Business Advice To An Eighteen Year Old On Online Business
On Friday I posted what was to be a guide to the hypothetical eighteen year old guy who wanted some business advice from me.
Read that article first, because it has all the necessary disclaimers and caveats.
Then come back here, where I’ll talk about some specifics.
Before I Do… Recommended Reading
I stumbled around for a long time trying to make money online – and trying to make money in general – before I really understood what was going on.
This meant I wasted tons of money on courses, books and other stuff. I tried getting venture funding at one point (for a business idea that I wouldn’t have started if I’d heeded the advice from Friday) and I spent years ignoring what I was good at.
I don’t really rate a lot of online resources because they allow you to tread water like I did; not really succeeding but not failing hard enough that you’ll change it up.
There are some resources that I do like though and they tangibly and without doubt have helped me in business.
Firstly, Rob’s site 30DaysToX.com is how I started making money as a freelance writer. If you’re in your early twenties or younger and you want to get a feel for the process you’ll go through and how you should go about experimenting and learning small-scale online business stuff, read through the archives of his site.
He started by doing small freelance jobs, blogging about various topics and learning various skills along the way. It took him several years before he did well at this, and he blogs about it all honestly.
His path is similar to mine – and he got me started with writing on freelance websites, which led me to be a copywriting affiliate marketing product creator. So, awesome.
Also; WallStreetPlayboys.
I hate the name of that site, and the writing style is pretty abrasive. That said, there are some awesome articles which you should read repeatedly if you want to succeed at business online.
http://wallstreetplayboys.com/are-you-really-maximizing-your-time/
That article is about working hard. Forget the 4 hour workweek – if you’re eighteen then you can legitimately build a ton of money and skills in your twenties. Work hard, work smart and you’ll be 90% of the way there.
Speaking of 40 hour workweek;
http://wallstreetplayboys.com/the-power-of-1-and-why-you-dont-blog-for-money/
Blogging for money and lifestyle blogs aren’t the best thing to do; no matter how many dreamers, spammers and scammers convince you that you can make six-or-seven figures from a blog and a dream.
Sure, some people do, but you’re in the whole “exciting dream pyramid scheme” thing I talked about on Friday. Instead, read the following two articles and then build something tangible.
http://wallstreetplayboys.com/the-20-laws-for-online-product-income-success/
This is a newer post, but it’s succinct and covers much of the same stuff I’d tell you about business – and will in this post.
Finally:
http://wallstreetplayboys.com/money-making-machine/
This is hands-down the article that has made me the most money out of anything I’ve read online. It’s essential reading on the Jamie McSloy business curriculum, and you should read it many times.
Why? Let’s move on to my business advice. Finally.
What’s The Best Business Advice For An Eighteen Year Old?
Firstly, let’s assume you’ve read everything above. You have a focus on building skills. Specifically, skills which make money. Building websites, product creation, sales and logistics are all good skills to have. The best skills to have are skills which help other people make money.
I became a copywriter, and it’s awesome. Not only do I get to create products and sell them myself, but I can make other people richer.
If you can make other people richer, then you’ll always have work. Bear that in mind.
Now, let’s move on to the business stuff.
Let’s say you’re in a career or otherwise working and obtaining the above skills as you do. You need to hedge your bets with your income. One career, no matter how stable, is useless if that skill becomes obsolete or your boss fires you and tells everyone in your industry that you always eat the last biscuit in the staff room.
If you want to make money, then you need to build businesses.
The skills from above are essential, but they’re not everything.
- Learn to analyse markets for opportunities
- Become good at creating a solution to the problems those markets face
- Test the market
- Create products
- Sell the products
- Put that money back into business
- Scale, pivot and repeat
Those steps are pretty extensive and not something I can talk about in a single article, but they contain most of what you’d need to create a successful product business.
One key piece of advice: Always have the product and the bottom line at the back of your mind. If you are doing something and you don’t know how it’s going to add to that bottom line or whether it’ll make money, then it probably won’t. It’s a waste of time.
Blogging falls under this umbrella; if you don’t have a product, then blogging is a hobby.
If you don’t know how your business idea is going to make money, it’s not a business. You’ve made it too complicated. What is the product, who is going to buy it and how much will you make? That’s where you need to start and stay. Everything else is window dressing.
Final Thoughts
I’m going to leave it there for a specific reason: you don’t need more information. Browsing the internet is the biggest time-waster I’ve engaged in. Compared with drugs, hookers and rock-and-roll, it’s a boring addiction, but it’s a pain regardless.
If you’re eighteen, then time is on your side. Build those skills, learn how business works and start experimenting based on what you’re drawn to and what you’re good at. Work hard, work smart and stay out of trouble.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!