How I Explained My Business to My Kids (And Why Every Entrepreneur Dad Should)

Explaining your business to your kids is one of the simplest and most overlooked things an entrepreneur dad can do — and most of us never do it.

For a long time, my business was basically invisible to my kids. They knew I went to work. They knew I came home. They knew I sometimes had to take calls or travel. Beyond that, what I actually did all day was a mystery to them.

I thought this was fine. Normal, even. You don't drag work home. You compartmentalize. You protect your family from the stress of the business.

But a few years ago, my son asked me a question that reframed all of it.

We were at dinner and he asked, "Dad, what do you actually do when you go to work?"

I started to give him the standard vague answer — "I help people plan their finances, I run my company" — and I watched his eyes glaze over before I'd finished the sentence.

That's when I realized: I had created a situation where my kid had no idea what occupied the majority of his father's waking hours. And I'd done it in the name of protecting him, when really I'd just been lazy about connection.

I changed my approach that night.

Contagious Proximity

One of the stories in REBL Dad that I keep coming back to is from Mark Timm, an entrepreneur who spent years building companies while his kids grew up around him. He talks about something he calls "contagious proximity" — the idea that kids don't need elaborate experiences to learn from you. They need ordinary hours spent side by side.

For Mark, that meant taking his kids along — to the office, to business trips, to conferences. He'd call ahead and ask, "My son's traveling with me — can he come to the meeting?" The answer was almost always yes. And his kids learned more from watching real life than they ever could from a textbook.

He went further than most: he incorporated his family as an LLC and gave each child equal shares, turning Sunday evenings into family "shareholder meetings." Not to create hierarchy — to create voice and ownership. So his kids could grow up feeling like they were part of something, not living in the shadow of it.

That's the spirit behind why I started opening up about my business.

Why Keeping It Separate Is a Mistake

The reasons entrepreneurial dads keep work and family separate are understandable. You don't want to bring stress home. You want your kids to have a childhood. You want home to feel like a break.

Those instincts are right — to a point. The problem is when separation becomes opacity. When your kids have no idea what you do, why you do it, what it means to you, or why it sometimes means you're unavailable.

Without that context, your work is just a thing that takes you away. It competes with them for your time, and it wins a lot. From a kid's perspective, that story doesn't have a great ending.

When you bring them in — in age-appropriate, genuine ways — the story changes. Your work becomes something they understand and can even be proud of. Your absences get context.

How I Did It

I started with the basics. What do I actually do? I help entrepreneurs manage and grow their money so they can build the life they want. Simple language. Real examples without names. Why it matters.

My kids were more interested than I expected. They asked questions: Why do people need help with money? What happens if you give someone bad advice? Real questions.

Then I started sharing more over time. When I was working on something exciting, I'd mention it. Not dumping stress on them — sharing the good stuff.

I took my son to my office. Nothing fancy — just "come see where dad works." Seeing the physical space made it real.

I started involving him in small decisions where it was appropriate. What would you name this program? If you ran my company for a day, what would you do differently? His answers were sometimes surprisingly wise, and more importantly, he felt included.

One of the principles in REBL Dad is simple advice that an older couple gave early on: "Make your kids part of your life." Not your calendar — your life. The entrepreneurs who did this consistently reported that their kids went from viewing the business as competition for their parent to being curious about it, proud of it, inspired by it.

The Unexpected Payoff

A few things happened that I didn't anticipate.

My son started defending my work to others when they complained about my schedule — because he understood it. That was remarkable.

Conversations about work became a bridge to conversations about bigger things: work ethic, why you do hard things, what it means to build something, what responsibility feels like.

And my son started thinking about what he wants to build someday. Not because I pushed entrepreneurship on him. Because he grew up watching someone build something, and understanding what that looked like.

Your business is a big part of who you are. Your kids deserve to know that part of you. Don't make them wait until they're grown to find out what their father spent his life building.

REBL Dad explores the principle of Investing in Shared Experiences — including how entrepreneur dads can make their kids part of their world in ways that build connection and curiosity. rebldads.com/book.

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Common questions about sharing your business with your kids:

At what age should you explain your business to your kids?

Start earlier than you think. Even young children (4-6) can understand simple versions: "Dad helps people solve problems" or "Mom builds things people use." As they grow, you add complexity. The goal isn't business school — it's giving them a mental model for what you do so your work isn't a mysterious box that takes you away from them.

How do I make my kids feel included in my entrepreneurial life?

Involve them at their level: bring them to your office once, let them weigh in on a small decision, share something exciting that happened at work at dinner. At a deeper level, bring them on trips where they can observe real business interactions. Mark Timm's approach of treating family like a company — with shared ownership, regular check-ins, and real participation — is a more structured version of this.

Why should entrepreneur dads talk to their kids about work?

Because without context, your work is just a thing that takes you away. With context, it becomes something your kids can understand, be proud of, and learn from. It also reduces the mystery around your absences, makes your relationship more authentic (your kids know a fuller version of you), and creates natural conversations about values like work ethic, responsibility, and building something meaningful.