When your kids come up with an idea, be sure to listen carefully because you never know where it will lead.
Take the American eight-year-old Abbey Fleck, who was cooking bacon in the microwave with her dad, Jon.
They were running out of paper towels to soak up the fat and Abbey suggested that they drape the bacon over a plate-like washing on a stand.
They made a T-shaped rack out of wooden dowels and bits of plastic coat hangers, attaching them to a plastic plate. It worked. The bacon cooked in the air rather than in fat.
Jon thought it was a great idea and found a factory to make microwave-safe plastic dishes that they called Makin Bacon. They have sold 2.7 million Makin Bacons through Walmart.
This shows that your kids are never too young to become entrepreneurs.
There are plenty of other examples of how entrepreneurial children grow up with a head for business.
For example, at the age of seven, Warren Buffett, now a renowned investor, borrowed a book, One Thousand Ways to Make $1000, from the Omaha public library.
It sparked many entrepreneurial ventures, such as selling chewing gum, cola bottles and weekly magazines door to door. He worked in his grandfather’s grocery store. In high school he delivered newspapers, sold golf balls and stamps, and cleaned cars.
On his first income tax return in 1944, Buffett made a $35 deduction for the bicycle he used on his newspaper run. Perhaps his best early business was buying a used pinball in high school with a friend for $25 and setting it up in the local barber shop.
Within months they owned several machines in three barber shops before they sold the business later in the year for $1200.
Kids who earn money from their own business endeavours are learning valuable skills. For a start, they learn about budgeting, by tallying up the costs and the sales revenue and working out the profit and loss.
It teaches them about saving and planning, not to mention the art of selling. There are tax file numbers to track down, business names to register and payment systems to master.
While some go all the way and build sophisticated websites, in many cases their business venture has the added bonus of getting them away from screens, with many making their own products and spending time communicating with customers.