So far we have covered seven myths that revolve around self-employment. They include:

• The perception that self-employed people have to work for long hours
• Self-employment is riskier than traditional employment
• You need lots of money to start a new business
• Self-employment is stressful
• Self-employment is too complicated
• Self-employed people have to do everything themselves
• In self-employment, the customer is always right

As we continue with our 10 week series: 10 myths about self-employment, our focus today is: When’s the right time to start your own business?

One of my New Year resolutions is to make my first major investment that would later translate in me being self-employed. My focus over the past couple of years has been on increasing my net worth, which I have somehow managed to achieve effectively and I feel as though it’s time I put down some of my money to work for me. I recently turned 24, is this the right time to consider self-employment?

There’s so much information over the internet in this regard, some advocating for starting out early while others discouraging it. Which is the best option, wait until I'm older or start now?

Liz Kammel, a contributor at Forbes argues that starting a business at an older age comes with a higher risk of failure. She says that in as much as you will have gained a wealth experience from traditional employment and you are probably earning a lot, as long as you have huge family financial obligations, taking a pay cut, as it is the norm when starting a business, could result in failure. You’ll probably find yourself using most of the returns from your business in sustaining yourself and your family as opposed to putting it down as growth capital for your business.

Kammel further argues that while you are in your 20’s the sky is the limit. You will be in a better position to handle a pay cut since you probably have no mortgages or loans, no children or family obligations. Effectively managing a pay cut will enable you to invest much of the returns from your company in developing your business.

Starting your business while in your 20’s gives you room to gain a vast amount of time to gain experience in effectively managing your business. You will in fact learn more as opposed to the parson who started a business while in their 40’s.

If ever your business fail’s you are in a better position to recover financially as opposed to the entrepreneur who started his or her business at a much older age and failed, losing all of his or her retirement fund.

Rob May, an entrepreneur and finance opinion writer, recognizes the advantages 20 something year olds have if they start their business early. He however notes that starting your business at an older age comes with its own benefits.

Research actually shows that companies are more likely to survive if the entrepreneur is older.

If you want to start your business when you are 37 years old, you could use the period between now till when your turn 37 years to save up cash to fund your business until you reach a cash flow positive.

The older you are the more connections you might make which may come in handy when starting your business.

The longer you wait, the more opportunity you have to study the market you want to venture into and you can learn from the mistakes of your predecessors.

In as much as there are advantages of starting your business while still in your 20’s, there are advantages of waiting till you are much older. So how do you know it’s the right time for you?

May argues that the best predictor of entrepreneurship is not age, income nor wealth. It is your ability. Do you have the required skills to effectively start a business and run it effectively?

Some become very skilled while still in there 20’s while others later on in life. Your ability will determine the success of your business.