It stems from our own fascination with start-ups. We understand the thrill of the start-up, the way in which it consumes your life, those early-morning hours spent at the laptop, those stolen minutes on holidays when you shoot down to the internet cafe, the phone on silent so the incoming texts won’t waken the whole place up.

Chances are, you recognise those symptoms too! Email us if there’s anything you like to bring to our attention

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Daithi O’Regan, a Clare man who also hurled for Kerry, was one of the more interesting characters to come through Dragon’s Den of late.

His idea was quite simple – an online store where hurlers can buy hurleys. Daithi’s rationale is that hurlers in, say, Antrim would like to get their hands on a hurley made by the makers who make, say, King Henry’s hurley.

We like the general idea – particularly as hurley-makers on their own may not have the wherewithal and/or the inclination to create an online presence for themselves. This way, they can showcase their hurleys online, and Daithi can make a profit for himself on all sales generated.

Will it work? We hope so, and we’re not sure. By ‘not sure’ we mean ‘not sure.’ We’re not sure it will, we’re not sure it won’t. The main obstacle we see is that hurlers like to hold, feel, bend, caress, chat up, almost kiss their hurleys before buying them.

Sarah Newman, partner of King DJ, invested in Daithi. The pair of them acknowledged the tactile relationship hurlers have with their hurleys, but are still confident they can make a business out of this.  There is a sound premise underneath it all, and, once again, it shows that a good idea, pulling together various other service providers already in the market place, holds the prospect of becoming a viable business.

Daithi won’t manufacture hurleys. He won’t knock down ash trees. He will simply market, promote, publicise, the lot. Expect to meet him at the next National GAA Coaching Conference, and read about him in match programmes this summer.

We wish him well. It’s a simple idea, and it would be wonderful if he could pull it off. He is a popular figure, too, and on LinkedIn, where I started a discussion, I found a lot of goodwill towards him (a great promoter of hurling in Kerry, I was told) and towards his idea.

Business name, anyone? DJ’s Handcrafted Hurleys? I presume they will use DJ’s good name to brand the product.

http://bit.ly/bxOhId – SmallBusinessCan

http://bit.ly/9tclpu – his adopted club of Duagh gave him a presentation some time back for all he’s done for hurling in Kerry. Coming from Mayo, where the Large Ball is the dominant faith, I am sure you can understand why I would be extremely grateful if more people would do a lot more for Kerry hurling!

Sli Nua Communications

Media Strategists – Public Relations – Marketing

Email: liam@slinuacommunications.com

Tel: +353 94 95 42965

Our house, the front door is the back door, if you know what I mean. And that’s where the salesman from HeavenlyFoods.ie fetched up last week. I hadn’t heard of Heavenly Foods before – but they run a very impressive operation.

John Middleton whisked open the back door of his Peugeot Partner and revealed all manner of delicious foods. From Boneless Chicken Breasts to Paella, and lots more in between.

Did I buy?

Yes.*

Why?

1. Because he asked. He came to my door and fronted up. I admire that in someone. This is the era for getting out there and putting yourself in front of people.

2. The presentation was excellent. Packaging, van, John’s demeanour and attire – it all added up.

Selling is now a much more pro-active activity than it was for the last ten years. Now you’ve got to elbow your way to the front of the queue to make the sale. Not everyone is able to knock on a door and sell.

Those who do give themselves a huge advantage. It’s no time for an apologetic, sorry-to-bother-you approach. You can check out their produce on www.HeavenlyFoods.ie.

They sell nationwide. We have a strong feeling they’re going to do very well indeed.

* The Paella. Top notch. Comes in a big bag, you can take out what you need to cook, and leave the rest back in the freezer. Uber-practical.

Sli Nua Communications

Media Strategists – Public Relations – Marketing

Email: liam@slinuacommunications.com

Tel: +353 94 95 42965

My tuppence worth, for what it’s worth – keep your website brief and simple.The more you put up there, the greater the likelihood they will miss the most important thing you want to tell them.

