Start-ups get finance, mentoring

By Qin Zhongwei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-27 14:57

A seminar by a relatively unknown but established Chinese organization offering small free-interest loans and mentorship to wannabe business people was held at Renmin University last Friday.

Ambitious entrepreneurs learned from Andrew Fiddaman, executive director of Youth Business International (YBI) - a UK-based international organization initiated by Prince Charles - that the company has helped nearly 100,000 young entrepreneurs across the world make their business dreams come true.

The aim of the seminar was to highlight YBI's partner in China, Youth Business China (YBC), and its success of having already helped 900 youths by providing them with start-up capitals from 30,000 to 50,000 yuan and free mentors since late 2003.

And as a sign of a modernizing China, over 35 percent of this beneficiary group are women aged between 18 and 35. Yu Ping, director of YBC's Beijing office, was impressed by this statistic and said the percentage will continue to rise.

"Some raise chicken farms, some open gift stores, and some run consultancy firms. Our women can do just about everything," Yu added.

"The young women (in China) are usually very committed to succeeding," Fiddaman told METRO.

"And now China is promoting equal opportunities for both men and women. It is very important for women to get this opportunity and then outperform."

Ha Yue, a 31-year-old Beijing woman received support from YBC when her company ran into financial difficulties.

She left her job at a multinational's Beijing office and started a Chinese-teaching language school in 2005, but was overworked and found it hard to cope.

"What I really appreciated was the mentorship. Ding Ruiyong, my experienced mentor, introduced his contacts to me and gave me lots of guidance. It was extremely helpful," she told METRO.

Lu Xiya, a travel management major at Beijing International Studies University, is an ambitious entrepreneur who struggled for success without financial help.

Helpful Links:
Youth Business China
   www.ybc.org.cn
Start-ups get finance, mentoring Junior Achievement
   www.jachina.org/cn/
Know About Business
   www.kab.org.cn/node/kab.htm
New Philanthropy Partners
   www.nppcn.com

Using what limited marketing knowledge she could gather from her degree, the 19-year-old girl from Guizhou province began selling beach umbrellas on the Internet earlier this year.

"Since partnering with a courier service company in March, my online shop turned its first profit recently and helped cover half of my travel expenses to Poland this summer," she told METRO.

Liu Peixin, another audience member at the seminar, said China's richest women like Zhang Yin, who has assets totaling $4.9 billion, are her idols.

As a third-year college student with dreams to be her own boss, Liu told METRO she would be a success.

"My plan is to be a management trainee in a multinational company after graduation, like Mars for example. After receiving extensive training and learning advanced management, I'll start my own business," she said.

Super rich businesswomen from China are grabbing the global headlines. In the newly released 2009 Hurun List of the Richest Women, Rupert Hoogewerf, the compiler of the list, noted that half the world's top ten businesswomen are self-made Chinese.