Are today's young business owners the social entrepreneurs of the future?

March 19, 2007

As a young entrepreneur from a developed country I've been invited to speak at a number of different forums and conferences to help young business owners from developing countries get their companies off the ground.

Brunei, for example, is a country that is heavily dependent on its oil reserves. They are actively trying to promote their youth to start new businesses as a way to achieve sustainability once their oil runs out.

There is also a rising trend of young entrepreneurs who start businesses not to make money but to solve a major social problem. It has never been easier to tap into resources and networks to make these non profits successful.

As the Imagine Blog points out:

The recent growth of social venture capital, micro-finance, non-profit tech companies, and other forms of social entrepreneurship was opening up exciting new opportunities for young people to do well and do good at the same time.

Traditionally corporations have focused on generating as much profits as possible. Are today's young entrepreneurs going to be the ones who can successfully mix social responsibility and profit making?

Evan Carmichael

Read more stories about:
Like this story?

Matthew Toren is an award winning author, serial entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded YoungEntrepreneur.com along with his brother Adam. Matthew is co-author of the newly released book:Small Business, Big Vision: 'Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made Entrepreneurs Who Did it Right‚ and also co-author of Kidpreneurs.
Ads by Google
Comments