Why It Sucks To Be A Young Entrepreneur But What To Do About It
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Following the previous article on why it’s great to be a young entrepreneur, we asked the same entrepreneurs about the disadvantages. We didn’t just leave it at that. The entrepreneurs responded with how they overcame these disadvantages.
I’m Young, Deal With It
Age was by far the most mentioned disadvantage of being a young entrepreneur. It’s only been in the last 10-20 years that companies have been started by people in their twenties. Stereotypes are bound to happen. Here’s how the entrepreneurs handled it.
1. Be More Prepared
One of the cons is that when you present your product, service, loan proposal, marketing plan, or any material to someone for a prospective business deal, they will tend to see you as less of an authority because you are young. You need to counteract this by being more prepared than anyone else who has ever presented to them before.
I’ve overcome this problem myself by asking for help and advice from mentors and others who are experts in what I’m trying to do. I take their advice and guidance, tailor it to my own situation, and then I practice until I know I can offer others so much value that they would be insane to say no to me. If you focus on providing so much value to others that your competitors think you’re stupid, you’re on the right track.
Tom Corson-Knowles, www.juicetom.com
2. Grey Matter More Important Than Grey Hair
Some people may not take you or your ideas seriously simply because of your young age. You shouldn’t worry about them because success isn’t entitled to any age plus you do not want to work in an environment where grey hair have more value than the grey matter (read: brain) anyways!
The best way I dealt with them is either completely ignoring their ignorance or "I’ve an MBA with perfect GPA and 3 money making startups under my belt, I don’t need grey hair to prove my worth" depending on who I was dealing with and what I felt right in that situation.
Devesh Dwivedi, www.entrepreneurinmaking.com
3. Not Your Kid’s Buddy
People are constantly seeing your age instead of seeing your abilities and your drive. I had this happen with my current business and in my real estate career.
I generally ask what their son is currently doing, using it as a chance to build rapport and personal interaction. I then show a high level of competence in clearly defining the benefit of my service to them through actions or processes. This way, they see a professional who’s articulate and delivers, not their kid’s buddy.
Andrew Clark, www.whateverisnoble.com
4. Under Promise, Over Deliver
People don’t tend to take you as seriously. It is harder to gain credibility and you will find that you must work 10X harder.
Unfortunately, what you must do is work harder than everyone that you know, under promise and over deliver to the extremes and build strong relationships with your customers.
80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers so be sure to care very good care of them. The ‘experts’ say someone must see your name 7 times before they trust you so do anything and everything you can to get your name out there.
Justin Barker, jdbarker.webs.com
5. Over Deliver
Few people take you seriously when they read "CEO" on your business card at some economic summit and you’re twenty years old. Hopefully some do, and over delivering is a great way to express gratitude towards their leap of faith.
Yonathan Baum, www.the-ido.com
6. Use Your Advisor Network
Not being taken completely seriously at such a young age. We overcome this disadvantage is to utilize our mentor and advisor network.
By asking older and more experienced professionals for their opinions we are able to get their insights and then combine then with our own opinions to come to a well thought out and comprehensive decision on our most difficult challenges.
Katie Shea & Susie Levitt, www.cityslips.com
7. Find Strong Referrals
Colleagues and potential clients often assume that if an entrepreneur is young, they are not as capable as someone older (due to their age and limited experience.) Age can be a real hurdle in getting new clients, because being young can make potential customers reluctant to get on board.
I’ve found the best way to deal with this is to focus on the people who DO trust you, provide phenomenal service (and/or products, if applicable) and then encourage the clients you’ve already worked with to spread the word about their positive experience. In business there’s nothing more powerful than strong referrals!
Jackie Ducci, www.jackieducci.com
8. Stay On Top Of Trends
Because some people equate youth with inexperience there is a challenge to show your drive and depth of knowledge on a topic.
To help prepare I wake up every morning to read blogs, newspapers, and magazines relevant to my industry to stop on top of trends which help in my communications through the day with clients.
Knowledge is the next commodity and people respect and admire youth who crave and constantly seek out new ideas.
Nicholas Shippers, www.mymoxie.com
9. Work On Communicating Better
Many older people in the business world will be quick to judge a simple mistake or misunderstanding as indicative of you not being professional because of your age.
