ZBefore, she sometimes got up grumpy for work, but that hasn’t happened to her for 20 years. Since then, Antje Kunellis namely her own business: a shop for children’s clothing and shoes in Radebeul, a small town near Dresden. The trained pediatric nurse and tax clerk founded it with the help of the business start-up grant from the employment office, better known as Ich-AG. “You are the first Ich-AG in Radebeul,” an employee of the employment office congratulated her at the time.
The Ich-AG used to be a big political promise: starting in 2003, the subsidy was intended to encourage unemployed people to become self-employed. Kunellis had been dreaming of this for a long time, but the hurdles seemed big. First she trained as a pediatric nurse in the GDR. “Then I took off via Hungary and did retraining as a tax clerk in Baden-Württemberg,” says the 53-year-old. Even then, she had considered that it could be helpful for a company of her own to be well versed in the tax system.
After ten years, Kunellis returned to her home region. After unsuccessfully trying to find work at the surrounding hospitals, she finally came up with the concept for her store. With that she marched to the employment office and at the beginning of 2003 applied for the start-up subsidy that had just been introduced. The Ich-AG was part of the extensive and highly controversial Hartz reforms intended to boost the German labor market.
“I’m just good with children”
Kunellis says that Ich-AG was “essentially important” for her shop: “With only two children, I wasn’t creditworthy and couldn’t have afforded to found it.” financially supported for years. The recipients received 600 euros per month from the state in the first year, 360 euros in the second and 240 euros in the third. Kunellis needed this money primarily to insure herself and her children adequately, and she borrowed more money from her parents to open the shop.
From her first job she knew: “I’m just good with children”, and therefore wanted to create an offer for families with her own company. Clothing is always needed, and that’s how the idea for her children’s shop Emely was born.
In the beginning, she only sold used goods: “I always thought second-hand was cool, so high-end.” That means: instead of musty clothes, only high-quality goods, always an aroma lamp switched on, and: “Customers are of course allowed to rummage through, but then it’s accurate cleaned up.”
In 2007, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) classified the Ich-AG as a success together with its big sister measure, the bridging allowance granted for six months. More than two years after the formerly unemployed started a business with the help of the grant, more than 70 percent were still self-employed. An increasing number had also changed to a job subject to social security contributions. Compared to the unemployed who had not taken part in the support measures, the effects were most positive for women in eastern Germany. One of them is Antje Kunellis, who draws the conclusion: “Through the shop and my professional path, I have gained an incredible amount of quality of life.”
400,000 start-ups were made possible
Because the measure was so successful, the DIW criticized the fact that the Ich-AG was abolished in 2006. To be more precise: it was combined with the bridging allowance to form the so-called start-up grant. In total, Ich-AG enabled 400,000 business start-ups.
The start-up subsidy can still be applied for at the Employment Agency. However, since 2011 there has no longer been a legal entitlement to the funding. Instead, the clerks at the employment office decide whether the start-up idea and your own qualifications are promising and therefore worthy of support. If the decision is positive, the founders will receive financial support over a period of nine months. Kunellis advises those wanting to found a company to find out what is needed and to bring enough knowledge about their own industry with them. In addition to financial support, the employment office can support potential founders with good advice and by arranging contacts with already successful company founders.
One who is currently awaiting approval is Kunellis’ son. After an apprenticeship as a bank clerk, he wants to become self-employed in the mobile financial sector. His mother is particularly pleased that her son, who was still a small child when her children’s shop opened, is now taking the path to self-employment.
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