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Following the previous article on the trend of young entrepreneurship, I asked this:

“What are the advantages to being a young entrepreneur?”

And here are responses I received from young entrepreneurs.

1. Unencumbered By Rigid Conventions.

Traditional work experience and education teach you how to approach business as it is, not how you envision it. Entrepreneurship is about creating the future and doing so requires unorthodox thinking.

 

 

 

Ashok Kamal, www.bennuworld.com

2. Sooner Than Later

One advantage of being a young entrepreneur is that you will have your business sooner than later…why wait?

 

 

 

 

Louis Lautman, www.theYESmovie.com

3. Growing Up In New Media

Being young you have the advantage of growing up in the new media age, and with successful businesses booming from the latest technology and a new state of mind, we already have a head start.

 

 

Jessica Suter, www.suterstarpr.com

4. Accomplish More

Starting out young (17) gave me a chance to accomplish more now being 27 then most have by the time they hit 40. The strong will and the ability to not be smart enough to know something cant be done and "no" means "maybe" was just a bonus.

 

Roman Price, www.LifePulp.com

5. Youth And Optimism

The positive side of a young entrepreneur is youth, optimism, no fear and the feeling you can take on the world. Younger entrepreneurs have yet to incur the battle scares of years in the business which in many cases tempers the optimism and idea creation that is takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

 

Dale Tweedy, www.CorneliusBusinessFactory.com

6. Ability To Take Risks

My youth allows me to take risks.  Without a marriage, children, or mortgage, I have limited financial and emotional responsibilities that might deter me from following my passion.  Right now, I believe in my cause…and that’s enough to dive right in.

 

Mallory Brown, www.WorldClothesLine.com

7. Easy To Stand Out

As a young entrepreneur, it’s easy to stand out from the competition. Because of my age, people remember me, and are often curious about my business and story because I look like I might still be in high school.  Because I am by far the youngest person in my field, many of my customers feel like they’ve contributed to building my business from the ground up.

 

Jack Friedman, www.StudySmartTutors.com

8. Homework Please!

I’m actually excited to do homework! Like reading books and networking in order to grow my business and network of contacts.

 

 

Kayvan Mott, www.infinitecomm.net

9. Travel The World

Meeting people from around the world when traveling to promote your business.  It’s exciting to speak with prospective customers from other countries.

 

 

 

 

Lily Sandler, www.blamtastic.com

10. What Responsibilities?

By being young I take more risks. Being young means you have less or fewer responsibilities then the older entrepreneur, this sometimes means hitting it big.

 

 

 

Nader Jaber, www.flynumber.com

11. Escape The 9-5

By starting our own business, we escape the treachery of a 9-to-5 job. We pick and choose our own takes, make our own time schedules and face new challenges daily that keep us on our toes and excited about what we are doing. In short, we are in charge of ourselves and our careers.

 

Tracy Shank, Joey Sasvari, & Cameron MacMillan, www.RaisetheVillage.com

12. No Preconceived Notions

You have no preconceived ideas about how things should be done.  You have to learn to ask questions and find answers on your own.

 

 

Lea Richards, www.pigofthemonth.com

13. Young = New Way Of Doing Things

In a new field (like the web), being young gives you an advantage because you are seen as someone who understands the "new" way of doing things.  This helps to close sales in a lot of cases.

 

 

 

Cameron Madill, www.synotac.com

14. One Of A Kind

Being young makes you relatively unique in the business world, which in turn makes it easier to gain recognition for your accomplishments.

 

 

Aaron Sohacki, www.flyimagineair.com

15. Fast Learner

The young mind is a fast learner. The most successful entrepreneurs began learning valuable lessons at a young age.

 

 

Ben Hamilton, www.flyimagineair.com

16. You’re Invincible

As a young entrepreneur you feel invincible.  You haven’t made enough mistakes to be afraid of failure.

 

 

Amber Goodenough, www.fourfourmedia.com

17. Applying Institutional Learning

Being a young entrepreneur means you get to put into practice what you have been learning in school from conflict negotiation, to marketing concepts, and how to network and build relationships with business people that share your entrepreneurial spirit.

 

 

Nicholas Shippers, www.mymoxie.com

18. Get Ready To Catch Some Advice

People readily give up good advice to young entrepreneurs, and if you are willing to act like you have a lot to learn, people are usually willing to teach you.

 

 

 

Adam Kruse, www.HermannLondon.com

19. Risky Business

We are able to be risky, make mistakes and explore many opportunities and activities. We’re not set in our ways, so it makes it fun for older businesses to work with us

 

 

 

 

 

Dwayne Waite Jr, www.thecharlotteagency.com

20. Surprise!  I Know Stuff

You might be much more capable and understanding of the inner workings of a business than your competitors would expect due to your young age. Use it to your advantage. Fly under the radar and pleasantly surprise suppliers, your employees,  other business owners you work with that you do know your stuff and that you can be relied upon.

William Golightly, www.poolerealty.com

21. Danger!

Being young allows me to take on more calculated risks as an entrepreneur. If I fail, there’s plenty of time for me to recover, start another company, or get another job. I don’t have a family or mortgage, which means I can risk everything on a great idea, making me dangerous to more risk averse companies.

