08/17/2026
Young business professionals are doing things differently, but no matter what business trends change, we have the professional tools you need.
53% of Gen Z workers now choose freelance careers over traditional 9-5 employment, according to a recent Upwork survey. 69% of kids ages 6 to 14 have already started or plan to start a side hustle, per Acorns. The shift isn't about rejecting work. It's about rejecting waiting.
A K12 survey of 380 young entrepreneurs who've hit five-figure independent incomes found that 68% share the same primary motivation: gaining independence. Cost of living came second. Peer influence and family pressure were distant third and fourth.
How they're getting there: 30% through freelance services, 29% through selling physical products, 18% through reselling and flipping items. More than 60% fund their first serious business effort with their own savings — no investors, no outside capital.
The most telling part of the survey is what they wish they'd been taught. The top five skills young entrepreneurs say school failed to cover: how to market themselves or their business, how to create a business plan, how to pay taxes, how to invest and save for the future and how to budget. Five of the most essential business fundamentals — none of them reliably delivered in a traditional education.
The gap between what school prepares young people for and what entrepreneurship actually requires has never been more visible. The generation filling that gap on their own is already doing it — and they started before most people told them they were ready.
Read more: https://www.entrepreneur.com/money-finance/how-young-people-earn-5-figures-without-a-9-5-job-report/494380
