Young Entrepreneurs - Case Study Example

YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS More and more young people have this dream that they should succeed in life with less work and more luck from out there. Anyhow the dreams of such persons end up in ruin as nobody comes and hands them a bar of gold wishing them good-luck in life. Another type of youngsters is the one that thinks that life is too hard to make it on their own and refuse to give a chance to their own ideas and dreams. Moreover they are discouraged by the adults that tell them that their age is definitively the greatest obstacle in their business life and no one would take into account the dreams of a 16 year old. And of course there are the “children” that refuse to be seen as incapable members of the society and by chance or knowledge they make it work in the very competitive business market, hit the screen and make a fortune even from their adolescence. This is the case of two young entrepreneurs that share their secret and how they cracked the market. The first case is the one of Dominic McVey. He started his business around the age of 13, when boys have dreams of driving anything that moves. He is now 19 and his business still goes one and flourishes. There could be said that his story is one of sheer luck, but the fact is that he took advantage of a simple fact that happened in his life. By mistake, when he was looking for a Visa credit card, he introduced the word “Viza”, which is a brand of scooters. As a young boy he wanted one for himself, but knew that neither he, nor his parents had the money to buy one. He dared to write them an e-mail through which he requested a free one, with the promise that he could sell much more in his town. The answer from the company was that if he bought five, he would get one for free. McVey was not a complete stranger in the field of business and he started gathering the money from different sources, like organizing parties and selling various things on the internet. When he finally got the six scooters, a new business opportunity opened for him. He sold the five scooters to friends and family and within a week he sold other ten ones. From there the sky was the limit. Some people said that Dominic’s business was sheer luck, but when we hear the version of his promotion there are some clear strategies that he followed in order to be successful on a large scale. One of the strong points of Dominic was his great persuasive manner of presenting the product. He admits that “I was very, very competitive. I guess I was very mouthy about other products out there, but all the others out there were crap and expensive.” He proved to have a good knowledge of the product and at first he had a great direct marketing strategy, which involved a personal touch and contact with the customers. This touch brought him in the center of attention both for the press and the people in general. The fact that he was liked by the press proved to be essential in his business, as he got the kind of promotion and advertising he never thought to achieve before. Even if as a child he got bored of his scooter, he did not stop selling them. He thought of a way of promoting his product through flyers and was not discouraged when he was chased around by security or the traffic safety people started to be unhappy with so many scooters. His customers had different backgrounds, from the businessmen that bought them as toys, to the persons that used them to commute to their work place. One of the problems that Dominic faced was obviously his age. He managed to overcome this by working mostly on the internet and on the phone. He had good presentations made by his friends and practically this was all he needed. The big companies tended to see him as the little brother and found it a pleasure to share information with his. Anyhow the great advantage of the business was that all the money was his and the only things that were needed to be paid were the phone and internet bills. For Dominic technology filled the gap. The internet marketing strategy worked out. Anyhow, McVey is for now not taking into consideration attending a university as he finds that gaining better skills in entrepreneurship is far more important. He believe that the government does not support the young and female entrepreneurs as they should do, and these categories find it very difficult to succeed in a society that gives less and less support. Dominic is an example of direct marketing and good selling skills. His strong points were a good knowledge of internet and direct selling, good advertising both through the internet and real life and a huge attention from the press. His age was one of his weak point, but on the other hand an opportunity to learn from the bigger entrepreneurs. Also he complained about the massive red tape involved in the process and the fact that the government offers little support to business startups. The second case is an impressive one that involves home-made abilities with selling skills. Fraser Doherty’s business did not fall from the blue, but it was a good strategic start of doing what you know best and selling it to the world. It all started when Fraser went into a supermarket and bought some fruit and sugar in order to transform them in delicious jams. The recipe was from his grandmother and the production was small at first. He started selling the product to neighbors and family. Later on he included the farmers and local delicatessens. By the time he got to this stage, he was well known in the press. Anyhow, Fraser believes that publicity was not the reason why his product had such a great success. His key term for business was for sure quality. He started the retail sale helped by his parents that drove him to fairs and markets. His production grew rapidly and he felt that it was too much to spend the entire day cooking over one thousand jars of jam. That is why he wanted to reach the next business level. For this upgrade, Doherty used a strategic change of products. From his normal jams, he invented the super jams. These products were natural and the need for natural and healthy products was fully exploited. Waitrose stores got interested in the young entrepreneur and advised him to design his jars. Probably what boosted his sales and brought him fame was that the whole process was taped and broadcasted by Channel 4. Fraser worked hard in his gap year and found a factory that would work according to his needs and even a free design for his jars and labels. Even if Fraser believes that quality attracted people, the massive publicity brought by Channel 4 played a great part in selling the product in stores and supermarkets. For the moment, Doherty attends a university where he talks to others about entrepreneurship and tries to promote this side of business. For his future plans he states: “Once my time gets ‘jam-packed’ I’d probably end up making a bad job of uni and the business if I tried to do them both.” The fact that he will have to chose between his education and business can be one of his major decision, even if he is majoring in accountancy and business. Fraser’s major strong points in promoting his business were his skills in producing a quality product, the publicity gained through the television and press, the marketing he has done for the new healthy product idea, the brand new image of the products and nevertheless the capacity to work hard and continuously. These two entrepreneurs applied similar strategies. They both started selling their products to family and friends, training themselves for the big picture. Their strategy was to exploit a segment of the market that was poor covered. Sometimes the idea came from a need of their own, but in other cases from something they could master, like jam production. Even if they started on a small scale the success was to take it to the next level. The scooter business remained in the hands of the owner. He had a strong marketing and publicity network done from the basic flyer to TV promotion. On the other hand the jam production extended to a factory and received a brand new look in order to hit the big stores. Fraser neglected somehow publicity, but it was in fact the documentary about his product that boosted the sales. These types of businesses may have been done at first in a childish manner, but as the entrepreneurs gained experience, things started to change. Even if they did not realize, they were using strategies in order to promote their products and get money to start the business. Now as the age is no longer an issue for the owners, they are proud to have achieved something that little dream of. Probably the success does not stay in the knowledge gained in a university, but in the skills either natural-born, or gained in the process of business. What it is important is that the rudimentary business strategies can develop in a great and long-term success. Resources: 1. Dominic McVey, Startups Online Magazine 2. Fraser Doherty, Startups Online Magazine Read More