Definition of the Target Group

It is important from the outset to be clear that the phrase "women entrepreneurs" is far too comprehensive to be used as a definition of the chosen target group; before any course is undertaken, the organisers must be clear as to the particular group which they want to reach.

Questions such as the following must be clearly answered:

· Do we want to train women who are already in full-time business, those who are part-time who want to remain part-time, those who are part-time and want to go full-rime, or those who are not yet in business at all, or some combination of these?

· Do we want to train the urban elite, the reasonably well-educated middle class, or poorer women with a rudimentary formal education?

· Do we want to train people from the whole country, from urban or from rural areas, from one region or one town only?

These guidelines are based on the following definition of the target group; it is clear that the guidelines, and the content and structure of the course itself, would be different if a different target group was intended:

· Women with a functional level of literacy and numeracy, whose main source of income is or will be their entrepreneurial activity in the food-processing sector, be it on a part-time or a full-time basis.

It is important to bear in mind that the target group defined for a specific course should be as homogeneous as possible. Differences in education, and in social and economic background can hamper the group dynamics and make it difficult to meet the needs of the individual participant.

Any form of training for women entrepreneurs or anyone else, should of course only be undertaken after it has been ascertained that there is a need for training of the general type that is being considered. Such a need can only be identified and clarified through a rather detailed survey of the selected group themselves, which should be supplemented with, but never replaced by, discussions with others who claim to know what the group needs.

When such a survey has been undertaken, and it has been decided that a particular programme of training is appropriate, at a time and place which is convenient for the prospective trainees, the following tasks must be undertaken in order to obtain a suitable training group:

1. Attract suitable applicants, in such a way that they will as much as possible select themselves, because they will understand the objectives of the proposed programme and will decide for themselves whether it is suitable for them.

2. Send information to those who express an initial interest, in such a way as to facilitate further "self-selection", and obtain some initial information from those who do decide to apply.

3. Select from those who apply those for whom it appears that the course will be useful and invite them to be interviewed.

4. Interview those who accept the invitation, and from those interviewed select the course participants.

5. Inform those who have been selected, and those who have not.

The following guidelines attempt to suggest how these five tasks should be carried out; clearly what is actually done will depend on local circumstances, and the guidelines are in no way intended to be followed to the letter. The questions included in the various forms can be asked orally, but there must be opportunities for oral interviews to take place.

Timing

The timing of the above tasks is critical, and it is vital that sufficient time be allowed between each stage of the process to allow information to reach possible participants, for them to respond, and to make necessary arrangements for any travelling that is needed.

Unlike teachers and civil servants, entrepreneurs, and women entrepreneurs in particular, cannot take time off just by asking permission; they have to make arrangements for their businesses to be carried on in their absence, and possibly for child care as well, and this may take some time. The following schedule is suggested as allowing the minimum time between the various tasks; while it would be wrong to announce and select too far ahead, the suggested intervals probably represent the minimum that should be allowed; the timings are expressed in terms of weeks preceding the date of the start of the training course itself, which must of course be fixed before this process can start.

Advertise course	Start date minus 17 weeks
Send out information as requests are received
Deadline for applications to be postmarked	Start date minus 12 weeks
Start to appraise applications, to select those to be interviewed	Start date minus 10 weeks
Mail and advertise names of those to be interviewed	Start date minus 8 weeks
Hold interviews	Start date minus 6 weeks
Select those invited to participate and mail advertise decisions	Start date minus 5 weeks

Initial Promotion

The media to be used to advertise the course will depend on the education level of the intended target group, and the availability of suitable media. The following points should, however, be borne in mind:

· Radio is in most places the most effective form of initial information with which to reach a large area quickly, so long as the message is put over frequently, at peak times, and the message includes information as to where more detailed information can be obtained, such as the date of newspaper advertisements, or reference to readily accessible centres where posters can be found.

· Newspapers tend not to reach rural areas, and, when they do, to reach them late. Many literate people do not read national newspapers, and women's literacy rates are usually lower than men's.

· Television may be inappropriate except for the urban elite.

