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If you were to tell your 18 year old self what business to start what would you say? (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by compendiousbeing@alien.top to c/entrepreneur@indiehackers.space

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Hello, I hope all is well. I am an 18 year old that is looking to start a business. I have dipped into the service providing area in July where I was supposed to make websites for people but I ended up doing a free trial creating videos for a possible client. I ended up stopping that. Wasn’t leading me to earning income.

My main question here is, what would you tell your 18 year old self to start? I truly like the idea of having an online business. I am in Computer Science at the moment for school and I was thinking of getting into saas. But I also see tons of different videos on different businesses to start. I just want to mention, I do not have shiny object syndrome. I am just interested in starting & getting advice from anyone.

Also, one thing I see often is, dropshipping, smma(which I tried to go in on), trading and Amazon fba. I see this everywhere. I don’t know if truly you can make a large sum of income from it or it’s just the courses that help them.

I started learning about business at 15 where I started a YouTube automation channel and later stopped that. Then got into cutting hair for others. And ever since I have turned 18 I have been learning a lot more on stocks, credit, as well as retirement plans. But truly retirement isn’t my end goal. I just like idea of working towards something.

So if anyone that is in the business areas I have mentioned I’d be open to hear your perspective from it and any perspective from others as well.

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[–] TomFromOpenScreensIT@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's absolutely crucial that you do something that connects with your background, experience and motivations.

If not, you are going to be on the same level as everyone else, or even worse, you are going to be at a disadvantaged in an industry where others already have an interest and knowledge of the subject.

Dropshipping, trading, amazon fba and those types of things are like pop music or cat memes, they are oriented towards the largest common denominator, that's why they dominate front pages and amass so many views. Steer away from those and look for smaller niches were your interest in computers and websites is going to be relevant.

I personally got into offering IT infrastructure for small non-technical businesses, but I ended up doing staffing and Project Management for early stage startups as well.

Just keep on exploring your industry and go deeper rather than going back, reevaluating and starting over from 0. You are 18 years old, prepare to go deep into a single industry and role for the next 5 years and you will be a monster at 23.

Specialize, people want to do business with an expert in a subject. They want to mentally save you as the X-thing guy, and then move on, only calling you when they need help with X-thing.

Good luck!

[–] WindSlashKing@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What if I'm not interested in working in the field I studied for? I only like it as a hobby. I don't want to fall for the sunk cost fallacy.

[–] TomFromOpenScreensIT@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nobody likes working, we do it because we have to.

Unless it's the first months of honeymoon, in that case you are starting to gain experience, keep focusing on that, don't hop to the next shiny thing.

[–] WindSlashKing@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Its not about liking working. It's about continuing to do something I no longer enjoy for the sole reason that I've invested time in it. Makes no sense unless you are really old.