The Unsaid Truth of Being an Entrepreneur in Your Late Twenties

I get all sorts of reactions from people when they learn that I’m an entrepreneur and I’m not even 30 years old. Some are impressed that I had the guts to start my own venture at an early age. Others look at me with a mocking smile; they probably think I’m just a millennial bum trying to justify not having a regular job.

Needless to say, there’s always a positive and a negative side to being an entrepreneur in your late twenties. If you’re within my age bracket and you’re thinking of putting up your business, you’re in for quite a ride! Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned throughout my journey so far. I hope it offers an insight into how it’s like to be an entrepreneur my age.

The Good Thing About Starting Early

People marvel at kids who get an early start with hobbies like painting or musical instruments. I’d like to think it’s more or less the same when it comes to business. It doesn’t matter if you suck at first or fail many times over. Starting early will always give you an advantage — if you pick up the lessons life throws at you, that is.

Plenty of Time to Learn

Some people wait until their retirement before opening a business. For sure, there are many advantages to starting a venture at that age; more resources and a bigger network, among many others.

However, starting a business at retirement means you have a narrower allowance for failure. After all, it’s hard to gamble every cent you have when you know you don’t have enough time to earn it all back.

When it comes to the time allowance to learn, starting early is the way to go. If my business fails and I lose all the money that I invested in it, I still have plenty of time to get on my feet and bounce back.

Whether I get a regular job to save up, get a business loan, or invest in another venture, time will be on my side. There will be no pressure to cash in right away. That said, I can take my time to learn the ropes and master the ins and outs of the industry.

A Quiet Ego

Being in my twenties, I know and acknowledge that there’s a lot about life that I’m not familiar with yet. That said, I’m not afraid to start from scratch, pay my dues, study, and learn. After all, I’ve only been around for less than three decades, and I still have the curiosity of a child.

One thing that I’ve noticed about some professionals in their older years is, they tend to assume, anticipate, and handle situations based on what they’ve done before. Because of the length of their years in the industry, they’ve grown confident that they know everything there is to know about their audience and industry.

Now, I’m not trivializing the depth of their experience; it surely brings an invaluable advantage. But having ample experience can also cause one to be too egotistic to learn new things. And in a world where almost everything changes with tech innovations, that could be a problem.

Courage

They say younger entrepreneurs are gutsier. Why? Well, the truth is, a lot of young business owners don’t have much to lose. Given that we’ve only started building our careers and financial portfolios, most of us don’t have billions in the bank or a net worth anyone would envy.

I’d like to think that courage is vital when starting anything from scratch. All the steps needed to build a business — getting a loan, pitching to venture capitalists, getting an idea out there — you need the courage to do all those. And courage is something most of us, twenty-somethings, aren’t short of.

The Challenges of Being a Young Entrepreneur

Despite the advantages of having a fresh perspective, being an entrepreneur in your late twenties isn’t exactly a walk in the park. Here are the challenges I’ve faced as a newbie entrepreneur.

Limited Network

The size of your network typically depends on your career path or community activities. That said, it’s not surprising that the network you have in your late twenties isn’t as big as you want it to be. After all, your network might be limited to former classmates, colleagues, and people you’ve met in socio-civic groups.

Given this challenge, we need to work harder to expand our network. How do we do this? There are many ways to do so — attending seminars (or webinars), joining groups, or reaching out to people via email. If there’s a will, there’s a way.

Less Experience

Obviously, fewer years means less experience. And no matter what industry you’re in, experience gives a better perspective and an enriched point of view. Unfortunately, we can’t fast-forward time to gain more experience.

The good news is, we can always learn from other people’s experiences; read books or articles, listen to podcasts, watch interviews. By learning everything that we can from existing materials, we can compensate for the experience that we lack.

Age Comes with Credibility

Let’s face it — most people tend to trust a brand that’s been in business for a long time. Why else would stores include the year they’ve been established on their logos and branding assets?

The same thing goes for entrepreneurs. How, then, do we boost our credibility, despite our young age? The solution is simple — we must deliver what we promise. Only by staying true to our words can we prove that we are just as credible as the more seasoned business owners — and they can trust us just as much.

Age is Just a Number

We’ve heard this adage a thousand times before. But it’s true that age is just a number — in love, in life, as in business. The great thing about running a business is, there’s no age requirement. Being an entrepreneur is all about keeping an open mind and having an undying knack for learning. As long as you have these, you’re geared for success — whether you’re 18 or 80 years old.