What age did you start at?

airscotty

Just curious as to what age people started there own business? I've always liked the idea of starting my own business and you hear stories of people starting them at 18,19,20 etc but I guess there's something to be said for having a few years experience first?

Then again I think the risk is lower if your straight outta college...you have no morgage or money anyway so you've nothing to loose!

Acoshla

I started mine at 25, dropped out of college and bummed around getting experience in all sorts of things for 4 years, retail, design, food service, vet nursing. At 25 I hated my job, had no debts and like you said had nothing to lose so just went for it.

YouBuyLocal

airscotty wrote: »

Just curious as to what age people started there own business? I've always liked the idea of starting my own business and you hear stories of people starting them at 18,19,20 etc but I guess there's something to be said for having a few years experience first?

Then again I think the risk is lower if your straight outta college...you have no morgage or money anyway so you've nothing to loose!

The businesses you start without experience are less likely to succeed. But that doesn't make it less important to start them or make them less consequential. You've got to gain experience and you can get good experience in good companies or good experience in your first business, success or failure.

Experience is also a much more ambiguous concept than most people recognise and it can come from lots of different places, not just in business.

But I think people should do things off their own backs very earlier, it matures you & sobers you up very very quickly.

Chet Zar

YouBuyLocal wrote: »

The businesses you start without experience are less likely to succeed.

YouBuyLocal

Mark Zuckerburg would have got absolutely zero support in Ireland, and couldn't have grown the business without investment.

PCPhoto

YouBuyLocal wrote: »

Mark Zuckerburg would have got absolutely zero support in Ireland, and couldn't have grown the business without investment.

he couldn't have grown the business without any investment in any country, its how you repay the investors while keeping control and how to keep the investors silent.

I agree that Zuckerburg would have gotten ZERO support in Ireland - if you have an idea or concept in Ireland you have to fund it yourself or find funding yourself - unless you are related or know someone who is involved with the various offices who offer "support"

Chet Zar

YouBuyLocal wrote: »

Mark Zuckerburg would have got absolutely zero support in Ireland, and couldn't have grown the business without investment.

That wasn't the point in question though. You were saying that you are less likely to succeed without experience, which I don't think is true at all.

But I don't think he would have gotten zero support in Ireland - you don't know that a VC or angel investor of some description would have seen the potential and put some money down. Obviously it's easier in the likes of Silicon Valley, but it can't be ruled out.

YouBuyLocal

Chet Zar wrote: »

That wasn't the point in question though. You were saying that you are less likely to succeed without experience, which I don't think is true at all.

But I don't think he would have gotten zero support in Ireland - you don't know that a VC or angel investor of some description would have seen the potential and put some money down. Obviously it's easier in the likes of Silicon Valley, but it can't be ruled out.

Number 1: Yes, I agree that there are certain industries, especially consumer tech, affiliate marketing & some other sectors where the industry is so new and online behaviour is so ill-understood that young people have a considerable advantage. That says nothing for the paradigm shift from a centralised distribution of data & information to individuals to an all-to-all peer communication marketplace that is unfathomable to most of the people over 35 or 40 that I know. Its one of the biggest shifts in history and its so subtle that its implicit, and this leaves a gaping wide open-door for young people still in the process of learning about the world rather than just living in it as a static institutional format like older people, that young people can just simply walk through. Business is still hard, but there are less barriers to entry in some industries. That meant that MZ had an opportunity and took it, fair play to him.

Number 2: But in all industries there are business processes, organisational structures and specialists in particular areas that you just can't pick up on the fly. It takes a lot of mistakes and trial and error. Those mistakes can be enormously critical and I would suggest that MZ, while incredibly intelligent, was not immune and could easily have fallen short the way equally intelligent people do all of the time. My example would be Rob Kalin, of Etsy, who saw a frickin' excellent opportunity in a niche market that ordinary bizness people (accentuate the hard "z" for the jargonetricians) would have balked at and turned it into a global business. Just him and two mates and they earned 16,000 quid in 2005, up to 60m dollars in 2011, revenue.

Number 3: Most Irish VCs would laugh at the lack of a business model MZ had. I would expect that they could invest in RK's Etsy quicker because he earned money in the first year, but even then they would have said "but what about the promotional costs? Do you know how much investment it takes to promote a global marketplace website?" Users wouldn't have mattered much to the majority of Irish VCs as they would have looked at all of the competition (myspace, friendster, whatever), the simplicity of the site, the lack of revenue and said "I don't get it - where is the money?"

