Top 5 Tips for Young Entrepreneurs (Stomfort)

1. Start Small - You should always start small when first beginning a business. Try to find one solid idea and only add bigger and bolder ideas once the business is bigger. Too many ideas at once can be very overwhelming and lead to not getting much done.

2. Research Everything - This is key. A rising entrepreneur should know about the competing goods or services in the market, the input costs of manufacturing, and the needs of the target market.

3. Set Regular Objectives- You need to set objectives in order to keep on track. This will establish a momentum for your business to continually grow and never become stagnant.

4. Choose An Idea That You Are Passionate About - Why would you want to create a good or service that you are interested in? If a person opened a Laundromat when they are more interested in baking cakes, they will not be as successful because they are just not as invested in what they are doing. You need to love what you’re doing, because if you don’t love your good, chances are that no one else really will.

5.) Never Give Up - There are going to be bumps along the way. What if your manufacturer charges more than you can afford in order to make your product? What if you have to slap a patent on your good to prevent others from stealing your idea? You have to believe that it will all be worth it in the end and just keep pushing forward.

N O V A

The past two weeks for us have been very exciting ones. We have officially launched our clothing line, the NOVA Clothing Company. Our first item that we have been selling are our DMV t-shirts, which incorporate the American, Maryland, and Virginia flags representing the DMV letters, and it looks great on the shirts. For our first shipment, we ordered about 18 shirts, and I believe we only have 1 left for sale. Since it is exam week, we have not been focused much on our company, but as soon as exams are over we will get right back to it. There is still a whole lot that Peter and I need to figure out if we are going to continue our business, like what other products we can sell right now, how and if we should copyright our designs, and whether or not we should continue our business outside of the class considering all of the things we would have to do to make it an official business outside of Flint Hill. Nonetheless, I am very proud that we have even been able to make it this far, considering that only a couple weeks ago we had absolutely no idea what to do, and now we have the potential to create something big. For us it has been a huge success, and I am glad it has turned out the way it has so far. I want to try to get at least one more order in before the end of the semester, and to do that we have to promote ourselves even farther so that people might become more interested. If anyone is interested in buying or even giving us a look, visit www.novaclothingcompany.com

-Duncan and Peter