Students work together at a prior Social Justice Sewing Academy workshop.
Photo courtesy of SJSA.
The Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA) is launching a Business Incubator program for young entrepreneurs, ages 15-25. The program will run from September 2020 through February 2021.
Lauren Black, Operations Manager at SJSA, is working with founder Sara Trail to organize the program. “Essentially, the Incubator is a way for us to help emerging entrepreneurs get mentorship from experts in the industry as well as learn entrepreneurial skills in order to launch either creative or social justice-oriented businesses,” Black says. SJSA has had to put their in-person workshops on hold this spring and summer due to the pandemic so this program provides a way for the organization to continue to engage young people, albeit virtually.
The young people who go through the program will not only get access to training and mentorship, they’ll also receive $1000 in seed money, distributed throughout the six-month program in increments, to kickstart their ventures. Graduates of the program will also receive a 1-year membership to Craft Industry Alliance.
“They’ll be learning things from pitching to branding to marketing to e-commerce and business management,” Black says. “Truly a wealth of topics.” Lectures will be provided online from individuals and representatives from large companies and organizations within the crafts industry. Each participant will also be paired with a mentor for monthly hour-long one-on-one meetings.
Founder Sara Trail mentors a student at a Social Justice Sewing Academy workshop last year.
Photo courtesy of SJSA.
The cohort will have the opportunity to meet together and learn from each other as well. “There’s a lot of value in hearing each other’s ideas and experiences, what’s working and what’s not working,” Black says.
The community sessions will be an important part of the program so the participants can engage with one another and build community within their particular cohort.
Black, who met Trail while they were in high school, was involved in the early grant writing for the non-profit. A school psychologist in the Los Angeles Public Schools, she’s now returned to SJSA in response to the current civil rights movement.
Get invovled
To recruit young entrepreneurs, Trail is getting in touch with students who have reached out while schools and summer programs have been closed. SJSA has also worked with Black Makers Matter on Instagram to help spread the word. The goal is to have a cohort of approximately 35. (The application can be found here.)
The program is also currently recruiting mentors. Mentors will attend a brief orientation and then commit to meeting with their mentee for one hour each month, on a Sunday, with the expectation that they would also be contacted other times throughout the month with additional questions. The total commitment is approximately five hours per month for six months. Mentor applications are due August 25.
The seed money is being funded by sponsors. Companies and individuals can make a tax-deductible donation of $1000 that will go directly to a young person who might not otherwise have had the opportunity to start a small business. If you, or your company, would like to become a sponsor email Lauren Black: lauren@sjsacademy.com
Applications from young entrepreneurs have already begun coming in. Black says there are several proposing hair and skincare products, one looking to build a community library, another interested in wearable art, and a few more with ideas around clothing and accessories. “There’s a wide range of ideas so far,” she says.
As someone who spent time in and around entrepreneurs for decades, I found there are two Character Traits common to ALL successful entrepreneurs. First Character Trait was they were willing to work sixty, seventy, eighty hour weeks. Never saw a successful entrepreneur who worked only forty or fifty hours. Second was their personalities were/are such they couldn’t keep a job working for someone else. They HAD to start their own companies because they were the only people who would hire them.
First things first. Sixty to eighty hour work weeks.
I’m a little confused on your comments.
Instead of being encouraging of the program, that in no way mentions the hours required, it kind of feels like you’re coming here here to just mansplain what it takes.
Did you even research the founder of SJSA ? Do you understand the intent and purpose of the program? Does your need to not understand that many people also create successful business with huddle and grit without 80 hour weeks? This program may be supporting the next big author or inventor but it also just maybe and amazing organization that is doing their part to uplift others, and implore you to do the same.
I have also been around entrepreneurs for decades and I disagree a bit, and hope that the expectation that you have to work that much to “make it” will not continue. Because this would severely limit (especially) women who have children and are usually expected to take care of them for more time than working 60-80 hrs a week would allow. It is an unfair expectation. Perhaps a business can grow slower and not have an unhealthy relationship to “work”. I also think that successful entrepreneurs have often work successfully for others – their personality traits don’t keep them unsuccessful in other jobs.