To address this, I have done a lot of work on improving my communications skills and understanding what the prospect or client’s expectations are for communication. This was especially important right out of college, because the expectations for communications were very different there.
Probably the single biggest change I made that improved this was contacting clients as often as possible over the phone or with in person meetings, because the lack of tone in emails can lead to a lot of confusion and misunderstanding.
Other that that, surrounding yourself with as many other experienced entrepreneurs as possible so that you can learn how to improve your systems so that mistakes and misunderstandings are prevented from occurring in the first place.
Cameron Madill, www.synotac.com
10. Bring Your Assistant (If You Have To)
It’s harder to be taken seriously in negotiations and various contracts. I have had to bring my assistant (who is 20 years older) along with me and have her act as my boss. Sometimes you have to swallow your pride and do whatever it takes to get the contract and make a sale.
Lea Richards, www.pigofthemonth.com
11. “Oh, How Cute” Will Help Your Business Grow
People don’t take you seriously when you’re a young entrepreneur. They look at you and say "Oh, how cute!" It’s nice but I feel that they underestimate me. So, when I start talking about my product line and how it will fit into the merchandising plan for their store, it really takes them aback.
I take my business very seriously and I work hard to make it successful.
Lily Sandler, www.blamtastic.com
12. Innovative Wording
We young people have to compensate against the stereotype that because we are young, we are also inexperienced and therefore not credible.
Because we can never win the "experience battle" against 50-year-olds, in sales pitches, I describe our company in words such as "innovative, fast-moving, cutting-edge, against the status quo," which are positive descriptors typically of young people/young companies.
Jack Friedman, www.StudySmartTutors.com
13. Imagine What I’ll Be In 10 Years
Some professionals question my ability based on my age. Although life experience doesn’t necessarily translate to success, its hard to convince some otherwise.
To deal with this, I try to flip my youth to be an asset. When questioned about my age, I respond with, "yes, I’m only 24, but look at what I’ve already accomplished! Imagine me in ten years!"
Mallory Brown, www.WorldClothesLine.com
14. Make Yourself Look Older
My age, people judged my book by its cover. The fact that I brought more to the table then the person beside me went out the window as soon as the emails and phone calls lead to a meeting face to face. The term "you sounded a lot taller on the phone" was used a lot.
I dealt with it the best I could, I have 20/20 vision but I bought glasses with see through lenses to look a little older. I gave the firmest handshake possible and projected strong confidence.
Roman Price, www.LifePulp.com
15. It’s Just A Number
Some people don’t take you as seriously when they find out how old you are. I deal with it by constantly proving myself and reflecting my mental age through my work, age is just a number after all!
Jessica Suter, www.suterstarpr.com
16. Call At Least Three Times
When young political consultants try and market themselves as part of the "modern generation" of political thought, they can often undercut their ability to price. While new technology and thinking is desirable, campaigns (with the limited resources they have) are often nervous to embrace something that is often considered to be untested.
Typically, I try and speak with the person on the phone at least three times before meeting them in person. This allows for you to develop a professional rapport with the client. Then, when they finally meet you in person, they are pleased to see someone so young and professional. In doing so, you have successfully avoided the shock factor.
Young Entrepreneurship affords little room for mistakes, you must be MORE professional than your older competition, and you must be MORE innovative than anyone else in your field. If you don’t give the client an excuse to make your age a problem, they will not!
John McCarthy, www.JohnWMcCarthy.com
You Can’t Buy Experience
Understanding some things only comes from experience. Sometimes, it could be a big mistake that entrepreneurs never forget. There are ways to mitigate it. Here’s how.
17. Dedication And Diligence
Conversely, one could argue that a young entrepreneur lacks the experience required to minimize mistakes, and make educated, well-planned business decisions.
However, you have to start somewhere; mistakes are inevitable, but with dedication, diligence, and lots of hard work, it is very possible for a young, first-time entrepreneur to develop a tremendously successful company.
Elliot Moskow, www.pricefalls.com
18. Don’t Let Them Second Guess
Discouragement creeps in when you find that many individuals and organizations try to take advantage of you, second guessing your judgments, decisions and expertise.
Jessica Smith, www.casttoo.com
19. Build A Foundation
People wouldn’t take you seriously; you’ll have to prove yourself. A non existing cliental list is enough to get you discouraged. Lack of experience is the disadvantage; temporarily.
