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WOMEN AND THE elderly could be better supported as budding entrepreneurs if the government got behind a nationwide scheme to back small business.
The call for a national entrepreneurship policy came from the Small Firms Association (SFA) at the start of the European Commission’s small and medium enterprise (SME) week.
SFA director Patricia Callan said groups which were under-represented in the small-business sector like the young, elderly, women and immigrants could all be singled-out in the policy.
“By focusing on the entrepreneurial sector, we can deliver real balanced regional growth; however, this will only be possible if there is a national entrepreneurship strategy,” she said.
The policy should drive entrepreneurship in a determined and coherent manner, so as to harness the necessary resources, both public and private, at national, regional and local level, and from cradle to grave.”
Lots of talk but no policy
While the government has a string of supports in place to help SMEs, it is yet to produce a complete entrepreneurship policy after putting the idea out to public consultation in May last year.
About 97% of all businesses in Ireland fall into either the small or micro categories – those that have less than 50 employees.
Those small businesses were responsible for employing over 860,000 workers across Ireland in addition to the nearly 50,000 people who were self-employed, according to an SFA analysis of Revenue data.
The SFA wants the government to include an overhaul of its current business incentive scheme in the budget to make it easier for people investing in SMEs to claim tax benefits.
There should also be a specific capital-gains tax for “entrepreneur’s relief” if business owners sold or closed part of their operation, it said.
The time for European SMEs
The European Commission’s SME week was set up to promote enterprise across the region in line after the introduction of the small business act in 2008.
It included setting up a single point of contact in every country for foreign enterprises looking to do business there.
Speaking at the Irish launch yesterday, Jobs Minister Richard Bruton said local businesses looking to get into the wider European market should use the contact point to find out what support was available for their operation.
“While the domestic economy is beginning to improve we must work hard to ensure that our SMEs are aware of the supports that are available to them in order to gain access to new markets and opportunities,” he said.
READ: Small and medium businesses could* deliver 20,000 jobs
READ: The SFA is warning the new small business minister to steer clear of wage hikes
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I support there being more women and elderly people in business and all walks of life, but why support them specifically? Support everyone equally according to their needs and if they have what it takes to make it in a fair environment then they will.
The ridiculous search for equality in every sphere of life
The search for equality isn’t ridiculous, singling out specific groups to “support” (aka give an advantage to) isn’t equality
We should back entrepreneurs who have potential return on investment, and not to fill gender and age statistics.
Completely agree. Let’s support business with potential regardless of age of gender.
I’m not sure those business groups actually are aware of the supports and how they are already 100% in favour of female entrepreneurs.
The supports for women are much greater than they are for men, EI awards extra money to businesses led by women, accelerators have plans in place to promote and connect female entrepreneurs. Many programmes have quotas to ensure there is a balance of women led businesses being included (rather than accepting the ‘best’ businesses) as well as that there are a number of female only networking and support groups (I couldn’t imagine a male-only club of this sort would be acceptable in this day and age).
As a young male it really feels as if the cards are stacked against you as everywhere you look the powers that be want less men in senior positions and more females, granted it is to correct an inherent bias and female led businesses tend to generate higher revenues, but it now means as a young male I do not have the equal opportunities I would have were I female which is totally unfair.
I don’t think more support is the answer, it’s a very lazy solution. A better one would be to encourage women to start businesses in school/college, study why females are less inclined to start businesses, and challenge that. Rather than skipping the ones that are willing to take the leap of faith to the top of the queue.
Utter nonsense, if a female or elderely person wants to start a business and is an entrepreneur they will go and do it. The reason why there are less women than men and less elderely than “young” entrepreneurs is because they don’t want to start businesses! A grant to start a novelty business is a complete waste of time and money that could be given to a real entrepreneur struggling to get HIS or HER business off the ground.
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