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FEIW IRELAND/WALES CONFERENCE 2008:
THE SHAPE OF TOMORROW-THE DAWNING OF A NEW ENTERPRISE POLICY FOR WOMEN
DATE: 13th May 2008
VENUE: Faithlegge House Hotel
Women make up 50% of the population in Ireland and Wales. Yet, less than 17% of entrepreneurs in each country are women. What is hindering the enterprise development of these major untapped resources in Ireland and Wales?
The Shape of Tomorrow conference examines enterprise policy in relation to its role of providing an environment that increases the levels of entrepreneurial activity among women. Such an increase would lead to greater wealth and prosperity in the economies of Ireland and Wales.
The format of this conference is such that it affords participants the opportunity to learn from good practice across the EU and to provide an input into the reshaping of enterprise policy in Ireland and Wales. During the conference good practice and proposed inputs to enterprise policy will be discussed openly by policy makers, enterprise support agencies, entrepreneurs and leading academics in female entrepreneurship.
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RESEARCH FINDINGS
Primary research began in April 2006 and involved targeting two groups, women who had already set up a business (post start) and women who were thinking about starting a business (pre start). The aim of this research has been to understand the specific needs of women in the region and to design a training course that meets these needs. The survey received quite a positive result showing that women in the South East are eager to learn more about women in business. The results of the research have also shown that the South East has a high level of entrepreneurship, 16% of women in the South East have founded their own businesses. This figure is above the average for Ireland which is estimated to be anywhere between 7.5% to 15% percent for women. Women owned businesses are located throughout the South East in Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipperary and Carlow.
Post-Start Results: From our research on women who have already established a business we have found that this group are most frequently represented in the retail (33%) and health and beauty (12%) sectors and are under represented in the manufacturing and construction industries (2% respectively) which is consistent with other evidence. The typical woman business owner in the South East is aged between 30-49 years and has attained second level education. The average age of a woman starting her business is 30 to 39 years old. Interestingly the majority of women have set up their business as sole traders and over 70% of women surveyed own over 100% of their business.
 The average age of a woman led business in the South East is 11.3 years which reflects the need for more support and training for women in this area. The majority of women in the study are growing their businesses and 74% stated that they are interested in growing their business further. However, the main constraints to the growth of women’s business in the South East are finance (26%), staff (21%) and insufficient sales (19%). The majority of our respondents have taken enterprise training courses however, only 23% of these have taken a “Start Your Own Business” course prior to start up. The majority of women have received training in marketing, accountancy and communication. Our results show that women would like continuous training in work/life balance, confidence-building and looking after self. Pre-Start Analysis: The average women thinking about starting a business is in the 30-39 age bracket (73%), has attained at least a third level education and has prior experience (82%) in what is typically her first entrepreneurial venture (64%). These results may be due to women attending college and having more role models than previous generations. Again the Health/Beauty sector (27%) was the most popular industry for our respondents but this was followed by the Hospitality/Tourism and Business Related sectors (18% respectively), which differs from those who have already started a business. A large majority of our respondents (73%) have availed of business support and all of these either rated it good or very good and 64% of our sample has taken “Start Your Own Business” training courses. These findings are in contrast with the post-start findings where business support was only rated as fair and only 23% of women from the post start sample had taken training prior to start up. Women from both samples stated that content, location and cost are the most important factors in choosing a training course the subjects that both would like to take within the next twelve months include sales & marketing, IT skills and business plan development. We have found that there is a need for knowledge about women owned businesses to be made more readily available. Women also need support and training which is imperative if women are to become a driving force of our economy. We feel that by communicating our findings that this will help more women become interested in starting or growing their business. As our training programme has been specifically designed to meet the needs of women in business we hope that it will provide a unique and innovative experience for many women in the South East. To view the full research findings in addition to a comparative analysis with the research carried out in Wales please visit our member’s area. |
