Last July, Bank of Ireland released a survey highlighting the significant increase in the number of foreign nationals setting up businesses in Ireland. In fact, the figures showed that, every day 10 new businesses are registered in the Republic by foreign nationals - double the number a decade ago.
Despite the relatively high number of foreign nationals showing entrepreneurial tendencies, Thomas Cooney, director of the Institute for Minority Entrepreneurship in Dublin, said they experience particular problems starting their own businesses.
"Setting up a business isn't easy for anyone," he said. "And it can be particularly difficult for anyone from a minority group." In this he includes non-Irish nationals, members of the Travelling community, elderly people, those with physical disabilities and gay people.
While there are currently no statistics to back this up, Mr Cooney, who lectures in entrepreneurship at the Dublin Institute of Technology, is adamant that the business world is a tougher place for these people.
"Anecdotally, I noticed that the failure rate was higher among new businesses set up by people from ethnic minorities," he said of the individuals who took part in the college's entrepreneur courses.
"In these situations, the individuals were experiencing particular difficulty securing finance and also as a result of their target market being too small.
"What we realised was that these different groups of people all have different requirements and that no-one was catering for their particular needs," said Mr Cooney. As a result, he set up the Institute for Minority Entrepreneurship, and next week the first "start your own business for minority entrepreneurs" programme begins with the aim of doing just that - specifically addressing the needs of those on the course.
Mr Cooney is targeting 20 participants for the course, which this time round is focusing on people from ethnic minority, disabled and elderly communities. He estimates that several others will come along to individual sessions on a one-off basis where the subject matter particularly relates to their situation.
The topics range from building the individual's confidence, through to writing a business plan, analysing marketing and management techniques and growing your existing business.
"I want to offer people another life option - a positive life option," said Mr Cooney, adding that he would also like to extend the programme to include prisoners in the future.What we are doing is helping people to maximise their potential, especially those who are often passed over when it comes to such chances."
The course runs from next Monday through to April 2nd on Monday evenings at the DIT. If it proves to be a success, Mr Cooney hopes to license the programme to other technology institutes around the State.
He is also looking at an online home-study option for those who either can't easily leave their home or don't want to be classified as belonging to a particular minority group.
This is likely to be geared towards the gay community and house-bound disabled people.
