10 Reasons why being a Really Young Entrepreneur Sucks
Why being a young entrepreneur aged under 21 sometimes sucks!
Banking – Your bank will not give a young entrepreneur a credit card but they will give a student a credit card.
Networking – I love networking and would love to attend more conferences but being young makes it difficult. A lot of internet marketing and blogging conference’ are held in
Knowledge – Everything’s new, you have never been in business before so how would you know? That’s not good enough, do you research before you go into business!
Respect – You’re a kid, get out of my office! No one will even consider you as an advertiser, designer, and business partner so prove them wrong!
Parents – they will often slow you down, you always need permission for every thing you want to do. “It is easier to ask for forgiveness then permission” – Cameron Johnson
Friends – Your friends don’t understand and they don’t care! It be so cool if one of my friends would get online and have a blog so I can talk to him about it, but to be honest, they just don’t care, they want to do the 9-5 for the rest of there lives!
Cost – Just because your young, doesn’t mean you don’t pay the price. The tax man is still going to come knocking at your door for his 25%. A lot of young entrepreneurs don’t realise they have to pay tax and find themselves in troubles later on in their business life, so keep records!
Opportunities – A lot of monetizing options online such as Google Adense, PayPal and Text-Link-Ads all come with an age restriction, seems most of us get around it one way or another!
Maturity – On so many levels I see how young entrepreneurs are sometimes immature, for example; fighting on forums and blogs. It is not clever and will only halm you. My dad told me if someone writes something negative about you and you want to reply to it, wait till the next day, it will allow you to have a think and calm down.
Investment – Being young has big draw backs, the banks won’t loan you money and finding investment is hard.
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I agree with those points, time and again I’ve been restricted by many of those problems… Particularly the one about parents.
This is a very good post as it details exactly what I often think.
I was once a young entrepeneur and experienced many of these problems. Now I’m an older entrepeneur, and have a completely different set of problems!!
Unfortunately being young is a big factor, even in the real world. I am currently 21 and a Maintenance Technician. Trying to get a job someone else as a Maint Tech is hard because they see you as being to young, without really knowing the skills you posses.
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I am no longer under 21 but I know how it feels to be young and trying to play the “adult” game… IMO banks and other legal stuffs should realize that it is no longer 1960, kids have changed!
It sucks to be young in business but, I would trade places with you to relive those days! Enjoy it while you can!
wow..how true..i felt like someone was reading my mind!
hehe..”fighting on forums and blogs”…made me laugh for some reason..never been that type..
It does suck! I’m glad to be over 20 now, at least I get a little bit more respect when dealing with my bank
A couple of years ago, it was a disaster
My main problem with being young is I am not getting credit card not even a student credit card. Parents always ask me what are you doing.
With the maturity comment, does that mean that making a negative blog post is a bad thing?
Dude, I completely understand about the friends thing. It would be awesome to talk to someone about building e-businesses. Having a friend to work with on a project would be awesome as well.
Ah well. The proud. The few. 😉
I have been put down because of these problems, but we have to get around them. It is just not fair! You just made me scared of the tax problems however!
Agree with this post, I’m 17 this year and I’m facing almost all this, but I will not let all this hold me back.
@Agent 001
Enroll in College for a semester and get a credit card.
very nice article.
I think almost every point up there relates to me, My friends just don’t get it most of the time, My parents didn’t think I could make any money until I proved them wrong, Even domain purchases seem like a huge investment rather than grocery shopping, The last one is probably for our own good otherwise we wouldn’t treat out sites with care and seriousness.
Even though these problems exist a true entrepreneur wouldn’t let them come in the way, but there is one problem that will harm even those few of us that think we can overcome most of these issues, thats is MATURITY.
Most young entrepreneurs don’t have the patience to plan, research and make tough decisions. They cant take criticism and end up loosing a lot because of their egoistic nature. In this regard we need to look up to some more experienced business people like addi or collis.
Great post
I faced same obstacles when I was 20 and about to start home business. My parent stopped me from success business even though I did made money.
I definitely know how it is. I was blogging, designing and making money for about a year and a half before my parents found out. I didn’t want to tell them either, but I had to one day. They’re 100% behind me though, so some of those reasons why it sucks to be young don’t apply to me because my parents will put everything in their name.
Great points. You have to check out Rhea Perry. She does a fantastic family business conference and totally encourages teens to attend and start up their own bizzes. Only conference that I have ever found that lets folks under 18 attend. Lots of professionals attend, and treat the teens with respect. Check her out at http://budurl.com/zfm4 or http://rheaperry.com
You’ll always find ways around it. I’m an entrepanuar myself, but slightly older, started much later than yourself, so I can’t say i’ve experienced all that you’ve listed. But I’ve seen friends as young as yourself cut through red tape and find ways round the system.
I agree with some of these things but I think there are more pros than cons to being a young entrepreneur. Here’s some of them.
1. We don’t NEED to earn a living just yet so we can afford to make mistakes and take our time in learning things.
2. If you have parents that support you, it makes it a whole lot easier. You get the best of both worlds-a regular kid & a biz kid.
3. Since kids can’t legally own a biz, it would be set up in a parent’s name. That way any money the biz makes should be put in a savings acct for the kid for when he’s older. Also the parent then pays the taxes on it for now, not the kid.
4. You don’t really need a credit card. When my parents set up my biz checking acct, the bank gave me an ATM card that acts just like a credit card, obviously as long as I have the funds in my acct. Haven’t had any problems with that.
I always say no one can do it alone, not even some grown-ups so maybe that’s why some biz kids have a hard time. If they’re trying to do it alone without any help from some adult, I agree, everything would be a lot harder.
What’s funny about being a teenage entrepreneur is observing the rampant and obvious spelling and/or grammatical errors of other teenage entrepreneurs.
Interesting post. Surely these points are frustrations. A number of these are the reasons that I am organizing a seminar for Young Entrepreneurs ages 9&up. #1 is to CONNECT young entrepreneurs together (so you’ll have friends who get it!)! #2 is to expose them to the many possibilities that exist and how to leverage young age to your ADVANTAGE! (yes, it can be an advantage!)
I agree with Jason that there are more advantages in most cases than disadvantages. Look for them, they are there!
Great topic! I’ve just started a home biz, and althoough i’m slightly older than 21, i’ve faced some problems you teenagers pointed so well. Problems like parents and solitude, but that’s not that difficult to deal with when you’re older.
The main problem when you’re older is external pressure.Since the social rules are there and you don’t wanna follow them, such as an 8-5 job or a standing, conventional job.
Since the fire was found out and the wheel was invented, many things have changed and possibilities on the web are endless.The greatest adventure on being young is that you find out these possibilities much faster and learn how to deal with it and combine it with other knowledges in order to make a brand new, cutting edge thing!
Michael, these echo the exact problems I’ve had in running my businesses when I was young. Bank wouldn’t lend me money, was “young” and therefore inexperienced, etc…
And I can reply directly to the point about being too young to network. I attended New Media Expo 2008 and couldn’t get in on late night discussions and network with my older friends and mentors because I wasn’t 21 (still too young btw).
Sigh, the fun of being young and entrepreneurial… Always makes people look twice at you though when you show them who you are… 😉