Funding available now! 

Dublin City Enterprise Board (DCEB) is the lead agency offering business support to small business in the capital of Ireland. Funded by central government and the EU it offers business mentoring, training and financial support to micro-businesses in Dublin City.

This guest blog is written by Eibhlin Curley, deputy CEO of the enterprise board.

Dublin City Enterprise Board’s priority is to support job creation through focusing on supporting manufacturing companies and innovative businesses, and enabling companies to export.

Eligibility for financial support

Training and business mentoring is available to all businesses BUT financial assistance is available to certain types of businesses.

Irish businesses that are eligible for support are

-          businesses that export a product or service, e.g. sell technology software outside Ireland

-          that manufacture an innovative product in Ireland

-          tourism businesses that offer services to visitors in Ireland

DCEB assists small businesses with 10 employees or less based in Dublin city. We can help, owner managers of established businesses, start up businesses and people thinking of starting a business.

You must be creating at least one new full-time paid position to be eligible for funding.

Types of financial support available

Business Development funding is available for established businesses. Funds can be used towards new employee salaries, marketing and manufacturing equipment and fit-out costs. The Business Development financial support is partly refundable (66% to be paid back).

Priming funding is for new businesses (trading less than 18 months) and may fund salaries, marketing and equipment costs. The Priming financial support is partly refundable (33% to be paid back).

Feasibility/ Innovation grants support prototype development, market research and patent costs (a grant that is not refundable though requires match funding).
The average size of financial supports from the Dublin City Enterprise Board is Business Development €20,000, Priming €12,000 and Feasibility €7,500 – all depending on the number of new jobs created.

Application process for financial support (also check www.dceb.ie )

An application form and the Promoter’s CV are required for feasibility study/ innovation grant applications. In the case of Priming and Business Development funding a Business Plan, Promoter’s cvs, 12 month projected cashflow and 3 years of projected Profit & Loss accounts are required. For existing business the applicant must submit their most recent annual accounts.

The applicant must make a strong case and provide as much evidence as possible of commercial viability, job creation and export potential. A business mentor may be utilised in putting together the business plan and application.

Assessment of funding applications

Each application is reviewed by an evaluation committee which meets every month.  Recommendations are made whether the application should be rejected, deferred (if they need clarification on particular issues) or approved. Terms and conditions may be attached to an approval. The Board of Directors make the final decision on approving financial support. 

Financial support  “Claims”

A Tax Clearance Certificate is required for all payments.

Support for salaries

Payments towards salary costs are based on payslips of full-time employees. The payment is paid in two instalments. The first month’s payslip of the new employee and the second instalment is paid on the 6 month’s payslip.

All other approved expenses are paid on a receipts basis (excluding VAT), after the Board approval date and before the expiry date of the financial support offering. No retrospective expenses are paid for costs incurred before the Board approval date.

Summary

Dublin City Enterprise Board financially supports niche market businesses

involved

-          in manufacturing, innovative services or exporting.  

-          they can be pre-start or well established companies

-          employing less than 10 people

-          at least one new full-time job must be created

-          must be based in Dublin city

For full details about financial assistance and other DCEB supports check out www.dceb.ie or telephone 01 635 1144

Note: Dublin City Enterprise Board is funded through the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and EU Structural Funds    

For other information on managing your business, contact Billy Linehan of Celtar billy.linehan@celtar.ie

For information about doing business in Ireland, look at

http://celtar.ie/blog/business-resources-in-ireland/   

and

www.scoop.it/t/doing-business-in-ireland

Your Business Day 2.0 returns to the Science Gallery on 9 December 2011

Celtar are proud to be project managing the second Your Business Day event on Friday, 9th of December 2011 in the Science Gallery, Pearse Street.

” We are delighted to be part of this major initiative from Greg Swift, Liam Barry and the team at DCEB” says Billy Linehan of Celtar, “already seeing the lineup it has been called the small business version of the Dublin Web Summit!”