There is still a tendency in small business to let the website sit somewhere ‘out there’, unloved and forgotten. No-one tells it about changes of emphasis in the business. It is kept completely in the cold.

My view is that your website should try to do a few key things – and keep doing them.

Its first function is to tell the customer what you do. Effective, convincing language should be used so that you help the customer solve their problem.

So what do you do?

Write it down, in 100 words or less. “We help you save €700 a year on their electricity bills,” might be what you do. If it is, put that up on the site, because, regardless of what systems you are using to achieve those savings, that’s what the customer wants to buy.

Secondly, call the customer to action. Ring now. Email now. Request an information pack. Start saving now. Etc, etc, etc.

Your site can also give some more information on what you do – but not exhaustive amounts because people won’t read them, and, as I said at the outset, the more you put up there, the greater the chance they won’t pick up on the very thing you want.

Some client testimonials are a good idea. But not ‘John from Dublin’ says “this is a wonderful service that changed my life beyond all recognition.” Believable testimonials, from people with full names and contact details are essential – otherwise, the testimonial has the look and feel of a great work of fiction, which it probably is.

And, after that, not a lot more, I would say. Building a website for a small business has become such an easy job these days that the old fear should be gone. It shouldn’t be costly or time-consuming.

If you’re not doing heavy e-commerce – merely using your site as a brochure to attract customers – you can easily be out of it for well under €1,000. Always go to a professional – your nephew just won’t deliver, trust me.

The whole search engine world is a whole other thing – and one that promotes violent debate even among experts – but the practicalities of actually get your site up there are quite simple.

You can promote your site in your adverts, on your business card, on your premises, as well as through search engine optimisation, if you choose to invest in that area.

Sli Nua Communications

Media Strategists – Public Relations – Marketing

Email: liam@slinuacommunications.com

Tel: +353 94 95 42965

Just heard Sarah Newman say on The Business on RTE 1 that no investment tickled her fancy in Series One of Dragon’s Den.  John Murray is one of RTE’s sharpest broadcasters (even if there has been a bit too much about golf these past two Saturdays!), and we’re surprised he omitted to remind her of the Season One pitch where her advances were rebuffed by the Surf Seed man.I can’t find the video footage in full, but the interview with Ryan Tubridy here does outline in part the scenario that unfolded:

http://bit.ly/bIeche

It does somewhat defeat Sarah’s claims that the standard of proposed products failed to excite her interest. There was great hilarity at the time when Sarah, in her first foray after a long period of early Out declarations, was shot down by a man with options.

Anyone know where we can find that footage? Can’t locate it anywhere on the net. It would reveal why the Surf Seed man opted to scatter his seeds elsewhere, so to speak. As I recall it, Sarah tried to force him into a decision too quickly and he recoiled. She must have been discommoded by the uniqueness of her finding herself poised on the cusp of investing!

Sli Nua Communications

Media Strategists – Public Relations – Marketing

Email: liam@slinuacommunications.com

Tel: +353 94 95 42965

In the history of the Dragon’s Den, this side of the pond or the other, surely the most memorable pitch was that of Raymond Smith, the ‘soggy middle’ man.It was squirm-a-minute tv.

There seemed to be no end to the poor man’s humiliation. How the Dragons hooted! How they laughed! How they dismissed!

It was almost a bloodsport. The man shook with nerves. The suit didn’t fit. Ray’s losses, both financial and personal, revealed halfway through, lent the scene an agonising air.

The pitch moved from mildly entertaining to cruelty. We felt like flicking over.

How could the producers even show it, we asked? Then we pondered that question just a little more.

How could they show it? Why would they show it? Why would they let one man fall so low in full public glare?

Perhaps only if there happened to be an entirely unexpected happy ending…

http://bit.ly/br3Isf

and

http://bit.ly/cd4Hyt

Sli Nua Communications

Media Strategists – Public Relations – Marketing

Email: liam@slinuacommunications.com

Tel: +353 94 95 42965

You’re familiar with the scenario. You’re driving along in the car, listening to one of the business programmes, when suddenly someone comes on, talking about their new business, and you realise “yes, these people have their ducks in a row.”

