I would love to get out of the corporate grind and have my own business, but I don’t have a clue where to begin,” lamented the homeschool dad. I gazed around the table at the small knot of seven Christian homeschool fathers at the Saturday morning breakfast meeting. They were the kind of men that were successful in their chosen career fields and had good jobs, but they longed to have their own business and to have the freedom of an entrepreneur. Their heart’s desire was to work side-by-side with their sons and pass on to them a business when they marry and start a family. 

For at least thirty minutes now, the discussion had been how to make the move from employee to employer, from the city to a homestead, and from servitude to independence. The topic was a frequent one during our weekly sessions and it is the most common theme I hear from homeschool dads across the country. This is not to say that the idea of dad going off somewhere to work during the day is wrong, but there is a movement afoot to bring dad home through family entrepreneurship and a desire to raise sons to be entrepreneurs.

Unfortunately for us “oldsters” that are products of America’s public schools and universities, learning to be an entrepreneur is starting from ground zero. Most of us were not properly trained or equipped to be entrepreneurs. So where do we begin with our children? As they graduate from our homeschools, what steps do we take to prepare our sons and daughters for their God-ordained roles?

What is difficult for many of us as first-generation Christians and homeschoolers should be easier for our children, which is often the case with pioneers: we craft a vision and create a platform for the benefit of future generations to build upon. Hopefully they can stand on our shoulders and reach loftier goals as they live out a multi-generational vision: a vision of faithfulness and fruitfulness for many generations to come.

Independence Lost

Somewhere along the way, as our nation became industrialized and men left home to go work in factories, we took a left turn and lost our independence as men and providers. We also gave up our roles as side-by-side mentors to our sons and daughters. Further, we left behind the risk-taking days of craftsmen/ tradesmen and eagerly accepted the security of a steady work week and its associated paycheck. Debt was easily ushered in with a predictable income and we became slaves to the system.

Most of us jumped on the tread mill early with a college loan, credit cards that appeared in the mail, a new car along with our first post-college job, and the house that followed marriage. Slick marketing and peer pressure insured that we stayed on the tread mill, working hard, but not really getting anywhere. Debt became a way of life and the more debt we assumed, the more we were trapped in our wage slave lifestyle. And worse yet, many of our wives also joined the labor force outside the home and in so doing, took on a double curse: the curse of man (difficult labor of provision) as well as the curse of woman (difficult labor of childbirth).

It is an all too familiar American story, but there is hope. Those of us who by the grace of God came under the conviction to homeschool our children have already stepped out of the mainstream educational process and we are in a good position to think creatively about equipping our children to be entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship is not for everyone and certainly not for the faint of heart, but for those who choose this course, there are many options available. Just as we eschewed the traditional, well-worn path of public or private schooling for elementary and secondary education, we need to critically consider the post-secondary educational paradigm of sending our children off to college, whether private, public, or Christian.

The Entrepreneurial Track vs. the College/Corporate Track

College, with its specialized training followed by a job in corporate America, is still the most popular career “training” track and research shows that the average college graduate will earn more than their non-degreed peers—with the notable exception of entrepreneurs (think Bill Gates and Michael Dell among many other very successful entrepreneurs that lack college credentials). For the aspiring entrepreneur, the entrepreneur track is more about acquiring the necessary skills through a variety of creative means and less about specialized classroom training that results in a degree.

Since the college/corporate track is well-defined and understood (get good grades, go to a good college and get a good job) and is the standard requirement for those striving for work in the corporate environment, I would like to challenge some common assumptions and lay out an argument for the alternate entrepreneurial track. Let’s start by looking at the design, purpose, and costs of modern colleges to create a more balanced view.

First of all, the entire college and university system is completely outmoded in today’s wired world. The university construct, with its aggregation of professors and libraries, came into being due to the scarcity of books prior to the printing press when students traveled to the experts and listened to lectures to facilitate the knowledge transfer.

Secondly, the university model was designed intentionally around training good employees dependent on someone employing them, rather than training students to create their own opportunities, so the educational content is not consistent with the entrepreneurial goal. There are some notable exceptions with colleges that have entrepreneurship programs, but their goal is still to graduate students with a degree rather than with a viable business.

Thirdly, the cost of a college degree is high on every dimension: spiritual, financial, emotional and opportunity cost:

Spiritual Cost

Between 65 and 94 percent of college- bound Christians either deny their faith or stop attending church during their college years according to Youth Specialties—including those that attend so-called Christian universities. Throughout scripture, the patterns, precepts, and principles indicate that we as parents are to guide and protect our children, which we cannot possibly do if we send them outside of our effective influence to the world for re-education.

Financial Cost

According to the College Board, the average all-in cost (tuition, books, fees, room, board, and estimated personal expenses) of a four-year degree at a public university in today’s dollars for students entering college in the Fall of 2007 is between $102,700 (in-state) and $132,700 (out-of-state) and the equivalent degree at a private university costs over $183,100.

