I started my first successful company at 16. Here’s what I wish I’d known.
I Started at 16
My journey in the entrepreneurial world started by walking barefoot on a carpet floor of push pins.
Acrizen Technologies was born in the middle of Computer Science class. I already knew how paradigms worked in the real world, so I was just bored, playing tic tac toe with myself (yeah, I was a loner then).
I sat in class after playing so many games and suddenly realized that my school’s operations were slow*. It was wasting so much time in the day and we never had the time to learn.
So I told myself, “If I can run an application that can take care of all of the school’s operations, then wouldn’t that mean that the school could focus on learning? So better productivity because of more time. Which also means that we could get a customer. But multiple schools would want enhanced operations. So that would mean multiple customers.”
“And all I needed was to make this app, pump money in hosting, marketing and BAM! I did it” — Me
Boy, I wish it was that easy.
Fast forward to today, Acrizen is an open-source group that works in building tools and IT apps for schools in places like India to enhance the education infrastructure.
We’ve became one of the largest teen companies in India and are starting to enter many other fields such as investing, consulting and so on.
So before I tell you my lessons I’ve learned, here is a disclaimer:
I did this when I was in school. I didn’t drop out. Also, I have no powers. I didn’t look in the future to find 14,000,605 possibilities to run my business. I did this as a normal human being. :)
*I joined a private school. So everything has to be business oriented. Also, the schools I mentioned were all private schools I targeted.
Don’t Run with Your Eyes Closed
Trust me, it’s exciting to start. You dream of money. You dream of fame and 6-figure sales figures. But you will not get anything if you don’t know where and how to start.
You need a business plan, preferably for 12 months.
And as time elapses, you can always add more and more. But don’t do any 1-month plans. I fell for this.
Our new-born company was just taking off and we needed a platform for our work. We’re a group of engineers so we needed to keep the tasks clean and have the messaging smooth. We first created a Slack Workspace.
But then we realized it wasn’t for us. So we went back to email and started to use Asana. That didn’t work either. So we went to Trello.
Meanwhile, email was as annoying as hell. I hated to see 20 emails from the company after my 6 AM jog. So then we went back to Slack.
All that shifting of data was a pain in the ass.
So to prevent another massive weekend headache, I sketched out our requirements for a system. So what system should my company have that can really integrate to our workflow?
And yes, it really helped. I now have a 12-month business plan for my company and I don’t get weekend headaches anymore.
But really, you are probably thinking:
“By planning in a month’s time, I will know what will come in my way so I don’t have to worry about rescheduling.” — You
WRONG.
You already failed. If your business means so much to you, then you wouldn’t worry about any other event. Heck, you should be rescheduling anything but your business plans. Stick to the plan and you will take your step to success.
Don’t let Money be the Only Building Block
I ran a zero-investment business for one year. I was able to avoid unnecessary investments. This gave me a window to raise money. And so when the time came, the initial capital didn’t scare me, because I planned and observed.
You need to do the test:
“Can I work efficiently with/without this product/service? If yes/no, why?”
You may have bagged investors. Maybe you managed to raise 200K. It doesn’t matter. If you don’t know how to manage that amount, then shut the firm down and give it back. You’ll save your life and your time.
So how did I run a zero-investment business?
I did have money from savings and all other occasions (Christmas and all).
The next thing that I did after I opened my business:
1. Walked to my desk
2. Took the cash
3. Locked it in a drawer
That may sound dramatic, but let me explain.
Since I knew what my business was about, I knew it was going to get pricey. I knew I had to save up for college, and I needed to put money aside for buying gifts throughout the year.
I had personal expenses, and I still was in school. So I needed cash flow. I needed something to come into my system. But I wasn’t working.
So I stopped all the bullshit expenses. As simple as that. I know it is so tempting to buy that $100/ year service and say, “That will boost my productivity.”
It won’t. There are a lot of factors that actually come into play.
Imagine this:
Say, suddenly you need to spend $1000 (this was a lot of money to me when I started my business, and in fact still is). Can you pull that money out of your pocket when you need it?
If it’s yes, then you are on the right track.
But a lot of us will say no. And I put myself into this and realized that if I needed this money, I didn’t want to borrow and go into debt. I wanted to have the money when I needed it.
Build A Core Team
This is probably the most important lesson. Although I did build a team after some time (3 months), I ran into some really big problems.
First, the weight of the world is on your shoulders. Getting your website launched, advertising on Facebook, contacting investors. You will definitely run into problems, you will be stressed out more than ever, and, most of all, you will need feedback.
If you are the only one running your show, you are going to burn out, and that is the sad truth. By having a team, you are at a major advantage.
- You can distribute the level of control and get things done, much faster.
- You have some people to criticize the plans.
- In high levels of stress, you can take breaks and let them steer the ship.
Luckily, my core team was a group of friends, so our flexibility was incredible. We took charge by splitting the plan into the teams and our productivity was at its finest.
This also leads to trust. You need to have some people to trust. So when your company gets big, you don’t want to shut down or leave because your colleagues lied to each other.
If you don’t build trust, then you fail to build a strong infrastructure for your company, which leads to hiring unproductive employees, lack of responding to customer complaints, and anything else that turns out just as bad.
24 Hours is A Lot of Time, Silly.
So at 16, I had school. I needed to keep my grades up. I had basketball practice 3 days a week and I had band practice every other day.
On top of that, studying for tests. Oh, then there is family. I can’t just ignore them. My grandpa was in the hospital so I had to take turns being there at night.
I am not trying to dump my problems to you. I am sure you can relate. And I had only 24 hours to do this. (No, I am not donating my sleep).
I could’ve woken up at 4 AM. But I am not an early bird.
Instead, I did the famous “3 priorities” list that Elon Musk uses and believe it or not, works. All. The. Time.
Every morning before the bus, I write on my white board what are the three things that I should shuffle around that day. I add this to my task-manager, Todoist, then add small tasks (homework, laundry and so on).
So I am stuck to three things at a time. I am crazy efficient and I can still take breaks to read a book, talk to the family and anything else.
I even have time to text my friends and catch up on the NBA.
But I do get so many requests.
“Dude, can you see if my Instagram picture is good enough?”
“Hey can you sell me this product? I’ll give you a 30% commission!”
“Yo, I am hitting the court soon. You wanna ball?”
All of that is tempting. But if it doesn’t fit my 3 priorities for the day nor does it fit on something I would do during my breaks, then it’s a “No.”
When I am in bed, about to sleep, I reflect on my efficiency and what I was able to achieve that day. There are days where I say, “I did so much! Let’s keep it up.” And there are days where I say, “Bummer! So much procrastination.”
But with the reflecting, I have the time to analyze and try to not do the same thing again.
Wrapping Up
Now if I had a travel machine and I tell my 16-year-old self all this:
1. I would save so much time. I started a business out of enthusiasm. I didn’t plan anything out. I just wanted to solve a problem that was making my internal gears go nuts. With this advice, I would have saved approximately 6 months. Would’ve saved a ton of whining.
2. The money you have in your pocket doesn’t determine your level of success for your business. I’d give you a medal if you could run a business with minimal investment rather than gather the cash and burn it all.
3. Seriously, you need to have some safety nets. If you don’t have a team, then STOP and make one.
4. If you are crying how you have no time, you are telling me you just don’t know what to do with it. Make sure you are looking at that “Top 3” List throughout the day. Let it create this drive for you to do better than yesterday.
I’d love to hear from you! Tell me 2 things you learned when you first started your business!