Seocho-gu Nurtures Prospective Alley Shop Owners

Seocho-gu to recruit 25 prospective entrepreneurs with items such as dining and publishing within commercial districts from the 15th to the 29th

First established this year to induce stable startups and revitalize alleyway commercial districts, achieving two goals with one effort

One-stop support including necessary theory, practice, mentoring, and consulting for startups provided at Seoul Startup Cafe Seocho Gyodae Branch

Seocho-gu supports prospective entrepreneurs in alleyway commercial districts with professional strategies and consulting.

By providing one-stop support from education, practice, to consulting, the goal is to induce stable startups and revitalize alleyway commercial districts, achieving two goals with one effort.

Seocho-gu (Mayor Jeon Seong-su) is recruiting ‘Seocho Golmok Dundeun’ prospective entrepreneurs with customized items to revitalize major local commercial districts from the 15th to the 29th.

The ‘Seocho Golmok Dundeun’ project was newly established this year by the district to select prospective entrepreneurs with innovative items such as dining and publishing that can revitalize local commercial districts under the theme ‘Find star entrepreneurs who will take responsibility for neighborhood commercial districts,’ aiming to increase startup success rates and promote local commercial district revitalization.

A total of 25 prospective entrepreneurs will be selected this time, and they will receive education for about one month at the district’s specialized startup support facility, ‘Seoul Startup Cafe Seocho Gyodae Branch.’

The feature of this education is that all necessary processes for startups?from theoretical education and mentoring to funding strategies and pre- and post-startup consulting?are conducted in one place as a one-stop program.

The education is broadly divided into basic startup education, 1:1 specialized mentoring, and a pitching competition.

First, the basic startup education covers 10 subjects necessary for startup preparation, including ▲business model development ▲startup procedures ▲commercial district analysis ▲marketing ▲various legal matters and funding, operated with a focus on theory and practical skills.

The 1:1 specialized mentoring program matches trainees with experts in each field as mentor-mentee pairs to acquire business operation know-how and management philosophy to apply after startup. Tax accountants, lawyers, labor consultants, and faculty members from Baekseok Arts University also participate to provide startup major curriculum and mentoring.

Basic startup education and 1:1 specialized mentoring will be conducted from the 2nd to the 23rd of next month.

Trainees who complete more than 80% of the basic startup education can participate in the ‘Pitching Competition’ on the 26th of next month to present their startup items. On that day, three outstanding prospective entrepreneurs will be selected and awarded a certain amount of business support funds. Certificates of completion will also be issued to graduates.

The recruitment target is those planning to start a business within six months in the local commercial district. The district will conduct document screening by the 31st and make the final selection. The screening will be conducted with advice from specialized related organizations for small business owners.

The district is also operating the ‘Social Economy Cultural Arts Youth Startup Support Project,’ which helps cultural arts youth with employment and startup in social economy enterprises. It supports initial startup funds up to 30 million KRW and rental fee support up to 5.4 million KRW per team.

Additionally, capacity-building education in financial accounting, legal affairs, labor and personnel, and marketing is being promoted. Over the past five years, the project has discovered a total of 87 social economy enterprises and provided jobs to 245 people, receiving great response from cultural arts youth.

Jeon Seong-su, Mayor of Seocho-gu, said, “Through this project, we hope prospective entrepreneurs become anchor stores that breathe new life into local commercial districts. We will continue to promote various commercial district revitalization projects to make local commercial districts attractive places that everyone wants to visit.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.