Project Findings
Critical Success Factors in the Development of Enterprising Rural Communities The project findings reinforce the key points of
research conducted by Tipperary
Institute and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, which identified a number of critical success factors that have an influence on the likely levels of enterprise and entrepreneurship in a rural area.
1. Networks for Entrepreneurship
The level of entrepreneurship within a region and the existence of an entrepreneurial culture can be developed through improving the networks and opportunities for contacts with successful entrepreneurs. The number of people who know an entrepreneur personally significantly increases the propensity for new businesses to be set up.
It is often less likely for people to know an entrepreneur personally in a rural community. The rural enterprise development work that this project has drawn on shows how providing a visible focus and practical support for people with ideas and passion to start
their own businesses dramatically increases the
enterprise activity within an area and the entrepreneurial culture. People start to believe that they can succeed, through seeing other people's success. This can be seen with in the role of the Enterprise Facilitator in the Sirolli model and the BizFizz coach as well as the mentor roles in the Ballyhoura Mentoring service, the advisors within the Nyföretagar Centrum, Programme
in the Swedish Jobs and Society
Also key to developing a local culture of entrepreneurship is the development of a local association of existing businesses or panel, which exists to support the inception and sustainability of new business start ups. This cross pollination of business skills and experience has been shown to be highly effective in supporting local economic development. The work done in Sweden, the Pembrokeshire skills bank and the Sirolli foundation and BizFizz models all rely on this sort of structure and support to provide skills and experiences that potential entrepreneurs can draw on to supplement although they are set up and run in different ways.
their own ideas and knowledge,
The other important factor for fostering a entrepreneurship within communities seems
to be the use of individual one to one support as a focus for
entrepreneurs. This was key in all of the projects that were run to support the development of new, sustainable businesses. It would seem that just having support services for potential entrepreneurs is not enough as they often do not know how to access them or which services they really need. The individual ‘one to one’ support approach of these projects unlocked other support services and helped people focus on what they needed.
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