Entrepreneurship at a young age has advantages and disadvantages. Knowing the pros and cons of being a young entrepreneur allows you to turn pitfalls into positivity. Plan to use these 7 disadvantages as learnings and experiences that position you for success.
Knowing the disadvantages of being a young entrepreneur helps you strategize. You don’t know what you don’t know so give yourself grace while using your understanding of disadvantages to turn them into advantages.
How? Through your business plan and the SMART goals that move you forward. Knowing your own shortcomings and potential weak areas is the starting point for getting past them!
Use this knowledge to help plan ahead and create backup plans. Business planning in knowing more than just your products and services.
It’s knowing your market. It’s knowing your competition. It’s making the sale and then keeping your customer. No matter how small your business is at the moment, as an up-and-coming business owner, you must take planning and execution seriously.
As you prepare to run the business, do know there are advantages and disadvantages to everything in life.
As an entrepreneur getting started at any age, you want to consider your opportunities, anticipate challenges and plan ahead so you handle them without getting shut down. Being an entrepreneur means meeting challenges that come as a surprise head on – and knowing those challenges are much easier to handle because you are prepared.
Young entrepreneurs will experience disadvantages that can be flipped into positives. Let’s talk about them.
Pitfalls young entrepreneurs can turn into advantages include:
- Age
- Inexperience
- Work Ethic
- Skillset
- Resilience
- Networking
- Capital
Age
Your brain is literally developing. It’s your time to learn.
Young entrepreneurs are probably not in a position to lead, fill out documents, and grow a business requiring full-time dedication, growth capital, or with a product or service governed by regulations.
Communication skills also develop with age, which is why we have language studies and learn to read and write. As a result your ability to communicate your ideas may also be an age-related challenge.
The flip side: Being young is also a positive. You have fresh new ideas, and a tolerance for falling, then getting up and trying again. You have fewer responsibilities, which gives you an opportunity to start small and build as you learn life lessons while practicing life skills.
Inexperience
You don’t know what you don’t know in work and life. A lack of experience is totally 100% okay!
Seriously, others starting a business decades later may have the business acumen and a great skillset but no longer have the time or energy to dedicate to a startup. We are all different. The problem for you is that inexperience will lead to learning some lessons the hard way or you may be overwhelmed with how much you need to learn. You may not know where to start. Others may think you are too inexperienced and not take you seriously.
Inexperience can also lead to overwork and burn out. It can lead to frustration because you have a lot to figure out.
The flip side: What younger entrepreneurs lack in experience they will make up with energy and excitement and dedication to your goal. There is no better time to build your skills and understand your strengths and developmental areas than as a young entrepreneur.
You are excited to grow and learn so use this to your continued advantage. Heed sage advice. Seek mentors. Use this time to soak up all of the knowledge and experience that you can, and it will benefit you as you go on. As far as being overwhelmed and not knowing where to start – start with your basic business plan. We offer free how-to’s and samples on www.envisionaryme.com. No strings attached.
Work ethic
Are you too young to have a work ethic? Is that learned? The answer to both is … maybe.
At every age you see what hard work looks like. You may lack experience and a track record of your own but you absolutely get a sense of what it means to be responsible – to work, to themselves, to their family and friends. You see the literal and figurative pay off when a dependable person goes to bed at a decent hour and gets up on time in order to get to work on time. You know what making money is. It’s not something unique to any one person. We have bills. We work to pay them. Sometimes that also means we work overtime at our full-time job in hopes it will lead to achieving our personal list of goals.
You absolutely start to understand what self-discipline and work life balance look like.
If you are looking to take the reins, know that as an entrepreneur you will work long hours. You aren’t a stakeholder in the business. You are THE ultimate stakeholder in the business.
The flip side: You’ll quickly learn not to waste your time, how to simplify your priority list, and how to be that young business owner that other people tend to help. You can even start building a college fund. ‘And you get to become this well-rounded person before needing to worry about paying car insurance or having mortgages to pay.
Yes. I said mortgages – plural. Why not plan far ahead and aim to make a profit that leads to multiple properties!
Skillset
We’ll keep this one simple. Whether it is through years of living, schooling, the ability to finish college or direct off or on-the-job skill training, your skillset will develop. You may not use the words assets or collateral or truly know how you’d handle an unrecoverable financial disaster or permanent change in your marketplace, but that’s okay!
Young entrepreneurs should not know all of this yet.
- Business skills
- Leadership
- Management
- Financial literacy
The flip side: Right now, just know there are serious consequences for not creating a basic business plan and following through on your priorities. You can update your goals at any time, but have them. ‘And make self-development part of that plan. Young entrepreneurs have the benefit of schooling, mentoring, and developing business skills as they practice life skills at home.
