Good practice:

MicroENTRE® Growth Network™

Problem addressed:
Micro-enterprises - with less than ten employees - comprise 93% of all European enterprises and are thus an important part of economic life, but have very limited resources.
Entrepreneurs often use networks to gain access to economic resources, but networks can also provide entrepreneurs with access to useful, reliable, exclusive, and relevant information, which, in turn, improves the likelihood that entrepreneurial companies will be successful.

How objectives are reached:
MicroENTRE Growth Network (MGN) supports entrepreneurs, researchers, and business advisory services to promote entrepreneurial behaviour through joint activities, such as sharing ideas, peer learning, and business development.

MGN offers support through direct contact with the university research, which transfers recent research-based knowledge to the network. This peer-to-peer network provides micro-entrepreneurs with a forum that fosters social interaction with other entrepreneurs.

The activities of the MGN take place around the monthly meetings of core groups, managed local development corporations, where entrepreneurs gain peer support, development ideas, and new partners. All companies host a meeting on their turn selecting the theme and timing of the meeting.

The main stakeholders are:
microenterprises, local development corporations, and public business advisory services (PBAS), researchers, Micro-entrepreneurship Center of Excellence MicroENTRE

Start funding for the new core group around 150k€ a year first 2-3 years (pilot phase), requiring the university team for coordination and local partner in each region (PBAS). After the piloting phase 20% working time for PBAS and support from MicroENTRE for maintenance.

The MGN concept gives entrepreneurs and researchers a platform through which to share common interests, e.g. small business management and pursuit of business growth, as well as develop, disseminate, and benefit from the acquired common knowledge.
Concrete outcomes include:
• more than 300 enterprises participated
• new regions joining (now 13)
• supported UOULU achieving the national task for microentrepreneurship research and education (funding of € 200,000 per year from the ministry)

Continuous recruitment of new companies; requires commitment and resources. An external coordinator is needed to support local business advisory experts and provide new knowledge, but also coordinate cross-regional activities, but the funding model for coordination is challenging to find.

This good practice was indicated as a highly valuable project it offers low threshold forum for all entrepreneurs and it is easily modifiable concept for regional or local needs. It provides resources for researchers and PBAS to collaborate in favour for companies and share their knowledge. The strength of peer-to-peer networking is in learning together and from others, in conversations and encouragement to growth. Thus, the resilience is created in exchanging experiences in safe, trustful atmosphere and learning from each other how to adapt on new or changing conditions or business, but also searching for solutions and support together.
The MGN is highly transferable as:
• Microenterprises are most common mode of companies
• It is already dispersing across the regions in Finland
• It is operating in grassroots level and easily adapted to current needs of member companies
• It suits for all microenterprises since the most needs are universal in spite of the of the business .