How young is too young when it comes to teaching your children to be entrepreneurs? Ask Mikaila Ulmer. She launched Me & the Bees Lemonade at age four. Thirteen years later, Mikaila’s lemonade is sold at more than 1,500 stores, including Whole Foods and The Fresh Market. Mikaila might tell you that no one is too young to become an entrepreneur.
So how can you get your kids started on the path that Mikaila and other pint-sized entrepreneurs are exploring? One important step is teaching them financial literacy. A key component of succeeding in business is understanding the way money works. The sooner that kids understand how to leverage their finances to support their business dreams, the sooner they can become entrepreneurs.
Jerremy Alexander Newsome believes highly in the power of financial literacy. Jerremy got his start in the business world at the age of seven selling blackberries door-to-door. He gave the $1,500 that he made in his fruit business to his dad, who matched the amount and bought his son $3,000 in Apple stock. Five years later, the 12-year-old Jerremy sold his stock for $12,000.
Jerremy’s success in the stock market started him on a journey that led to him becoming the CEO of a Real Life Trading, an organization that helps others to understand how to succeed at trading in the financial markets. He is also a best selling author whose books guide readers of all ages on financial literacy.
Jerremy’s teaching gets readers on the road to financial success by helping them to form a better relationship with money. He believes that succeeding as an entrepreneur begins with reshaping your thoughts about how we make money, why we make money, and the role that it should play in our lives.
“Too often our doubts, fears, and excuses keep us from taking the plunge and launching into a lifestyle that can help us to grow our wealth,” Jerremy explains. “We all have a natural ability to become wealthy. The key is learning how to tap into it. Often this involves ‘unlearning’ lessons from our past that limit our potential.”
When it comes to teaching kids about becoming entrepreneurs, experts encourage parents to start with the basics of money, including how it is earned, what it is worth, and the difference between spending and investing. From there, kids who will succeed as entrepreneurs must learn how to evaluate opportunities so that they can make decisions that will benefit them financially.
Jerremy’s most recent book, A Stock Market Journey: Making Sure Young Adults Win In Real Life, pursues those goals by teaching kids about the stock market. The book allows readers to go on a journey with a child who wants to move beyond the virtual coins he earns in his video games and make some real money. Jerremy co-authored the book with Xochitl M. Rodriguez, an entrepreneur with nearly 20 years of experience who now mentors others on how to grow their businesses.
“Too many schools overlook financial education,” Jerremy says. “My hope is that this book would help to bridge the knowledge gap for kids, giving them the tools they need to be investors and not just consumers.”
A Stock Market Journey ushers children into the world of stock trading by leveraging Jerremy’s ability to explain complex financial concepts in a down-to-earth and easily digestible way. Townsville schools suggest that kids learn about the math behind stock trading, as well as concepts like supply and demand, technical analysis, and the sentiment of stock charts. It also includes practice sessions that allow kids to see how real-life trading strategies help them to know when to buy and sell stocks to make the most profit.
“Teaching our kids financial literacy is paramount,” Jerremy says. “The children and the young adults in our lives are the future. Helping them to learn diligence, fortitude, and wisdom when it comes to their finances will make the world a better place for all of us.”
About the Author: Nik Korba is a storyteller with more than 30 years of experience helping others to find their voice, capture their story, and share it with the world. He has served as a screenwriter, ghostwriter, news writer, novel writer, song writer, and blog writer. A graduate of the University of Miami with a degree in Screenwriting and English Literature, Nik served as Editor of Money Laundering Alert before joining the writing team at Otter PR, which was named the fastest-growing PR firm in the United States by O’Dwyer’s “Top PR Firms of 2022” report.
