The Kids’ Guide to Business

Jeff Brown
TeachingKidsBusiness (2004)
ISBN 9780973305814
Reviewed by Tabytha Joy (age 16) for Reader Views (6/07)


“The Kids’ Guide to Business” is a book about starting, or running, your own business. This book includes information about the precautions and warnings of running, or owning, your own business. This book gives helpful tips to become a successful business owner.

The author included many things that most people would have never thought of. Using a lemonade stand, as the main example, was a great idea. This is because a lot of people think you can have a lemonade stand without planning anything. This book shows that you do have to plan even the simplest things.

I think it was also a great idea for the author to ask as many questions as he did throughout the book. The questions really make the readers think about things that we really thought weren’t important.

“Be careful that your business name does not limit you to the products and services you can successfully offer.” This phrase in the book shows that the name of your business is as important as the product you are selling. It’s very specific about what it means. The phrase is pretty much saying, pick a name that will go with everything. Just in case you choose to sell a different type of product later, you don’t have to try to find another name for your business. I also like how the author used a lot of quotes from well-known people. This book is a good place to start. I’d say it would work best for teens or young adults.

There are a few things that I would advise. The book was not as organized as it could have been. Also, the author chose to repeat the same phrase several times in such a short amount of pages. The little headlines weren’t bad. But the author used “Apply to a lemonade stand or your business of choice” -- after reading that about three times, it did become boring. Also, the word “kid” was used too frequently in the book. I think “child” or “children” would have made a better choice. The word “kid” reminds me of the word “it.” And the word “it” is usually used to refer to an object or a thing and not really a person.

I think it was a great idea for the author to write a book about something that could make a difference in a child’s future. But a lot of the information in “The Kids’ Guide to Business” was just not organized to where it was understandable enough to someone of a younger age. This book also reminded me of advertising. This is because, on the first several pages, the author chose to put his web sites several times. That gives me the idea that the author did not just write the book to teach children about business, but to also get more people to view his sites.

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