The world is full of teenagers that want to run their own business. Even before you start, there are many difficulties you need to think about. However, the biggest doubt of every young entrepreneur is how to run a successful business.
Being a first-time entrepreneur is always hard. It doesn’t matter if you are a teenager or an older person. How to achieve success is the common question of all of them. Because of that, we are here to give you useful and precise answers.
You need to put in your subconscious that the market is quite competitive. There are business giants in almost every field of business. Even if you have a great idea, you need to be creative enough to develop that idea into a successful business.
Before everything, you need to be aware that there is a long trip from the starting idea to a successful business. The steps from the list are not magical, and they are not going to bring you success over the night. They will only give you directions.
So, in case you want to find out how to run a successful business and to be “one-of-a-kind” young entrepreneur, there are several different steps you should apply:
• Explore the market
• Make understandable goals
• Talk with experienced entrepreneurs
• Make a marketing strategy
• Build your personal brand
• Calculate all your costs
• Be self-disciplined
• Make a plan B
All these steps deserve a detailed explanation. That’s why we should explain them one by one. So, are you ready? Let’s go!
Explore the market
All those teens that are asking themselves everyday “how to run a successful business” should explore the market. That needs to be their first step. This research will give you plenty of good answers.
The first reason why you need to do this is to see how competitive your idea is. Maybe there are many startups with powerful budgets that won’t allow you to succeed. In case you see that there is no place for progress, you should try with another idea.
However, if there is a chance to become successful, you should make detailed research of your competitors. That could give you answers on how to achieve success. See how they are doing it. Don’t try to copy them because people will notice that.
Still, try to understand what makes them better than the others. Upgrade their tactics and strategy. This will be a good test for you. You will find out how capable and creative you really are.
Make understandable goals
Answer on “how to run a successful business?” is not “be a dreamer”. Or at least, this answer is not completely correct.
Being a dreamer and having big goals is awesome. The positive energy every young entrepreneur has is their biggest advantage. Anyway, you need to stay on the ground. Your wishes and imaginations will become true one day, but you need to make smart moves and decisions before that happens.
Starting your own business without a precise goal is not possible. If your goal is to make millions as quickly as possible, that is not an understandable goal.
ut, if you make small daily plans, that will be a quite better tactic. For example, tomorrow you will explore one competitor. For two days, you will explore another successful startup. Next week you will work on your marketing strategy. All those mini-goals will help you to achieve the bigger ones.
Talk with experienced entrepreneurs
Don’t be ashamed to ask. Find well-experienced entrepreneurs that could give you useful tips on how to achieve success.
Every young entrepreneur needs to know that his main disadvantage is lack of experience. If you think you are ready to become a multi-millionaire as a first-time entrepreneur, you are wrong.
That doesn’t need to upset you or scare you. It is simply a fact that you need to accept. Experience comes by time.
While you are exploring the market, check if there is a successful businessman that would help you. If you don’t find someone who you can talk with directly, check if they have their own blog.
You will be able to find a giant number of people that are sharing useful pieces of advice. Of course, not everyone can help you. You should look for the individuals that have interests in your industry. People with the same interest as you can help you the most.
Make a marketing strategy
This step requires the longest explanation. Someone would say that marketing represents the combination of art and science. We will have to agree with that.
If you have an amazing marketing strategy, the concern “how to run a successful business” won’t bother you anymore. It will make your progress a lot easier. Thanks to internet technology, there are a lot more marketing opportunities for every business. But, don’t forget that your competitors can also benefit from it.
First of all, there are 2 different ways you can use for promotion:
• Digital/Online Marketing
• Traditional promotion
Digital/Online Marketing
Just like we already said, the Internet gives us a lot of opportunities. There are a few billion active Internet users on daily basis. That only means that the “digital” market is huge, and it is quite easier to reach it than before.
Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram allow you to pay for ads that will reach to your audience. You are the one that needs to discover who you want to reach and what will convince those people to buy your product or ask for your service. That is one more reason why you need to explore everything.
In case you are not familiar with digital marketing, the market is full of social media managers. You can save some money if you look for freelancers on freelance platforms. There you can find many high-quality individuals for a proper price.
