Chad Lucas
W
hether you’re dreaming about starting a business, looking to add skills and experience to your résumé or simply hoping to network and connect with other like-minded young people, there are plenty of organizations out there providing support and opportunities for youth. The Black Business Initiative (BBI) has partnered with some of these organizations and recognizes their desire to empower youth for the future.
Ever dreamed of owning a business? If you’re a high-school student, Junior Achievement gives you a chance to test-drive the entire process. In Junior Achievement’s Company Program, students come together to form a business from scratch. Over the 18-week program, they choose a name and a product to sell, appoint a board of directors, issue shares, create a business and marketing plan—the whole nine yards. “You can’t get more hands-on than this,” says Jana Brown, Junior Achievement’s program manager for Halifax Regional Municipality. In each program, four volunteer advisors — usually entrepreneurs themselves — help students walk through the steps of starting up, tracking financial information, and dissolving the company at the end of the program.
Offered at high schools around the province, the program is free, and can even be profitable. “If you make a profit, you get to keep it,” Brown says, “though students sometimes choose to donate part of it back to the community.” The program concludes with an awards night, where trophies are handed out for honours such as Company of the Year. Students can also win scholarships toward the next step in their education. Even if you don’t plan to run a business, Junior Achievement is still a great opportunity, says Brown. “We’re not necessarily trying to change the path you’re on,” Brown says. “We had one student who wanted to go into pharmacy, and now she wants to own her own pharmacy. You can put entrepreneurship into almost any equation.”
For more on Junior Achievement, visit www.janovascotia.org 14 Black to Business Special BIJ Anniversary Issue