Transcript Document
Offering Minority Communities
Equal Opportunities Through
Entrepreneurship
Dr Thomas M. Cooney
Director – Institute for Minority Entrepreneurship
Dublin Institute of Technology
Ireland
Background to IME
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Established in 2006
“Offering all the peoples of minority groups in Ireland equal
opportunity to maximise their economic and social potential through
entrepreneurship education and training”
Helping people to help themselves
Partnering with relevant organisations
Motto is “Build the person, build the business” – non-traditional
approach based on research
Primarily a voluntary organisation, supported particularly by people
from the business community
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DIT staff
PhD students
Board of Advisors
Community Leaders
Mentors
Moving from ‘bums on seats’ model to “business start-up” model
Key Minority Communities
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Prisoners
People with Disabilities
Travellers (Gypsies)
50+
Gay
Ethnic
• These communities face additional and distinctive challenges in
starting up their own business
• Benefits of training around what it means to be ‘entrepreneurial’
can help them in their social as well as their working life
Income Generation Options
For Each Individual
• Tax generating
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Employment
Self-employment
Farming
• Tax usurping
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State Support
Crime
• Tax neutral (although may have positive / negative tax effect)
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Begging
Inheritance
Marriage
Sponsorship
Pensions
Gambling
Prisoner Community
Economic Rationale
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Reimprisonmentrates
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Profile of reoffenders
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27.4% within 1 year
39.2% within 2 years
45.1% within 3 years
49.2% within 4 years
52% unemployed prior to reoffence
Male
Younger (under 30)
Property crimes (49% reimprisoned within 36 months)
Career options on leaving prison
– Back to crime (costs state over €90,000 per year per prisoner)
– State support (costs state in excess of €200 per week, higher than average
wage in most EU accession states)
– Employment (contributes tax, hard to get a job)
– Self-employment (contributes to tax and economic activity)
Distinctive E/Ship Challenges
Faced By Prisoners (Rieple, 1998)
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Lack of suitable contacts / role models
Inability to drive due to lack of license
Lack of financial support / credit history
Credit payment schemes not available due to record
Business insurance very expensive
How to present yourself to the bank?*
Poor educational and literacy abilities
Stigma attached to having a record
Lack of follow-through, persistence, dedication (lack will to overcome
setbacks)
Problems related to the dulling effects prison exerts on some individuals
Unable to test-market idea
Lack of continuing support
Lack of self-confidence (want to set up business while in prison, but rarely
follow it up on release)**
Training Needs
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Holistic approach needed
Seed funding required
Business mentors required
Must have pre-programme interviews
Build one-to-one sessions into the programme
Only those being released within 12 months should be on the
programme
• Support of other organisations is critical
People With Disabilities
Employment Among Disabled
• Lower rates of employment
– US: 30.4% disabled v. 82.3% non-disabled
– UK: 54% v. 84%
– Ire: 37% v. 67%
• Fewer in full-time employment
– 63.9% v. 81.5% (US)
• Lower levels of income
– $29,513 v. $37,961
• Poorer levels of education
– 31% v. 15% not finished high school (US)
– 26% v. 11% no educational qualification (UK)
– 50.8% have no second-level education (Ire)
Motivations for Self-Employment
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Desire to overcome disability
Inability to secure / retain job
Wish to increase income
Flexibility in working hours and workload
Rebuilding self-esteem
Suits / accommodates disability
Fear of discrimination in the workplace
Autonomy from obstacles such as:
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Transportation
Fatigue
Inaccessible work environments
Need for personal assistance
• BUT no tailored self-employment programmes available
for people with disabilities in Ireland (few anywhere
globally)
Barriers to Self-Employment
• Difficulties in obtaining start-up capital
– Lack of own financial resources
– Poor credit rating
– Disinterest from the banks
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Fear of losing regular benefit income (‘benefit trap’)
Unhelpful attitudes of business advisers
Lack of customers
Lack of access to appropriate training and support
Difficulties in qualifying for minority focused financial resources
Characteristics of EWDs
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Older
Lower educational qualifications
Self-employed longer
Less likely to be in professional occupations
Lower hours worked
Bring lower levels of start-up capital
Have lower incomes
Developing Appropriate Support
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Address low educational qualifications
Provide tailored training programmes (online)
Provide on-going business support
Establish microloan funds
Implement disability awareness training for business advisers
Facilitate self-employment through vocational rehabilitation
Actively market services to socially excluded groups
Reduce work disincentives
Address labour market disadvantages
Traveller Community
Background to Irish
Travellers
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Approximately 24,000 Irish Travellers
Have their own distinct culture
Suffer from limited education, poor health, discrimination, etc
General perceptions
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All Travellers want to live on the side of the road,
Travellers do not want to be part of Irish society,
Travellers are to blame for crime and anti-social behaviour,
Travellers’ halting sites are badly maintained,
Travellers are cheats who do not pay taxes and do not pay for the services that they receive
on halting sites,
Travellers are associated with violent behaviour (problems with alcohol),
Travellers are work shy
• Significant amounts of money being given to this community
through government schemes
Employment
• Unemployment rates for female Travellers was 63% and 8% for the
female population overall
• Unemployment among male Travellers measured 73% and 9.4% for
males overall
• Travellers want to access waged employment but have
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to hide their Traveller identity
a lack of recognised skills
low levels of education
to face discrimination in the marketplace
• Traditional industries and skill needs are being lost to a knowledgebased economy
• Laws on street trading had negative effect on Travellers
Key Features of the
Traveller Economy
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Nomadism - where mobility makes marginal activity viable
A focus on income generation rather than job creation
The extended family is the basic economic unit
Home base and work base is one and the same
Flexibility - often in response to market demands.
