According to a study, millennials are building their own businesses at a much younger age than Baby Boomers. One of the reasons for millennials’ enthusiasm to start their own business early is their willingness to take risks and their admiration for the entrepreneurial lifestyle. If you are an aspiring “millennipreneur” or are already running your own business, then the following are three lessons worth considering.
Be your own first customer
When starting a business, we often hear the advice that the product you plan on selling has to be a solution to other people’s pain points. Aside from this, you should already have a target market and audience in mind before launching the product itself. But one thing not everyone tells you to do is to be your product’s first customer.
If you want your business to succeed, make sure you, the owner itself is a great fan of what you have to offer. Ensure the quality, never stop testing your offers, continue to innovate, and use your own products. It is only once you get to convince yourself to use and pay for your own offers that you should start selling your products.
Don’t take local SEO for granted
You may already be trying to reach out to your customers using the platforms they often use and visit online. But if you simply focus on marketing on Social Media and haven’t given local SEO much thought, then you are already missing a big opportunity to maximize your online results. Remember that consumers these days are into local businesses. How can you expect local customers to buy from you if they can’t even find your business when they do a local search online?
Investing in local SEO for your business offers many perks. For one, it allows you to attract clients cost-effectively. You can gain a competitive edge as you increase your local following. But perhaps the best reason to invest in such a marketing tactic is that it puts your business in a better rank. The higher your rank in local search engine results, the more traffic you can get, and the more visitors you can turn into paying clients.
Find alternative ways to fund your business
If you ask Baby Boomers on ways you can fund a business, you will often hear them tell you to get a loan from the bank or even to use a portion of your savings or retirement funds. But since millennials are known for their creativity, this is an advantage one should take advantage of. Since there are many other funding alternatives, why not explore your options?
CNBC says 22% of self-employed Gen-Yers borrowed money from loved ones to fund a business. According to Statista, millennials are more willing to participate in crowdfunding than the other generations. Since there are many funding alternatives to kickstart your business, you should compare the pros and cons before choosing.
Millennials may be starting their businesses way earlier than the previous generations. But that does not mean they can’t learn important business lessons from Baby Boomers and Gen- Xers. If you plan on building your business, be sure to be your company’s first client, protect your brand at all costs, and explore all your funding options before choosing.