Resilience
Young entrepreneurs haven’t had ups and downs on the job yet. It doesn’t mean you don’t have challenges. But if you want to think challenge, be very grown up and put yourself on the street with no parents and no neighbors – alone – during the great depression. I’m just telling you not to succumb to the ever common “I need and deserve $80 nails and a $9 daily coffee” syndrome. You don’t. “but I earned it.” You didn’t. Entrepreneurs cannot go there.
Learn to do the following.
- Maintain confidence in your own natural abilities.
- Balance over-confidence with steps forward.
- Deal with discouragement by surrounding yourself with people who believe in you – that doesn’t mean they aren’t pushing you and playing devil’s advocate. You want that.
- More than any previous generation, young entrepreneurs must deal with social rejection. You need to take advice that helps you grow your business and accept valid negative feedback from your target market, while being able to process the fact that some people just want to see the world burn without it negatively impacting your confidence and spirit.
- Figure out who is a nut. then don’t argue with nuts. Just move on.
The flip side: Resilience is developed over time and with experience. Your excitement, energy, and desire to continue on and succeed gets you through. You have the ability to laugh and say to yourself, “and that is why that person is not my target market!”
Networking
Those that lack the experience don’t always understand the value of mentors and learning from others.
Not having good communication skills makes networking difficult. Networking gets us in front of customers, into college or trade school, you job interviews, and Help. It helps you solve problems where having a relationship made the difference in getting someone to listen to you or to help solve a problem.
You may not have the confidence to seek out others who have knowledge and can support you with ideas and positivity.
You may not know what business etiquette is or that it matters.
Ask for knowledge and for additional connections. Doing so takes confidence and an ability to express your ideas. You’ll learn to blend assertiveness with patience and a willingness to give back.
Networking also takes resilience (which you are building) and you need patience paired with knowing not everyone your reach out to will respond as you hope.
The flip side: You can practice talking to people from all walks of life. Learn that business etiquette matters – and don’t argue the point that business etiquette matters. Begin talking and following up. It all takes time, and some people help us, and some don’t. It’s why we talk to a lot of people and call it casting a wide net. (On your break, read up on fisherman and why casting a wide net is important to them!)
Finally, with regard to networking, expect that help will often come from unexpected places.
Capital
Starting your own business often requires funds. Young entrepreneurs often have fewer financial commitments but also have fewer financial alternatives. You won’t likely have the money to start a business where tools, ingredients or other items are needed to craft the item or get to the place where your service is needed.
Entrepreneurs of any age aren’t often handed supplies with a prepaid receipt! So what do you do?
Finding support such as loans and investors is a challenge for young entrepreneurs. Knowing your actual cost of doing business is critical. Time is money. That’s not just an old saying; it’s fact. If you are very young, your parents’ gas money is a cost of doing business as they take you to purchase materials and wherever you are selling or shipping.
The flip side: Young entrepreneurs often have fewer expenses than older entrepreneurs may have such as living expenses or supporting a family of their own. Get creative.
- Depending upon your idea, you can begin with service or by selling one piece.
- Selling one at a profit allows you to the earnings to build another.
- Create a budget as part of your business planning. Know your costs – including a fair cost of your time. This gives you a starting point.
You may not have potential investors, but people will help you in other ways. Ask them for candid feedback or to share their own expertise in planning, goal setting, budgeting, or prioritizing.
Your time is an investment into your future success. What you earn can be reinvested into your business. If you need money to buy your materials, perhaps you can earn money through a part-time job or by doing additional chores.
Use your ingenuity to figure out another way.
Recognize that young people have options older people do not when it comes to running a business!
Walking into the start of a business with your eyes wide open helps you overcome obstacles that could easily shut others down. The knowledge and preparation keeps you from feeling overwhelmed, lost, and giving up too soon.
Your next steps include:
- Behave like a business owner.
- Accept the pros and cons of starting a new business as facts young entrepreneurs face.
- Do your startup homework and be ready to go. Consider your business innocence a plus while arming yourself with a well-crafted business plan, SMART goals, and a brief explanation of your proposal.
- Balance the realization that you have so much to learn while focusing on the flip side which is fact that you also have so much to offer.
- Actively acknowledge each negative with its related learning and celebrate it as yet another win.
- Start understanding the value of compounding. Google it. The positive affect of compounding should be part of your every day. Compounding affects your future finances, the payoff related to your consistent effort, and your long-term health.
- Surround yourself with positivity including dream boards and inspirational quotes, and with mentors and those who give you the heads ups you need and challenge you to become your best.
You got this.
0 Comments