 

Grant Landram, www.seatsimple.com

22. More Time And Focus

Not having a family yet allows you to focus energy and time on developing your business.

 

 

 

Nick Pakulla, www.nickhomeloan.com

23. Think Bigger

Young entrepreneurs are inclined to think bigger and more innovatively.  They can more easily dream up the ideal vision for what they want to accomplish with their business, and this is a fantastic trait that contributes significantly to any entrepreneur’s level of success.

 

 

 

Jackie Ducci, www.jackieducci.com

24. New Adventures

An entrepreneur gets to experience new adventures while they are traveling to different cities and countries.

 

 

 

 

 

Katie Shea & Susie Levitt, www.cityslips.com

25. Being Noticed

People notice you more because they’re impressed you’re a young entrepreneur.  It’s a great because you stand out in a crowd.

 

 

 

Camilo Acosta, www.RootOrange.com

26. More Resources For You

When you are a young entrepreneur people are willing to share their resources with you. There are so many different ones available at your disposal that older entrepreneurs either don’t have or would have to shell out serious cash for giving you an advantage.

 

 

 

Justin Barker, jdbarker.webs.com

27. Naturally Web 2.0

While older political consulting firms are trying to rebrand their overly corporate look, young social entrepreneurs naturally possess the Web 2.0 mindset and business model. IN a generation of cutting-edge grassroots community building, young consultants are no longer the novelty of a campaign, but rather the necessity.

John McCarthy, www.JohnWMcCarthy.com

28. Early Experience

Gaining real world knowledge early in life about systems and people, from marketing to accounting to management.

 

 

 

 

Troy, www.troydoucet.com

29. Failing Safety Net

We still have a lot of years ahead of us, in case we fail. An average entrepreneur fails 7 times before hitting a major success.

 

 

 

Ai Ching, www.yetanotherstudio.com

30. All Of The Below

Young entrepreneurs typically have less social commitments, so neglecting friends and family to focus on working on a business plan, running around the country doing grassroots marketing, or pulling successive all-nighters building a website is a little more accepted.  Older entrepreneurs are more likely to have a spouse, children, or older parents, all of whom probably require a heck of a lot more love and attention than an entrepreneur might have since so much of their time and energy will no doubt be focused on their venture.  Also, younger entrepreneurs are more likely to have pals with similar circumstances.  Free labor from friends can be very useful for all manner of startups, and the feeling of camaraderie of being with your buddies can be enough to help you get through the tough times.

Lee Zalben, www.ilovepeanutbutter.com

31. Finishing Early

Starting early also means getting to your destination earlier, assuming equal speed. Knowing I’ll be able to retire on my thirtieth birthday gives me fuel to get through the extra mile, or miles, today.

Yonathan Baum, www.the-ido.com

32. Fresh Ideas

Being young means you have more energy and a fresh perspective on the opportunity, whereas someone older, with the same idea may just consider it, "too much of a hassle."

 

 

 

Andrew Clark, www.whateverisnoble.com

33. Chance Card

People give you more chances as a youth to learn and make mistakes.

 

 

Derrick Hayes, www.DerrickHayes.com

34. Start Before Light Turns Green

Getting a head-start always helps! Being a young entrepreneur means, you can ask for help (mentoring etc) more, you have more room to fail and then more energy to pick yourself up and run again!

 

 

 

Devesh Dwivedi, www.entrepreneurinmaking.com

35. Youth Sells

One of the pros of being a young entrepreneur is that everyone wants to help you out because you’re young. If they see your ambition and excitement, even if they can’t buy from you or give you money, they’ll be glad to refer you to someone who can help. I think a key to being a successful young entrepreneur is using that perception to create relationships and connections.

 

 

Tom Corson-Knowles, www.juicetom.com

36. Financial Freedom

More financial freedom than peers stuck in a job that have to wait for annual pay increases. Your potential for income is proportionate to how hard you’re willing to work.

 

 

 

 

Laura J. Rubinchuk, www.TheLJRGroup.com

37. Show-off

I get to show off my best skills. I learned how to design websites in college but wasn’t able to practice it in my corporate jobs. When I started SET Boutique I designed the entire website from scratch and will always be able to reference that experience.

 

 

Lindsay Sullivan, www.SETboutique.com

38. Prove Them Wrong

You can prove people wrong and WOW them with your knowledge and cutting edge technological skills and show them you’re fresh and not to be messed with!!!

 

 

 

 

Karissa Thomas, www.karissathomas.com

39. Underestimate Me At Your Own Risk

I find that many people tend to underestimate young entrepreneur’s intelligence or business know how, consistently giving you a silent upper hand.

 

Jessica Smith, www.casttoo.com

40. Time Is On Our Side

One benefit about being a young entrepreneur is that time is on our side. Young people who partake in entrepreneurship will be ahead of the game as they age, and in the future when many of our peers are starting their first businesses, we will have the advantage of experience, which will undoubtedly prove valuable.

Elliot Moskow, www.pricefalls.com

In the next article, I’ll ask the same entrepreneurs about why it sucks to be a young entrepreneur but what to do about it.