Young Entrepreneur Essay

Ever since I was two or three years old, I was very inquisitive about business
because my father was and is an entrepreneur. My father had several small
businesses and he finally settled on air-conditioning. So during the time that I was
younger I was always at my father’s side with every business that he embarked
upon. The spirit of entrepreneurship was growing in me over time. I never knew
that at a certain point I would be on the same path. At the age of five I began
cooking pies with my father, to sell in his catering business. So by the age of
thirteen my skills had become good enough for me to sell my own pies. One day I
asked my father for a pair of pink Michael Jordan shoes. He asked how much do
they cost? I told him $200, which I did not think was too much for my father.
At this point my father told me I needed to start my own business so that
when I made my $200 I could buy my own Michael Jordan’s. With my father’s
help I began my own pie business. I’ve made $200 several times, but I still haven’t
bought those Jordan’s yet because I did not want to spend my own money. I’ve
learned how to be responsible with my own money. With that responsibility of
money, has begun the management and organization of my life. So I begin to live
my life on purpose and the fact that I’ve been volunteering through teen court and
library work, to hopefully achieve scholarships so that I may go to college to
become a lawyer and a business woman is progressive. This past summer, I did a
voluntary internship with Shirley Daniels Pellarchy law Firm. I’ve taken the
initiative in my pre-adult life with persistence and a clear vision to do what it takes
to become successful.

Being A Young Entrepreneur

Rishi Chowdhury,
Your Hidden Potential

Jul. 24, 2011,9:42 AM

The amount of startups founded by young entrepreneurs under the age of 20 is rapidly
on the rise. The latest teenage generation are the first to have grown up with the
internet, and with the ease of access when it comes to starting a business online, many
bright entrepreneurs have emerged while still in their teens.

It is also more common place to see teens who have taught themselves code and are able
to create innovative web apps due to the freedom they possess. As this generation has
grown up along with social networks, they know how to leverage these. What may start
out as hobby/after school project can turn into a real business.

But how do you survive as a real business when you are just seen as a kid?

As a teenager you are left with less responsibility. No kids, mortgage etc… (Well most of
the time) to look after. The risks to consider for a 'teenpreneur' are much less in this
sense.

Often a lot of the larger organizations that are more established, are seeing real
competition from startups with young founders who are have grown up with a different
way of thinking. As the world continues to change and the face of business changes as
well, the mindset of the older organizations are different too those of the younger
entrepreneurs and that is where the next generation of young entrepreneurs can gain a
competitive advantage over larger corporations in older industries.

We as a younger generation take for granted much of what we see as being the norm, but
in reality it is still very new. This is a new way of doing business, older generations grew
up and learned a different way of business. As a younger generation comes through and
spend ever increasing amounts of time online, businesses no matter what background
are having to have an online presence, which may be more than just a website and
actually have to offer their products & services online.

A big consideration when starting your company while still very young, is how are you
supposed to be taken seriously as a young entrepreneur? It can be harder when getting
loans or trying to work with suppliers and partners. How about when trying to get
funding? It's obviously a lot easier when you can show that your business is making
money and your model is working, but it can often take a lot of attempts to get there
(also having a co founder helps). This is where the power of networking and building
strong relationships can help, especially within your own industry.

Entrepreneurs these days have a greater network to learn from than before. It is so easy
for anyone to get online and find networking events they can attend or just interact with
others who have been through it already. Social networks are the main facilitators of
this. Places like Twitter&LinkedIn have allowed young entrepreneurs to compete with
the corporate world as they have been able to build strong networks with other young
entrepreneurs and also gain knowledge from many others young and old.

I think that young entrepreneurs are not seen to be as much of a pushover as maybe
they were previously.

