According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM Galicia), creating a business plan, seeking independent employment, self-employment, or contributing to society are just some of the reasons behind entrepreneurship. 

The process of transforming an idea into an entrepreneurial project tends to be difficult, so the support of the Administration is a key factor for any initiative. GEM Galicia places the region in third place in terms of perception of opportunities for entrepreneurship and highlights the prevalence of women, with an Entrepreneurial Activity Rate (EAR) of 56.5% as opposed to 43.5% of male entrepreneurs.

The data point to an optimistic scenario, on which Xunta de Galicia and the EOI Business School have been working in recent years. One of the foremost actions is the entrepreneurship support network, through which they have set up 11 coworking centres with their sixth call for applications, doubling the number of spaces with which they started in 2016.

Coworking as a booster

Aware of the importance of creating networks, setting up lines of cooperation and guiding entrepreneurs during the initial stages, the Galician Regional Government, in collaboration with the EOI Business School, provides participants with an individual mentor for their projects who assists them with the design of their business model. In addition, they receive special training, attend networking events, and meet with important social and economic players. According to the director of the Xunta’s Igape (Galician Institute for Economic Development), Fernando Guldrís, the Administration prevents “good business ideas languishing in the drawer due to lack of support”.

Coworking spaces therefore present a great opportunity for entrepreneurship because, at the same time as offering technical support, they also favour the creation of synergies among the professionals who share a workspace. This fact also reduces the costs incurred when it is necessary to have the appropriate facilities for starting an economic activity.

Since the entrepreneurship support network started six years ago, over half the projects became companies, and 384 initiatives led to the creation of 624 jobs. In this regard, the first vice president and Regional Minister of Economy, Industry and Innovation, Francisco Conde, highlighted the fact that more than half of the participants have been women. 

The profile of an entrepreneur

The profile of an entrepreneur in Galicia is a woman of around 40 years of age, according to the GEM Galicia study.  The report notes an increase in the percentage of entrepreneurs with vocational training and higher education (43% of male entrepreneurs and 39% of female entrepreneurs) and the number of those with postgraduate studies is increasing (28%). 

These figures show that more and more people who decide to carry out a professional project on their own have superior educational qualifications, which would have a positive effect on their performance as an entrepreneur. 

According to the Project Manager Professional and member of the association Executivas de Galicia, Lidia Enrich, for a business idea to have a probability of success, the entrepreneur must have the training to carry it out, as well as support. She also noted that today it is much easier to be an entrepreneur than some years ago as “there is a multitude of resources available to entrepreneurs, from free programmes that help them work on their ideas to information spaces like the Doing Business in Galicia Office”.

Support initiatives

Galicia is committed to entrepreneurship and expresses this through various initiatives, among them the Galicia Emprende and Galicia Emprende Rural programmes, both promoted by Xunta. These two actions have promoted 350 entrepreneurial projects and mobilised more than €35 million in the last four years.

In addition to these programmes, there is the Business Factories network, accelerators specialising in the aeronautical and automotive sector that have fostered the creation of more than 70 companies.