10 Steps on how to become a "Successful Young Entrepreneur"

10 STEPS ON HOW TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR 

It’s 6:00am in the morning, too early for myself, but I got awake and I can’t sleep because my brain started to become busy working and running to the point that I am stressing out. So, I decided to open my laptop and write. This kind of blog post is a long time due in my blog, and this would be very long but full of learnings. A lot of people are requesting me to do this —— like a mentorship or something related to becoming a successful entrepreneur at a young age, and in a 3rd world country like Philippines. I never feel like doing this yet, before, because I don’t want to claim that I am successful. Okay, but today, I’ve changed my mind and my principles. Yes, it is always good to become down to earth, but maybe, I should level up now and embrace the beauty of what I have now and what they call me —- “A Successful Young Entrepreneur”. What a beautiful title, isn’t it? Maybe, if I embrace this fact, I will become more successful, not only in terms of the business and monetarial, but being successful of doing my life purpose to inspire people and by creating more successful young entrepreneurs in the Philippines, just like (according to majority, humbled and honoured) —- me.

On this post, I will be focusing on the step by step technical process on how to become a successful young entrepreneur in the Philippines,  and later on, I will make a separate blog post about the other matters on how the business works and the feelings involved, and the difference of becoming your own boss instead of becoming an employee. Because it is not “perfect” just like everyone sees it. For now, I will detail the process and the important things plus some tips. Please take note that what I am writing down in here is solely based on my experiences and life lessons. 

1.) HAVE A MENTOR AND BE INSPIRED

First thing first, for you to become a successful young entrepreneur, and in any fields, you should always have a mentor. A mentor who you believe is already successful. A mentor who inspires you. Say for example, in my case, my business mentor is my auntie —- my mom’s younger sister. A little bit of background, my family —- both sides, all came from a poor family; but all of them are successful today and one person that really stands out to me is this auntie that I’m talking about. Ever since I was a child, yes child —-maybe the moment that I had conscience already, I look up to their family and I always call them “My Idol Family”. All of my auntie’s children graduated in prestige schools such as Mapua Institute of Technology, Ateneo De Manila University, and De Lasalle University. One is an Accountant, another is a Lawyer and holds a masters degree, and another one is a double degree graduate Civil Engineer and Sanitary Engineer and was top notcher. The youngest is a fresh graduate of Information Technology if I’m not mistaken. They own The Philippine Hardware House, they have a construction firm(yes they are a family of engineers slash professionals slash entrepreneurs), a restaurant, computer shop, a fish pond and a fish business(what do you call this?) and many more businesses. So, do you think their profile is enough to pass as mentor and inspiration? Of course they do! Hehe. So what I did and what are you gonna do, is to spend some time with them. Ask for their mentorship. Never be afraid to ask. Be hungry for learning. Keep in mind that you could never be successful all by yourself, alone. It’s never gonna happen. You need people. And it will start from your mentors. And I believe that everyone has their own idols. So grab that opportunity to become closer to your “idols” and “inspirations”, never be afraid to show your interest to them and becoming their “students”. They will be glad, for sure. And it will be fun! Every time I get mentorship from people, Idk, but we always used to drink. And hey, it will make your drinking session more fruitful than talking a bunch of nonsense stuff. 

Well, it is not necessary to have that very nice profile just like my auntie as your standard for choosing a mentor. In this life that I have, I already had bunch of mentors from different fields and my parents are one of them. Yes your parents should always be on the list. I have mentors in Architecture, in Fashion Design, in Blogging and in different fields. My mentors are my teachers whom I always look up to in a particular field if ever that I encounter problems or need some help most especially in the decision making. So there, if you want to become one of the successful young entrepreneur in the Philippines, then go, be inspired now and approach some “successful” people whom you could approach. Hey, my blog is always open for you to read and be mentored with my writings and teachings. I’m planning to do some seminars too, soon! 

2.) BUILD YOUR IDENTITY

2.1) Government IDs

 I know every person have their own identity. But in this life, everything are supposed to be in papers to become valid. So if you exist and doesn’t have an ID even a school ID,  then you don’t exist at all. And that is the sole purpose of IDs or Identity Card. Before you become a successful young entrepreneur, make sure that hold a valid ID issued by the government. A passport maybe? Or a driver’s license. Get those two IDs even if you don’t have a car or even if you won’t travel. It’s a must. This is the first step of building your Identity. You will thank me soon. 

