Hi there again,

I presented at the ’Starting a Business Seminar’ jointly hosted by the Kilkenny CEB and Bank of Ireland (BOI) Kilkenny last night in the Ormonde Hotel. I was one of 7 speakers at the event, which I initially thought was rather extensive, however each presentation was limited to a maximum of 10 minutes and the feedback I received on the night from many of the 100+ attendees suggests that the format was well received.

The large turnout comprised people in business and people at various stages of taking the plunge towards setting-up in business.

The line-up aside from myself and Noel Kenny from BOI, comprised:

Martin Carrigan, Accountant & Member of the Kilkenny Business Club, who gave some useful pointers in relation to the main principles of financial planning and tax efficiency;

Mark Fielding, CEO, ISME www.isme.ie who focused on the important contribution that small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) make to the Irish economy. He said that 98% of Irish businesses are SMEs and that in the past 12 years they have created between them a total of 500,000 new jobs. Mark also highlighted why he thinks there has never been a better time to consider setting-up in business in Ireland, with lower interest rates, more opportunities, better environment for business, etc.

Seamus Murtagh, Action Coaching www.action-ireland.com, who summarised key areas of the business process that small business owners should focus upon to improve their returns including, generating more leads for the business, developing ways of converting more of these leads into sales, and increasing profit margins by reducing business costs.  

Krishna De, One Ocean Ltd. www.krishnade.com who gave a very lively presentation on marketing on a budget (a very small budget), which certainly grabbed the attention. She gave a number of useful hint and tips. Krishna also referred to the ’six degrees of separation’ - the idea that, if a person is one “step” away from each person he or she knows and two “steps” away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is no more than six “steps” away from each person - but she said that in Ireland it really is a “small world” and business people should be using this to their advantage at all times. She asked those in business to profile their ideal customer - think about what they are looking for; where are they and then how do you get to them and what would you say to them given the opportunity. Krishna finally stressed the importance of everyone gathered jotting down at least one action that they would now carry out as a result of attending the seminar, and to make it their business to follow-up on this action - only then would they truly get a return on the time they invested in attending the seminar!

Joy Moore, Oldtown Bakehouse, Tullaroan was last to present, and I don’t think any of the other presenters would take offence when I say that it certainly was a case of keeping the best till last. Joy gave an extremely honest and open account of how she and her husband James developed their business from humble beginnings to a very successful food company over the last 10 years. Joy emphasised the importance of having a very clear and well thought out mission statement for the business. In the case of Oldtown this is “where food still tastes the way it should.” She said that it is then relatively easy to develop a business plan - yourself - around your mission if you truly believe in it. I certainly think that Joy connected with the audience, as evidenced by the large number of people who came up to her afterwards during the informal Q&A over tea/coffee.

I expect to see a number of the attendees to call with CEB in the coming weeks to explore the various ways that we might be able to help them with their plans.

Sean.

www.kceb.ie