Tag Archives for " young entrepreneurs "

4 Build a Business – The Basics

By now you should understand that building a business is not an easy task. There are many things you need to consider, many questions you need to answer, many things you need to do and know to organize and maintain a successful business.

While money matters to some degree when starting a business (depending on the type of business), the rule of law is important in our society as well.  You will need to be legally prepared to start your business.  That means knowing what business licenses are required by your city, county and state.  It includes deciding on whether your business will be a solo enterprise, a joint venture, a limited partnership, or other structure.  If you are hiring employees or contractors, you will need to have an employer identification number from the IRS and register your business in your state.

Just when you think you have all the information you can handle, there’s always more.

Do you think that because your business is small you are at a disadvantage? Actually, it’s an advantage!  Because you’re small, you are flexible, and you can quickly adapt to market changes.  Here are some startup elements you need to consider before you can launch a successful small business.

Organize it.

• How will your business get things done?
• Who does what?
• What is the structure of your business?
• How are tasks divided?

Manage your money.

• Where will your money come from?
• How will it come in and out of your business?
• Will you invest back into your business?
• How much cash do you need to operate and pay expenses?
• What profit do you expect?

Create your image.

• Marketing: How will your customers locate you and your business?
• Do you know where your customers are? Have you designed a plant to find and maintain customers?
• How will you keep track of your competitors?
• Do you have a good strategy?

Legalize it!

• How will the legal system affect your business?
• How can you protect yourself and your business ideas?

Do you know your federal, state, and local tax laws?

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8 Who is My Competition?

Question #6 on the Junior Achievement List of 20 Questions to ask before deciding on starting a business is Who is My Competition?

To figure this out, there are other questions you need to ask including:

• How many are there?

• Where are they located?

• What products/services do they offer that you do not?

• What products/services don’t they offer that you can?

• What is their advertising strategy?  Where are social media do they advertise?

There are several great things you can learn by researching your competitors.

• You can potentially avoid the same mistakes they’ve made.

• You can gain information that will help you with the decisions you’ll need to make about where to locate your business, what to charge for your products/services and what advertising strategy might work for you.

How do I find out about my competitors?

You need to do research about the industry your business is positioned in.  You want to find out how many other businesses like yours are operating within your city or county, or on the web if you are a computer based business.

According to Johnston Community College in North Carolina, “Customer research will guide you to where your potential customers are shopping and why.  As part of your competitor research, you may want to ask potential customers survey questions geared to discover information about the competition. If they currently use products or services like yours, where are they buying them? What are they paying for them? What do they like and dislike about your competition?”

Once you have identified who your competitors are, be sure to visit their web site if they have one and their social media sites.  Follow them on Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest and other sites.  You can learn a lot from  their web sites and social media sites. For example, they may have information about prices, services, locations and contact information. The look and features of the web site itself will give you an idea of your competitor’s professionalism and quite possibly about their resources.

You might consider calling your competitors directly asking the kinds of questions a customer/client would.  Those questions could be about the prices they charge, the types of products and services they sell, turnaround time for service and anything else you need to know.  If your competitor has a storefront, visit it for ideas about products and advertising.

Another way to find out about your competitors is to talk to others who have had dealings with them including their customers, other businesses who had dealings with them and their suppliers if know who they are.   You can find out what kind-of service they provide, how well they work with their suppliers.

The Johnston Community College has the Competitors Worksheet available to help you identify and document your competitors.  Take great notes and refer back to them when trying to create your business plan and marketing strategy.

This lesson is meant as an overview.  You will have to do some research on how to do the research.  Try asking Ehow.com how to research competitors, how to do market research and how to do industry research.  You will have to use google and other search engines to decide on the key words you’ll need to use to find your competition.

At this point, you’ll need to ask yourself again, “Are you committed to your dream and to doing whatever it takes to make it happen?”

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4 What is My Target Market?

This is the fifth question on the Junior Achievement’s list of 20 questions to ask yourself before starting your business.  Why is this  an important question?  It is important because you need to know who you are going to market your products and/or services to.  I would even say that Who is my target market is more to the point.

Who is Your Target Market?

Define the people whom you are looking for and those looking for what you have to offer.  How old are they, where do they live, what do they do, and where do they hang out on the web?  What are their desires and their pain points?  What do they love?  Your little corner of the business world, your business, also known as your niche, should cater to the needs of your audience while also being true to yourself and what your passions and interests are.

Where Does Your Target Market Hang Out?

