Teen Biz: Can Teenagers Start Businesses?

It is every teenager's dream to be independent from their parents, but financially teens are usually prisoners to their parents every penny that they give. In today's expensive world these meager allowances are usually not enough for the designer clothes and flashy technology teenager of today. Usually teens would get jobs that pay just above minimum wages for their age, but I ask you to explore another alternative. One that could be used as something to put on UCAS forms and CVs as well as giving out real world lessons about the future, which the teens of today are lacking (many are totally dependant on their parents at home and teachers at school and wouldn't have a clue about how to live or work outside home) and is something to keep them occupied when they are trying to get attention. Yes! You got it! Start a business!

Starting a business, in my opinion, is the only way to the top. I have always thought that even though there are exceptions, if you go to university you will be an employee, whilst if you drop out at 16 you will be an employer. Famous examples are people like Sir Richard Branson and Sir Alan Sugar who all started their business young and built it piece by piece into the multimillion pound empires they own today. So if you are serious about being successful in life I would honestly think about starting a business, because lets be honest in most cases you won't be rich by being in a dead end 9-5 job. The only way to get rich (and in some cases famous) is to start a business.

This article will focus on teenagers for the most part, but anyone can do it. Doesn't matter how young or old you are, if you have the guts and ambition you can succeed. The youngest age for a director in a company is 16, so if you are younger than 16 you should think about just setting up a business rather than a full on company in which you can be liable for all losses you incur in your business journey if you don't do it right.

First thing you need is an idea. The best ideas will be either original or will be an improvement on a previous idea (eg: trying to make something cheaper by using different materials). You don't need any qualifications or need to go on any courses to come up with an idea. All you need is your brain, your instinct and your notepad. You sho0uld carry a notepad everywhere just in case you think of a brilliant idea. There is nothing worse than thinking of a good idea and then forgetting just as quickly! So jot down any ideas you see or hear (literally come up with at least 50). Once you have done that do a quick Google search on your ideas and see if they are taken. If they are taken you can either forget about that idea or try and find a unique selling point for your idea (improving on your competitor's idea further), which could be the design, the price or even the way it works. You need an idea that stands out from the rest. For example if you want to start a blog, find your own niche, style or something that best represents you (because there is nothing more unique than the differences between each and every person on this planet). Of course don't go to extreme with your niche as if it is too narrow, no-one will want to read your posts. Anyway that's just an idea of quadrillions of cinquillions of infinitillions of possibilities that you could come up with. It doesn't even have to be online! Everyone has heard of the old lemonade stall, why not step out from the mould and instead sell pineapple juice or smoothies or sparkling juices. Just do something different! I think you should start to see the kind of way you should be viewing this, in that creativity is key and that all else comes later. However a man with a good idea does not always get a good business.

So you have your idea, but now what. Well every business needs 4 things (incidentally for any economists out there, these are the factors of production): Land (space like online it would be a website, offline it would be a stall and as well as space you need resources such as money or wood), Capital (this something that you make, buy or commission that converts the raw resources into a product - like a machine offline or software online), Labour (the people that work for you or yourself in a solo business - online this would be the programmer and offline this would be the salesman) and Enterprise (this person takes risks and is able to effectively and efficiently organise all the other things a business needs - online this is you and offline this you!). If you don't have very much money to buy space or capital, but still want to make a business there are still options. There is a charity called the Prince's Trust which gives out loans, funds and/or sponsorships to prospective businessmen who wish to start their own business, but are unable financially. The Prince's Trust has helped many young people start businesses and can be found here.

So you have your land and your capital. Now you need your labour. Online there are many online freelance websites where you can post a project and find teams of programmers that bid for your project. Examples of websites are places like Elance and Guru. For offline projects I came across an interesting website (also business idea) for finding skilled people to do work. This could be anything from cycling (courier business) to construction (bird box business). To see this website go to PeoplePerHour. Of course if it is something more simple you can do all the work on your own, but unless you are a social retard, I would advise against this as it can get quite lonely and boring without someone to enjoy a business with. It also takes double the time to build or make something and two people to brainstorm when your creative juices are not working 100%. Two people working together also fosters teamwork skills that is very very very useful in later life and will help you get on with people.

Okay so you have your labour, land and capital. All that is left is enterprise. Enterprise comes from you since you are the one starting the business. Entrepreneurs, as they are called, risk their money, time and reputation to start a business that produces something and sells it at a profit. They take the risk and so must be ambitious and totally product driven. They organise all the other sectors of the business (land, capital and labour) to create an efficient workplace in order to maximise output and therefore profits as well as keeping costs of production at a minimum. They need to have traits like being social and being a salesman literally written into their genetic code as this is the only way that they will be able to handle the stress of working for yourself.

Working for yourself means that your life will change. There will be no-one telling you to get up in the morning. There will be no-one telling you how to run your business. It is all up to you as the entrepreneur and you should control your business as you would control you right arm (left arm if your left handed). Expect your social life to go down the drain and grades to fall, because if they are it means that you are focusing 100% on your business (now you know why the top people left school at 16) and it means you are totally product driven and you want more than anything to succeed at whatever cost. Business can be very stressful and you must keep your emotions under control if you are to succeed. On that point, don't expect to succeed right away or at all. Business has a steep learning curve and you will learn from all your mistakes that you make the hard way - by losing money and time. However this is the only way to learn, from failure and any reputable businessman with any worth or merit will tell you this also.

So you have your idea, land, capital, labour, enterprise and you have checked that you are physically and mentally ready to take on the challenge of a business. Well if you hadn't realised already, your business is ready. So you should get producing your good or service as soon as possible and start to get yourself out of the red if you have taken out a loan and get into black and finally make a profit. If you are producing products and your costs are low and prices are higher than your costs and there is your demand, it is impossible for you to fail as under this model you will be making a profit whatever the demand. However it isn't just about making a profit. Its about maximising profit. This means making sure you are at 100% production or as damn near 100% as you can. You should reduce costs by haggling resources down to tiny prices or by buying in bulk. You should whip up your demand through marketing by holding events or by advertising through forums, leaflets or a local newspaper. You should keep your labour happy, because the last thing you want is for your output to fall due to a strike, but make sure they are working at full capacity so that you are maximising your output.

Lastly check out your competition. If you are setting up a food business start off by having tiny profit margins so that you undercut the competition so you get more customers. Get your brand and image some reputation by doing good deeds like giving the extra profit to a well known charity and then brag to people that you have done it. Marketing is about telling people the truth, but in some cases not the whole truth. Saying the truth gives you an honest reputation, whilst not saying the whole truth can keep your demand high (by for instance not saying anything that would harm your reputation, but is true; that's what the competition will be doing). You need to use strategy and tactics to outmanoeuvre your opponent at every juncture and always end up on top for your business to be at its most successful. Know your consumers, know what they want, need like and especially don't like and cater for these demands. All businesses are at the mercy of the customer so you must please them all the time as discontent can spread and the competition can use it as if you were giving them ammo to aim at you and shoot your head off.

In conclusion, to have a successful business you need to be maximising your production and profits as well as minimising your costs. Your labour needs to be working for the time that they are paid to so that things like sleeping on the job are destroying your efficiency and bringing down the business. At the same time keep your labour happy, by making sure they are catered for as well as your consumers. Overall your consumers are your biggest priority. They are the demand and will be buying your goods, so they must be pleased in every way from customer service to product quality. Conduct surveys and keep in touch with the latest news. Make sure that you keep control over your business and that you are 100% in your business, 99% is not enough only with 100% product driven ambition will you succeed to the highest degree.

I'll leave you with this quotation from Steve Jobs, founder of Apple:

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

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