Maybe you have heard about stories of young people becoming successful business owners. However, you should know that the average entrepreneur is actually 40 years old when launching his or her first start-up.
Do you still think you are too old to start your own business? Not at all! Keep in mind that the older you are the more experience you have; you know more about the industry and also have more connections.
The moment to start your own business is now
Stop making excuses, the right moment to start your business is here and now. Maybe you had a dream when you were younger, but you were too used to work for a company that you decided to stay in a safe place.
However, the soul of an entrepreneur never dies, and you may still have that “what if” in your mind.
Truth is, being an entrepreneur when you are not that young has several advantages like the work experience, the savings you have to invest in the business, a big contact net and the resources. You just need to make up your mind to put all those advantages by your side.
You need to leave your comfort zone aside
When you have worked in a company for the majority of your work life you get used to certain circumstances and to an employment system. This is why when you stop working for a company your new independent lifestyle can get frustrating.
It is a huge clash to become an entrepreneur after being an employee because the way in which both works are totally different.
However, once you overcome this situation you will see all the benefits of becoming your own boss. This implies doing things at your own pace and distributing your time at your convenience.
Key factors to entrepreneurship
The strong desire to succeed
If you want to build a profitable business the key to success is patience, passion and perseverance, and all of these factors are included when you have a strong desire of doing things well and succeed.
All of us have heard about stories of successful entrepreneurs that started at a young age, but they are the exception.
It is valid if your desire to start your own business started later, it is valid if you were not the kid that used to sell candies to your classmates at 12 years old or started selling lemonade to your neighbours at 10 years old.
The most important thing is to start doing something when the entrepreneur’s feeling strikes.
Some people have that feeling at a young age, some people have that feeling later, other people never get that feeling and it is totally fine.
The knowledge
The most common thing is that you want to start a business based on something that you really like and feel passionate about. Truth is, if you are passionate about this specific thing you will learn a lot about it as you will dedicate it a bunch of your time.
In other words, you are more experienced in this field than other people and that is what differentiate you and your future business from others. Moreover, the knowledge and the experience are the base of successful business as it lets you help other people.
It doesn’t matter what your business is about, you can start a website designing business or a bakery, just remember that the best way to help other people in certain situations is once you have already lived them and overcome them.
It is true that many entrepreneurs started at a young age, but it is not a surprise that they struggled with some decisions that required experience, and experience is what you have the most.
The time
Time is key when it comes to starting your own business. It is not impossible to do it while you are still working in a company but certainly it is hard.
If that is your case, you will need to surround yourself with reliable people that can become your business partners and, in this way, split responsibilities.
If, on the other hand, you quit your job or are already retired it is the better time to start your own business as you will have a lot of free time that you can dedicate to this start up.
Even at times you will feel that you will be working more hours than you used to on your old job, however you will be building something yours, you are not completing tasks for others anymore.
Do you need more inspiration?
Just look at these successful entrepreneurs that started their own business at a later age:
- Reid Hoffman was 35 when he founded LinkedIn and 43 when it went public.
- Samy Walton was 45 when he founded Walmart as a small start-up.
- Reed Hastings started Netflix DVD rental when he was 37 years old and first streaming when he was 47.
- Jimmy Wales was 35 when he founded Wikipedia.
- Vera Wang started her own designer brand at 39.
Just think about the people you know, there are several cases where people start their own business late in life, when retired, when they get tired of the same job or when they wanted to give a spin to their life.
Take a look at these other entrepreneur cases:
- Jim Butenschoen left his IT job to start a hair-design academy at 60.
- Michael Grottola started his consulting firm at 65 years old.
- Colin King started his online education business at 50.
- Rand Smith left his corporate job to open an optical retail business.
- Angie Higa started her manufacturing company after 30 years of working in the banking industry.
Remember that the best time to start your own business is when you find a business opportunity, when you feel motivated to finally start your own company and when you feel capable of taking advantage of this opportunity through entrepreneurship.
Don’t ever let anyone tell you it’s too late to start because it is not, stop making excuses and if you feel like starting your own business go ahead and do it!
