The Age Old Age Debate – Business Ideas
You’ve just had a revelation, an epiphany if you will. It is all so clear to you now: how come nobody else has thought of this before? It’s so obvious, and you’re going to make a fortune with it – but is a business idea alone good enough? Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Whether you are 18 or 80, people will always question whether you have what it takes to succeed. Do you have the expertise, the skills, the life experience, the energy and the gumption to succeed? Is it possible to be too old or too young to start your own business?
Entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes, and yes, all ages as well. As a young entrepreneur you will have drive, determination, energy and a fresh outlook on the world of business, but as a seasoned individual you have experience, knowledge, wisdom and caution on your side. Each has the potential for success, so long as any weaknesses are identified and addressed and not simply ignored.
Young entrepreneurs have launched, run and developed some of the most exciting new businesses in recent years. Their keenness for creating new markets, ignoring constraints that would hold more experienced business people back and pushing boundaries has seen some high flyers take off with rocket-like propulsion. But by definition a young entrepreneur will often have more enthusiasm than business acumen. To ignore this imbalance can lead to failure, but to embrace it and counter its effects by taking business courses, or joining a networking group to learn more from other young entrepreneurs and those with more experience or to partner with someone who brings with them years of practical business experience, could well allow your idea to succeed.
That is not to say that rule-breaking and boundary-stretching is the only way to be successful. As a more mature individual, you may decide to become an entrepreneur for many reasons: redundancy can free you to follow a lifelong dream, or force you to work for yourself; retirement can leave you still hungry for work; savings can enable you to fund a whim or an idea; experience can allow you to outgrow employment and crave something more. You are more likely to be pragmatic and business savvy – qualities that will help you to determine with greater accuracy whether a business will succeed and how it will achieve this success, and to gain the funding to make it all possible. However, a more mature individual may well need to decide whether leaving a well-paid comfortable job for one that is likely to suffer from long hours, setbacks and questionable profits for a period of time is a leap too far. The other thing to consider is the additional responsibilities someone of more mature years is likely to have acquired, such as a mortgage, family, children – all of which demand time and financial commitment that the inherent risk of starting a business may not be conducive to.
Back in November at the launch of Enterprise Week, business secretary Peter Mandelson said that young entrepreneurs were the key to getting the economy moving again. His belief is that encouraging young entrepreneurial talent today will mean a more stable economy tomorrow as every successful young entrepreneur will not want for employment, will contribute to the wealth of the country, and may well become an employer themselves to reduce the currently steadily increasing unemployment figures. Enterprise Week is a fantastic amalgamation of all things entrepreneurial for encouraging new talent to make the most of their skills and enthusiasm and to unlock their commercial potential. First launched in 2004 by Make Your Mark (from what is now known as the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and the Kauffman Foundation), Global Enterprise Week hosted over 15,000 events in 77 countries that put on over 50,000 activities in November 2008 to inspire young entrepreneurs to breathe life into their ideas and provide them with practical knowledge on how to achieve this. This is more of a movement than an event with thousands of people involved around the world and global sponsors like IBM and Ernst & Young.
At the other end of the scale, a recent Labour Force Survey produced by the Office for National Statistics found that one fifth of people over 50 who were still in work have their own businesses – a surprising figure.
Angel Investors are blind to age issues and interested only in the potential of a business idea and the profits it may achieve. They are simple animals, motivated by money or the excitement of helping to build something memorable. So no matter whether you are a young entrepreneur or of more mature years, if you have a business that needs additional funds to help it achieve its true potential come visit www.angelsden.co.uk for information, advice and an opportunity to make the most of your business.
Source:
Enterprise Week
