Running head: YOUNG ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Young Entrepreneurship
Name
Institutional Affiliation

YOUNG ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Entrepreneurship is an important aspect of most economies across the world. It is among

the basic activities that provide governments with revenue. It encompasses activities such as
trade, manufacturing, and production among others. Most countries and states across the world
value entrepreneurship as the field that drives individuals to self-sufficiency by creating selfemployment. The entrepreneur has supported the move by the government to creating
employment among the youths. This way, it has minimized unemployment among the young
people who venture in a business environment. In this view, the governments are expected to
support youths in their move to venture into business upon completion of education. This has
been an economic challenge across the world as the youths are subjected to an unfavorable
business environment which disables their move to venturing into business. The aim of this paper
is to discuss the various ways through which the government of Canada can support and
encourage youth entrepreneurs as the most productive portion of the population in any economy.
It has been established that entrepreneurship accounts for more than 90 percent of most
economies.
Education is a key factor in an entrepreneur. The youths are usually inexperienced upon
graduation from universities. This makes them unsuitable in venturing into any business. Further,
starting a new business requires knowledge and expertise in determining the type of business to
start in a certain market (Young, 2009). As such, a high level of guidance is necessary to equip
the youths with basic business to know how. Therefore, upon graduation, the government should
set up a business institution that would admit youths with desires to move towards selfsufficiency through business. This institution will act as a business consultancy firm. It will
provide the necessary guidance and other basic supports to the youths. The guidance includes
practices such as recommendations on various activities that can act as business ideas in certain

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areas. It will also help conceptualizing the ideas of any youth and decide its suitability,
feasibility, and applicability in the selected business ecosystem. Therefore, the youths will be
equipped with the basic technical expertise and knowledge. However, this approach can be
included in the basic curriculum as a component of education before graduation. For example, in
the United States, most of the curriculum in the higher education is skill based. This makes their
graduates more competent in business matters.
Another key approach of fostering youth entrepreneur is the implementation of
government policies. The government can create policies that foster a favorable business
environment for the young people. These policies include setting minimum qualifications that
every youth can attain. For example, the US government supports its youths through sponsor
and education. In such a way, it will attract more youths into business. These policies will also
involve the provision of more support to the young people. The support is not limited to financial
support to the willing people at low interests. As such, the government can finance some
financial institutions with the willingness to lend the young with capital. The youth with weak
financial grounds, or those who cannot support the initiation of a business idea can approach
these financial lending institutions. The lend capital will then be paid at low interests rates to
ensure that these financial institutions do not create another burden on the youth for paying loans
at exaggerated interest rates (Young, 2009). The government will also regulate the payment of
students' loans such that they do not keep the youths under the pressure of paying debts. In the
United States the students pay their loans after five years from graduation. This ensures that they
have already established a firm financial ground. Therefore, there will be the creation of an
ample portion of an independent entrepreneur who do not rely on government help for
employment.

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Making an environment characterized by a variety of entrepreneurial activity by the

government should be a priority. In this approach, the government will develop policies that
enhance business activities. The responsibility of the government is to ensure that there is
conducive environment and promoting unity with different neighboring countries. Therefore, the
entrepreneurs willing to conduct business across the borders will benefit from the existing good
inter-relation. For the young entrepreneurs, the government will provide moral and financial
support such as lending youths with low interest loans. After they establish businesses, the
government will then provide supervision to monitor the activities. As such, the government
personnel act as the supervisor to ensure that the business set moves in the right direction by
ensuring that there is a proper application of managerial skills and expertise. Within a certain set
time, the youths will then be left to as the full owner of these businesses and the responsibility
will be to ensure the running of the business to the level of national competitiveness. Therefore,
this will be an effective strategy of formulating of effective policies across the entrepreneurial
ecosystems.
The youths after graduation are always under the pressure of paying their students loans
even before they have secured employments. According to a study conducted by the department
of education, more than 60 percent of the students are either sponsored or use education loans.
As such, they are always subjected to the harsh environment and even after securing
employments, the aim is to settle the students' loans. 70 percent of the youths who venture in
business always use the profit realized in paying off the loans (Salkowitz, 2010). As such, there
is no room for business expansions as all profit is used to ensure that the business is running.
After sometimes, the young entrepreneur will be frustrated and forced to close the business as it
does not meet the required standards, fails to expand, and at other times do not add value to their