Do a Google search for forums within your niche as well as key word searches within Facebook and Twitter.  Build up your networks on social media so when you are ready to start monetizing your business, you can bring your ideal customer/client to your website.  Remember you are targeting an audience that is interested in what you have to say or what you are selling.

Let’s say make awesome jewelry and decide to sell your creations online.  What age group will love your jewelry?  Will you sell to the person who will wear it or to the person who buys it for them?  Where can you find these people?

Another good question to ask yourself is who do you want to hang out and establish relationships with?  Will they relate to your business idea?  If not, can you offer them something that will interest them so that they become a part of your audience, tribe, posse, family, fans, or whatever you choose to call it?

If you have a business that will have you relating one-on-one with your client or customer, ask yourself who that perfect person will be.  What do they like to do?  What do they spend their money on?  How do they use your product or service?

Don’t skip this step when making decisions about how to your business will look.  It is essential to have clarity on who your target market is in order  to create a successful marketing plan.  In this day and age on the internet, marketing is king.  Without a well thought-out marketing plan with clear goals and clear targets, you are at risk for failure.

Who is your perfect client/customer?

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14 Six Secrets For Success!

Guest Blogger:

Dr. Linette Montae

What are the secrets for success? What makes somebody more successful than you? How come others appear to work much less but achieve greater results? What do they know that you don’t? You will be pleased to hear that success is not as secret as you may think- you can learn and apply these steps if you are willing to change your thinking and put forth a little effort.

Here are six secrets for success you can act on today:

Your attitude is everything. To become successful you must first change your thoughts. Most people have a ‘failure’ mindset.  If you are using language like ‘I can’t’, guess what- you won’t!  Delete ‘I can’t’ from your vocabulary and believe in your ability to succeed.  The only thing stopping you from achieving your dreams is you.  Try a simple affirmation technique- say ‘I am successful’ out loud several times each day.  You may feel silly but your subconscious mind will pick up on the message and work towards making it a reality.

Stay away from negative people. Look at the people you spend time with- do they spend their time moaning and complaining about life and how unfair everything is?  If so, limit the time you spend in their company or you will be affected by their attitude.  Look to spend time with people who are positive, encouraging and full of optimistic plans for their future. You will find yourself being influenced by them and your own thoughts and behavior should change as a result.

Get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself. You may find it easier to stay in the same patterns of behavior, the same job and the same habits, but you will risk getting stuck in a rut. It’s a well known fact that if you continue to do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got.  To achieve anything different you need to push yourself and make changes in your life.

Try doing this one step at a time on a small scale, for example trying new foods, buying an outfit you wouldn’t normally go for, or taking up a hobby that challenges you. Once you start making small changes you will find it easier to take on bigger challenges.

Write down your goals and formulate a plan. Goals are just dreams unless they are written down.  If you don’t know what you want, you are not likely to achieve it. It is a bit like trying to drive without a destination. Working towards your goals one step at a time will focus your mind and allow you to measure your progress. It is a fact that most successful people regularly plan and write goals.

Take action. You won’t become successful just thinking about it, and written plans are nothing without action. Decide that you will do one thing each day, no matter how small, to move towards your goals. Set yourself daily or weekly tasks and check them off as you complete them.

Be persistent and never give up. There will be times when you feel like you are getting nowhere and at times you will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. You will even fail sometimes, but this is a natural process you will have to go through to achieve success. Learn from obstacles and failures, and decide how you will do things differently next time.

I have given you six secrets; as long as you apply them and are prepared to put in the work, there is no reason you should not expect success.

_____________

About Dr. Montae:

Dr. Linette Montae and Danette Nixon, aka “The Youth Success Duo” and authors of Success Is A Decision- Leaders Create The Life They Want To Live travel the world sharing their empowering message with teens because they believe “that given the right space, tools and training; ALL youth can succeed”. And now they invite you to take the Youth Success Challenge at http://empoweringyouthforsuccess.com/youth/

 Dr. Linette Montae is a nationally acclaimed speaker, author and award winning business results strategist who, for the past 20 years, has coached business owners in a variety of service industries. Dr. Montae is passionate about helping overworked women entrepreneurs “make money, make a difference and have more time to enjoy life”. And now you are invited to receive a free video series from Dr. Montae just for visiting www.BigBusinessResults.com

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12 What Products/Services Will My Business Provide? Part 2

I would like to remind my readers that this blog is geared toward teens and young adults (so please don’t be offended by my admonition to look up a word in the dictionary – that’s meant for my young readers).  The information here is just a summary, intended to guide them toward thinking about what they want their online business to look like/be about.  I invite you to post any ideas or suggestions you have that would add to the topic and be a good addition in the upcoming book I’m writing using these blog posts.

