It's all about the money!

I was at a very interesting Dungarvan & West Waterford Chamber event this morning about the Funding available to enterprise in Ireland. There were speakers there from Enterprise Ireland, LEO, Waterford LEADER Partnership, Department of Social Protection, Glor na nGael and RIKON, all of whom have attractive funding and enterprise support services on offer.





The following is a summary of my key takeaways from this morning, along with links to the various agencies - there is help out there

Enterprise Ireland 

Enterprise Ireland supports high potential start-ups and existing businesses with propensity to trade internationally. They work mainly with manufacturing and internationally traded services, with the potential to create >10 jobs within a short timeframe. Grants include:

Competitive Start: Aimed at start-ups this grant is for €50,000 with the client raising €5000 themselves. The trade-off is 10% equity goes to Enterprise Ireland. The fund accommodates 15 businesses per call and is a highly competitive process.

New Frontiers: Aimed at individuals with innovative business ideas the programme is delivered over two phases. Phase 1 is a 6 week free training programme and phase 2 is an intensive fulltime development programme with a €15,000 stipend paid to participants

Get more information on the various Enterprise Ireland supports available here

LEO 

LEO supports micro business (<10 employees) from start-up through all stages of business. Their supports are broken into two measures; Measure 1 and Measure 2

Measure 1
Measure 1 supports are open to manufacturing (including craft, software & food) clients and can be used for innovation and capital projects.

Measure 2 
Measure 2 supports are broader and can be used by any micro enterprise. The following are some very attractive grants available:

• Trading Online Vouchers: 50% of up to €5,000 to be used for website development, e-commerce, web photography, online advertising and digital marketing 
• Marketing Assistance Grant: 50% of €800-€2,000 for marketing, can be used for trade fairs, marketing collateral, etc 
• Employment Grant: Between €8,000 to €15,000 for creating a job 

Get more information on the various LEO supports here


Department of Social Protection 

Employment Services through the Department of Social Protection incentivises the creation of jobs.

• There is a free recruitment website called www.jobsireland.ie where employers can advertise roles for free. 
• The Jobbridge scheme allows enterprises to take on an intern for a period of 6-9 months www.jobbridge.ie
• The Jobsplus scheme rewards employers for taking on someone from the live register with grants of up to €10,000 www.jobsplus.ie 
• If a small business owner is self-employed and encounters a serious drop in turnover, that person may be eligible for a Jobseekers payment www.welfare.ie 

Waterford LEADER Partnership 

Waterford LEADER Partnership support rural development and regeneration. Their next funding cycle will run from 2015-2020 but hasn't been finalised yet.

They are eager to hear from you so that you can start your application process prior to the release of funds - contact your local office here

Udaras na Gaeltachta 

• There is limited funding available for gno as Gaeilge 
• Signage: 50% of up to €6,000 
• Bilingual website or literature: 50% of up to €2,000 

More information here 

Glor na nGael 

Glor na nGael are a new support centre for those who wish to work through Irish and you can contact them here  

RIKON 

RIKON help to design sustainable business models. They have a raft of expertise in business, marketing, operations, lean manufacturing and other business related areas. There are 45 members of staff, each with specialist knowledge. RIKON administer the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of Enterprise Ireland - a fund worth up to €5,000 per voucher 

More information here 

4 Awe-Inspiring Digital Marketing Specialists You Simply Must Follow

We found another good article written by Zara Burke of Digital Marketing Institute, she knows about digital marketing, social media, email, mobile and Analytics - so it is worth a read and she is definitely worth a follow - she's a font of knowledge :) 

In this article she is trying pushing us to be more curious, to tap into expertise in order make it easier to use all the tools that we need to be visible to other people online. 

The article has four stories, four experts, and four tools explained in a very clear way. All you have to do is study their success stories and get inspired. We will introduce two experts from the article to give you a taste of what's included.

Jon Morrow is an expert and a blogger extraordinaire, programmer, marketing strategist and expert speaker. He decided be a blogger after a traumatic car crash accident, interestingly most people who survive serious accidents start to think "what am I doing, life is too short ...'' and, realising their mortality they do something totally different then what they did before. Jon Morrow decided to be a blogger. He talks about how to lead a more fulfilling life. His style works because it is authentic, relevant and comes from the heart. He understands that great content starts with the customer and works back. 

