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Industry: Email Alert RSS FeedMicroenterprising and People with Disabilities: Strategies for Success and Failure - Statistical Data Included
Journal of Rehabilitation, April-June, 2001 by Richard T. Walls, Denetta L. Dowler, Kimberly Cordingly, Louis E. Orslene, John D. Greer
The U.S. Small Business Administration (2000) recommends that potential business owners create a business plan. The form of this plan has been created to solicit personal and financial information from those who are considering starting a business. Answers to questions about the business, product or service, location, marketing plan, and financial needs inform the individual planner as well as the individual's rehabilitation counselor, funding contact, and family. Thus, the value of a well-thought-through business plan extends far beyond the search for investment capital. It is an essential planning tool and can be used to gauge progress after start-up (Herzog, 1998). The care and time expended on a business plan have been shown to be related to business success and failure rates (Institute on Rehabilitation Issues, 1998). In articulating the business concept, technical assistance from knowledgeable people is almost always helpful and, in many cases, may be necessary when the planner begins to conduct formal or informal market research and to write a reasonably detailed business plan. Continuing support is a necessity in reducing the low-readiness barrier.
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In describing the need for continuing support and assistance, Goldmark (1996) cited business development services such as training, technology transfer, marketing assistance, business advice, mentoring, and information. These services are aimed at helping the microenterprisers to improve and sustain the performance of their business. Delivery of these services has had positive, sustaining effects on microenterprise in developing countries.
The Traditional-Expectation Barrier: Redefining Success
The traditional-expectation barrier is a result of conflicting models of "success." The conflict is the viewpoint of growth-oriented businesses versus the viewpoint of self-supporting microenterprise. Any emerging model forces redefinition of traditional concepts. A new concept of success includes microenterprise ownership that does not necessarily have a "growth" orientation (Sonfield & Barbato, 1999). Business success for microenterprise may mean increase in self-sufficiency and reduction of dependence.
Confusion about definitions of (a) microenierprise (including self-employment), (b) very small business, and (c) small business contributes to the traditional-expectation barrier. Small business and microenterprise differ considerably. Based on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's definition, a "microenterprise" is a commercial enterprise with five or fewer employees, one or more of whom owns the business. Thus, microenterprise is often synonymous with self-employment, as noted earlier in the FIELD definition. Clark and Kays (1995) indicated that a microenterprise is generally a sole proprietorship that has fewer than five employees and that can benefit from a start-up loan of under $15,000. They indicated that the average loan size was $5,640 and that loans are generally secured by non-traditional collateral, flexible collateral requirements, or group guarantees. The microenterprise, therefore, is distinguished from the traditional small business (Himes & Servon, 1998).
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