Stop Overthinking: Launch Your Start-Up as a Teen

How to be a successful teenage entrepreneur. So I got a great question from one of my YouTube viewers— love you guys— CoC Tips and Tricks, who wrote in to say, "Please make a video around teenage startups, such as tips and advice. Thanks, Evan." This is a fantastic question, and I know a lot of teenagers are frustrated with the current job economy. You want to make a difference, you want to do your own thing, you want to be independent, you want to make a lot of money, and the way to do that often isn't to go work at a big business. I remember one of my One of my first summer jobs, I was doing data entry. It was super boring work, super manual work, basically just taking what I saw on a page and typing it out into a field that I would put on a computer spreadsheet. I was put on a team of 5 people who were all doing the same thing. The difference with me was I never left my desk. I didn't take lunch breaks, I didn't take smoking breaks, I went to the washroom only when I had to. I was working it out. And to help me work, I used to always have food at my desk so I could eat, and headphones so I could listen to music, 'cause that's pretty boring stuff. I remember my manager was looking at me and disapproved of what I was doing. He didn't feel that people should eat at their desk or listen to music. And he almost fired me. And then he looked at the results and saw that I was getting more work done than the other 4 people on my team combined. So he kept me on but gave me a warning: no more eating at my desk and no more listening to music. Gotta love terrible managers. So instead, I kept my food in my top drawer and snuck bites when he wasn't around. And I put my music player on the floor and ran a wire up my jeans through a turtleneck now that I wore every day and just had one earbud come out so I could listen to the music while I was working. But that experience really made me feel like, "I gotta do something on my own." I had a bunch of failed companies, but the one that really took off was the biotech software company that I got involved with when I was 19 years old. And I took it from making $300 a month and barely being able to survive to selling it for 7 figures in 3 years. So here's some advice that I have for you based on my success as a teenage entrepreneur. Number 1 is model success. There's never been more role models for young people now to be successful entrepreneurs. Research the stories of people who are making it. Surround yourself with excellence and success from young people who are doing great things. You'll find that they not only give you ideas and strategies to help you grow your business, but also keep you motivated and wanting to keep going. I would find one, people who are in your industry who are doing really well, and 2, people who you look up to and want to emulate, and they are your business heroes. Create an environment of success and surround yourself with role models of people who you want to be like. Number 2 is get experience. Business is all about providing value, and a challenge for a lot of young people is you don't have enough experience to even provide a lot of great value. So go get some experience! Whether it's working for somebody, volunteering at events, being mentored by somebody, you want to get experience in your industry so you can provide more value to customers. To help build my company up, when I was in university, I used my company as school projects for any time we had any kind of initiative at school. So if it was a marketing class, I'd use my business. If it was a pricing class, I'd use my business. If it was an accounting class, I'd use my business. I got practical knowledge and could apply it immediately into my company. Then when I sold my business, I hooked up with a venture capital company. I felt like I only understood how my business was run, and I wanted to learn a lot more about other businesses and also about how money was being raised. That's why it's so easy for me now to jump into almost any business and offer practical advice. It's not because I'm some kind of genius. It's because through the venture capital business, I had exposure to thousands of different companies that then I was able to help them grow their business. I went out and got experience. You want to do the same with your company. So whatever it is you want to learn, whatever you feel is missing, whatever field you need to get better at, Go take a course, go volunteer, go get a part-time job. Learn, get experience, and get better. Number 3 is take consistent action. You gotta do something every day to move your business idea forward. And as a teenager, I get that it can be difficult at times to find the time to do your business. You've got school and friends and extracurricular activities. There's lots of demand on your time, but you have to find a way to do something every single day to move your business forward. You have an exam tomorrow? You're still spending half an hour today doing something for your company. It has to be that important to you or it's not gonna take off. So model success, get experience, and take consistent action. And believe. Thanks for the great question. If you guys watching have some extra tips you wanna share, leave it in the comments below. And if you wanna see more videos just like this, consider subscribing to the channel. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you soon. Sign up for the newsletter for more Believe.