Georgia: EU4Youth business training for ethnic minorities from Kvemo Qartli and Samtskhe Javakheti regions

The EU4Youth social entrepreneurship project SEAG last week held a business training for ethnic minority youth from the Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe Javakheti regions.
Around 30 young people took part in an initial meeting to introduce the project and its benefits for the region. Of these, 12 then submitted the outline of a business idea and budget, out of which the project’s evaluation commission chose five social enterprise ideas and invited them to a four-day training on 19-22 April.
The topics covered during the training included business planning, entrepreneurship, business management, marketing and customer relationships, and financial planning.

The aim of the training was to:

• raise the awareness of beneficiaries on the importance of a business plan and effective business model;
• train them on the importance of customer profile, market research, competitor analysis, competitive advantage, product pricing and selection, distribution channel selection, and customer communication strategy;
• highlight budget issues including variable costs, fixed costs, total costs and profits, creating a profit and loss statement, a cash flow statement and a balance sheet
  statement.

The next step is for the participants to apply for a grant competition, submitting business plans by 17 May. They will then need to pitch their ideas to the project panel and have a face-to-face Q&A session. If the applicants successfully pass all the competition stages, they will receive a grant of around €10,000 to implement their business idea.

The training was organised by the EU4Youth – Social Entrepreneurship in Armenia and Georgia (SEAG) project, which fosters youth employment and societal change through Social Entrepreneurship in the border regions of Armenia and Georgia.