9 Best Ways to Start a Business at 20 (2024)

So you are looking to start a business at 20 but have no clue where to begin. Well, the good news is you came to the right place. Below are the 9 most important tips for starting a business at 20.

If you want to start a business at 20, you need to pick a product or service to sell, pick a monetization method and build trust with your customer. It’s also important to find a good supplier and know when to outsource work.

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9 Tips for Starting a Business at 20

Here are 9 tips for starting a business at 20 in 2024.

1. Pick a Product or Service to Sell

When starting a business at 20, one of the first things you need to do is pick a product or service to sell. The product or service you decide on selling depends on which industry you start your business in.

Another thing to consider is what you want to sell. Do you want to sell products and potentially deal with suppliers and shipping? I say potentially because some businesses don’t have to deal with suppliers or even shipping.

Take affiliate marketing or print-on-demand businesses for example. Affiliate marketers simply have to promote a product and never really have to deal with any suppliers. The company you are an affiliate for usually handles shipping and suppliers.

Print on demand works in a similar way. However, it will vary depending on how the print-on-demand business is run.

Some print-on-demand businesses deal with suppliers. Some simply use one of the many print-on-demand platforms and just upload their designs.

Compare that to dropshipping, which is a very popular business model which heavily relies on the quality of a product. It’s near impossible to make a lot of money as a dropshipper without a unique, or interesting product.

2. Monetize

Probably the most important part of any business is making money. Without money, it’s difficult to grow the business as a whole and you might face stagnation.

So to avoid all that it’s important to focus on all the possible ways to monetize your business. A monetization method might include selling products, services, putting ads on your website, or even affiliate marketing.

There are so many ways to monetize your business. It simply takes picking one or two main monetization methods to start generating an income.

Some businesses are better suited to monetize one way compared to another.

Take blogging for instance. Display advertisements will probably be one of your main sources of income. Compare that to a dropshipper, who will be getting the majority of their business’s income from product sales.

Pick a monetization method that works well with your business and start earning that money!

3. Build Trust

Building trust is also important to do as a business because a lack of trust will mean fewer people purchasing your products or services.

But how exactly do you build trust as a business?

You can build your business’s trust in a variety of different ways. Having a professional-looking website is one of the best ways to build trust with your potential customers. Sending professional invoices is another way to build your business’s trust.

Avoiding any writing errors is also important when building trust with your customers. Grammarly can be used to help proofread your work. The last thing you want is an unwanted typo or misspelled word in your business’s writing.

Whether it be in the form of an email or product description, Grammarly is a huge help. Plus anyone can start using Grammarly for free today.

Easiest Way to Build Trust

But the easiest and most important way to build trust is to be reliable. This means responding to customer support emails and messages, or even phone calls.

Think about the last time you bought something online and had to message the business about an issue with their product. Did they have fast or slow response times? If they took forever to get back to you, did you lose trust with that business?

Most people will probably say yes they did. They lost trust because that business was not reliable and did not answer their question or offer help in a reasonable period of time.

When you start your business at 20, make sure to remain reliable and your refund rates will be lower, and overall you will just have happier, more satisfied customers.

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4. Advertise

Next comes advertising your business. Any 20-year-old can start a business. However, without proper advertising, no one will know about your business.

At 20, you probably do not have, nor want to spend a ton of money on paid advertisements. This means you will need to take advantage of advertising on social media.

Social media offers every business owner the ability to advertise their business to millions of potential customers. Of course, it will take time originally to build up your business’s social media following. But if done right, it can mean a reliable source of traffic and customers, something every business owner wants.

5. Plan Everything Out

Starting a business is a great idea but without a good plan in place, it can be difficult to accomplish your goals. By planning everything out, you will know exactly what and when to do any necessary tasks.

There are a lot of moving parts when running a business at 20. You have to deal with suppliers, customers, advertise on social media, create your business’s website, among many other tasks.

It can all seem overwhelming at first. But with the right plan, you can systematically complete any necessary tasks and continue growing your business.

6. Find a Good Supplier

If you are starting a business that relies on a supplier, it’s important to pick one that is trustworthy. A good supplier has many benefits. Faster shipping times and reduced costs are two of the best benefits.

But a bad supplier could lead to many complications. An inconsistent, untrustworthy supplier is most business owners’ worst nightmare.

As a 20-year-old business owner, you want to be able to trust your supplier to fulfill their end of the bargain. After all, if selling products is your business’s main source of income, you would be in trouble if your supplier did not deliver on their promises.

7. Outsource When Needed

At one point or another in your entrepreneurial journey, you will most likely have to outsource various tasks to improve your business’s efficiency.

There are only a certain number of hours in the day and it gets increasingly difficult to run your business entirely by yourself. Especially as you scale your business, you will eventually have the funds to be able to afford outsourcing work when necessary.

However, you don’t want to outsource work when you are initially starting your business. When you start your business, you most likely will not have the funds to outsource work.

So the best thing to do is initially start your business and scale it up by yourself. Once you reach a level of profitability where you are able to invest money back into the business, then you can start outsourcing work.

8. Remain Consistent

Starting a business at 20 takes time and it’s important to remain consistent in order to improve your chances of success.

If starting a business simply meant finding a product to sell and coming up with a name, everyone would be an entrepreneur.

The reality of the situation is that not just anyone can create a successful business. It takes consistently putting out content, optimizing your business, and improving your product or service to really separate yourself from the competition.

Everyone wants to start a business nowadays, but not everyone wants to put in the work. By remaining consistent, you can outperform your competition and find success as a business owner.

9. Reinvest Into The Business

Once you scale your business to a certain point and it reaches a certain level of profitability, you are going to want to reinvest some of those profits back into the business.

This can be in the form of outsourcing, or even just buying better software or equipment. If there is something that can help you improve the efficiency and profitability of your business, consider investing in it.

Conclusion

Any 20-year-old can start their own business. Thanks to the internet, it’s extremely easy to start today. It can be as simple as having an idea, creating a website, and advertising using social media.

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9 Best Ways to Start a Business at 20 (2024)