General Business: Good article

Someone just sent this to me, and I thought I'd share:

Advice to the brave young entrepreneur
By Luke Johnson
Published: November 25 2008 22:16 | Last updated: November 25 2008 22:16

I see that according to a recent study the youth of today are now known as the Smug Generation. Not for long, I suspect. Pretty soon they will be classified as Young, Gifted and Broke.

For someone graduating next summer, it will be the worst job market for decades. Large numbers will remain unemployed, unable to climb on to the conventional career ladder. They will be competing with thousands of older, more experienced candidates who have been made redundant.

They may well leave college with high debts, high self-esteem and high expectations – which are likely to be dashed. They will be full of hopes about a green and sustainable workplace – all of which will be irrelevant when they cannot get work, or certainly very few of the high-flying jobs they all dreamed about. Almost no one will be taking on staff next summer – except possibly the government.

Perhaps the first step for many will be to defer the agony and travel the world, living on little and earning while they can. I never embarked on such a step, but I regret not taking more time off when young and venturing abroad to live. Patience has never been a virtue of mine. I was too keen to get started in a vocation and find my place in the world, but when you are in your early twenties there is no great rush.
Assuming there are no suitable vacancies, the alternative to a year off is to become self-employed. In some ways the very best age to work for yourself is when you are young and single, with no dependants or obligations such as a mortgage. Security should not matter: what is important is gaining experience and credibility. As the Jewish novelist Sholem Asch said: “Youth has the resilience to absorb disaster and weave it into the pattern of its life, no matter how anguishing the thorn that penetrates its flesh.”

The obvious area in which to start a business is your field of study or particular passion. Only you know what they are. I would counsel that you avoid the obvious markets, products and services. Aim for the obscure, the boring, the unresearched, the niche, the undesirable, or the ugly opportunities. These are places the crowds miss.

All this may conflict with your passion – but then these are hard times and compromise may be necessary. For example, what about the death care profession? Undertakers seem to be trading well, despite the downturn. And how about the fish trade? Being a fishmonger is smelly and involves antisocial hours, but is a fairly stable and specialist line. And, of course, the online universe offers unlimited openings.
What matters most is that you can turn a profit and keep going. The other overriding priority is to choose a project that requires almost no capital. The economic slump means there is minimal funding for businesses – new or established – just as there are few plum jobs. The government may do more to help finance early-stage companies, and any initiatives such as this are to be applauded. I would also advise you to work with a partner or two: teams are more likely to survive than sole operators.

None of this will be easy, but it may be no harder to earn a living running your own show than getting the job you really want. Typically fewer than one in 10 run their own businesses; but maybe this will be the era of freelances, independent and inventive. The freedom and satisfaction of being your own boss are hard to beat.

Our future depends on youthful energy coming up with brilliant ideas that gradually solve our problems and give us all hope. I spent much of my twenties frustrated that my life as an entrepreneur was not taking off as I had expected. But I suppose I was serving a sort of apprenticeship – gathering knowledge, contacts and resources to use later on.

So I say to those who face bleak job prospects: take the plunge, and if your schemes come to nothing, at least you tried. The most fascinating people I have ever met are those who have seen life as an adventure and a great experiment and managed to retain their optimism along the way