Please note, the following is a summary of our business plan. in this description. The Mission Statement
Our mission is to create products that inspire and instill a mindset of determination within youth around the world. The Opportunity
There are several pressing issues that adolescents face throughout school. These issues tend to play a huge role in affecting students’ academic performances.
Through randomly sampling two hundred youth in the Greater Toronto Area, it was established that issues such as depression, motivation, and time management are highly relevant issues, among many others. There are vast amounts of individuals who suffer from depression and struggle with their academics because they do have the most fundamental, intrinsic aspect of being successful, inspiration. Moreover, the ministry of education would like to increase the high school graduation rate from 83 percent to 85 percent and we strongly believe that we can make a feasible impact on the current rate. Y.I.Y. has a sharp focus on cinematic video interviews due to the fact that videos can be used to relay impactful messages to the world. The internet, specifically YouTube, has become a integral part of the lives of young Canadians as stated by various sources such as the Financial Post. Statistics show that young Canadians spend more time watching online videos than any other group of people in the world. In March 2011 alone, the average Canadian Internet user watched 251 videos, or about 17 hours of online content. The Business Model
The model connects youth with other youth and professionals through multimedia formats, conferences, and one-on-on networking sessions. The multimedia approach begins with finding an interviewee with a story and then translating his or her story into a cinematic video. The next step after filming is having the video edited and put on the official YouTube channel/website. The final step is creating an article on the interviewee and having him or her featured on the speaker’s page of our website. The conference approach brings together inspirational speakers and the youth. The purpose of the conferences are to allow youth to not only hear from inspirational people, but also to participate in hands-on workshops with those speakers so that they can truly become inspired to change their lives, their communities, or even the world. Finally, the one-on-one networking sessions allow the youth to connect with professionals in a casual setting to help them develop soft skills and learn valuable professional advice. The Marketing Strategy
The marketing strategy consists of building a YouTube/website community as well as releasing videos on a timely basis every week. In addition, TEDx will be used as another avenue to get interviewees since the management team is associated with various TEDx organizations. Moreover, the YouTube channel/website will be marketed to high school/university boards through numerous avenues such as flyers, in-school info sessions, etc. Going Beyond Profits
Y.I.Y. is committed to going beyond profits. It has a heavy focus on social benefits; all videos are intended to help create a community of empowered individuals. All interviewee’s are given the opportunity to get their stories featured on our Youtube channel/website as well as to potentially be contacted for speaker opportunities at public events for non-profits, school boards, etc. works towards creating a culture of inspiration. Anyone and everyone is welcome to watch our videos to become inspired. Note: We would also like to acknowledge Shaq Hosein, Preveen Sripalan, Runda Dong, Rebecca Giang, and Caroline Lu for their part in the early development of You Inspire Youth.
