5 Tips to Prepare Your Homeschooler to be an Entrepreneur

Is your homeschool preparing your homeschooler to be an entrepreneur or an employee? As homeschool parents, we know that someday our students will grow up and leave our house.

We know we have to prepare them to make a difference in the world and also provide for themselves and their families. If you want your child to make an impact, prepare your homeschooler to be an entrepreneur.

Are you raising your child to be an employee or an entrepreneur?  Check out the article “Employee vs. Entrepreneur: What is your goal for your Christian child?” for a compelling argument for why you need to prepare your child to be an entrepreneur.  This article is going to flesh out what that looks like in the day to day process of homeschooling your children.

Be an Entrepreneur Who Builds Kingdom Businesses

The world says that the purpose of school is to help your child get a good job and a good salary – thus have a good life.  As Christians, we know that the good life is found not in things, or material wealth, but in Jesus Christ.  We ought to be preparing our children to work for the Kingdom.

I firmly believe that we need to be raising entrepreneurially minded children who seek to be Kingdom business builders serving the world.

Related Reading: Employee vs Entrepreneur – What is Your Goal for Your Christian Child

In the changing culture, the church needs to make an entrepreneurial shift to enable our families to cultivate Christian homes and our freedom to serve and share the Gospel. Prepare your homeschooler to be an entrepreneur who builds those Kingdom businesses.

The training for this shift needs to happen at home with our students.  Have you ever noticed how so many children choose jobs that they already know about? 

Usually, one of their parents or another member of the family is in a similar industry or vocation.  I know a family physician with three children all of whom are planning on careers in the medical industry.

If you are not an entrepreneur yourself, how do you cultivate that spirit within your children?  It can start with how you guide your child’s studies and lead their education. Prepare your homeschooler to be an entrepreneur with the mindset that you develop in them.

Entrepreneur Mindset Student vs. Employee Mindset Student

Entrepreneur Mindset Study Space vs. Employee Mindset Study Space

Our public schools are preparing future workers with desks set up in rows like a factory.  Entrepreneurially-minded students know that they can learn anywhere.

They make the most of their time.  If that is waiting for an appointment or driving in the car, they make the most of the time available to get their school work done because when they have more flexibility in the space – they will move on to other projects.

Prepare Your Homeschooler to be an Entrepreneur with the Right Learning Goals

Why does your child learn? Do you push your child to get good grades? To do well on the test?  This is good training for employment. 

Someday, students will seek to please not their teachers but their bosses.  Is that what learning is about though?

Instead, we should value a culture of knowledge and skill-building.  How can we use the information that we are learning to solve problems and improve lives? 

We are learning not just for a test, but because God can use all of those bits of knowledge to make connections that can be put to use for His glory.

Get great ideas for cultivating a culture of skill-building in “4 Skills of Learning You Need to Focus on in Your Homeschool.“

Prepare your homeschooler to be an entrepreneur who looks beyond school tests to the real-life challenges that they can fix with God’s help. 

Entrepreneurs are able to creatively look at the knowledge that they have gained and leverage it in new ways.  Cast that creative vision for your children now in their studies.

Entrepreneur Mindset vs. Employee Mindset: How much time should school take?

Working nine to five, what a way to make a living.  Isn’t that how the song goes.

Students are prepared for life as an employee by the schedule at school.  Show up at 8 and sit in class until 3. 

It doesn’t matter if you can get your work done, you are required to be there until school is out.  Some homeschooling parents recreate that same kind of schedule at home.

Do you have a student who can get their work done well and quickly?  Do you find yourself wanting to add more work to their plate so that they “work” the full number of hours?  You are training your child to think like an hourly worker, not like an entrepreneur.

We want our children to have a good work ethic but that is for doing their work efficiently – not unnecessarily long!  Now it doesn’t mean that when your student is done with their work that they can now lounge in front of the television. 

It does mean that they are now free to direct their labors with the freedom to pursue their passions. Prepare your homeschooler to be an entrepreneur and truly value their time and use it wisely.

Does your student take Ownership or Responsibility for their work?

The teacher or the textbook will set out a schedule of work and reading that they believe will allow the student to master the material.  The goal is to master the information and to understand it. 

There is an old adage: you can bring a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.

To truly learn the student has to take ownership over that learning.  They need to be able to make adjustments if the plan that is laid out for them isn’t working. 

They might need to come up with an alternative plan (study more, get a tutor, listen to a YouTube video explanation, etc.) so that they are able to understand the material.

Students with an employee mindset just do the work that has been assigned to them and check it off their list.  If they don’t understand the material, then it is the teacher’s fault.  They look to the teacher to solve their problem.

The employee mindset is to do the assigned homework for each day. 

• If you are sick, then you get the day off.  You will make up that work on another day. 
• Vacation?  You leave that work behind for someone else to worry about while you are gone. 
• Does the school bell ring?  You are DONE for the day. 

Business owners, who are entrepreneurs, do not think this way.  Prepare your homeschool student to be an entrepreneur and think like an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs make it happen. 

My husband is a pastor.  It doesn’t matter what happens during his week, he has to preach on Sunday. 

He might have a crazy week with several church members hospitalized, a death & funeral, and be sick.  It doesn’t matter.  When Sunday comes, he preaches.

As parents, we need to train our children to look ahead and front-load their work if there are time crunches ahead.  We need to teach them to dig deeper and work more efficiently.  They need to learn to take ownership and make it happen.

The employee mindset is to do the work that your boss has assigned to you.  You have your particular piece of the project.  As long as you do your piece well that is all that matters. 

The other parts of the project are the responsibility of the other employees. Prepare your homeschool student to be an entrepreneur by teaching them to lead others and make things happen.

Employee Mindset vs Entrepreneur Mindset: When your student fails, what is your approach?

The employee mindset of our public schools is to get the grade and move on.  Moreover, some might argue the grade to be fixed or adjusted and then move on.

Is 80% learning good enough? Is 80% effort good enough?

Sometimes, Yes.  Sometimes we need to look at the project and realize that it just needs to get done.  It doesn’t need to be perfect, just completed and out there.  Our time might be better spent on another project that will benefit us more. 

This is a vital realization for entrepreneurs.  It is important to spend your time on the things that get the best return on investment.

The key problem is with just moving on.  A successful view of failure is to see the opportunity for improvement and learning. 

We need to encourage our children to try new things even if they fail.  Especially if they think that they might fail. (We need to model this learning as well.)

Learning to fail and get back up again to try to tackle something is a fabulous mindset to develop.  They need to know that they can figure it out and break through.  Failures are opportunities to learn and grow.

Raise Kingdom Entrepreneurs

The Bible tells us about a time when a young Ester was selected to be the new queen.  She was nervous and didn’t know what all this major new step in her life entailed.  Her uncle sought to inspire her and guide her with the words “To such a time and place have you been born.”

As Christian parents, we might worry about the culture into which our children have been born.  We might worry about the roadblocks and challenges to their faith that our children will encounter.

Instead, we need to be excited about the opportunities.  God has solutions to all of the problems that we see around us.  Solutions that will bring glory and honor to Him. 

He just needs workers to go out into the field and bring forth his harvest. Prepare your homeschooler to be an entrepreneur who steps out with boldness to seek those solutions.

No more than ever, we need entrepreneurial-minded young Christian men and women, who will think outside the box to create companies and organizations to solve those problems and meet those needs. 

Build a Kingdom-Mindset in your student to train them for their future calling!