I grew up in a family of four kids, which was already an expensive endeavor by my parents. We also had family abroad, and most extra money was spent on travel there. The mantra was always: you want money to spend, you need to earn it yourself. I was 14 and needed to make some money.
The idea
I had already manifested from an early age that I wasn’t going to work for anyone. So the only option was to do something I was good at and sell it.
I was always pretty decent at design and knew my way around computers. There was also something my friends’ parents (who knew I was a PC nerd) kept asking me: can you help me create a website for x and y? The answer was I kinda could. PMF was there; I just had to get going.
The setup
This was before WIX or any easy-to-use no-code website builders, so most people had no clue how websites were built. However, if you knew the basics, it was crazy easy to build static websites.
My business plan was simple:
- Find people who needed web pages.
- Offer pages made in less than a week for $500 (far below any competitors’ prices).
- Find free website templates online.
- Create a logo and put in relevant text.
- Buy the domain and host the website for them.
Tada! $500 made for about a day worth of work.
Execution
Number 1. was definitely the most challenging part. How would I get customers? I would hustle for weeks on end, searching for all kinds of businesses until I finally cracked it: contractors listed on craigslist-esque pages. They usually didn’t have a website, and it would clearly be a step up for them to get one.
There was still one problem, being 14 years old, my voice did not sound very grown-up. I tried everything, even looking at voice-altering software. Ultimately, the best way was just to lower my voice a bit and sound as serious as possible. I started calling 100’s of contractors, and to my surprise, I got a 1:20 success rate. This worked!
My other problem was I somehow needed to bill these companies, which was only possible with a company of my own. Luckily, as soon as I turned 15, I could, with parental consent and an interview at the municipality, register a sole proprietorship. I remember feeling very cool since the municipality had no clue how to do it, as I was the first one applying for it. It worked out, and I got my business registered: Dine Nettsider Luis Wenus (“Your Websites Luis Wenus”).
Result
Ultimately, my bet of $500 per ~8h worked out. I made more than 20 websites for different local businesses around Norway, many of them topping google search for a long time. This gave me enough income to do whatever I wanted during my youth.