New Venture Lab: Equipping Christian Entrepreneurs

Once you've developed the high level vision for your children, look for the Lord's calling on each child when they are old enough to put away childish things. Discuss with them their areas of interest, seek God's guidance for their future and help them create a roadmap.  We need to be diligent to plan their next steps and trust our loving God for the rest.

The roadmap should include a list of the skills and knowledge required to accomplish the specific vision for each child. I feel it is important that our children "create" and "own" their personal roadmap. Since time and resources are limited, they should focus only on the important skills: high priority skills that will be used repeatedly, and not waste any time on low-priority skills used only periodically. Important "core" business skills that I encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to acquire include sales, marketing, operations, technology, customer service, human resources, finance, and accounting. 

Once the skills list is complete, we can help our children develop their own curriculum roadmap, complete with all the potential ways of gaining the necessary skills. Their customized curriculum may include one or all of the following methods of skills acquisition: formal classroom, online classes, work experience, internships, apprenticeships, and self-study. 

Help your child analyze the cost/benefit of each option so they can exercise their financials skills. The beauty about being creative at this stage is that most internships and work experiences pay as your child learns. Even if your child works for a trusted, Christian entrepreneur for free, that amounts to no-cost tuition which compares most favorably with the high-cost college alternative.

The end goal is not a necessarily a degree (although degrees can be very helpful, they are not necessary for an entrepreneur), but the most efficient, effective and lowest cost method of acquiring the skills that will enable them to accomplish what God has called them to do.