HOW TO START A BUSINESS ONLINE: ADVICE FOR YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

During the lockdown everyone was "locked" at home so they had plenty of time to think ... about themselves, about their future, about their jobs. JOBS! Where are the jobs? Once upon a time it was easy to find a job, if you didn't like it you left and quickly found another one. Nobody worried about getting a job. I remember that while I was in high school in New York,  I got a job at a language school in New York. I lived in the Bronx and the office was in Manhattan so everyday after school I would take the Third Avenue subway to Grand Central station, then walk to the All-Languages Translation office. We did translations, interpretations, language lessons. Once the English teacher didn't come so the boss asked me to replace him. I was only 17, and a student myself, imagine my nervousness when I found out I had to teach 20 Greek immigrants. It went very well though. When they found out I was from Sicily they loved me. After all Sicily and Greece are almost twin islands.

Anyway, I got tired of this job and quickly got another one as an accountant. I was a flop with numbers but the office owner was very patient and he taught me the tricks of accounting.

After this stunt, I got a job as a babysitter for two adorable kids in the Bronx. I would take them to my house and my mother would spoil them by making spaghetti for them. I got paid and my mother did the work.

Then, when I finished university, I got myself a DOWNTOWN job, what every girl at the time was dreaming of.  Yes, I  landed a job as Personal Assistant to the Technical Manager of ....guess what?  PIRELLI TIRE CORPORATION. The most popular tire company in Italy at the time. 

I worked there for two years, then we moved back to Italy and in Rome at first I got a job with a Travel agency on Via Nazionale. I hated it, and the boss was very nasty, so I left after a few months. I applied to FAO (Food and Agriculture 
Organization of the United Nations), and after a month they called me for the interview and language test.I passed the English test with flying colors obviously, as well as the French language test. Needless to say I got hired immediately.  I worked there for  10 years. 

By telling you all this I want to show you how easy it was in the 70s and 80s to find a job. Now you don't find a job if you PAY FOR IT!   Instead of finding jobs, more and more people are getting laid off. It is impossible to find one, especially here in Sicily.

However, many young people are rolling up their sleeves and create their own jobs. It's not easy, because everything has practically been done ... and written as the saying goes. 

Anyway, for those of you starting your own business, here is a bit of advice on how to do it online. Nowadays you don't need to have a physical shop and pay rent, you just do everything online. It's not easy though, you need to work at it.

First of all you need to be on ALL the Social Networks ....Linkedin, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Fiverr, Tumblr, and so on and so forth.

But don't just BE there. You have to WORK AT IT! Keep your audience informed and active. POST REGULARLY! More specifically, you must tell your followers what you OFFER them. YOU HAVE TO GIVE BEFORE YOU RECEIVE! 

I get many requests from people to like their page but I don't even know who they are! They never put a like on mine, they never write a comment, they never reciprocate so why should I go and like their page?  This is very bad networking. In networking you first must do something for others before you ask for something.

Going back to my advice to young people, before  you get on all the social networks,  you must have a website, or a blog. You will not get followers unless you explain what you do, what is your reason for doing it, what are your prices etc.

I suggest a blog is better than a website, If you use BLOGGER it's free, you don't need to pay anything. Personally I prefer Blogger to Wordpress, it's easier to use.

A  company page on Facebook is also useful as long as you manage to get "outsiders" to your page, and not only your friends, who, honestly speaking, will not be interested in your services. You need to find people who will be NEEDING  your business. It's no secret that nowadays a bit of "advertising" on FB helps, but it's not that expensive. When you see people with tens or  hundreds of thousands of followers on Facebook and Instagram, you can be sure they have used paid advertising. I don't believe in "viral" videos. There  is always money behind them, no matter how they try to make us believe they've "GONE VIRAL".  

Another piece of advice, DON'T spend money on social media marketing and other such courses. You can find plenty of free courses on Youtube, and there are many blogs where social media managers (like me)  give advice for free. You can also get cheap books online.