Cheryl Edison, an expert on entrepreneurship talks about youth entrepreneurship
Ye! is a (Child & Youth Finance International) CYFI initiative which supports youth entrepreneurs (aged 16 – 30), with the aim of addressing the rampant youth unemployment that exists today. Starting and running a business that can support themselves and their families is hard for any entrepreneur, but it is even harder for young entrepreneurs. Young entrepreneurs lack business expertise, access to strong networks and are often seen as high-risk by the financial institutions from which they are attempting to secure loans. This means that there is currently widescale untapped potential which can thrive if given the right support.
In order to support these young entrepreneurs and help them start and scale their enterprises, Ye! employs the successful systems change model of Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI). As such, Ye! works directly with young entrepreneurs, governments, investors, mentors, corporations, and training institutions to create a global movement in support of youth entrepreneurship. This involves direct support to the entrepreneurs via linkages to mentors, tools and resources on the Ye! Community platform (www.yecommunity.com), the hosting of Ye! award ceremonies to raise awareness on the importance of youth entrepreneurship alongside the creation of offline youth entrepreneur networks in multiple countries. The latter are run by the young entrepreneurs themselves; there are currently 16,000 youth entrepreneurs in the Ye! community from 140 countries.
Today we host Cheryl Edison, an expert on entrepreneurship and makers spaces, Ms. Edison has through this week been presenting workshops/seminars for entrepreneurs on how to take the very first steps to build a business and provided thinking tools to startup leaders that may have lost their way to financial success.
Cheryl Edison is a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur and global business development expert with a track record of successfully launching companies, products and services into new markets across 47 industries. Cheryl advises Global 500 on innovation creation, and leads presentations and workshops for a wide range of interest groups including Sales Force, Lufthansa, Make Media, Norway Innovation, C-level execs, and Burning Man in her continued pursuit to contribute to local economies by linking creativity, community and commerce. In 2012, Edison turned her attention to place making. She conceived and launched The Gate 510 for developer/merchant bankers Scanlon KemperBard, transforming a 24-acre automobile factory on the brink of foreclosure, into the nation’s premier Makerspace by connecting the art, tech and maker communities. At Silicon Valley, Edison worked with industry leaders and start-ups to provide pioneering strategies and practical tactics, producing milestone results for Volvo, Carrefour, Telcel, Revlon, Firefly Mobile, Warner Brothers, the Webby Awards and many more.
This is brought to you by the United States of America mission Uganda, UN Women, Ye! Community, Uganda small scale industries association, Pelere, ZiiMart and Pison Public Relations.