Future Developments
• Enormous challenges involved
– Societal perception
– Traveller issues
– No role models (‘nothing changed after the programme’)
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Health and education need to be addressed as a priority
Future programmes require 1-2-1 mentoring
Role models needed to break through at local level
Solutions need to be highly innovative and long-term in vision –
not more programmes that continue dependency
• Many previous programme providers have decided to no longer
work with the Traveller community.
• BUT – what does the Traveller Community want for itself?
• Lessons from / for Maori and Aboriginal communities?
50+ Community
Bad News !
• Rapidly increasing rates of unemployment caused by global
recession
• Particularly difficult job prospects for people Over 50
• If a person Over 50 loses their job, they have just a 1-in-10
chance of finding a new position (UK Research)
• Other income options include pensions, state support, or
self-employment
• Challenges to self-employment include:
– Not having sufficient funds, or investing retirement funds in
start-up
– Not preparing a succession plan or exit strategy
– Physical limitations
– Lack of experience in the market
– "9 to 5" mentality
– Lack of small business knowledge
Good News !
• In the US, the rate of self-employment for the workforce as
a whole was 10.2%, but the rate for workers aged 50-plus
was 16.4%.
• Although those aged 50 and above made up 25% of the
workforce in 2002, they comprised 40% of the selfemployed.
• In the UK, businesses started by people Over 50:
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Contribute £24.4bn to economy
Average turnover of £67,500 a year
Now account for 1 in 6 UK start-ups
Two-thirds regret not setting up earlier
Majority want to run their businesses as long as possible
Although older women start fewer businesses than men, women are
twice as likely as their male counterparts to set up businesses
following big life changes such as ill-health, divorce or moving house.
• Makes economic sense to support this community
Gay Community
Different Needs
• Internationally, 18% of gay community are entrepreneurs
– ‘Lavender ceiling’
– No family commitments
– Higher capital availability
• Current research by IME suggests that:
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11% are entrepreneurs (417 responses)
78.1% view themselves as ‘an entrepreneur who is gay’
Target gay community as one of many markets
Their desire to contribute to the gay community through employment, etc is of
minor significance
– Have suffered abuse in personal circumstances but positive about business
practice
– Homophobia not an issue in starting a business
• Helped establish IGBA – having a network is important
• Major one day conference planned to determine future work
Ethnic Community
Ethnic Entrepreneurship in
Ireland
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Non-Irish nationals comprise 11.2% of population
Approximately 12.6% of non-Irish nationals have partial or full ownership of a
business
Ethnic businesses are
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primarily small in scale,
young in age,
concentrated in the locally traded services sectors,
operating at the margins of the mainstream economic environment,
61% identified a business opportunity,
75% of ethnic businesses are in operation for two years or less,
94% employ 5 or less full-time staff,
65% generated 50,000 euro or less in sales revenue in the last 12 months.
Ethnic businesses
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Primarily target their own communities
These markets are too small to be sustainable (getting smaller)
Not potential HPSUs
Challenges facing Ethnic Entrepreneurs
(Experienced)
SecuriChallenges
ng Finance facing Ethnic
Entrepreneurs (Perceptual)
Unfamiliarity with Business Environment
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15 Discrimination
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No Business Contacts
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0 Language Barriers
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Gaining Trust of Irish
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Gaining Support from State Agency
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Other
Access to Finance
% of respondents who attempted to
secure financial backing
Success Rate in securing financial
backing
(of those who made an attempt to
secure financial backing)
Bank/Building Society
60%
78%
Credit Union
37%
70%
State Agency
30%
28%
Family/Friends
30%
89%
Business Acquaintances
16%
70%
Reasons for Not Participating on Business Training Programmes
Lack of Awareness
35%
30%
25%
20%
Don't Need Further
Training
Not Relevant to my
Business Needs
15%
No Time
10%
5%
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Cost too high
Source of Awareness of Ethnic Training Programmes
25%
National Media
20%
Ethnic Media
15%
Ethnic Website
Ethnic Organisation
10%
College/University
5%
0%
Personal
Key Considerations
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Ethnic businesses must include general Irish population (good for
business, good for social integration)
Strong potential for international trade
Targeted intervention followed by mainstreaming of enterprise
support services should be the ambition
Proactive role needs to be taken by enterprise support agencies (use
ethnic media – e.g. syndicated column)
Raise awareness among the ethnic communities of the availability to
them of enterprise support
Develop a ‘one-stop-shop’ website aimed at aspiring ethnic
entrepreneurs
Foster enhanced linkages between national business representative
bodies and ethnic business communities
Conclusion
• Call for Papers in the International Journal of Entrepreneurship
and Innovation on the ‘silent minorities’
• Any possibilities for collaboration?
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“We treat everyone the same” is not working
Must take a tailored approach to each community
Working with organisations within the community must occur
Pre-start-up and early start-up requires our help, afterwards they
should be mainstreamed
• It makes sense economically and socially to take a proactive
approach that is based on results and tangible outcomes
• The challenges are enormous but doing nothing is not an option
"Some see things the way they are and ask, Why?
I dream things that never were, and ask Why not?“
George Bernard Shaw