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IMPACT 0576: HELPING THE COMMUNITY EXPLORE THE WORLD ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Youth Action Challenge (YAC) is a platform for youth to provide solutions that tackle the issues we are concerned about. Since October 2021, over 80 teams and more than 310 youths have undertaken the YAC Season 3 journey.

A recent graduate from Singapore Management University (SMU), 26-year-old Abel Teo is now a full-time entrepreneur who believes in creating impactful solutions to tackle meaningful societal and environmental problems. He launched “Locable”, an initiative to empower more individuals such as youth and the elderly to launch their own businesses without significant capital commitment.

What was your role within your YAC project?

I was the team leader for our YAC project. I was mainly tasked with ensuring that the team was on track towards the goal that we had set for ourselves and that we achieved these things on time!

What motivated you to join YAC?

I had some friends who participated in YAC the year before, and the great experience they had got me excited to join YAC. Moreover, the resources YAC provides to us in terms of mentorship and guidance was too great of an opportunity to pass up. Lastly, I wanted to meet other like-minded youth who are aiming to leave a positive impact on society.

Can you share with us your experience with your YAC project?

Embarking on our YAC project was a really enriching and rewarding one, especially with the YAC team. Learning first-hand of youths’ thoughts and attitudes regarding home-based businesses contributed greatly towards shaping our project to be more relevant and impactful for our target audience, and motivated us further to turn our idea into reality. I am also really grateful to our mentor, whose guidance throughout the program also enhanced my learning experience and increased the effectiveness and feasibility of our project greatly.

What are some challenges you faced while working on your YAC project?

As we were all students then, it was tough to set up a website and learning portal as part of our project. Thankfully, our mentor, who has experience with web businesses, directed us to several simple no-code options that we could use after some guidance.

Other than that, it was also difficult for me to balance my studies while working on the YAC project, with the commitment needed from both sides. However, with the encouragement from my YAC teammates, I was able to persevere and complete the project presentation smoothly.

Could you share more on how your project has a positive impact?

We encourage youth and other societal groups such as the elderly and single mothers to explore entrepreneurship in the form of home-based businesses. This has many different meaningful effects on these social groups.

For youth, it enables them to explore entrepreneurship as a viable career option. For the elderly, earning a living while having reduced mobility can be addressed by starting their own home business. For single mothers, their need to stay at home with their children can also be met by starting their own home business.

Locable supports these individuals in starting their home businesses by providing resources in the form of marketing and support services.

Were there any key takeaways or learning points from your time with YAC?

One of the key takeaways that I had during the YAC journey was that we should always be open-minded to your target audience and make improvements to your ideas. After all, when we design products and services, we are trying to fulfil a need that society has, and what better way to improve than hearing it from the users themselves!

This article was published on May 11, 2022