Dublin City Enterprise Board (DCEB) the leading enterprise support agency for Dublin City are hosting the event for the second year.

The event is aimed at supporting small business in Dublin City, and will be of interest to those in business AND individuals starting up in business or thinking about starting a business.

Amongst other things the day will involve a series of talks from successful clients of DCEB, seminars and several development agencies are taking stands at the event.  There will also be a Tweet and Meet zone for networking and making connections.

A key feature of the day will be free business mentoring on the day to individuals attending the event, (we had over 250 attendees last year).
25 business mentors from a variety of business backgrounds will be available all day to answer your questions. The mentor slots start from 0900 and end at 1600.

The general theme of the event is “creating opportunities for self employment”, and DCEB clients and other speakers will share their experience through addressing specific topics such as,

• Growth through exporting,
• Use of technology in a small business
• Digital marketing, Social Media & SEO
• Innovation in small business
• Value of Design in business
• Financing your business, different stories
• How to start a a web based business, and even make a profit!

Real business owners speak at the event, practical people giving up their time for free to share their experience with attendees.

To date speakers include

George Howlett of  www.safefood360.com

Jamie Jenkinson of www.cushnshade.com

Agata Stoinska of www.D-Lightstudios.com

Martina Delaney of www.HandyBaby.com

Conor Lynch of www.SocialMedia.ie

John Ring of www.RingJohn.com

Mark Scanlon of www.SourceDogg.com

Lorna Coleman of www.First-Step.ie

David FitzGerald of www.Scapegoatdesign.com

Graham Clark of www.kookydough.ie

Joanna Norton of www.click4ESOL.com

And more to come!

For further information, and to book a free advice session with a business mentor, go to www.dceb.ie

For more information on Celtar services, contact Billy on 086 608 6991 or billy.linehan@celtar.ie

Tips on selling successfully

It is said that the essence of selling is understanding your customer’s needs, and convincing him or her that you’re the best supplier to meet their requirements.

I’ll add – that to sell you need to be in an optimistic frame of mind, seeing opportunities for the customer and for yourself in each sale.

(This article is an excerpt from a recent interview with the Sunday Business Post, the unedited version!).

Some of the golden rules are

- Find out who is the customer, who is the decision maker for purchasing. You are wasting your time selling to the wrong person if they have little influence on deciding what to buy

- So don’t try to sell too hard. There is nothing as off-putting for a potential buyer as a heavy sales pitch

- Do listen to the customer, what do they want? Does it match what you are trying to sell?

- Do your research on their business. Again it is off-putting for a buyer when a new potential supplier has not bothered to find out about their business (their major products and services, their customers and what markets they serve etc.)

- Don’t be impatient. You are working to your customer’s buying cycle, and not to the cashflow requirements of your business

- Do research your competition & use any market intelligence you can gather. What are they offering, the benefits and features of their products and services, how are they responding to changes in the market etc.

Typical mistakes start-ups make when it comes to sales

Pre-startup the most common issue is overestimating sales in the first few years of trading.

Post start-up common issues are poor sales pipeline management

- having no formal simple system to manage prospects, quoted work and invoiced sales.

- and poor personal organisation of tasks and priorities, selling and business development must be ongoing in every business. Often in a small business the owner manager loses sight of the sales cycle, gets lost in service delivery and customer support – and forgets to devote a day a week to meeting new customers, and another day to selling to existing ones.

Steps of the sales process

The most common sales structure uses 7 steps, but it can be 5, 6 or 8 steps depending on whose book or blog you are reading.

