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Guidance supporting Europe’s aspiring entrepreneurs
Policy and practice to harness future potential

Online business guidance and support tools can offer many benefits. If
created and managed appropriately, they have the potential to reach out to
wider/different audiences than more conventional means of support as they can
be made available to users, regardless of where they are based. They provide an
‘instant’ source of information/advice (e.g. for information which is already
online). They can be more resource-efficient than face-to-face support or
traditional methods such as the distribution of hard copy publications and help
people to establish a network of contacts or get advice/share experiences with
their peers.
The study countries differ greatly in terms of information and advice offered
by public authorities (PES and business support networks), employer
representatives (associations of entrepreneurs and chambers of commerce) and
online enterprise services. They can contribute indirectly to the development of
career management skills of new entrepreneurs by acting as brokers between
general and specialist support services.
The example from Portugal reinforced the finding that private companies
independently provide support to entrepreneurs. This support is tailored to the
individual needs of the entrepreneur and, while not formally guided, often takes
place regularly due to the commitment of the company and entrepreneur to make
the venture succeed.
Support and guidance for migrant entrepreneurs is being encouraged in
Member States in reaction to both political trends (led by the EU) and social
developments such as economic decline and immigration increases. Research
has also shown that such support and guidance can pay off: the EQUAL
experience shows that business start-ups have been steadily increasing in
regions where holistic interventions to support entrepreneurs from disadvantaged
backgrounds have been implemented (EQUAL, 2004).
While migrants do not differ too much from native populations in terms of the
issues they face, as a non-native group which might be hard for support services
to reach, they need services which are tailor-made and targeted.
Migrants need coaching and mentoring from professionals who have up-to-
date institutional and administrative knowledge of the host society, rather than
informal networks of personal contacts who might not have accurate information.
They need training within their community by trainers who understand the
specific cultural needs of that community: this can be achieved by specific
outreach programmes and ‘training of trainers’. Community based ‘business
incubators’ help migrants who are already entrepreneurs to expand their
business and bring it into the mainstream successfully. Positive role models of

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