Jeff Bullas is a social marketing blogger, keynote speaker and digital strategist, consultant and best selling author. 

Another good guy, and another inspiring story about turning a life around. His passion for social media marketing translated to a blog gave him many psychological benefits and, importantly, his passion resulted in a profitable business. If, like us here in Dungarvan Enterprise Centre, you are low on budget and dependent on affordable marketing tactics, Jeff's blog posts contain some truly unique ideas. 

In this article Zara Burke writes about two more experts with great back stories. One of them is SEO expert Rand Fishkin and the other is Analytics expert Avinash Kaushik.

If you want to know more 

click here and read whole article. 

The Top 6 Digital Marketing Blogs Every Business Should Bookmark

After reading an article "The Top 6 Digital Marketing Blogs Every Business Should Bookmark’’ written by Zara Burke, whose core passions are content creation and small business strategy, we decided to share this article because Digital Marketing is growing very fast and is at the heart of every business' marketing strategy. 

It can be difficult to distinguish between different blogs, which ones are useful for us and which are wasting our time to read them? Digital Marketing Institute recommends some of the most valuable blogs. 

1.  Digital Marketing News & Views: Marketing Land

This blog looks at why digital marketing is so important for business and what you can expect from it. All entrepreneurs know the most important business is generated by the client and demand, and not the product itself. That’s why information is the key to success. Marketing Land keeps you  up to date with important upcoming launches and digital marketing announcements and helps you to stay ahead of the competition. 

2. Content Marketing: Content Marketing Institute

Content Marketing is important primarily because it perfectly positions the page in SERP and drives more and more customers to your website in a quick and easy way. Content Marketing is good quality, valuable to the reader content that informs and attracts visitors to your site, and  can even convert them, so they will become your customers. After reading the text, from which the client will learn something about you and your product, or will learn how to solve his problem you can be sure that he will return just for your expertise. It is within your content that he found what he was looking for. And finally Content Marketing is the answer to the question how to find the top positions in the search engine and what's more - to keep it. 

3. Social Media: Social Media Examiner

We all know that without social media your business doesn't exist! Social Media Examiner shares information that gives a broad sense of the use of Internet and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. The popularity of social networking sites ranked among the leading marketers are of course Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Blog. Social Media Examiner gives the inside track on these tools - the strategy and case study blog posts are particularly useful for helping you to plan and create your own social media strategy and content calendars. 

In summary,there are some great blogs out there.Social Media, Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, all of these tools are very useful. Good blogs can help us to find the best way to success and if you write a good blog you can find more customers for your business. It is so important to be smart and stay ahead online. 

For more interesting Marketing tips plus the full article click here 

BASIC INTERNET TRAINING FOR BEGINNERS AT DUNGARVAN ENTERPRISE CENTRE

BASIC INTERNET TRAINING FOR BEGINNERS 

AT

 DUNGARVAN  ENTERPRISE  CENTRE

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre are pleased to announce that they will be hosting Benefit 4 Basic Internet training. This is aimed at beginners who need help with using online services. This training is open to all ages and abilities.

This Century is pushing us to use smartphones and computers to get information, to communicate, to conduct transactions and to research and buy goods and services online. Government services are also online so it is important to be able to use the Internet, just for daily life. A significant majority of older adults say they need assistance when it comes to using new digital devices, the Internet is not just for youngsters. If you don’t know how to use email or keep in touch with family on Skype, this training can help you.

After this training participants will be surfing online, booking flights, and using the Internet safely. Participants will learn how to use Skype, pay motor tax online and how to use email.  

The course is subsidised by the BenefIT 4 government grant scheme. Since its creation it has been successful in training 30,000 Irish people at 700 different locations with high satisfaction rates. So far Dungarvan Enterprise Centre has put 80 people through this course and the feedback has been very positive. To quote some of the participants from the previous courses “I’m so much more confident after completing this course”, while another says “I was given a tablet as a present and now I can finally use it to stay in touch with the family”.