In part 1 of this topic we looked at service oriented businesses.  In part 2 of this topic we will consider just a few examples of internet businesses and the products or services you can offer online.

Online Training.  I heard about one man who taught piano and wanted to move to an island in the Caribbean.  He decided to take his business to the internet in order to make the move.  He purchased a video camera for his computer and worked with students via Skype (a free online video conferencing tool).  He was able to demonstrate and to observe the student playing the keys.  He eventually added pre-made video lessons which he turned into DVDs and MP3s and built a million dollar business.

Get any ideas from this story?  Many classrooms use video conferencing and online videos as an adjunct training (if you don’t know this word look it up in the dictionary as my father used to tell me).

Online videos are easy to make and are a great training tool.  You can do live demonstrations, embed video on your website, post them on your own YouTube account or create DVDs for sale.  Most computers come with built in cameras now.  If you have an older computer, there are very inexpensive cameras you can buy.  I got a Microsoft camera for my desktop for only $12.

As you become experienced, you may want to write a book about your topic which then becomes one of your products.  You may develop a training program that you can teach using webinars or have teleseminars or telesummits and teach classes over the phone.  The tools to do these things are free.

Be a Rock Star or a Comic.  Using YouTube you can create videos of your performances, post them on YouTube then give everyone the link to your video and ask them to share it.  If you’re good, or what you do is interesting, you might hit it big.  Just look at Justin Bieber and Gangnam Style.  These people posted on YouTube, their performances caught some eyes and they went viral and became overnight successes.  Both have ended up on Dancing With The Stars and Gangnam style is being danced all over the world.  It’s possible with a little talent, some creativity and a lot of luck.

Be a Talking Head or a DJ.  You too can have your own radio program on blogtalkradio.com.  You just download the software and start talking.  You can invite other people who are in the same niche as you to interview, interview customers, just talk about whatever interests you for an hour, review movies and books, play music.  You can record it and use it as a demo video, send it out to stations you might want to have a radio show for, or use it as a demo tape to get DJ gigs.

Online Retail Store.  You can open a storefront online using a website.  You can either develop your own or buy into an already existing business where they provide the website and all the tools you need; you only need to do the marketing and bring people to your site.  This is known as a turnkey business (everything is done for you, you just need to market your site).  Post photos and information about the product you are selling, set up a paypal account, use a WordPress plugin that is very inexpensive to purchase that becomes your Estore and tracks your orders, sends out invoices, notifies you via email about sales and keeps track of the money.

I use the WordPress  estore and their affiliate plugin.  You can get more information about that here.  In the interest of transparency, I am an affiliate for this product (that means I am part of their sales force and earn a commission if you purchase this product using my link).

There are many other options for services or products you can provide at your website or other online business.  Can you think of any?

Do you have a business model that isn’t mentioned here?  Please let us know if you provide a service that hasn’t been mentioned and you think we can benefit from knowing about it.  Thank you.

5 What Products/Services Will My Business Provide?

This is the third question on the Junior Achievement’s list of 20 questions to answer before starting your business.  We are not going to talk about brick and mortar businesses in this article.  That is a very complicated topic and it is highly unlikely that those of you reading this book will either be considering that or be well served by any summary I could provide here.  We are focusing on service and online businesses.

The best way we can consider answers to this question is to look at a few examples.  We can start with the most obvious and quickest ways for a teenager to start a business, which is to have a service business within your community.

Yard Maintenance.  Will you just be mowing lawns or will you trim hedges and do weeding?  Will you water and spread grass seeds in season?  Will you plant and manage a garden and will that be just plants and flowers or include vegetables as well?  Will you sweep the driveway, rake the leaves, use a leaf blower?

A lot of this will depend on the equipment you have or that they have on hand to do the job with.  If you have money to purchase your own equipment in the beginning, you can offer more services.  As you begin to earn money, you can invest in more equipment and grow a very nice professional yard maintenance business.

Pet Sitting.  Will you be available to pet sit by staying overnight at your client’s home while they are out of town or will you take their pet to your home?  Will you just stop by at certain times of the day to feed, water and clean up?  If you take the pet home, you might need a puppy gate to contain the animal if the client doesn’t have one you can bring home with you.  Will you give the pet a bath before the owner returns home?  Or will you just be walking dogs for people while they are away for the day?