Traditional promotion
Marketing exists a lot longer than the Internet. You can use flyers, banners, or any kind of promotional material to promote your business. However, something that will bring you success more than any social media platform is “word-of-mouth” promotion.
This “method” deserves to be on the list of traditional methods of promotion because people don’t think about it a lot. When the environment is talking about you, the success will be closer than ever.
Build your personal brand
Believe it or not, your reputation is going to be more important than your marketing strategy. When your audience respects you personally, your business will grow faster.
Trust from the mass of people needs to be deserved. Because of that, you need to share something valuable with them. The quality of your products or services is not enough.
The best possible way to establish your personal brand is through your blog. There you can share your personal knowledge and experience that will really help your readers in some way. It can be from your personal life or from your industry, it really doesn’t matter.
Everything that you earn, don’t spend on investments or for your personal needs. Split 10% of your earnings to help people with financial problems. Or invest in knowledge of other young people. In that way, your audience will recognize your true intention. Potential customers will see that you are not just trying to get their money.
Calculate all your costs
Whatever you earn or spend, you need to put it on the piece of paper. The financial plan needs to be clear and precise. It has to help you to see a clearer picture of the mistakes you made in the past. More importantly, a quality financial plan will help you to make better decisions in the future.
Be sure that one of the answers on “how to run a successful business is– calculate all your costs.
A lot of young entrepreneurs don’t even think about investing. They start the whole process without any (or not enough) money to invest. Business is not a game; you need to be aware of that. Nothing is for free, and everything has its’ own price.
Keep in mind to cover all the costs that you have. This calculation also includes the “unplanned” costs. In the world of entrepreneurship, troubles are on every corner. It doesn’t need to scare you, but you need to be prepared.
Split a certain amount of money in case something goes wrong. For example, you wanted to run ads on social media. But, the campaign was not good, and you need to try out another marketing strategy. How are you going to do that if you don’t have more money?
You probably understand better that there are many things you need to take care of. Once again, this doesn’t need to bother you; it is simply a fact that will help you to find out how to achieve success.
Be self-disciplined
There is a big difference between a lifestyle of teen entrepreneur and any other teenager. The average young person doesn’t have to worry about the taxes, costs, finding new clients, promotion of the business etc. When you choose this way of life, you need to change almost everything.
Being self-disciplined when the majority of your generation doesn’t have any concerns in life is difficult. Your free time is going to be limited until now. Instead of spending your time on chatting with friends on Facebook now you need to use that platform for another purpose.
Don’t worry; this process is going to be hard only in the beginning. Every change requires patience, and you are too young to worry about time. There is plenty of time for everything.
Because you don’t have a boss, you will have to give duties to yourself. If you plan to wake up at 9 AM, do that. Not even minute more. If you plan to spend all day in front of your laptop while working, there is no place for going out for a walk. You will be able to do that tomorrow after the job is completed.
Make a plan B
The difference between good and perfect entrepreneur is how well-prepared they are. Maybe you are afraid of uncertainty (there is always a place for that in the business world). However, if you know what to do when something goes wrong, you will easily defeat that fear.
We already mentioned something similar when we talked about costs. Just like you need to prepare money to be secured, you need to prepare yourself!
Let’s compare this with a soccer team. Imagine that there is a team that has a great starting eleven squad. When one of the players gets injured, a proper substitution is required.
No one in the team can predict when something like this can happen. If the bench of the team is not full of quality players, the team won’t finish in the first place.
When we talk about your business, it is absolutely the same. You don’t know when something bad is going to happen. Maybe the demand for your product on the market will suddenly decline. Or maybe your competitors make a better marketing campaign than you.
Plan B (and plan C as well) are something that makes you better than others. Work on your backup plan equally as you worked on the main plan. If you do that properly, you can be sure you will know how to run a successful business.
Conclusion: Am I ready to succeed?
Are you ready to succeed? You won’t be able to find the answer to this question in this article. The only person who knows that is you!
The tips from the list are there to help you understand better how to achieve success. If you apply them to your business in a proper way, you won’t need to worry about it. Still, without hard work and persistence, these tips won’t mean anything to you.
Hard work is something that is always expected. In every step, you need to invest 100% of your strength. The young persons that are ready to do that are actually ready to be successful. Are you one of them?
