Are Gen Y-ers ready to contribute and create jobs? With the explosion of entrepreneurship education programs and the free-spirit of that generation, I lean towards yes. And there seems to be some evidence of that being true:

They’ve proven they have the gumption to start their own businesses. Now they say they’re ready to save the economy.

Generation Y entrepreneurs have a message for Congress and consumers: Invest your time and money in young startups and we’ll help get this lackluster economy going again.

“You have 77 million Gen Y-ers out there,” said 27-year-old Scott Gerber, the founder of The Young Entrepreneur Council. “The reality is if you don’t want a lost generation, you need to start thinking about the future.”

Friday’s employment report from the Labor Department showed that 13.9 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds were unemployed in July. That’s almost double the percentage of those over 30 who were unemployed.

Gerber and others like him think the traditional route to employment has failed their generation. “It’s a scary moment we’re in, but entrepreneurship can get us out,” he said.

New program at Texas A&M that mixes entrepreneurship and recycling:

Texas A&M University announced today that it will place a PepsiCo Dream Machine recycling kiosk at Mays Business School, providing students and faculty with a convenient and rewarding way to recycle their bottles and cans while on-the-go. The unveiling of the Dream Machine is scheduled to coincide with the school’s annual Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) program, which runs from August 6 – 13, 2011 at Mays Business School. The official kick-off event is scheduled for noon on Thursday, August 11th in the Wehner Building.

The Dream Machine recycling initiative, created by PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) in partnership with Waste Management (NYSE: WM), is introducing thousands of recycling bins and kiosks at popular public locations across North America. The kiosk is a computerized receptacle that includes a personal reward system, powered by Greenopolis, which allows users to earn points for every bottle or can they recycle in the kiosk and redeem those points for local discounts on entertainment, dining and travel at http://www.greenopolis.com.

Fascinating post on entrepreneurship and small business in Norway:

Norway has a grand public sector, which is also the primary customer and main source of revenue to many private companies. It is said that money flows within this system – among the public and its private customers, making service and consulting industries thrive. Consequently, this leaves out the good-enough products of startups.

Also at the expense of startups, it is believed that the best brains are recruited within the same feedback loop. But, with roughly 800 employees from more than 50 countries, Internet browser company Opera Software is mentioned among the companies who work against this and manage to attract top talent through international recruiting.

With the commoditization of web technologies, and despite a heavy service-driven industry, consultancies and agencies now begin to offer web products. Although not a Norwegian thing per se, this will hopefully continue and create spin-offs paying into the startup ecosystem.

Even though it is one of the wealthiest countries around with a large public sector, Norway’s total private R&D expenditure in 2009 was about 1.8 percent of gross domestic product. In comparison, EU average was around 2 percent. So, there may be some truth in saying that we don’t invest in what we request.

With nearly 5 million inhabitants, you may also argue that Norway is not a sustainable market for consumer-facing startups. But, at 5,3M and 5,5M this does not seem to bother Finland or Denmark respectively.

Interesting bit of history about some Japanese companies that originated during stressful times. Offers some hope for the future of Japanese entrepreneurship:

The hope of venture capitalists is that the quake that shook Fukushima will jolt attitudes enough to nurture a new generation of entrepreneurs.

“I am always saying the next Sony is going to come out of Fukushima. It’s why I am trying so hard to find that next company,” says William Saito, a start-up investor who moved to Tokyo after selling his biometric technology company in California to Microsoft.

Five months after the quake, a few green shoots are appearing, but mostly in niche areas.

One company is making air-conditioned jackets and ventilated shoes to deal with a power squeeze in the sweltering summer. Another is selling steel ‘arks’ designed to float occupants out of harm’s way should a monster tsunami strike again.

But adding to expectation that business activity will expand beyond quirky products is an example from Japan’s last big deadly earthquake in 1995 centered on the western Japan city of Kobe that killed more than 6,000 people.

It spurred Hiroshi Mikitani, who after loss of two family members in the disaster, set up Rakuten, convinced that if he didn’t act on his business idea, fate may rob him of his chance. Today it is Japan’s largest online shopping mall with a value of $14 billion.

These stories keep on coming. India entrepreneurship will be/is a force to be reckoned with!

With increased enthusiasm and interest among young Indians to take up entrepreneurship, Nurture Talent Academy and BITS Pilani’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership have come together to guide, mentor and train startups during Conquest 2011. Conquest 2011, an international business challenge and entrepreneurship conclave brings together members of the startup ecosystem together including venture capitalists, media, angel investors, successful entrepreneurs and mentors.

While there are several business plan competitions that take place round the year for students, Conquest 2011 has build a unique positioning by focusing on the entrepreneur and his venture, rather than the merely judging the idea. As a part of the selection process, over 500 entries were screened. Out of these, 38 were mentored by seasoned entrepreneurs all over the country, by listening to their problems and giving them one to one guidance. As next step in the process, each selected finalist team will go through an extensive training session by Amit Grover, CEO and Founder, Nurture Talent Academy. The startups will be going through exercises on marketing, business models, scaling up, mistakes in current business setup and raising venture capital as a part of the training session.

