I would teach them about money—how to respect it, spend it, save it, and earn it. At that point, I hadn’t a clue how to do this, or even whether I was the right person for the job. After all, having put myself in such an awkward financial position, who was I to teach my kids about managing money?

I searched through many books and read any that seemed pertinent to my family’s situation. Then we sat down and had a family meeting. I explained to them that Mommy was going to make sure they had everything they needed: clothes, food, a warm house, and even trips to fun places. I also explained that if they wanted to get extra things, they were going to be able to start earning their own money so they could get those things on their own. And I let them know this in a way that was exciting and something to look forward to.

I also let them know that Mommy was just one person and that this house was a big place and that I needed their help keeping it clean and doing some chores outside.

We talked about how they were going to be able to start earning money right here at home. They helped me come up with a list of things they could do around the house. Caitlyn was just 2 years old, and Ashley was just 4, but they were eager to help and earn some money. More than once it brought me to tears realizing just what amazing kids I had. And even now, as looking back to that time, I have tears—the good kind—rolling down my face. I had big hopes for new beginnings and a new relationship with my daughters as a single mom. I remember blasting the music and even busting some dance moves as we cleaned up toys, vacuumed, or swept, each doing our own chore or working together. We had a lot of fun.

Our system was a little different back then. I had a set of poker chips that I never used. So when they completed their chores and their behavior was good (we had a checklist that we went over each night) they got a chance to choose a white, red, or blue poker chip. Each chip represented something different: white was for candy, blue was for books, and red was for toys. They could also choose not to get a poker chip and instead have late bedtime, tickle time, or a variety of other rewards that they helped me come up with. These are some of the best memories I have. Usually, my kids would both pick tickle time. Now, this may not be quite what you’re thinking. You see, I was the subject of the tickling. I am famously ticklish, and they are VERY good at tickling. So they would get three minutes to tickle me—each. One would hold my arms up and the other would tickle, and if I couldn’t breathe, they had to pause. We had a blast, usually with them laughing even more than I did.

They learned several things with the poker chip system. One, they learned that they had choice. Two, they learned that it was not just about the money—often they would pick one of the rewards instead of the money. Three, they learned to be patient and save for an important item. When saving up for a toy or a book, they could count how many days they needed to save to have enough money to get their toy. As an added benefit (to me), they would normally be on their best behavior for the days needed to get what they were saving for. When they had enough chips they turned them in for cash, and we went shopping.

I remember one of the first big items that Caitlyn saved for was a beautiful stuffed bear at a country market. My daughter wanted it so-o-o badly. We talked about how much it cost, and she was still about three weeks away from having it. She was worried that it wouldn’t be there when she had all the