While some people think that they have to
gain a certain amount of life experience
before they start a company , the truth is
that there are a lot of advantages when you
start a business young .
If you are considering starting a business , no
matter what age you are, and have gotten
stuck in the mindset that you’re not fully
prepared, consider these advantages to
starting a business young:
It’s a great way to learn.
Getting personal experience in a hands-on
fashion is one of the best ways that you can
learn how business works. Not only can you
learn about the business world, but you also
have an opportunity to discover who you are
and what makes you unique. When you start
a business young, you will make mistakes
along the way, but you’ll have a chance to
figure out how to solve them in your own
way.
This may mean that your first company
doesn’t work out as planned. Is that really
the worst thing that can happen? Not at all.
Many entrepreneurs aren’t successful their
first time out, but they use their momentum
to launch into the next project. If your first
project does end up working out well, you’ll
be ahead of the game!
The trade-offs for starting now are fairly
low.
One of the key things to learn about
business is that there are trade-offs for
every decision you make. If you choose
option A, you miss out on choosing option B.
Unlike many other times in your life, the
trade-offs for choosing to start a business
now are much lower than they are likely to
be in a year or two. Most students who
graduate from college end up in a low-level
position. If you miss out on that kind of
position by choosing to start your own
company instead, chances are that similar
opportunities will be available in the future.
If instead, you wait to try to start a company
until you are in a decent position with great
pay and full health benefits, you may have a
lot more to lose.
When you’re young, you don’t have as many
obligations to others.
Years down the road, you may have a family
to feed, aging parents to think about, or
other obligations. If you start a business
young, you give yourself room to succeed or
fail before you have commitments to other
people.
When you are young, you have more time to
network with others.
A big part of business success is
networking. Because you have fewer
personal commitments, it means that you
may have more time to give to being
mentored by others who have taken steps to
grow businesses. By building relationships
with others, you increase the likelihood that
you can partner with others in the future to
add value to your product and to you as a
business owner.
You can use your experience in a future
résumé.
If the very worst-case scenario happens and
your business fails, you still gain valuable
experience that employers are happy to see
on a résumé. Employers know how much it
takes to own and run a business, so if you
are able to articulate those things during an
interview, you may come out ahead of other
candidates.
People are more forgiving with young people.
If you make mistakes, and you will make
many, people will give you more slack
because of your age. When you are young
people expect you to make more mistakes
and they forgive you more easily too.
Even though it can be scary to start a
business when you’re young, there really is
no better time to take the leap and get
started!
