In 2017, Andi Ashar needed to earn some extra money to pay for his studies in information systems at his university in Makassar, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. He heard about a contest sponsored by an international mining company for the best infographic design and decided to try his luck. He was amazed when he won first place, earning him the $1,750 prize.

Ashar decided to use the money to start his own T-shirt screen-printing business,Keraton Kaos。他迅速吸引了新客户的基础，但随后撞到了墙。他无法激励他的员工采取更多主动行动，他本人承担了许多日常责任，随着业务的发展，他的财务状况变得越来越难以处理。

“Learning how to screen-print the T-shirts by hand was one thing,” says Ashar, now 26. “But running the business was a completely different type of challenge. There was a definite learning curve.”

Around this time, Ashar spotted an advertisement about Mercy Corps’Micromentor印度尼西亚program. He immediately signed up, hopeful he could find a mentor to show him the ropes of managing a small business.

Ashar的经历并不少见。在大流行袭击之前，印度尼西亚有超过三分之一的年轻人想经营自己的业务。World Economic Forumsurvey of youth attidues in the region. But while the number of startups has boomed in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, young entrepreneurs with little business experience have struggled to persuade would-be investors to provide the capital they need to grow.

在该国成千上万的较小岛屿（在Java和Sumatra的主要岛屿之外），开展新业务可能更具挑战性。年轻的企业家几乎没有支持，他们经常面临连通性和基础设施问题。最重要的是，网络犯罪是全世界的严重和日益严重的威胁。

Micromentor印度尼西亚’s digital platform, with inaugural support from the万事达卡中心包容性增长中心, is reaching these entrepreneurs by training thousands of volunteers to become their mentors and by providing cybersecurity tools and digital instruction. The platform has been endorsed by the country’s Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises for its effective approach to expanding support to 65 million micro, small and medium-sized businesses throughout the archipelago.

“Digital transformation is important for the economic recovery of MSMEs during the pandemic,” says Teten Masduki, who leads the Indonesian ministry. The number of these businesses that have connected to the digital ecosystem has nearly doubled during the pandemic, from 8 million to 15.9 million, with the government targeting 30 million by 2024, he says. “This means that our focus is now on how to accelerate the digitization for MSMEs.”

Micromentor Indonesia是更广泛的万事达卡学院2.0倡议的一部分，该计划旨在为100,000个印尼人（从学童和年轻人到企业家和中级专业人士），他们拥有在未来经济中取得成功所需的数字技能。万事达卡2.0包括Girls4Tech, the company’s signature STEM education program for girls 8 to 14; a cybersecurity training and job placement program for vocational students; andan online cybersecurity toolkitfrom the Global Cyber Alliance that, along with the MicroMentor Indonesia program, will help entrepreneurs like Ashar grow and secure their businesses.

Using the MicroMentor Indonesia platform, Ashar browsed available mentors and came across Ruhaisal Ifna, an entrepreneur and university lecturer based in Makassar, his hometown of 1.4 million.

像Ashar一样，IFNA曾在学生中开始自己的业务，首先制作和销售冰淇淋，然后建立另一家公司出售玩具。她了解当地市场，并充满了关于阿萨尔如何利用学生群体并找到新方法来种植Keraton Kaos的想法。

在Ifna中，Ashar发现了一种亲切的精神，他很快成为了他的大姐姐。伊夫纳（Ifna）珍惜有机会分享她的专业知识，以帮助他们在社区中启动年轻企业家的职业生涯。188bet网址怎么打不开

“The first thing I thought was that I needed to motivate him,” Ifna says. “He was so enthusiastic but was filled with doubt about how to grow his business. He just needed to unlock his potential.”

Working together in the months before the pandemic hit, the two would communicate by WhatsApp and met a couple of times in person to talk about how to develop Keraton Kaos.

Thanks to her guidance, Ashar honed his management skills and got a tighter grip on the company’s finances, which ultimately helped boost revenues for his company. “Even things that may seem little to you as a mentor can have a big impact on other people,” Ifna says.

Before the pandemic, Keraton Kaos employed nine staff members who printed up to 2,000 T-shirts a month with its clients’ designs. The company had also built a strong数字资料通过其网站和社交媒体。该策略在锁定期间是救生员，因为它使公司能够依靠其在线销售。

现在，Ashar和IFNA希望共同努力在Makassar开发业务指导，并帮助更多的企业家利用数字技术，这些技术可以将它们带到Sulawesi以外的市场。“您永远不会太年轻，无法开展业务，” Ashar说。“如果您有一个好主意，请尽快开始。”