2.2) Bank Account

Even if you are an employee or whatever status you have in life, open a bank account. In my case, I had my first bank account way back 2007 and I was just 12 or 13 years old that time. My sole purpose during those time is not to become a successful young entrepreneur but because I was ready-ing myself to become independent, and my mom was sending me money from abroad that time. And today, I swear, the maturity of my bank account helped me a lot in so many ways. So even if you don’t plan to have a business yet or whatever, open up a bank account now and as much as possible, maintain a balance and again, as much as possible, make sure that you put all the money that you have/gain in the bank before using it just for the sake of the records. And then later on, you will understand me and learn how to “play” with the money. And another again, do this now and you will thank me soon :) 

P.S. I now have a total of 6 active bank accounts that I maintain and “play” my money with. 

2.3) DTI (Department of Trade and Industry)

Go to the DTI’s website now after reading this and register a business name. Even if you don’t have a plan to start a business yet, do it now! Again, you will thank me soon. Why? Maturity of the business really matters. When it gets older, it gets better. You are going to get this just to make it mature. And DTI is the first step in starting a business, and make it start to mature now; again, you will thank me soon! Worry about the brgy. clearance, Mayor’s permit, and BIR if you are already decided to start a business and become a successful young entrepreneur. 

2.4) BILLS

Building an identity is not easy. And having a bill named after you means that you are established and matured enough, well, to pay your own bills. And by acquiring this, as a young entrepreneur, you will be needing everything that I listed above. and then later on, including this “bill”, you will be needing this as a requirement which they call —- “proof of billing”. It is not necessary that you go to Meralco or Maynilad and get your own electricity line or water line. You can start small by applying to telecom companies such as globe, smart, and sun and start with a small line —- those who doesn’t have a free cellphone. But if you think you are established enough and you “played” well with your bank account/s, then go ahead and try to apply for a higher plan. But I really do suggest to start small. Hey! I think it’s easier to start with an DSL or internet line, or a cable line perhaps?

Okay, so, you have a bill already —- then make sure to maintain and be responsible of paying it. Today, besides the other basic bills that I have, I have 2 postpaid lines in Globe Telecom, a personal line and a business line and I am now benefiting with them so well. Yah, make sure to use your benefits; I have a priority access in their shops like I am always first on the line in whatever transactions that I would like to do, and I have free latest cellphone(iPhone is my choice) every 2 years. I also have rewards that my boyfriend and I could use to watch a cinema for free! Awesome right? Yah yah, it’s awesome to become a “Successful Young Entrepreneur” hehe.. 

2.5) CREDIT CARD

Okay, this is the hardest part and this deserves a separate blog post. You could skip this for now and reserve in your to-do list for later. for now, maintain and do the list that I mentioned above. 

Some people say that it is not wise to have a credit card. But they are wrong, there are a lot of privileges if you are responsible enough to handle and use a credit card. But this is one and another big factor in establishing your identity and this could actually measure your identity on how big will be your “credit limit”. 

2.6) PROPERTIES

So, this would be the last important part of building your identity because this is where we are all heading—- to have properties. A successful young entrepreneur should have properties. Well, a business is one. Cars, house, condominiums and every possession that is written in paper is considered a property. And to have a property, you need to do and follow everything above; except for the credit card part, but it will be easier if you maintain a good credit card.  

2.7) VISA

Now, if you already have everything listed above, pack your bags and be ready to travel the world. All of the stuff that I mentioned would be necessary to get a visa to travel. And as a traveler, for me,  visas are possessions. 

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So, how many papers do you have now? You are now an established person. At first, we are just talking about IDs. And now, you’ve learned a lot of stuff to consider and be sure to take care of it and never do something that will ruin your “credibility”. Having those papers and building your identity doesn’t mean that you are already a successful young entrepreneur. There are still a lot of key components to become a successful young entrepreneur. Shall we proceed to step 3? :)

3.) LOVE AND PASSION 

This is the most important part. Everything is none-sense if you don’t have love and passion. This is very simple, in everything you do, make sure that you love what you are doing and you are passionate about it. “Always follow your heart”, it’s a timeless quotation that I will believe forever. 

“Success is a product of love”, according to my dad. And that is true. I am a CEO of a group of companies right now, companies or business that I established, and I will tell you this, all of those are just a product of love and never in my life that I dreamed of it. I love everything I do and I put passion on it and viola, after 5 years(since establishing my own business or brand) of doing what I love and being passionate about life,, we are now 16 in the board members excluding the employees. 