The 7 steps are

1. Preparation – plan for the sales meeting, research the buyer’s company, their products, your competitors. Prepare a checklist of questions to ensure you find out the information you need from the meeting.
2. Introduction – be friendly and positive when you meet, establish initial credibility as a prospective supplier.
3. Questioning – establish the needs and priorities, listen strongly (using “two ears and one mouth”), exercising good empathetic and open questioning, Who? What? Why? Where? When? and How? establishing rapport and trust with the buyer. If the needs are not understood correctly the sale will not happen. Summarise what you have understood their needs and their key concerns.
4. Presentation – with your understanding of the needs you are in an excellent position to offer and show how your product or service will deliver. Be clear on the benefits for the buyer of your products or services. It’s best not to knock the competition, and also use sales props, samples and give the buyer a copy of the presentation.
5. Overcoming objections – Some say objections are opportunities to reaffirm the benefits of your product or service. Often objections are requests for more information or for clarifications. If there are issues still, the approach is to understand them and to deal with each one. Common objections will concern Time, Cost, Value, Commitment level and “We’ll think about it”. Have your answers prepared beforehand, re-visit the benefits that have already been agreed and be prepared for both of you to adjust your position slightly.
6. Close - sometimes the buyer will close the deal themselves, otherwise “I think that’s covered everything, would you like to go ahead” is a suitable close. Confirmation of the sale may depend on the personality of the buyer, how cautious they are, or that they may need to consult a colleague. If further time or information is required you are going to give it to them, so keep in regular contact.
7. Follow-up - after-sales paperwork is important. There should be a customer follow-up and a problem resolution service. This is not the end of the sale but the start of a new sales cycle, and preparation for the next sale to this customer.

Repeat business is important

Repeat business is very important, each potential customer has potential long term sales value, and may return to you many times over the life of their company.

Always ask for feedback after a sale. And ask your customer what are their future requirements so you can plan to meet any changes in their specifications.

Books on selling?

The classic is How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. Another popular favourite is Advanced Selling Strategies: The Proven System of Sales Ideas, Methods and Techniques Used by Top Salespeople Everywhere by Brian Tracy.

Otherwise I suggest that people browse in bookshops and on the web for books that suit their approach and that are specific to their industry.

Using technology

Technology is used in 2 main ways to support selling.

Firstly creating awareness through marketing can be useful in attracting interest in your services or products. Online marketing and use of social media can target particular customer segments, and offers a clear record of what is working or not.

I don’t advise early stage businesses to invest in CRM packages, mostly because there isn’t enough customers to justify them. Usually I share a spreadsheet based sales pipeline tool with clients, and this suffices for a few years.

If you are thinking of a CRM package most appear too expensive to me, and are over specified for a small business. Cloud based CRM systems might be the way to go?

Organisations & training bodies in Ireland

For start-ups and early stage businesses

All county enterprise boards should offer subsidised courses in sales training to their clients, as a stand alone course and as part of their business start-up programmes. Enterprise Ireland provides sales training as part of their support for indigenous businesses who are their clients. The SFA, ISME and chambers of commerce also make offers in this area.

Similarly FAS has offered sales training in the past – though I am unsure of its current status (the training agency was barely mentioned in the government’s Jobs Initiative). The various Skillnet groups offer training to their members, though this is another initiative that may have reached it’s sell by date.

From personal experience I know the Irish Management Institute offered strong sales training as part of their Business Development Programme for SMEs.

We at Celtar can introduce you to specialist sales consultants and sales mentors, but they should not really be required for early stage businesses.

The recession has hit commercial training companies in a big way, many companies have been wound up. Well known training companies have reduced their prices; a Dublin training company has reduced their 2 days sales training course this May from €695 to €199, so there is better value out there.

Most importantly “don’t forget, smile when you sell!”

For further information contact

Billy Linehan

Celtar business consultants

billy.linehan@celtar.ie

086 608 6991

Interview featured in Sunday Business Post 12 May 2011 http://bit.ly/lsEkAS

“Keep your feet on the pedal!”

With little cash for job investment the government

 has made a fairly good stab with the Jobs Initiative

 announced today. One strong theme is to stimulate

 the tourist industry by removing barriers to visiting

 and reducing costs. A different need is met by

encouraging further education and training,

and work placements through internships.

At Celtar we welcome the initiative as supporting the new government’s strategy to energise the economic recovery.