There are options that you need to consider and some of the services you offer, like taking the pet home or staying at the client’s house might depend on what your parents will allow.  If you have a car, you could take pets to the vet and the groomer for your clients.

So many decisions to make based on what is available to you and what your skills are.  There are other variables as well.  I live in a semi-rural area of ranches.  Our local journal has a classified section for teen workers.  The service businesses they provide include exercising horses, mucking stalls, grooming and feeding.  If a person has horses, they have all the equipment needed to do the job and you just have to show up and do the work.

In a future lesson we will take a look at more Service Based businesses that you can start and/or use to earn money to finance another business that requires more startup funds.

In Part II of this topic in tomorrow’s post we will look at the kinds of internet business models you can consider.

If you need help answering any of these questions, you should have the Get Stuff Done Tool.  It will help you get your thoughts organized.  Just leave your name and email in the sign in box on the upper right hand side of the page and get organized.

15 What Kind of Business Do I Want?

Once you have decided that you are willing to do whatever it takes to build a business, you need to decide what kind of business you want.  Here are more questions to consider:

•Will you offer training, mow lawns, have a pool service, sell a product, write books, manufacture something?  What about a making cupcakes or salad dressing?  Running errands for your neighbors, handling their recycling?

•Will you require a storefront, an office, a warehouse or will you work online and have an internet business?

•Will you work alone or have employees?

There are three main forms of business:

Internet:   This is a business where your office is literally in your computer.  There are many things you do as a business on the internet.  You can sell products on Ebay or Etsy, you can sell your art or things you produce from your hobby, you can earn money blogging if you can writer, you can build a coaching or training business, be a virtual assistant, be a graphic designer, sell your books or recipes or even food items that come from you kitchen.

The thing to remember is that this takes time.  The average business takes two years to build on the internet from start up to beginning to earn money.  It is very unusual for someone to hit it big and make a ton of money right away.  Most of those stories are not true.

Also, having an internet business is not easy.  You are working alone a lot of the time, you have to be a self-starter, motivate yourself and have a lot of patience.

The benefits are that you can work on your schedule, you are your own boss, you can be really creative.  However, even these benefits have a down side.  Working alone can make you feel isolated, you aren’t accountable to anyone and unless you seek them out and ask for assistance, there is no one to help you and you might have to pay for whatever help you need.  There is also a large learning curve where new systems, social media sites and other things are a part of your business.

This is a business option you need to give a lot of thought to and brainstorm some options for working around these downsides and moving forward.

Service:  A service business would include mowing lawns, pet or housesitting, running errands, home care provider, pool service, house/office cleaner and any kind of construction or contractor business, even a lunch business run from a catering truck.  You must be aware of the sort of knowledge and skills that you need, what kind of equipment/tools will you need, and whether or not you need a more formal education and a certificate of license.  This will require some research on your part.

Brick and Mortar:  Within this category are retail stores, restaurants, and manufacturing.  Brick and mortar literally describes a business at some physical location.

There will be some cross overs within the categories, for example, if you have a construction business, you will likely have a physical location where you park your truck, store your tools and have a showroom to engage with clients.

Another option for business is to own a franchise.  This can be expensive because you have to pay the parent company for the franchise license.  Some businesses that are franchises include fast food businesses and service businesses like Molly Maids.  You have to sign a contract with the parent company, they will provide some training about the business and you need to agree to operate within their guidelines and maintain the level of quality they demand.  Owning a franchise isn’t for everyone and there is no guarantee of success even though the parent is a well-known business.  And it can be very expensive and require a loan and lines of credit.  Do you have a relationship with a bank?

So, as you can see, there are many questions to consider each step of the way to building an entrepreneurial business.  Are you still committed to doing what it takes to build your business.

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10 Are You Committed to Doing What it Takes to Build Your Business?

In today’s post I am going to briefly touch on the first question from the Junior Achievement’s list of 20 questions from the previous post about things to consider before starting your business.

Am I prepared to spend the time, money and resources needed to get my business started?

First, you should consider the time it takes to run a business, then ask yourself these three questions:

•Do I really want to give up baseball, hockey, soccer, basketball, football, dance, piano and voice, or hanging out with my friends to run this business?

•Will I have to work at running my business every day or just sometimes?