· Word-of-mouth channels are the most effective, but they take time to mobilise, and can be unintentionally selective, if information is only disseminated through a particular type of organisation.

· Posters are effective and economical, but take time to distribute.

Whatever media are used, the following basic information should be included:

· The basic objectives of the course and type of person for which it is intended: this may often be put over in the form of an arresting question, such as, "Are you a woman in business?", do you want to improve your business?", or "Do you want to start your own business?". This must be clear, in order to avoid attracting unsuitable applicants and those responsible for the course must decide clearly what type of people they are aiming at before they start to recruit.

· The dates and location of the course.

· The institution which is responsible for the course.

· The fee, or other financial arrangements.

· The address from which further information and application forms can be obtained.

· The date by which requests for the above must be sent in.

The Application Form

The application form should be in clear language, understandable to all suitable applicants', and should be free of jargon or unnecessary questions. It should, however, be sufficiently demanding to discourage frivolous applicants.

The attached example (see "Application Form" at the end of this chapter) includes all the information that is likely to be needed; the stress should be on the quality of the information, with sufficient space for the answers to be written in, rather than on gathering information for its own sake.

The information that is sent out with the application form should describe the content of the course in some detail, and should also clearly explain the financial arrangements, stating what participants will and will not have to pay for. It is particularly important to make it clear that those who are invited for interview will not have their travel or any accomodation expenses reimbursed. Applicants' willingness to make this commitment is a valuable form of self-selection.

Short Listing Applicants

The proportion of initial applicants to be short-listed for interview clearly depends on the number who have applied, and on the time available for interviewing them. If at all possible, all apparently serious applicants should be offered an interview, and it should not be too difficult to exclude those who do not qualify because:

· Their forms are so incoherently filled in as to indicate that they could not handle the training.

· They are clearly not qualified, because they have no business ideas, are still at school or college, or for other reasons depending on the specific group of women for whom the training has been designed.

· They have obviously taken no trouble with the form, and are not serious applicants.

Those that have been selected for interview should be informed at once, by personal letter and by advertisement. The date and place of the interview should have been included in the initial information sent to prospective applicants, but it should be repeated in the letters of invitation.

Unsuccessful applicants should also be informed, by individual letter, together with a reference to a more suitable form of training or at least some general information about facilities which are available to those wanting to start or improve their own businesses.

The Interview

1. When they arrive, applicants should be asked to complete a pre-interview form, on the lines of that included with these guidelines (see "Pre-interview Form" at the end of this chapter). This may appear to duplicate some of the information in the initial application, but it should be requested for the following reasons:

· Some applicants may have had their initial forms filled in by other people; this will check that they are capable of understanding and responding to the questions themselves

· The information given may be inconsistent with that provided earlier; this provides vital information as to an applicant's seriousness and honesty, although there is no reason why an applicant should not change her mind on some items

· The applicants will have something to do while waiting to be interviewed

· In answering the questions applicants will be reminded of their business history and plans, and will thus be better prepared for interview

If a self-administered personal attribute test or other instrument is being used, applicants should also fill this in at this stage. To check the women's literacy and numeracy level, it is suggested that a practical test is given before or during the interview.

2. The interview committee should be composed of at least four people, of whom three must be present throughout each interview. At least half of the committee should be women, and the members should if possible include people with local knowledge of business conditions and those familiar with training entrepreneurs.

If any member knows an applicant personally, or has strong positive or negative opinions about a particular candidate because of some private information, he or she should not be present at that applicant's interview.

3. Whoever is chairing the interviewers should welcome each applicant, introduce hersel fand the other interviewers, and explain the procedure. She should then start by asking the applicant to describe her business and employment experience to date, eliciting further details in order to obtain indications of the various entrepreneurial qualities or characteristics listed in the "Application Interview Guidelines/Scoring Sheet for Interviewers" at the end of this chapter.

She, and the other interviewers, should then ask further questions which will elicit indications as to the applicant's possession or otherwise of the qualities, and should mark each quality as follows:

0	This quality is totally lacking
1	There is a little sign of this quality
2	The applicant is quite strong in this regard
3	This quality is very strong indeed.

