'Secrets of Young Entrepreneur' Workshop

Global Entrepreneurship Week “the Week” is a world-wide initiative where more than 74 countries will, together with partner organisations, conduct a range of activities designed to inspire, connect, inform, mentor and engage the next generation of entrepreneurs. Global Entrepreneur Week 2008 will take place from 17th November – 23rd November. More information about the Week can be found here.

NUS Enterprise and Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) are the Country Hosts for Singapore and Youth Enterprise Academy is proud to be a part of this exciting global initiative as a supporting partner.

In line with the Week’s vision, we will be having a ‘Secrets of Young Entrepreneurs’ (SoYE) Workshop at the Singapore Management University (SMU) on Saturday, 22nd Nov 2008. SoYE is a 1-day workshop that introduces participants to the Entrepreneur Mindset, the secrets to discovering great opportunities in their environment as well as the essentials of successful marketing. The workshop will also be featuring young and successful entrepreneurs from the soon-to-be-released book ‘The 3rd Little Pig’ and they will be sharing their success stories with participants.

This introductory workshop is highly recommended for students, aspiring entrepreneurs and teachers. It's a great way for participants to understand the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and to get up close and personal with successful young entrepreneurs.

Date & Time: Saturday 22nd November 2008, 10am – 6pm
Venue: Singapore Management University
Cost: $40 per participant (Special rate of $25 for students).

Includes handouts.
Lunch and refreshments will be catered.

To sign up, simply send us the following details to education@yea.sg or call us at 6222 5672 with your

1. Name
   
2. Organisation
   
3. Occupation
   
4. Email
   
5. Contact Number

Click to view the Trainer's and Speakers' Profile.

Hope to see you there!

Not Just Another Name

In support of *scape, we strongly encourage everyone to sign up for an afternoon of great family bonding. Visit http://www.scape.com.sg/hookup/ to register now!

It doesn't matter if you're a retro parent, hip and happening youth or a groovy grandparent, Money No Enough II is a great movie to catch with your family!

Both Ken and I will be there so hope to see you!

BlueSky Enterprise Day 2008

The BlueSky Enterprise Day 2008 has been jointly organised by the Action Community for Entrepreneurship, Talentpreneur Hub and the Youth Enterprise Academy to dedicate a half-day event running entrepreneurship related programmes for youths. It was held on Friday,18th July 2008, at the Hwa Chong Institution. Students and teachers from more than 20 primary and tertiary institutes were invited to participate in workshops, board games and exhibitions. These programmes were aimed to engage youths in various activities to inspire them to realize the possibilities of creative ideas and turning them into avenues of wealth creation.




The BlueSky Enterprise Day is part of the BlueSky Festival which is held annually to run initiatives that encourage and foster the spirit of enterprise amongst Singaporeans, namely the youth.




Gracing the event was the Senior Minister of State for Education, RADM (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, acting as Guest of Honour and took a brief tour of the exhibition area.





At the exhibition, various schools also held exhibits side by side along with other business companies supporting the event such as Now Asia, Microsoft and KooBits. Talentpreneur Hub and the Youth Enterprise Academy were on site to present business development and education programmes which are in line with the vision of Spring Singapore’s initiative to integrate youths into the culture of enterprise.







Student booths on the other hand, presented business programmes and activities that have been run by their respective entrepreneurial student clubs and co-curricular activities. There were also those who tried their hand at setting up and running their own shops selling soft toys and bookmarks among others. Most importantly are exhibits which showcased exemplary Singapore start-ups such as Charles and Keith detailing their humble beginnings to the successful businesses they are today.







Also gracing the event were educational albeit fun filled games held by Settlers Lite, also a local start up. Set in tables laid with board games, groups of students were treated to the fine but essential skills of networking and negotiating. Strategic game play was also evident in “Dividends” where players engage themselves in the trade of financial literacy. Central to the purpose of enterprise, these would prove to be invaluable skills in business and lay the foundation of enterprise in seamless and interactive activity.







Workshops were at hand to foster creative ideas and grease the wheels of innovation. In a series of talks, students participated in discussions with speakers, shared ideas and mapped out concepts in business. It presents a wonderful avenue for them to learn and interact with others to inspire potential entrepreneurs by planting the seeds of business acumen.

National Schools Entrepreneur Summit 2007 Revisited

The National Schools Entrepreneur Summit (NSES) 2007, organised by Youth Enterprise Academy, SMU Ventures and Talentpreneur Hub, is an annual platform for primary to tertiary institutes to come together to share and showcase their various entrepreneurial initiatives and achievements. It was held on Sat, October 27th 2007 at Singapore Management University and attracted more than 250 representatives from 45 schools.

