So much has been made of what millennials want, but what about those next in line: Generation Z? It seems that what they want most at work is to be their own boss.
A new study shows that a full 75% of young professionals have either already started or may consider starting a business. Entrepreneurship is also the top desired career path for young people, with 17.4% of those who aren’t working choosing starting a business as their aspiration.
Entrepreneurship may be the obvious choice, considering what young people value when it comes to work
; both millennials and Generation Z cited interesting work and continuous learning among their top five. And the younger generation also prized work they’re passionate about as one of their top three priorities.“Millennials are one of the most researched generations in history; what most employers neglect to realize is that this is not the only youth generation,” says Kelly Lovell, CEO of Lovell Corporation, an award-winning millennial consultancy and influencer marketing agency, in a press release.
“We can describe millennials as driven by growth and lifestyle in the workplace, while Generation Z are motivated by growth and passion,” Lovell explains. “This is a generation prioritizing the impact and purpose of their work before salary.”
Lovell Corporation produced The Change Generation Report: How Millennials and Generation Z Are Redefining Work in partnership with the University of Guelph. They surveyed more than 2,000 people across Canada between the ages of 14 and 36; 4% of respondents were black and another 3.5% were multiracial.
The report puts the dividing line between millennials and those who come after them around 1994/1995. It considers those born starting in 1994 as part of “Early Generation Z” and those born after 2001 as “Late Generation Z.”
When it comes to how those aspiring entrepreneurs in Generation Z plan to realize their dreams of being a CEO, it seems they face the same obstacles as other startups. Their top three deterrents to pursing business ownership were:
1. Access to capital
Respondents said that they simply do not have enough capital to make their ideas a reality.
2. Go-to-market
A significant portion of respondents fear that they do not have the means or know-how to adequately market their product/services, which would result in a failure to adopt consumers/clients.
3. Mentorship
Respondents indicated not knowing where to start and not having the skills necessary to succeed as an entrepreneur as key discouraging factors.