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Dec 22nd, 2006 - 05:09:56 |
IYPF
Huella Emprendedora Announces Winners of Regional Contest Logo in
Latin America
The Huella Emprendedora project, an regional initiative done by the
International Young Professional Foundation (IYPF) and YES Latin
America, announced in YES Kenya 2006, the winners of its nearly
Regional Contest Logo implemented in 17 countries of Latin America
the past few months.
This competition was launched in July with the participation of an
international judging panel consisting of young entrepreneurs from
different countries around the world. Pip Collin (Inspire Foundation -
Australia), Martha Lee (YES Singapore), Amjad Baiazy (Ideaccess
Middle East - Syria), Pedro Marcelino (IYPF - Portugal), Mariana
Ballestero (Vientos del Sur - Argentina), Valentina Lozano (IYPF -
Colombia), Renata Affonso (Ambassador of YES In Latin America -
Brazil) and Jean Paul Chepiu (Red Online - Peru), were the members of
the international jury.
There were 2 categories in the Logo Contest: (1) the most involved
YES Country Network, and (2) the best logo design. Everyone got a
chance of winning US200 dollars as cash prize. Proposals were
received from Colombia, Guatemala, Panama and Peru. Jose Rodriguez of
YES Guatemala won because of his excellent logo proposal, and YES
Guatemala's high and active participation in all the process.
Ursula Carrascal, General Coordinator of Huella Emprendedora Project,
gave the announcement during YES Kenya 2006's Plenary 5: Building an
Entrepreneurial Culture... Stand Up Against Poverty: Bringing the power
of youth to achieving the MDG's. Ursula and Dacil Acevedo called
Guillermo Leverman, YES Country Coordinator from Guatemala to receive
the Certificates in behalf of his YCN and Jose Rodriguez.
For more photos from the event, see here
www.flickr.com/photos/55645770@N00/
For a full review of the Youth Employment Summit 2006 and the work of
YES since 2002, see www.yesweb.org/yeskenya2006.pdf
Mar 30th, 2006 - 19:24:27 |
Cam
Huella Emprendedora - Promoting Young Latin American Entrepreneurs
From September 18-21 last year, Asunción, Paraguay hosted the Latin American Youth Employment Meeting organised by YES, in partnership with different regional organisations and the support of international institutions.
Since 2004, IYPF has been coordinating ideas with YES, aiming at taking joint action in the framework of the Blueprint project. Blueprint is an Australian proposal designed by IYPF in coordination with Youth 2 Youth, which has materialised through the regional coordination of YES Latin America starting in 2005.
In September 2005, Paraguay offered the opportunity of making this original proposal known to YES coordinators in the region, to local authorities, organisations and other partners present in the event. This proposal, designed for implementation in five countries for a period of nine months, was amended based on the input given by the different actors during the meeting.
Mariana Ballestero, current IYPF Director and regional consultant for the organisation and Ursula Carrascal, Network Leader and IYPF Program Leader in Latin America and the Caribbean, were also in Paraguay to promote the project, known in Spanish as Huella Emprendedora.
On September 18, both met the national coordinators of the participating YES networks, who made important comments and suggestions and gave relevant input to the project. These networks requested that the project benefit all of them, and not exclusively those of five countries.
During the actual event, on September 20-21, IYPF was represented in different workshops and working groups, such as “Entrepreneurial Culture, Words of Action: Synergies between Juvenile Networks for the Achievement of the ODMs”. On September 21, the Huella Emprendedora project was specifically discussed in the workshop, “Young Entrepreneurs: IYPF in Latin America”, where case studies were presented on YES El Salvador, YES Panama and YES Dominican Republic. Immediately after this presentation, IYPF was introduced, as was the Australian proposal and the prospective regional project. Mariana Ballestero implemented a workshop that enabled her to gather the opinions, suggestions and concerns of the youngest of those present.
The current proposal was redesigned for implementation in 17 countries, having this input as a source. The presentation of the project to the delegates was lead by Ursula Carrascal, while the regional coordinator of YES, Dacil Acevedo, explained the reasons for the joint work with IYPF.
As a result of the work coordinated between the two organisations, YES and IYPF signed a Letter of Intention for the implementation of the Huella Emprendedora project, announced in the closing ceremony of the Latin American meeting. Also in the closing, Ursula Carrascal, in representation of IYPF, publicly declared the importance of synergetic work between all the networks and in favour of youth.
More recently, and after a series of information exchanges between YES and IYPF, the project diverted to a new implementation strategy that implies a subregional design divided by programs. IYPF appointed a work group specifically for this purpose and is working with YES on the presentation of two landmark sub-projects of Huella Emprendedora, as well as in a regional contest to promote it.
Ursula Carrascal
IYPF Program Leader in Latin America
ursulacarrascal@iypf.org
Nov 11th, 2005 - 05:31:03 |
Cam
Huella Emprendedora Project
Following resounding support for IYPF's idea for implementing the Blueprint Project in Latin America at the Latin American Youth Encounter on Youth Employment, IYPF and YES are now working together to develop a large scale proposal for implementation of the Huella Emprendedora Project.
This project will work to encourage youth entrepreneurship in the region and facilitate the development of support networks for current and aspiring young entrepreneurs.
For more information, e-mail blueprint@iypf.org.
Aug 26th, 2005 - 08:05:07 |
Cam
Blueprint will be presented at the upcoming Latin America Encounter on Youth Employment: Advancing the MDGs
see http://www.stp.gov.py/redyespy/ for more information.
