IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) e-ISSN: 2278-487X, p-ISSN: 2319-7668. Volume 19, Issue 3. Ver. II (Mar. 2017), PP 80-84 www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/487X-1903028084 www.iosrjournals.org 80 | Page Issues and Challenges among Young Entrepreneurs in Malaysia Anis Amira Ab Rahman, Nik Maheran Nik Muhammad, Rikinorhakis Ridzwan Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, 16100 Kota Bharu, Malaysia Abstract: The involvement of young entrepreneurs has increase by 30 per cent from the total of 2.6 million entrepreneurs in 2014. This is due to the Malaysian government policy, continuous encouragement, increasing incentive and intervention strategies to develop this group of entrepreneur. However, in spite of all the supports, the percentage of failures among young entrepreneurs is still very frightening. Studies found that, there are only 20% of entrepreneurs survives and successful every year. In reality, they must have their own capabilities and it is depending on how they manage their business resources to success. Meanwhile, young entrepreneurs also need to noticed that it necessity for them to links with environment in order to strengthen access to markets and resources management. Hence, a thorough understanding of how youth entrepreneurs utilize their resources, thus how they bring contacts is important, because this will lead to the development of new tools, such as (1) tools for business to improve their innovation and growth processes and, (2) tools for governments to develop new policies to support and direct economic growth. Keywords: Young entrepreneur, resources, resource orchestration, networking, entrepreneur success, entrepreneurship I. Introduction Young generation is an important asset to the economic development of a country. This is because they have a strong vitality that is needed for economic development. In addition, at a young age, they also still have the strength both mentally and physically [1]. Recently, young generation especially youth constitutes a large segment, which is 43 percent of the total population in Malaysia. Involvement of youth in entrepreneurship has become a major discussion among policy makers, educators and students throughout most developing countries [2]. Accordingly, youth had become one the important assets for many countries in sustaining the country’s economy. Based on that, the Malaysian government, in order to create interest in entrepreneurship among youth, provides initial capital to start a venture. There are also an initiative had been launched by government to curb unemployment rate among graduates because many people in Malaysia involvement in entrepreneurship at the young age where this is an important for career development. Meanwhile, youth efforts towards entrepreneurship during the economic crisis were praised by the government and society. Involvement of Malaysian people in entrepreneurship sector is rapidly increasing. Surprisingly, there are huge numbers of participation among those who aged less than 40 years old. This can be categorized as young entrepreneurs. They wanted to be involved in entrepreneurship because this activity will allows them to create values and provides them with the opportunity to turn their dreams into reality. Further studied by [2] have classified three important stages of young entrepreneurs; which are consists of teenagers with range aged between fifteen to nineteen years old (called pre-entrepreneurs), the budding entrepreneurs who consist of young adults with aged twenty to twenty five years old and the emergent entrepreneurs who consist of those aged twenty six to thirty five years old. Along with the current situation is increasingly more challenging, the youth nowadays must have the proper job to ensure their success in the future [3]. Accordingly, the determination of appropriate careers among youth is very important to continue to live a more comfortable way. However, a major challenge faced by youth today is difficult to get a suitable job. This is due to the existence of growing competition and limited employment opportunities [4]. From that, the career that should be selected not only contributes for their economic development, but also will contribute to the economic development of their families, business, communities and country. Lately, a career as an entrepreneur is a career that often chosen by the younger generation because this career is indeed gives a good income [5]. II. Issues And Challenges Becoming self-employed among youth is increasingly more relevant in the future. As Malaysia is a small country, youth can no longer rely on job opportunities. More jobs will become irrelevant in the future, thus making it tougher for people to secure jobs [6]. For example, based on Labour Force Statistics Malaysia in January 2015, the unemployment rate rose to 3.1% compared with 3.0% in December 2014 despite more jobs being created [7]. This was due mainly to an increase total of labour entered the marketplace. With that, Malaysian’s government also has been long trying to increase the number of successful youth entrepreneurs