How to leave the workforce and become an entrepreneur before the age of 30 ?
- Yacine Bachiri
- Nov 18, 2024
- 5 min read
Are you frustrated by your current job and dreaming of freedom? Are you looking to turn your skills into a successful business? Find out how I left the salaried workforce, after some prestigious experiences in the luxury goods industry, to become an entrepreneur and found my own communications agency at just 21 years of age: I'll tell you all about my career path, my concrete advice and the steps I've taken to help you make the leap.
Step 1 : Become an expert in a field you're passionate about.
To succeed in a project and make a living from it, no matter what your age, you absolutely have to master your subject perfectly!
For me, it all started with a passion for travel: at just 16, I had the opportunity to discover the hotel sector thanks to an internship with Accor, an industry giant. This experience enabled me to learn in an international world, but above all to discover an environment in which I feel comfortable and enjoy working.
I then decided to pursue this passion by joining the Vatel school after my baccalaureate, specializing in luxury tourism management. For several years, I learned key skills such as finance, marketing, human resources and law in the luxury hotel industry.
But really, what the school taught me most was discipline. The hotel business is an almost military environment, and even if I hated it before, today I thank my teachers because I learned to work under pressure and manage my stress in projects with high stakes in terms of image for my customers.
So, to sum up: First, choose an environment in which you enjoy working and learn to master your craft.
Step 2 : Learn how to seize opportunities to showcase your skills and build a solid network.
No matter how many people tell me that you need a long education to succeed...I'm living proof that this isn't true. I don't spit on studies, but I think time has proven that our success doesn't depend solely on education.
As far as I'm concerned, after several enriching experiences at Accor, my career took a decisive turn when I joined the Marriott International group.
In 2021, during my second year of study, I was due to do another internship and had already found something at Accor during the summer, but on September 17, 2021, an unexpected call changed my life: the Sales & Marketing Director of a Marriott hotel answered one of my old applications and offered me an internship in their marketing and communications department. So I picked up the phone and cancelled my Accor internship for Marriott.
Most of the people around me had told me not to do it, as it might be frowned upon, but if I hadn't called Marriott back, you wouldn't be reading this right now. This internship taught me everything about marketing and was a real springboard for my career. Thanks to my hard work during my internship, I was contacted again by the group's regional management for a permanent position. At just 20, I left school and was promoted to Marketing Manager for the group's largest luxury hotel in Paris. In this position, I managed strategic projects, a marketing budget of several hundred thousand euros and some incredible events.
But despite these successes, I came to the conclusion that working as a salaried employee didn't allow me to fully express my vision of marketing.
So, like many others, I decided to quit my job and set up on my own, but what made it so easy for me to do so was that the risks I took and the opportunities I was able to seize enabled me to move up to a position of responsibility at a very young age and to build up a very wide network in the marketing world, a big plus when it came to launching my agency.
So to sum up : Secondly, learn to seize opportunities to grow and build a solid network.
Step 3 : Use your network to launch your project.
Your network must be a way for you to access new opportunities that you might not otherwise have access to.
Thanks to my solid network, I was able to create partnerships with former customers and acquaintances to offer my services and be recommended for my work.
As a result, I signed my first client contracts in my agency before I even left my permanent job.
But beware: for your network to recommend you, you need to have nurtured it. Your relationships must be based on sincere and genuine exchanges. If you give the impression of wanting to use others for your own ends, it will show quite quickly. So create sincere relationships by learning to take an interest in people, which will one day make it easier for you to get started.
So to sum up : Thirdly, use your contacts and network to propose projects and get recommended.
Step 4 : Have a powerful marketing strategy.
If your project doesn't give more meaning to the world and doesn't meet a real need, then it's not worth much.
For my agency, I discovered that there was no agency of reference, on a human scale, that could help entrepreneurs become aware of the importance of having a real brand. Most agencies want to show that they have many clients, so...I played the exclusivity card!
My product ? That was me ! I sold my experience, my projects within the large multinationals I had worked for, to make entrepreneurs understand that they had to tell a story to attract customers, and not sell a product in an overly commercial way.
My promise is therefore to enable brands to give more meaning to the world by sharing values, rather than simply selling a product.
The first step in building your strategy is to have a vision of your project :
Study your competitors
Study your target
Study your story
If you don't know who your competitors are, who your future customers are, and what story you want to tell, how can you launch a coherent project?
The second key to a successful strategy is to have a unique concept :
If you don't have a message for your target, why should they buy your product or service?
And finally, build a brand experience :
What universe do you want to create around your message?
Of course, a marketing strategy is not enough. You need to plan your strategy with a 1-year action plan, and make sure that your project matches your financial and operational capacity.
So to sum up : Fourthly, have a marketing strategy that will enable you to create a real brand that will inspire your target with a unique concept that's different from your competitors, while ensuring that your project meets your financial capacity.
Conclusion: It's time to write your story before you turn 30 and tell it after you turn 30.
My journey shows that by following these key steps, anything is possible: mastering your field, seizing opportunities, building a sincere network and developing a unique strategy to get started.
From my passion for travel to the creation of my agency, each step has brought me closer to my dreams. With a clear vision and determination, you too can turn your ambitions into reality.
So take control of your destiny and go for it. Your story deserves to be written.
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