Support for young Entrepreneurs

It’s been a hell of a time to be coming out of school, looking for work. Only one if four college grads this year who applied for a job had one lined up on graduation day.

A fierce economic bust has burned up a lot of first hopes. But youth is resilient – not to say desperate – and a determined stripe of young Americans are simply making their own jobs. They are cleaning gutters, writing software, baking cookies, starting companies.

The roll-your-own road to work is not easy, but with alternatives scarce, many are trying. In South Africa the onus is increasingly being placed on graduates taking control of their own destinies, with work hard to find and successful entrepreneurs everywhere to see in the media.

But is this really the way to go? What after all do you know about starting and running a business when you have just left school or university? Interesting question many may say, seeing that many of today's most successful entrepreneurs; Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Face Book founder Mark Zuckerberg and many others not even completing their their education before concentrating on their business ideas and often succeeding.

So perhaps rather than criticizing and questioning the sanity of young stars we should support them and point them towards sources of help. Some sources of support for young entrepreneurs:

SA Business Plans - for business plan help

Business Plan Whiz - for business plan software 

Shell Live Wire for entrepreneurial support

SAB Miller for entrepreneurial support

The South African Youth Fund for start-up support

And many others. If you run out of ideas, be creative, search on Google, contact you local youth development program or office, or contact us and we will be happy to help.