Young Entrepreneurs Starting Businesses
Quick Tips to Help You Get Started
Written by Chukwuma Asala for Gaebler Ventures
As a young entrepreneur, you may feel the world is set on a silver platter. However, if not handled properly, your business could sink. Here's some tips to help you stay afloat in the business world.
Being a young entrepreneur makes you no different from any other type of entrepreneur except for one simple fact: you are young.
This can be your biggest strength and definitely your biggest weakness. If you are not aware you could fall into some of the same pitfalls that plagued entrepreneurs before you. There are a few things you can do to reduce the number of mistakes you will make your first couple of years. Noticed I used the phrase "will make", because the question is not if you will make mistakes but when and how many. No one gets into business and comes out unscathed. Here are a few quick tips that should help you.
Find a mentor
This is by far the most important thing you can do. Most young people do not have a life coach or mentor . They need someone they can specifically go to when they need advice on topics related to business. Attend networking seminars in your area where you know a lot of sharp people frequent on a regular basis and introduce yourself to many of them. If they are in business ask them how they got started, what their biggest challenges were, and what advice they could give you since you are just starting out.
Get to know them and ask if they can take you under their wing. You will be surprised at how many of them will gladly offer to mentor you. Successful people understand the need for mentorship and will be humbled to have the opportunity to help someone else get their business off the ground.
Get over your age and get comfortable being different
If you are just like every normal person, and I am guessing you are, this will be the toughest thing for you to do. You are not the first young person to venture out and try and make it big and you certainly will not be the last. Many of your peers like Mark Zuckerberg (founder and CEO of Facebook Inc.) are multimillionaires and are still in their early twenties. Your age has nothing to do with your potential or ambition level. The current trends in business actually favor younger people right now.
The economy is starting to see more and more young people making their first millions in lightening speed. The big question is can you get comfortable being elite? Elite people do not do things average people do, regardless of their age. You may have to put video games and softball league on the back burner for a while. Trust me, your friends and family will not understand. They do not need to.
Surround yourself with positive people
The person you will become in the next five years will be a result of the books you read and the people whom you're associated. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur you have to upgrade your association. Chances are you may not be a big reader right now.
That is okay, but you will have to incorporate a good reading habit if you are to have long-term success in business. But make a conscious effort to surround yourself with people, friends, family, who are like-minded and support your aspirations and goals for success in business. This is vital to your emotional stability and attitude, two things you cannot afford to grow weary over time.
Chukwuma Asala is an international student from Nigeria who is studying to earn an MBA from the State University of New York in Albany. He has analyzed more than 20 industry case studies throughout his education thus far, and hopes to bring some of his business knowledge to Gaebler.com.
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