You’ll have to find the momentum to keep you focused, you’ll have to find the passion from within to keep you going. You’ll have to learn and keep learning to become better. You’ll have to take on none paid jobs to build a foundation. But when you have the foundation to work with, then you’re in the business!
Karissa Thomas, www.karissathomas.com
20. Misperceived To Be Less Knowledgeable.
When someone pops a question which I do not have the answers to, I ask to get back politely and always make sure I follow up with a detailed answer. It leaves an impression that I have made an effort and clears their misperceptions immediately.
Ai Ching, www.yetanotherstudio.com
21. Startup Best Practices
Most business lessons are learned the hard way, through experience and on your dime. We try to mitigate this by reading a lot of startup best practices and actively seeking the advice of people who’ve been down the same road before.
Camilo Acosta, www.RootOrange.com
22. Enthusiasm!
Older colleagues and clients often look at being young and automatically associate it with immaturity and inexperience. The best way to handle this is to be confident in your knowledge and abilities and to know your limitations.
People respond well to enthusiasm, drive, and innovation, so being persistent and articulate about what makes you or your idea stand out can very likely change those initial preconceptions and make people more open to work with you.
Nick Pakulla, www.nickhomeloan.com
23. Successfully Found 10,000 Ways That Will Not Work
Lacking the experience that comes with time in knowing when to quit if something ISN’T going to work. Potentially relying on the advice of other people that you feel like "probably know more than I do" when you should be following your instincts instead. Being easily discouraged.
You might follow your gut and still end up making the wrong decision, but you have to look at it from an objective stand-point and try and learn as much as you can so you don’t make the same mistake twice.
I like to think of Edison, who said: "I have not failed 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work."
William Golightly, www.poolerealty.com
24. Rely on Referrals
Due to finding many closed ears because of our age and lack of "experience", we’ve gotten more creative with our approach. We rely on third-party recommendations and referrals, and more often than anything else, we take a less aggressive approach and let our work and brand speak for us.
We know now that many 30+ year professionals will cast a weary eye on a 25-year old entrepreneur, but it’s those kind of challenges that will make us better executives in the long run.
Dwayne Waite Jr, www.thecharlotteagency.com
25. Learn From Others
You don’t have much experience to be able to tell yourself what the best decisions and options would be in each situation. I’ve dealt with this by asking and learning from others, or making mistakes and growing.
Adam Kruse, www.HermannLondon.com
26. Outsource
You don’t have enough experience to make some tough decisions. We learned that sometimes it’s necessary to have advisors around who can guide you through the hard times. Also we found that hiring someone to do things that we didn’t know how to do was a great decision, like payroll etc.
Amber Goodenough, www.fourfourmedia.com
27. Network, Network, Network
Others will take advantage of you until you gain experience and develop respect from others in your organization and in the business community.
By continually networking and making my presence known, I have managed to prove that I am just as worthy as people who are older.
Ben Hamilton, www.flyimagineair.com
28. Develop Trust
A lot of people will have a built-in expectation that you are less experienced and therefore don’t know what you’re doing. But as people get to know you they begin to trust to knowledge that you have.
Aaron Sohacki, www.flyimagineair.com
29. Be Firm
Lack of experience in the real world is sometimes a real disadvantage, the general consensus is that because your young you have no real experience with sales, customer service or how to deal with your employees.
I’ve dealt with this with my entire my short career so far. I’ve developed a unique method of handling it, I become stern and tenacious when speaking to employees and such and this is to offset the being “young”.
It usually will show maturity and discredit me being young and will work to my advantage. However I will say you will still have the investor or employee that just won’t respect you because your young, when I encounter this “type” I end up severing ties with them because that’s not someone I want to do business with anyway.
Nader Jaber, www.flynumber.com
30. Credibility
The negatives the young entrepreneur will, and do face, are a lack of credibility and trust from a client’s perspective in many cases. They either do not take you seriously as an expert in your field in what you are doing, or they don’t trust that you are dedicated to your product/service from a delivery/support perspective. These are the two toughest obstacles that many young entrepreneurs face.
Dale Tweedy, www.CorneliusBusinessFactory.com
31. Find Some Seasoned Mentors
When you are young and inexperienced, you are bound to make more mistakes. I try to avoid unnecessary blunders by surrounding myself with seasoned mentors who share what they did right and what they did wrong. Smart people learn from their own mistakes, but really smart people learn from the mistakes of others.