What will be of interest is who will coordinate and supply the training, and what will be the remit of the training agency FAS? Current initiatives such as Skillnets have run their course – to meet today’s challenges new bodies with new objectives should be created.

The package of measures is budgetary neutral over the period to 2014, highlights are below.

- Temporary visa waiver scheme for short-stay visitors of 14 nationalities. This initiative will make it much easier for overseas visitors – including visitors from crucial emerging markets – to come to Ireland without having to incur the trouble and expense of applying for separate visas, once they have already obtained visas for the UK.

- Abolition of the €3 per passenger travel tax as part of a deal with airlines to restore lost routes. The Air Travel Tax will be reinstated should the airlines not open additional routes and increase visitors to the country.

- Introduction of a temporary reduced rate of VAT of 9 per cent, from 13.5%, to support the tourism industry. This new temporary second reduced rate of VAT will apply to a number of tourism and entertainment related goods and services with effect from 1 July 2011 to 31 December 2013. Hairdressing and certain printed material such as brochures and newspapers will also be charged at the new rate.

- Halving lower rate of PRSI with effect from 1 July 2011until end-2013 on jobs paying up to €356 per week.

- R&D tax credit legislation to be amended to allow companies to account for the credit either above or below the line thereby giving more flexibility for companies and increasing its attractiveness for corporate taxpayers and in particular US and other foreign investors.

- The Employer PRSI charge on share based remuneration which was recently introduced has been reversed with effect from 1 January 2011.

- A national internship scheme operating for two years with 5,000 places

- Additional 3,000 places in back to education initiative

- Additional 20,900 places for training, education and upskilling

- €10 million to be provided for school works, in addition to €20 million reallocated from existing budget

- €75 million reallocated for transport projects aimed at creating at least 1,000 new jobs

- €15 million for improvements in general transport

All paid for by?

The tax reductions and expenditure measures announced are to be funded through a temporary levy on funded pension schemes and personal pension plans. The levy will apply at a rate of 0.6% on the capital value of assets under management in pension funds established in the State. It will apply for four years commencing in 2011 and is intended to raise €1.9bn over those four years.

And of course the 12.5% rate of corporation tax so important for attracting foreign direct investment is here to stay. (Sarkozy, Merkel and Co. please get off our backs!)

Celtar provides business advice to owner managers, directors and CEOs of small and medium sized businesses and not for profit organisations.

“We work with businesses that have growth potential, with entrepreneurs who value an external perspective on how their ambitions can be realised”.

Contact Billy Linehan, billy.linehan@celtar.ie

 Major new source of finance for city start-ups

Gerry Breen, the Lord Mayor for Dublin, has endorsed this fund set up with Ulster Bank and aimed at new businesses starting in the Dublin City area.

With no sector restrictions and interest rates that are competitive, it is worth a look for new and early stage businesses who are finding it difficult to access finance.

This new fund is welcomed by Billy Linehan of Celtar business consultants “access to finance is very tight now and every new channel available makes a positive contribution to reviving our economy. Sources of finance for business start-ups are less in Dublin compared with other major cities, Dublin Enterprise Board and First Step are the only two non-bank finance providers that I can think of.”

In short

• The fund will support viable start up business plans and entrepreneurs who have business ideas that have strong prospects and  potential for growth
• A start-up business loan rate of  4.1% (variable) is offered
• This rate is only available for start-up business loans for new and existing businesses of 3 years
• A maximum of €70,000
• Transaction fee free banking for 3 years
• Loan of up to €30,000 for new business development purposes with no need for personal guarantees to be backed by assets.
• All applications are processed via Ulster Bank College Green Branch
• And require a business plan and completed application form

The link to the application form has changed – now updated on 12 January – and is available at

http://www.dublincity.ie/Documents/Application_Forms/Business/Loan_Fund_Application.pdf

For further information

Economic Development Unit, Dublin City Council

Block 4, Floor 3, Civic Offices, Dublin 8

Telephone 222 0100

Email edu@dublincity.ie

Billy Linehan,  billy.linehan@celtar.ie