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Te Ara Kaipakihi - Your Business Journey

Starting and running your own business can be exciting, liberating, exhilarating, and scary. What is needed is a map - a guide to take you through the steps and tell you who to go to at each step. And that's just what the Ministry of Women's Affairs has provided with Te Ara Kaipakihi (Your Business Journey).

Focused on the needs of Maori business women in particular, Te Ara Kaipakihi brings together the expertise of government departments such as Maori Business Facilitation Service of Te Puni Kokiri, Inland Revenue, the Department of Work and Income, the Ministry of Economic Development, Industry NZ, TradeNZ, and the Community Employment Group (Department of Labour), as well as the expertise of community groups including the Maori Women's Development Incorporation, the Poutama Trust and Business in the Community.

Maori Women and Self-employment

Although women were entering self-employment much faster than men in the United States, the same trend had not yet surfaced in New Zealand. Industry NZ has found that only around 44% of applicants seeking Enterprise Awards grants were women and only 8% of applicants had identified themselves as Maori. Also, women were significantly under-represented amongst the self-employed, with the December 2000 Household Labour Force Survey showing only 4500 self-employed Maori women, about 6.4% of the total number of self-employed women. In addition, 1300 Maori women were self-employed and employing others, which was only 3.3% of the total number of women in this category.

There are three strands to Te Ara Kaipakihi.

  • three brochures have been produced to inform self-employed Maori women about the range of information and programmes available. These will form an information kit, and focus on Starting a Business, Growing a Business and Expanding a Business;
  • seven workshops are being been held around the country to train front line staff and ensure that the information provided, and its delivery, is consistent across agencies; and
  • regional workers will be brought together once every 3 months for information updates and to share experiences.
Copies of the three brochures are available from the Ministry of Women's Affairs website (click on the 'What's New' section) at www.mwa.govt.nz

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Contact for Enquiries

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526, Wellington

Tel: 0800 00 83 33
Fax: +64 4 894 0720
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