从无到有：海外青年的创业成功路

大学毕业后找不到工作，该何去何从？创业，没有资金，没有经验，没有办公场所，应该如何是好？年轻无产也能成功，来看来自大洋彼岸的青年创业者(entrepreneur)的成功秘笈。

建设青年企业家协会的初衷是为了扭转人们给老板打工的局面，让人们能自行创业。

In America, successful young start-ups with no offices, addresses or expertise.
尽管初出茅庐，缺乏专业技能和经验，甚至没有办公场所，很多来自美国的年轻人还是成功开创了一番天地。

After graduating from college with thousands of dollars in student loans, Scott Gerber moved back in with his parents in New York. He then took out more loans to start a company, but it went broke.
拿着数千美元的学生贷款，斯科特•戈贝尔自从大学毕业后，便搬回纽约与父母同住。之后，他通过贷款，开办了一家公司，但却血本无归。

"I felt demoralized and humiliated," he says.
戈贝尔说：“这让我一度意志消沉、抬不起头。”

So Gerber used his last $700 to start another company.
于是，戈贝尔用他剩余的700美元另开了一家公司。

With Sizzle It, Gerber vowed to find a niche, reduce overhead and be more frugal. The company was profitable the first year.
凭借这家名为Sizzle It的新公司，戈贝尔发誓要有所成就，并削减日常开支，过更加节俭的生活。公司首年便实现了盈利。

Gerber, 27, then started the Young Entrepreneur Council to create a shift from a résumé-driven society to one where people create their own jobs.
27岁的戈贝尔接着创办了青年企业家协会，意在扭转人们给老板打工的局面，让人们能自行创业。

The council consists of 80-plus business owners across America, ages 17 to 33. Members include Becker, co-founder of Invite Media, a firm recently acquired by a Google unit; and Patzer, who sold Mint.com to Intuit for $170 million.
这家协会由来自全美各地的八十多位企业家组成，年龄均在17-33岁之间。其中，有广告公司Invite Media的合伙创始人贝克尔，该公司最近由谷歌旗下公司收购；还有帕泽尔，他将美国在线记账网站Mint.com以一亿七千万的价格出售给了美国财务软件公司Intuit.

The council serves as a help desk and mentoring hotline for entrepreneurs. Council members will monthly answer 30 to 40 of their questions in business publications like The Wall Street Journal, American Express Open Forum, and on numerous small business Web sites.
作为一个咨询平台，该协会致力于为企业家们提供咨询热线辅导。每月，协会会员在商业期刊如《华尔街日报》和《美国运通开放论坛》上，以及多个小型商务网站上解答30-40个问题。

Council members assert that young people can start businesses with little or without money or experience. But roughly half of all new businesses fail within the first five years. And the entrepreneurial life is filled with risks, stresses and sacrifices.
协会会员宣称，即使欠缺资本与经验，年轻人照样可以创业。但大约半数的新兴企业都在五年内倒闭了。而且，创业者的生活充满风险，压力与牺牲。

But American unemployment is high. Only 24.4 percent of 2010 graduates who applied for a job had one waiting for them after graduation. Entrepreneurship can be a viable path, not a renegade choice.
不过美国失业率很高。2010年应届毕业生中，只有24.4%的人能在毕业后找到工作。创业堪称一条可行的解决之道，而并非一种叛逆之选。

Thanks to the Internet, there are fewer upfront costs for entrepreneurs.
得益于网络，创业者们的前期创业费用大大减少。

For $300 a year, Gerber rented an address from ManhattanVirtual¬Office.com. It saved him $100,000 and gave Sizzle It credibility; his clients include Procter & Gamble and the Gap.
戈贝尔在Manhattan VirtualOffice.com上租了一间网络办公室，租金为300美元/年。这帮他节省了10万美金，同时又提高了自己的公司Sizzle It的可信度。他的客户包括宝洁和服装品牌Gap这样的大客户。

Open-source software can reduce or eliminate the need for tech support.
开源软件可以削减，甚至消除对技术支持的需求。

"All you need today is a laptop, patience and willingness," says Kabani, a council member and founder of Marketing Zen, a digital marketing firm with yearly revenue in the seven figures. She hired all of her employees online.
作为协会会员之一，数字化营销公司Marketing Zen的创始人卡巴尼表示：“今天你只需要一台手提电脑、外加耐心与干劲就行了。”她的公司年收入达到了7位数。并且，她所有的员工都是通过网络雇佣的。

But start-ups do need financing. So Gerber is starting the Gen Y Fund, from which young entrepreneurs can seek funding.
但创业的确需要资金。因此，戈贝尔创立了Y一代基金（Gen Y Fund），年轻创业者可以从中寻求资金支持。

The goal is to find practicable, marketable business ideas.
基金的目标是找寻具有可行性和市场前景的商业点子。

Gerber has never attended business class. "I e-mailed people in my circle and figured who knew what I needed to know," he said.
戈贝尔从未上过商务课程，他表示：“我发电子邮件给自己圈子里的人，并找到那些懂得我需要知道的东西的人。”

Lack of experience can be an asset. Ms. Hanger says being young helps attract advertisers like New Balance and Juicy Couture to HerCampus.com, which started turning a profit.
缺乏经验可能成为一笔财富。汉格小姐说正是因为年轻，才使得他们的网站HerCampus.com得到了诸如New Balance和时尚品牌Juicy Couture等广告客户的青睐，而且他们的网站已经开始盈利了。

For many of these entrepreneurs, success didn`t happen overnight. It took Bahn years to get his company, BeatTheGMAT.com off the ground. Now it generates near seven figures in revenue.
对于许多创业者而言，成功并非一蹴而就。BeatTheGMAT.com的创始人巴恩就花了数年时间才获得成功。目前，他的网站创造了近7位数的收入。