Youth Business International helps young people to start and grow their own business and create employment. They are a global network of independent non-profit initiatives operating in over 40 countries across 5 continents.
In 2014 YBI’s members provided 65,559 young people with practical skills based training, and 18,949 entrepreneurs were supported in starting or growing their business. YBI members assist under-served young entrepreneurs with a combination of training, access to capital, mentoring and other business development services. Their staff are local people who understand the unique challenges of providing tailored enterprise support in their communities. Their members vary in size and scale depending on the community they serve.
Their ambition is to create the world’s most effective network supporting young entrepreneurs. Their members their local experts in the creation of sustainable youth led businesses who share their vision of a world where all young people are able to fulfil their entrepreneurial potential, regardless of their circumstances. The role of the network is to connect their members to each other and to other external institutions to ensure help them increase their impact and share their knowledge. Members and their Membership of the YBI network is by invitation and completely free.
What unites their members is the integrated package of YBI support they provide to young entrepreneurs around the world.
Volunteer mentors are crucial to the YBI approach. YBI members pair young entrepreneurs with a mentor with a complementary set of skills to help them grow their business. In many cases these relationships can last one year or more. All YBI mentors are dedicated volunteers from the local community who themselves understand the unique challenges of starting a business.
Most importantly, they represent a community of tens of thousands of young entrepreneurs, who are united by the desire to start a business and create sustainable growth in their communities.
What They Do
The YBI network provides thousands of young entrepreneurs with an integrated package of support to help them start and grow sustainable businesses. The YBI network provides thousands of young entrepreneurs with an integrated package of support to help them start and grow sustainable businesses. Their members, working in more than 40 countries, provide entrepreneurs with expert local support, specifically tailored to their needs:
Technical training
Young entrepreneurs need support with every stage of their business development. From specific training in business practice to basic assistance with things like bookkeeping and financial management. In conjunction with a mentor, YBI members work with young entrepreneurs to ensure they have all the technical support they need to succeed.
Financial support
YBI provides young entrepreneurs with an interest free/low interest loan to cover the expenses of starting or growing their business.
Mentoring
YBI pairs all young entrepreneurs with an experienced volunteer business mentor who is on hand to guide them through the challenging early stages of establishing a business.
How they work as a network
Their members around the world gain strength from collaborating together – sharing expertise around the network, working on international advocacy campaigns and developing global partnerships with supporters.
Through the global network, members exchange resources and act collectively to increase the efficiency and scale of support to young people seeking to start their own business. A network team coordinates and leads this activity, with additional responsibilities for driving network growth, quality and performance.
Why they do it
Small businesses are the engine of economic development. In nearly every country in the world, the vast majority of jobs are created by small businesses. They enable young aspiring entrepreneurs to create enterprises which can create jobs, bring innovative new products or services to communities and bring trading opportunities to other businesses.
They focus on young people between the ages of 18-35 because young people frequently lack the resources to start up their own business. Young people already make up as much as 40% of the world’s total unemployed, and are almost three times as likely to be unemployed as adults.
