3 answers
Shane
Student
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Question
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How can I own my own business?
Hello, my name is Shane. I am 17 and I am currently a senior in high school. I was wondering how I would get to owning my own my business. Do I need to go to college? How long does it take to own a business? Any certifications I need to own my own business? Do I need to go to college to own my own business? #business #CEO #entrepenuer
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3 answers
Lina Kim
Deals/Advisory
16
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New York, New York
Updated
Lina’s Answer
Kimberly has some great points above!
Shane, becoming an entrepreneur is definitely an exciting career path. I'm sure you're quite aware, but successful entrepreneurs faced a lot of failures prior to becoming successful. While you do not need to go to college, going to college and receiving a degree related to business, such as finance, accounting, or entrepreneur track, will help you tremendously as you prepare to launch your own business. These courses will provide you the skillsets that you will need and also give you an opportunity to seek like minded people that could potentially be your investor, business partner, and / or clients. Creating a business doesn't need anything special, you can easily google how to form your own LLC, pay the necessary fees, and have a business. However, creating a successful business isn't as simple as that. Like Kimberly said, do you have a business idea? Products? Capital to actually get the business up and running? The tenacity to continue if things do not go well? Back up plans?
I highly suggest you go to college and work on your business on the side. Every successful entrepreneur has their failures, which become their life long experience and learning life lessons. Best of luck!!!
Shane, becoming an entrepreneur is definitely an exciting career path. I'm sure you're quite aware, but successful entrepreneurs faced a lot of failures prior to becoming successful. While you do not need to go to college, going to college and receiving a degree related to business, such as finance, accounting, or entrepreneur track, will help you tremendously as you prepare to launch your own business. These courses will provide you the skillsets that you will need and also give you an opportunity to seek like minded people that could potentially be your investor, business partner, and / or clients. Creating a business doesn't need anything special, you can easily google how to form your own LLC, pay the necessary fees, and have a business. However, creating a successful business isn't as simple as that. Like Kimberly said, do you have a business idea? Products? Capital to actually get the business up and running? The tenacity to continue if things do not go well? Back up plans?
I highly suggest you go to college and work on your business on the side. Every successful entrepreneur has their failures, which become their life long experience and learning life lessons. Best of luck!!!
Alleisha Levett
Product Manager
2
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Camp Hill, AL
Updated
Alleisha’s Answer
It's always inspiring to witness the birth of future entrepreneurs. While college education can offer a wealth of knowledge about the ins and outs of entrepreneurship, it isn't a prerequisite for becoming a successful business owner. If you examine the backgrounds of current business owners, you might be surprised by how many achieved success without a college degree.
While higher education can help you sidestep a fair number of pitfalls, making mistakes is an integral part of growing as a business owner. I have a friend who built a successful business from scratch and is now a millionaire, projected to become a billionaire within the next 2-3 years. Remarkably, she never attended college and doesn't heavily market her business or products.
Success won't happen overnight, but it's entirely possible to become a successful business owner without a college degree. What's required is diligent research, which is a never-ending process as you continually strive to improve your business. As a beginner, you should focus on understanding the market for your product or service and figuring out how to reach your target audience.
While I advocate for higher education as a stepping stone to success, the reality is, it's not a necessity. Best of luck of your endeavors and I hope to see your success if the future
While higher education can help you sidestep a fair number of pitfalls, making mistakes is an integral part of growing as a business owner. I have a friend who built a successful business from scratch and is now a millionaire, projected to become a billionaire within the next 2-3 years. Remarkably, she never attended college and doesn't heavily market her business or products.
Success won't happen overnight, but it's entirely possible to become a successful business owner without a college degree. What's required is diligent research, which is a never-ending process as you continually strive to improve your business. As a beginner, you should focus on understanding the market for your product or service and figuring out how to reach your target audience.
While I advocate for higher education as a stepping stone to success, the reality is, it's not a necessity. Best of luck of your endeavors and I hope to see your success if the future
Kimberly Evans
2
Answers
Updated
Kimberly’s Answer
Shane, this is a great question and you’re probably an energetic person with a lot of ideas that could fuel a great business. There are courses you can take and even college programs that can teach you about business, becoming and entrepreneur, and what makes businesses successful. Whether you decide to take the structured courses/programs or not, creating a business and then making it successful requires a lot of research, before, during and after you start the business. It also requires hard work but the benefits can be quite rewarding if you do your research, create a business plan, seek advice and counsel, and work hard.
So, if you have a business idea (or two), here are few things to think about:
1. Research the need for your product/service. Are there people and companies doing what you want to do? Your idea doesn’t have to be novel to do well as you could be building on an existing product or service
2. How will you market your product/service to generate customers? Who is your targeted audience and why do they need your products/services?
3. Understand the financial/commercial components of creating the product/service; How much can you sell the product/service for and how much does it cost you to deliver the product/service? Will you make money?
4. Where will you get the capital (money) to start your business, make the products or create the services?
5. Put all of the above into a business plan and seek advice and counsel. It doesn’t matter how many people agree or disagree with your business idea, seeking advice and counsel gives you the opportunity to listen for ways to improve your ideas and business before diving in and having to abandon the idea.
There is an abundant amount of information available on the internet, just by using the google search engine for the topics listed above. Google turned out to be a great business idea after years of not having any users. You can do it! Go for it!
So, if you have a business idea (or two), here are few things to think about:
1. Research the need for your product/service. Are there people and companies doing what you want to do? Your idea doesn’t have to be novel to do well as you could be building on an existing product or service
2. How will you market your product/service to generate customers? Who is your targeted audience and why do they need your products/services?
3. Understand the financial/commercial components of creating the product/service; How much can you sell the product/service for and how much does it cost you to deliver the product/service? Will you make money?
4. Where will you get the capital (money) to start your business, make the products or create the services?
5. Put all of the above into a business plan and seek advice and counsel. It doesn’t matter how many people agree or disagree with your business idea, seeking advice and counsel gives you the opportunity to listen for ways to improve your ideas and business before diving in and having to abandon the idea.
There is an abundant amount of information available on the internet, just by using the google search engine for the topics listed above. Google turned out to be a great business idea after years of not having any users. You can do it! Go for it!