Ep_1 Highlighting the stories of youth entrepreneurs in Turkey

As the first episode of the Ye! Enterprising Youth Share Series, also the first-ever Turkish focused webinar by the Ye! Community, our two featured young entrepreneurs from Turkey, Batukhan Taluy, Founder of Uservision, and Sedat Kılıç, Owner of ALSE Group of Companies, as well as our host Hilal Gerçek, Entrepreneurship Programme Director at Habitat Association Turkey, shared some critical moments and hurdles in their entrepreneurial journey. Here is a quick recap of the highlights from the webinar.

Some critical advice for aspiring young entrepreneurs 

First, it is very important to listen to the advice from those who have already walked a similar path. It is equally critical to ask the right people as well.

Second, don’t expand your business unnecessarily quickly at an early stage! Especially for young entrepreneurs who just get started, their ambition and ego may cloud their judgement. Our speaker Sadat learned his lessons the hard way in his previous years as entrepreneur.

Also, remember running a business is not a one-man show, and cannot be done by the CEO or the founder alone. A well functioning team, including i.e. HR, Finance, marketing professionals can significantly save cost and improve efficiency in a company. The investors will take into consideration of the team dynamics when assessing your investment potential as well. Make sure you have built a dream team with the right partner(s) and human resources.

Essential skills and knowledge for an entrepreneur

Nowadays, it is no exaggeration to say that everything is about technology, and we see more and more digitization in our daily life and work. Therefore, being savvy in technology and capable of doing research on market intelligence will kick off your entrepreneurial journey and help you grow faster. Meanwhile, for entrepreneurs who envision to scale up, it is necessary to be aware of the ecosystems at a global level. In addition, the capability of an international language, i.e. English or French, would be a must to access to international market.

Apart from the technical (hard) skills, a future entrepreneur should also have soft skills, such as risk planning, problem solving, as well as the ability to show resilience.

Strategies in the face of current pandemic and beyond

Crisis can turn into great opportunities for entrepreneurs. Both Sedat and Batukhan pointed out that sometimes a crisis can help reveal the pain points in business operations and help to address them accordingly. Compared to large cooperates, start-ups are smaller in size, yet more agile to adapt and move forward. Meanwhile, pandemics, such as the COVID-19, can have a big impact across industries globally. Therefore, entrepreneurs need to closely monitor and analyze the trends around the globe and get ready to take immediate actions.  

Watch the full recording of the webinar below:

Stay tuned for more upcoming webinars on Ye!