You might not need this training yourself but you might know someone who could benefit from it, if this is the case please share this information with them. It costs just €10 for 4 weeks of training and takes place on Tuesday mornings from 11:00-12:45. Everyone is welcome to join this training. For more information call Dungarvan Enterprise Centre at (058)23598  

Easter Coding Camp Offers Great Chance for Children to Learn Computer Skills

Easter Coding Camp Offers Great Chance for 

Children to Learn Computer Skills

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre in association with Local Enterprise Office will be running a Coding Camp for children aged between 8 and 14 from Tuesday 7^th April to Friday 10^th April 2015.

The Action Plan for Jobs 2015 emphasises the importance of computer literacy to the future. Jordan Casey is a fine example of the benefits of learning digital language from a young age. The 14 years old Waterford entrepreneur is the CEO of his own company, Casey Games-an award winning independent video game company. Click here and watch a short movie  about Jordan . 

The teenage tech prodigy’s company has had success developing apps for mobiles and the web such as Greenboy Touch, Alien Ball versus Humans, and Food World.

The Dungarvan Enterprise Centre's Coding Camp will be run in association with Calypso IT local based apps as well as developing skills in writing HTML, using quiz HTML, and coding CSS.

The week long camp will be delivered by the teacher and industry professional who also volunteers at Tramore Coder Dojo.

The camp is suitable and will be beneficial for children with an interest in computers, gaming and coding or children who have a keen interest to develop skills in these areas.

The camp will run from 10am to 1pm. The cost is €80 per child.

For further enquiries or to book now, call (058) 23598 or email dungarvanec@gmail.com. 

Cost Effective Digital Workshops at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre, in conjunction with Waterford City Enterprise Centre, will be hosting a number of Connect Online workshops aimed at improving local business online skills and output.

The workshops, which are being generously subsidised by the Local Enterprise Office, will cover a wide range of digital topics. They begin on April 1st in Waterford city and will run until Dec 2015.

Workshops on offer include Twitter,Linkedin,Pay-Per-Click advertising, Google Analytics, Facebook, SEO, You Tube, Blogging, Pinterest, Email marketing, generating quality content for digital marketing, and managing your online presence. The wide range of selection allows participants to pick and choose particular areas of digital marketing that may benefit their business output and intake.

Date	Description	Location
01/04/2015 6pm-9pm	Twitter for Business	Waterford City Enterprise Centre
08/04/2015 6PM-9PM	Linkedin	Dungarvan Enterprise Centre
15/04/2015 10am-1pm	PPC & Google Analytics B2B	Waterford City Enterprise Centre
22/04/2015 10am-1pm	PPC & Google Analytics B2B	Dungarvan Enterprise Centre
29/04/2015 6pm-9pm	Facebook for Business B2C	Waterford City Enterprise Centre
06/05/2015 10am-1pm	Facebook for Business B2C	Dungarvan Enterprise Centre
13/05/2015 6pm-9pm	Search Engine Optimisation	Waterford City Enterprise Centre

As consumer activity continues to transfer rapidly to the online market with the ever explosive and expanding growth of digital technology, these workshops will  allow small business

owners insight into connecting with their customers through numerous means of digital channels.

Date	Description	Location
20/05/2015 10am-1pm	You Tube	Dungarvan Enterprise Centre
27/05/2015 6pm-9pm	Blogging for Business	Waterford City Enterprise Centre
03/06/2015 10am-1pm	Pinterest	Dungarvan Enterprise Centre
10/06/2015 6pm-9pm	Email Marketing	Waterford City Enterprise Centre
17/06/2015 10am-1pm	Generating quality content for Digital Marketing	Dungarvan Enterprise Centre
24/06/2015 6pm-9pm	Managing your online presence	Waterford City Enterprise Centre

Each individual workshop will last for three hours and will cost participants just €30.
Moreover, due to the enticing variety of workshops on offer, participants can avail of a special four the price of three discount- an offer that allows them 12 hours of training for under €100.

There are two sites for these workshops- Dungarvan and Waterford City. Dungarvan Enterprise Centre and Waterford City Enterprise Centre are connecting together to deliver this project. This collaboration will provide networking opportunities for business across the county. These workshops will allow business from all over Waterford the chance to meet and work closely together and develop ties that can help benefit each other.

TO BOOK CLICK HERE