How to Help Your Child Set Up Their Own Little Shop With What They Learned

A little shop at home turns the class ideas into something real. The child decides what to sell, how much to charge and how to present the stand, and practices income, price and decision-making at once. Eric Ries, in The Lean Startup, describes the cycle entrepreneurs use: try something small, measure what happened and adjust. A one-afternoon stand is that cycle at kid scale.

How to do it

The first step is deciding what to sell: a drawing, a bracelet, lemonade or a simple service like walking a neighbor's dog. Let them choose, because autonomy sustains motivation, according to Daniel Pink in Drive.

The second step is setting the price. Ask how much they think it's worth and why, compare it with something similar they know and add up the materials, because the price has to cover them.

The third step is setting up the stand: a table, a hand-drawn sign and the products arranged. They decide how it looks.

The fourth step is selling and reviewing. With a grown-up nearby, write down three numbers: what came in, what it cost to prepare everything and the difference. That difference is what they truly earned. The final question is what they'd change tomorrow.

If traffic is slow, change the location, the product or the sign, one at a time. A slow stand teaches as much as a busy one.

What it's for

For your child, the stand is the first place where their idea has a price and gets a response. For you, you stop deciding what they can sell and your job is to ask the questions that help them think.

What you'll see over time

In the first sales the child may want to change everything at once. Between one and six months they set prices with reasons and review what worked after each sale. In the long run they plan another sale or a different product, with their own count of what they earned.

Signs it's working

You know the little shop works when the child explains their price, when they change one element based on what they observed and when they tell you the difference between what came in and what it cost.