The bold step from unemployment to operating a small business enterprise is being taken by growing numbers of individuals, thanks to a series of facilitation courses now offered at resource centres.
In Waterford, the "First Step to Enterprise" programme has helped 22 people so far to realise the dream of starting their own business.
The 16-week course is aimed at those among the unemployed who have a business idea but lack the experience or the planning expertise to implement it. Certificates were presented last week to those who have finished the course and gone on to become self-employed small entrepreneurs.
This specially designed course is held at Waterford's Resource Centre for the Unemployed, which is funded by FAS and sponsored by the Waterford Council of Trades Unions. The Waterford City Enterprise Board and Waterford Area Partnership are key sponsors of the course and work closely with those who join it.
Professional tutors give the would-be entrepeneurs a grasp of the business skills they will need to form and run their own small company. The modular programme begins with confidence-building and assertiveness training, which are crucial for the long-term unemployed or those who have been out of the workplace for some time.
The generation of ideas and the assessment of the limitations of those ideas are explored; the participants are given a grounding in market research and basic financial techniques such as bookkeeping.
The final aim and requirement for each of those who complete the course is to prepare a business plan, including cash flow and financial projections, which can be submitted to the Enterprise Board with their application for grant-aid.
The course already has an impressive record of success. "We've run four such programmes to date. About 50 people have started attending them, and out of those, 22 have successfully completed the course and have started their own businesses," says Noel Walsh, manager of the resource centre. Others have secured employment, and some have decided to go back into full-time education.
There is no more telling tribute to the efficacy of these courses than the experience of some of those 22.
Peter Verreker now makes top-of-the-range furniture in Waterford and calls his company Southern Comforts Furniture. Before he found the First Steps course he was unemployed, mainly because there was no steady employment available locally for his skills.
He attended an introductory meeting held in Waterford Town Hall to launch the course, and decided to fill in a form. The four-month programme of two days' classes per week gave him the basic business skills he needed, and now he employs a full-time worker and may be taking on another next year.
Edward Hartley, whose new business in PVC and aluminium window repairs is called The Window Doctor, was previously unemployed for 12 months. The First Steps course "gave me a great insight into customer relations and self-motivation," he points out.
One year into his own business operation, he has one full-time and two part-time employees, and is "very happy with my sales quotas, and with my business plan which was drawn up as a result of the course".
Teresa Foskin now runs a graphic design and print management service which trades under the name Design Plus. When she decided to set up her own operation she approached the Waterford City Enterprise Board and thus discovered the course.
It helped her to clarify her ideas about the business, and to draw up a business plan, but most importantly, she says, it gave her confidence.
Now working on her own, she can see herself employing people within the next 18 months to two years.
The small business Galactica Lighting is run by Paul Ryan, who makes hand-crafted interior lanterns. "I wouldn't be where I am today without the Enterprise Board, plus the course itself," he acknowledges. His products have gone into the local shops for Christmas, and he hopes to employ somebody in the new year.
Pat Lanigan, of Miniature Mansions, designs and builds exclusive dolls houses and furniture in partnership with Mary Walshe. When he decided to go into business, he had a place to start up "but I hadn't a clue about pricing, etc".
These modest success stories illustrate how a basic grounding in business skills can remove the mystique from the process of setting up one's own business, and can give at least a section of the long-term unemployed the confidence and motivation to translate ideas and skills into an enterprise opportunity.