Group aimed at young business owners taking shape statewide
Halsey Cory, 29, of Barboursville sat a table with his business partner, Matt White, and two other entrepreneurs. One is a photographer and the other, a communications consultant. Cory talks about the start of his 3-year-old business, Carsignment, an online automobile marketing firm.
Halsey Cory, 29, of Barboursville sat a table with his business partner, Matt White, and two other entrepreneurs. One is a photographer and the other, a communications consultant. Cory talks about the start of his 3-year-old business, Carsignment, an online automobile marketing firm.
"My dad is an entrepreneur," he told the group when asked what others think of his owning his own business. "I think you're nuts if you are doing a 9-to-5 [job]."
(From left) Jason Keeling of Keeling Strategic Communications, Matt White and Halsey Cory of Carsignment, and photographer Kristopher D. Lett convene a membership meeting of the Young Entrepreneurs Support Network of West Virginia.
During entrepreneurship week in late February, Cory and other young entrepreneurs around the state attended membership drives of the Young Entrepreneurs Support Network of West Virginia.
The YESNetwork is member-driven, aimed at 18- to 40-year-olds who own their own business. It started about a year ago, with help from Vision Shared.
It's not a social network; it's all about success in business, local leaders of the budding group said.
"I think that West Virginia has got to develop a culture of entrepreneurship," said Chris Slaughter, a lawyer with Steptoe & Johnson.
Although he is not an entrepreneur, Slaughter has taken on the role of coordinator of the YESNetwork's Advantage Valley chapter, which includes Huntington and Charleston.
Other groups include the North Central in Morgantown, Eastern Panhandle in Martinsburg and the New River Gorge in Fayetteville.
The Advantage Valley chapter hopes to split into separate Charleston and Huntington groups, but right now it's just trying to build a base of young entrepreneurs, Slaughter said.
Young entrepreneurs started an estimated 202,190 businesses a month in 2004, up from 186,041 in 2000, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
Entrepreneurial dreams among the under-40 crowd start early. Four out of 10 young people have or would like to start their own business someday, according to a 2007 survey by the Kauffman Foundation. The survey interviewed nearly 2,500 young people, ages 8 to 21, about entrepreneurship.
Of those who want to start their own business, 92 percent said their top reason was to use their skills and abilities and 87 percent said it's because they want to be their own boss.
For help in getting started, 60 percent of those interviewed said they would go to someone who has already started a business, according to the survey.
Halsey Cory, 29, of Barboursville sat a table with his business partner, Matt White, and two other entrepreneurs. One is a photographer and the other, a communications consultant. Cory talks about the start of his 3-year-old business, Carsignment, an online automobile marketing firm.
"My dad is an entrepreneur," he told the group when asked what others think of his owning his own business. "I think you're nuts if you are doing a 9-to-5 [job]."
During entrepreneurship week in late February, Cory and other young entrepreneurs around the state attended membership drives of the Young Entrepreneurs Support Network of West Virginia.
The YESNetwork is member-driven, aimed at 18- to 40-year-olds who own their own business. It started about a year ago, with help from Vision Shared.
It's not a social network; it's all about success in business, local leaders of the budding group said.
"I think that West Virginia has got to develop a culture of entrepreneurship," said Chris Slaughter, a lawyer with Steptoe & Johnson.
Although he is not an entrepreneur, Slaughter has taken on the role of coordinator of the YESNetwork's Advantage Valley chapter, which includes Huntington and Charleston.
Other groups include the North Central in Morgantown, Eastern Panhandle in Martinsburg and the New River Gorge in Fayetteville.
The Advantage Valley chapter hopes to split into separate Charleston and Huntington groups, but right now it's just trying to build a base of young entrepreneurs, Slaughter said.
Young entrepreneurs started an estimated 202,190 businesses a month in 2004, up from 186,041 in 2000, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
Entrepreneurial dreams among the under-40 crowd start early. Four out of 10 young people have or would like to start their own business someday, according to a 2007 survey by the Kauffman Foundation. The survey interviewed nearly 2,500 young people, ages 8 to 21, about entrepreneurship.
Of those who want to start their own business, 92 percent said their top reason was to use their skills and abilities and 87 percent said it's because they want to be their own boss.
For help in getting started, 60 percent of those interviewed said they would go to someone who has already started a business, according to the survey.
That's where the YESNetwork comes in, said Curtis Wilkerson, Advantage Valley's other leader and owner of his own business, Orion Strategies.
"This is not another young professionals organization," he said to the group. "This is for individuals who know what it takes to make payroll and pay taxes."
The YESNetwork has three goals, Slaughter said:
Be a peer-to-peer forum with informal meetings and roundtable discussions about business issues.
Develop a mentor network with established entrepreneurs for one-on-one help.
A business opportunity program, which allows each member to offer their services or advice to the group.
"It's the real nuts and bolts of business," Slaughter said.
By offering help and support, West Virginia can keep young entrepreneurs from leaving the state, Wilkerson said.
"You are it ... the whole concept is help each other and not get on our interstates without coming back," he said.
While the YESNetwork is still in its infancy, some of the attending entrepreneurs were already networking, handing out business cards and setting up meetings with each other.
That's why entrepreneurs are a special breed of business people, said Cory's business partner Matt White. Starting your own business isn't for the easily discouraged, he said.
"You should be able to take a punch and get right back up," White said. "Failure, if you look at it on the positive side, can be successful."
Cory said he couldn't imagine doing anything else.
"I could be making money in just a J-O-B, but there is a cap [to success]," Cory added. "When you work for yourself, there's no cap, unlimited potential."
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