I had one such experience last Saturday when the people (Noel Regan and Pat Madigan) behind Flylight (www.FlyLight.ie) came on The Business on RTE 1. They first of all explained the eureka moment – incurring an extra airline charge for an overweight bag. So the two boys invented Flylight – “the luggage with scales incase…”

From there have jumped through all the hoops, securing significant agency support and funding, and now they’re selling. And doing well too, by all accounts.

It did our heart good. You can read more about them here: http://bit.ly/dfexYu

You have, haven’t you, more than once recently started a sentence with the words: “You know, the great thing about this recession is…” before adding, cautiously, “now don’t get me wrong…”

But, yes, there are some great things about this recession. There is a revival of what a colleague calls ‘the Meitheal concept.’ Businesspeople, in efforts to keep afloat, are communicating openly with each other about ways of doing things, strategies to open up new markets, and tweaks or twists that could transform an existing idea into something viable.

“There are no secrets anymore,” says my colleague, “because it’s all out in the open now. Businesspeople can’t bluff it anymore. A lot of people are relieved to be freed from the trappings of talking it up.”

Ergo, the rise in all manner of business networks and the like. People are going back to basics to generate business – they are actually taking the time to talk to each other again. I have seen it time and time again in recent months: businesspeople willing to help light your spark in the hope that you might light theirs in return.

In the dramatic re-ordering of business life during the recession, new people will emerge. Nothing There is an opportunity for a whole new wave of businesspeople to come to the fore. The classic example is the person who worked in a job, well-paid and apparently secure, for the past number of years, only to find the rug pulled from under their feet.

Some of the biggest success stories of the next ten years will be those who change the quickest: those who realise the old ways no longer pertain, but that there is still potential in the new economy. It is a time for people with vision.

I met one such man last week in the course of my business. Like the rest of us, Niall Marren has listened to all the news items these past few months about how gold was fetching record prices. Unlike the rest of us, Niall saw an opportunity therein.

He put his thinking cap on and came up with www.forgottengold.com. If you have gold in the house, perhaps in a knotted chain you have spent hours trying to disentangle, Niall will buy it from you. He will send you an envelope. Once you post it to him, the item is insured to the tune of €300. He will value the gold and make you an offer.

If you accept it, he sends you a cheque. If you don’t, he sends your gold item back to you. It’s a sweet, simple business – conceived and born in the midst of recession – and it’s going well for Niall. Jewellery wasn’t even his business six months ago: but he saw the gap and ‘went for it.’

I am involved with the Mayo Open Coffee Club (http://mayo-open-coffee-club.org/), a voluntary group set up to allow entrepreneurs and investors meet each other. We have invited Niall to be our next guest speaker on April 8^th, in Castlebar, and you will find more details on the site.

Hopefully the recession won’t discourage people from ‘going for it.’ The Dragons Den each week is full of people ‘going for it.’ Sometimes the products aren’t hectic, for the world of the inventor and the entrepreneur is one of many false dawns, but they don’t deserve the ridicule so gratuitously thrown their way by the dragons.

In Castlebar, there is a place for people who want to ‘go for it.’ The Innovation in Business Centre (IiBC) at the GMIT runs a programme for people interested in starting their own business. If your idea looks like a runner, they take you in for a year.

You network with other businesspeople. You listen to experts. You get a mentor. You use the facilities of the Centre (a desk that’s yours, phone, fax, broadband, and the like.)  You may even get some cash, through another funding programme, to help you live while you chase your dream. It’s the kind of hand-holding businesses need at the outset.

They have almost finalised their list of entrepreneurs for the coming year, but if you are nursing something that could work, create a job for you and maybe for others, I suspect the co-ordinator Maria Staunton – the former All-Ireland captain with Mayo ladies footballer – would still entertain you.

She’s available on (094) 9043198 or email maria.staunton@gmit.ie. Maria’s no dragon in the den. She won’t laugh and call you mad. She knows that it’s people like you – with the germ of a business idea – who will play a central role in playing Ireland out of this recession.