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 

Open your Eyes to Alternative Funding 14th May 2014

When:                  14^th of May 2014

Where:                 The Town Hall, Dungarvan                                                          

How Long:           9:00- 1:00

So, you have a great idea and need the funds to make it happen? Alternative Funding is now providing entrepreneurs, business people and athletes, sports clubs, arts, film and drama groups alike with the means to get that project up and running.

In partnership with the Local Enterprise Office, we have decided to run an Alternative Funding seminar to inform people about what other options are available to them.

The speakers at the seminar are a representation of some of the Alternative Funding services that are available in the Waterford area. This is a free seminar which aims to arm you with the knowledge you need to make your dream a reality. The speakers  at this event will be;

Lorna Coleman : from MicroFinance Ireland has spent many years as a self-employed training consultant working with SMEs, business start-ups, and enterprise development agencies in Ireland and the USA.  Now working fulltime with Microfinance Ireland, she manages the stakeholder relationship and business development functions.  www.microfinanceireland.com

Marc Rafferty: from Linked Finance Marc is an entrepreneur with 12 years’ experience in US, Holland and Ireland setting up and running SMEs. Marc looks after all aspects of business development as well as heading marketing at Linked Finance.  www.Linkedfinance.com

Aidan Shine: is Assistant CEO of South East BIC. His role is to advise entrepreneurs and small companies on all aspects of business planning and development, with a special emphasis on financial planning and sourcing funding.  As part of its remit in sourcing funding for start-ups, South East BIC manages the Halo Business Angel Partnership (www.businessangels.ie) in the South East region

David O’Shea: is a former athlete and co-founder of nTrai, who hopes to provide an easy way for athletes to raise money for their training and equipment needs.  nTrai provides an on-line funding platform to encourage family and friends and supporters to invest in the athlete’s future by pledging to their crowdfunding campaign.  www.ntrai.com

There will also be an opportunity to hear some case studies from local business that have used alternative funding and how they got on, such as Justin Collery from Multipath Networks, a huge success story based here in Waterford, Justin will talk about his experience with CrowdFunding.   To give us some insight of their experience we are delighted to welcome other local business such as Jitterbeans and M&D Bakers also Chia Bia who have all had experience in Alternative funding.

This is a free event open to all, for further information and bookings please contact us on 058 23598 or email: dungarvanec@gmail.com   Booking Essential and can be done by clicking here:  Get your free ticket

Crowdfunding Workshop

Crowdfunding is now constantly in the media, lots of success stories of projects that are now up and running like Hello Ruby that managed to get 9,258 backers and funding of $380,747! We needed to know more.

Last Thursday we had a very enjoyable workshop on Crowdfunding given by a very entertaining and informative Lorna Sixsmith. Lorna has written and successfully used crowdfunding to publish her own book entitled “would you marry a Farmer?”

Lorna  talked us through her own crowdfunding campaign , it gave us a working insight into the whole crowdfunding process from how she established and achieved her goals, set her rewards, right through to putting her books in the post.

From the start of the workshop Lorna captured our attention with her witty examples of good and not so good crowdfunding pitches and through this we learned what makes a successful crowdfunding campaign 

What did we Learn?

 

·         A great video - The video is king to entice prospective pledgers, you need to introduce the product and the people behind the campaign, people need to feel your passion before they are enticed to pledge to your campaign. Using the likes of  u tube to host your video means you only have a few minutes to grab peoples attention so make the most of it! 

·         Itemise spending -  Do your homework on the finances, pledgers need to know where their money is going. Give a clear and concise breakdown of what your expenditure is going to be.

·         Put up some funds yourself - You need to invest some of your own money in to the project, this shows that you have confidence in your own campaign. Pledgers like to see that you are prepared to "put your money where your mouth is" so to speak

·         Set realistic targets – you need to plan your campaign carefully, send press releases, tell family and friends to spread the word and remember hidden costs such as postage.

·         Rewards - Rewards are very important, also keep them relevant to your project and even better if the reward is something that money can’t buy like naming a character in your film after them!! 

·         Pledges - The importance of correctly gauging your pledge amounts, the most popular is €40 – €50. Get your family and friends to get the pledging off to a good start, solid pledging entices others to pledge.

·         Use positive language - Staying positive even when things get tough is vital to the success of the campaign. To entice your followers give out little tit-bits like a chapter of your book or a trailer of your film. 

·         Keep in constant touch -Use social media during your campaign to engage with your pledgers, by using  tweets, engaging in light positive conversation, and keeping your blog and Facebook current. 

Some of the crowdfunding websites that should get your crowdfunding project up and running are:

• Fundit.ie
• ifundit.ie
• Linkedfinance.com
• Kickstarter.com
• indiegogo.com

There are two types of funding:

All or nothing  and  flexible funding 

• Consider your options carefully and read the terms and conditions and charges carefully before you decide which option is best for you. 

If crowdfunding has got you thinking, on the 14^th of May we are holding a workshop on Alternative Funding which will definitely inspire you to get that project up and running.

CROWDFUNDING WORKSHOP WITH LORNA SIXSMITH

Lorna Sixsmith Media Consultant and author at Write on Track

When: Thur 20th March, 9.30-13.00 
Where: Town Hall, Augustines Street, Dungarvan 
How much: €35 per person 

 What is Crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is usually used in the creative world where someone has  publish a book, film or music they want published and can't find funding to get started,
 By reaching out to the public via the internet and social media you seek donations to get your project up and running. Members of the  public are asked to donate any amount they wish to enable you to produce your product. This can be as small as €10 or as large as €1,000, it is up to the donor, there is no pay back on the money and no necessary gain for the lender.  Two of the well-known sites for Crowdfunding are Kickstarter and Fundit.

Crowdfunding has many advantages besides providing you with the finance to get started it also develops:
• Brand Awareness
• Free Press Coverage
• The Creation of Brand Ambassadors

One example of brand funding in recent times is that of film Director Simon Fitzmaurice. Simon suffers from motor neuron disease and was successful when he asked the public  through the Ray D’arcy show to fund him in the process of completing his latest film, "My name is Emily".
 Lorna offers training and bogging services to SME's and start-ups. She works with many of the Enterprise Boards and Partnerships as a social media trainer and mentor.
Lorna's blog has reached the final of the Irish Blog Awards and Social Media Awards on numerous occasions. She has spoken about her blogging and social media platforms at various national conferences and business events. She is a successful Crowdfunder and has self-published her book "Would you marry a farmer".

The content of the workshop entails:
• Explaining the concept of Crowdfunding
• How much should you ask for ?
• What needs to go in a pitch/video?
• The importance of creating rewards that people want
• The importance of community and social media

Participants will be put into groups (e.g 5) and provided with different sample projects. They will decide on
• Main message
• Time Scale
• Selection of rewards
• Action Plan/ social media/press strategy.

For more information on this workshop you can contact Mags on 058 23598 or email: dungarvanec@gmail.com