“If you are starting your business at a young age, focus on the importance of forging a long-term relationship, whether with employees, client, partners, or financiers. Remember when you are young; it is often easy to get caught up in short-term decisions & goals”. Shares Mr. Gaurav Jalan, Founder & Director, Packman Packaging
Entrepreneurship is not just a profession or a personal shift from employee to employment generator; rather entrepreneurship is adopting a new way of living your life. It is an inner and outer journey of a person life, where he/she brings capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage business ventures while taking the risk, necessary to make the business successful, says Mr. Gaurav Jalan, Founder of one of India’s largest packaging company Packman Packaging.
Mr. Gaurav Jalan entered his formal entrepreneurship journey at the mere age of 18 years by 
single headedly developing and coding India’s first e-commerce online packaging store (www.packman.co.in), in the year 2002 (5 years before Flipkart was launched). Mr. Jalan went for the bank loan and set up a complete state of the art packaging manufacturing unit in Delhi NCR region.
This was the start of India’s leading packaging company – Packman Packaging. Today the company provides packaging solutions to all leading start-ups, e-commerce giants like Flipkart, Amazon, Lenskart, small scale manufacturers as well as to manufacturing giants like Samsung, Bosch and more.
According to Mr. Gaurav Jalan, the common challenges that Indian young entrepreneurs faced here are:
1. Age Stereotypes
One of the common challenges that young entrepreneurs in India face is age stereotypes. Older people might instinctively judge as an immature or irresponsible person, refusing to give you a chance to earn their trust.
Young entrepreneurs can counter age-based stereotypes by maintaining professional conduct and respectfully treating everyone you encounter. As a rule of thumb, you can guide your behavior by treating other people in the same manner as you would like them to treat you.
So they should believe in yourself and stand firm when others mistreat you because of your age. Confidently assert your abilities and recognize your ambitions. Hold yourself, not others, responsible for your success.
2. Social Rejection
One of the common challenges that Indian young entrepreneurs face is social and family rejections. Family members, friends or even their fiancé might not understand why they are not going for a secure job and entering the chose to start a business. Not receiving any support from your loved ones can certainly be a challenge.
Young entrepreneurs can combat feelings of rejection and isolation by networking with other young entrepreneurs. But remember social rejection will slowly subside with the growth of your new network of supportive peers as well as with the growth of your business.
3. Facing stress and self-doubt
As a young business owner, one might not have a steady income at first, so he/she might have days when you have trouble paying the bills. Stress can sometimes cause discouragement and make you feel like you want to give up. But every time you don’t give up, you fight back, your identity and innovate solutions, you will turn mentally stronger and enhance your entrepreneurship capabilities and help you develop business insight.
So deal with this type of self-doubt by reviewing and revising your goals and task lists. Also, try to reduce your stress by improving delegation, minimize stress with regular exercise and meditation.
4. Missing Realistic Expectations
It true financials are always limited at the early stage of business and it possesses one of the biggest challenges for young entrepreneurs. But that does not mean young businessman should suffer realistic expectations, remember and be prepared – profit many not appear instantly. It may take several years before your business sees any substantial profit. This underlines the need for you to have a liquid emergency fund and a solid financial plan before starting your business.
