this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2023
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Im not talking about a dropshipping business or anything like that, I mean an actual business where i manufacture my own products. Would this be possible at my age, and where would I start?

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[–] willslater99@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I like the initiative.

I started my first business at 16 and actually sold it at 20 for a decent amount of money. You 100% can start a business at your age, there's just a few limitations you need to work around, both forced by your age and natural. It does make things harder, but not impossible.

  1. Funding. Obviously the younger you are, the less likely you have access to cash, which for physical products creates a limitation. Manufacturing can be cheap, it can also be very expensive, and economies of scale becomes the issue. I.e. If I want to sell a product for 10 dollars, after shipping and such, it might cost 15 dollars per product if I order one (a loss) or 5 dollars per product if I order a thousand of them, which could be a good margin, but that means you need to have 5000 bucks to order that 1000. This isn't an impossibility, but it means most have to get creative to make that happen.
  2. Online payment providers like Stripe and Paypal almost universally require you to be 18+ to open an account. Again, that isn't a complete blocker, but it meant when I was younger I had to have somebody else do this, which depending on your country could be legally dodgy or in general just a risk depending on how much you trust this person.
  3. Business structures. Much the same as number 2, you might not be allowed to register a business in your country till you're 18, and though I advise starting before putting the legal stuff in place anyway, you've gotta be careful because this also prevents you from putting things in place like insurance. If you're manufacturing a physical product, your risks on things like getting sued are bigger, and you wanna be protected against that.

My business at 16 was a live events company. I booked locations, bands, organised events and then focused on marketing to sell tickets. This worked for me because on the small scale, my overheads were very low and I knew it pretty well (I'd been playing gigs with my bands since 14). I ran it without a legal structure for a year, then put one in place, and re-invested my profits until I grew it to something big, holding more events and larger ones with higher profile acts that I could charge more for. Even then, I was skirting the law a little by being in these locations (alcohol serving places meant I needed to be 18+).

It's not impossible, but you need to think about what you can do with your limitations and what's most possible for you. Doesn't need to be dropshipping, but you realistically need something you can start with a little money and then re-invest the profits to grow in a big way.

[–] Downtown_Radish3633@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I believe you are right , but in this present society what would you suggest someone could start with?

[–] Furryballs239@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

It’s gotta be some niche you’re familiar with. For example the commenter was familiar with and involved in the gig scene, so they started a gig centered business. The likelihood you’ll just randomly pick something and have success is very low