4. The interview should not last more than thirty minutes; it is important to remember that the applicant may have travelled for a day or more, and spent what is to her a considerable sum, to be interviewed, so that even if all interviewers are quite certain that she is unsuitable, she should be given the courtesy of a reasonable interview.

In such cases, it may be possible gently to convert the interview into a counselling session, giving the applicant useful advice, which may include a suggestion that she should very carefully re-consider what she is doing and consider substantially changing or even stopping it. This can be very useful to someone who is risking substantial loss in a misguided enterprise.

At the end of the interview, the applicant should be asked if she wants to ask any questions, which should be answered fully. The dates and method of informing applicants of the results should also be explained in detail.

5. When the applicant has left, the Chairman should then ask each interviewer for her total score on the 3-2-1-0 scoring sheet for interviewers, and should average the scores of all the interviewers. The result should be entered on the appraisal form provided (see "Application Interview and Test Results" at the end of this chapter), and additional scores should be added as follows:

Any post-full-time schooling and or vocational training	plus 2
Father or mother were in business for themselves	plus 4
Applicant aged 30 or over	plus 2
Applicant aged 30 or over and single	plus 6

These factors have been found to have an important bearing on entrepreneurial success in many countries.

Each interviewer should also have come to a "yes" or "no" decision, independently of the figures, and the chairman should then record these. She should also note the applicant's score on any attitude or other tests that may have been used, and should grade the applicant as to how involved she is in her business as follows:

Business is only an idea, nothing has started yet	1
She has started some very small-scale activity, but it is still of minor importance	2
She is very involved, but the business is not her main source of income	3
She is very involved, and the business is her main source of income	4

This latter ranking is not related to the applicant's merit in any way, but may be necessary when making the final selection if the course is to be only for those already in business, only for start-ups, or for a mixed group.

The appraisal form should be completed immediately after each interview; the chairman may care to note any particular remark, or other aspect of each applicant, in order to remind herself of the person when the final selections are made after all the interviews have been completed.

She should also note the outlines of a helpful comment which is to be included in each letter of rejection; at this stage, of course, such a note should be made for each applicant because the final verdict cannot be considered until after all applicants have been seen.

6. Any applicant scoring over 30 on the average 3-2-1-0 totals, as increased by the other factors, is likely to be able to be selected without any further discussion, unless there are more applicants at this level than can be accomodated. Anyone scoring between 20 and 30 where every interviewer noted "yes" as her "subjective" verdict should also be acceptable. When any interviewer is strongly negative, she should argue her case with the other interviewers until a consensus is reached.

If more acceptances are needed to fill the course, applicants scoring over twenty but with divided "yes/no" interviewer opinions should next be discussed. In general, applicants scoring under twenty should not be included, and it is better to have a lower number of course participants than to have a full class room of unsuitable trainees.

7. All applicants, successful and otherwise, should be notified of the result at once, and unsuccessful applicants should have a brief but specific and positive comment added to any formal letter of rejection, in the style of the examples given below, or longer and in more detail if possible;

"Save regularly from your present earnings, so that you will be able to buy your own knitting machine in the not too distant future."

"Carry on with your existing cake making and poultry businesses, but examine the profits you are earning very carefully and consider concentrating all your efforts on the one which gives the best reward for the time you spend on it."

"Consider very carefully the possibilities of conflict of interest between the group with which you work and your own proposed business, and be sure that you do not put yourself into a position where you may have to choose between the two in allocating orders or scarce supplies."

Information about alternative sources of training or advice should also be included if possible.

8. The successful applicants should be given all necessary details, as to timing, location and financial arrangements, and if trainees' transport expenses are to be reimbursed it should be made clear that they will have to pay the costs themselves and then claim reimbursement. Such reimbursement should of course generally be avoided, and in most cases participants should pay a fee for the course itself, as evidence of their commitment and in order to enhance their expectations and demands on the course.

Individual notification letters should be supplemented by newspaper advertisement and/or radio announcement, and some allowance should be made for drop-outs, by selecting some 10% more than the planned number, or, if it is quite impossible to accomodate more than the planned number, by advising a small number of reserves that they may be called at the last moment.

