On September 11, the European Commission revised upwards its growth forecast for the French economy for this year. Guillaume Pepy, president of Initiative France, is optimistic about the dynamics that can affect business creations in France.
France’s GDP, the gross domestic product, and therefore the national wealth produced by the country, is expected to increase by 1% over the whole year, much better than what our European neighbors are doing. Guillaume Pepy, former CEO of SNCF, is today the president of Initiative France, the leading financing and support network for entrepreneurs in the territories. He talks to us about the state of mind of the young creators of innovative start-ups he meets, in the context of high inflation and high interest rates which hamper credit.
franeinfo: What is the profile of young business creators today?
Guillaume Pepy: These are young creators of all ages (…), you can have people who have left for job protection plans, people who were employees, who want to change their lives, people who have a small something that has been on their mind for a long time and they want to come true.
“The common point is the motivations: “I want to be independent, I set myself a challenge and I want to create a business that makes sense.”
Guillaume Pepyat franceinfo
Are there as many women as men?
Alas no. There are 43% women and therefore 57% men. And what we need to do is get to roughly 50/50. For this, we have a very simple proposition, it is a “live my life as an entrepreneur”, organized for young women who are asking themselves the question but who are still hesitant, who are perhaps afraid to take the plunge. We make them spend days with women who are already business leaders themselves to reassure them and reassure them.
Basically, does a person, a student who leaves without training, have as much chance of creating their own business, of succeeding as a young person who will leave HEC, for example?
In fact, there is no diploma for young business leaders. It is learned by doing.
“We went looking for young people who are far from employment and far from the idea of being a boss, but who want to move forward.”
Guillaume Pepyat franceinfo
In a program called Incube, there are 2,500 places this year. It consists of a reinforced accompaniment. That person who has an idea in the back of their head, but who says to themselves, “It’s not for me, I don’t live in the right neighborhood, I don’t have enough money, I don’t have the good diploma”, we will support him for three, six, nine months, a year so that this little idea becomes reality.
Where do you find the money to finance these projects?
We lend money, we don’t give it. We lend up to 30,000 euros, or even 50,000 euros when it is an innovative project. But the secret is that these are zero interest loans. So today, it is particularly advantageous.
What do you expect from public authorities?
We are awaiting the materialization of an announcement from the President of the Republic which went somewhat unnoticed at the beginning of the summer. He went to Marseille, where he guaranteed what we call an honorary loan, that is to say the same kind of loan that we make. These are loans that will go directly to the 2,000 neighborhoods [qui ont été priorisés par Emmanuel Macron dans le cadre de la politique de la ville]. In this neighborhood, slightly fewer businesses are being created than elsewhere and the implementation of this ‘neighborhood honor loan’ will give a boost to young and old people who are waiting for this loan. honor to be able to start.