Whether your teen entrepreneur is just starting out or running a full-fledged business, she/he needs a suitable workspace. Helping your teen design a professional work area sends the message that you take her business endeavor seriously. This New Year is a great time to clear space for your teen’s boardroom.
Just getting started?
Rethink the areas in your home in terms of a potential business space: basement, den, attic, garage, guest room, bedroom, stair-landing space, walk-in closet. If you don’t have a room to devote to your teen’s business, create a mobile office using a rolling cart.
Home office?
Think twice before sharing your own home office with your teen. When my daughter started Yaldah Magazine eight years ago, she used our family office as her launching pad. This meant sharing the family computer, desk, and office space with me, her father and younger siblings. It wasn’t long before magazine boxes, mailers, and paper stacks took over the room.
As Leah’s business expanded, she needed to spend more and more time in the office. This did not make for family harmony. So Leah’s office moved into her bedroom.Using the bedroom as boardroom.
Pros: -Teens like to spend a lot of time in their rooms.
-Family common space isn’t taken over by the business.
-Teens are free to decorate in their own style.
Cons: -Your child’s sleep may be suffer.
-Your teen’s bedroom chaos may spill into her boardroom area.
-Homework zone may get displaced.
There were many nights when Leah’s bedroom light was still on as my husband and I turned in. “I just need to finish one layout,” she’d say. It wasn’t unusual to find her the next morning asleep on her laptop, clothes strewn over the floor.I’d suggest not trying to mix both school work and business in the same space. It is hard enough for CEO kids to balance time for book reports and business plans. Keeping boundaries between school and business increases productivity in both.
Action plan:
Section off an area of your teen’s bedroom for a business office. Use a moveable room divider, Japanese-style folding screen, tall shelf, or hang a curtain. Negotiate work hours and internet use. Designate a homework zone in another part of the house, if necessary.
Determine the space needs first.
My teen son’s chess lesson business required minimal space and equipment. My youngest daughter needed space for film editing. My oldest daughter needed lots of storage for back issues of the magazine.
Does your teen’s business involve lots of technology and gadgets? Doug, Mockett & Company state-of-the art organizing tools for a variety of tech needs.
Does your child need a large of work station? IKEA has many inexpensive and functional solutions.
Does your child need storage space for merchandise, supplies, and equipment? There are lots of choices for shelving, cabinets, and storage units at the Container Store and Organize.com
Look for functionality and efficiency, but don’t forget the fun factor.
Desk chairs now come in bright pink. Defer to your teen’s personal taste and style.
Think of Your Budget.
Will you invest in your teen’s business by purchasing the furniture and equipment? if your child is earning income, consider a business loan. When Leah wanted a computer upgrade, we loaned her the money which she paid back over two years from business earnings. (Office supplies and furnishing expenses are tax-deductible.)
Items to consider for your CEO Teen’s Boardroom:
- Desk or work station.
- Ergonomic chair (my daughters like sitting on an exercise ball)
- Lighting
- File folders for receipts and paper documents.
- Shelf or drawer units
- Stacked bins to hold merchandise, mailing materials,
- Secure high-speed internet service
- Computer printer, scanner, external hard-drive, phone extension, fax machine, webcam
- Power cord strip
- White board for brainstorming, planning, and reminders,
- Bulletin boar
- Noise-canceling headphones.
- Large wall calendar
- Wastebasket/recycle bin
Keeping their stuff in order
CEO Kids may dazzle us with their creativity and business sense, but organizational skills don’t always come naturally. LIke many adult entrepreneurs, our teens need to learn how to manage their physical workspace–papers, supplies, gadgets, books, and materials. This is an essential life/work skill, but don’t expect it to happen instantly. By helping your teen design a comfortable and stylish CEO space, he’ll be more inclined to keep it in order.
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Evelyn Krieger is a YA author, freelance writer, and educational consultant. She is proud mom to three CEO kids: Leah Larson Caras, Sam Larson, and Audrey Larson.
Once we get it to market, the Solecan will be the perfect trash/recycle solution for a teen boardroom. Check it out at http://www.solecan.com If you agree you can help speed us to market by giving us a like on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/theSolecan
Thanks and happy recycling! Go entrepreneurs!
It is really refreshing that you are so supportive of your child’s ideas. Drawer units on wheels are a good idea if you want to save space, this way certain furniture can be blocked off when not in use and then the drawers can just be moved elsewhere in the room when you need to access something.
Thanks, Charlie. This is a good idea.
Good post on the need for office space for micro business owners. (May I have permission to repost a potion on my blog with a link back here?)
Yes, the office furniture and supplies are tax deductions if the teen business owner purchased them. If mom and dad purchased them, and gave them as a gift to the teen biz owner, then the office supplies and furniture are not tax deductible.
(BTW, a teenager business owner files their OWN tax return. Don’t include their business on mom or dad’s tax return.)
I’m frequently asked if a teenager can take the business use of the home deduction. The answer is (usually) no, because the teenager is not the one paying the mortgage or utilities.
Sometimes a parent considers charging a teenager rent, but then the parents must declare that rent as taxable income (usually at a higher tax rate than the teen business owner). It’s not worth it.
Carol Topp, CPA
Author Money and Taxes in a Micro Business
MicroBusinessForTeens.com
Hi Carol!
Thank you for providing such great additional tips here! I so appreciate you!
Sarah