Focusing on Youth Entrepreneurship

The domain of entrepreneurship has gotten massive attention over the past years. Entrepreneurship is acknowledged worldwide for its contribution to enhancing the economies of scale, increasing productivity, optimizing GDPs, creating new jobs and intensifying the competition. According to GEM Report, “As many as 73 million young people are estimated to be unemployed in 2013 and studies by the International Labour Office (ILO) indicate that the youth are three times more likely than adults to be unemployed.” Considering the given fact, youth unemployment is indeed an alarming situation worldwide and requires special attention to reduce the rate in upcoming years.

One move to lessen youth unemployment is to develop entrepreneurial mindsets among youth. Youth can be a success factor for the economy as they bring their fresh knowledge, experience, and a better understanding of market trends. Besides, a research study also suggests that young people are more likely to prefer self-employment; however, sustainability can vary. According to the summary report by OECD, “45% of youth prefer self-employment to employment, whereas 37% of adults prefer self-employment. Youth are also more likely to believe that self-employment is feasible: 41% of youth think that they could be self-employed within the next 5 years compared to 30% of adults who think that it is feasible.”

Today, making a career through conventional ways is becoming obsolete. Therefore, the concept of entrepreneurship is emerging among young people at a rapid rate. However, the process of entrepreneurship is not easy at all – it takes years to develop a successful business enterprise.

Hence, young entrepreneurs face some real obstacles before stepping into their professional lives.

Lack of Entrepreneurial Mindsets

Existing education on the subject of entrepreneurship isn’t enough to develop the required skills. Though many universities have added a separate subject on entrepreneurial concepts, they still aren’t enough to develop entrepreneurial mindsets. Delivering concepts counts as formal education, and is something different from developing entrepreneurial mindsets. Entrepreneurial mindsets include non-cognitive skills like recognition of problem/opportunity, leadership, teamwork, and much more.

Lack of Market Exposure and Prior Work Experience

Indeed young people have fresh knowledge but, they face potential hindrances when it comes to insufficient market exposure and prior work experience.

Lack of Financial Resources

Needless to say that financial investment is the backbone of any business; but, we know that obtaining external financial support is always harder.

Lack of Business Networks

Entrepreneurial networks are important because they are sources of information, ideas, motivation, and business partners. Strong networking is a big success factor, but not having enough market exposure and less interaction with related people can be a big obstacle, particularly in initial stages.

Fear of Failure

As per a research study, 43% of people don’t make their move to start a business because of fear of failure.

Keeping in mind all the obstacles, arousing entrepreneurial interest among young people is still important. Various organizations have highlighted numerous advantages of youth inclination towards entrepreneurial landscape.

• Youth entrepreneurship contributes to job creation, ultimately leading to economic growth.
• Young entrepreneurs are more likely to prefer young people with fresh knowledge of market trends, ultimately resulting in reduced youth unemployment.
• According to African Economic Outlook 2012, young people who are into their own businesses have better ‘life satisfaction’.
• Entrepreneurship will encourage the discouraged or unemployed people and provide an opportunity to have a better lifestyle.