“We at BITS Pilani have been pioneers in fostering entrepreneurship. This year we decided to give more value and exposure to our participating startups by not focusing on redundant business plans but on developing startups through extensive face-to-face mentoring sessions all over the country and Nurture Talent Academy was a natural fit as they have shown the commitment towards young ventures right from the start.”, said Saurabh Gupta, Coordinator for Conquest 2011.

These types of local entrepreneurship intiatives seem to be sprouting up throughout the country. Here’s to hoping they help, but don’t get in the way of or “pick winners”. Read whole story:

The Whitley County EDC today announced the expansion of the EDC’s Small Business & Entrepreneurship Initiative (SBEI) to include the SBEI GreenLight, a program focused on rapid response business coaching and mentoring for local entrepreneurs.

SBEI provides resources for pre-startup, startup and growing businesses in Whitley County by combining the Kauffman Institute’s FastTrac New Ventures business planning course with personal business coaching provided by seasoned and experienced business owners. SBEI is led by program manager and aerospace veteran Bruce Stach.

From Kentucky Politics blog:

U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Hebron, in his most recent op-ed, praises various GOP policies and re-iterates his plan to pass the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Security(REINS) Act he introduced last year and earlier this year.

The act would require an up-or-down vote by Congress of any major regulation, which the bill defines as those with a $100 million economic impact or more.

From plugged.in:

World class companies spend enormous amounts of time and effort to get their “user-experience” right. They employ experts in human behavior, design, sociologists, technologists, man-machine interface, time-motion studies, scientists, and the like to observe, study, document, measure, take feedback, and prototype as part of the process of designing products and services. How many Indian companies can make that claim?

Design is still a hugely under-appreciated discipline in India. It shows in the way our cities are designed, our buildings are architected, the way everyday goods and services are created and offered. Either they’re crude and terrible copies of designs from the West which are out of place given the differences in usage and context in our country. A look at the glass and steel monstrosities dotting our cities as part of “modern” India is a case in point. Unfortunately, designs have come to mean designer – usually outrageously expensive and over the top – in India!

Given the appalling lack of design aesthetics, surely there’s a great opportunity for entrepreneurs who think in terms of design and user experiences. Who are demanding, innovative and willing to push the envelope.

A new study suggests that entrepreneurship would go a long way in helping the low income:

Poorly designed government regulations are hampering privately funded assistance options that immediately could provide essential services to the economically disadvantaged, according to a recent report by the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA).

 

The report examines five essential services — transportation, child care, security, housing, and healthcare — that could benefit from private investment and entrepreneurship.

 

“Residents understand the problems in their own communities. Local entrepreneurs should be allowed to provide better service solutions at lower costs, as well as new products and services tailored to the community needs,” said NCPA senior fellow and report editor Roger Koppl. “Too many one-size-fits-all regulations are stifling innovative ideas that improve quality of life in low-income areas where they’re needed most.

 

 “The best thing we could do right now is allow local entrepreneurs to create and compete. We should remove obstacles preventing innovative entrepreneurs from better serving poorer Americans,” notes Koppl, regarding the concept of Enterprise Programs — an initiative aimed at providing essential services to the poor through freeing entrepreneurs from exhaustive federal regulations.

Interesting look at which states are the best for entrepreneurs:

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/running_small_business/archives/2011/08/northeast_west_coast_states_top_entrepreneurship_index.html

States in the Northeast and West Coast are most favorable for startups, according to the latest State Entrepreneurship Index published by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln last week.

The annual index ranks states using the number of businesses that open and close, the average earnings of its entrepreneurs, the number of patents per capita, and other data, says Eric Thompson, an economics professor and director of the university’s Bureau of Business Research.

New York, Washington state, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Oregon topped the list. South Carolina came in with the lowest ranking, while Nevada plummeted 40 spots to 47 for the biggest change on the index. Alabama, Mississippi, and Arizona were also in the bottom five.

Thompson says states in the South and Southwest had a higher number of business closures compared to the rest of the country, which contributed to their poor index performance. He suggests attitudes toward entrepreneurship and economic development affected states’ rankings.

Another subject specific business competition:

“The Challenge offers students the opportunity to apply their academic learning to tough, real-world problems,” said Jamie Jones ’09, assistant director of social enterprise at the Kellogg School. “The concepts they produced demonstrated the variety of ways that the issue can be approached.”

Challenge participants had the chance to work with experts in the healthy-food movement, social entrepreneurs, local food producers and members of the city government, including Sheelah Muhammad ’95 and Daphne Curtin ’11.

