Most 15 year olds are sleeping in until 2pm on the weekends, going to parties on the weekends, and just being a normal teenager. This wasn’t exactly the case with visionary Belgian entrepreneurs Liam Seys and Maxime Hinnekens.
Seys was busy spending time watching and figuring out YouTube. Which then led him to start getting interest from businesses, ultimately leading to the formation of his first business.
In the early days of YouTube, Seys uncovered how Multi-Channel Networks (MCN’s) played an important role if you wanted to make money on YouTube. So what he did was find an MCN that had a subnetwork program that he could make money off of.
Basically how it worked was that his business would receive a percentage of the revenue that all the channels he brought in would make. This was a pretty comfortable way of living for a 15-year old still at home with his parents attending high school.
This path to entrepreneurship was very unconventional for Seys but also very motivational. It shows that anyone can take a big platform of today like TikTok or Snapchat and just become a master at it.
Figure out how it works, and then find a way to create a revenue stream for yourself from it. Before you know it, you have a business. You don’t have to create the next biggest app to build a successful business today.
Meanwhile with Hinnekens, his path to entrepreneurship was a bit different. He bought his first bitcoin at 15 and started to develop a passion for finance and the role that technology would play in it. Later that led him to develop a skillset for trading that later helped him land on a few cryptocurrency projects.
Hinnekens now is partners with Seys in an E-commerce business called Mr Package (launching in 2022) and a talent management company called Adframe.
Since we had the pleasure of sitting down with Seys and Hinnekens we wanted to get some insights that they would like to share for young aspiring entrepreneurs looking to build a business today and here’s what they had to say.
3 Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
1. Don’t be afraid to take risks to grow your business
No person that is successful has decided to stay in their comfort zone. The common trait between successful people is their appetite for risk. Their appetite to fail, and do something that others think is crazy. Taking calculated risks is stepping out of your comfort zone and choosing to go for it when most people would either not pursue it or instead give up.
You need to be willing to invest in your business, to take that business trip, or to come out with that revolutionary new feature for your business. Or in simpler terms, just start that business that is sitting in your head.
2. Connect with like-minded entrepreneurs to grow your network
The business and entrepreneurial world is very small. In order to get your business or idea off the ground, you need to get out there and network. This is how Seys and Hinnekens have been able to create multiple successful businesses and meet amazing people during the process.
You need to not be afraid to ask questions and be curious. Know when to ask questions, but also know when to just sit back and listen. Most people that are more successful than you want to help you succeed.
1. Find yourself a co-founder who has other skills than yourself.
This is one of the most crucial aspects to growing a business successfully; surrounding yourself with others that bring a different skillset to the table than you. You can’t have 3 salespeople as co-founders of a business if you are building something highly technical. Find someone that we like to call the “tech brain”, a “sales brain”, and a “product/distribution brain”.
Doing this allows your idea or business to have a higher degree of success because great things happen when people with different skillsets put their heads together.
It’s time to stop making excuses and start that business of yours. Find someone you can partner or collaborate with that brings a different skillset and perspective than yourself, and just start. Theres no better time to start a business than today.
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