Being allowed to failStrategy for the entrepreneurial re-start published

A "culture of being allowed to fail" - that is what we lack in Germany. In our society, insolvency and failure are not regarded as actual opportunities. With the DanubeChance2.0 project, the Steinbeis Europa Zentrum aimed at changing that narrative.

The project aimed to give failed entrepreneurs in the Danube Region a 'second chance' and thus a fresh start in business life. The second-chance entrepreneurs (also called 're-starters') were accompanied and supported in their new start on the market in the best possible way through relevant restructuring and support measures. Simultanously, a a higher awareness for this topic was also raised.

A training concept was developed in cooperation with TEAM U Restart gGmbH to accompany people in or after an entrepreneurial crisis in a protected space. They learned how to deal proactively with a crisis or insolvency experience in order to be able to make a successful re-start. Eleven training sessions for around 160 participants took place from March 2020 - April 2021 in Baden-Württemberg in cooperation with the regional chambers of industry and commerce and were funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economics as part of the Start-up BW state campaign. In addition, the Steinbeis Europa Zentrum conducted two mentoring programmes during which a total of six entrepreneurs have been successfully accompanied and prepared for a re-start.

By the end of 2021, after 3.5 years, the DanubeChance2.0 project was successfully completed. The Steinbeis Europa Zentrum was in charge of developing the overall strategy, which was presented at the final conference in Budapest, Hungary, in November 2021 and is now also accessible in written form. It is available here on the official project website: Interreg Danube (interreg-danube.eu), together with other project outputs.

Based on the results developed in the project as well as the current framework conditions in the participating countries of the Danube Region, the strategy outlines a vision for a joint agenda and actions to build capacities at policy level and to adopt better support measures for entrepreneurs in crisis. In particular, the strategy contains 15 concrete recommendations for action to facilitate re-starters' access to the market. It thus makes a valuable contribution to stimulating and implementing joint measures by the Danube countries to build the necessary capacities at political level and, at the same time, to encouraging entrepreneurs to break new ground and turn a realistic chance to restart into reality.

Danube Chance 2.0 was funded by the EU within the framework of the INTERREG Danube Programme with funds amounting to around 1.8 million euros. The project was coordinated by IFKA, Public Benefit Non-Profit Ltd. for the Development of Industry. A total of 17 partners participated in the project.

Link to the strategy: d46e6630ea8aa20e6303292b055f29c51507f1f0.pdf (interreg-danube.eu)