September 29, 2020 / Source: The Bizz USA By Haarika Kalahasti; Edited by Adya Kumar Although COVID-19 has negatively impacted many small businesses, individuals have begun to step up to promote change. Another organization that emerged during this pandemic is Gen Z Launch. Gen Z Launch is a non-profit with a mission to help the younger generation (high school and college students) launch their own businesses. As students with experience in starting their own business at school, founders Tanvi Jammula and Sarah Naghmi understand that starting a business is a difficult process for teens. Co-founder Tanvi said, “It is hard to find funding, resources, and guidance to start your own business. Also, it’s difficult for teenagers and college students to compete with more experienced people in the business field.” When starting their other business, their school’s entrepreneurship program gave them most of the resources to help guide them through the process. One day, they both wanted to use their resources to help a vast number of aspiring entrepreneurs to do the same, so they created the Gen Z launch in June of 2020. They help students follow along by providing lessons, quizzes, and an opportunity for students to get mentorship from business professionals. In addition to those services, Gen Z launch is planning to establish funding opportunities for its clients to help launch the business. In the future, they hope to also establish a program for middle school students, as they have the potential to start and learn about creating a business. The non-profit organization focuses on two main aspects: the incubator and mentorship programs. The incubator program is built for students who have a business idea, but don’t know where to go next. Through the incubator, students can take a course that guides them through the process of starting a business. The online course is designed for students to work at their pace and is broken into small modules that include quizzes for students to check their understanding. Some lessons include giving a captivating presentation and evaluating businesses ideas. In the future, they are planning to make interactive videos that are effective and easy to follow along. As a nice reward, Gen Z launch is creating a funding program to provide funding for those who took the course. If you’re someone who is interested in entrepreneurship and potentially launching your own business, consider signing up for Gen Z Launch’s! These lessons are handcrafted by the co founders themselves, so consider looking into it! Gen Z Launch also offers a mentorship program for those who have already established a business but need guidance on the next steps. The mentorship is completely FREE and one-on-one and mentees will be giving advice on ways to improve and redirect the business, the target market, etc. As of right now, the mentorship is done by students, but Gen Z Launch has made connections with business professionals who are willing to help guide young business leaders. To sign up for the mentorship program, you can sign through their website or their linktree. With all these efforts, Gen Z launch has proved to be a useful tool to educate and help those interested in entrepreneurship! In addition to the incubator and mentorship program, Gen Z Launch plans to host webinars for aspiring and current business owners. Although their past webinars got cancelled, they are planning on focusing their webinars on the ideation process of business and tips on how to launch a business. When asked how it was to start a business alongside her co-founder, Tanvi Jammula said, “It was pretty tough. The major part of the whole thing is coming up with an idea. If you have guidance from that part or have the proper resources, it’s not too difficult. The process is the same, but you just need to have a solid idea first. I had experience with creating an app at my school, so I had some experience with launching my own business”. Tanvi’s advice to aspiring business owners is to “pursue your ideas and dreams. Even if you think an idea is stupid, it may make the biggest impact in the world. For example, Mark Zuckerberg didn’t think Facebook would take off, but now it is one of the most popular businesses in the world. One small idea can change the world.” These words of wisdom are definitely ones that we should all keep in mind at all times. We need to have confidence in ourselves and “just do it”! Although certain products and services might not be targeted towards everybody, it will definitely help someone who will be very thankful for the invention of it. Although products and services won’t reach every market, there will always be consumers eager to consume them. The young entrepreneurs plan to continue with Gen Z Launch after high school to fulfill their mission of helping as many people as they can start their own businesses. Before they attend college, they hope to add more courses, lessons, and establish the mentorship and funding program. In the future, they hope to make Gen Z Launch an official non-profit organization and continue providing free services to its clients. The Bizz USA recommends that you check out Gen Z launch and sign up for its incubator and mentorship programs if you are interested in starting your own business! Although they launched in May, they’ve managed to gain a large influence thus far, and there’s no doubt they will continue to do so!
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