How to teach kids entrepreneurial skills?

What are some things and ways to teach a child entrepreneurship skills that will help shape them?

The primary thing to do is support them. The second is to encourage them to create and sell. Not every child will have an entrepreneurial spirit. The key is to identifying those that have it and encouraging them.

My personal stories:

When I was a kid I had two entrepreneurial endeavors. The first was selling atomic fireballs when I was in 3rd grade. I had seen another kid selling them and he was charging 10 cents each. So I told my dad about it and he bought me a huge jar of them. I took them to school and undercut the competition selling them for 5 cents each. The endeavor was quickly shut down by school authorities. My dad had to meet with the principle and stand up for my behavior. This venture taught me how to spot opportunities and take advantage of demand.

The second involved my own product. I had taught myself origami and I used to make lilies during free time in class. Someone eventually saw them and wanted one. She said she'd pay for them. So I charged her $1 each. Pretty soon several kids put in "orders". This time my mom took me to buy paper. She skipped the traditional origami paper and went straight to the office supply section. There she helped me figure out how to get the most at the cheapest price. Things were good for a couple days until I had more orders than I could handle. I was spending every night making the same thing over and over. Not long after this another girl that I had shown how to make them started undercutting my prices and that was the end of that. This venture I learned how to get attention for my talents, how to sell them, how to buy supplies, and which products don't scale well.

Overall, these were specific instances where my parents identified a desire of mine and supported it fully. No one pushed me to start a lemonade stand just to teach me the value of a dollar. It would be interesting to see how this would be taught in a classroom setting. If it had been offered in High School, I'd like to think that I would have taken it.

Here are the key skills you should begin with and ways to teach them:

Goal setting: Ask your child to write down their goals and then pick one that would have the biggest impact in their life. Then have them write down steps they would have to take to accomplish that goal.

Selling: Encourage your child to start a small project like selling their old toys or candy. Better yet, go through the process of selling something online on eBay with them. Do it with them since eBay's policies likely doesn't allow someone under 13.

Marketing: Make it a game to analyze billboards and other ads you come across. Ask them what catches their attention first in the ad. You can quiz them on how to identify things like "call to action", etc.

Failure: When your child fails at something, ask them what they learnt from it and what will they do different next time. Use anecdotes so your child can see that people have failed and gone on to be successful.

Communication: The biggest problem future generations are likely going to face. Teach them how to write properly in their everyday communication and not resorting to "dis way of wrtng thngs yo, LOL".

Social responsibility: Take your child to volunteer at an animal shelter. Nothing builds character better than giving back to society.

Independence: Next time your child wants a toy, use the opportunity to brainstorm ways they can earn money to buy it themselves.

Leadership: Sports (outdoor) are great at building leadership skills in kids.