All Articles Tagged "young entrepreneurs"
In The Black: African-American Business Growing Fast
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It may sound strange considering the country’s ecomonic status, but business is good for most African American-owned businesses — especially in Michigan. According to Ken Harris, president and CEO of the Michigan Black Chamber of Commerce, black businesses are “growing at a rate three times the national average,” he told CBS Detroit. He continued, “…there’s more than 79,000 black-owner firms in Michigan; more than 32,000 in the city of Detroit alone, which ranks number four in the entire country.”
Harris believes one reason this may be happening is the younger generation’s passion for becoming entrepreneurs. “Entrepreneurship is extremely attractive,” Harris told CBS Detroit. “That’s why we have a Chamber of Commerce there now, to really nurture and develop young entrepreneurs; to put the types of resources in place that will allow them to benefit, to build their businesses [to] more than just a one-employee business. [M]ore importantly, to compete globally.”
It’s not only in Michigan where black businesses are growing. According to the most recent numbers from the Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency and the US Census Bureau, the number of African American-owned firms in the United States increased by 60.5 percent between 2002 and 2007 to 1.9 million firms. Because of these stats, African-American businesses are proving themselves very important to the U.S. economy and its recovery. The Bureau reported that “African American-owned businesses also drove job creation over the five-year period, with employment growing 22 percent, exceeding that of non-minority-owned businesses.”
Despite this positive growth, however African-American businesses only represent seven percent of all businesses in the U.S.
Teen Tech Camp Promote Youth Entrepreneurship
bdpa-news.blogspot.com
This summer you may have let your teens enjoy relaxing on your couch and playing on Twitter all day, but next summer, think about enrolling your teen in a summer camp that they can really benefit from. As the IT field continues to grow and develop, programs across the nation are springing up to ensure the next generation is ready to participate and make positive impacts on their communities through technology. Inc.com details that these teen entrepreneurship camps are gaining ground nationwide.
In Philadelphia, the TechGirls summer camp starts up this Monday in collaboration with DreamIt Ventures and StartUp Corps. The program aims to get more young girls interested in technology and start-ups. It provides girls from sixth through eighth grades hands on tech experience and the opportunity to develop business ideas with the help of mentorship from local entrepreneurs and developers.
Although this camp is only for young girls, StartUp Corps has its own young entrepreneurship in Philadelphia. In collaboration with various high schools and youth program in the area, it provides continuous mentorship for high school students. 150 students are involved in its programs. They meet a couple times a week to report on their start-up class and learn from mentors. According to the organization the program works; many of its young students launch non-profit and for-profit ventures that serve their communities.
In Los Angeles, Urban Teens Exploring Technology (UrbanTxT) is working to bring high school boys into technology fields and help them learn how to assist their communities. The program was started by Oscar Manjivar, a Watts native who targets participants from inner-city areas such as South Los Angeles and his own neighborhood.
“We found that lots of students that we talked to did not [know] what a website was, had never seen how to make a website, but they were brave enough to try,” Menjivar said in a 2008 interview at UrbanTxT’s launch. Through participation in the program, the high school boys learn project management skills and how to use Web 2.0 tools.
South African Student Starts Fashion Website
South Africa’s Simone Besterfield is making moves in online fashion and beauty advice. The 20-year-old part time student from Cape Town in South Africa started MyFashionBeautyTips.com in August 2011.
“MyFashionBeautyTips started out as a small website intended to give young girls and women inspirational ideas about Fashion, Beauty, Make-up, Hair and all other things ‘girly,’” Besterfield said on her website. Six months after its launch, the site currently receives about 1,200 hits daily and has a Facebook following of over 1170.
“I never in my wildest dreams thought that it would grow into such a popular website and get as many visitors as it does,” Besterfield, who started the site as a hobby, said. Besterfield is both the owner and editor of the site and works with web developer and SEO consultant Daniel. The site has tabs for everything fashion and beauty from hair, handbags and magazine to news shoes and make up. It features articles on fruit that help you lose weight, juicy couture and the highest earning women celebrities.
In a press-release Besterfield says she “keeps strict quality control on the website so that the content is always helpful and informative for her readers.”
She hopes that this year her site will reach 500,000 visitors.
Young Advertisers Focuses on Building a Conversation
(Businessweek) — As a teen, Bryan Young was a serial entrepreneur: He started a lawn-care company in Okinawa, where his mother was stationed with the U.S. Air Force, and used the profits to start a trucking company in Fayetteville, N.C., when they returned to the states. At 22, he dropped out of North Carolina State to start an online marketing agency, Business Empire Consulting, that focuses on social media, mobile marketing, and reputation management.
Q&A: Arielle Scott, The Force Behind GenJuice
by Evette Brown
You might not know her name or face, but her brand is the future. Arielle Patrice Scott is a 22-year-old powerhouse. Using her undergraduate thesis from the University of California at Berkeley as the foundation, Scott created GenJuice, a network that connects 20-something bloggers with other 20-something bloggers, advertisers, and successful brands. With a re-launch of Genjuice on the horizon and a vision that includes being the creator of the next digital MTV (which she might have already accomplished), Scott stops here to discuss her past, the present, and her amazingly surreal future.
It is well-known that the concept for Genjuice began as an undergraduate thesis. How exactly did that thesis develop?
I used to invite my friends over for these get-togethers. We would meet-up and discuss how to start building personal brands. The meet-ups began to grow, but it wasn’t meant to be much of anything. Eventually, a group of friends and I decided to empower gen Y [generation Y] to become innovative through a national tour.
Two of my friends quit their jobs to go on this tour with me. We had nothing, but we rented a car and set out on this tour. On 10/10/10 we announced what Genjuice was and by then, we had over 100 contributors.
