Like many millennials, Candace Mitchell, now 29, graduated from Georgia Tech in 2011 with student debt. But Mitchell stands out from others her age because her debts didn't discourage her from launching a successful start-up; instead, they motivated her.
"When I started my company I was year out of college, so one of the top things on my mind was student loan debt," she says. "I decided I wasn't going to allow it to hold me back. Even with a little debt, I knew that I would have an opportunity to really pay it back in full through the success of this venture.
"Rather than seeing it as a weakness, I saw it as an opportunity."
Mitchell was inspired by her own struggle with brittle hair and the inability to find the right products to help. She co-founded the company Techturized, Inc., in 2012, and launched the consumer brand Myavana two years later. Myavana, which recommends products for its customers via hair analysis, has a storefront in Atlanta and and nearly 2,000 customers around the country.
"Student loan debt is an epidemic that is troubling for many millennials financially. We are always pressed to get a greater education. But what happens is, when you graduate and go into the job market, you have these astronomical payments. You can't really invest in the things you really want to — things you are talented at and passionate about," she says.
"I think it holds a lot of people back."
A 2016 report from the Small Business Administration found millennials are on track to become the least entrepreneurial generation in recent history. In 2014, less than two percent of millennials reported self-employment, compared with 7.6 percent of Generation X and 8.3 percent for baby boomers. That's attributable in part to their youth. But the growth trend in the same report showed that, even at age 30, less than four percent of millennials reported self-employment in their primary job in the previous year, compared with 5.4 percent for Generation X and 6.7 percent for boomers.
"Trends among the age groups millennials will join in future years suggest that entrepreneurship among millennials will remain relatively low for decades," the report states.
With college far more expensive, and more necessary, than it used to be, and student loan debt topping $1.3 trillion, research institutions like the Kauffman Foundation are in the beginning stages of studying the impact of this burden on entrepreneurship among millennials. Early results are not encouraging. Loans affect millennials' ability to build credit, manage equity and find cash flow to launch new ventures.