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U can B – programs and efforts align with nationwide trends. Americans have always taken pride in having the best-educated workforce in the world, but now that is no longer true. In Tough Choices, Tough Times, the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce reports that over the past 30 years one country after another has surpassed the United States in the percentage of its population entering the workforce with the equivalent of a high school diploma, and many more countries are on the verge of doing so. Thirty years ago, the U.S. could lay claim to having 30 percent of the world’s population of college students. Today that proportion has fallen substantially, to 14 percent, and continues to decline. American students place anywhere from the middle of the pack to the bottom in all three continuing comparative studies of achievement in mathematics, science, and general literacy among advanced industrial nations.Students from low-income families are six times more likely not to finish high school than those from high-income families. Building Bridges is a 501(c)3 organization that educates and empowers through: • Live and virtual business education and workshops • Coffee With Film Series on CBS/KDKA digital with a 1.4 M home reach. • U can B teaching program • Student portal with data analytics • and Building the Bridges across the business and workforce ecosystem. Our mission is to strengthen the economic vitality of the region by providing educational programming and opportunities for small business and students to connect with vital resources. The U can B program highlights – • Proven curriculum – Taught in school and after school programs. • “Coffee With…” videos and in person interactive discussions are used to educate students on their purpose, passion and career options. • Educational programming – for students to connect with vital business resources. The students that U can B reaches will use the analytics dashboard that allows schools to follow participating students, gain meaningful and measurable analytics, and keep up with them longitudinally as they progress. • Follow Students • Internal Messaging • Post OpportunitiesImpact • See How They Compare • Show Certifications • Organize Achievements • Geographic Data • Skills Breakdown • Test Score...

The Program U can B is an in school program that provides career exposure and awareness in the Pittsburgh region. Part of the Building Bridges program, founded in 2010, the U can B program provides • Proprietary curriculum • Educational Film series Coffee With ™ now on CBS/KDKA digital • In school in person interactive discussions with business and region leaders • Power Trips to locations – Google Pittsburgh, City Hall, Energy Innovation Center and CBS • Virtual Career Coaching Schools and educational entities may either engage their own school faculty or work with Building Bridges to teach 9th – 12th graders on topics of • Career choices • Entrepreneurship • Business • Finance • Politics This program has resulted in students • Learning about career options that were not presented previously. • Having a clearly defined career they want to pursue. • Gaining experience and being exposed to curriculum and opportunities they would not have been exposed to. Curriculum Overview The 2013/2014 school year pilot was launched at Keystone Oaks School. The program is a 24 week program. Classes are taught on a weekly basis. Subject matter includes entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial passion exercise, components of business plans, and ways to create a business. This curriculum was augmented with Coffee With videos and in school in person discussions with experts focused on arts and music, business, and politics. The school year concluded with a Power Trip to City Hall to meet the Mayor of Pittsburgh and two city council members....

How Startups Succeed The number of small businesses that fail in their first five years is astronomical – 75% to 80%. What are these businesses doing, or not doing, to cause this failure? At Building Bridges for Business, we want to give you the information you need in order to succeed. Here are a few tips to get you thinking, and help startups succeed. Start off with a Business Plan that is complete. Don’t skip over any of the details. Know what you are getting yourself into and know how to fix the problems before you even get started, and help startups succeed. Startups succeed with thorough planning. Make sure your business plan includes a Marketing Plan. Know who your clients are and what kind of products and services they are looking for. Market to these people in the places they go. If your new business is selling cupcakes for weddings, don’t advertise in a home improvement magazine. If your new business is providing weight loss coaching, make sure your put up flyers at your local gym. Keep up with the newest social media platforms and always have an up-to-date website with new information. Remember, if your clients can’t find you, they can’t support you. Make it easy for them. In addition to your marketing plan, make sure you complete your expense reports. Calculate the amount of Capital you need to not only start a business but to remain in business. Keep in mind that your business may not make enough money to cover your expenses for the first few years. Many new business owners burn through their start-up money before their cash flow is positive. Seek the advice from financial experts in order to get these calculations correct. As a solo-preneur you have a big job in front of you. Not everyone can be all things to a business. You need various skills in order to succeed. Most importantly you need to be a Leader. Know what you are able to do yourself and hire others with the proper skills to do the rest. But don’t stop there. Continuing education for all concerned is mandatory to keep up with emerging technology and trends. Don’t assume you can do it all by yourself. Self-sabotage of a business is not pretty. By starting with these suggestions you may be well on your way to success. Don’t be a statistic. Be a business that succeeds because you did the proper planning and took the advice of experts. Let’s make it so ALL startups...

