Billionaire Mark Cuban is only 12 years old when he launched his first business, so he knew what it took to start a business at a young age.
And, he says there’s one simple thing you need to consider if you want to do that, too.
“The key to starting a business when you’re young is doing things you can do yourself – things you can do with your own time,” Cuba recently said a group of high school students at Lewisville High School in Texas.
That means starting with what you know, he notes.
“If it’s a product, make something that’s easy to get and easy to sell,” Cuban said, adding: “It really comes down to one simple thing. The best business is the one. things you can control and do yourself. That’s what being an entrepreneur is all about.”
The famous Cuban started early learning how to run his own business as a teenager sell garbage bags door-to-door in suburban Pittsburgh. He then sells various collectibles ranging from baseball cards to coins and stampsay the amount earned helped pay for my college tuition.
In each of those cases, Cuban took household items and collectibles accessible to children and sold them for a profit — following his own advice for today’s teens.
Likewise, as a college student, he worked as a bartender and dance lessons to earn more money. Cuba then showed off her dancing skills publicly by appeared on “Dancing With the Stars” in 2007, placed 8th in the competition.
“I’m a hustler… I’m always selling. I always have something going on. It’s just my nature,” Cuba said in a 2016 interview. episode of ABC’s “Shark Tank”.
Now, Cuban says he regularly tells kids and teens who are looking to start their own businesses to do what he did. He builds around “something they can do or a service they can provide to friends, family, and neighbors”. told CNBC Make It in September.
Easier said than done, of course: Launching and successfully growing your own business is a notorious challenge. About 20% of new businesses fail within a year of launch, according to data from US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy and suddenly you make a lot of money,” Cuban told students at Lewisville High School. “Becoming an entrepreneur is the harder way.”
If that was easy, he added, “you’re all ready to do it and go on ‘Shark Tank’ and take my place.”
Finding something you can control and do yourself is hard enough. To be good at it – that happens to be the goal of Cubans rule number 1 to make money – much harder.
It involves extensive research into your business plan and competitiveness, finding funding, and creating contingency plans to allow flexibility if you need to make quick adjustments, the billionaire said. . previously said.
Cuban told high school students that as long as you don’t mind doing it, especially after you choose your business opportunity, a whole world of opportunities could open up for you.
“If you’re willing to take the initiative and start a business, anything is possible,” he said.
Disclosure: CNBC owns the offline cable TV rights to “Shark Tank”.
Register now: Smarter about your money and career with our weekly newsletter
Do not miss:
Why Mark Cuban Calls This Million Dollar ‘Shark Tank’ CEO ‘A Great Case Of Don’ts’
Mark Cuban: Here’s Why You Should Teach Your Kids To Be Entrepreneurs
