Monday, March 16, 2009

Involving Your Children In Your Business

A year ago my cousin and I started a restobar business. In the early stages things were OK except I am losing time for my children. The work starts at 5:00pm and will last till about 2:00am the next day, sometimes even more. I do not even have the chance to see my children except when I report for work late. I would have to wait until both were back from school.

This is when I decided to take them to the business every weekend. My daughter works as cashier and finance officer handling the weekly payroll, while my son will handle the bar and food dispatch and inventory. Both of them will even wait at tables if we have plenty of guests or during special occasions and catering.

This opportunity gave us more topics to discuss on the way to and from the business to our house. I would share with them insights on the business and they would share their thoughts and ideas too. This was particularly true when the effects of the recession became evident in our daily sales. Each would have his or her own idea on how to pep up our sales. This gave them more sense of responsibility and ownership of the business.

Involving your children in your business is a way to test their knowledge, values, strengths and weaknesses. It gives them more confidence to handle various situations in life when prompted to make decisions. I have delegated to them tasks and decision making which I would normally be doing - alone. For me, this is my way to test and affirm how effective I am as a parent, coach, associate, business partner and manager. This is a way to make sure that whatever I do, they will always be with me and I shall always be there for them... it will not be forever but I will be more confident they will be ready for life ahead. Education, after all, does not equate to schools only.

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