One of the draws of owning your own business is to have a family business that you can someday hand down to your children. Many people love the idea of being able to hire their family members to help out and learn a new skill and responsibility.

A recent story from the Associated Press talks about the ups and downs of hiring your teenaged son or daughter to work for your company. The focus is on small business and not necessarily work at home ones, but the ideas are all relevant.

Hiring your teen should be a business decision as well as a personal one. While you might think it’s time for your child to learn about responsibility and what it’s like to hold down a job, these lessons shouldn’t come at the expense of the company.

Hills recalled a job where the boss’ teenager created a great deal of strife among the rest of the employees. Unhappy with her salary, the teen, who was being paid more than hourly employees in the department, complained loudly, “I don’t know how anybody could live on that.”

The article counsels that you should not give your child preferential treatment. That may leave other employees feeling resentful. It also advises that you know the best way to deal with your child. You should look to their strengths and weaknesses for finding the best role for them in the company. This knowledge can also be helpful in dealing with any issues that come up.

Now that it is June many kids are getting out of school and have the summer off. That means that many will be looking for a summer job and they may just turn to their parents that own a business.

Does your teenager work for you? Are you thinking about giving your teen a summer job? That is a long way off for me but I look forward to hearing about your experiences.

Warmly,
Mia