A young Aussie has actually exposed exactly how he is gaining a six-figure wage and building his very own course without mosting likely to college or carrying out any type of official training. More Gen Z employees are dropping the standard 9 to 5 workplace life and launching their very own services.
Jack Cunningham began his very own visuals layout printing service, being experts in motocross graphics, when he remained in Grade 12. The currently 27-year-old informed Yahoo Finance he educated himself visuals layout on You Tube and would certainly deal with his service after college.
“I was doing all the design work in my bedroom after school and then getting a local print shop to do all the printing for me,” Cunningham claimed.
“Then by the time I had finished school, I was making enough money doing that that I just went and bought all my own equipment and went into that full-time straight out of school.”
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Cunningham worked full-time for himself until he was 23 years old when he decided to sell the business. In his final year of running his business, he shared he was turning over $200,000.
The Queensland man now works full-time as an operations manager for a different graphic design printing company that prints custom motocross graphics, plastics and accessories. He also runs his own videography business, Demolition Media, on the side which mainly films action sports.
“The videography business started from filming my friends at the skatepark. We’d all just go and ride and I got a camera and it was just fun to begin with, so it kind of happened very naturally,” he claimed.
“I got a little bit of traction pretty quickly. I started going to some events and competitions and just filming for myself, just for fun, and then had quite a few brands reach out to me to film their athletes.”
Cunningham said he currently worked 40 hours a week in his full-time job and put an extra 15 to 20 hours per week into his videography business.
He shared he was earning between $100,000 and $150,000 from his two jobs, with about a third of his income coming from his own business.
“For me, it’s something that I love so much that I look forward to the time that I put into the business,” he said.
“It very much feels like a hobby that I’ve monetised. It doesn’t necessarily feel like work.”
Tax and accounting service Hnry said it had noticed more Gen Z’s were ditching the traditional 9 to 5 and going out as their own bosses, with Gen Z sole trades skyrocketing 127 per cent in 2023.
yf-1pe5jgt”>Hnry managing director Karan Anand said more Gen Z’s were becoming sole traders and prioritising the flexibility it brought. · Source: Supplied
Technology is the other big factor that Anand thinks is driving the shift.
“They’re the first generation who are coming into the workforce as digital natives and what digital technology has done over the last 15 or 20 years has really reshaped workplaces and workforces as well,” he said.
“So they approach the 9 to 5 concept very differently to preceding generations.”
For Cunningham, technology meant he was able to teach himself and carve out a successful career without going to university and accumulating a huge HECS debt, something that is weighing on many young Aussies’ finances at the moment.
“I pretty much learnt everything on YouTube,” he told Yahoo Finance.
“All of my graphic design stuff I just learned on YouTube, all of my business knowledge was pretty much trial by fire, I was just in the deep end of it. So all self-taught.”
Cunningham said access to information meant it was easier for Gen Z’s to create their own path and learn their own way.
“You don’t necessarily have to get an apprenticeship to learn how to do something, or you don’t necessarily need to go and work for somebody else to learn the skills,” he said.
Anand said the concept of a tradition 9 to 5 and working for a single company for years was no longer appealing to many Gen Z’s.
“They yf-1pe5jgt ” he said.
A survey by Hnry found Gen Z’s reported better work-life balance as sole traders (69 per cent), a high level of personal satisfaction (67 per cent) and an improvement to their mental health (32 per cent).
Gen Z also reported a higher income in the final quarter of 2024, a 16 per cent rise since June 2024. More than half said they felt secure in their job (59 per cent), while a similar amount felt financially stable (56 per cent).
“>Cunningham said the biggest benefit of running his own business was being able to follow his own vision.
“I am lucky enough in my current full-time position, my director has a lot of trust in me to kind of steer the ship,” he said.
“That’s the biggest thing for me is being able to steer the ship, run my own race and chase after the vision that I have.”
yf-1pe5jgt “>Cunningham said the biggest benefit of running his own business was being able to follow his own vision. · Source: Supplied
But there could be challenges with being self-employed, Cunningham said, particularly when it comes to managing your money.
“I found early on when I found success in my first business, it was very easy to get silly with money when you’re 19 or 20,” he said, sharing he burnt through a lot of capital to try and grow the business faster than it was able to.
“>“That’d be my advice to someone starting out is make sure you’re on top of your money, make sure you handle taxes because they can sting.”
Anand recommended people starting their own businesses get on top of their financial obligations as soon as they start earning money.
“Make sure you’re setting up your business correctly. So what’s the right structure for you? Should you be an ABN sole trader? Do you need to set up a company? And what’s involved in those things as well,” he said.
“Make sure you take control of your time and don’t let it get away from you.”
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