Warren Buffett Wants To Help Your Kid Start A Business This Summer

Want your kid to be the next Warren Buffett? Well, that dream of entrepreneurial success may start with something as simple as a lemonade stand at the end of your driveway.

Buffett, the self-made billionaire and investment guru from Omaha, wants to inspire your kids to put down the video games, get out of the pool and start thinking like entrepreneurs this summer. His website, the Secret Millionaire’s Club, serves as a great resource for budding business moguls.

Taking it a step farther, authors Julie Merberg and Sarah Parvis, with guidance from Buffett, have written a step-by-step book, How to Start Your Very First Business.

They offer up 21 real and practical business ideas for kids, including:

• Filming and editing highlight reels for student athletes seeking scholarships
• Collecting yard waste to compost and later selling the soil
• Decorating skateboards
• Blogging about local events and selling ad space to local businesses
• DJ-ing parties
• Building and selling birdhouses

Whatever passion your child has, foster that creativity by encouraging your youngster to give their ideas a shot. Because, as Buffet writes in the forward, “learning the value of being honest, being willing to take risks and fail, and protecting your reputation are among the lessons that form the fabric of success.”

It took me a lot longer to learn these valuable lessons. Once upon a time I started a granola company with a few friends. We had a real passion for our product and lots of hungry fans. The business was a relative success. But, I can’t help think if I had just worked out a few kinks and suffered earlier business pitfalls, say at the the age of 12 instead of 28, I’d still be rolling in oats and cash today. Like Buffett says, “the more you learn, the more you earn.”

So who’s ready for a cup of lemonade?