How Can Young Texas Entrepreneurs Find Financial Success?

“When I started my business I had five days to make money.”

By Brenda SalinasJuly 6, 2015 9:21 am

A recent survey found that 63 percent of twenty-year-olds want to start their own business. However, as many an entrepreneur will affirm, starting a successful company is much harder than just declaring oneself a businessperson. Allyson Byrd steps into the Texas Standard studio to outline those often tricky steps to success.

On the common mistakes of young entrepreneurs:

“Number one, they don’t think about ‘What is my lifestyle going to be like as an entrepreneur,’ and I think the second breakdown is that they don’t plan for the money. Entrepreneurs often plan to be broke; they think it’s gonna take five years. When I started my business I had five days to make money… I needed a breakthrough and I needed it in my bank account fast. So I think those are the two things I see young people miss out on.”

On how making money as an entrepreneur doesn’t have to be hard:

“It absolutely does not have to be….if you’re an entrepreneur you’re probably really gifted, and broadly gifted. What you have to look at is: what is the thing you do that can be the highest revenue producing activity for you, that can be the best and highest use of your time, and how do you monetize that thing? Even if it’s not the thing you love, that gives you the opportunity to buy into the thing you love. Just because you’re passionate about something doesn’t mean you can be profitable at it.”

On how she got where she is today:

“I grew up in a small part of San Antonio, TX, and we grew up asking each other, borrowing money; robbing Peter to pay Paul. There was one particular time where I didn’t have gas in my car, and my sister didn’t have $5 to give me gas, my mom didn’t have $5, and I thought ‘I’ll never be here again. I will never be here again…it’s taken a lot of time.’”