Leslie Morrison

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Investing in Women Initiative
Best Practice in Northern Ireland
Second PROWESS Annual Conference The New Equation
Claire Herron Programme Manager
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OUTLINE

• Who we are
• Accelerating Entrepreneurship Strategy (AES)
• Go for it (GFI) campaign
• Investing in Women Initiative- best practice
• Enterprise NI programme delivery

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Who we are

• We are the Economic Development Agency for
  Northern Ireland
• Established April 2002 existing agencies (IDB,
  LEDU, IRTU, NITB) consolidated into one
  organisation
• One integrated Service Provider
• Innovation Capability Development
• Entrepreneurship Enterprise
• Business International

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What we want to Achieve

• - Vision for Invest NI
• To accelerate economic development in Northern
  Ireland, applying expertise and resources to
  encourage innovation and achieve business
  success, increasing opportunity for all within a
  renewed culture of enterprise.

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Invest NI and AES - the Challenge

• NI towards the bottom of the
• UK entrepreneurship league
• Table
• 2 in 10 engaged in or
• thinking about starting a
• business v 3 in
• 10 in England
• Educational attainment not
• transferred into business
• start activity
• Accelerate economic
• development..within renewed
• culture of enterprise

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Accelerating Entrepreneurship

• Over 2 years in the making -
• wide consultation with Councils
• and the wider network
• The 6 AES Priorities
• Changing attitudes culture
• Encourage more people to take the first steps
• Building strong teams
• Support Priority wealth creating businesses
• Infrastructure
• Use of electronic media

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- Progress and Results
70 Awareness.
10,000 enquiries.
6,000 attended Start a Business Roadshow
20 increase in total new starts
Female starts 39 of total (2003/04)

Total entrepreneurial activity index up from
3.6 to 5.2
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Investing in Women Initiative
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ContextHousehold Entrepreneurship Study 2001

• Just 1 in every 4 entrepreneurs in NI were women
• Women in England were almost twice as likely to
  be entrepreneurs
• Of those thinking of setting up in business,
  just 1/3 are women
• Women more likely than men to be involved in
  entrepreneurship on a part-time basis
• Female self employment rate in NI lowest of all
  UK regions

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Development of the Investing in Women Initiative

• Wide consultation with
• Women entrepreneurs at different stages of
  business development
• Support providers
• Policy makers
• Funders
• Other Stakeholders
• Via surveys, focus groups, interviews, attending
  events/conferences, sourcing good practice

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• Following the consultation exercise, key
  stakeholders sign up to supporting the strategy
• Local action plans agreed in 5 areas of NI
  East, North East, South, N West and West
• Stakeholders Forum established mechanism for
  co-ordinating policy initiatives in relation to
  women and enterprise

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Overall aim Investing in Women

• To increase the number of women who start up in
  business in Northern Ireland, and the number who
  are able to grow their business performance
• To reduce the barriers associated with women
  starting up a business
• To provide support mechanisms to encourage female
  entrepreneurship

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Strategic Objectives of IIW

• Creation of a policy forum to allow communication
  between women entrepreneurs, policy makers and
  business support providers
• Increase the interconnectedness and collaboration
  between support agencies
• Reduce the barriers and constraints affecting
  women at start-up or growth stages of business
• Positively promote the self employment option for
  women at all ages
• Create a knowledge base about female
  entrepreneurship via research and information
  gathering
• Evaluate the impact/quality of initiatives and
  disseminate good practice

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Key Activities

• Joined up actions to maximise synergies
• Support to business networks to achieve business
  results
• Sustained and targeted promotion
• Network Capability
• Best Practice research, conferences, study
  visits

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- Results

• 4000 participants per year involved in female
  entrepreneurship activities
• 966 Female start-ups 2003/04 ( 39 of total)
• 714 Female start-ups in lst 6 months of 2004/05
  (39.8 of total)

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NI Start a Business Programme Results
Sept 2004 47
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Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2003

• Marked increase in the level of entrepreneurial
  activity in NI with major improvements in levels
  of female entrepreneurship
• Female entrepreneurship has increased between
  2002 and 2003 in NI and the level of
  entrepreneurial activity is now higher than in
  many other UK regions
• Gap between the number of women in NI and the
  number of women in the UK expecting to start a
  business has almost halved since 2002
• More women in NI compared to the UK regard
  setting up a new business venture as a good
  career choice

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Current Position

• Strategic review just completed by independent
  consultants results and recommendations will be
  used to develop future strategy
• Several elements of the Investing in Women
  Initiative to be mainstreamed

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Contact Details

• Claire Herron
• Investing in Women Initiative Team
• Invest Northern Ireland
• Upper Galwally
• BELFAST BT8 6TB
• claire.herron_at_investni.com
• www.investni.com

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Anna Logan
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Enterprise N.I.

• The network of local enterprise agencies
  established 1999
• 32 members covering all of N.I.
• Representatives from each agency form the
  Enterprise N.I. Council
• Led by a Board of 12 Directors nominated by the
  Enterprise N.I. Council

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Investing in Women Programme

• In partnership with Invest N.I., Enterprise N.I.
  deliver two strands of the Invest N.I. Investing
  in Women Initative
• Building Business Visions a suite of three
  targeted programmes for women at different stages
  of business development
• Access Points points of contact where women can
  access information to assist them in developing
  their enterprise

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Building Business VisionsSeeing the Possibilities

• For women thinking about starting a business
• Run in 10 locations across Northern Ireland over
  two half days.
• 93 participants
• 46 moved on to Start a Business Programme

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Building Business VisionsSeeing the
Possibilities

• Learning outcomes
• Support available
• Confidence
• Motivation
• Recognition of own skills

• Recommendations
• Develop regional recruitment strategy
• Follow on with one-to-one support
• Link to Access Points

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Building Business VisionsSeeing the Next Steps

• For women in local businesses employing 1 or 2
  people
• Run in 10 locations across Northern Ireland over
  four evenings.
• 88 participants

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Building Business VisionsSeeing the Next Steps

• Learning Outcomes
• Meeting others facing the same issues
• Importance of setting goals and planning to meet
  them
• Importance of attitude
• Support systems available

• Recommendations
• Develop regional recruitment strategy
• Residential element
• Sign up to Access Points and Networks

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Building Business VisionsSeeing No Limits

• For women running growth businesses or running
  businesses with potential to expand outside
  Northern Ireland
• Recruitment through the business womens networks
  14 participants
• 4 full day workshops/two residentials
• Best practice visits - N.I., Germany and Spain

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Building Business VisionsSeeing No Limits

• Learning Outcomes
• No one template for a successful businesswoman
• Renewed confidence and faith in own abilities
• Learning from each other awareness of pitfalls
• Formed connections with others in similar
  position
• Develop an altered but clearer and more positive
  vision of the future
• Recommendation
• Better integration of best practice visits

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Access Points

• Offer impartial guidance and advice
• Primarily a signposting function
• Identifies relevant sources of help
• Acts as a two way exchange
• Provides ongoing tracking of progress of women
  and identification of needs to inform the
  provider network

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Access Points

• 32 Access Points across N.I. supported by 5
  regional co-ordinators
• Engagement of local and regional business support
  providers
• Supported by Regional Management Information
  System

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Access Points Outputs

• At 31st October 2004
• 2564 women signed up
• 4508 interactions recorded
• 2615 referrals to events, programmes and business
  support providers

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Current Position

• Enterprise N.I. Steering Group established
• Working in partnership with Invest N.I. - plans
  are underway to mainstream elements of the
  service from 1st January 2005
• Awaiting feedback from Invest N.I. Strategic
  Review to inform future developments.