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Promoting
and Supporting Women as Entrepreneurs by Mentoring
Prepared by Women‘s Enterprise Agency, Finland
Introduction
The proportion of women among entrepreneurs is quite small in many
countries. In Finland it is about 30%, whereas the share of female employers is about 50 %.
However, new enterprises are needed - not only to continue the work of retiring entrepreneurs
within the next ten years. Women have much knowledge and potential for entrepreneurship but
many of them lack self-confidence and meet more obstacles to start a business than
men. Different kinds of measures need to be taken and new models created to encourage and
help women who want to become entrepreneurs and also to support women entrepreneurs
from the beginning – and especially during the first (and often the most difficult) times
of entrepreneurship. The Women’s Enterprise Agency was launched in 1996 in Helsinki to
encourage women’s entrepreneurship. The Agency is financed by the Finnish Ministry of
Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Education, European Social Fund as well as private
companies, banks, insurance companies and business organisations. The initiative for the
establishment of the Agency came from the Finnish Jobs and Society, an umbrella organisation of 30
Enterprise Agencies who give support to people who want to start their own business, (both
men and women). The Women’s Enterprise Agency co-operates with these Agencies all over
Finland to encourage women’s entrepreneurship by organising seminars and events – making
women’s entrepreneurship more “visible”. The number of women candidates starting
businesses has risen from little more than 30 % to about 46 % of all clients using the
Agencies. Aim and objectives The primary aim is to train women for entrepreneurship. The objectives are:
- to encourage women to believe in themselves
- to give women concrete help about how to make a business plan
- to support women learning and networking with each other
- to make women’s entrepreneurship more visible within society
All this happens through living examples: “women help women”, “more
experienced woman entrepreneur supports the less experienced one”, etc.
Target group Women who want to start a business and women who already are
entrepreneurs. They can be female employers, unemployed women or young women due to leave school
in the near future. Each training group consists of a maximum of 12 women.
Topics and description of activities Advice, training and information services:
individual advice is provided
through confidential discussions involving experts and experienced entrepreneurs, who are
able to give information on several professional fields and on different sectors of
entrepreneurship. Advice is given free of charge. Theme sessions (one evening) include more practical information on
different aspects of entrepreneurship e.g. bookkeeping, productisation, i.e. how to develop
an idea to a “product”, price setting and marketing. Entrepreneurial training courses last three months and the training
group comprise a maximum of 12 women. Course topics are determined by clients’ needs, all experts
and lecturers are active entrepreneurs themselves and self-evaluation with the help of
client feedback is an integral part of every training, course or event.
Mentoring activities of the agency. The mentoring model created by The
Women’s Enterprise Agency in Finland builds on the practical needs of the newly established
female entrepreneurs. In regularly arranged, confidential discussions, the personal mentor – a
carefully chosen experienced entrepreneur – supports the mentee, i.e. the new
entrepreneur, with her knowledge, experience and contacts and thus, offers individually
tailored advice and support. When selecting the mentor-mentee pairs, a very important criterion is
compatibility, because the mentor and mentee are working in close co-operation during the whole
process, generally for at least one year. It is essential for the success of the project to
avoid the pitfalls of incompatibility. It is also important from the outset to have the
absolute commitment of both parties in working as a team. The process takes considerable time
and energy, demanding mental fortitude and the ability to both give and take. The role of mentee is not suited to everyone. Resourcefulness, persistence and self-confidence, combined
with a strong professional approach and a serious commitment to pair working are the
prerequisites for successful operation. A mentor needs a wide range of business
experience; she/he needs to be enterprising as well as having experience of life. Knowledge of
psychology, understanding of human nature, the ability to pay attention to others and strong
self-confidence are some of the qualities to be found in a good mentor. When selecting a
mentor, a good contact network is also appreciated. The idea of mentoring is that it should be beneficial to both parties.
The mentor gains new contacts, a new attitude toward others, mental stimulation from pair and
group meetings as well as a feeling of having supported someone. Through mentoring the
newcomer can avoid pitfalls during the early stages of their business career, with guidance
from an experienced entrepreneur. Training methods The training methods include working in small interactive groups of not
more than 12 participants, combined with personal support and confidential advice.
The key word is “experience” which is shared on a very practical level through the more
experienced entrepreneurs. “Agency language” is not spoken – everything is as
concrete as possible and based on entrepreneurial experience. In the mentoring process the
methods are pair meetings of mentee-mentor pairs as well as group meetings for the whole group (in
general 12- 15 pairs). The pair meetings are planned once a month with discussion
topics suggested by the mentee. It is fundamentally important that the mentoring project has a
co-ordinator, a leader who is responsible for the selection of the participants as well as the
matching of the pairs. Creating and activating the building of networks is an extremely
important part of all training and mentoring, because women entrepreneurs often start a business
entirely on their own. Implementation in Finland
The Women’s Enterprise Agency was established in 1996 and since then
advice, training and information services have been offered. On the basis of the needs of the
clients the first mentoring project was put into practise in 1998. Fifteen applicants were
chosen as mentees and an experienced entrepreneur and mentor, assigned to each one. The
programme consisted of pair meetings and group meetings for all participants. The results
were very positive and based on the experiences of the pilot project, the mentoring system was
developed into a strategy, (a model), which can be applied to all kinds of organisations
and educational institutions as a developing and supporting structure for newcomers in
business. Since the project’s inception, 20 mentoring programmes have been run in different
parts of Finland and abroad with more than 250 mentee-mentor pairs participating. A joint mentoring programme was carried out between Lithuania and
Finland in 2001 with 11 pairs – Lithuanian and Finnish women entrepreneurs. Currently a
mentoring project between Kaliningrad, Lithuania and Finland is going on. There are also
plans to implement the mentoring model in Latvia in the near future. The operations of the Women’s Enterprise Agency have been presented at
many conferences during this period and they have aroused widespread interest. In 2002
the European Commission highlighted the operations of the Agency as a “model of best
practise” in promoting women’s entrepreneurship in the European Union.
Sources/references
You can obtain more information by emailing at:
ritva.nyberg@nyek.inet.fi or by visiting the web site of the Women’s Enterprise Agency in Finland at the address:
www.naisyrittajyyskeskus.fi .
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