Registering a Ltd company isn't the only way to incorporate, there are many other types of company, each with their...
The word ‘Millennial’ can mean different things to different people. To some, it’s a pejorative term used as shorthand for a stereotype displaying a particular set of characteristics and belonging to a particular age group. Like pretty much any stereotype, it’s a brush that’s too broad and isn’t necessarily representative of the group being tarred with it.
Increasingly, we’re seeing a new generation of business owners, much younger than the ‘traditional’ business owner of old with a different perspective when it comes to dealing with insolvency.
A reassessment of priorities – ‘Normal’ Is Changing
While many of us might view owning a home, owning a car and spending our working lives, pursuing a career from our early twenties to retirement as being the ‘norm’ we should aspire to, Millennials might not necessarily share that perspective.
The thing to understand about Millennials, is that they’ve grown up surrounded by debt and uncertainty. Since the financial crash, jobs are less secure than they used to be when their parents were of the same age. Their parents and grandparents might have been able to support a mortgage and family on a single average income, but today there’s little prospect of that, especially as young people leaving university today do so already saddled with student debt it will take them years to pay off. Yet another burden their parents weren’t called upon to bear back in their day.
The idea of a job for life is as mythical a concept as an affordable home and. as such, pragmatic Millennials are more likely to pursue different life goals than these ostensibly old-fashioned ‘norms’.
One facet of the ‘Millennial’ stereotype which doesn’t get the attention it should, is their sheer optimism and willingness to attempt self determination rather than chase the bottom rung of traditional jobs. These are the conditions which have led to a new wave of young entrepreneurs and business owners, who’re starting companies and earning their own living decades before their parents might have considered working for themselves.
Starting Businesses Earlier In Life
While the Millennial approach to business ownership is as youthful as they are, business practices and business rules apply to them just as much as any other business.
As much as this new generation of business owners is giving the business world a shake-up, there are some universal business truths which cannot be escaped. The most pressing truth is that cashflow is the lifeblood of any business. A lack of profit will eventually be the downfall of any business large and small, but failing to keep control of a company’s cash flow can also lead to a speedy demise.
Millennial Insolvencies
Millennials have grown up with technology and are unlikely to remember a time when the internet wasn’t ubiquitous and accessible. They’re adept at finding their own solutions from a variety of online means and aren’t afraid to seek help or the opinions of others when they feel the need to do so. This is a trait which often leads them to us sooner rather than later, enabling us to provide assistance in the early stages of financial issues. It is in early stages that an Insolvency Practitioner is most able to help save a business.
At Lines Henry, we’re experts at business recovery, but one of the problems we see time and time again is that the owners of businesses in difficulty take so long to seek help that they end up limiting the options available to them and as such there’s far less we can do to help. Not so with Millennial business owners. We currently see more interest in the help we can provide from people aged 25-34 than we do for any other age group and we welcome this new willingness to seek assistance and the increased likelihood of full business recovery it brings.
Whatever generation you belong to, seeking advice with your finances in the early stage of insolvency will give you a better outcome than leaving it until later.
Speak to us, we can help.
