Why it is Easier to Start a Business Sooner Than Later

As some of you know, I have begun working on a book about why every young professional should start a business.  I am a VERY strong advocate of being an entrepreneur.  Their are so many misconceptions that exist – you need to be “born” an entrepreneur, you need lots of money to start a business, you have to be great at something and many other myths that are 100% FALSE.  The truth is, anyone can start their own business.  It isn’t easy, but it also isn’t impossible for anyone.

I had the pleasure of sitting with a friend and her son yesterday – he is 18 years old and has indicated an interest in being an entrepreneur at some point in his life.  As we were talking, I made a very important point that I would like to share here – it is much easier to start a business when you are younger.  I’m sure many of you are thinking the complete opposite; that it would be easier later in life to start a business when you have experience, knowledge, money and the guts to take a chance on a new business.  That isn’t the case and I will explain why.

Let’s say that you are 22 years old and a recent college graduate.  Chances are that even if you are living on your own and responsible for all of your own bills, your total monthly expenses are under $2,000 per month.  Obviously if you live in New York City and L.A. this wouldn’t be true, but for the vast majority of 22 year olds, $2,000 per month will get the job done.  If you are living at home, you might be able to survive on $1,000 per month.  The point is that you have very low monthly expenses as a 22 year old.

Fast forward to when you are 30 years old and you will likely have some or all of the following – home mortgage, car payment(s), a spouse, children and an overall higher standard of living than you did at 22.  You might have monthly expenses of $4,000 per month or $8,000 per month; chances are they are significantly higher than they were for you at 22 years old.  For the sake of this conversation, lets say your expenses are $6,000 per month.

So if you were going to start a business, do you think it would be easier to start something that would produce a $2,000 profit per month from the start or one that would produce $6,000 per month from the start?  You can have 10 years of experience, money saved up and a great work ethic, but at the end of the day you will need to make 3 times more money to even survive.  Also, it will most likely take more start-up money (from your savings or an investor) to build a business that produces a profit of $72,000 per year rather than one at 22 years old that produces $24,000 per year.  Other reasons to start the business at a younger age include:

• More time to work on your business (life only gets more complicated as you get older)
• If you fail you will still be young and have plenty of time to rebound and move on
• You have time on your side – you can slowly build your business and won’t need it to quickly grow
• If you start a business at 25, you will have 5 years of experience owning a business by age 30
• Chances are you have less responsibility (no spouse and/or wife) if you start a business early on, so if you fail you are only letting down yourself, not an entire family

I could go on and on, but I just want everyone to be aware of the massive advantages of starting a business when you are young.  Every person has a different situation and circumstances, but in general, there is no better time than now if you have an interest in being an entrepreneur.  Even if it is only something on the side, get started on creating your own revenue stream and see what happens!