You don’t have to be ‘old’ to start a business

lot more to develop entrepreneurship from a very early age.

There has been a mistake to try to link age to competence or success when it comes to business and this has resulted in Africa in general having depressed entrepreneurial activity due to the open hostility shown to young entrepreneurs in Africa generally and Zimbabwe in particular. There is a general tendency to try and shut out and block young people who are seeking to enter into business. Often one is encouraged to seek a job and not to create one.
An entrepreneur is widely defined as a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and is accountable for the inherent risks and the outcome. That individual is prepared to launch a new venture or enterprise and accept full responsibility for the outcome, accepting both the risk and the reward. Such people are in great demand in Africa generally and Zimbabwe and South Africa in particular due to the macro-economic conditions prevailing in those two countries which require entrepreneurs to create new ventures.

It is important for Zimbabweans from a very early age to be properly equipped with the necessary entrepreneurial skills and spirit backed by the necessary infrastructure needed to ensure success. From an early age it must be instilled that value and wealth are created from utilising resources and skills around you.
There are certain common words frequently used to describe individuals with entrepreneurial flair and spirit and these include mavericks, innovators, failures, tycoons, pathological liars, risk takers, self-made business people, successful, charismatic. It is clear in these words age really has nothing much to do with it. In short, you don’t need to be any particular old age to start a business and succeed.

There are well-known qualities that are usually found in most entrepreneurs, these include creativity, risk taking, uniqueness, business savvy, developing potential, adaptability. It is these qualities which make one a successful entrepreneur and not one’s age. Age clearly has no direct bearing on the success of true entrepreneurs even though experience may be relevant. One tends to get more experience the older they get but that alone cannot make one a great entrepreneur.

African governments should devise policies to develop a culture of entrepreneurial thinking. This can be done in a number of ways: by integrating entrepreneurship into education systems, formulating laws which legislate to encourage risk-taking, provide funding, and national campaigns which are targeted at the young and youthful who form a pool of potential entrepreneurs and generally create the required entrepreneurial infrastructure.

It appears there are two natural age peaks correlated to entrepreneurship – mid to late 20s and mid-40s, even though there is no general rule. Some studies note that being a younger founder greatly improves your chances of success in a venture. It’s normally easier to get free Press coverage when you’re younger which gives the individual free publicity and helps build a brand and that encourages people to invest in you or your venture.

According to Wikipedia “Entrepreneurship” is the act of being an entrepreneur, which can be defined as “one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods”. This may result in new organisations or may be part of revitalising mature organisations in response to a perceived opportunity.

The most obvious form of entrepreneurship is that of starting new businesses (referred as start-up company).
From the above definition it is clear one must still be very young to take such risks and have the energy and drive to see through an economic adventure meant to create value and wealth. This points to the conclusion that Africa should invest more at a very early age possibly from nine years old to instill values and the spirit of entrepreneurship in its population. Form a very early age children must be taught and encouraged to become entrepreneurs.

If the various economic empowerment as defined by BEE laws in South Africa and indigenisation laws in Zimbabwe are to succeed entrepreneurship and business concepts need to become part of the vocabulary and curriculum at very tender age preferably before children enter high school. They need to clearly know that entrepreneurship is acceptable as a way of life and society will accept young people who venture into it and they will be rewarded once they succeed.

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