From the website:

Today, what America needs now is the nurturing of a new generation of urban entrepreneurs who understand “the language of money,” and particularly young urban entrepreneurs, small business owners and self-employment projects.  A young, empowered generation of silver rights leaders, on fire with hope, esteem and opportunity in their own lives.

…

What we need now are more role practical models for success and prosperity in 21st century America. From mainstream entrepreneurship success stories such as Steve Jobs, fired from his own company (Apple, Inc.), locked out for 12 years, only to return to lead both a resurgent Apple and Pixar Corporation, creating jobs for tens of thousands.

Or an urban entrepreneurship success story such as Jamail Larkins, founder and CEO of $12 million revenue Ascension Aviation of Atlanta, Georgia, a young African-American male who learned how to fly his first plane at 12-years of age, started his business at 16-years of age, and at 27 years old is not only running a leading aerospace company and creating tens of local jobs, but is a new era role model for a new generation, and has a spirit of philanthropy too.

…

We are at a critical inflection point for our nation, and we should not let this crisis go to waste.

We should do something powerful and good with it, and President Obama’s call for a generation of urban entrepreneurship is the best solution I have heard to both attack urban joblessness, in a practical, empowering and sustainable way, and to give real hope to community in the same breath.  And financial literacy, or what we at Operation HOPE call “the language of money,” is the new DNA of America’s future competitiveness.  When you know better, you tend to do better.

What America needs now is a nationwide and serious call for Generation Entrepreneurship, and of course a President with the vision to move the needle, and the agenda.

We are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with President Barack Obama and his Administration, as he makes this call for Generation Entrepreneurship in America.  This, we can do.

The Wall Street Journal has a great piece on how to foster the entrepreneurial spirit in your children. It is definite read for parents.

A few quotes:

Parents should urge kids to explore their environment—and don’t let them get too comfortable, advises Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot Inc. and owner of the National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons. That means urging them to ask questions constantly and develop an inquiring mind. For instance, “get them the right kind of toys—in which kids must figure out for themselves what to do,” he says. And “on vacation, try different restaurants outside their comfort level.”

…

Parents should insist that kids deliver high-quality work at the promised time, whether it’s chores, homework or extracurricular activities. And parents should model good behavior, demonstrating control when emotions run high. They should also urge their children to take steps such as waiting to respond when they lose their temper.

…

Parents should help kids recognize that their world is full of business opportunities, and finding them just takes some careful observation and creativity.

Christine Poorman, executive director of the Chicago office of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, which provides an entrepreneurship course for at-risk youths, says students are encouraged to walk around their communities and evaluate business needs. One student found her neighborhood’s bodegas and hardware stores didn’t have an online presence, so she created logos and websites for them.

…

Sports can be a great classroom for entrepreneurial values. Mr. Blank says his six children, who have all played a variety of sports, have had to learn how to deal with setbacks and how to move past losses. “Sports teach how important teamwork is. The germ of the idea for Home Depot was with Bernie [Marcus] and me, but we also needed the ability to get other people excited about the idea—to get in the game, so to speak,” he says.

…

In the end, many entrepreneurs say the most valuable thing you can do to teach your kids about entrepreneurship is to practice it yourself.

Sounds like a great opportunity for Indiana University:

The agreement for scholarly cooperation joins SPEA with Jönköping International Business School (JIBS), a leading European international business school that is highly regarded for scholarship of entrepreneurship and small business. The agreement calls for:

• Faculty exchanges for purposes of teaching, research, lectures and seminars
• Joint research projects on topics of mutual interest
• Student exchanges, with opportunities for IU students to study at JIBS and vice versa

This agreement builds on strong ties that already exist between Indiana University and Jönköping International Business School, thanks to the work of David Audretsch, Sameeksha Desai and Charles Bonser,” Graham said. “Jönköping has an extensive network of global partnerships and is known as a world leader in entrepreneurship. This relationship will provide SPEA faculty and students with outstanding new opportunities for research and study.”

The community of Lake Forest, California is getting ready to kick off their “Shop and Dine” program to help promote local entrepreneurs and small business:

Lake Forest’s Shop & Dine Week, open to all businesses, is meant to highlight the diversity and uniqueness of businesses in the city. The promotional event will feature deals and specials citywide from Aug. 7 through Aug 14. Participating business will be part of a promotional booklet and the city will do advance marketing on cable television, radio and local newspapers.

…

Shop & Dine started as a directory of businesses on the city’s website in 2009. It also included grand opening events as well as highlighted features on some of the businesses. Now the city wants to take it to the next level to generate more business and to make nearby communities aware of what Lake Forest businesses are about, said Jessica Gonzales, the city’s economic development specialist.

“The goal is to promote local businesses,” she said. “We will be the marketing avenue for them. We want to make sure the surrounding community is aware of the unique mom and pop shops here. We also hope to generate new customers and continue to keep the Lake Forest economy strong.”