I’ll give you an example, well obviously, Trishie Couture was born because of my love for fashion. But do you know how Shabby Chic Salon was born? It is just simply because I love the colour pink. Yah, so that salon is a product for my love to colour pink and shabby chic style —- hence the name. I wanted a room where I could indulge my self in colour pink stuff and shabby chic stuff because Idk, I feel the giggles every time I see pink and shabby chic. Yes I could create a Trishie Couture Boutique, but being a business minded person, or a successful young entrepreneur, I wanted a place where I could earn money, so yeah, why not make a salon? I am so happy and passionate about designing the interior and even the furnitures and all stuff, yeah, I am so passionate about it, and the final product is heaven for me. I now have a pink and shabby chic room to indulge in. See what I am saying here? Everything is a product of love and passion. 

A little tip for those who doesn’t know their passion yet, ask yourself, what are the things that you happily do that you think you could do forever even if until you die? The answer would be your passion. If you’re still confused and still doesn’t have an answer, an effective way based on my experience is to go back to your history. Go back to your childhood. When you were a child, what are your favourite things and what do you love and usually do? When I was a child, I really really love doll houses and I was addicted in playing the game “The Sims”. And this explain my love and passion for interior designing(yep I designed several possessions such as my dream bedroom, walk in closet, Shabby Chic Salon, office, and several apartments) and architecture. I love dressing up Barbie Dolls hence the Trishie Couture. And so on and so fort. 

4.) DREAM

Oh, another most important part. hehe.. DREAM. For you to be able to become a successful young entrepreneur, to DREAM is very important. Your dreams should be your direction on where you are going. Life, well of course, business, is just nothing if you don’t have dreams. Yah, as simple as this. 

5.) STUDY, RESEARCH AND READ BOOKS

Yes you could do something that is just out from your brain and experiences. But it is still always best to back-up your knowledge by reading books. But, you should be careful on what to read and what to believe. You should balance all the informations together with your knowledge. And you should have references. 

At first, I thought that having a salon seems so impossible. Seems so big and hard to achieve. But what I did was to research and study only to find out that it is not impossible until just with in a span of a few months, I managed to made  a salon business, without attending seminar or without franchising, but only through studying and researching, and, interviewing people who are in the industry.

Make it also a hobby to read books. For me, as my own principle, I believe that it is not necessarily needed to finish a book. Because if you finish a book, that is a full copy cat of the person who written it which is impossible to happen. What I do is to get and buy books which is my interest, educational, and for reference, then I just get the ideas. Usually, the thoughts in a book is just one and all the same all through out the pages. One time, a guy doubted me if I already read all my books in my library/office and I answered with a confident yes. Yes because just like what I’ve said, it is not necessary to finish a book, but what you have to do is to get the idea and you could always get back to it and browse it in the future if in case that you will be needing to expand that knowledge on that particular idea that you’ve learned in that book. I rarely read novel books. I read inspirational books, books about brain and mind, educational books, spiritual, and yeah, I’ve read a lot of leadership and “how to be successful” books. So if you are reading this post right now, congratulations! You are on the right path to becoming a successful young entrepreneur. 

Study, study doesn’t mean that you have to finish a 4 year degree course to be able to learn something new. In my case, I took a lot of short courses and even a course in Entrepreneurship to give me a background on what I do. Just like what I told you, be hungry for learning and always learn new things. If you have the chances to sit-in in classes of your interest, go, do it! And if you have the chance to have an online classes, why not? As long as there are learnings, grab it!

6.) RIGHT PEOPLE

You will never become successful alone. You need partner, or partners. You need a TEAM. And those people should have the same dream as you or just simply passionately dream and loves what they do, just like you. I am lucky because I have a team who follows me, trusts me, respects me and who are all inspired to me. If you have people like them, keep them. 

7.) MARKET

Find your perfect market. My 2nd business, Trishie Couture, has actually failed at some point when I designed and made a RTW(Ready To Wear) clothing line and put up a boutique in one of the Robinson’s mall. Well, it’s a mall and there’s a lot of choices. And, my market are those people who have the same taste of clothes just like me and those who have a regular or small size. Well, in clothing industry, size of the people matters. So how many percent of people is my market? Very small. On the other hand, in my Bella Pelle brand (Bella Pelle is an italian word for Beautiful Skin), the market is 50%. Because there are only 2 kinds of human, a girl, and a boy. So my market is very big, all the woman in the world, and majority of woman loves beauty and uses beauty products. And when I say market, it doesn’t mean that everyone should be using it, but it means that your market is high and you have that chance and possibility to make all the woman in the world to use my product. 

