Following the tremenduous success last year, the Spirit of Enterprise Forum has decided to co-ordinate ‘Enterprise Week’ in the south east region again this year.

Enterprise Week 2008 will be held from 13th - 17th October.

A regional ’steering committee’ is in place, and local ‘operational committees’ comprising of the main agencies and organisations with a role and remit for enterprise, will be setting-up in each local authority area in the south east in the coming weeks.

This year the theme for Enterprise Week is “Make Business Happen.”

One of the main events this year will be a major regional conference for entrepreneurs to be held in Kilkenny. This is still very much in the concept stage but promises to build upon the very successful ‘Enterprise Supports Event’ organised by Kilkenny CEB as part of Enterprise Week last year. 

I will keep you posted on developments over the coming months.

Sean.

www.kceb.ie

More and more people are considering starting a business. This is confirmed by the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report for Ireland (www.gemconsortium.org), which reveals that some 270,000 adults have expressed a desire to start a business within the next 3 years. GEM also reports that 44% of Irish adults perceive that there are good opportunities to establish a new business at present, while 50% of adults believe that they have the necessary skills to successfully establish and run a new business. 

This is all very encouraging. However, as the Small Business Forum reported (www.smallbusinessforum.ie) access to relevant information and advice is hampering the number of small business starts. Many people considering starting a business are often unable to search through the wide range of available sources to access the right information they need to answer their specific queries.

The national network of CEBs provide a ‘first-stop-shop’ service for entrepreneurs and strive to provide as comprehensive a business advice and information service as possible. Notwithstanding this, the Small Business Forum found that a rising frustration among those seeking business information is that they may not be aware of where best to access it, with the result that they often resort to sourcing information that is ill-suited to their needs. The CEBs therefore have to constantly raise awareness of the services they provide and try to come up with new and novel ways of promoting and providing access to these services.

In an attempt to do just that, a number of CEBs (including ourselves here in Kilkenny) in conjunction with Bank of Ireland Business Banking, have come together to pilot the ‘Enterprise Bus’ initiative (www.theenterprisebus.ie). The objective of the Enterprise Bus is to provide the first free mobile advice centre to people thinking of setting-up or growing their business. 

It is hoped that the Enterprise Bus will make the services of the CEB more accessible to people either in business or considering setting-up in business. The Bus will visit hundreds of small towns and villages all over the country over the course of the next 10 months. With almost 19,000 new businesses setting up in this country in 2007, and a similar number forecast for this year, we anticipate that the Enterprise Bus will potentially be of help to as many entrepreneurs with business ideas as possible.

The Bus will provide support and advice to people in their own localities, from enterprise mentors and business advisers on all aspects of business, training available, business planning, accessing the right type of finance and guidance on other services available to enterprises.

The Bus will visit locations throughout County Kilkenny during the weeks commencing 2nd June and 6th October next. Full location details and dates of the Enterprise Bus as it travels throughout the country are available on www.theenterprisebus.ie.

The Enterprise Bus is certainly a novel initiative and should greatly assist us to promote the availability of our services to an even wider audience, as well as providing the opportunity for individuals and businesses to access the supports offered by the CEBs at local level.  So watch out for that Bus in your local area ….

I will post again on the initiative closer to the first week that the Bus will be in County Kilkenny.

Sean.

www.kceb.ie

I would like to wish all visitors to this blog a very prosperous and enterprising New Year!

As we look ahead to 2008, I think it would be useful to first look back at 2007. I have provided below a mainly quantitative review of activity last year under some of the main CEB performance indicators under our 2 main Measures of support:

Measure 1: Grant-aided Projects

We received a total of 37 applications for grant-aid in 2007 (compared to 38 in 2006). 32 (or 86%) of the applications received were approved, 4 were refused (mainly on the grounds of being ineligible for financial assistance, lacking commercial viability or posing a risk of displacement) and a decision on 1 had been deferred pending receipt of additional information at year end.

Again as reported in a previous blog, we receive many more enquiries for grant assistance, but because of the extremely selective nature of the financial assistance we provide, the majority of these prove to be ineligible for support and therefore do not proceed to application stage.

