Are Millennials The New Face of Entrepreneurship? How Young People Are Disrupting Just About Every Industry (Including Your Laundry Detergent)

We are in the golden age of entrepreneurship, and one thing is apparent: young Americans are definitely ready to be their own bosses. 

According to a OnePoll survey for GoDaddy, 30% of Millennials have a small business or side hustle—including many who have no work experience outside of their own business. One in five Gen-Xers also have a small business, but only 11% of Boomers could say they had one of their own. Millennials were also the most likely demographic to say they wanted to start a small business, with only 28% of Millennials stating the opposite. 

But why? 

Entrepreneurship is a field that not only rewards innovation, dedication, and creativity, but it requires it, and that’s where young people come in. Growing up in the era of young entrepreneurs, such as college drop-out Mark Zuckerberg and those features on tv shows like Shark Tank, it’s no wonder that millennials see work and success differently than the generations that came before them. Why climb the corporate ladder when you can build something that’s all yours? 

There are many reasons why young people are well-suited to entrepreneurial success. Millennials, and younger generations, in general, operate on a new set of rules informed by their understanding of the current culture, where it’s headed, and how it can change. Improving a product or service is one thing that can revolutionize your industry for a time, but to truly disrupt your market, you need to create a solution that offers customers something they didn’t have before or reach out to an underserved customer base. 

The brothers, Ian, Austin, and Robert did both of these things. They took a basic product, laundry detergent, and they improved upon it with better scents and higher quality ingredients to create Laundry Sauce. But the real way they disrupted the industry was by rethinking who their customers are and how their customers shop. 

To make waves in an antiquated industry, you must challenge it with a modern perspective. These brothers saw how the stagnant laundry detergent market didn’t target men, specifically male professionals, who enjoy more cologne-like scents. So, they created a product that did. And, like many shave-club companies, they set up a subscription package so their customer base can shop in a way that they are accustomed to. By supporting a highly niche and underserved audience, Laundry Sauce has disrupted an industry and expanded it.
Young professionals are not only looking at industries through a different lens; they’re looking at work as a whole differently. A study from America’s Small Business Development Centers shows that 61% of Millennials believe there is more job security in owning their own business than working for someone else. In a time where the workforce is fluctuating due to the global pandemic, the Great Resignation, and general uncertainty, millennials and younger generations are taking matters into their own hands by carving their own paths.

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