THRIVING Communities, require THRIVING small businesses
We believe that in order to have a thriving community, you need a thriving economy, and small businesses are key. Through THRIVE, our aim is to “increase the pool” of future small business owners in Newark, NJ, by introducing Newark youth & young adults to entrepreneurial thought and leadership. To begin, we can teach them how to generate income for themselves through the monetization of a product or service. In communities such as Newark, where we are currently located, almost 40% of our population lived below the poverty line, prior to COVID-19. With the influx of unemployment and other economic hardships caused by the pandemic, entrepreneurial thinking is critical now more than ever, particularly for young men and women of color.
At THRIVE, we’re executing a phased approach to entrepreneurial education, by incentivizing the education process with small grants, which we will disburse in stages as participants hit key milestones. The first metric of success is completing our four-week online learning modules, focusing on navigating participants from “idea to invoice.” Too often we associate entrepreneurship with a start-up culture, virtually ignoring the significance of small business and solopreneurs, including free-lancers, landscapers, and other social media managers.
By teaching entrepreneurship to a demographic that’s often overlooked, given their age and location, we can contribute to the local economy. Our metric of success is the number of youth & young adults who participate in our accelerator program. We view the cash prizes as an opportunity to help them initiate their entrepreneurial journey. As we release the cash in stages, our team will serve as business coaches to help each entrepreneur reach certain milestones. Examples of these key steps include the following:
Submit a One-Page Executive Summary with a clearly articulated Business Idea
Open a Bank Account
Submit Marketing Plan
Submit initial Financial Plan
