Clever Tykes is a series of storybooks for children ages 6-9, which introduce important life skills and characteristics through positive entrepreneurial role models. The stories follow three separate protagonists as they each realise that there is something they are especially good at or passionate about, and they set about making this into their own venture. The stories incorporate the target literacy and numeracy skills for the specific age range and the entrepreneurial messages are subtle whilst important characteristics such as innovation, independence, goal-setting; hard work and resourcefulness are promoted.

It was through our experiences and research that we realised we could inspire children through storybooks and story-bound role models, so we set about creating them.

The UK needs exciting young innovators and entrepreneurs to drive the economy forward and become the employers of tomorrow. We realised that some of the best young business people our country has to offer were familiar with enterprising behaviour from a very young age (as we explain in our story here), but shouldn’t everyone have the chance to be successful?

We’re passionate about raising aspirations in children everywhere. Did you know that only 25% of our professional success is determined by our IQ? The majority is determined by our positivity, social support and being able to see stress as a challenge rather than a threat. Enterprise education embodies all of this and we want to make sure that children believe in themselves and excel academically and in whichever career path they choose.

Providing business incentives to young adults, through schemes like Start-Up Loans, helps them start up new ventures, but we want to adopt a grass roots approach to inspiring innovative behaviour. As a society, we must demonstrate to young people that a challenging and rewarding career can be as an entrepreneur in a private venture, social enterprise or charity. We need to promote the right role models for our children to emulate.

So, this is important:

We are, by no means, trying to create an influx of child entrepreneurs. Rather, we are gently introducing the idea of self-employment to children so that it becomes a realistic option for them when deciding what they want to do later in life.

Who are the Clever Tykes books for?

The books read at an 8 year old’s level, but the concepts can be readily understood by children as young as 4 having the stories read to them. The Clever Tykes stories have been read and enjoyed by children up to the age of 11. We’re here to help you inspire and empower your children to be the most creative and proactive young people they can be!

Clever Tykes is pioneering primary enterprise education and are being used in thousands of schools across the country. If you’re a teacher and you’d like to know more, don’t hesitate to get in touch, and remember our free resources are available at www.portal.clevertykes.com.

Help your child on their journey of development by visiting the store and contact us with any queries you have. Our press features are here and this is what grown ups say about the books.

The Clever Tykes story

Let us take you on the journey of how we discovered the importance of an entrepreneurial upbringing and what we can do improve the quality and quantity of entrepreneurs in the UK as well as improving the prospects of our least affluent children.

After founding a growing social media company, find out how a meeting with 12 young entrepreneurs led to us analysing the way children learn about enterprise. We applied this to the wider economic situation of the UK before coming up with a solution to completely revolutionise the way we approach entrepreneurship.

We love the Clever Tykes story and know you will too. Read it here.

See how Clever Tykes is already making waves in primary enterprise education.