Students and teachers from 19 schools and institutes were invited to take part in the Young Entrepreneur Showcase and was a great way for participants to be updated with the latest in the school I&E scene. Student participants received the opportunity to learn and interact with their peers from other schools as well as with young entrepreneurs who have started their business.

Summit participants also got to engage a panel of educators and entrepreneurs on relevant issues in the youth entrepreneurship scene. Individuals on the Panel included Mr Tony Seow, Guest of Honor and Founder & Managing Director of Purple Sage; Professor Desai, Associate Dean of Information Systems; Mr Suresh Shankar, CEO of RedPill Solution; Mr Ken Koh, Founder & Business Development Director, Youth Enterprise Academy.

Here are some snapshots from the event:

The Importance of Business Planning

Youth Enterprise Academy was invited by the JJ Enterprise Club of Jurong Junior College to give an assembly talk to share on youth entrepreneurship and business planning.
We subsequently invited Nicky Teo from Funeral Solutions and Ken Koh from Talentpreneur Hub to share their experiences with the youth.
Nicky Teo is one of those young people who creates ripples everywhere they go.
Given the industry that he is in, it's hardly surprising that most people will do a double take when they hear that a young chap is a funeral director.

When Nicky was invited to speak at an entrepreneurial assembly talk recently at Jurong Junior College on the importance of the business planning, he openly admitted that he didn't do any planning before venturing on his business. Prior to setting up his company, Funeral Solutions Pte Ltd, Nicky had years of experience by being actively involved in the funeral processes and rites at a local temple.
He decided to start out on his own and his company was born. He believed that it was important to be responsible to the client and not overcharge them. He felt that transparency was the best way to go when dealing with his clients and it because his unique selling point the industry.
He shared with the 800-strong audience that it was only after he became his own boss did he realised the importance of business planning to help shape the direction of his company. He found out that many of the mistakes that he committed could have been avoided had he taken the time to do proper business planning.
That message was firmly echoed by my good friend and colleague, Ken Koh, Managing Director of Talentpreneur Hub and Youth Enterprise Academy. Ken gave tips to the students on what to look out for before starting a business, citing examples from YEA itself.

Ken also shared on several local successful entrepreneurs who are below 25 and how they were able to succeed in their industry despite stiff competition.
The students at JJC enjoyed themselves with Nicky's and Ken's humorous sharing and Youth Enterprise Academy sincerely hoped that more students will be encouraged to venture out and start on their entrepreneurial endeavours, starting with the strong initiative and support from their college.

The Zealots

This isn't the first time we've worked with St Stephen's School, but when Dean and I went down last week to do a little sharing on entrepreneurship during assembly, I must say that the boys were REALLY enthusiastic.

Especially if there were prizes at stakes. Which is a GOOD thing. Maximum participation if I may add. I had a really hard time deciding which hand shot up first everytime Dean asks a question.

The first step to being an entrepreneur is to be proactive, no entrepreneur made his fortune by just waiting for things to happen. It could be that they're young, but looking at these kids, if they keep stepping up like that, they'll be the future landscape-shapers. You'll see.

Also, another point to add, it may not be obvious here. But notice how ALL their school bags are blue?

So does that mean that for an all-girls school, you'll see a lot of pink bags?

The New Wave of Entrepreneurs

As part of a career drive, Nanyang Girls' School invited us to bring together a group of entrepreneurs to give a career talk to their students.



So we approached some young entrepreneurs who're part of the Talentpreneur Hub community, Nicky Teo of Funeral Solutions as well as Goh Cheng Ze and Serene Yeo from Dotbox to share their experiences with the students.


We know that these young entrepreneurs will be able to provide a refreshing perspective to being an entrepreneur to the youth.

And sure enough, Serene and Cheng Ze flashed pictures of themselves in when they were still in secondary school, not too long ago, and they drew gasps of surprise from the crowd when they revealed that they were only 2 years older than the secondary four Nanyang girls.

Jaws also dropped when Nicky shared about his years of experiences in the funeral industry despite being only 18. Nicky has enjoyed numerous press coverage on his choice of industry and being successful despite his youth.


Joanna, Education Director of Youth Enterprise Academy, told the girls of the passions that Nicky, Serene and Cheng Ze had for their work, and to be able to make a difference in their industries. It is this common denominator that brought them to us as Talentpreneurs.


Their inherent passions is the reason why these entrepreneurs are making waves and headlines, and that was a message that resonated with the audience.


(from left, Cheng Ze and Serene, Joanna, Nicky and yours truly)

For more information on Nicky Teo and Funeral Solutions, visit http://www.funeralsolutions.com.sg/ .


For more details on Dotbox and their aims, visit http://dotbox.youth.sg/