The Kilkenny CEB has now provided grant assistance to almost 650 business projects since its establishment in 1993.

We awarded a total of €441,569 (compared to €425,370 in 2006) in grant-aid to the 32 projects approved, last year. The average grant of circa €13,850 demonstrates the relatively small-scale nature of the projects that we support (i.e. involving overall capital expenditure averaging between €25,000 to €30,000.)

10 of the projects grant-aided in 2007 are local services, 19 are manufacturing operations, 1 has the potential to become an Internationally Traded Service (ITS) and 2 are tourism projects.

23 of the projects are promoted by men, 8 are promoted by women and 1 project is promoted by a co-operative organisation. Some 24 of the projects supported are start-ups, and the remaining 8 projects have been assisted to expand their operations. 

The 32 projects approved have the potential to create an additional 60 full-time and 25 part-time jobs when fully implemented.

Measure 2: Information & Advice, Mentoring, Enterprise Training & Management Development Support (Soft Supports)

We invested circa €400,000 in soft supports in 2007, ranging from the provision of information, business advice and training through to mentoring, technical assistance and management development supports.  

A total of 58 Enterprise Training & Management Programmes were organised and delivered last year, amounting to a total of over 1,000 training days. Over 530 people participated in these Programmes and a further 210 clients received mentoring or technical assistance.   We also launched a very successful Enterprise Week from 1st to 5th October last year, which helped raise the profile of entrepreneurship and small business in the region.

For the first time ever, all 16 second level schools in County Kilkenny registered to participate in the Student Enterprise Awards competition for the 2007/2008 academic year, with almost 500 students participating in setting up businesses.

So as you can see from this brief account of activity, we were busy last year and we hope to continue the trend in 2008. So if you are in business or thinking about starting one, get in touch with us to see how we can help you.

Sean.

www.kceb.ie

Earlier this year, the Kilkenny CEB piloted a series of ‘creative workshops’ with a group of CEB client companies. The group included companies from the neighbouring counties of South Tipperary and Carlow. This pilot programme proved extremely successful at introducing the effectiveness of creative thinking techniques in assisting participants to consider their existing product and service offerings. So we decided to follow-up on this pilot with a more intensive programme.

We now intend to establish a ’creative business innovation network’ of up to 18 companies and provide support to the network (e.g. facilitated meetings, structured techniques, etc.) for a period of 1-year initially.

 The business innovation network will have the following aims:

• To continue the delivery of training of established creativity techniques
• To use these techniques to support real business objectives and challenges
• To create a long-term support system between groups of participants
• To support each participant in his/her endeavour to create an innovative work environment

We had a very well-attended information session last week in the Newpark Hotel, Kilkenny to launch this new programme and such was the interest that 18 companies subsequently signed-up to participate in the business innovation network from January of next year. 

Structure
The group of 18 companies will now be sub-divided in to triads (i.e. small groups of three people), and they will maintain communication and support each other to achieve their individual objectives throughout the course of the programme.

They will also ‘practice’ techniques learnt at Network meetings, to generate ideas for each other, to help each other overcome obstacles they face in their business and generally coach and mentor each other. They will also commit to pre-arranged conference calls or meeting up at least once between main Network meetings.

The Network Meetings
The Network meetings will take place once a month over the 12 months (i.e. total of 12 meetings). Each meeting will begin with a 30 minute feedback session, with one member of each triad reporting on the progress of his/her group.

There will then follow a 1½ hour session during which a new creativity / innovation technique will be introduced by the network facilitator. This will also be accompanied by an evaluation /decision making technique.

Participants will then engage in group workshops for circa 1 hour to practice the given techniques on relevant challenges chosen by the group.

This will be followed by 15 minutes of feedback, and finally 30 minutes of goal setting. (i.e. – participants will re-form into their triads and agree on their individual tasks and goals to be achieved within the coming month.)

During the programme the whole group will also be encouraged to work on a combined project such as a fundraising challenge for charity or other not-for-profit organization.

