Teens favor business ownership as career path

A Junior Achievement Worldwide poll shows an increase of five percentage points in the number of teens this year over last who want to be business owners.

Of 1,155 polled, 27.2 percent are interested in starting a business in professional services, like accounting, law or insurance. Another 25.8 percent said they would like to open a retail business.

Most teens know the start-up process is difficult and requires a plan, as only 10 percent said they thought starting a business would be easy or very easy.

The top reason for starting a business was “having a great idea and wanting to see it in action,” according to 46 percent of teens. Survey respondents said the main reasons people choose not to start a business are lack of start-up funds, 33.5 percent, and fear of failure, 32.5 percent.

Despite the popularity of starting a business, teens favored company employment, 38.1 percent, to self-employment, 36 percent.

JA Worldwide is a national organization that teaches young people about business, economics and entrepreneurship.