We millennials are widely known for our hunger and strife for independence. For most of us, independence means financial freedom and financial freedom is synonymous to either having an extremely well paying job(which is very hard for Millennials to secure), or having our own business.
While setting up a business is usually not hard, nurturing it to growth is one hell of a task.
The brave ones among us take the first step in starting but eventually leave it to wither. Here are five things every millennial who intends to own a successful business must know.
Understand the commitment you’re about to make.
Starting a business is like deciding to have a child. Whatever step you take is going to be with you forever. If you really want to be successful, quitting isn’t an option – you can only upgrade. People always try to put in place a plan B to be able to fall back on if they fail. Doing that means you’ve already psyched yourself for failure. Commit to your start up like your life depends on it – it does, actually. Give it your all. Do everything within your power to make it work. It is going to be rocky so you must be mentally prepared to fall and rise up several times. Not to sound like a motivational speaker, but if you don’t realize the commitment you’re about to make, you’ll take it lightly and you won’t even realize how it all went down the drain.
Research is as important as the air you breathe.
Now that you’ve fully committed to building a successful business, it is time to research. Ideas hit us often. We are constantly bombarded with what could sell or what could be the big hit. We end up jumping into them without conducting enough research to see how viable that idea is. How relevant is it to our potential market and how sustainable is it?. Selling on Instagram is free so many people rush to create an account, get a logo, and hurray, they’re business owners. A month or two later and they abandon it, looking for the next “best-selling” idea. Research is the way to avoid this. It helps you know what could be, how to strategize and plan according to. Experience isn’t exactly the best teacher when starting a business. You’ll rather know what’s ahead.
Plan.
Planning is considered the most overused yet underrated word in business. It is easy to trivialize the true meaning of planning. Set goals and have a strategy and timeline to achieve those goals. If you cannot come up with a workable business plan, hire a professional, it’s worth spending a few notes on.
No matter what you do, don’t hire your friends.
You’re probably the lucky one with the capital and resources to start the business so you think it might be cool to hire your friends. Either because you think you’ll be more comfortable working with them or you won’t have to pay them much. Advice – hire strangers and let them know how much you can afford to pay them, or start out on your own till you can afford to employ extra hands. The thing about working with friends is that you all get too comfortable and it becomes difficult to make important decisions. You can’t fire them when you need to for fear you might lose their friendship. Well, guess what, you’ll eventually end up with no business and no friends. Your friends are meant to be your friends. Keep them out of your business – literally
Speak to the problem.
When your main aim is to make money(why else will you start a business anyway?), it’s easy to go about pushing your product or service to potential customers. A better approach is to rather speak to the problem. Tell the customer why they need your product or services. If you sell shoes, give them a reason to spend money they probably haven’t budgeted for on an extra pair of shoe to add to their collection. If it’s a new idea you have discovered to solve a problem, even better. Don’t tell the customer to buy your product. Explain to them why they need it and what it will do for them.
Bonus Tip: satisfaction of the customer should be your focus.
Yes, you’re in business to make money, but if your focus is all on money and you leave your customers unsatisfied, you’ll be sent packing. Always bear in mind that it’s when your customer is satisfied that they will be willing to pay anything for that satisfaction and refer your business to people they know. Always remember, referral is the biggest ad you can run. So invest in pleasing your customer like your life depends on it – believe me, it does.