This is an exciting initiative and I am very much looking forward to seeing how the participants will benefit from the various elements of the network. I will keep you posted on progress.

Sean.

www.kceb.ie
 

I was asked to present at the FBD / KCLRFM Conference on ‘Change Your Thinking - Be Creative’ in the Newpark Hotel Kilkenny during the week.

I was pleasantly surprised in the first instance that an insurance company and a local radio station would be hosting such a conference, and even more so by the 200 or so small business people that actually turned up to the event! So the subject matter of the conference obviously caught the attention!

The other speakers at the conference included:
Dermot McConkey of ‘McConkey Performance Management Ltd.’ (www.mcconkey.ie);
Thomas Marry, MD, Surfbox (www.surfbox.ie); and
Robert Kerr, MD, Insomnia Cafes (www.insomnia.ie).

Dermot gave a very wide ranging motivational talk that certainly provoked, stimulated and entertained the large audience. The main thing I picked up form his presentation was the importance of delivering a quality service.
His main message: “People don’t buy similarity or mediocrity - they buy difference!” And in order to differentiate - we have to be creative!

Thomas and Robert highlighted the various forms of change they have had to deal with - from start-up to success - in their respective businesses.

In my presentation, I attempted to focus upon the challenges that face the owners of small business and the importance of being open to change.
I copy below my presentation -

What’s going on in Your Business Right Now?

I want to first of all start by making a statement:

“Owner-managers of small business are not getting the return they should for the work they are putting in to their business.”

Have a think about this. Do you agree or disagree?

Honestly ask yourself are you satisfied with the return that you are currently getting from the hard work and effort that you are putting into your business? If you forget for a moment about the satisfaction that self-employment might give you or the freedom you might enjoy from being your own boss and look purely at the monetary return you take for the hours you put into the buisness - are you satisfied with the rate at which you are being renumerated?

I would guess that the vast majority of you are not satisfied. And I would argue that one of the main reasons that you are not getting the return you should is that as owner-managers you are not allocating your time properly . You are too preoccupied with ‘fire-fighting’ the day-to-day issues in your business that you are not devoting any or enough time to stand back to organise and plan for the overall development of your business.

You are spending too much time doing the wrong work! The worst case scenario is that you are busy fools!

The American guru Michael Gerber perhaps articulates this best when he says that every small business owner must be three distinct entities in one.
They must be at the same time an entrepreneur, a manager, and a technician.

The entrepreneur in you comes up with new ideas for the business.
The really good entrepreneurs constantly try to innovate their business and they have an ability to change in response to changes in the external environment.
If you correctly interpret what is happening now, you will win a huge advantage over your competition and be in a better position to adapt to change.

The technician in you strives to develop the methods necessary to put your idea(s) into practice.
Most businesses are started by technicians - individuals who have tradeable skills or an expertise in a certain area, and they often make the assumption that if one understands the technical work involved in a business, then it automatically follows that one understands a business that does that technical work.
This of course is not the case and is unfortunately one of the root causes of most small business failures - Poor business planning and management skills. The really good technicians continually look for best practice to aid continuous improvement.

Finally, the manager in you takes care of the business functions necessary for the operation of the business.

The really good managers will create action plans to support your business; use Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) to constantly try to quantify the impact of the new ideas – how does it improve upon the bottom line; take the time (monthly and/or quarterly) to evaluate critical business indicators to check the health of your business; etc.

Identifying and developing essential small business and management skills are vital components of entrepreneurial success. Business and management skills such as sales & marketing; financial planning; costing & pricing; etc.

You need to get the right balance and devote sufficient time to all three roles. 

One way of looking at your business objectively is to imagine that you have been approached to franchise it in some other part of the country in the morning.

Ask yourself - would you be able to show a franchisee how to run your business? Explain to them your vision and what business you are in? Outline your target market and customer base? Would your business processes, marketing approaches, etc. be easily and readily followed?

We can all innovate!

The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) were set-up by the Government to develop an economic strategy for the country as a whole going forward in 2003.

