Nick Rogers is only 21 but already owns a successful business. A college dropout despite being an all A’s student, Rogers had his heart set at building his own brand. Now the CEO of Pvsted, an instagram growth agency, Rogers shares his advice for young entrepreneurs.
- Focus on a single goal
Rogers dropping out of college surprised many people but he didn’t care. He was no longer interested in the bland classroom routine and wanted to focus on building a business.
“Something I’ve learnt is that it’s near impossible to achieve two great things at once. Most people simply do not have the energy to do it,” says Rogers.
“Pick the one most important/exciting project and focus on that only.”
- Bet on yourself, believe in yourself
Rogers filed his first company in 2018 at the age of 19. He was selling cars at the time and not a lot of people believed in him. But importantly for him, he believed in himself. That’s what he tells the aspiring entrepreneurs.
“I want you to start asking yourself ‘why not? Why not me? Why can’t I accomplish anything I set my mind to?’ “, Rogers tells the newcomers. “Bet on yourself, believe in yourself and almost anything is possible.”
- Be Persistent, Don’t Give Up
Nick acknowledges the hardships when starting a new business. However, his advice for the aspiring business owners is to stay patient and keep on trying.
“The problem with those who fail in business, especially my young friends in online business, is that they fail once and give up immediately”.
- Do Your Research
One thing that doesn’t sit well with Rogers is when people make starting an online business sound easy.
As a teenager Rogers was selling cars and spending his nights trying to create a digital footprint. All the money he made from car sales was going into his business. So understandably, he doesn’t like it when people sugarcoat things.
“Most people that talk about business online fail to inform others of the true costs. I see it everyday on every platform, from twitter to instagram and linkedin. They say ‘you can start from nothing but an internet connection’. That’s not true. A lot of time, energy and money is required to establish a business and these facts should be clear.”
He tells aspiring entrepreneurs to take all these costs into account before jumping in. Because only then can they come up with the most effective strategies.
- Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things
In the early days, Rogers experimented a lot. He dabbled into many things to see what sticks.
In late 2018 ,he transitioned from building ecommerce websites to building Instagram pages. That’s when things finally started to take off. He then tried different niches and found the Business and Entrepreneurship niche suitable for his skills. So he created a page “Business Driven Dream”, that amassed over 100K followers in the first four months.
Today Rogers is reaping benefits of taking risks with Pvsted. One of his first clients Richard Garcia has raised over $10 million just from Instagram selling infoproducts.
- Think Long-term
Rogers stresses the importance of thinking Long-term. It’s something he has applied effectively on his business model and tells the newbies to do the same.
“Build something sustainable, not something based on showing off your latest Gucci bag or rented sports car.”
Rogers still invests most of his incomes into his branding agency and is taking things one at a time to achieve a more sustainable growth with Pvsted.
- Never compromise on quality
What is the best tactic to grow my Instagram/social media following?
“There are no tricks” Nick says. “There are no tactics. You simply must create high quality content and distribute that content if you want to build a presence on any social media.”
It’s something he implements with Pvsted and this commitment to quality has served him well.
“Our strategy is centered around helping our clients be genuine people on social media. Avoiding giveaways, fake followers and bots and opting for slow, controlled growth of a real audience that loves them.”