How different is the original concept of GenJuice from what it is now?
Genjuice now is very different than what Genjuice was. Originally, I wanted to build a blog network to help bloggers develop a personal brand. The more traffic the site received, the more revenue would be generated. Now, Genjuice is going to be re-launching in the summer. It is going to be a site that has all of the pop-culture content that is important to a 20-something. Users will be able to get everything they need from fashion to music.
You have built a very successful career on technology and innovation. What inspires you to be innovative?
Empowering generation Y to create good stuff. Inspiring them to go out there and build something. Being able to touch as many people as possible and encouraging and empowering them to create good stuff in that short window of time they have before real life kicks in. Helping the next generation of leaders inspires me to be innovative.
For These Students, It Pays to Not Go to College
By Charlotte Young
How much does it cost to persuade a bright, young college student to drop out and pursue their entrepreneurial dreams? About $100,000.
As the value of a college education continues to be questioned, Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal, is offering a new fellowship that has sparked controversy because it raises questions about the purpose of higher education. Through his Theil Fellowship, Theil will pay 24 winners $100,000 not to attend college for two years so that they can develop business ideas instead.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the winners, all 20 or younger, are leaving Ivy League institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They will develop entrepreneurial ideas in biotechnology, education and energy as they work with a network of over 100 Silicon Valley mentors.
The goal of the fellowship is that winners will learn more from the real world than they would from staying in college.
Thiel, who attended Stanford in the 1980s, called college a “default activity,” but admits that he probably wouldn’t have participated in a program like this fellowship when he was a student. At least one student initially selected for the fellowship chose the traditional education route instead.
Some of the Thiel fellows said that their introduction to college did help them with their current goals since they first explored their business ideas in school and received positive feedback and assistance from professors.
Still, others confirmed that they did most of the work for their ideas in their free time.
Managing Director at MIT’s Entrepreneurship Center, William Aulet, believes encouraging students to leave college “sends the wrong message.”
“To say that you’re better off dropping out of school is a gross generalization,” said Aulet. “It depends on the situation.”
10 Young Black Entrepreneurs On the Move
(Black Enterprise) – Entrepreneurship is no longer a term solely reserved for former business execs and seasoned employees. Gone are the days where young adults stick close to the traditional career path. Instead, today’s trailblazers are creating their own opportunities. And some of the smartest among them will join BLACK ENTERPRISE next month at our annual Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference. Check out these young leaders under 35—BE Nexters—who are carving a space for themselves in the tech, social media and beauty/fashion industries, to name a few…
The continuous rise in sexually transmitted infections, especially the upsurge in HIV rates in urban communities nationwide, prompted these Morehouse graduates to start b condoms, a sleek prophylactic brand that aims at bettering sexual health practices in four main target audiences: African-Americans, Latinos, 50 and over, and gay and bisexual males. Since PBJ Group, LLC launched, it has gained national traction with radio appearances such as The Michael Eric Dyson Show and amassing new partnerships, including Google, Inc. and the Magic Johnson Foundation.
Succeeding as a Young Boss
(Black Enterprise) — For every success story in business there’s a humble beginning. Whether it’s that first client, first big project, or the first $10,000 made, one can’t take for granted that in order to achieve and succeed, one must first put one foot in front of the other and start the journey. As part of our weeklong Young Bosses series, we highlight two young bosses on the come-up: 26-year-old Thallen Brassel, CEO of Cum Laude Counseling, a New York-based academic and career counseling firm, and Anky Cyriaque, co-founder and CEO of Hidden Films Studios. Brassel took her college admissions success—having been accepted at more than 10 universities, includingYale University and the University of Pennsylvania—and her experience as a Wall Street lawyer to start her New York-based academic and career counseling firm in 2008. Similarly, Cyriaque’s love for film and experience in music video production led him and his partner, Tristan G. Cyriaque, to start their multimedia company in 2008. BlackEnterprise.com spoke with Brassel and Cyriaque about their challenges, their triumphs and tips for how you can get started on the path to bossdom.
On the importance of education and how it helps in everyday business: Brassel: My legal career has taught me to be diligent, thorough, and to show great attention to detail. These skills are especially important when trying to build business and attract new clients. Turning Cum Laude Counseling from a hobby into a business, while maintaining my law practice at a corporate law firm, has also made great use of my organizational skills and ability to delegate tasks to others. Practicing law and operating a small business are both very demanding, but list-making and planning ahead are qualities that help me to be successful at both.
Diddy Donates $100K to Young Entrepreneurs
(AllHipHop News) — Hip-Hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is backing up claims to support young entrepreneurs with a $100,000 donation to help fund startup businesses for urban youth across the country. Diddy was honored on Sunday (February 13th) during the 2011 Annual Bryan-Michael Cox Pre-Grammy Brunch at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The annual event was organized by Cox, SESAC and 100 Urban Entrepreneurs, a non-profit organization dedicated to serving urban youth and developing future business leaders.
Teen Follows His Dream of Opening Skateboard Shop
(Rochester Democrat and Chronicle) — Starting Black Smith Skate Shop wasn’t exactly what Denard Smith, 17, was expecting. ”I thought it would be a lot more retail and less spreadsheets and doing taxes and whatnot,” said Smith, an enthusiastic skateboarder who sells a line of skateboards, T-shirts, wheels and bearings. But all the paperwork hasn’t discouraged the Greece Olympia senior from opening his business with the help of the Young Entrepreneurs Academy, a program that has helped students in grades six through 12 open more than 200 businesses. Through YEA, students learn how to make a business plan, file appropriate paperwork with the county clerk, listen to advice from local entrepreneurs, go on field trips and eventually pitch business proposals to a panel of potential investors.
