Previously, she sometimes got up to work disgruntled, but that hasn't happened to her for 20 years. Since then, Antje Kunellishas had her own business: a shop for children's clothing and shoes in Radebeul, a small town near Dresden. The trained paediatric nurse and tax clerk once founded it with the help of the start-up grant of 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 was once a big political promise: From 2003, the subsidy was intended to encourage unemployed people to become self-employed. Kunellis had been dreaming of this for some time, but the hurdles seemed big. She first trained as a paediatric nurse in the GDR. "Then I ran away via Hungary and retrained as a tax clerk in Baden-Württemberg," says the 53-year-old. Even then, she had considered that it could be helpful for her own company 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 developed the concept for her shop. She then marched to the employment office and applied for the newly introduced start-up grant at the beginning of 2003. The Ich-AG was part of the comprehensive and highly controversial Hartz reforms aimed at boosting the German labour market.
"I'm just good with children"
Kunellis says that the Ich-AG was "existentially important" for her shop: "Alone with two children, I was not creditworthy and could not have afforded the foundation." The Ich-AG founders were financially supported by the employment office for up to three years. The beneficiaries received 600 euros per month from the state in the first year, 360 euros in the second and 240 euros per month in the third. Kunellis needed this money above all to adequately insure herself and her children, and she borrowed further money for the opening of the shop from her parents.
From her first job, she knew: "I can do well with children", and therefore wanted to create an offer for families with her own company. Clothes are always needed, and so the idea for her children's shop Emely was born.
In the beginning, she only sold used goods: "I always thought secondhand was cool, so on a high level." This means: instead of grumpy clothes, only high-quality goods, always a switched on fragrance lamp, and: "The customers are of course allowed to rummage through, but afterwards is cleaned up accurately."
In 2007, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) classified the Ich-AG together with its big sister measure, the bridging allowance granted for six months, as a success. 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 proportion had also switched to work subject to social security contributions. Compared to unemployed people who had not participated in the support measures, the effects were most positive for women in eastern Germany. One of them is Antje Kunellis, who concludes: "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 that the Ich-AG was abolished in 2006. More precisely, it was merged with the bridging allowance to form the so-called start-up grant. In total, the Ich-AG had made 400,000 start-ups possible.
The start-up grant can still be applied for at the Employment Agency. Since 2011, however, there has been no legal entitlement to funding. Instead, the clerks at the employment office decide whether the start-up idea and their own qualifications are promising and therefore worthy of support. If the verdict is positive, the founders will receive financial support over a period of nine months. Kunellis advises those willing to start a business to be well informed about what is needed and to have sufficient knowledge for their own industry. 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 waiting for approval is Kunellis' son. After an apprenticeship as a banker, he wants to become self-employed in the mobile financial sector. His mother is particularly pleased that her son, who was still a toddler when she opened her children's shop, is now also embarking on the path to self-employment.