It wasn’t so long ago that the idea of teenagers earning “weekend money” typically involved taking out the garbage, having a paper route or asking, “Do you want fries with that?” Today, some teens are doing much more than earning roller skating money: they are creating wealth online and doing it on their own terms.
Young entrepreneurs like Catherine Cook, co-founder of MyYearbook.com, Ashley Qualls, creator of Whateverlife.com, affiliate marketer Paul Bourque and Harrison Gevirtz, who has started online companies, are commanding growing attention for their endeavors. So what is the secret to their success and can anyone imitate it?
Secrets to Success
These young business people share some similarities – key components in helping them succeed.
All of these individuals started with a seed of an idea and not simply an idea for a website or service. They had the idea that their future could be anything they wanted it to be as long as they were willing to do the work to get there.
Also, these entrepreneurs were passionate about creating a business, whether it was an affiliate marketing model or a new website such as MyYearbook.com or Whateverlife.com. These teenagers happily sat in front of their computers until the wee hours in order to get their business growing. While friends were at the movies or partying, these youngsters got their thrills from tracking ad campaigns and website traffic stats.
In the cases of Catherine and Ashley, who started their own websites from scratch, they made sure they knew exactly who their audience was and stayed true to that market. Both made sure to give their audience a voice and take that information to heart. In other words, they listened to their customers and gave them exactly what they wanted.
Importantly, these young entrepreneurs didn’t let fear of failure or let actual failures block them from reaching their goals. Sure, they made mistakes at the beginning but they decided to learn from these and make adjustments instead of giving up.
Driven Even When Too Young To Drive
Dream homes, expensive cars and exotic travel destinations – business success at a young age brought significant financial rewards for these entrepreneurs.
However, they shared the mindset that it was vital to save for the future and also to reinvest earnings back into their companies in order to prolong their success.
Some have rejected $1 million-plus offers to buy their companies, preferring to continue pursuing their entrepreneurial passions.
In many ways, the Internet has leveled the playing field for entrepreneurs, lowering traditional barriers of age, education, experience and financial resources.
With a curious mind and a drive to succeed, individuals can find opportunities online to create wealth. For those who need it, help is available in the form of Internet marketing training and other programs.
If there is a lesson to be learned from the stories of Catherine, Ashley, Paul, Harrison and other young entrepreneurs it is that having an idea and a desire to build a business are keys to success.
This guest post was provided by University Alliance and submitted on behalf of University of San Francisco. USF offers online marketing courses including, search engine marketing, affiliate marketing training, social media training, mobile marketing and more. To learn more about University of San Francisco’s certificate programs visit www.usanfranonline.com.
