Self-Startups: Young professionals respond to global disruption by embracing entrepreneurship dreams

The next generation of entrepreneurs knows what they don’t want.

They’re not interested in working 40 hours per week in an office with little autonomy over their schedule and income. This is a generation whose high school education was disrupted by a global pandemic, challenging formerly held assumptions about the world and workplace. They’re not just asking what could and should change; they’re going out to claim it for themselves – resulting in an increased number of youths choosing entrepreneurship. In a 2024 survey from Junior Achievement USA, a nonprofit advocating for economic success for young people, 71% of respondent teens reported they are “likely to consider starting a business as an adult.”

“They believe that there’s some other structure or way to have a fulfilled life and not have to sacrifice their work-life balance to get it,” said Darline Mabins, who works as director of community engagement for Community Partnership of the Ozarks Inc. and has mentored and supported young business owners in her career in banking and through the Multicultural Business Association. “They’re looking for alternative ways to have that quality of life because so many things are out of reach for them.”

Daniel Goering is a Missouri State University associate professor and researcher of entrepreneurial psychology. One of his recent studies, pending publication, suggests that students may increasingly seek entrepreneurship, in part because of the normalization of uncertainty following COVID.

“These hierarchies and these predictable structures were completely shifted,” he said. “The younger people are seeing this, and they’re thinking, ‘Well, there’s so much chaos even within a ‘traditional’ employment career path; why don’t I just do my own thing?’”

Goering’s research supports that many youth are disillusioned with traditional employment arrangements, instead desiring more autonomy to negotiate factors such as working from home, use of technology and schedule.

Gabriel Cline, Springfield-based psychologist with expertise in adolescent care and CEO of Psych Associates, said conversations about career self-efficacy are happening as early as 12 years old. This is when children enter the concrete operational stage of development, defined by honing logic skills and conceptualizing concrete events such as career aspirations.

“We’re seeing people want more and more autonomy or more and more control over their life, especially this younger group that talks a lot about work-life balance,” Cline said. “That’s a real focus for them, and one way they ensure that, they control their schedule, and they control how much they work.”

Ready for startup
Ella Steele is a first-year MSU business student and Nixa High School graduate. She’s earning her degree with the goal of owning a flower farm and event venue, focusing on environmentalism and sustainable gardening. When considering career aspirations, entrepreneurship provided the sense of autonomy she wanted.

“Independence is attractive about (entrepreneurship) because you get to go off and have your own creative flow,” she said. “I have free rein to do what I want and then ask mentors whenever needed.”

In the Junior Achievement study, 22% of teens reported they were inspired to start their own business through a school program. This was true for Steele, who developed her plan in high school through the Greater Ozarks Centers for Advanced Professional Studies. Known as GO CAPS, the program is hosted through Springfield Public Schools at MSU’s Efactory and provides regional schools the opportunity to send students to participate in career readiness programs including ones for aspiring entrepreneurs. Steele also attended Drury Leadership Academy’s Chocolate University. She’s now a Greene County Master Gardener and works at The McCauley Foundation Inc., a nonprofit focused on sustainable farming.

Career readiness programs for high schoolers have expanded, said Mary Edgerton, Springfield Public Schools’ director of college and career readiness, and students are more likely to have opportunities to explore work options outside of traditional avenues.

“My wondering is if that is part of the change – how education has changed and how we’re exposing students to what life is like when they are ready to graduate,” she said.

Steele said each opportunity for workshops, shadowing, education and networking creates a container of refinement before she even begins her venture.

There is an adaptive nature to iteration, Cline agreed, building resilience over time.

Programs like GO CAPS allow youths to test-drive business ideas in safe spaces, said Misty Shirk, the GO CAPS entrepreneur instructor.

Higher education can continue that function for young entrepreneurs, Goering added, by creating a space to experiment and gain skill sets to make them more successful.

“‘Follow your passion’ by itself actually is not good advice,” Goering said. “The passion part is the fuel, that’s how you want to look at this, but you still need the skills.”

Mabins said youth are more flexible with training options, just as they’re more flexible with careers – sometimes choosing a two-year degree or trade program rather than accruing more significant debt in a four-year degree. While college is not the only route to success, Goering agreed, training spaces in whatever form do provide an important function.

“It’s still competitive, but you can fail fast first on the prototype, work out the rough edges, learn those entrepreneurial skills, how to be proactive, how to take accountability for yourself, as well as the hard stuff like finances,” he said. “Suffer through your ideas and experiment through them to see what does it take to have a good idea; what does it take to have a successful business?”

Networking is also a critical aspect of these educational phases for young entrepreneurs, agreed Edgerton and Shirk.

“They start to make that network and start to learn from the professionals that are years ahead of them in the game,” Edgerton said, “and then tailor their path in a way that probably has fewer pitfalls than what experienced entrepreneurs had experienced.”

That network becomes essential when seeking capital. Youth entrepreneurs often face funding difficulties and may not be taken seriously by potential investors due to their age, said Shirk. Early networking while in school is often pivotal in proving their merit and earning backing for initial capital – especially when obtaining a Small Business Administration or other loan may not be an option due to not having a credit score. Even so, Mabins sees youth entrepreneurs adapting by identifying creative funding outlets or modifying their approach to scale over time.

Steele knows it will take a great deal of capital to purchase a farm. So, she’s considering starting with a flower truck and then scaling over time. Either way, like many youth entrepreneurs, she’s not waiting for her dream to grow according to typical standards but tilling the soil now in preparation for a harvest.

“We’ve always been taught, if you want to do a business, you have to have $50,000 to $100,000 to get started,” Mabins said. “Instead of waiting for something to happen, they’re just starting it without waiting for that $100,000.”