01
Understanding the landscape
Sport as a lever, the real barriers, young people's voices.
Erasmus+ project · 2025-2027
Sport & entrepreneurship
STEP helps young adults from disadvantaged neighbourhoods turn what they learned through sport into a professional project, and equips the organisations that support them.
50young people trained in workshops
500young people reached by the resources
20support organisations equipped
3languages: French, English, Greek
The project
You already have an entrepreneur's skills
Organising a tournament, motivating a group, sticking to training: sport teaches discipline, teamwork and perseverance. These are an entrepreneur's skills, but nobody names them.
STEP (Sport, Training & Entrepreneurship Pathway) is an Erasmus+ partnership between Ginkgo Sport in Tourcoing (France) and ARISTA DEKA in Nicosia (Cyprus). It offers a guide, tool sheets, podcasts and workshops to go from idea to first step, in sport and wellness.
For young people aged 18 to 29
Find your "why", test a simple offer, choose a legal status, manage your money and build your network.
For support professionals
Educators, coaches, employment advisers: a method and a ready-to-run 2-hour workshop to introduce entrepreneurship to people far from employment.
Open-access resources
The guide "Entrepreneurship in Sport"
4 free parts, to read online or download as PDF.
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From idea to first step
Mindset, offer, first actions, money, network, resilience.
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For support professionals
Mindset, methods, running a workshop, signposting.
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Toolbox
Glossary, templates, digital tools, France · Cyprus · Europe directory.
Also available in Français · Ελληνικά
Tool sheets and templates (in French)
5 practical sheets (opportunity, fast-growing sports, urban practices, legitimacy, women entrepreneurs) and 25 templates: invoice, quote, statutes, contracts, mini business plan.
Podcasts
Coaches, franchisees, educators and entrepreneurs tell how they got started.
Coming soonPractical guides
Project management, marketing, fundraising, networking, legal obligations: by ARISTA DEKA.
Published progressivelySTEP workshop · 2 h
Leave with your first step
A first session brought together 12 young people in Tourcoing on 25 June 2026. Upcoming sessions are open to young people and to organisations that would like to host one.
- An inspiring journey: from combat sports to starting a business
- What entrepreneurship is (and what it isn't)
- How an idea is born: a problem, an audience, a solution
- Possible legal statuses and support to get started
- 30-second pitch, in pairs
The partners
A French-Cypriot project
Ginkgo Sport
Tourcoing, France · coordinator. A family-run gym committed to inclusion through sport since 2012.
ARISTA DEKA
Nicosia, Cyprus. Adult education and support for young people facing difficulties.
Contact
Host a workshop, use the guide?
Support organisations, clubs, local authorities: contact Ginkgo Sport, the project coordinator, to organise a workshop or use the STEP resources in your work.
Contact Ginkgo Sport