Bad Habits of Young Entrepreneurs

Getting into entrepreneurship at a young age can have many advantages even though age is no limitation for the success of a business. In general young people tend to have more time and fewer preoccupations compared to adults while on the other hand, older people have more experience and knowledge. Despite all these, there are quite a lot of factors that influence the success of a company especially during the most delicate phases of a business lifecycle. Such success factors include hard work, good networks, strategic planning, leadership, effective communication, courage and decision-making, and good marketing and sales skills.

At the same time, the recipe for success requires good habits besides the hard and soft skills. Also known as beneficial behaviors linked to a high level of discipline and self-control, good habits are essential to the health of individuals as well as to the health of a business.

How to cultivate good habits?
One effective way is to start with the opposite by identifying bad habits and replacing them with good ones. An easy way to do this is by identifying emotions and feelings that make you feel unmotivated, stressed, or unhappy. It can be a bad choice, mistakes, and even people who dry your energy out. Anything like these can cause a massive depletion of enthusiasm. Lack of motivation in any area of your life will soon affect other areas resulting in a state of being too overwhelmed.
Hence, as a young entrepreneur motivation is key not only to achieve goals but also to identify what are the things that you’re doing that are harming you or your enterprise. Here are some habits that you need to avoid if you want to be successful.

Lack of communication skills
Good communication skills are crucial for business development and profitability, teamwork, and better decision making. Communication is such a wide field. You might be less talkative, but this doesn’t mean that you’re not communicative. However, if you don’t talk much there is the chance that people think you’re arrogant or you don’t know what to say. On the other hand, those who speak less and say more are sometimes considered reliable and trustable. It all depends on the circumstances and the people you have in front. If you’re in a business that requires a lot of talking with potential clients find a partner that loves to talk and let them do that part.
Moreover, good communication skills help to build great relationships with employees, clients, boost business agility. If a company lags fast and wise decision-making due to a lack of communication between different people, the business will somehow fail to keep pace in a fast competitive market.
“Communication is one thing and good communication is another,” says student entrepreneur Brendan Cox.

Not listening to others
In business, a huge amount of work depends on the leader listening to the people, and the remaining part depends on the people listening to the one that leads. According to research, only 10 percent of people are effective listeners. They just listen with the intent to understand and without waiting for their turn to speak. In business, effective listening can drive growth. You will have to listen to your partners, employees, customers. This means that you will have to pay attention to everyone. Such figures make listing sound like a superpower. Maybe it is because when you’re a good listener you can hear what is not being said.

Procrastinating and laziness
Although procrastination and laziness are different, they succeed to make people not do the right or best-expected thing. Further on, they can turn goal/task achievement into a long agony. Why do it later if you can’t do it better? Do not fall in the trap of "procrastinators are smarter, great visionaries, more creative, etc". Instead, learn how to beat it.

Reacting to criticism
Being young and an entrepreneur, brace yourself for lots of criticism. Like it or not people will criticize your work.
What to know about criticism:
It’s not always negative feedback but it can come from an angry client
It can be helpful
It can test your ability to hear different opinions
If your critic is ill-intentioned be nice and kind
Grow a thick skin when it comes to handling criticism and possible partners/clients will like your emotional capacity

All these apply not only to young entrepreneurs but to anyone new to entrepreneurship. You can always improve yourself and even inspire others to get involved in building sustainable communities. If you are an inspiring entrepreneur working in a social cause, take our free online training or join the 2020 Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition by submitting an idea or project.