What are the Life Stages of Entrepreneurship?

The short answer is “At Every Point in Life”. Many people want to own their own profitable business dreaming of fame and fortune that usually comes with owning one. However life presents many obstacles and distractions that people delay being one until the thought totally disappears in one’s mind. Let us study the varying periods of entrepreneurship…

ChildHood Years

This stage is usually characterized by the high involvement of parents in their child’s entrepreneurial venture. These are usually not very profitable ventures. Think of lemonade stands, selling chocolates, selling rocks and so on. However the Cuteness Factor plays a big part in the success of a child’s business.

There are however successful child entrepreneurs. There are even millionaires. For example there is Ryan Kaji who at 8 years old earned $29.5 million in 2020 by reviewing and playing with toys in his YouTube videos. There are still other child media sensations who use their cuteness factor to make a lot of money even at a young age.

If you are a parent you should seriously consider building a brand around your children without affecting their childhood development. This is a time of exploration in a child’s life where they are still not chained to real world responsibilities like jobs. The earnings a child can potentially earn during childhood can be the one that sustains them in their adulthood when they do not have the cuteness factor anymore.

Teenage Years

This is again a period in life of exploration and low real world responsibilities. This period is usually characterized by a teenager’s high involvement with their friends and socializing especially in social media. Many teenagers tend to start businesses attuned to teen culture and social media.

Since most teenagers are still dependent on their parents for financing teenagers usually approach their businesses on an exploratory basis. This is because teenagers are still much more involved in the other facets of life. They could be primarily into entertainment, sports, socializing and so on. An example is Cory Nieves. He is in the cookies business.

College/Vocational Apprentice Years

This is when the business bug starts to really infect a person. College students are exposed to new business trends at school courtesy of their studies. They are unlike working people who are now too busy with office activities and going up the career ladder. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame is the best example we have.

He has the distinct title of being the richest of the young billionaires in the world. He was already earning money even while in college by doing programming jobs. When the idea of Facebook came along he took advantage of the opportunity and made Facebook a global household name.

College is a stage when most people evaluate if an employed life is meant for them. They even begin to think about their supposed destiny in life. There are those who rebel against these fates and will try to escape it. This is especially true today when we see many college dropouts becoming millionaires and even billionaires by taking a chance in their business ideas.

This is also true for those in vocational apprenticeships. There are jobs that allow young people to create their own businesses once they have learned the trade. For example jobs in carpentry, plumbing, electrical and so on can easily translate to service businesses that pay big money to the business owner and not the employee.

Many young people due to their business exposure easily realize this disparity and eventually setup their own service business. This is especially true for the franchising model where established businesses franchises mainly use their name and contacts to sell franchises to would be entrepreneurs.

Early to Mid Career Years

Once employed in a company people usually get comfortable with their careers and the financial purchases it allows them. The thought of creating their own business seems very hard and risky for them as compared to their current position. They would rather try to advance their careers which they consider a less risky move. This is usually a period in life where the thought of entrepreneurship is at its lowest stage and even forgotten.

The Glass Ceiling Period

This is when the careers of people have stagnated and when they become unhappy with their position in the company. They usually hop from company to company. There are people who soon realize that even though they changed companies and jobs their overall situation is still the same. They realize that they are still dependent on a company.

Many want to become entrepreneurs but after years and even decades of being an employee they realize that their knowledge and skills about entrepreneurship has practically dwindled into nothing. This is a stage in life where many people usually accept their fate that they would be just an employee for life. There are others however who begin to consider entrepreneurship seriously.

The Hustling Period

To those not resigned This is the period where people try forming their own businesses on a part-time basis. One thing to take care is that you do not let your job performance get affected by your hustling activities. Many people during the glass ceiling period get so unhappy with their work life that they jump blindly to any businesses and investment opportunities.

This is the time when many people get victimized by scammers who are experts at using the unhappiness of people with their jobs and financial situation. This should be the learning and testing period for entrepreneurs as they prepare to transition to become full-time entrepreneurs.

One good example is John Grisham. He is well known for his “Legal Thrillers”. Even though he is already a successful lawyer he longed for a change in life. He started to write his first book titled “A Time to Kill” in his spare time which was not a lot. It almost took him a year to finish his book.

His book sales were a failure. He was undaunted and began to sell his books himself. In the end he became successful and the book became a bestseller and was even made into a movie which also became successful. With this he then was able to successfully start his thriving writing business concentrating on legal thrillers.

Lesser entrepreneurs would have failed and would have given up. They would have usually returned to their day jobs. The best advise here is to stick as long as you can to the financial security of your day job. You should only leave your job to become a successful entrepreneur when you are actually one already and not before.

The All Out Period

This is when the person leaves his job to go all out. This is the sink or swim period. The saying “Do Not Burn Your Bridges” is most applicable at this stage. Almost all new businesses fail within a year. The casualty rate is nine (9) out of ten (10). A beginning entrepreneur should prepare for this very real possibility.

One should have enough resources to bide them during the lean periods which could take up to a year. For example in the blogging business it is not unusual for bloggers to suffer years of failure before becoming financially profitable. This could be initiated by landing a big client deal in one of your hustling campaigns. One should ideally have already a steady stream of clients to begin with.

The Failure Period

This happens during many of the different periods of a person’s entrepreneurial venture. The important part is that you have some sort of backup when this happens. This could be a job that you can return to or a big enough savings to tide you for a long time. During the childhood, teenage and collegiate periods this is not much of a problem since parents are usually a backup.

During the employment periods there is the job to go back to. One can just admit defeat or try again. That is why it is important not to lose your job during the unstable phase of the business. For the period where you go all out it is important to have a backup source of finance as you might have used your life savings to fund your business. This is usually repeatedly experienced.

The Try Again Period

In this phase people now know more about business and are more knowledgeable in their specific business niche. Others are tempted to try another business instead of doing the same business. The previous effort could be considered a waste or one might simply found out that the business niche is not for them. This is usually again repeatedly experienced.

The Survival Period

This is the period where the business is thriving but the entrepreneur is so overwhelmed by the tasks in the business. The bad part is that they usually do no have adequate financial resources to solve the problem like hiring extra staff. Many digital content creators for example outsource their staffing problems instead of hiring full-time employees.

The Short Success Period

There are instances when the entrepreneur mistake lucky breaks from actual business success. As a result they start spending big. Then the lucky break disappears and they are left with a big amount of debt as a result of spending big. This is one of the biggest reasons why many new business fail. Entrepreneurs must always have a financial backup when the lean times occur.

The Long Success Period

Many new businesses fail within a year. Of the few that remain a large number will fail by their third year. A business that has survived for five (5) years and above could be considered a success and stable. So entrepreneurs must not celebrate early and wait for a few years before stepping back from the business and relaxing a bit.

The What’s Next Period

By this time courtesy of their business the entrepreneur has enough funds sitting in their bank account that they do not know what to do with. The business is as successful and stable as it could possibly be. This is the time when the entrepreneur has outgrown their business and are looking for new business challenges or some other activities to devote their time and resources.

Conclusion

You can become an entrepreneur at any stage in your life. The earlier you start however the more are the chances of you getting familiar with entrepreneurship and developing the skills needed to be one. One of the greatest suppressors of entrepreneurship is when a person becomes comfortable and enjoy being an employee.

This is not at all bad but if you have dreams of becoming an entrepreneur the perks of being an employee might cause you to give up being one. Business success is not usually a straightforward one as you can fail repeatedly before becoming a success.

It can even take a long time but if you do become a successful entrepreneur either young or old it allows you to do a lot more things because of your fortune courtesy of your business.