In their report published in 2005, the ESG stated that in order to maximise the greatest number of sustainable enterprises in this country in the future, we will have to ensure that a combination of the right ‘essential conditions’ and ‘competitive advantages’ are put in place.

These will involve a wide range of stakeholders where everyone has a role to play in ensuring that we have the greatest possible number of sustainable, profitable enterprises in the country going forward – from society in general, and our attitudes towards enterprise; to our the education system and government policy (e.g. taxation regime, infrastructure, etc.) to state agencies with supports they make available - but most importantly of all you the small business owners have the biggest role to play.

You must recognize that you face challenges too. The ESG outlined a number of essential conditions, and given the subject matter of the conference here today, I will focus on one of these, namely - innovation & entrepreneurship.

In fact I have adapted this slightly to ‘innovation and creativity’ as I believe they are so closely linked.

What is meant by innovation and creativity?

Innovation: is the process of developing new products, services, or ways of operating the business for commercial gain.

Creativity: enables innovation. It is the discovery of new ideas or new ways of doing things.

Most times clients I work with switch off when they hear the word Innovation, as unfortunately it is too often viewed as the preserve of large industry and that small business have little or no role. 

To be fair, this view is to often bourne out by the way that innovation is spoken about and by the way it is measured. We hear about investment spend in R&D, university research, technology transfer, by the no. of PHd’s; by the no. of science graduates; by the no. of patents registered; etc.

Sure all of this is important, but is only part of the picture of innovation and I would argue – only a very small part!

Many of the hundreds of small businesses supported by the CEB in Kilkenny in the last 13 years have displayed various forms of innovation (technological and non-technological).

They have been creative in order to adapt the way they do business to become more efficient and effective. I want to just give a few examples here:

Example 1: Oldtown Hill Bakehouse trades under the brand “Where food still tastes the way it should.” All their products are free from artificial additives. They operate in a very difficult sector where the vast majority of bakeries in this country have closed down in the past 20 years, they have worked very hard to develop an extremely successful business from start-up.

They use traditional methods and recipes throughout their range of products from Brown Bread and Apple Tarts to luxurious Chocolate Fudge Cake. However, they were finding it difficult selling their new range of rhubarb and apple crumble cakes, which they tried initially selling in packs of 6.

They knew the product was a quality one and that it should sell but couldn’t undertsand why it wasn’t. Following consultation with the shop owners through which they sell and their own market analysis they introduced simple innovation - adapted the product to packs of 4.

Sales dramatically increased as a result and the product line is now one of their best earners.

This was mainly due to the fact that the no. of 1 person households in this country has increased by almost one third in the last 10 years with more single people living in 1 bedroom apartments and more old people living alone. So these people were less inclined to purchase a premium fresh product of 6, but more inclined to purchase pack of 4.

Oldtown didn’t compromise on the product itself – it is still a premium product – it is not cheaper. This to me is an excellent example of simple non-technological innovation. The CEB assisted Oldtown with a small capital grant to set-up their state-of-the art premises in Tullaroan.

Example 2: Up to 80 per cent of all Leaving Cert students currently take grinds, paying between €25 and €50 per hour, depending on the subject, which means that this market is worth at least €50 million per annum.

We have supported a teacher who was one of those that gave grinds to set-up ‘ReviseOn-Line’ (www.reviseonline.ie), which is an on-line service opening access to a greater number of students for course materials for a fraction of the costs, taking the same materials that he gave in one-to-one situations and small group workshops here in Kilkenny, and using the latest internet based technology to make them available to a much larger market nationwide via the internet. Again - this is real innovation.

The CEB has supported this project through small levels of grant-aid, technical assistance and mentoring to establish the project.

Example 3: Another client of the CEB has developed a board game based around field sports such as gaelic football, hurling, rugby and soccer. It is similar to monopoly but based on the rules of field sports.

However, he realises that the concept of his ‘roll-the-dice’ board game is really difficult to market in today’s world, especially when competing against the likes of sony playstations, Nintendo wiis and other computer games. He is aware that his product will not be appearing on many Santa lists.