Ashok Kamal, www.bennuworld.com
32. S-C-O-R-E
The potential for the lack of good advisors, or maintaining an attitude that you don’t need other people to help. After learning the hard way that advisors are invaluable, I sought out people who had been in my shoes for advice.
I found the Small Business Administration’s SCORE program that matches retired executives with entrepreneurs; the program and advice is free.
Troy Doucet, www.troydoucet.com
33. Test The Hew Hires
Training and hiring good talent is so difficult and time-consuming. We have been "burned" in the past a number of times after we hired a a graphic/web designer who we thought was talented and capable but ended up under-delivering.
In order to prevent that, I learned I need to have a tougher screening process. First, if I have any doubt at all about their skills I won’t even consider them.
Second, during the in-office interview I put them in front of a computer, give them direction for a quick design project, and 30 minutes to see what they design. It allows me to see their skills in action and as they say "taste the milk before I buy the cow."
Kayvan Mott, www.infinitecomm.net
It’s All On You
When you’re an entrepreneur building a company, everything’s on you. You have to set your own schedule, your own deadlines (and making them), and most importantly what you spend your time on.
34. Deadlines Are Deadlines
More responsibility and may have less of a flexible schedule (in start up mode) than peers with a 9-5. For example, if you’re on a deadline for a deliverable or working to get a new client, you’ll likely to have to skip out on an out of town trip with friends to finish the work needed.
Laura J. Rubinchuk, www.TheLJRGroup.com
35. Remember The Payoff
Starting your own business means always being on call, which can be very exhausting, demanding and damaging to life outside of work.
Win or lose, the responsibility is on us, which means when we face challenges we are not sure if we can handle, we have no choice but to find a way.
But, all this stress is lessened when we remember that the payoff of starting and succeeding in your own venture can be very sweet, especially since our business is aimed at helping villages in Uganda.
Tracy Shank, Joey Sasvari, & Cameron MacMillan, www.RaisetheVillage.com
36. Be Resourceful And Google That Stuff
When you are your only employee you are responsible for all tasks, there is no one to delegate to! In the past I may have avoided accounting or legal matters, but now I have to tackle every challenge that pops up. The best way to deal with these obstacles is to be resourceful.
When I don’t know how to complete a project I ask a peer for advice, I search online, and I take classes at the local SBA (Small Business Association).
Lindsay Sullivan, www.SETboutique.com
Funding, Funding, Funding
Unless you raised capital, money will probably be an issue.
37. Ways I Funded Myself
Lack of knowledge of how to get funding. I asked more definite questions to successful entrepreneurs. I also found ways to develop products to sell. A third thing I learned was how to raise money online.
Derrick Hayes, www.DerrickHayes.com
38. Match Your Weakness With Someone Else’s Strength
Young entrepreneurs typically have fewer assets (savings, real estate, etc.) than older entrepreneurs, and since many startups rely on the strength of their founder’s personal balance sheet and personal credit score in order to access credit, getting financing can be a real challenge.
Investors might also be hesitant to put that much money in the hands of a young person with no proven track record managing a business. Some solutions to these problems would be to look for financing secured by Accounts Receivables, which typically requires less or no collateral on the part of the business owner (just good credit typically).
And for investors, hiring a seasoned Financial Controller and/or Operations Manager will go a long way toward convincing potential partners that you understand your strengths, weaknesses, and limitations, and are willing to assign key roles in the organization to experienced managers.
Lee Zalben, www.ilovepeanutbutter.com
The Reality Of It All
It’s true, entrepreneurs probably make more money if they stayed in their jobs.
39. Personal Brand Equity
Entrepreneurship usually doesn’t make you rich. The majority of entrepreneurs fail, and even for the ones who do "succeed", most do not see huge exits.
While many young entrepreneurs are intelligent and motivated people with great skills and ideas, most could be building wealth much quicker climbing the corporate ladder.
While building my company, I also focus on building my personal brand equity. While my company grows and gains exposure, I make sure to network and be visible within the tech community. This way, if my company is to fail, I’ve still gained valuable experience and exposure.
Grant Landram, www.seatsimple.com
None (My Personal Favorite)
40.
There are no disadvantages.
Louis Lautman, www.theYESmovie.com
Created By: Jack Liu
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