Starting your own business is an exciting venture for teens, but, as Teen Learner points out, it can also be intimidating. Between the social stigma and failure rate, many adults would rather their kids stay away from entrepreneurship.
But what if there were other people your age who started their own businesses and went on to achieve great things? With the right guidance and support, as well as this guide presented by Minoz, you could do the same!
How to Start Your Own Business as a Teen
Choosing the right business to start is a big part of entrepreneurship as a teen. You want to pick something that you have a passion for, but also something that meets a need. You don’t want to spend your time struggling with a failing business model.
The first step is to sit down and think about what you love to do and what you are good at. Be honest with yourself and don’t pick something that would be hard to walk away from if it didn’t work out. Once you’ve identified a few areas of interest and a few areas of skill, you can start to look for businesses that fit the bill. Here are a few places to start your search.
Yahoo! Small Business is a great place to look for businesses to start. This is a searchable database of small businesses that are looking for investors or owners. You can also post your own listings to this database to get the word out about your business and see if anyone is interested in investing.
Teens can also start their own businesses by using an online marketplace for buying and selling products designed to help teens start their own businesses. Certain sites were designed specifically for this purpose, allowing teens to post products they are selling and buy products designed to help them start their businesses.
Once you’ve settled on your business idea, it’s time to create your business’s legal structure. Setting up your business as a limited liability company (LLC) will be useful for tax purposes as well as limiting your personal liability. Fortunately, it’s easy to start an LLC. An online formation company can walk you through the process and ensure that the necessary legal paperwork is filed correctly. Then you’ll be ready to do business!
Marketing Your Business with Business Cards
If you have a specific niche that you’d like to target, like selling personalized cards, you could create your own website and market your business on social media platforms. But don’t forget traditional marketing methods like business cards.
Business cards leave a lasting impression that many modern marketing methods can’t capture. What’s more, you can design free business cards with an online generator. Simply choose the template you like best and add your choice of colors, text, images, and more.
You can also browse other teen’s businesses on Instagram, a social media site popular with teens. Social Media Examiner suggests finding hashtags related to your niche and looking at the businesses other teens have started. If you see something that interests you, follow the accounts of the people behind the businesses and see if you can meet up in person at a teen business expo or event.
The Benefits of Starting Your Own Business
Nowadays, there are more opportunities to start your own business than ever before. The internet has made it easy to find a growing number of niche markets that need your help. There are business opportunities everywhere you look, and they are all looking for investors.
The amount of competition is growing by the day, so you have to be the one to stand out. You can do that by focusing your efforts on finding a niche that interests you and that you have the skills to help out with.
Once you find a market that interests you, it’s time to get to work. Start by educating yourself on the market and what your competitors are doing wrong. Once you’ve found a few opportunities, start researching the different ways to make money in that market and pick the one that makes the most sense to you.
