LOI x YMCA - Entrepreneurship Series

Creates an opportunity for you to start thinking like an entrepreneur and express your ideas about changing some aspect of your world. Entrepreneurs are problem solvers – no matter how big or small the problem is; they do this by identifying opportunities and creating solutions through a business. In this module, we hope to get you a bit more familiar with what entrepreneurship is all about and how we can be a bit more entrepreneurial in our own lives.

Whether in business, school or life, understanding yourself and your innate abilities can be the most powerful key to success and unlocking your happiness. People can communicate what they do or how they do it, but very few people and organizations know their why: their core purpose or belief. Before diving into what problem you want to solve and how you are going to innovate its solution, we must tackle your ‘why’? This module is highly interactive and reflective as you ask yourself key questions to better understand your motivations so you can make decisions with more clarity and confidence.

This module will introduce you to the process of problem solving and utilizing the process as an essential part in projects, startups, and life. Here, we will use the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals to propel you into critically thinking about collective issues and global citizenship as a kickstart for exploring problems. Loaded with resources and activities that aim to incite a bit of worry for our political, social, and economic landscape, we hope to provide you with a platform to engage with and consider the plethora of problems the world faces and tools to start considering how to solve them.

In this module, you will be tasked to imagine (or reimagine) a business driven by purpose and impact, and defined by values. Focus on reflecting and utilizing your unique perspective to create something that matters to you.

In this module, we will help you realize your creative potential through the process of generating ideas and solutions to issues you want to solve.

In order to build an effective solution, you first need to identify your target audience- the people affected by your problem. Understanding the needs of your customers will enable you to build and envision a brand that speaks and relates to the audience you want to reach. Your brand should not only represent your business, but also evoke emotion and be loved by customers. To accomplish this, we’ve put together this module to help you discover and understand customer needs and desires.

This module is curated to help prepare you to present your big idea, yourself, and your ‘why’. And we don’t just mean spreading the story on Instagram – we mean getting up in front of all audiences and pitching your startup, concept, or organization.

This module focuses on the core elements of a business and taking key steps to building a startup. This is where all your previous work should come together and you work on crucial parts of your business including a clear value proposition and how you are going to generate revenue.

This module focuses on developing your understanding of the facets of marketing and the role they play in business, customer and competitor influences and their effect on business operations, and developing both a strategy and a plan to market the brand, product/service, and the entrepreneur.

This module focuses on developing your understanding of the facets of marketing and the role they play in business, customer and competitor influences and their effect on business operations, and developing both a strategy and a plan to market the brand, product/service, and the entrepreneur.

In this module you will attain a better sense of the funding process, what sources you might be able to tap into depending on where you are in your journey and how to better manage your finances along the way.

In this module, we’re going to talk about garnering and building a support system for yourself or your business. You have to be intentional in building the right team of advisors up front for the growth of your startup or your own career, and we’re here to help you determine what that means for you.

In this final module, we turn our attention to the cultivation of these traits- what they are, why they matter, and how you incorporate them into your everyday life. Following this, we will cover the very important topic of mental health. A topic that is important to entrepreneurs as much as it is for anyone. We will explore how you can better manage your mental health and mitigate burn out. As emerging entrepreneurs and global citizens in our ever-changing landscape of power, change, and compassion, acknowledging the pressures of everyday life has become a necessity in cultivating a more sustainable approach to the way we thrive.