CHAPTER IV

Dun and Bradstreet estimates that inadequate managerial aptitude, experience, and skills account for almost 90 percent of all the business failures they analyze (1). Yet, discrimination in employment and sex stereotyping in education deprive women of the opportunity to gain both managerial experience and basic business skills, such as accounting, finance, marketing and business math.

The lack of management and business skills appears to be one of the greatest problems faced by women going into business, according to those women business owners responding to the Task Force survey. This problem was second only to the need for capital. When asked, "What information or assistance would be most valuable to you at the point of starting a business?", the following were cited most frequently.

Also, many training and technical assistance programs designed to aid "socially or economically disadvantaged" persons generally exclude nonminority women, despite the fact that the definition of such persons states that "such persons include, but are not limited to, Black Americans, Puerto Ricans, Spanishspeaking Americans, American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts and Orientals."

The programs of the Office of Minority Business Enterprise in the Department of Commerce, and and SBA's Management and Technical Assistance for Disadvantaged Businesses (the "Call Contracting" program) are major cases in point.

Even minority women, who are interpreted to be eligible for these programs, do not appear to have been reached adequately by these services. In addition, the Office of Minority Business Enterprise has recently shifted emphasis away from helping those desiring to start business to providing assistance to established business, a change that could particularly impact minority women. However, the office will still have some programs for beginning businesses.

Management Training Programs

In the area of management training, the Task Force specifically looked at those programs which provided potential for more concentrated and in-depth training for business management skills development. These programs were primarily in the Departments of Health, Education and Welfare, Commerce, Labor, Agriculture, Interior, and the Small Business Administration (SBA), although specific research and evaluation programs of the National Science Foundation have some relevance.

Small Business Administration

The Small Business Administration is currently the major major source of both technical assistance and management training programs for small businesses. Until recently, none of these programs specifically targeted women as a market segment. A report of the House Small Business Committee hearings held in 1977 on "Women in Business" concluded that "SBA has not, as yet, obtained optimum use of its established management assistance programs... to assist women." (3)

However, SBA recently launched a National Women's Business Ownership Campaign designed to make the agency fully responsive to women and to reach out to them. Under this program a series of 400 one-day, prebusiness workshops for women were held in SBA districts between September 1972 and June 1978 (4). These workshops, explaining the basics of business ownership and SBA services, were attended by over 30,000 women seeking information. In addition, more in-depth two-day regional seminars for female entrepreneurs took place between January and June 1978. These outreach efforts are continuing and appear to be in high demand.

Although figures on the number of women attending management training programs and technical assistance programs have been kept since 1975, there are currently no qualitative data on how well these services are meeting the needs of women.

SBA currently devotes 16 percent of its salary and expense budget and 11 percent of its staff to management assistance for its loan clients and other prospective or existing small business people. However, because of its limited staff and funds, its programs rely heavily on leveraging outside resources through cooperative efforts with other institutions and agencies.

Although the agency has a broad range of technical assistance and information services, it has two major management training activities: one is composed of programs cosponsored with institutions and organizations such as universities, community colleges, Chambers of Commerce and trade associations and the other consists of programs at its Small Business Development Centers.

The cosponsored management training courses are held on a variety of topics, ranging from how to start a business to specific business skills, such as accounting, marketing, and personnel management. SBA supplies content guidelines for the courses, materials and some direct staff support. In fiscal year 1977, the agency served 235,000 people in its training activities, 86,183 of whom were women. However, in the first quarter of FY 1978, there was a 10 percent rise in the number of women attending these

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• Within the Office of Human Development Services, the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) supports management training activities vocational rehabilitation professionals, as well as for the handicapped persons they serve. In FY 1976, approximately 1.9 percent of the women served, and 4.2 percent of the men served, were self-employed. At the same time, 579 men, or 0.4 percent of those rehabilitated, and 310 women, 0.2 percent, were small business owners. Despite its small constituency, the program is significant, because it is the only HEW program that recognizes entrepreneurship as a desirable goal.

The RSA also administers the Randolph Shepard Vending Program to provide selfemployment for blind persons. Qualified persons are provided training, a Federal site for a vending facility, initial stock and supplies and ongoing training.

• The Office of Human Development Services has other programs that fund management training in specific professional areas and administers resources intended to expand employment opportunities. These programs are directed by the the Administration for Public Services (aimed at low income individuals and families), the Admin