A yearning for flexibility and purpose at work is driving young people to ditch employment and go it alone. And with the internet at their disposal, they’re playing by very different rules to their parents’ generation.
Morgan Hardy was studying for a degree in medicine when the country locked down in March 2020.
Back living at her parents' house near Great Yarmouth, she and her younger brother Logan found themselves looking for a way to make up for lost earnings after being let go from their part-time jobs - and had a lot of time on their hands.
She said: “Neither of us had any money so we figured we’d just try something different.
“When else are you going to have that much time on your hands?”
That something different turned out to be exactly what the social-distancing people of East Anglia needed.
Together with Ms Hardy’s boyfriend George Chrisovelides, the enterprising trio scraped together their savings to purchase an old horsebox, which they kitted out with a pizza oven, and started making fresh pies to sell at outdoor events.
And despite investing more than £12,000 into the venture, the Norfolk teenager said she never doubted they could make it a success.
She said: “We’ve grown up with social media where you’re constantly seeing other people getting out there and doing things for themselves.
“Its empowering to watch people your age do that and you think ‘well why shouldn’t I do that too?’”
The confidence paid off.
READ MORE: Teens launch pizza business to beat lockdown jobs slump
In the first three months they’d already made back their initial investment, and scored a regular pitch at St Olave's Priory Farm.
With Logan now in his first year of a business degree at Chichester University, their business hours are limited to the academic holidays, which Ms Hardy said suits their plans just fine.
She said: “We’re not fully relying on it, we’re giving ourselves options.
“That’s a really rewarding position to be in.”
GENERATION SELF-BELIEF
Priory Farm Pizza is far from an isolated case of generation Z entrepreneurship.
An estimated 52pc of under 25s reported having a “side hustle” in a 2023 study by software company Adobe - nearly double their Generation X (20pc) and Boomer (14pc) counterparts.
And perhaps unsurprisingly, young CEOs said the internet played a key role in their endeavours, with online tutorials and social media listed as their top resources.
Having such a wealth of tools at their disposal may explain why this generation feels more able to strike out on their own than their predecessors.
Just over half (55pc) of the under 25s studied said they would feel comfortable creating their own branded materials rather than hiring experts, with 74pc describing themselves as "extremely confident" in their digital capabilities.
That’s compared to just 56pc of Gen X and 39pc of boomers.
Their belief in themselves is contagious.
Start Up Loans, part of the British Business Bank, has provided more than £100m worth of funding to business owners aged between 18-24 years old since 2012.
Of those loans, more than £7.5m worth of finance was dished out to to start-ups in the East of England, with north west Norfolk youngsters securing the second highest amount in the country.
NOT MY BOSS
Despite ranking so high for entrepreneurial spirit, this generation often comes under fire for its attitudes towards work.
More than a third of businesses say Gen Z employees are harder to motivate than other age groups, according to a survey by professional services network Grant Thornton.
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This directly correlates with young peoples’ view of their employers, with 67pc of the young adults who took part in the adobe survey describing working for someone else as their “worst nightmare”.
For business owners like Ms Hardy, this attitude stems from a desire for flexibility and a sense of purpose at work.
She said: “When we finish a shift and people are messaging us saying our pizza is the best they’ve ever had, that’s incredibly rewarding - knowing you’ve built something from the ground up and seeing it pay off.
“I think our generation is starting to break down the stigmas associated with not doing things the traditional way.
“A student loan isn’t enough to get by on, and I think my brother would say he’s learned a lot more about business from doing this than he has with his degree.
“Being able to work for yourself is hugely empowering, and I think we’re going to keep seeing more young people do it as technology continues to make it more accessible.”
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