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lives. On the other side, the youths who secure jobs after graduation have the pressure of paying
these loans. Since they lack working experience, their pay is usually expected to be lower. As
such, the little salary is used to settle loans and meet other personal needs. As such, they cannot
generate capital easily to start their businesses until they settle the loans fully. At this time, the
individual has other responsibilities such as families and it becomes even harder to start
businesses. Therefore, such a person lives with reliance from employment which would become
a burden if the employment is terminated. The government can set a grace period for youths
before they can start paying their loans. As such, the youths will have a good time to generate
capital and start businesses (Young, 2009).
In the business environment, the entrepreneurs face diverse challenges in their attempt to
expand their enterprises. These include harsh environment set by the government characterized
by the high level of taxes, unrealistic policies, and high revenue rates among others. These
demoralize young people on their endeavor to venture into the competitive business endowment.
For instance, there are usually tough initial requirements set for new and upcoming
entrepreneurs. This makes it even harder for the youths to start businesses as in most cases, they
lack one or more requirement on the list. Further, those who qualify and attain the qualification
requirements have also faced environment challenges making it hard to run a business. High
interest rates reduce the chances of business expansion. For example, if the young entrepreneur is
paying off several loans with high-interest rates, he or she will be forced to direct all profit
realized from the business to paying these loan and their interests. It is an important move by the
government to regulate these rates, especially among the youths. This can be practical by
allowing the financial institutions to set lower rates. Additionally, the government can implement

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a no interest loans to the youth entrepreneurs. This will motivate more youths to business which
will then create employment for and reduce the burden of unemployment.
In the move to promote youth entrepreneur, the government can create proper tax and
regulatory environment. Business scholars argue that a tax code applied by a country is the tool
that can promote or kill the growth of small businesses (Salkowitz, 2010). These codes should be
reviewed depending on the situation of and the business environment. They should also be
changing according to the growth and expansion of a specific business (Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development, 2011). As such, there will be different standards and
business requirements depending on their level. Small businesses, for example, should not be
subjected to similar tax codes as the large entrepreneurs. As such, there will be promotion and
encouragement to more youths venturing into business characterized by favorable growth
conditions as the dream of every entrepreneur is to expand to international levels.
A study conducted in Canada asserted that about ninety percent of Canadian businesses
are small enterprises. In this view, the Certified Management Accountants of Canada provided a
recommendation to the parliament stating some of the best approaches through which the
government can foster more growth of small businesses. The main recommendation required the
government to review and change the tax policies of Canada accordingly. The areas related to the
tax policies include reducing the corporate tax rate. This will encourage more people to venture
into corporate businesses especially the productive young people. The government can also offer
tax credits to the investments involved in offering training and education to the youths as
internships. However, these should be dignified to ensure that there is proper training through
close monitoring. Finally, the government can increase the deductions for the large investments.

