Entrepreneurial

-- Lisa Nicole Bell is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of lifestyle consultancy firm Inspired Life Media Group. This article originally appeared on Under30CEO. The views expressed are her own. –

Every entrepreneur knows that the key to a thriving business is sales. Without it, cash flow dries up, checks turn to rubber, and heads roll. With it, few things are impossible. The challenge for most entrepreneurs is understanding how to sell what they offer.

Throughout the years, the sales gurus of our parents’ generation have offered their conventional wisdom about “building rapport” and “explaining the features”. In the new economy, this advice just doesn’t cut it anymore.

The new wave of Generation X and Y buyers wants more. As far as we’re concerned, the earth revolves around us – we want everything in our own size, color, design, and layout complete with our photos, our favorite team, and our iPod picks playing in the background. With this “first me, then me” mentality, the science of selling has changed.

Check out these 3 simple rules for selling in the new economy:

Rule #1: It’s not about you – it’s always about them.

How narcissistic we Gen Y entrepreneurs can be at times! We get our degrees and have the epiphany that we’re more focused and awesome than most other 20-somethings. We start our businesses and offer our glorious services, but when sales lag, we’re confused. How could anyone not want what we have? It’s not about you. It’s all about your clients. Your average prospect sees 3,000 advertisements and sales messages each day – that’s more than 20,000 a week! If you’re not focused on your client – what they need, what they want, what their buying triggers are – you’ll find yourself lost in a sea of commercials, tweets, posts, blogs, and banners. You must communicate with a client-centric attitude. What does your client need? What do they really want right now? What are their thoughts about you and your competitors? Learning to see everything through the eyes of your current and future clients will put you head and shoulders above the competition and help you stay relevant, even in a tough economy.

Matt Wilson, co-founder of Under30CEO.com, is a digital marketing strategist at Shadow Concepts LLC. Follow him on Twitter as he urges people to start businesses they are passionate about. This is part of the kickoff to a series on social entrepreneurship. The views expressed are his own.

When it comes to starting a business there are advantages and disadvantages to taking the leap at various points during your lifetime and there are distinct differences between entrepreneurs from different generations.

Gen Y entrepreneurs, also referred to as “millennials,” are famous for their .com start-ups like Facebook and College Humor, but equally as infamous for their entitled attitudes and over-exuberance. These young entrepreneurs are fresh out of school (some because they’ve dropped out all together) and have decided to take the world by storm, with or without their parents support. For millennials there is little to lose: no mortgages, no families, and not a whole lot of obligations. Besides, if you find yourself unemployed, ski towns out west are always hiring. Try doing that when you’re 36.