Also thanks for posting this article.
Let me very, very kindly note J. K. Rowling, a single parent, would start writing when her children were put to bed, and she wrote often until 3:00 o’clock in the morning. Also very, very kindly I ask, “What choice did Rowling have?”
Danielle Steel, a secretary at the time later a copywriter, wrote her first novel while her co-workers took coffee breaks. Dannie would roll a sheet of paper into her Selectric and start typing 90 words per minute.
Someone who works sixty or seventy or eighty hour weeks makes more money than someone who works forty hours, or twenty hours, or ten hours, or two hours.
Harvey Firestone invented vulcanized rubber at about two o’clock in the morning. Robert Gore, son of Wilbert, invented Gore-Tex hours after everyone else — including Dad — had gone home.
There is no easy — ten hours a week — way to become a successful entrepreneur. Or a portrait painter or sculptor or gourmet cook or brick layer.
Talent is one thing, hard work is something else.
John-kindly go peddle your “60-80 Entrepreneur Course” elsewhere. Obviously you are not a supporter, nor the target audience. Your comments are neither relevant nor helpful and are definitely mansplaining. This is an amazing opportunity for young creatives, and they (as well as SJSA) deserve our unwavering support.
FWIW, I have 70,000+ hours in the business world. For the record, the summer I was sixteen years old I worked two full time jobs plus overtime., over one hundred hours a week. Last two years of high school, I lettered in four sports (captain of one team) and worked weekends as an auto mechanic in a used car lot. I drove a 5 year old British sports car to college. For the record, I taught my daughter how to work. By the time she was twelve years old, she was buying her hair styling in salons with her own money.
Everyone is welcome to work as few hours a week as they wish. Not surprising, people who work more hours make more money.
Industry thumps genius and talent every time. The harder one works, the luckier they get.
I’m done here.
John-it’s clear that you are here only to share your experience and strong opinions. Your experience is not relevant to this endeavor. Success looks different for different people, not solely like your definition. Again, you are only proving your lack of support for this program, so could you kindly stop with the dismissive comments? Please?
I said I’m done here, but I’ll leave you with the statement my mother repeated many, many times — she the daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of farmers — “If you don’t want to work, you don’t want to eat.”
People who work sixty hour weeks make more money than those who work two hour weeks. To even remotely suggest otherwise is a recipe for failure .
THE Finest writer I have ever known — bar none — died of a overdose recently, her third attempt in eight months. In her entire life, she not once spent five minutes writing for money, though she might have made several hundred thousand dollars a year at it. She was that good. But she often spent often hours and hours and hours a week in the gym, specific goal of getting men to buy her fur coats and Caribbean cruises and expensive jewelry and $200 dinners.
NO genius, NO talent gets rich working two hours a week. None. Two hours a week is a recipe for failure.
Good-bye. Period.
This is a great opportunity for young thought leaders to get started putting their dreams to work! I’m so pumped to learn about this.
SJSA is a well run group, and this will be wonderful for so many youth. An amazing and creative opportunity, plus a great solution during times of social distancing.
What a fabulous opportunity for teens and young adults to learn the nuts and bolts of starting their own business with industry mentors to provide support and guidance! With so many things cancelled and on hold with the restrictions of the pandemic, this is the perfect time for budding entrepreneurs to explore their creative business ideas with like-minded peers. Social Justice Sewing Academy’s leadership has always focused on addressing the needs and amplifying the voices of youth and young adults through their important outreach programs across the US. This new program is so exciting and timely! I look forward to hearing more about it!
What a great idea! Big thanks to the sponsors, mentors, and SJSA for making this possible.
SJSA continues to amaze me in their quest to help others. The leadership keeps coming with one great idea after another. I am sure a lot of young minds will benefit from this program. Thank you SJSA for your commitment to better the world!