Emotional Cost

The college experience is replete with the dangers of immoral lifestyles and influential roommates, classmates, and professors with dramatically different worldviews that can leave our precious children confused and scarred for life.

Opportunity Cost

The time investment of four years or more (many students need a fifth year and/or go on to graduate school) usually means delaying marriage and family (and therefore postponing the blessings thereof) and delaying the launch of their own businesses.

<p>Lastly, to top it off, only 42 percent of students entering four-year colleges graduate according to the Council for Aid to Education. </p>By contrast, a good entrepreneurial education can be acquired at a very low cost on every dimension and the money parents would have spent on college, can instead be invested in their children’s entrepreneurial ventures.

The Entrepreneurial Track: Start With the End in Mind

For the entrepreneurial track to succeed, the key is to first attain the vision of what we want our children to become through prayer, fasting, and meditation on Scripture.

An example high-level vision might be as follows:

• Sons as leaders, protectors, and independent providers for their families with their hearts turned toward home and with the freedom to follow God’s promptings
• Daughters as Proverbs 31 and Titus 2 keepers at home, home educators, and able helpmeets for their entrepreneur husbands

And, further, in accordance with the Biblical mandates of fruitfulness:

• Spiritual fruitfulness through multigenerational faithfulness and the building of God’s Kingdom
• Family fruitfulness through accepting God’s blessing of children and training them in righteousness
• Economic fruitfulness through effectively trading with their God-given talents to be proven good stewards and provide an inheritance to their children

Start Early To Create an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Our children can begin learning to be entrepreneurs at an early age by experimenting with small ventures under our guidance and in the protection of our homes, such as lawn mowing, handyman services, house cleaning, baking, etc. The earlier they begin to think entrepeneurially , recognize un-met needs, sell, negotiate, provide customer service, learn through experimentation, and conquer the fear of failure, the better.

Create a Roadmap and a Customized Curriculum

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 (see the “Discover Your Child’s Calling” by Jayna Pettersen in the Homeschooling Today 2006 Late Fall issue). 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 homeschool graduates “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 that 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 degree, 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.

Example Road maps:

Phillip

Phillip is a twenty-one year-old homeschool graduate whose roadmap consisted of a combination of farm management, selfstudy, online college classes, and internships to round out his portfolio of skills.

Life Vision: “To become a skilled entrepreneur, husband, father, and Church leader”

Skills Acquisition Plan:

• Entrepreneurial experiences that varied from selling eggs, owning a small sheep flock, and handyman services

• Grass-fed beef operation to acquire general management skills

• Work experience as an assistant forestry surveyor to acquire capital for studies and business ventures.

• Online classes through Chambers College to acquire writing and reasoning skills and expand his grounding in Biblical doctrine

• Internship at Vision Forum to acquire Christian business skills and theological and apologetics skills

• Internship sponsored by New Venture Lab to acquire sales and marketing skills

Cost of Education: No cost -- worked for experience and for pay with the cost of college classes offset by earnings

Current status: CEO of family farm operation

Lessons learned:

• “For me the key to my post high school education has been thinking out of the box, maintaining a teachable attitude, striving to learn from everything I do, and following the prompting and leading of the Lord.”

• “I found that achieving true success is not merely in academic achievement but rather it is through complete compliance to the will of the Lord and this will revolutionize the way we approach our skill acquiring strategy.”

  • Carpentry, metal working, welding, and inventing in the family workshop to hone creative skills
  • Volunteer worker at Vision Forum to acquire a perspective of a business operated according to distinctly biblical principles
  • Paid work experience at window washing company Window Gang to acquire communication and sales skills
  • Paid work experience at recruiting firm ContractTECH to acquire recruiting skills
  • Paid internship sponsored by New Venture Lab to acquire recruiting and operations management skills
  • Ongoing self-study of topics of interest to round out his entrepreneurial preparation
  • “It is our duty to evaluate options, make decisions, work hard towards the objectives, and yet be content with the Lord’s will”
  • “God has provided educational and equipping opportunities that I would not have dreamed existed”
  • "It is our duty to evaluate options, make decisions, work hard towards the objectives, and yet be content with the Lord's will."
  • "God has provided educational and equipping opportunities that I would not have dreamed existed"

Nolan

Nolan is an eighteen year-old homeschool graduate whose roadmap consisted of a combination of volunteer work, self-study, work experiences, and an internship to develop his portfolio of skills.

Life Vision: “My vision for work is to engage in business for the Glory of God. My short term plan is to operate home-based businesses that will fund the next phases of my life, thus launching me down this path of serving God.”

Skills Acquisition Plan:

Cost of Education: No cost—worked for experience and for pay

Current status: Finalizing the launch of his own recruiting firm with a planned launch this year and helping siblings with their own business ventures

Lessons learned:

• "It is our duty to evaluate options, make decisions, work hard towards the objectives, and yet be content with the Lord's will."
• "God has provided educational and equipping opportunities that I would not have dreamed existed"