They've got the smarts and the confidence to get a job, but increasing numbers of the millennial generation — those in their mid-20s and younger — are deciding corporate America just doesn't fit their needs.

So armed with a hefty dose of optimism, moxie and self-esteem, they are becoming entrepreneurs.

"People are realizing they don't have to go to work in suits and ties and don't have to talk about budgets every day," says Ben Kaufman, 20, founder of a company that makes iPod accessories. "They can have a job they like. They can create a job for themselves."

Kaufman, of Melville, N.Y., named his company Mophie for his golden retrievers, Molly and Sophie. It earned a best-of-show award at the 2006 Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

He started out with financial help from his parents, but he now has more than $1.5 million in venture capital. His line of cases, armbands and belt clips is produced in China, which he visits several times a year, between classes at Champlain College in Burlington, Vt., where he's a sophomore majoring in business.

It's no surprise that Kaufman focused first on the iPod. His generation demands customized music, and now they are trying to do the same with their lives.

"They want to create a custom life and create the kind of career that fits around the kind of life they want," says Bruce Tulgan, the founder of RainmakerThinking, a management training firm in New Haven, Conn., and an author specializing in generational diversity in the workplace.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Experts say these children of the baby-boom generation, also known as Gen Y or echo boomers, are taking to heart a desire for the kind of work-life balance their parents didn't have. They see being their own boss as a way to resolve the conflict. So now they're pressing ahead with new products or services or finding a new twist on old-style careers. They're at the leading edge of a trend toward entrepreneurship that has bubbled for decades and now, thanks in large part to technology, is starting to surge.

"It is a fun-loving generation," says Ellen Kossek, a Michigan State University professor in East Lansing who has spent 18 years researching workplace flexibility.

"They view work as part of life, but they don't live to work the way we were socialized as boomers. There is a real mismatch between what the young generation wants and what employers are offering."

Kossek says work-life issues are among the top three concerns among young graduates. But these young entrepreneurs aren't always thinking long-term about running their own shop.

"Employers aren't offering what they want, so the young say they'll be their own boss and start their own business."

But "what they find out is that it's not a way to get a work-life balance. When you have your own business, you're working long hours, because if you don't work, money doesn't come in."

Maybe because this is an optimistic bunch or perhaps because they haven't planned their lives further than the weekend, they don't seem too worried about hard work. But because they are young and so new to the work force, much of what is known about them is anecdotal with little existing data about their work habits.

TEAMING WITH FRIENDS

Those who have studied generations in the workplace, such as author David Stillman of Minneapolis, do have some insights. Stillman, who co-wrote the 2002 book "When Generations Collide," say these young workers have very different ideas than earlier generations.

"This generation has the group-think mentality," he says. "When you are raised to collaborate at home, then you are taught how to do that in middle school and practice it in college, you show up at work saying 'Where's my team?' They're just comfortable working with peers."

Many go into business with friends.

Maren Seibold, 25, is an environmental consultant for a Seattle area company; she teamed up last year with her 26-year-old tattoo artist husband, Mark Bentley, and a friend who does body piercing, Anthony Mason, 24, to launch Mantis Machines, which sells a redesigned version of the instrument that professional tattooists use.

Seibold, who has a degree in chemical engineering, tinkered with the tool to maximize its versatility and use a greater variety of needles. Mason's father owns a tool company and provided the materials. A $10,000 loan helped them get started. "It was something we all wanted to do," Seibold says.

RISE OF SELF-EMPLOYED

Bureau of Labor Statistics data for 2005 show that some 370,000 young people ages 16 to 24 were self-employed, the occupational category that includes entrepreneurs. In 1975, when baby boomers were young, some 351,000 were in that category. While that growth over 30 years isn't striking, indicators suggest more change ahead. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the self-employed category will grow 5 percent from 2004 to 2014, compared with 2 percent growth for the decade that began in 1994.

Such growth is largely a result of the Internet, where snazzy Web sites don't betray a home-based operation. Entrepreneurs can be more professional with less need for capital or office space. Global communication is easy and immediate. Businesses can outsource products and services and get a toll-free telephone number for nationwide access. Taking a risk isn't quite the financial leap of faith it once was.

"There's such a frontier for possible business ideas," says Scott Neuberger, 25, CEO of Boston-based Collegeboxes. "The barrier to entry is very low and doesn't require a lot of money in a lot of cases. I think there's more of an entrepreneurial spirit in our generation than perhaps in other generations. Being an entrepreneur has become cool and sexy."

The self-employed are considerably more satisfied with their jobs than are other workers, according to a Pew Research Center poll of 2,003 Americans ages 18 and older released in August. They're more satisfied with their salaries, the job security, chances for promotion, level of on-the-job stress, flexibility of hours and proximity of work and home, the poll found.

"You've got a generation that has clearly seen the corporate culture not be loyal to their employees," says David Finney, president of Champlain College, which this fall launched a new program to lure enterprising undergraduates already in business for themselves. "This generation understands that the burden of taking care of themselves rests with them and not some company."

COLLEGE COURSES

Although being an entrepreneur doesn't require a college degree, increasing numbers of campuses are offering courses to inspire those with business acumen. The Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which promotes entrepreneurship, keeps a tally of courses related to entrepreneurship at two-year and four-year colleges and universities. Newly-compiled data show that 80 percent of the 2,662 campuses in the report offer at least one such course.

Last month, Grand Canyon University, a private, Christian university in Phoenix, announced a new College of Entrepreneurship that, starting in January, will provide students with seed money from a venture capital fund vested with $4.5 million to help launch projects.

Sheena Lindahl, 24, and husband Michael Simmons, 25, have turned the rise of entrepreneurialism into their own business. While attending New York University in 2003, the duo started Extreme Entrepreneurship Education to help their peers pursue their dream careers.

"I think it has a lot to do with the high expectations we were brought up with. 'You can do it. You can have what you want,' " Lindahl says. "We're criticized for wanting it all: high pay, purposeful work, flexible hours. It's hard for people in our generation just to do work."