Any entrepreneur will tell you that starting a business is challenging. Unfortunately, it’s even more difficult for young entrepreneurs. If you’re a teenager with a budding business idea, here are a few tips to keep in mind as you start.
Be passionate
If you want your business to be successful, you need to truly believe in your idea. Whether you’re building upon an idea from a favorite class in school or an extracurricular activity, you want to be sure that you’re excited about the project. When you seeks investments or talk to potential customers, this raw passion will make your sell more convincing.
Be flexible
As Casey Welsh, the co-founder and CEO of Tallo, once said, “If selling red crayons doesn’t work, start selling blue ones.” When starting a new business, you will inevitably run into challenges. Being agile and adjusting to these challenges as they arise, even if it means taking an unexpected path, is incredibly important to the success of your business.
Be persistent
Most successful entrepreneurs have stories about the moments in which they thought they were going to fail. To be successful, they had to avoid the urge to give up when the going got tough. Persistence is one of the most valuable traits of a successful entrepreneur; with consistent hard work, you’re much more likely to succeed.
Be proactive
In business, you cannot wait for customers to come to you. You need to actively seek them out. Whether it’s making promotional tik toks, sending out emails, or handing out flyers, you should continually try to find potential customers who can help grow your company.
Be mindful of money
No matter what you’re doing, there will be some cost associated with running your business. If you want to be successful, you must pay careful attention to these expenses. Keeping detailed records of your spending and earnings and paying attention to your profit margins is essential to running a healthy business.
If you'd like to get more great tips and a free guide on becoming a teen entrepreneur, check out our Gen Z Entrepreneurship Resource Center here.
