Issue #13: Do you want to start your own business?
If you're Gen Z, then the answer is probably yes.
Hi! Hope everyone’s week is going well. This week’s issue is kind of a part two, building off of some of the themes I shared in my last issue. If you haven’t read that one yet, go check it out!
We’re starting this week’s issue out with a poll! Among my readership, I’m curious who would consider (or currently is!) starting their own business/being an entrepreneur. I know a few of you are, but feel free to respond to this email or comment with additional thoughts around how you think about entrepreneurship.
I’m asking because I saw this Business Insider piece come out earlier this week, and it’s all about the entrepreneurship dream among Gen Z. I always hear about how every Gen Z-er wants to be an entrepreneur (according to stats cited in this article, 78% of Gen Z respondents said being an entrepreneur was the most accessible job and one in three Gen Zers said in a 2023 Instagram survey that the best way to get ahead financially was through "some form of self-employment”). But I’m actually curious – do we?
Personally, entrepreneurship sounds nice, yes, but I’m also aware that it’s also highly challenging and unstable and frustrating. There’s this big social media conversation around the lifestyle of entrepreneurship as this lucrative, flexible, fun, easy thing (and maybe it is, for some!). On top of that, there’s this recent cultural obsession with entrepreneurs that we didn’t used to have. Entrepreneurs are much sexier and much more admired and glorified than they ever have been. They graze the covers of magazines, they have huge social media followings, and they do interviews in The Cut.
The social media conversation around entrepreneurship coupled with the celebrity of the entrepreneur both contribute to a cultural obsession with entrepreneurship that I believe has incentivized Gen Z to strive for it. But there’s another factor at play.
The Gen Z entrepreneurship dream has also stemmed from the reality that that dream is more accessible now than ever. We now have a multitude of tech platforms and resources – everything from Shopify to QuickBooks to Canva – for anyone to build a business at any time. Means of production are much easier to attain than they were fifty, or even ten years ago. But with more accessible tools comes an increasingly saturated market. The barrier to entry for many businesses is quite low (of course, with the exception of new technologies and products), so it’s no surprise that competition becomes greater.
Let’s use an example of a category that I’ve previously discussed. When there are like twenty different non-alcoholic liquor brands out there, the need for brand differentiation becomes increasingly necessary. If all of the liquor companies sell relatively similar products at relatively similar price points, consumers will choose a product based on its brand. Brand becomes the main factor in the consumer decision, thus cementing the need for it to be exceptionally stand-out and compelling.
In an increasingly crowded space with many young companies, like the non-alcoholic liquor space, businesses become the brand. I discussed this in my last issue. When we break it down, the chain of effects looks like this:
Accessible means of production → Low barrier to entry → Saturated market → Need for brand differentiation → Businesses are all about brand
So, as our cultural obsession with entrepreneurship continues alongside our increasingly accessible means of production, then we might just see a lot more businesses that are primarily the brand (and particularly businesses started by Gen Z leaders, who operate at the nexus of this economic and societal landscape). Sorry, is this complex? This feels like my most MBA issue yet.
As brand differentiation becomes more of a key determinant of business success in increasingly saturated markets, then we really have our work cut out for us. Building a compelling, unique brand is no easy task, especially when there are a bunch of others trying to do the same thing. (Again, that’s why we should all aim to start our companies in really boring categories like Liquid Death did!).
Thanks for reading :) And stay tuned for my very first Brand Baby interview in next week’s issue. She’s someone I really admire, and I’m so excited for the conversation!