The Entrepreneurship Ecosystem – Part 2 As stated in a previous Building Bridges for Business article, the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem is a network of elements that have an interest in there being more entrepreneurs in their region. But do all the elements work for all entrepreneurs? In this post we will give you some examples of how certain elements of the ecosystem do not work for all entrepreneurs. Let’s start with financing. A bank is a crucial element in the ecosystem, but not in the beginning. It is a known fact that banks usually do not finance start-up businesses. So how then are they a crucial part of the ecosystem? Once a business has a sound financial background to work with, banks are more likely to talk to them about expansion. As the business expands it strengthens the community and gives new businesses the confidence they need to succeed. The educational system is also a major player in the ecosystem, but not a necessity. There are more and more courses being taught on entrepreneurship but they did not always exist. An entrepreneur is someone with creativity, foresight and the courage to take a chance. You don’t get these things from an education. However, you can strengthen your accounting skills, learn how to effectively write a business plan and how to market your business through an education. It is said that co-working spaces and incubators help the ecosystem. This may be true but not necessarily as a major player. Some entrepreneurs feel these types of working spaces stifle their creativity, while others feel they are highly motivated. It really depends on the personality as to which way they go. The entrepreneurship ecosystem needs all the players in order to succeed in strengthening the regional business climate. But not all parts of the ecosystem are needed for all the entrepreneurs. Each player will use the parts it needs in order to succeed....

Glen Meakem Forever Featured on Coffee With… Glen Meakem, Founder & CEO of Forever.com, is a successful entrepreneur and business leader who has founded and built a number of companies, but his passion for preserving important information and memories goes back to 1991 when he returned from serving as a U.S. Army officer in the First Gulf War. That summer, Glen and his wife, Diane, recorded videos of their grandparents talking about their lives and values. Watch Glen Meakem discuss Forever now! Ever since, Glen has thought about how to permanently preserve and share those videos and other family treasures. After many years, these thoughts led to the founding of Forever in May of 2012. It might have been a picture in an old shoe box, or a story told by a beloved grandmother, or a recipe card that’s starting to tatter, but there comes a time when we think about our loved ones, the mark they’ve left on the family, the things they’ve left behind. What will happen to those old albums and home movies? With Forever™, you can secure and share those precious moments for generations. Forever is the world’s first permanent online photo storage and sharing service. Forever guarantees it will save and enable sharing of photos (and soon documents and videos) in Permanent Member’s Accounts for the member’s lifetime plus 100 years, with the goal of thousands of years. Forever does not sell or disclose its member’s personal information to advertisers or any unwanted third parties; you retain complete ownership rights. Permanent members of Forever pay a one-time membership fee and also pay up-front into the Forever Guarantee Fund for permanent storage. The Forever Guarantee Fund acts as a permanent endowment, generating income and gains which pay for storage, sharing and data migration to new file formats over time. Sign up today for your FREE 90-day Intro Membership! Visit Forever.com for more information or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or...

In order to successfully navigate the path to owning your own business, understanding the definition of the entrepreneurship ecosystem is essential. Knowing you are not alone on this path will provide you with the confidence needed to succeed. The entrepreneurship ecosystem consists of various individuals or organizations outside the prospective business owner or entrepreneur that help him thrive in his business endeavor. These individuals or organizations are called stakeholders and might consist of support organizations, big companies, research organizations, universities, service providers, funding organizations, government, private foundations, investors, the private sector, social leaders or labor representatives. The entrepreneur himself is part of the ecosystem but he is not the driving factor. The ecosystem is a network, working together, consisting of many parts. As all businesses are unique, not all businesses need the support of the entire ecosystem. Each business will rely on the parts of the ecosystem needed for success. Location, education, financial requirements, and government regulations will all play a part in determining what is needed and what is put into action. When the necessary stakeholders come to the table and network with the entrepreneur, a bond between the parties can be formed to help the business succeed. By definition the entrepreneurship ecosystem is a network of elements that have an interest in there being more entrepreneurs in their region. By working together, their regions will flourish and...