Notwithstanding the challenging times emerging in 2008 that I alluded to in an earlier post, we had a busy year of activity providing supports to start-up and expanding small businesses last year. I have provided a very brief synopsis of activity below:
Hundreds of people availed of our ’business advisory’ service and many more received basic information and advice from the CEB during the year.
Some 500 entrepreneurs participated in enterprise training programmes organised and delivered by the Board in 2008 – programmes aimed at improving the management capability of participants. These ranged from sales & marketing through financial management to computerised accounts.
70 people participated in the Board’s Start Your Own Business (SYOB) Programmes, which is aimed at giving participants an introduction to all of the main issues encountered when starting up and running a business from researching and planning their idea through to compliance issues and financial projections.
A further 151 people availed of the Board’s Mentoring service, which provides owner-managers with a temporary business advisor to help them identify and overcome obstacles in their business. Demand for this service increased in 2008, and this can be attributed mainly to the new set of challenges that many of our clients are now facing.
33 people were supported with Technical Assistance catering for specialist and customised supports (e.g. Specialist Training Assistance; Trade Fair Assistance; Market Visits; etc.), while another 33 businesses were supported with a Tech Check Audit, which is aimed at helping small businesses maximize their use of the latest technology available for the development of their business.
The Board approved financial assistance totaling almost €600,000 to 28 businesses in 2008. 18 of these were new business starts and the other 10 were expansions of existing businesses.
These projects have the potential to create an additional 72 full-time job equivalents when fully implemented. This brings the total number of projects assisted by the Board since its establishment to over 680 and the total number of jobs created to almost 1,100.
The Board continued to sponsor the Student Enterprise Awards in second level schools, with almost 300 students participating (www.studententerprise.ie).
We organised another very successful Enterprise Week in October, 2008 in conjunction with local business networks and partner organisations, including the Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce, FAS, Failte Ireland and Kilkenny Local Authorities. We also piloted the enterprise bus, bringing the services of the Board to some of the smaller towns and villages around the County (in June) and to local shopping centres (in October.) The Board also drafted and launched our enterprise strategy for the next 5 years.
While the period ahead is undoubtedly full of uncertainty and the focus of our clients is very much on survival, the onus is on you to engage with the Board and avail of the services on offer. If you are in business then we are here to help you in any way that we can.
I have posted on nuggets being picked up through my participation in our management development programme currently running and being delivered by Blaise Brosnan. Well we have invited Blaise to deliver the first of our lunchtime seminars this year – ‘Assessing Your Business Health’ today in the Newpark Hotel, Kilkenny. This FREE seminar will help you understand how to identify the issues that impact on the health of your business in the current economic climate. I hope to see some of you there.
Sean.
www.kceb.ie
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
No Responses Yet to “Highlights of Kilkenny CEB Activity 2008”