I’m of the general impression that everything is accessible to a child unless it involves writing words or writing math.

So I’ve got this idea to explain business to my oldest. She’s 6 years old and quick to analyze things if you can make them appeal to her.

I don’t want to explain the dull stuff about business. It’s full of fun stuff. When I get to explaining short sales I will wonder where to go next. But until then, I think I can ramp her up with fun stuff.

And not the comical kind of fun. Not clowns. The real fun. Remember when you tried to figure out why rabbits have lots of babies and tigers only have a few? And then you realized rabbit evolution had to deal with the fact that most rabbits are eaten before they can reproduce but tigers don’t have that problem as much. That kind of fun realization. My kid likes that sort of story. We all do. We all enjoy some sort of documentary.

So this morning I started the conversation:

Dan
Hey A., what's a business?
A.
(Thinks.) I don't know.
Dan
Do you want me to tell you?
A.
Yeah.
Dan
Let me think. What skills do you have?
A.
Gymnastics!
Dan
Yeah, but that's not something you can turn into a business yet. But you are good at folding clothes. And emptying the dishwasher.
A.
Nods
Dan
So imagine you went to someone's house to empty their dishwasher and fold their clothes and they paid you.
Then they told their friends and those people asked you to do the same for them. Now you have a business.
A.
Seems to get it.
Dan
Then eventually you might have so many customers that you ask someone else to help you. You pay them some money to help. When you have so many customers you may decide to do some of the houses while the other worker does some of the other ones.
A.
Well that's not fair if I just have to do one house.
Dan
You'd probably split it up. If you had ten customers (shows ten fingers) you'd probably each take five (splits up the ten fingers).
A.
Oh yeah.
Dan
So then you give the whole thing a name and it's a business.

At this point, I worried that I was dumping too much information out there. So I decide to circle around the employees concept for a minute.

Dan
If you hire employees you would keep a lot of the money. Like if something got broken at one of the houses, you would have to pay to fix it. The employees wouldn't. (Trying to avoid having to define "liability" here.) So you need to keep the money to take care of things like that when they happen.
A.
Oh yeah.

I remember her being even more engaged than is obvious here, so I assume I’m forgetting some of her responses. Anyway, about then we were getting late for school, so we had to focus on teeth-brushing and whatnot.

Later in the car:

Dan
So, what other businesses might people have? What kind of business does that truck in front of us do? I don't even know. (I still don't.)
A.
Um... how about a fire truck?
Dan
Firefighters are kind of a different thing. I'll explain that later. What else?
A.
A gardener?
Dan
Yes, a gardener has a business. What does a gardner do?
A.
They work in gardens.
Dan
Right, they plant flowers and cut grass.

About that time we arrived at the school gates. I left realizing I probably need to clarify a job versus a business. That night in the next session, we talked about what a business has and got into more examples from real life. That should set me up to revisit what role employees play.

Business for 6 Year Olds

Part 1 is about what a business is.

Part 2 is about what a business has.

Part 3 is about how businesses are not jobs.

Part 4 is about concrete examples.

Part 5 is about brand loyalty.