One of the reasons that I encourage young people to start an internet business is because it is very inexpensive. I know because I started my internet business with very little money.
Almost everything you need to learn is available on the internet for free. Many internet marketers share much of their knowledge with you for free. It just takes a little time and effort on your part, searching Google, Bing and other search engines to find what you need to know. Http://www.ehow.com is another great source of “how to” information.
You can now set up a complete internet business on Facebook for no money. Twitter, Pinterest, Diggs, Tumbler, Linkedin and other social media sites are also free and some are programmable so you can spend a relatively short amount of time in just one day a week programming all the messages you want to send.
To purchase a domain name, a name that is exclusively yours and will be the name of your online business, costs $10 at http://www.godaddy.com. There are other sites where you can purchase a domain name as well. Just do a Google search and you’ll find them. I’m not going to go into the other tools you may or may not need right now as that is not the point of this particular lesson.
What I do want to focus on is how young people can raise the money for what they need.
The usual options for raising money such as car washes, doing odd jobs, pet sitting or dog walking, recycling and so on are all good ways to earn some extra cash. If your teens explain to your friends and neighbors that that are trying to start a business and would appreciate it if they would donate their plastic or glass bottles for recycling, most of them will be happy to help. Recycling each week can bring in that $10 to cover the cost of the domain name and in a month’s time might even pay for some needed supplies.
The next way is to form a dream team or a success team. That would consist of parents, friends and relatives who might be open to helping your teen create their business. The best way to build this team is for the teen to explain to these people what they are trying to accomplish and ask if that person can help them with either knowledge, cash, or other assistance.
This is called “enrolling” people to your cause. Many people are happy to help guide a young person in a worthwhile endeavor. The dream team or success team is like a board of directors that agree to be available to provide information, answers, guidance and in many cases, money.
Enrollment skills are important to success so as a parent, teacher or other caregiver or provider, you should not take over that job for your teen or young adult. You should encourage them to approach the person directly. This will help them face their fear of rejection and learn to cope with rejection. This is another very valuable skill required for any business. Not to mention that each successful enrollment will bolster their self-esteem and enhance their skills.
The bottom line is that if the young entrepreneur is committed to their business in a serious way, the assistance from others is not that difficult to obtain.
By the way, have you ENTERED TO WIN the Calm Parenting Program? Take a look at that opportunity on http://www.julianeiman.com/the-contest page. Just enter your name and email for a chance to be the winner. The drawing will close on July 15 at midnight and the winner will be notified by email on the 16th.