Is 21 Too Young to Start a Business? I Did It — And I’m Still Standing at 23

At 21, I didn’t think I’d be running a business. I had just lost my job. Five people were depending on me, and I had to make a decision, not someday, not eventually, but right now. I’d always wanted to own a business, but I never imagined it would come this fast or this hard.

Starting a convenience store sounds small from the outside. But the first six months? They hit like a truck.

The council spoke in absolute jargon. I was thrown into an existing business already in motion, and I had to sprint just to keep up, like trying to run on a treadmill that was already moving at full speed. There was no easing into it. I thought being my own boss meant freedom. I was wrong. There’s no time to mess around in this life, you wake up and it’s go, go, go.

What shocked me most was the competition. No one tells you that corner shops aren’t just community staples, they’re battlegrounds.

Of course I felt like giving up. Even today, at 23, I sat crying in the stockroom because my body couldn’t take it anymore. But I have a family to look after. This store, this tired, cramped, relentless store is the only rope holding up my dream and my life.

Over these two years, I’ve learned I’m stronger than I ever thought. Stronger than what my mind, my body, or my soul want to admit. I’ve had days that hit like a lorry. I’ve had the council create problems out of thin air. I’ve heard people in the village made a group chat just to talk about us. But I’m still here. Still moving. High school Mia could never.

People think owning a convenience store, especially as an Asian woman, is a cliché. Maybe it is. But no one sees the cost. No one sees what you give up for the kind of financial freedom that’s built on losing so many other freedoms. It’s survival disguised as routine.

If I could go back and sit with that 21-year-old version of myself, I wouldn’t lie to her. I’d tell her: That was the easy part. It’s only going to get harder from here. But I’d also tell her she’d have something she didn’t expect, a husband and a sister who’d become pillars when everything else feels like it’s falling.

And that might just be enough to keep standing.

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