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Yallingup, Western Australia
Email:
viti@bearfruit.com.au
Website:
http://www.bearfruit.com.au
Overview
I first met Kira Kay, when she gave a presentation on ‘Grass Roots Leadership’ at the 2009
Leadership WA (LWA) programme in Perth, Western Australia.
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At the time I was the recipient of
the LWA Regional scholarship that year.
Whilst growing up in a rural area of New Zealand I contributed to a family business. Throughout
my adult life I’ve set up various small businesses as a sole operator and in partnership with my
husband in regional areas of Western Australia. While completing my postgraduate business
studies circumstances arose to integrate personal travel with honorary fieldwork linked to the
University of Western Australia. The focus for this study (2003 – 2005) was interviewing rural,
regional, remote and provincial women operating small business enterprises across Australasia.
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The interviewing process was expansive and involved 75 interviewees across Australia and New
Zealand. But more importantly, the process ascertained, “…similarities and differences between
the characteristics of women and their businesses in outback Australasia and the already
established profiles of women and their businesses in urban locations.”
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Furthermore, the
Australasian findings identified that the, “…significance of these women to their local and
regional communities was also more easily discernible than in urban areas, with many taking a
leading role in a diverse range of activities – a finding also found by Houghton and Strong
(2004).”
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My contribution to this exploratory study was the fieldwork component.
A similar methodology (travel and honorary research) was also applied to the HwH project,
although the time and sampling for the later was on a very different scale due to time
constraints. My previous fieldwork activities and reflective practice from the 2003 – 2005 study
has enabled me to draw parallels that underpin the ‘shared experiences’ of women operating
micro and small business enterprises in this report – or what Moss et al (2005) calls, ‘making the
invisible visible’. And by merging the business experiences and narratives from the developing
and developed world, further on in this report, resonates with Moss et al (2005) concept of
‘
scaffolding’
because it emphasises the importance of narrative writing as ‘advanced forms of
reflection.’
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Today, the provision of financial services to low income or disadvantaged clients (mainly women)
in developing countries defines microfinance.
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Still, L.V & Simmons, V, (2006), Enterprising Women in Rural, Regional and Remote Australasia,
Small Enterprise Research,
Journal of SEAANZ,
Volume 14, Number 1, p. 82
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Houghton, K & Strong, P. (2004) RIRDC Publication No 04/130 RIRDC Project No SES-!A
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Moss, T., Smigiel, H., Thomas, S. and Trivett, N. (2005) Making the invisible visible, In
The Reflective Practitioner.
Proceedings of the 14
th
Annual
Teaching Learning Forum, 3-4 February 2005, p.5, Perth: Murdoch University