•Will my family help me out?

It is important to remember that building a new business even if it is based on something you already know how to do, takes time.  One of the lessons in my previous book, 31 Powerful Lessons: Empowering Teens and Young Adults to Develop an Entrepreneur Mindset, is about finding the time for your business.  Finding the time is one of the hurdles that you need to find a way over if you’re going to have your own business.

You have to conduct research to see if there are customers, find out what the competition is doing, how to price your product or service and so on.  If you are going to have an internet based business, even if you already know how to use a computer and are on Facebook and Twitter and other social media sites, you will have to learn how to use those sites for business and create a social media marketing plan.  There are many other steps involved here.

This is the point where you might want to find a mentor, someone who already knows these things and can help you make good decisions and move forward if that is what we decide to do.

Your main task before you can truly answer this question is to find out what will be involved in starting and running the business you decide on.  Once you have all the information, you can make an informed decision.

Are you prepared to put in the time to gather all the information you need to make an informed decision?  Are you willing to even put in the time it takes to do this?

The Getting Stuff Done Tool might help you organize the things you have to do to find your answer to these questions.  You can get that emailed to you by entering your name and email in the box with the red arrow at the top right side of the page.

12 20 Questions to Answer Before Starting a Business: Empowering Young Entrepreneurs

By this time in our series, you should have identified your passion.  If not, you’ll need to take time and go back through the exercises designed to help you do that.  If you still don’t find your answer, ask the people who are closest to you what they have observed makes you happy while you are doing it.  Keep at it until you figure out what you are passionate about and can create a business with.

The next step is to think about how you’re going to build a business around that passion so you can love what you do all the time.

There’s a lot to consider.  Are you going to sell products that you create, or products that someone else has manufactured?  Are you turning your hobby into a business?  Who will be your customers or clients?  How will you reach them?  Will your business be based on the internet or will you have a what is often called a brick and mortar business, meaning a physical location in an office, warehouse or storefront?  Do you have the skills to stay in business or do you need to learn some new things before you start?

You can see that there are a lot of questions you need answers to before you can move forward.  With that said, I’m a big believer  in just jumping in and going for it once you know what you want to do.  However, what you are jumping into will differ with different types of business.

The organization called Junior Achievement has provided a list of questions for you to consider while trying to decide how to build your business.  We will be discussing some of these questions as the series continues, however, there are some things that you will need to find the answers for yourself.  There will be a resource page at the end of the series with links to some organizations and blogs that can help you learn what you need to know to start a business.

Do you already have answers for any of these questions?

As I said, there’s a lot to think about.  If you aren’t willing to take the time to consider these questions and do the research to find answers, then you might want to reconsidering starting your own business.  In order to be successful in business you must be committed to doing whatever it takes to make it work.

The focus of the Empowering Teens and Young Adults to Develop an Entrepreneur Mindset series is going to be on developing an internet business.  Most of these questions apply to internet business, however, they may not all apply to the business you want to start.  Making it happen is on the internet is easier than building a brick and mortar business.

In each post for the rest of the series we will be considering information that you need to know to find answers to some of these questions.

Have you been able to answer any of these questions for yourself yet?

Don’t forget to leave your name and email in the box on the top right side of this page to receive the FREE entrepreneurial tool, Get Stuff Done.

10 “Attitudes Are Contagious. Is Yours Worth Catching?”

Since attitude is so important and has such an enormous impact on the level and quality of success, I am offering some inspirational quotes to consider.  I hope that you enjoy these quotes, find a few that have meaning for you or apply to your situation.  Change your thoughts and change your life.

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”  Charles R.  Swindol

“Our attitude toward life determines life’s attitude towards us.”  John  N. Mitchell

“Having a positive mental attitude is asking how something can be done rather than saying it can’t be done.”  Bo Bennett

“You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.”  Brian Tracy

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”  Winston Churchill

“The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”   Scott Hamilton

“Attitudes are nothing more than habits of thoughts, and habits can be acquired. An action repeated becomes an attitude realized.”  Paul Myer

“Take charge of your attitude. Don’t let someone else choose it for you.”  Unknown

“Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.”  Kahlil Gibran

“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”  Albert Einstein

“It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult undertaking which, more than anything else, will determine its successful outcome.”  William James

“There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.”  William Clement Stone

“Pathetic attitudes are not in keeping with greatness.”   Friedrich Nietzsche

“Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.”  W. C. Fields

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”  Thomas Jefferson

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