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Getting the respect of potential clients and employees is the most common problem mentioned by entrepreneurs who started heading up their own businesses while still in their twenties.
They say many people assume that a younger entrepreneur is less capable and responsible.
"I look very, very young and sometimes people don't take me seriously," said Mike Pollock, 29, who runs the Ossining.com Web site and creates video commercials for it.
"I go in with a nice button-down shirt and everybody takes me seriously."
Pollack and other entrepreneurs mentioned some common difficulties younger business owners have, but they added that there are ways of overcoming those obstacles. On the other hand, youth gives them some advantages as well.
Those points were made repeatedly in interviews with four successful business owners, each of whom set up his own company, garnered business and who usually supervises employees older than they he is. Along with Pollack, these other entrepreneurs were interviewed:
Aristidis Thanos, 28, has owned the 160-seat Landmark Diner in Ossining for the past three years, after it had quickly gone through several ownership changes. The diner has five full-time employees and is open seven days a week. Thanos is now starting up a second diner in Atlanta.
Tom Alongi, 22, owns Dynamix Consulting Corp., an information technology services provider in Pelham. The company, now in business several years, did $1.2 million in sales last year and has four full-time employees.
Evan Liaskos, 24, took over the Cortlandt Colonial Restaurant and Ballroom from his father after...