Entrepreneurial Talent Development Fund for Students!

With a global financial crisis going on in the world, it will be a difficult time to find good cushioned MNC jobs. Of course, one possible alternative routes is to be an entrepreneur in Singapore. How do you do that? Cris Wei Zhi (owner of the Young Businessman blog) will tell us about the entrepreneurial talent development fund (SPRING) for students as a guest contributor.

If you aspire to be an entrepreneur, Singapore actually provides you one of the best working environments to startup. I have definitely heard many people complaining that the market in Singapore is too small and they cannot earn anything decent to make a living.

But if you have that same kind of mentality, I would like to ask you this question: If you fail to capture the domestic market, what makes you think that you are able to capture the global market? In other words, if you fail to plan for your business properly, you are obviously planning to fail right away.

Being young and being a student has its own advantages and privileges. If you compare those entrepreneurs who started out 20 years ago and now, there are definitely a whole lot more incentives and loans up for grabs to help start up and progress forward.

And have you ever thought of actually creating a new generation of products that are environmentally friendly, yet able to bring convenience to the consumers? Or do you have a sound business plan that no one is currently offering in the market? If your answer is “YES”.. read below!

Spring Singapore provides both full time and part time students* initial funding under the Entrepreneurial Talent Development Fund (ETDF). For every $1 you invest in your start up, your school** will invest S$1 and SPRING Singapore will invest $3, up to a maximum of $50,000.

There are some requirements that you must adhere to:

1. You must invest at least $1 in cash in the venture.
2. You need to submit a sound business plan for evaluation by your school.
3. You must not have already received any grant, investment or funding from other sources.
4. Your products and/or services must not be already available in the market.
5. Your business must be less than 3 months old.

The ETDF grant that you receive can be used for various needs which include technical prototyping, product development, or even human resources purpose.

* Fresh graduates from the schools who want to apply for ETDF must do so within two years of graduation. Male graduates who have to serve National Service upon graduation have up to two years from completion of NS to apply for ETDF. Students taking part-time Continuing Education Programmes at the schools are not eligible.

** Schools refer to Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs). Fresh graduates from the IHLs who want to apply for ETDF must do so within two years of graduation. Male graduates who have to serve National Service upon graduation have up to two years from completion of NS to apply for ETDF. Students taking part-time Continuing Education Programmes at the IHL are not eligible. Please check official website to see which IHLs are participating in this ETDF grant.

More information on Spring Singapore’s Entrepreneurial Talent Development Fund (ETDF) can be found here.

Remember: Age does not matter when it comes to entrepreneurship. What matters the most is your integrity, credibility and a good business plan!

Related posts:

1. Press Release: SPRING launches $4.5 million YES! fund to promote entrepreneurship in schools
2. Inaugural ideas.inc. Business Challenge kicks off
3. New Technology Incubation Scheme To Fill 6-digit Funding Gap
4. Executive Summary Workshop – Ideas, Innovation and Purpose
5. Gov enhances financing schemes – additional S$2.3b