Another example is my brother, he is a multi-millionaire (see one of his many features here ) in America by just filming his family specifically his kids, unboxing toys and posting it in You Tube. How does he earn? Google pays him for advertisements and giant toy companies sponsor them free and the most up to date toys. What did he foreseen before doing it? The market. his market are all the kids in the world. And yes, they are worldwide, they have videos which have more than 10 million views and they have kids in all parts of the world who watches their You Tube Channel. 

So, the question is, who is your target market?

8.) LOCATION AND PLATFORM

Now, you have your target market, you have your identity, and you already have the passion and the dream. You are now ready to start. The next most important part in establishing a business and for you to become a successful young entrepreneur is the location. Does your target market could easily find your location? Or, is your location has your target market? On the other hand, if you intended to start online, your location would be your platform. What platform are you going to use? Would it be Instagram? Facebook? or Shopify? What about Ebay or Amazon, or in the Philippines, Olx? It depends on your target market, you can use all but I suggest you focus on just one. And I suggest you do both, a physical location and a world wide web location. Do you know what my platform is? It’s Google. Or technically, the Search Engine. So, I get my clients, specifically Trishie Couture and Bella Pelle, on Google/search engine. It’s a bit complicated to explain, but this is the idea, people search for a gown, then Trishie Couture would be one of the search results. So technically, google works for me. Even if I don’t sell or do marketing, people will always give me clients. I will make a separate blog post about this or you could refer to my blog post here for some background. 

Oh by the way, Lazada.com is one of our platforms too. 

9.) INNOVATE

Be futuristic. Always think of what might happen in the future and what should be the role of your business or endeavour in that future. So always always and always innovate. 

I would like to give you an example, Bella Pelle was born because I found a very effective beauty product that I personally used. 4 years ago, it was very new in the market. So it hit me like “wow, this is so effective and this is something new, it will click for sure”, so I market it using google and I gathered bloggers who will make a review about it. Then I just a year after, boom, I’m not mistaken, it’s a big hit! It clicked to the point that there are now a lot of competitors. There are many different brands was born in the market and Bella Pelle is a pioneer; until today, we learned to make our own using our own ingredients.  

Another example is my Shabby Chic Salon, well, I don’t have a very good location for this and apparently, there were a lot of salons which was born around the area after my salon was born. So there are now a lot of competitors. And I don’t have such a very good and talented beautician, so it is somehow failing. But of course I will not allow it to fail, so I think of something new in the market, I find salon becoming obsolete already, so what I did is that I bought plenty of brand new gowns and clothes in the USA and brought it home. Together with my Trishie Couture designs and those branded gowns, I will now then reinvent Shabby Chic Salon and Nails Spa into a Shabby Chic Salon and Style Studio where they could still have a salon - hair and make up services by appointment and at the same time they could rent a gown and clothes if they are going to attend an event or whatever. 

Innovation doesn’t necessarily mean that you have an old product for you to innovate. Innovation could be a new start as well. In my case, that is my DLC Backpackers. I reinvented how the people should travel and I started it the way I imagined and systematised it. It started where it is already innovated from the usual travel agencies that you could find in the market. Now, it is named by Huffington Post as “The Latest Modern Travel Trend”, read feature here.

Innovation could be anywhere, innovation in your marketing would do too. And hell yeah, there are a lot of marketing innovations and even market places and they are on-line now! 

Still confused? The basic example are the cellphones. They innovate every year, right? Well, technology scares me. Aren’t they? Then might as well be one of those who innovate and re-create the world rather than be the one who becomes controlled by the system. Thus, Innovate. 

10.) INSPIRE

So, you are now a successful young entrepreneur! What to do next? Duplicate yourself. Train people, help people by hiring and teaching them. Make a team and inspire them. Be a good example. Be a mentor.

Becoming a successful young entrepreneur is never easy. And there will be a lot of ups and downs. A lot of failures. But being a successful young entrepreneur means mastering how to stand up even if you fall for so many times. So be ready to face that if you really want to become a successful young entrepreneur. 

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So, I hope that you’ve learned a lot from me today —- your mentor. hihi. Stay tuned as I blog how is it to become a successful young entrepreneur? What is the kind of life that we have? What are the advantages and disadvantages? For now, sink in and absorb all the knowledges that I shared with you guys. Thank you for reading this and it is my pleasure to inspire people and help to make a bunch of successful young entrepreneurs inspired by me. This is my life purpose. And I thank you for being part of this purpose-driven life that I have. Yep, another separate blog post about this! For the mean time, feel free to browse my previous blog posts about my life and places that I’ve been. You can browse the “category” drop down menu above to read specific blog post that you want whether of you like a business related post, or life, or event or travel related posts. Enjoy and be inspired! hihi…