9 Tips To Build A £1m Business When You’re A Teenager – What I've learnt and mistakes I've made

 9 Tips To Build A £1m Business When You’re A Teenager – What I've learnt and mistakes I've made

Written by Sami Loyal, founder of Forflies.

By Sami Loyal, a 19-year-old teenage entrepreneur who has built a £1m online business through his brand Forflies where he shares skills in commodity, cryptocurrency and indices trading to subscribers of his videos, analysis and insight.

1. Take any job to get start-up money: At the start take any job - the most boring job ever if you have to, just to build up some capital to invest in your dream business. I was able to use my earnings from YouTube and sponsorships to set up my business. It costs money to set up a business and it’s much easier if you have £50 or £100 rather than just £10 in the bank. 

2. Focus: Focus all your time on your product or delivering your service. Not around the edges, such as your logo or brand name. Wasted time is less time spent on what matters to grow your business. I only decided on a brand name and logo three years in and it’s still work in progress.

3. Give 100%: Don’t be discouraged from trying something new, but when you do it give it 100 percent. I knew I wanted to build a successful business and threw a lot of mud at a wall to see what sticks. I tried making music that didn’t work, gaming videos did a bit better, technology reviewing was successful and finally, I found my stride with trading insight. Don’t be discouraged if something doesn’t work but don’t go in willy-nilly. You have to give it 100 percent before you decide.

4. Keep learning: Self-help books totally changed my mindset and taught me things that it would have taken me years to learn. They tell you everything you already know you should be doing, but getting in that mindset helped drive my success. I know many young people who feel a sense of entitlement and feel they deserve success. You can’t achieve it without earning it. Research, go online, find out everything you can about the sector you’re launching in. But don’t just look at the successes on Wikipedia, take notice of the outliers, the people who aren’t quite at their peak yet, as they’re the competition and the ones you have to watch.

5. Value your time: Once you can afford to pay someone to do day-to-day tasks, do it. You need to learn when it’s time to bring employees on board. Completing business administration is time-consuming and can become all-consuming and take you away from making money and ensuring your customers are happy with your service/product. I learnt that once you can afford to pay someone else to do this for you, and do it well, then it’s time to relinquish some control and focus on building the business.

6. Keep customers happy and loyal: It’s the only way to create a successful business. Be crystal clear about the product or service you’re offering. If you’re transparent about what the product or service is/can do/isn’t, then customers will be happy and have expectations which you can deliver or exceed.

7. Choose staff for enthusiasm and loyalty - not just skills: Don’t get me wrong I hire the best people for the job but I have been disappointed in the past by hiring the most talented people who do a fantastic job but just didn’t care about the business, our customers, the service. My finest employees have been those with amazing dedication and energy. I like to make sure there’s opportunities for development, so if someone has skills but not experience, if they’re enthusiastic and passionate then I’ll give them a job.

8. Curb your ego: The business people I admire like Elon Musk, who is my biggest inspiration, treat millionaires the same as someone with just £10 to their name, they have respect for everybody. You’re never too important. I’m happy to be hands-on and try and always set aside time to connect with my customers. As I’ve built a strong following online it’s hard to respond to every person but I do try to keep connected and there’s no job in the business I won’t do myself. 

9. Don’t be reckless with money: When I turned 18, I went out on my birthday and spent thousands on going out and eating at the best restaurants, I was reckless, I lost momentum and everything slowed down. My success came quickly and I’m young, and I then had to learn how to manage my spending. I never spent more money than I had coming in but I spent too much time and energy on the enjoyment and not enough on the work which meant I lost momentum. I took my eye off the ball and instead of the rampant, exponential growth, I was used to everything slowed down. By all means enjoy wealth and spend it how you like but be careful it doesn’t take momentum away from your business growth. If you keep building you have more of a financial cushion to play with rather than spending it away and having to start the whole struggle again