So he has creatively adapted the game on 2 fronts:

first as a tool for aiding the teaching of Irish with the support of the Dept Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, where primary schools will be given 6 copies of the board game; and

second he has developed the board game as a merchandising product available in the merchandising stores of English soccer clubs. The game is adapted with the branding and logo of the club concerned. The price point is right in that adults attending the games are more inclined to purchase the product as a merchandising product to bring home as a present for kids. This again is innovation. The CEB assisted the project through a Feasibility Study Grant to develop a prototype for the merchandising product.

The above examples prove that every business can be creative and innovate.

Challenges that lie Ahead:

We are increasingly being subjected to international competition from many foreign markets attracted by Ireland’s growing population and wealth. We can access them and they can access us. You only have to look at shopping centres to see that more and more foreign owned companies are occupying space there selling goods here that are made elsewhere!

This emphasizes the need for Irish companies to identify precisely what it is they are good at so that they can secure business and build good customer loyalty. Local businesses now have to compete with some of the world’s largest global brands in every sector. Many of these companies operate with huge economies of scale and can therefore produce products and services at much lower costs, so it is becoming almost impossible to compete with them on price. But you can compete by offering superior levels of service and quality - by innovating.

You will have to find new ways of competing – based mainly on building customer loyalty - knowing your customers better; developing stronger relationships with them; knowing their needs; providing unique products and services; etc. – in short in every aspect of your business, striving to be the best.  This will require greater levels of innovation. 

Predicting the future is easier said than done.

Lets look for a moment at some of those who got it wrong in the past.

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Thomas Watson, founder of IBM, 1943. 

“There is no reason why anyone would want a computer in their home.” Ken Olson, founder of Digital, 1977.

The moral here is not that major business leader say foolish things but rather that you must be prepared to accept that everything is subject to change sooner or later.

What holds true today may not hold true tomorrow. We have to be prepared to:            - change, come outside our comfort zone, be open, be creative and innovate!

The key for the future will be to know what business you are in.

What business are You in?

All businesses operate between 2 extreme ends of a spectrum:

At one end you have those that operate on a ‘Cost leadership strategy,’ which is a bit like saying ‘buy mine, its just as good but it’s cheaper.’ This is the no frills product or service produced at relatively low cost. 

This strategy depends largely on economies of scale; efficiencies, upon cutting costs. We can all think of examples of companies that have a leaning towards this model of doing business - RyanAir; Lidl; etc. There is typically very little brand loyalty here, as the customer tends to shop around for the cheaper option all the time!

At the other end of the spectrum you have companies that operate on a ‘Differentiation strategy,’ which is a bit like saying ‘I’m better than all the rest but you will have to pay more!’

Products or services produced within this strategy are perceived as being unique and premium (e.g. rolex; Gucci; Jaguar; etc.). This strategy depends upon creativity – innovation, adaptability, etc.

The ‘Cost Leadership’ strategy is also referred to as ‘so what’ whereas the ’Differentiation’ Strategy is referred to as ‘oh yes’. There is nothing wrong with operating strategies at either end of the spectrum. There is a place for them all, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for small businesses to compete on cost alone.

Small businesses in particular will have to differentiate themselves more and more in other ways. And this is where the role of creativity comes in. I would contend that small businesses in particular have a better chance of succeeding by differentiating and to succeed here you will have to be creative to come up with ways of being different from the competition.

Structured Creative Thinking Techniques

You can introduce structured creative thinking techniques into your everyday business practices to help you adapt to change.  The CEB through a new initiative with which we are involved – the nc4c – ran a pilot programme earlier this year with 16 small companies from Kilkenny, South Tipperary and Carlow.

The programme was aimed at helping owner-managers introduce creative techniques to help with their:

Marketing & Sales:

to develop stronger relationships with customers and to help them identify their differentiation.

Improving Work Practices:           

to become more efficient & effective;

overcome challenges more easily; and

achieve a better work balance (between the entrepreneur, manager and technician)

Product & Service Innovation:           

to solve problems;

do things better;

identify future opportunities.