Jul 17th, 2005 - 07:49:33 |
Cam
Great Aussie Young Entrepreneur Case Study
http://businessnetwork.smh.com.au/articles/2005/07/14/2639.html
Water-wise entrepreneur makes waves
Friday, 15 July 2005
Sold out her first run ... Tracy Bialek with some of her Ripple products.
A business offering water-saving devices found a ready market, writes Janine Perrett.
Unlike many who simply stumble onto a great idea or fall into small business, Tracy Bialek planned her assault on the sector with military precision for over a decade.
Yet for all her hard-headed approach to business, Bialek's first venture is almost altruistic and her corporate philosophy is steeped in community awareness.
Ripple Products provides water-saving devices for the home and its mission statement explains it all.
"What we do, what we say and how we act can cause a ripple in our community. Help yourself, teach a friend or educate your children. It will all make a difference. It will create a ripple."
This 32-year-old entrepreneur is a mix of contradictions - determined to succeed in business yet listing her main challenge as "keeping the integrity" of her brand.
"I was determined to have my own business. I have always been controlled about getting there," she said candidly.
Her first job was in a stationery house, starting in sales and rising to general manger within four years. That gave her crucial export experience and an understanding of "the great potential for Australian products overseas".
Although only in her twenties, she already had ambitions to start a small business, but "for six or seven years I decided to build my resume. I needed the right experience on the resume to have my own business," she said.
To that end she moved into the IT industry, where she learnt about merchandising and buying. Yet for all her careful planning it was a flood that finally got her started when her car was written off during wild storms in 2002.
"I said to my partner, how often do you get a cheque which you could use to start your own business? So I used the money for research and development."
The idea for Ripple came after she travelled overseas and saw the amount of energy dedicated to environmental issues. The drought had started to hit here and governments and the community were becoming aware of the need to save water.
With her usual precision, she created a list of potential products and started visiting retailers to see what was on the market. She finally came up with shower timers.
"They seemed a practical, cost-effective, efficient way to enter the market. They didn't need a plumber to install as they just stick on the wall with a suction cap."
Bialek designed the product, made a prototype and, naturally, used her contacts to organise a manufacturer in China.
"The skill is in the negotiating - you have to know how to order," she explained. "I think you need face-time twice a year with your manufacturers."
She admits it is a challenge to keep on top of all the details from here when "you know that even the smallest thing can go wrong and it can affect your business on a large scale".
But she oversaw everything from the manufacturing to the importing, the pallets and see-through packaging, and pricing and margins, and in August last year headed to the Melbourne Gift Fair.
The first run sold out immediately to buyers from the large chain Bed, Bath n'Table and smaller gift shops and was in stores by September.
Since then she has manufactured 10,000 products in two runs and has fewer than 1000 left in storage. She is hoping to sell another 10,000 in this first year.
In February, she expanded into gift packs and is also selling pop-up water-saving buckets, which she discovered at a Chinese factory. Next she is aiming at the teen market and babies - she is already developing a "duckie" gauge for baby baths - but she stresses it is not just simply about expanding from shower timers.
"I'm always thinking of new markets, not necessarily new products. I haven't even touched the surface of the market."
Bialek faces a dilemma, however, as it will become more difficult to retain the integrity of the brand as it becomes more commercial.
"Every day I get calls from a real estate agent or some other corporate who want to put their brand on the product for promotional purposes," she explained. "I want to allow the business to grow but not by devaluing the brand."
Maintaining the community-minded values behind the brand is also a challenge. "My biggest challenge is marketing a product that has an educational message.
"There are people who just see it as just a gift but my next stage is educating the market. My original strategy was to get the brand out there and what I have realised is that it's healthy for the business to promote the underlying message.
"The next phase is community awareness through councils and water authorities so I don't have to educate business and millions of people myself, because the councils will do that for me."
Bialek sees this as part of her business-to-business strategy and emphasises that she will continue selling as a wholesaler to the retailers rather than retailing herself. Her website lists her stockists.
The website also lists her media coverage. She has focused on the home magazines and promotion-based marketing, giving away free products in exchange for full-page advertisements.
Another big challenge at the moment is logistics. She is looking to move as she is feeling the pressure of working from her small house in Collingwood, Victoria - and it's not just that she could do with a warehouse and boardroom.
"The most difficult part of business is working on my own, the isolation," she admitted. "I have to separate who I am each day - today I'm a sales person, tomorrow a designer, Thursday I'm an accountant and the next day sales and marketing or a warehouse manager."
Aware of the danger of spreading herself too thinly, she has taken on an agent in Western Australia who works on commission and plans to do the same in other states.
She is hopeful of being in profit after the first year as to date she has funded the business entirely from her savings.
"Cash flow is a constant challenge. Every dollar counts and I'm very controlled - I weigh up at the end of the month how much to spend.
"But when I have cash-positive months I want to know how to maximise it. These are the type of issues you just can't ring your banker about and have an overdraft all the time."
Bialek's next challenge is to move into exporting, having already had an order from Germany and interest from a British water authority. "If the product is successful and you have confidence in the management process and ability to sell in Australia, there is no reason you cannot export," she said.
*CHALLENGES FOR RIPPLE PRODUCTS*
·Maintaining the integrity of brand as it grows commercially
·Expanding markets rather than just products
·Managing logistics
·Managing cash flow
·Moving into export
Contact:
*RIPPLE PRODUCTS: (only sell through stockists, not direct)
http://www.rippleproducts.com.au
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