Steven's Story: SalutWorld.com

Steven's story comes to us from the point of view of your typical, a-typical teenager. He's definitely not your average small business owner, and what sets him apart is more than just his years. Dabbling in business concepts by age fourteen, and a full-fledged entrepreneur at age eighteen, his unique perspective offers up an outlook on business and life that is beyond his years.

"My business life kicked off properly when I was fourteen. Before that, I would sell CD’s to friends to make some extra cash for the weekends.

But when I was fourteen, I was staying with a friend of mine and had just ordered the new Microsoft ZUNE off eBay, and 100 glow sticks (no idea why). My big plan was that I would re-sell the glow sticks in packs of ten in my own 'eBay store'... good strategy, right? I thought so too, until I realized that I needed to sell something like ten items on eBay before I could open a shop at all (silly rule I think, personally). Anyway I quickly gave up on the eBay shop, however it kick-started my mind into dreaming up business ideas.

The first one that I made into a reality was a online store, selling computer hardware. I set it up one summer and signed up to become resellers with some manufactures. I loved it. It gave me a buzz and I got some customers from it as well. Sadly I had to 'close up shop' due to taking exams at the time, and I couldn’t devote the amount of time it would take to develop the store properly. But from the day I decided to close it, that was the day I think I truly knew what I wanted to do with my life.

I have always done website design as a hobby, but after the online shop closed I decided to take the hobby and turn it into a job. This is when the first of my 'Salut' brands was formed: Salut Designs. It wasn’t long before I got my first customer and I was over the moon! It was a great feeling to be paid for your services, to see the finished product and the customers pleased with the results. Looking at that site now, I can see how much I have moved on, from basic HTML to PHP and CSS. But the design world in general has advanced a lot in a very short time.

So now I was owner of Salut Designs, working my way up in the world one client at a time, and it felt great! I already knew I wanted to expand into hosting as well, it was just a matter of when. The time came late last year (2009) when I started to create my hosting site and all the features. I am happy to say that it is all up and running now.

The main challenge I faced throughout and still do a little today, is my age. I recently turned eighteen and that is a big factor for me in business. It means I am legally an 'adult' and people just seem to treat you more like one in the business world. When I was fifteen, sixteen and seventeen, I would go to meetings worried that the client would look at me and think, 'Wow, he is young'. Now I go to clients thinking 'Yes I am young, but I can do a job just as well - or even better - than anyone else!' You have to think positively in situations like that, or you'll never get anywhere.

Financially I am lucky due to the fact that both the hosting and design side of things have very little start up costs, so my expenses are all easily covered by my income. But I've had to deal with unique issues, in part due to my age; for example, I couldn’t write checks until I turned eighteen - but that didn’t put me off. I just persevered and worked around it. I know a lot of teen entrepreneurs who are much younger, and I am really happy for them. I try to give them advice if they ask it. Honestly I am just a normal teenager trying to make something of his life. I'm just starting now instead of going to university and getting a degree first.

I plan to expand Salut into many different market areas in the next few years, and am hoping to become a success in each and every one of them. As they say, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again!"

Find out more about Steven's company at SalutWorld.com, follow him on Twitter @stevenhaggerty, and get the scoop on latest offers at the Facebook page. He's offering a special deal on hosting to readers of this blog, so make sure to mention Small Biz Stories!