The feedback from this pilot programme has been excellent and has inspired us to run a number of further ’structured creative thinking’ programmes. Indeed, we have an information session planned on 11th December next to explore this subject further.

Be Open:

Sometimes we are blinded by our culture, by our education, by our background, by our prejudices, etc and that can prevent us from opening up our minds.

We can find that we look at things in the same way that we always did and as the old addage states if we always do what we’ve always done then we’ll always get what we’ve always got, and we will be unable to adapt to change.

Look at this photo – what does this group of people conjure up in your mind?

If they approached you in the morning would you consider investing in them?

If I said the era is 1978 and this is the original team at Microsoft would you have a different view?

They eventually secured loan finance to start their company and in 1981 they had their IPO. The company is now one of the largest in the world and employs 80,000 people worldwide.  4 of the people in this photo are now billionaires and this little boy in the bottom left hand corner is Bill Gates, multi-billionaire and reputed to be the richest man in the world!

I want to finish up now.

I would contend that there has never been a more supportive environment for those either in business or thinking of starting one.

The CEB ladder of supports – we are the first point of contact for small business in County Kilkenny.

I urge you to be open - seize the opportunity – come talk to us today.

Thank You for your attention.

Sean McKeown.

www.kceb.ie

It doesn’t seem like over 2 months ago since I posted on the information seminar we held in conjunction with the Crafts Council of Ireland (CCOI) for the ‘Getting Your Craft Product to Market’ Programme!

Well yesterday I attended the function to award the certificates of completion to the craft producers that participated in the course, along with Una Parsons (the new CEO) and Emer Ferran of the CCOI. Congratulations again to all 12 participants who completed the Programme. Well done!

One thing that struck me at the information seminar back in September was Helen Kenneavy’s (the Programme co-ordinator) statement that “there has been more change in the marketplace for craft in the last 5 years than there has been in the previous 15 years.”

I think it is fair to say that the focus of the programme was really about helping each of the 12 craft producers that participated to cope with the implications and impact of this change, and in particular helping them to develop the marketing, branding and packaging of their respective products.

I also know from talking to some of the participants over the course of the programme that it was very beneficial in helping provide a focus to address a whole range of issues including:
• telling the story behind the craft product - creating a signature; and
• trying to focus more on generating sales for new products in existing markets and with existing customers rather than solely trying to find sales for existing products in new markets.
I think it is also perhaps fair to say that the most valuable aspect of the programme however has been the opportunity it presented for the participants to come together as a group of producers for the first time, and to use same as a collective resource to help and support each other in all sorts of ways, including providing feedback and comment on each others products!

I think this was an extremely important benefit and I hope that it can be maintained and continued now that the programme is completed.

The CEB believes that the craft sector in Kilkenny is an important contributor to the local economy. The sector plays a significant role in contributing to and substantiating Kilkenny’s claim as the Creative Heart of Ireland. In this regard, the CEB will continue to work with the CCOI in providing supports to faciliate the development and growth of the sector.

Sean.

www.kceb.ie

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

A very busy Enterprise Week came to a close on Friday afternoon last with the announcement at a ceremony in the Lyrath Estate Hotel that Ormonde Technologies Ltd are this year’s recipient of the Kilkenny CEB - Enterprise Award.

Ormonde Technologies (www.surfbox.ie) is a fledgling company owned by Thomas Marry and Declan Lennon, and they received their Enterprise Award from Minister of Trade & Commerce, John McGuinness, TD.

Both Thomas and Declan are former employees of the German owned financial services company Infoscore, which was based in Kilkenny until the end of 2005. Thomas was Managing Director of the company and Declan was the Systems Manager.

In 2004, Thomas came up with the idea of providing ‘pay as you go’ internet access for people on the move.  He discussed his idea with Declan, and together they decided to turn the concept into a business. 

After months of research and development, they came up with a low cost prototype that was stable enough to ensure a high level of availability at low maintenance.  And a year later they took the plunge and left the relative security of paid employment to set up Ormonde Technologies supplying ‘SurfBox,’ a coin and credit card operated internet access solution for hotels, pubs and cafes.

