New survey reveals importance of mentoring and training for today’s young entrepreneurs

By Youth Business International

Blog: Global Entrepreneurship Week: let's get started!t

Discussion: Youth Entrepreneurship: Beyond Collateral

Non-financial support is a vital factor behind the success of today’s young entrepreneurs, a YBI survey of 1,000 entrepreneurs in 21 countries today reveals.

The survey, launched today to mark Global Entrepreneurship Week, shows that although entrepreneurs need money to start up their business, it is the non-financial assistance, such as mentoring and training, that ensures that their business is a success and that they are able to repay their loans.

The research shows that as a result of receiving non-financial support:

Businesses are more successful: 55% of young entrepreneurs agree that their business is more successful as a result of the non-financial support they received.
Operational challenges are overcome: two thirds of young entrepreneurs can think of a significant operational challenge in their business that they were able to solve as a result of their non-financial support, that reduced costs and increased profit/turnover in their business.
Loan repayment rates improve: 54% of young entrepreneurs would have struggled to repay their loan over the same time period without non-financial support.
Access to finance increases: the likelihood of approval for a commercial loan more than doubles when young entrepreneurs have established a track record and benefited from receiving a range of non-financial services.
Young entrepreneurs feel more confident: 84% of young entrepreneurs feel more confident running their business as a result of the non-financial support they received.

Andrew Devenport, Chief Executive of Youth Business International, said:

“In these worrying economic times, when in many parts of the world the demographic spotlight is on youth, this report provides insights into the motivations and inspirations of young entrepreneurs, their needs, their experiences and their capabilities.”

The survey was in the field between Monday 15 August and Friday 9 September 2011, and a sample of 1,023 young entrepreneurs from 21 countries took part in the survey.

Download the report now.

Editor's Note:

This blog was first published here, and is reproduced with permission

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Tags: #GEWUK, #Top Stories, #feated, #featent

Comment by Avumegah Patrick Kofi on November 15, 2011 at 7:48: Great news for us. Volta action for enterprise is supporting this. Good coaches/mentors are in short supply. Can coaches/mentors support us? can any one help ? contact vumegah@hotmail.com

Comment by Dr Siddhartha Sankar Dash on November 15, 2011 at 14:14: Quite interesting one.For the first generation youth entrepreneurs motivation plays very vital role in finding out Who Am i? If you have a successful 5 days Achievement Motivation training programme(AMT) at the beginning of the EDP programme you can really inculcate entrepreneurial traits among the budding entrepreneurs.My experience with several youth groups in different countries is that those having high Need for Achievement(NACH) really succeeds in business.