T EAM U
bankrupt Customer did not pay
Attila
inadequate humiliated
but no support network
frustrated
P E R S ON
250 self-help groups Founded Insolvents Anonymous
EU enterprises do not survive in first
IDEA Support successful restart
Prevent bankruptcies
bankrupt entrepreneurs potential to “restart�
Bankruptcy can happen to everybody
PROJECT Specialized support
Cost-free hotline Expert consulting network
Trained consultants
avoid bankruptcy
Nationwide self help groups
safely close business
Develop policy recommendations
I M P AC T Since 2007 13,000 people have benefitted
2017 scale model to Greece, Poland, Italy, Spain
GREECE Showcasing
Finding Par tners
Suppor t ing Transfer With the support of the
Social Local Impact
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TEAM U Scaling model: Capacity building and piggybacking on local partners Support selected local partners to acquire specific know-how and skills to scale its activities all over Europe and provide assistance to entrepreneurs to avoid insolvency and restart. Barriers to scaling •! Economic failure is a strong taboo and stigma in today’s society. This hinders entrepreneurs in crisis from asking for help until it is too late, making it difficult for support organisations to identify them early enough and break the wall of shame and guilt. •!
Make the case with investors and local partners for a new approach to consulting, where the consultant focuses on the empowerment of the entrepreneur, who just needs guidance in taking her decisions, rather than on providing expert advice. For this, there needs to be openness to identify and invest in consultants who have gained personal experience in managing crisis and who can refer to their experience as a resource rather than a disadvantage.
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Preconceptions and lack of trust in new approaches. Decision-makers and funders are hesitant to support something that they are not acquainted with and has potential to distrupt a sector. They prefer to focus on figures and numbers instead of social impact – eg. the criterion „number of companies saved“ is not a good success indicator, since it might be more effective to to advice entrepreneurs to close companies with business models that do not work any more and start new companies with new business models that have a future.Therefore, a low score for this criterios might actually not be very relevant when analysing the impact of a program.
Policy recommendations Create a culture of second chance for honest entrepreneurs focusing on the legal, economic and social aspects. Legal The EU and Member States should synchronize insolvency law on EU level to give entrepreneurs the chance for a fresh start with equal opportunities in all EU countries. Remove barriers for turnaround and restart for honest entrepreneurs: in some EU countries like Germany, it takes more than 10 years for a bankrupt entrepreneur to start again due to the legal process and the includion in the SCHUFA registry which marks her as „not-credit worthy“ impeding access to finance, renting contracts or even new telephone contracts. In other EU countries they can’t even enter an insolvency program so once bankrupt, they are stuck for their whole life. Declaring bankruptcy and becoming debt free is not enough if not combined with a learning process. The legal process of insolvency and / or funding should always be combined with a process of learning to enable restart.
Economic The EU and Member States should help develop the supply of specialised services by providing financial resources to innovative and effective providers to allow them to offer free consulting-services to entrepreneurs in crisis to avoid insolvency and to support during restart. Policy makers at all levels, as well as foundations and CSR departments should earmark 5% of their budget for investments in new approaches to solve problems which might seem riskier but which have proved a high impact potential. Investors and policy makers should foster a culture of impact evaluation and dedicate specific funding for their grantees and investees to allow them to measure the impact achieved and learn from mistakes.
Social Develop key actions to raise awareness on failure as a chance to learn thus promoting innovation. Policy makers should encourage more the learning and development componente of failure, combine funding with learning opportunities and integrate sessions to share failure in conferences and debates without excluding potential beneficiaries from future funding.
With the support of ! !