What I learned from starting a company at 18
By: Emoijah Bridges
Tags: Business Owner, Freelancing, Young Entrepreneur, Freelance Writing, Entrepreneurship

Failure.

I learned failure and, consequently, progression.

Any entrepreneur, from Bill Gates to your local business owner, will share how he or she underwent bumps and bruises throughout the journey. I believe entrepreneurship is the scariest position one can pursue.

I am just a few hours from my 19th birthday as I sit here and reflect upon my fascinating and frightening entrepreneurial path. Recently, I launched my own digital marketing company, called Writer in Revolt.

I took a huge step by combining my leadership and management skills with independent working. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and my final exams, I unnaturally sowed the seeds of a startup.

Researchers claim the best ideas come when you’re not looking; you can be subconsciously performing critical thinking in the shower or dreaming big on a walk. I can attest to that; I started my company in the middle of a hectic academic schedule.

My Absolute and Total Dread

Photo by Daniel McCullough on Unsplash

I remember cracking my knuckles, my nervous tic, in an unhealthy repetitive manner, as I started interviewing people for my digital marketing company. Who I am to be interviewing people, probably twice my age?

“You’re in college?” one of my interviewees asked. “How do you find all these jobs?”

I felt my stomach churning as I went through another episode of apprehension. I realized my interviewee, a recent college graduate, looked at my Linkedin profile and virtually examined me.

“Um.,” I said nervously. “Well, my parents are business owners so I get a lot of referrals and advantages. I also find jobs on sites like Linkedin and Indeed.”

That above statement was only partly true. For some reason, I wanted to downplay my entrepreneurial success, because I felt nervous about taking charge of people much older than me. Yes, my parents are self-employed; my dad performs music and my mom owns cinematography business. No, they did not have to do with my success. Although they were a factor in encouragement and advice, I did not rely on my parents for jobs or clients.

The real truth? I accomplished so much at 18 because I refused to be ordinary. I found ways to develop and enhance my creativity and leadership skills by applying them to entrepreneurship. I started by selling myself cheap on sites like Upwork or Freelancer, before moving to launch a company and gaining jobs on Linkedin, Simply Hired, Indeed, and more.

The candidate who checked out my Linkedin Profile and commented on the incredulity of my success at a young age scared me.

Actually let me rephrase that; he didn’t scare me — this whole interviewing process did. He wanted to speak with me over the phone, but as soon as I started answering all his questions, I felt utterly claustrophobic.

“How many jobs can I expect to receive on a weekly basis?” I froze. I never thought about this.

My first conversation with this candidate allowed me to re-examine my expectations. As I started responding to more candidates and doing additional phone calls, I gained confidence. You’re a boss, I told myself. Actually, you’re THE boss. Show them that. In the first phone call, it felt like the freelancer was interviewing me, but now I was finally asking all the questions.

How I failed

Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash

I recognize that I was moving too fast in the beginning stages of developing my company. By the time I finished interviewing people, I had over a dozen freelancers I was considering.

I finally realized how it felt to be the employer; I had to pick through several candidates who were all equally qualified.

At 2 a.m., I racked my brain trying to decide between Candidate A or B, who I both wanted on my team but couldn’t afford. By the time I finished interviewing and choosing from final candidates, I wrote down multiple names for social media marketers, web developers and designers, copywriters, and bloggers.

Just a few months ago, I was a student taking a break from freelancing. Now, I, traveling at 100 miles per hour, launched a company with several people relying on me for work.

During my study sessions for my final exams of the Spring Semester, I received text messages and emails from team members asking for potential work. My heart sank as I realized the enormous pressures and responsibility I placed on myself.

“Why are you setting up a team without having jobs, yet?” my mom reasonably asked.

I wanted to establish my company as a team and not a solo brand. I already set up portfolio sections on my website featuring my team members’ work. Just as I was creating links to Team Member A’s work, A was texting me and asking for work. I felt hypocritical at best. “The work..it’s coming” I assured my freelancer despite the level of uncertainty pressured by the pandemic.

The scary thing about money…

To me, it was never truthfully about the money. When I started freelancing, I created content for absurd prices like $5 per article. Now, of course, I charge more reasonable prices, since I understand the essence of time is money as well as quality content deserving good pay. Since launching my own company, I had to do more financial research and management, because I was not only responsible for myself as an independent contractor but for others as well.

I now had to pay team members, even when I wasn’t making money myself.

This was scary. While I paid my social media marketer $25 an hour to get my company name out there, I earned less per hour during the beginning stages of my business ownership. However, I knew it would be worth it. While I paid social media marketers to help me with the company branding, bloggers to contribute to the website, and copywriters to help me with clients, I understood the great rewards that would come with such risky and expensive investment.

I realized great entrepreneurs don’t wait for the part where they have enough money. If we all had enough money, we wouldn’t be working, would we?

So, I threw my money into marketing and writing so I could set up my business for success.

I realized age is, and never was a factor

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

If there is anything I learned from freelancing or managing my company, I realized my age is truly not a factor. Although my age contributes to the originality I bring to the table, no one has ever doubted or questioned my content even at 15 when I started writing. Many people, who are interviewing independent contractors online, don’t ask for your age anyways.

Although age is not vital for employers in the industry I’m in, I prove I am an innovative and independent thinker to those who know my age.

I have a gift for writing; I won numerous awards in high school. I am also a published writer, now. With that being said, I have achieved extraordinary feats and contributed content at the same level of expertise, if not better, of older individuals, including college graduates, in my industry.

I am truly grateful for the lessons learned throughout this risky, difficult journey of business ownership. Since I started freelancing, I already acknowledged the complex nature of remote working and entrepreneurship in general. Let me also acknowledge the countless other young entrepreneurs out there, even younger than myself, who are hustling as either freelancers or business owners. In fact, one of my team members is a high schooler who charges more than many experienced writers in her industry. Why? Like I said, age isn’t a factor; the quality of a writer is. I support and connect with other great freelancers who recognize their work. I can’t wait to see where my journey of entrepreneurship will take me as I turn 19 tomorrow.