Number 4: How many VCs in Ireland do you think there are with the pockets deep enough to get a facebook off the ground? Not many, and that makes the odd one you need to make a punt even less likely to find.

Finally, I think you've got to try your idea regardless, and then use the experience to push into something new or pivot in some way if you come unstuck. Dive in, its the only way for a young guy without financial dependents or a mortgage etc...

YouBuyLocal

And also, you put up a single example to counter a statement that said "less likely". How does that make any sense at all? One contra-positive to a relative statement?

Chet Zar

YouBuyLocal wrote: »

And also, you put up a single example to counter a statement that said "less likely". How does that make any sense at all? One contra-positive to a relative statement?

It was but a humourous response to your statement, is all

I think there are just too many variables at play - as you say yourself - to even say that it is less likely that you will succeed with less experience. 'Experience' is a bit of a nebulous concept in itself, and as you also say it can come from anywhere. For me, passion, determination and self-belief are the main determinants to whether someone will have a successful business or not. Plus freedom from the responsibilities of 'adulthood' - mortgage, wife, kids, bills, etc - which can serve to put a bit of a dampener of sorts on the drive someone might have.

Facebook were far less experienced than MySpace - Murdoch has eons more experience than Zuckerberg - but he still bought MySpace for over half a billion dollars and ended up selling it for $35 million! While he admits (to his credit indeed) that they made huge mistakes, Zuckerberg has barely put a foot wrong.

Yahoo was an established company whose myriad seasoned executives completely dropped the ball in a big way and will forever be playing second fiddle to two Stanford college dropouts who started Google in their early 20s!

And in Ireland, Ray Nolan started his business Hostelworld in his 20s and sold it for €300 million ten years later. His funding source? A hostel owner in Dublin and then a bunch of other people who made small investments - zero millions from VCs there. He built it from the ground up with passion, using a brilliant and novel idea to make millions from the early stages.

I think we also have to be careful not to discourage anyone in their teens or twenties reading this thread. Yes, depending on the industry, experience can play a big part. But as I said, it is far too vague a concept to hold much weight, especially when you can bring in people around you to fill in the gaps in knowledge and expertise along the way.

getsome

Chet Zar wrote: »

I think we also have to be careful not to discourage anyone in their teens or twenties reading this thread. Yes, depending on the industry, experience can play a big part. But as I said, it is far too vague a concept to hold much weight, especially when you can bring in people around you to fill in the gaps in knowledge and expertise along the way.

Im already discouraged being 21 and having a 7 month old son, sounds like i would fit in with the group who have nothing to lose, anyone young people with a family manage to come over financial difficulties of starting up a business and having something to lose

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

In fairness you don't need VC funding to start your first business, why does everyone talk as if the only way to be an entrepreneur is to be a Mark Zuckerberg? These guys are the exception to the rule, he never wanted to be a business man or an entrepreneur.

In business you need hard work and solid research. To be an entrepreneur it's not necessarily wise to drop all your sources of income and take a big risk. You can start small, work a day job and create a business in the evening. If you have limitations like lack of capital, start a business that isn't capital intensive.

The best time to start a business is "as soon as possible", the longer you put it off the more you end up amassing debts and getting sucked into the comfort zone of a paycheck at the end of the month. If you make a list of whats the worst that could happen and then address those issues, you'll find there isn't as much holding you back as you think.

airscotty

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan wrote: »

why does everyone talk as if the only way to be an entrepreneur is to be a Mark Zuckerberg? These guys are the exception to the rule, he never wanted to be a business man or an entrepreneur.

I kinda agree here....while its great to have examples of people who have set up businesses which turn out to be worth billions and billions for the vast majority of people planning to set up something this is just pie in the sky.

Anyway suppose I just need a good idea now :rolleyes:

Acoshla

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan wrote: »

In business you need hard work and solid research. To be an entrepreneur it's not necessarily wise to drop all your sources of income and take a big risk. You can start small, work a day job and create a business in the evening. If you have limitations like lack of capital, start a business that isn't capital intensive.

That's exactly what I did, no big investment needed, able to do it around a regular job, it's the easiest way to do it.