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The government is supposed to provide laws that protect the intellectual property. This is
an approach of the government to provide legislations that govern in the attempt to promote
innovation among the youths. These include the patent rules that imparts heavy penalty on
copyright especially one involving the young entrepreneurs. In many scenarios, the youth is
armed with business ideas that could be of a multinational level. However, they lack the ability
to implement these ideas due to lack of capital investments. As such, other entrepreneurs with
capability utilize this opportunity and implements someone's business idea leaving the innovator
in frustration. This can be regulated by ensuring that there is immediate patenting of any new
business idea.
Patenting has been embraced in many developed countries such as the US, England and
to some extents in Canada. This move have been opening rooms for sponsor interested in a
certain protected idea without fear of copyright. Further, the investors will be more likely to
express willingness to partner with the young entrepreneur in a protected risk taking. As such,
the young entrepreneurs will benefit from their innovations as they are the most vulnerable and
informed to new and emerging business opportunities. Therefore, the government should
strengthen the laws protecting against copyright and protect innovators through patent,
copyrights, and trademarks as they are critical components of the growth and expansion of small
businesses. This will also help youths engage in less risky investments while making higher
profits.
The youths in their attempt to establish small business always face diverse challenges
such as lack of incentive and motivation. When they are fresh in the business environment, they
always lack proper skills in running businesses. As such, they require guidance possibly from
other entrepreneurs who have managed to expand. However, this becomes another challenge

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while identifying a person who can provide reliable advice as there exist an enmity among the
entrepreneurs competing in the same business environment or with related activities. As such,
some can provide misleading advice which may result in the frustration of the young
entrepreneur. The youths are then left in a wild environment to fight through to their success. In
such a case, only few young entrepreneurs can manage these challenges. Therefore, it can be a
good approach by the government to set training platforms that can offer free consultations to the
youths. They will then be assigned to different leaders who will monitor their businesses and
offer moral support whenever necessary (Salkowitz, 2010). There will, therefore, be the creation
of a supportive environment through the government and deviate from a risky practice of
consulting unwilling individuals which expose the youths to more risky practices.
Upon successful establishment of a small business, the government and other nongovernmental organizations can engage in a practice of celebrating and fostering businesses. This
can be done by sponsoring entrepreneurs who have implemented ideas successfully and
productively. The government can also give rewards to successful entrepreneurs who emerge
with as the best entrepreneur of a certain set period such as annually (Stimulating Youth
Entrepreneurship: Barriers & Incentives to Enterprise Start-Ups by Young People, 2006). This
will encourage upcoming and existing young entrepreneurs to dedicate their effort and
innovative minds into their business ideas. It is a good practice to reward businesses that have
portrayed their ability and willingness to contribute to the society. This will give the
entrepreneurs a good mid-set of supporting the society through the continuous creation of
employment opportunities following the expansion of the businesses.
In conclusion, this paper has provided a critical discussion on the youth entrepreneurship.
It has analyzed the existing challenges that have continued to affect the youths in their interest to

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venture into the business environment. It has shown the practices through which the youth
entrepreneurship can be promoted. These include the provision of entrepreneurship related
education. This will arm them with skills required in engaging into businesses as well as the
managerial skills required in running businesses. It has also discussed the responsibility of the
government in promoting small businesses. This responsibility starts from creating a favorable
business environment for upcoming and existing young entrepreneurs. The governments are also
supposed to encourage growth and expansion of all industrial sectors despite their tech levels. It
is also obligated to provide leadership for the upcoming small businesses at will and
continuously delegate the management responsibilities as well as ownership. Further, it is the
responsibility of the government to ensure that there are favorable tax policies such as the
corporate taxes, loan interests, and payment terms. The youths should also not be subjected to
penalties related to failure to pay student loans before they have established enterprises fully or
secured jobs. These practices will encourage the young people to venture massively into a
business which has been recognized as the core economic practice.

References
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2011. Putting the young in business:
policy challenges for youth entrepreneurship. Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Salkowitz, Rob. 2010. Young world rising how youth, technology and entrepreneurship are
changing the world from the bottom up. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.
http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=533983.

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Stimulating Youth Entrepreneurship: Barriers & Incentives to Enterprise Start-Ups by Young
People. 2006. [Place of publication not identified]: International Labour Organization.
http://search.ebscohost.com/direct.asp?db=bth&jid=38IW&scope=site.
Young, Ruth C., Joe D. Francis, and Christopher H. Young. 2009. Entrepreneurship, private and
public. Lanham, Md: University Press of America.