Bucharest, August 25, 2009 - Two thirds of those who have a business or want to start a business in rural areas are men (66.3%). Most are married, have children and are attached to rural areas. The founders, almost half are in the production business (agricultural, livestock, woodworking, baking, construction, clothing), fourth in charge of services (rural tourism, transportation, notary, consulting), and the fourth work in trade. Although most rural businesses are small - 90% have fewer than 10 employees - but they operate at a satisfactory level for three quarters of employers, which means that their satisfaction does not depend on the size of business conducted.

These are just some of the findings of sociological research involving 942 entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs in 493 localities in north-east, center and south-east of Romania.

Women wishing to start a business are mainly people with higher education, are divorced or have a legalized relationship, have a personal computer and spend more time than men on the Internet. But revenues were lower than they have fewer loans to banks and a less international experience than men (they have worked or studied abroad less).

Most companies that have women as managers activates in services. Almost 60% have secondary education and only 10% have university economic studies, confirming the affirmation that the bachelor degree is not required to succeed in business. Moreover, half of survey participants already have or intend to start a business in an area in which they don’t have a qualification certified by a diploma.

The average age of study participants was 33 years, the youngest participant having 18 years and the oldest 67 years. After the age of 45, the desire to start a new business is decreasing.

The research confirms the existing data from EU, which shows that the average age of entrepreneurs is about 35 years, confirming that young people decides to start a business not immediately after their studies.

Private sector employees are preponderant unmarried, have an average of Education, and have lower incomes than their colleagues from public administration. Seeing businesses run by their employers, employees from the private sector wish to tread in the steps, opening its own business. They have started a business for the same reasons that all potential entrepreneurs: capital and equipment were not starting (41%) had a good idea for business (17%), had no necessary relationship (11%), or were not prepared for it (10%).

Self employed (traders, craftsmen) together with farmers have a slightly different social profile: use the least computer and the Internet, the least mastered foreign languages, not too make loans to banks in return,  have an important marketing activity: almost half the farmers interviewed personally sold agricultural products or livestock to market last year (two times more men than women).

Research on training and consulting needs of entrepreneurs and those wishing to start a business in rural areas was carried out in the strategic project Rural-Manager - www.ruralmanager.ro, selected in the Human Resources Development Sectoral Operational Program -POSDRU, which is co-financed by European Social Fund, "Invest in people!"

Implemented by the National Foundation of Young Managers - FNTM (www.fntm.ro), as leader of the consortium, in partnership with the Training and Development Center of Employers Associations of Bavaria - bfz gGmbH (www.bfz.de), SIVECO Romania (www.siveco.ro) and the Euro 26 (www.euro26.ro), Rural-Manager runs from January 2009-April 2010. Project beneficiaries are entrepreneurs or prospective rural entrepreneurs of the 18 counties of Nord-East, Center and South-East.

Rural-Manager project promotes culture management and motivation of entrepreneurs to start a process of entrepreneurship education, to improve performance, increase access to finance, properties of good practice and ideas of national and international success.

The social survey has been conducted by the Bureau of Social Research, from March to April 2009.