Safe and Sound: Parental Guidance in Teenage Online Businesses

Many teens and young adults are interested in starting and owning businesses today. With the advancement of online retail and e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Wix, Square, and Shopify, this dream is more accessible than ever. However, budding entrepreneurs generally lack life and business experience.

In this way, parents are poised to provide not only encouragement but strategic guidance to their entrepreneurial teens.

Parents often recognize the valuable personal development that takes shape in teens through entrepreneurship.  However, they may not know how to help on their journey. Here we will explore the role parents play in supporting their teens’ entrepreneurial aspirations. We’ll also detail how they can best guide and secure online businesses for their children in today’s e-commerce landscape.

Benefits of Supporting Teen Online Businesses

Supporting your teen’s online business aspirations can seem daunting. Not all parents are business savvy or feel they have the time to help their child launch a business venture. So, it’s important to weigh the benefits of helping your teen start an online business before jumping into this commitment together.

Some online business benefits to consider:

• Your teen will develop valuable tech skills in a growing industry. E-commerce has only grown in the past decade and is projected to increase continually between 2024 and 2028 by 56% or $475.2 billion in the US.
• Your teen’s products or services will reach a wider target market online.
• Your teen’s business will be easy to monitor with automated dashboards and software.
• Your teen can grow and run their business from the safety and comfort of your home.

While there are many benefits of an online business for your teen, it is important to talk about the costs of starting a small business and the role you will play in it.

Parental Guidance in Creating an Online Business

As a parent, you should expect to be the most involved when forming the foundation of an online business with your teen. As is true of all entrepreneurships, the planning needed to launch a business idea is much more intensive than running the day-to-day operations of an established business. Try encouraging your teen not to rush the creation of their business as well as practice being available to help with the tasks of business planning and registration.

Start by helping your teen hone in on their business concept or idea. Most likely your teen has already demonstrated interest in a hobby or passion, so one way parents can guide their kids towards business success is by helping them distill a profitable business idea from their interests.

If your child has a particular craft or hobby that can be sold online, consider what they would need to ramp up production. If your child is knowledgeable about a subject, consider how they can sell their skills through online tutoring or coaching.

Once your teen has a workable business idea, your guidance will be largely needed for creating a solid legal foundation for the online business.

For example, if your teen would like to sell a physical good or design by ​​starting a craft-based online Etsy shop they will need to ensure their home-based shop meets legal requirements. Then, they’ll register their business as a sole proprietor or a limited liability company (LLC) with the state to sell their crafts.

You’ll need to do some joint investigation with your teen. The requirements for minors owning a business differ by state and as a parent, you may also be required to take legal responsibility for the business.

Parental Guidance in Safeguarding an Online Business

Teens are highly capable of operating their own businesses, especially online. But parents need to build some safeguards into their experience to secure it as a training ground.

Entrepreneurship in general is risky; 45% of businesses don’t make it past 5 years and 65% fail in the first 10 years. If your teen’s business doesn’t make it, it’s important to ensure they will not face excessive consequences or burdens from the experience.

Finances

Focusing on business finances with your teen is a great way to safeguard their online venture. You can guide your teen by helping quantify appropriate start-up costs that will be reasonable to replenish—luckily online businesses generally have lower start-up costs than their traditional counterparts.

You can also focus on teaching your child basic digital finance skills like using debit cards and online banking so they are familiar with financial independence. This combined effort should ensure your teen’s business will be a positive learning experience whether it turns a profit or not.

Customers

Another way to safeguard your teen’s online business is to help set expectations and guidance surrounding customer interactions. Teens need to learn how to appropriately meet customer expectations and healthily navigate issues that may arise with unhappy customers. Online businesses are a great platform for learning about customer service as most interactions will be tracked and documented through a written interface. This makes it easier for you as a parent to provide tailored guidance in tricky negotiations.

To conclude, starting and operating an online business is a great way for your teen to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. As a parent, you should expect to be most involved during the planning and creation of your child’s business venture.

It’s also important to initiate some financial and customer-related safeguards with your child to ensure their experience will not cause undue stress. Overall, supporting and encouraging your teen in their online business venture will likely prove to be a rewarding learning and growing experience for both of you.

About the Author
Katie Brenneman is a passionate writer specializing in education, mental health, family lifestyle and online safety. When she isn’t writing, you can find her with her nose buried in a book or hiking with her dog, Charlie. You can follow her on Twitter.