EFFECTIVE entrepreneurship cannot be constructed by creating a minimum usable product, raising capital, getting into an incubator and just one day randomly becoming successful. These are all great ideas to help build strength along the way. Some millennials who follow these steps may become successful entrepreneurs.
Personally, I think the focus should be placed on solving problems of customers. This is the key to building a successful business and making money. While it is always a valuable experience to build a mobile app or product that you think is useful, if no one else is willing to pay to have it, what’s the point to making it?
The key to being a successful entrepreneur is being able to figure out how you can improve the lives of consumers and provide enough value with your product or service that consumers will be amenable to paying for it.
As a young consumer, I think this is the most important thing for young entrepreneurs to realize. Once you have achieved success by using this model, stick with it, master it and make sure no one is able to add more value to his or her product than you could. I think if more entrepreneurs focused on these traits, the 70-percent first-year failure rate of start-ups would be a lot lower.
These are, I think, some of the important questions that young entrepreneurs should ask themselves:
1. Who is going to pay for my product or service? Finding financial support for your venture may sound simple but it is an issue I see a lot of entrepreneurs face. Finances, or lack of, can make or break your company. For some young entrepreneurs, the traditional model—build a product, hope that people will actually use it and figure out a way to monetize it later—is not a sound model to rely on. You are young and inexperienced. The best way to get people to listen to you is by showing them the numbers. Numbers do not lie, but you might.
2. Is my product or service matchless from others? Start-ups succeed because they are able to identify niches and develop better solutions than the ones that are currently available in the market. Young entrepreneurs need to find their niche in the market and master it. It is vital to figure out how to do something better than everyone else. If you can do this, you have concocted a recipe for success.
3. Is my product or service easy to put on sale? The easier it is to sell your product or service guarantees a likely chance of success. You will be able to sell faster and quicker than your competition, which will enable you to gain a higher percentage of market share. Being first to the market with a great idea also establishes you as the go to person in your market. Based on experience, referrals are the best “type” of advertising. If you can master selling a product or service in one area, chances are you won’t have too many hurdles when you try to expand to other markets. I guarantee that if you can deliver a great customer experience, you will have no trouble finding unique customers and referrals in new markets.
Joshua Cyril Constante Razon is a college student who loves everything about art.
Like his story online via the BusinessMirror Millennials Universe (BMMU) Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Millennial-Universe/435594193285671. Follow BMMU on Twitter via @millennial_U or Instagram (type Millennial Universe). E-mail comments or story to millennialuniverse@yahoo.com and the editor at dennis.estopace@gmail.com.