CSR Ukraine, an expert organization CSR Development Center, together with the Career Hub, the UNFPA, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine held an All-Ukrainian Conference "Your Own Business: How Mistakes Make Us Stronger?". The event became an inspiring platform for introducing experienced entrepreneurs to graduates of the Skills Lab: Your Own Business program, who are on their way to establishing and implementing businesses in different regions of Ukraine.

Over the years 2018-2019, the Skills Lab: Your Own Business training program was held in 9 cities of Ukraine - Kremenchuk, Lviv, Mariupol, Kramatorsk, Kherson, Dnipro, Mykolayiv, Cherkasy and Kryvyi Rih, and involved over two hundred participants. When completed, about 97% of young people told that they were ready to start a business and were already making the first steps.

Taras Derkach, Career Hub Coordinator, CSR Development Center welcomed the young entrepreneurs' community and summarized the program: “We are very pleased that for two years now, Skills Lab: Your Own Business has been helping to implement innovative projects tackling social, environmental, educational, cultural problems in cities and villages of Ukraine. Young people presented 125 business projects were presented at the final events and despite the difficulties, they already demonstrate budding results”.

According to Yelena Kudryavtseva, regional coordinator of the Skills Lab: Your Own Business program in Cherkasy, some projects are already earning their first profits. For example, the ModelCraftPaper project for the production of paper models  is already receiving their first orders, and its initiator Kateryna Yaremenko teaches Cherkasy residents this art, investing the proceeds in the business development. Yuliya Kartalapova's project to create a vertical microgreen farm is also at the startup phase. The first lamps for microgreen growing have already been purchased and the startup launch costs are fully covered.

Yuliya Novak, UNFPA Youth and HIV Advisor, emphasized that any business needs endurance, therefore, it is so important not to be afraid to make mistakes: “Mistakes on your path to creating your own business is not just lessons to learn, but also important beacons along your way. Sometimes the error situations help you find friends or like-minded people and make the right conclusions to know how to move on”.

Successful entrepreneurs in various fields: social entrepreneurship, restaurant business, education, culture, urbanism, entertainment and leisure, told about the value of mistakes, the path to success, and the secrets of developing one's own business in Ukraine to the program participants.

Dmytro Podolev, co-founder of the iHUB Innovation Centers Network, advises young people to spend their free time with smart people and constantly improve themselves: "The world is so fluctuating and so fast-paced that you need to keep up with the flow of time".

Yuliya Kopylova, co-founder of MYSTERY PLAY, shared the secrets of a successful business partnership and explained why it is so important to be able to work in a team: “The team is a secret weapon. It is important for everyone to ask themselves how they are fulfilling their own goals while achieving the goals of the company”.

Yuriy Filiuk, founder of the Warm City platform, CEO of the Promprylad:Renovation Innovation Center, told about his own path to success and how businesses build trust with civil society: "Urban communities are beginning to shape the agenda and get impetus for development. It is therefore crucial to build synergies between business, government and community".

Nataliya Limonova, director of Snite, a co-founder of an international children's school, emphasized the importance of creating a business in collaboration rather than focusing on your own ego: “Involve employees, partners, clients in discussing and creating ideas. Sometimes solving the client's task is more efficient in synergy with competitors, then competitors become partners”.

Yevheniy Klopotenko, culinary expert, co-founder of the Confiture Gastro-studio and One Hundred Years Back in the Future restaurant, focused on out-of-the-box thinking that helped him succeed in business: “Look at ordinary things from another point of view and always ask yourself one question: "Why?"

Vyacheslav Sukhomlinov, GTD Certified Trainer, Chairman of the David Allen Company Representative Office in Ukraine spoke about how to improve GTD's personal effectiveness - Getting Things Done. That is why it is very important to learn how to use your time and resources as efficiently as possible.

During the conference, participants also took part in a strategic session that generated ideas for the development of the Skills Lab: Your Own Business community. After that, everyone wanted to get ideas for their business projects. The most active participants received gifts from the organizers.

Participant in the training program, young businessman from Cherkasy Ivan Kolesnyk shared his impressions of the event: “For me, the main purpose of attending the conference was to get to know people who are vehemently enthusiastic about their business. After listening to the advice of the speakers, I finally realized that the most important thing in business is to do everything possible to develop your business. And you are certain to achieve success”.