Besides handing your children a weekly or a monthly allowance, parents should encourage teens to generate their own earnings. Many successful entrepreneurs got their start at ice cream shops, movie theaters, and local stores. "I knew a lot of kids whose parents wouldn't let them work because they wanted them to focus more on their studies," Zalben says. "But I don't think any of those kids spent any more time studying than I did. I just had to have better time management."