A sample of 400 Wisconsin business owners (69 percent response) and 200 potential entrepreneurs (27 percent response) identified the relationship of personal characteristics, motivational factors, and the decision to start a business, as well as perceived barriers to business ventures. Unsuccessful potential entrepreneurs differed from successful…

Describes the approach of the Economic and Employment Division of the Melbourne (Australia) City Council to creating jobs. The division started a business to recycle used lumber into furniture, providing training and jobs for several people. Following the success of that business, several new ventures were started with private funding. (CH)

Shoals Entrepreneurial Center, in two Alabama locations, supports would-be entrepreneurs with extensive planning advice, rental space, loans, business training, and back-office infrastructure. The center favors business plans with the potential to create fairly high-paying jobs, a different focus from other businesses in the region, and an…

A growing percentage of the U.S. work force depends upon entrepreneurial skills and behaviors to succeed in the new opportunity economy. The explosion of technology, accelerating need for new and different products, globalization of business, and demand for speed in delivery have shifted the economic driving force toward companies that can meet…

Small businesses play a strong role in generating new jobs. Policymakers have been encouraged to find ways to foster and support their development, especially by linking entrepreneurial training to the existing employment and training system. The purpose of this paper is to provide a background and a focus for further discussion of entrepreneurial…

This resource guide is intended to help communities that want to implement an entrepreneurship training program. Chapters I and II contain general advice for the planning process, such as how to assess need and community support, assess current services for entrepreneurs, select target clientele, develop a community support network, and identify…

The Washington State Self-Employment and Enterprise Demonstration (SEED) was the first federally sponsored self-employment demonstration program for unemployed workers in the United States. Its primary purpose was to determine the viability of self-employment as a reemployment option for recipients of Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits who do…

The first and longest section of this publication is a comparative analysis summarizing the impacts of the two Unemployment Insurance (UI) Self-Employment Demonstration Projects in Washington State and Massachusetts. Based on the first wave of post-project follow-up surveys, this evaluation report provides results on the net impacts of each…

The main parameters of state self-employment assistance (SEA) programs for unemployed workers were tested in two experimental demonstrations authorized by the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act. The Washington State and Massachusetts Unemployment Insurance (UI) Self-Employment Demonstrations evaluated the ability of the…

This self-employment training program case study booklet has been developed for general use in exploring the feasibility of this kind of development tool. The case studies describe a number of comprehensive, self-employment training and assistance programs, from the local to the national level. Chapter II includes information on the training plan,…