From a standing start just 2 years ago, Ormonde Technologies now employs 5 full-time staff in Kilkenny and has many more sub-contractors spread throughout the country, and over 200 SurfBox terminals in locations in Ireland and the UK.  

I think it was fitting that Enterprise Week came to a close with the presentation of the Enterprise Award to Ormonde Technologies, as the focus was rightly put back on local entrepreneurs actually involved in business and the important contribution that they make to the local economy!

The National Enterprise Awards are one small way in which the network of County & City Enterprise Boards recognize the achievements and endeavours of our client companies each year.

The Awards involve two stages: first a County competition, with recipients at County level progressing to the second stage – the National Final, and each stage is independently adjudicated. So following receipt of the County Enterprise Award last week, Ormonde Technologies will now progress to represent Kilkenny at the National Enterprise Awards ceremony to be held in Dublin Castle next month.

Ormonde Technologies are one of the new start-up companies featured in the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report, which benchmarks the level of entrepreneurial activity in 28 OECD countries.

In the Report, Thomas refers to the hard work, the long hours and the many challenges and difficulties that he and Declan have encountered thus far along the way, but he says that the satisfaction of knowing you are building a business for the future makes it all worthwhile, and I think the following quote from Thomas in the GEM Report sums it all up:
 
“Entrepreneurship has become a way of life for me. I could not imagine going back to being a paid employee.  The sense of freedom, achievement, drive, excitement and satisfaction associated with running your own business is a tonic for healthy living.  I don’t go to work anymore, I enjoy life!”

Thomas is obviously living out the philosophy of that oft quoted Chinese sage – Confucius, who said:

“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life!”

Ormonde Technologies certainly are a good news story, and I think it is fair to say that Thomas and Declan well and truly have the spirit of enterprise, and they are very worthy recipients of our County Enterprise Award this year.

Sean.

www.kceb.ie

Enterprise Week is now in full flow.

Last night (2nd October) our ’Enterprise Exhibition’ event took place in the Rivercourt Hotel, and it really was an expo of all of the agencies that provide support to small business, along with a wide range of local business member and network organisations, exhibiting their wares under one roof.  

We thought it would be useful that in conjunction with having all of the agencies exhibiting, that we would also have some case studies presented by real life entrepreneurs who have recently set-up in business.

Each one of the hundreds of clients supported by the Kilkenny CEB over the past 14 years have their own interesting story to tell.  And the 2 entrepreneurs we invited - Joy Moore, Oldtown Hill Bakehouse based in Tullaroan and Tom Byrnes, Pack Publishing, based in Castlecomer – gave a very open and frank acount of why they went into business, how they got their idea, where they get their motivation, what obstacles they have encountered along the way and so on.

The large gathering attending the event (including the agency staff) certainly found their stories to be extremely interesting, with many of the issues raised by both entrepreneurs resonating with the many other current and budding entrepreneurs in the audience. And Joy and Tom received a lot of interest/comment/questions at their stands following their presentations.

Overall there was a great buzz at the event, with each of the exhibitors being kept busy with the level of interest generated by the attendees.

To get details of the rest of the programme for the week - www.spiritofenterprise.ie

Sean.

www.kceb.ie

I have just come back from the launch of Enterprise Week this morning by Minister John McGuinness, and some interesting presentations that followed on the Tech Check Initiative.

So the packed schedule for Enterprise Week, over the next 5 days is well and truly under way (for full details of all of the events check out - www.spiritofenterprise.ie) I would encourage you to engage with us and attend as many of the events as you can. You will find that we have tried, insofar as possible, to organise them at times and locations convenient to you busy people.

We really hope that collectively, all of the events this week, will help raise the profile and importance of small business to the local economy, and that they will help encourage and motivate more of you to consider setting up your own business. I would contend that there never has been a more supportive environment than at present for those in business! Go see for yourself….

If you do make it to any of the events then make sure that you do say hello and I look forward to meeting you.

Sean.

www.kceb.ie