Our Work With the Youth Business Trust Belize

Pat and I both have been working on a new project. We have been working with an NGO called the Youth Business Trust of Belize. It is a really neat project because YBTB promotes entrepreneurship to Belizean youth between the ages of 18 to 35. Research has shown that promoting small business development and entrepreneurship in developing countries leads to economic progress. The YBTB program recruits young entrepreneurs with a viable business idea and assists them in developing that idea in to a small business through training, mentorship, and offering micro loans to assist with start up capital. Pat and I are working with our counterpart to strengthen the organization and assisting with the implementation of services such as recruitment and training of mentors and entrepreneurs. We have also been fortunate enough to assist with some of YBTB’s outreach and awareness activities. We assisted with the Youth Ambassador program which was funded by the US State Department. Youth from all over the country were asked to enter an essay contest that focused on entrepreneurship. The winners of the contest had the opportunity to spend 3 weeks in the states going to Georgetown University, University of Wisconsin, and the University of Alabama to learn about business development and entrepreneurship. This is an amazing program! These students had a life changing experience while in the US. Pat and I had the opportunity to participate in their debriefing once they returned and we can not say enough about the obvious changes this trip made in their perceptions of business and entrepreneurship.



The next really neat event for YBTB that Pat and I assisted with was Global Entrepreneur Week 2010. Pat organized a really interesting Symposium at the University of Belize to promote entrepreneurship. He organized some leading Belizean Entrepreneurs including our personal favorite product and entrepreneur, Marie Sharp of Marie Sharp's Hot Sauce! Pat also had one of our YBTB entrepreneur’s, Ms. Kaila of Belize Puzzles present her experience.
YBTB assisted Ms. Kaila with getting her puzzle cutting machine and she is now a thriving entrepreneur. Also presenting was representatives from the Social Security office, the General Sale Tax office, and other government organizations to provide information on how to start a business. It was a well attended event and it is planned to be an annual event.















Pat and I also assisted with YBTB’s Innovative Entrepreneur Contest. We invited all of the high schools in Belize city to participate in the event. The schools were asked to have 4 teams and they were given a flashlight, potato peeler, fold up hamper, and a rain coat. The teams were asked to improve the product or change it completely. They were judged on innovation, development of marketing material, identifying their target market, and pricing. We had the best time judging this contest. The students came up with such innovative ideas and did such an excellent job marketing their product. Check out some of the products. The winning team out of all the teams was the FLAMP. They converted the flashlight into a lamp, alarm clock, and fan. As you can see it was very creative but all the students did such a wonderful job with their products. The judges were very impressed with all the teams and their products. We look forward to conducting the competition again next year but hopefully country wide.