If you want to start an online business, there isn’t a better time than when you are in your 20s. The sooner you get your business plan up and running, the sooner you can start earning some cash.
If you monitor global trends, you will have noticed that shopping is moving away from brick and mortar physical stores. The internet has made it possible to do business online like never before. Not only is it convenient, but setting up your business is much cheaper and there are tons of tools to help you get started. But why start in your 20s?
Source: Freepik.com
You don’t have as many commitments when you are young
As you grow older, so do your commitments. When you are in your 20s, you don’t have a family that you need to support. This means that you can take greater risks because the only one who will be affected is you.
Not only are your social familial commitments low, but you’ll probably also not have too many assets or things to worry about. As you accumulate, you become weary of the risks and tend to be a lot more placid in your business decisions
You can get ahead sooner and achieve long-term financial security
Starting an online business when you are young provides you with the opportunity to attain long term financial freedom a lot quicker. You can start small, but you’ll have the time to grow your business.
You’ll also have the time to up your skills. Seeing that you are already investing in an online business, you might as well learn how to grow and manage your ecommerce store while you’re at it. The sooner you start your business, the sooner you can gain experience and learn how to avoid the pitfalls.
You develop faster as a person
Starting your own business is serious stuff and people take great pride in what they do. Most 20-year-olds are still very immature and don’t know what they want to do with their lives. Starting your online business has a way of propelling your development forward.
As a person, you’ll develop much faster because of the life lessons that are constantly at play around you. You learn how to value things and you also discover what truly has value, much quicker. Hint, it’s not how much money you have.
The world is your office
One of the greatest parts of starting an online business is that you can do it from nearly anywhere. The world or your garage can be your office. When you start your business when you are young, you probably don’t have that much money to spend on real estate either. Depending on your business, you could even use a container to keep your stock.
Your overheads and startup costs are low
You’ll probably start small and be your own boss in the beginning. Some people prefer to start a business in a partnership. Whatever your business model and structure, when you start an online business, your overhead and startup costs are minimal.
If you have the skills, you don’t even have to pay someone to design and set up your online store. Even the software you need for sales is more affordable than paying someone to man a register.
Source: Freepik.com
You know the social media landscape
You are a digital native, which means that you grew up with social media. You know the ins and outs and which platforms to use for your marketing campaigns. You also know how to get the word out and make something stand out from the crowd.
One can almost say that your social life has been training you to start an online business all your life. All you have to do is to apply your social skills in a business sense and you’ll see how your business grows before your eyes.
You have passion and drive
When you are in your 20s, you are still a bit green and naïve. When it comes to starting your online business, this is not a bad thing because it breeds passion and drive. Younger people have a far greater drive for what they believe in because they feel that they can take the beatings.
If you were one of the lucky few to be brought up to fight your own battles, then there is very little that will stand in your way of making a success of your business.
Your body can handle the pressure better
Let’s face it, running a business is stressful and the older you get, the harder it becomes to take the strain that owning a business brings. In your 20s, your body is at its peak and you can take the strain.
You’ll certainly also have to put in some seriously long hours if you want to see your business grow. A task that someone in their 20s can take with a smile.
Rejection hasn’t gotten you down yet
As you grow older, you start to shy away from situations where you get rejected. In your youth, you still have a fairly thick skin and a hard head. You are willing to go out and strike out and try again the next day.
The older you get, the harder it is to get back up from a sucker punch of rejection. You give up much quicker.
You have time to fail
Lastly, the sooner you start your online business, the more time you have to recover if things go sideways. Not all businesses succeed, but when you are young, you can crash and burn. Your business can fold and you can go back to the drawing board with much more experience and time to start fresh.
There isn’t a downside to starting your online business when you are in your 20s. The odds are stacked in your favor and your chances of making a success of your business are much better. In the end, you’ll be miles ahead of someone who started later in life, even in your business folds.
This article has been published in accordance with Socialnomics’s disclosure policy.
