Opinion: Young people setting up in business for themselves are facing financial risk and a massive learning curve

By Elizabeth Davies

One of the hardest things about being in your twenties is learning to trust your gut and take financial risks.

The biggest challenge many of us will face is finding the confidence to invest in ourselves.

These are the years to take a leap of faith and lay your money on the line, before you have a mortgage and kids. A financial failure in your twenties is a disappointment, not a tragedy. Your biggest advantage is the fact you have nothing to lose.

All over New Zealand twenty-somethings are saving small pockets of capital and investing in themselves, launching small businesses with the hopes of big success. 

These young start-ups are not just ambitious, they’re brave.

The young people involved are not only facing financial risk and a massive learning curve, but many of them lack support from family and friends who see their actions as risky and immature.

After all, what gives them the right to make money from their passion while everyone else hates their job?

In typical Kiwi fashion, misery loves company and all too often people with big aspirations are cut down before they have a chance to rise above.

That being said, high risk means high reward and those that can push through will be generously praised.

I’m in the process of starting my own business and will be the first to admit that it’s ridiculously hard.

As far as I’m concerned it’s all about trial and error - screwing it up until you get it right.

I’ve invested a couple of thousand dollars in my vintage furniture refurbishment business.

From the furniture itself, to tools, paint, not to mention countless hours of physical work, the blood, sweat and tears only serve to make the final outcome that much more satisfying.

It also helps knowing that you’re doing something for yourself, and the profits or losses lie in your hands.

Start-up costs alone can be enough to cripple you before you even learn to walk in the business world.

My minimum wage earnings barely allowed me to scrape together what I needed.

I learnt very quickly that you can't really do anything alone, except foot the bill. I’ve relied heavily on the charity and support of those around me.

I spent the last weekend quietly sitting next to my good friend as he set up my website, coding and all. His willingness to help me not only saved me paying someone to design my site, it also was a small show of faith. It’s nice to have someone believe in you.

As you get older life seems to become more and more about skill sharing, helping each other help yourrselves, and doing what you can to help people get where they want to be. I’m constantly amazed by the things young people in this country are doing.

They’re doing it on their own time and with their own dime.

All they are asking for is a little bit of faith.

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*Elizabeth Davies is a 23 year old post-graduate journalism student at Auckland University of Technology. She lives with her partner in Epsom and spends her free time refurbishing vintage furniture and attempting to bake while fighting a daily battle against her bank balance. She writes a weekly article for interest.co.nz on money matters and financial struggles from a young person's perspective.