Many young entrepreneurs have made it in the past, just look at Bill Gates and Steve
Jobs. But I think it's only now, with the emergence of the internet, that
entrepreneurship has opened up for a lot of under 30's to be able to take their ideas and
go through with it. The barriers to entry are so much lower and the nature of many
businesses have changed giving young entrepreneurs the advantage in many industries,
except maybe manufacturing.
I think one aspect that is slowly changing is the acceptance of entrepreneurship as a
viable career choice, especially when you are young and have no experience, but you
have passion and an idea. Much of what we get taught in school is still a very old way of
thinking. The education system can't keep up with the way world and business is
progressing and innovating.

Only now are universities offering entrepreneurship courses, but to be honest it's not
just offering a course at university. The entrepreneurial spirit is something you have
inside you, it's a way of thinking and it's something you grow up with. What about
before university, can we see that entrepreneurial spirit and let it flourish?

Starting your own business while still being young can be daunting, but surely it's more
daunting when you are older and potentially have more to lose. Big steps have definitely
been made and with more media attention being put on the likes of Mark Zuckerberg,
hopefully young entrepreneurs can make a bigger impact across many industries and
not just in tech (online).

Read the original article on Your Hidden Potential. Copyright 2019.

Explain the importance of Youth Entrepreneurship

Youth Entrepreneurship creates employment opportunities for youth as well as the other
young people they employ. These helps to bring ostracized youth back into the
economic mainstream and address some of the socio-psychological problems and
delinquency that arises from joblessness.

Youth Entrepreneurship also helps youths to develop new skills and experiences and
promote innovation and resilience in youth. As young entrepreneurs are particularly
responsive to new economic opportunities and trends, they would be able to better
adapt to the changing market.

Benefits of implementing these measures

Youth Entrepreneurship is an important tool in stimulating the region’s economy. This is
because each entrepreneur brings about benefits not only for himself but for the
municipality, region or country as a whole. As they are Self-employed, they often have
better work satisfaction. These businesses also create jobs for others as well. Youth
Entrepreneurship can lead to development of more industries, especially in rural areas or
regions disadvantaged by economic changes by encouraging the processing of local
materials into finished goods for domestic consumption and export.

2.3.2 AdvantageNI
Advantage specialises in economic development and entrepreneurship for young
people. Working with the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, they apply their
expertise to promote youth entrepreneurship as a viable career option to young people.
Advantage helps to connect youth enterprises at an international, national, regional and
local level. Advantage draws upon and shares the best practice of enterprise
professionals, academics and other partners to better aid the youths. Advantage
provides extensive project design and management skills along with detailed knowledge
and thorough understanding of the client’s needs.

Benefits of AdvantageNI
As youths often lack the experience in management and negotiations, Advantage fills
the gap by providing an experience and well-connected organization that can help them
in their business. This way, SMEs can better focus on improving their products and
services and not worry about the management issues until they are ready to take on the
challenges.

3. Conclusion
Base on the research findings, the other countries are already preparing the framework
to encourage youth enterprises. They know what the youths need and are setting in
place laws to cater to SMEs. On the other hand, Singapore has yet to develop a
framework that encourages youths to take risk. The lack of support, coupled with the
heavy social and psychological stigma means not many are willing to take the chance.

4. Recommendations
Based on my research I would like to make the following recommendations to the
National Youth Council on the issue of promoting youth entrepreneurship. I would
suggest that these measures to be set up over a period of 5 years.

Singapore should set in place laws that make it easier for start-ups to thrive. Following
the example set by the Small Business Act for Europe, Singapore should make it easier
for youths to gain access to funding and aid. Knowledge of entrepreneurship should be
taught in schools so as to develop the mind-set needed. Finally, the government to
remove the stigma of failure from the environment, this in turn would help to encourage
more youths to take risk.

Organisations such as Shell LiveWire and Advantage should be formed so as to provide

aid to youths. The current organisation, ACE start-ups only funds up to 500 people and
the funding is given in portions. This means that only a selected few can receive the
funding. Another problem is the lack of technical support given to these start-ups; many
of them are preyed on by scams or fall to bad investment. More need to be done to
curb these incidents.