Build your Cash Machine
The stigma around teaching our children comes mostly from adults who believe that money is evil and the people that have it are somehow bad. By teaching these negative ideas to children, they are simply maintaining the cycle and breaking our natural desire to provide service to others. My children are involved in virtually every aspect of my Cash Machine, as well as maintaining several of their own. Encourage your children to look for opportunities to make money. This is a lifelong skill that will instill a sense of accomplishment and reduce the sense of entitlement. You have a unique opportunity to raise money-savvy kids. Teach them how to earn money, as well as how to save and invest it. Let them experience the principle of compounding. Teach them how to invest in mutual funds and stocks. Show them how to hunt for a real estate property. These are valuable lessons with lifelong implications that will put them miles ahead of other children. Do not be afraid to make your children a part of your team. Allow them to take on tasks and even projects. Let them interact with customers. Have them work with other members of your team. They will thank you, one day in the distant future, and likely even sooner. As you would with any other team member, write out the job expectations for your children and have them sign an agreement. This is the first step to creating an accountability relationship, and makes it easier to correct any behavior that doesn’t fit with your business model should the need arise. The Evolution of Your Business When you start building your cash machine, you will wear a lot of hats. You will be responsible for everything that needs to get done. To answer this challenge, you will need to maintain focus on your long-term business vision. Your team will eventually take many of these roles from you and help you grow. Even when you add your first team members, they must understand the importance of your overall vision. Often times, your first teammates must be among the most flexible, as they will likely be a part of almost all of your business activities and will likely wear multiple hats too. These roles will change over time as you identify specialties and skill sets among your teammates. Your team will also be valuable in providing you with a different view of how the business could expand. Just as you will evolve, your team will evolve so it’s important to be flexible. Don’t allow yourself to get into a rut and ignore the emerging skills from your team. You may find that someone you never expected is the perfect sales or marketing
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