Young Online Entrepreneur's Secrets Uploaded

Last night was the NSW DSRD Young Online Entrepreneurs Event - ONLINE EDGE in Sydney.

It was a fabulous event with over 60 people in attendance. NSW DSRD in partnership with The Frank Team organised this event and Jessica Kiely was the MC for the event.

The panel of successful Young Online Entrepreneurs was made up of:

FRED SCHEBESTA – Founder online marketing agency FreestyleMedia; 2006 ADMA Young Direct Marketer of the Year.

GEOFF MCQUEEN – Founder of software and interactive development company Internetrix and winner of numerous business and web awards.

ZAC ZAVOS – Man behind sports and pop culture websites ‘The Roar’ which recently signed partnership agreement with MySpace to power their sports content and “Lost at E Minor” site.

NICKY ADAMO – CEO of lingerie and sleepwear label Julianne, exporting to UK, US, Hong Kong and Indonesia.

Here are some the "secrets to success" they revealed last night:

1. You must have a BIG passion for what you do and really enjoy that thing that you "do" with your business. Whether that is building websites, getting advertisers, making lingerie etc, you really must have a passion for it.
2. Be prepared for long hours as it takes a lot of blood, sweat and hours to build a successful online empire.
3. Be persistent. Never give up. This is what will set you apart from others.
4. Do your research as much as possible. This research is not just about market and customers, but also largely about competitors and how to really "do" business well.
5. "Leaders are Readers" (quote from Fred Schebesta) and so read voraciously about everything to do with your business and how to "do" business well.
6. Contacts and networking are essential as this is where new business and new contacts will come from. And USE those contacts.
7. Ask for help when you need it or when you have questions. Use your friends, contacts and government services to answer your questions.
8. Contracts are important to put in place not just with clients but also with suppliers. This ensures you set expectations before you begin, and you cover yourself. With contracts you often don't need big and expensive lawyers you can usually decipher it yourself, it just takes time to do. So only spend the $$ on lawyers when you need to clarify the few bits of the contract that confuse you. Or have someone on your team with some law background.
9. Business with family & friends can work when managed well as there is a large amount of trust there.
10. You need to really understand the core desires, needs and motivators of your customers and communicate how you satisfy those needs cleverly and clearly and consistently. This means you really need to know your customers REALLY well, so make sure you go and hang out with them as much as possible.
11. The growth areas online:
- Rich content and providing that rich content eg: videos
- User generated content that is very specific and niche
- Maturing of the ecommerce use in the Australian market
- More niching

Some really awesome and practical tips there. Thanks to Fred, Zac, Geoff and Nicky.

If you want to start planning your business then sign up now for the ACTIVATE workshop running on the 7th may in sydney by The Frank Team.

If you attended the workshop then email or post your comments and other "Secrets" you picked up from attending.

Can't wait for the next one. Stay tuned.