Application Form

Family Name....................................................................................................................

First Name.........................................Other Names..........................................................

Postal Address..................................................................................................................

Any other way in which you may be contacted
(Telephone, Telex etc. where a message could be given to you)

..........................................................................................................................................

Marital Status............................... Number of Dependent Children ...................................

Husband's Occupation.......................................................................................................

Education Level.................................................................................................................

Skills Training Courses Attended.......................................................................................

Jobs you have had (Starting from the most recent)

The Job	Your Employer	Dates	Ending	Monthly Salary

Your Own Business History (include even the most modest part-time activities, and start with the most recent)

The Type of Business	No. of Employees	Dates	Average Monthly if any net earnings

In your present business (if any) what is the most important problem?

...........................................................................................................................................

YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE:

What type of Business do you plan to start, or what type of expansion to your present business are you planning?

.............................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................

How do you think that this course will help you?...................................................................

..............................................................................................................................................

Who will buy what you plan to produce or sell?.....................................................................

...............................................................................................................................................

What new skills will you need to enable you to succeed in your plan?...................................

...............................................................................................................................................

About how much money will you need to carry out your plan?...............................................

About how much of your own money is available for it?........................................................

How much money will you get from family and friends?.........................................................

How do you plan to raise the balance?...................................................................................

Signature....................................................................................Date......................................

Please return this form to ....................................................by ..............................................

Pre-Interview Form

Name.......................................................................................................................................

Date of Birth.........................................Marital Status..............................................................

Mother's Occupation.........................................Father's Occupation........................................

Your Address............................................................................................................................

................................................................................................................................................

What is your present Monthly Income? (About) ........................................................................

What are the Source(s) of this income?....................................................................................

Educational Qualifications.........................................................................................................

Have you done any Training since finishing full time Education? Y/N

If so, when and in what Skills?..................................................................................................

Have you ever had a Job? Y/N If so, when and doing what?..................................................

................................................................................................................................................

Have you ever been self-employed ? Y/N If so, when and doing what?..................................

................................................................................................................................................

What kind of Business do you want to start?..........................................................................

Where do you want to start it?.................................................................................................

Why do you want to start this type of Business?.....................................................................

................................................................................................................................................

How much money do you think you will need to start it?..........................................................

Where do you plan to get the money?.....................................................................................

Application Interview and Test Results

DATE....................

NAME......................................................................................................................................

TYPE OF BUSINESS.......................................................................INTERVIEW SCORES:

(Enter scores from "Scoring sheet for interviewers" filled in by the four interviewers A - D)

A......B......C......D......	TOTAL.......................	AVERAGE..........................
VOCATIONAL TRAINING	(0/2)	....................
FATHER/MOTHER IN BUSINESS	(0/4)	....................
30 YEARS OR MORE	(0/2)	....................
30 YEARS OR MORE AND SINGLE	(0/6)	....................
		____________
GRAND TOTAL

YES/NO (A - D. are the interviewers):

A: Y/N

B: Y/N

C: Y/N

D: Y/N

YES/NO

TO WHAT EXTENT INVOLVED IN BUSINESS (1 to 4)

.........

ENCOURAGING ADVICE:
..........................................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................................

Application Interview Guidelines/Scoring Sheet for Interviewers

ORIGINALITY AND INDEPENDENCE OF MIND		3/2/1/0
PERSISTENCE		3/2/1/0
CLEAR GOALS		3/2/1/0
OPTIMISTIC		3/2/1/0
INFLUENCING AND USING OTHER PEOPLE		3/2/1/0
SUPPORT FROM HUSBAND		3/2/1/0
HAS ENOUGH TIME		3/2/1/0
HAS OWN OR FAMILY MONEY		3/2/1/0
AWARE OF NEED TO RAISE FUNDS		3/2/1/0
AWARE OF BANKING SYSTEM		3/2/1/0
HAS THOUGHT HARD ABOUT HER BUSINESS IDEA		3/2/1/0
HAS ALREADY TAKEN SOME PRACTICAL STEPS FOR HER BUSINESS		3/2/1/0
	TOTAL SCORE	______________