The Wanna-be Entrepreneur Aspiration-Reality Gap
According to some recent research carried out by Santander, many people have strong entrepreneurial aspirations, with the desire strongest among younger people.
57% of Millennials (born 1980 to 1996) have become entrepreneurs or plan to. However, for groups born even earlier the number of those wanting to work for themselves was much lower at 36% for Gen X and 25% for baby boomers.
Gen Z seem to be especially optimistic about the quality of their future businesses: 39% of them think they could launch and run a business from their Smartphone, and 45% think they could make money from social media.
So here we have a significant minority of younger people thinking they will simply be able to 'work' from their phones utilising social media.
Reality checks down the line...?
While I wouldn't ever actively discourage people from trying to set up their own business online, or to try and make money out of social media, I think for the VAST MAJORITY of these people they are going to have a rather large and unpleasant reality check viz work down the line!
There are around 5 million self-employed people in the UK ATW, which is around 15% of the workforce. However many of these aren't really 'entrepreneurs' in the digital-utopian sense of the word: many will be doing trades, or just working freelance doing regular jobs such as copywriting, for example.
So there's a long way to go between the statistical reality today and the youthful aspirations of tomorrow.
I just don't think there's that much demand for the kind of jobs you can do on your phone over social media. There's demand for care workers, and other similar 'regular jobs' but not the kind of cushty lifestyle-relaying digital jobs that millennials and gen z want.
Granted there are surveys revealing that 25% or more of the population have a 'side hustle', but the vast majority of these generated < £500 a month so these are top-up incomes that maybe allow you to do your regular job 3 or 4 days a week rather than5 days a week....
The reality seems to be people taking on a second job alongside a regular job to keep up with the cost of living increases, it isn't people building their own little business online and that's their main focus!
The later seems more like a luxury for the already rich.
Final thoughts...
I'm wondering if this is maybe contributing to our mental health crisis... this anomie between what people WANT to do for a living and the opportunities out there that actually pay you enough to live off!
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Blame it on you tube for showing these unrealistic earnings from influencers.
Nothing is that simple.
They are like 0.01% of YouTubers, they do exist, but very top tier are earning a comfortable salary say above $40K a year just YouTubing!
You can see where this is heading and unfortunately the younger generation are looking for the easy way out and life is not that simple. I must admit I have been disappointed with the work ethic of the 20-30 year old age group as the majority seem to have no drive in them.
Oh dear, at that age it's no good, no way they're gonna get ahead, but it is a thing apparently!
I think this is spot on. From my experience, a lot of the younger generation feels entitled to huge pays, but seems completely unwilling to accept the duties that come with it.
Indeed, if you want the money, you have to work for it, in most cases!
For sure; but for some, the definition of "work" seems kind of blurred... :)
I try to make art. I enjoy it but selling it is very hard. Some years ago I thought: I will create a facebook page for my art that will help me get sales. So I did that. I also shared my works in various facebook art groups. I also had a contract with a physical art gallery, signed up in Artmajeur online gallery and on Hive to schowcase my art. I gifted many of my pieces away...And despite all this 7 years later I have only sold 5 art pieces. So I also was naive when I believed that as long as I will make art someone will buy it.
Art is a really tough one to make a living out of I think! Worth a go mind!
That is an interesting topic that requires a lot of depth of research.
Firstly, I'm pleasantly surprised that 57% of Millennials have/had entrepreneur aspirations. They are mature, adult people who should know the risks, pros, and cons of being entrepreneurs. To be honest, I'm very surprised by that high percentage...
On the other side, for GenZ, it's a bit the opposite thing.., a lot of them are inexperienced adults, without "real data" of what is needed to be a successful entrepreneur... So, I kind of agree with you about the reality check... Being in crypto and seeing people with high expectations of being rich by buying a chunk of meme-tokens, kind of approves that premise...
Not saying that it is impossible to be a young entrepreneur, just saying that not many will succeed, but that's normal for everything in life... :)
I think that this percentage is even higher in Spain, but I would say that it is a bit "rigged" number... A big chunk of self-employed, are having that status just to get more neto salary, and to pay less taxes by their employers...
I 100% agree with you on this! Sidejob has nothing to do with running your own business, building it up, and growing it...
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Precisely - it is A LOT tougher than most people think. The problem is you only tend to see the positives online, no one is bragging about their failures, well unless they're now a success.