It’s been known that millennials get a bad rep for being lazy and feeling as though they deserve success without putting in the work. This isn’t the case for Santiago Nestares Lampo and Benedict Dohmen. Both Santiago and Benedict are millennial multi-millionaires at the ripe age of 21.

The two friends had been coding until the late hours of the night while attending Dartmouth College. While working late into the night, they discovered a common problem, they both had aching backs.

Instead of brushing it off and pushing through the pain, the millennials decided to do something about it and ended up developing a pillow to help them sit with better posture and experience little to no back pain, thus the start of their million dollar brand.

Since expanding the back pain brand to 25 products and 8 figures in revenue, the two have applied these six tips to continue to expand their business:

1. Vision

Every great idea starts with a vision. For their company, Benedict and Santiago listened to what their customers said right from the start. They didn’t want to be another company churning out products for the heck of it.

Just because you think your customers will like a product doesn’t mean that they will. You need to make sure that when you’re creating a product or adding products to your current line that you ask your customers what they want. This is will help to create a product that people will actually want, saving you tons of headaches.

2. Engineer Profitability From The Beginning

While there are successful companies who got their start from venture capitalists, this doesn’t mean this is the case for all companies and certainly not the Benitago Group.

They wanted to know if they would be profitable from the beginning because it can be hard to measure when you’re using someone’s money. When you use someone else’s money, you may have to make a decision that brings in capital for the short term but isn’t beneficial for the long term growth of your company.

To grow their company, they also haven’t taken out a penny for themselves. They firmly believe in the concept of investing everything you make back into the company. This is paramount to fast growth as they’ve achieved it with Benitago Group.

“Don’t give up on your dreams, or your dreams will give up on you.” – John Wooden

3. Direct Impact

For Benedict and Santiago they wanted their company to have a direct impact right from the beginning. Money was a part of their success but it wasn’t what was driving the duo.

Combined with their vision, they wanted to start a company that would have a direct impact on millions of people. By creating products they’re constantly refining and going directly to the consumer, they can have a direct impact on people’s lives.

When you start your company, are you doing it to make money or are you doing it to help others? While the money is good, if you only start your company for the money and it gets rocky, you’re more apt to quit because you won’t care enough to stick with your company through the bad times. Money is bipartisan of any successful company.

If you build a product that can impact millions, the money will come.

4. Data-Driven Decision Making

It wouldn’t be a smart idea to make decisions for your company without backing it up with rational information. Benedict and Santiago run their company like a startup firm instead of Corporate America where ideas have to pass through the ranks and can take weeks or even months before being implemented.

When you decide to track the statistics on your company, you’re able to get a sense of what move you should make next. Your emotions won’t be attached to your decisions because they will be backed up with logic and economic rationale.

5. Focus

As you grow, many distractions come along in terms of other business areas to expand to, etc. Dohmen and Nestares have both received many requests for consulting from smaller private companies to big conglomerates such as P&G, even at consulting rates far higher than top consulting firms like McKinsey. However, they’ve turned all such requests down with a commitment to focus all their energy on building Benitago Group.

There comes a point in any successful business where there won’t be enough time in the day. You have to decide what your focus is going to be on. The decision on what to focus on will ultimately come down to, “Am I growing my business?” If you’re not growing your business, the task isn’t worth your time.

“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” – Zig Ziglar

6. Strong Work Ethic

Benedict and Santiago don’t believe in the typical 9-5 work ethic. They mostly work 7 days a week from morning until the late evening. They expect full commitment from anyone who works for them.

Within their company, people who perform also get rewarded accordingly. It’s the perfect environment for the driven individuals who want to place a bet on themselves and want to see what they’re able to accomplish. The goal is to make people feel more human by giving them all the freedom and trust to achieve their potential.

By working extra hours per week, it allows them to get a leg up on the competition. If you want to start a multi-eight figure and beyond company, you can’t expect to work the same hours as everyone else and become successful.

A strong work ethic will take you to wherever you desire. Nothing can stop the person who has a strong work ethic with the resilience to overcome failure. It doesn’t matter who you are, if you’re willing to work smarter and harder than your competition, you will become successful.

Starting multi-million dollar companies with these tips should be simpler. Nonetheless, it’s not easy and at times you’ll want to give up. If you continue at it and continue to grind day after day, year after year, you can accomplish amazing things. Age knows no boundaries. It doesn’t matter if you’re twenty-one or sixty-five!

What’s the best tip for success you’ve heard? Share it with us below!