I have a hairdresser friend I gave a little push to help start her own business.
She does mobile hairdressing and gets her clients from facebook from existing clients and word of mouth.
No advertising costs, no salon rent costs, no employee costs.
She does a good job and is a people person who's well liked by her clients and has become somewhat sought after, sometimes booked out many weeks in advance.
A good job / product at a reasonable price sells itself.
She already owned an economical car (Getz) when she made the move from employee to starting her own business.

So all she needed to start her own business was a little bit of confidence that she could do it; a new basic model $700 Dell laptop; being sent in the direction of a bookkeeper and enough initial products on hand to get started.

I doubt it cost her any more than a few thousand all together and now she's quite successful.
And she didn't need to ask anyone for anything to get started.
She used money she'd saved herself when working for others previously as an employee.

Now that she has all the work she needs she's planning on buying a home and using a front room as a salon.
I haven't talked to her in a while, she might've achieved this already.

More depressing evidence of rorting and feeding at the bottomless tax payer trough. Whoever ticked this one off, should be charged with fraud!
And there lies the seat of the problem; Government accountability.
The problem with the Aboriginal "problem", is the irresponsible Government handling of Aboriginal issues.
This hairdressing example is, quite frankly, the micro view of the overall debacle.

If the author is following the discussion, he may find it profitable to refer to previous discussions on OLO.

To the posts from Loudmouth and Big Nana especially, here,
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=18502&page=2
and here,
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=18502&page=3
as examples.

Also, the relevant reports and best practice guides over the years from the government's own auditor the Australian National Audit Office.

Unfortunately for you and the free market acolytes on this forum there is no such thing as a free market and there never will be so stop kidding yourselves

John Ryan, maybe you would comment sensibly on this issue, and elaborate on your views which appear from your two liner, opposed to market forces!
This example of a hairdresser for Warburton, is actually a training exercise for local youth. which makes the enterprise one primarily of training not marketing.

It is condescending. What it effectively teaches youth in Warburton, is to sit in the back blocks of Australia, and wait for the real world to catch up.

The vast majority of youth growing up in rural Australia, will rise to the challenge, and move to larger towns for work and training. This is how things work from the practicle application and expectation of entering the workforce at the bottom.

The realistic market forces are, with this example, intercepted. The author is correct to criticise.

I can't get my head around why someone needs $ 260,000 to start up a hairdressing business. Surely there would be a room available in the council chambers or elsewhere at Warburton, so there's cheap or even free accommodation for a start.

I suppose my thing is vegetable gardens and orchards: I tried to get one going after work on one Mission, but nobody else was interested. But for all the bleating about fresh vegetables, why not ? I wouldn't be surprised if there is not one anywhere in remote communities - and please don't talk about lack of resources: check out Google Earth, any remote community with more than 20 or 30 people and you will see sewage ponds a mile or so out of town, which means running water, which means the possibility of watering gardens.

How much would it cost someone to start up a vegetable garden , say a mile out of town, to discourage 'borrowers' ? Even with a walk-behind cultivator, plus spades, forks, piping, etc., you could probably have change left over from five thousand dollars.

As my son says, "Just add the miracle ingredient: effort !"

And those sewage usually come in two, one filled and drying out, the other being filled. Treated, that would be excellent manure for a garden and an orchard.

But don't hold your breath.

Joe