Young Entrepreneurs Association of Slovakia (YEAS)

YEAS runs a Management Club for young entrepreneurs. Through the club, managers of successful businesses mentor and coach young entrepreneurs. YEAS also offers training opportunities to its members. It hosts regular thematic workshops (e.g. on starting a business, doing business abroad, running family businesses) and co-organises seminars for young entrepreneurs on legal, tax and economic issues with a tax audit advisory firm (the BMB Leitner Academy).YEAS also organises Regional Business Walks, 2-days visits for entrepreneurs in successful companies, with the goal to share best practices and facilitate networking between established businesses and start-ups.

The second main activity of YEAS is networking. YEAS hosts formal and informal meetings for young entrepreneurs to connect with peers and successful entrepreneurs through dedicated events (three conferences are organised yearly) or participation in international initiatives such as the G20 Summit, the Global Entrepreneurship Congress and the JEUNE network.

YEAS also facilitates access to finance for its members. YEAS created the Slovak Business Angels Network in 2011 to organise education, match-making and networking events. Since 2015, YEAS co-organises the Slovak Venture Capital Forum with the Slovak Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SLOVCA) to promote venture capital and innovative projects.

YEAS actively promotes entrepreneurship. YEAS is the official National Co-ordinator for the Global Entrepreneurship Week that hosts events and activities at universities and schools in several cities. It has also published several case study books to promote entrepreneurship stories and promotes youth entrepreneurship in the media.

To reduce obstacles to business creation for the youth, YEAS hosts an annual Bureaucratic Nonsense of the Year competition since 2015. Entrepreneurs nominate legislative issues and the public selects the 10 worst cases. The project enjoys substantial media coverage and competent officials take the results seriously. The competition was the 2015 national winner of the European Enterprise Promotion Award (EEPA) in the category Flagship initiatives to promote entrepreneurship and improve the business environment. YEAS publishes an annual Index of Obstacles in Business for young people in Slovakia, and actively communicates the results to law-makers at regional, national and European level. YEAS also created the BiznisInfo application, which provides information on planned and approved changes in legislation affecting Slovak entrepreneurs in simple terms. YEAS has also carried out several standalone surveys of obstacles to entrepreneurship and the business environment for young entrepreneurs.

How did the programme adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic? YEAS organised a national survey on the impact of pandemic on businesses in March 2020 (591 respondents) to alert policy makers of new needs and later collaborated with the government for the development of relief measures supporting young entrepreneurs. YEAS also moved events online and collaborated with national media and business podcasts to share tips on how to sustain a business through the pandemic or identify new business opportunities.