Daymond John on Engaging Young Entrepreneurs and Building a Better Business The 'Shark Tank' investor shares his thoughts on youth and entrepreneurship, as well as business trends and using social media.
By Shira Lazar
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Daymond John, the president and CEO of the apparel company FUBU and an investor on ABC's Shark Tank, is committed to energizing youth about entrepreneurship.
He's joining other business leaders like Sean "Diddy" Combs and Steve Case in the Dare to Dream auction benefiting the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), a non-profit dedicated to youth from low-income communities. The highest bidders will get a power meeting with their leader of choice.
"In today's economic climate, our country needs more entrepreneurs to create more jobs," he says.
Related: Live Chat with Shark Tank's Daymond John
John recently offered advice for young people and startups and shared his thoughts on business trends and social media:
How can we encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in America right now? Fortunately, right now "entrepreneurship" is one of the business world's biggest buzz words and so many young people in our country are looking up to this new generation of CEO's as their modern day rock stars. Whenever you have that effect, it makes the job of promoting entrepreneurship much easier. But the best way is to encourage young people and students that creating your own business is an option. You don't have to work for a big corporation if you don't want to. You can see it now with all these great entrepreneur programs popping up across high school and college campuses.
What advice can you give to startups or youth who have an idea and don't know where to go to begin and build? My advice would be to learn as much as you can about your industry immediately. Become an expert in that industry. Obviously, there are plenty of resources out there between your library and the Internet, but also try to find a mentor who directly answers your questions. Any information is always good information.
Related: Mentors: A Young Entrepreneur's Secret Weapon
What trends in business are working right now and which aren't? When looking at trends I always ask myself basic and timeless questions about business, and the one I seem to always come back to is, "How is this different than anything else in the marketplace?" In my mind, there are too many copycat web products out there that are doing the same thing.
How do you think social media fits into building valuable properties? Any strategic social media tips? Social media is incredibly crucial. Entrepreneur needs to monitor their social media constantly to see how they are growing their online following and to identify ways to market and create revenue from that following.
Do you have questions for John? Bid for a meeting with him and other rockstars in business by Wednesday, April 25.
