Free Stuff: Nice Backlink and $10!

We're getting ready to record the next podcast but didn't want to wait to tell you about a couple bits of juicy info:

First, we have officially started the TeenBiz Student Entrepreneurs group on Facebook. Plus, get a link to your site (no affiliate links please) placed in the right column of the TeenBiz Podcast site when you:

1) Join the TeenBiz Student Entrepreneurs group on Facebook
2) Are one of the first 10 people to post your link on the group page

Facebook is great for networking, you can start discussions, post links and news, and meet like-minded entrepreneurs to work on ideas with. I am planning on using the TeenBiz Group to meet the graphic designer for my next project!


Second tidbit. Right now if you go to BUY.COM and use Google Checkout to pay for your swag, they will take $10 off your order. I believe it has to be the first time you use Google Checkout with BUY.com to apply. Trey Morris let us know about this one, so props to Trey. He used it to buy "The E-Myth", a book we have recommended many times for student entrepreneurs. Heres the steps:

1) Go to BUY.com
2) Look for and add The E-myth to your cart.
3) Proceed to checkout.
4) Rather than checking out with BUY.com click on Google Checkout.
5) Fill in all of your information and go through with the order.

Thats all for now, the new podcast will be coming out very soon. If you haven't done it yet, please use the poll in the right column to tell us what you want to learn about most on TeenBiz in the upcoming months!

Don't Settle! You CAN Do It!

I received an email this week from an enthusiastic 15 year old TeenBiz listener who wanted to know how feasible it was for him to consider starting a web design business. At the end of his email he said, partly as a joke, "Who knows, maybe I'll just end up flipping burgers in college to make some extra money instead."

Going off of the last podcast, this is one of the things we will face over and over again...settling for the "norm". All your friends work normal jobs, all your friends make $8 an hour, and starting your own business is hard and will take a lot of work. So why try? Because you are different, you can do it, and its worth it. Because this 15 year old is trying and already thinking about his future tells me he has a bright one.

I recently found a video of Steve Jobs' (the guy that helped start Apple and Pixar) giving a commencement address at Stanford University. Towards the middle of his address his said this:

(to watch the video of his entire address click here, to read the transcript click here)

Take the last two words of that quote and carve them into a big slab of rock and mount it by your bed so you see it every night. Don't settle for something you are better than. Simply by the fact you are reading this blog and listen to TeenBiz podcasts shows that you are different, you have a desire to try, and you are way ahead of your peers.

Let me say it again...DON'T SETTLE!

Now is the perfect time to start a business, you have little to lose and everything to gain. Get out there and get started on your business right now. As Warren Miller says, "If you don't do it this year, you'll be one year older when you do."

TeenBiz - 1/4/08

Four Things That Will KILL Your Business in 2008

(or right click here and select "save target as..." to download)

#1) Fear - Everyone feels it, what you should do about it.
#2) Doubt - The universal entrepreneurial enemy, how to overcome it.
#3) Trying to Do It All - What parts of your business you shouldn't be working on.
#4) Time Killers - Video games, movies, sleep...only in small amounts.