Posted on : 10th April 2023

Views on Being a Young Entrepreneur in a Developing Nation

I was around sixteen years of age when I involved myself in business ventures and eventually founded our organization in the year 1999. There was no turning back after that, and we kept on achieving new milestones with our play school and formal school chains and various other ventures. Being a young entrepreneur myself, albeit now I have turned over fifty, I understand the vast challenges youth entrepreneurship in India brings along. 

The benefits of youth entrepreneurship are many, but the risks and insecurities also are many. Nonetheless, opportunities, too, are many. 

What is youth entrepreneurship? 

Youth entrepreneurship usually refers to the self-employment opportunities explored by young people aged between 15 and 24. This age factor may vary, and also the definition varies according to the context. And then some young entrepreneurs are quite young, and we have "older" young people on the other end. 

Also, it is not as simple to demarcate youth entrepreneurship in India due to there being many other factors. 

Some become entrepreneurs due to a lack of another livelihood, while some want to make it big and earn more than their salary-paying jobs.

There are then those factors too which restrict individuals from harnessing all the benefits of youth entrepreneurship. The disadvantages of being a young entrepreneur are that there is generally a lack of capital, lack of relevant networks, lack of proper business acumen, lack of training, and lack of risk-taking courage and freedom. 

Why is there a need for youth entrepreneurship? 

It's not easy being a young entrepreneur, but it is the need of the hour and it is not that complicated either. 

Our country has the second-largest population in the world, and a booming population equals the need for more resources and jobs.

There are not enough jobs for everyone while the population of our country is increasing dynamically. So, that's where entrepreneurship and being a young entrepreneur beautifully fit in. 

Entrepreneurs can be people of all ages and all genders, and for that matter, everyone can be an entrepreneur, but there are factors delimiting a majority of our population despite them having a well-defined business idea in their minds. 

There are disadvantages of being a young entrepreneur, but youth entrepreneurship is the best way to go for our country, if truth be told. 

Youth is accompanied by energy, activism, enthusiasm, motivation, and risk-taking. This all sometimes, not always, fades away when one grows older. Entrepreneurship requires all these in most cases. 

Some entrepreneurs are self-employed and have small businesses only for livelihood and subsistence. They might not be contributing to job creation in the economy, but the fact that they created jobs for themselves is an achievement in itself and contributes to the progress of our economy.

Then some entrepreneurs are self-employed and they eventually contribute greatly to job creation for a number of people. 

The benefits of youth entrepreneurship are that it is the youth in general that persists till they make it big. The power of the youth cannot be undermined in the context of entrepreneurship. 

This is not to say that people who are older cannot succeed as entrepreneurs. Youth is after all a state of mind in many respects. If you carry enthusiasm and constant motivation within you, nothing can stop you from achieving your goal and making your business idea a reality. 

The need for a youth entrepreneurship program

We need entrepreneurship programs so that individuals are prepared to wade through the challenges and opportunities that accompany entrepreneurship. 

It is not only a youth entrepreneurship program that we require, but there should be programs which address multiple situations that people find themselves in while they are on the road to entrepreneurship. Some want growth while some want just subsistence. There are also varied factors hindering everyone. For example, lack of capital/finances/resources is one of the most common issues that young people face. "Older" young people usually have their savings to rely on. Women, on the other hand, are hindered by gender roles as well as a lack of capital, training, and networks. 

Entrepreneurship, esp. youth entrepreneurship in India, thus poses a number of obstacles. 

If the foundation is laid strong from the very beginning, I think that some of these obstacles can be passed through from the very beginning. 

Education is the means to that strong foundation. "Decoding Startups", for example, is a program we launched for our students recently. I authored "Decoding Business Minds" to guide every common person aspiring to become a successful entrepreneur.

It is all about the initiatives. If children and the youth are trained for job creation rather than job hunting, issues like unemployment and poverty could be resolved to a great extent.
Entrepreneurship programs, as well as entrepreneurship, hold great potential for our country, and if we and the government make the journey to being a young entrepreneur, and even an old entrepreneur, navigable, it holds immense opportunities for everyone. We actually need to cultivate entrepreneurship skills on an urgent basis.

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