Youth voice – Youth building their own businesses

Over the past few weeks, I’ve found myself drifting through a sea of social media algorithms. Turns out I have way more free time when I mute my university alerts. But in my moments (and sometimes hours) of zombification, stories of local youth entrepreneurs fill my page. As I scroll past one, there’s always another waiting for me a few videos later. As a journalist-in-training, I decided to find out what’s behind this abundance of young entrepreneurs.

A recent US study found that youth entrepreneurship had increased from 16 per cent in 2019 to 24 per cent in 2023, and almost a quarter of young people intended to start a business within three years, as of 2023. 

Looking for more answers, I spoke with 19-year-old Paddy Tickner, who runs his own business called DumpJunk. He says the motivation for starting it was seeing others succeed.

“I guess it started because I saw what other people could do, and I was like, I’m no different to them, so I gave it a shot.” 

He says he also felt pressure from social media to make money. 

“There’s definitely times that I’ll see something online and think I’m behind or not doing what I should be doing, and it’s really hard to not get caught up in it.” 

Liam Wood and Eli Hansen are both 16 years old and together run their business, Coast Auto Detailing. They say their motivation came from a lack of job opportunities and a desire to set themselves up for the future. 

“If you start young, then you can build it so when you get out of school you can be full time,” Eli says.

They also saw how their entrepreneurship inspired others around them.

“People around us see our success and have gone out and started their own thing,” Liam says.

It’s clear there is a growing passion for business in the youth community. And from what I’ve been told, there is no lack of encouragement from people on the Coast. Paddy says his junk removal business has been well received by the community.

“There’s been so much support; I think we’ve done probably over 300 jobs now, so it’s been awesome to see.”  

Liam and Eli say they have also received encouragement from the Coast community.

“Some people choose us just to support young people.”

It’s heartening to see so much support for local youth entrepreneurs, and as more young people are pursuing careers in business ownership, I would encourage our community to continue fostering an environment where they can follow their passion.