I think, these days, if you aren’t starting YOUR FIRST BUSINESS as an online business then you aren’t serious about making money.
Let’s face it, we’ve all tried lemonade stands, paper rounds, flea markets and even working at McDonalds as ways to make money. But, compared to these, an online business can knock it out of the ballpark.
Let’s take my son as an example:
At age 12 he came to me and said he was starting an eBay business; he asked if he could use my eBay account (I said ‘yes’) and if I would invest $50 in return for 50% of the business so that he could buy stock.
Not long after, he had completed his first transaction and returned my $50 so that he could get my 50% back (I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it doesn’t quite work that way).
Within two years he was negotiating daily with Chinese suppliers, bringing wholesale quantities of stuff to the USA and shipping daily from our house (bless the US postal system … it works!). He also kept a fully-fledged accounting system that he set up himself.
Now, even though he cannot (yet) write code, he has a online web-business (not eBay), carries no stock, spends half an hour a day on his business and earns the equivalent of a good adult full-time salary.
He just turned 17.