Starting a Business in Ireland | Help for Ireland's Entrepreneurs | Start Up Your Own Business - Are you thinking of starting a business in Ireland? Well, Startups.ie is here to help. We know that starting a business can be daunting. That’s why Startups.ie contains all the information, advice & tips you need to successfully start your own business. Established in 2005, we are the longest serving, largest & most comprehensive advice platform covering everything you need to know start, buy, run or sell a business in Ireland. Many people dream of starting their own business. Startups.ie is dedicated to those who get up and get started!

Congratulations! You’ve made the leap and you are starting your own business. It’s an exciting and often anxious time. There is so much to consider. One of the crucial parts to a startup business is it’s branding. So much is spoken about branding and for very good reason. Your brand is the complete image that your business portrays to the public. It is every visual and spoken interaction you have with your potential customers. It is vitally important to get this right from the beginning. There are lots of branding experts who can guide you through this process and it is very worthwhile talking to these professionals. As graphic designers,

You may have the greatest product or service in the world but if no one knows about it, if customers don’t realize why they can’t live without it or understand (in non- technical jargon) just how that “widget” is going to change their life, frankly, what’s the point? Let’s face it, PR is often ranked low on the priority list of a bootstrapped startup. Who has that kind of money and time to develop and execute on PR strategy? As we discussed in last month’s article, PR programs can be surprisingly expensive and can eat up a startup’s lean budget in no time, but it doesn’t have to be that

Congratulations! You did it! You attracted those key investors and secured funding for your million dollar idea. You’ve already designed, developed, and manufactured a product and you have won more than a few hundred customers that can’t live without your new widget. Now you are ready to scale. Ready to raise your company’s profile and get the visibility and recognition that you deserve. But how will you make the leap? How will you get that kind of traction without sinking the ship financially? Media and marketing campaigns outsourced to agencies can be surprisingly expensive and can eat up a startup’s lean budget in no time. The cost of advertising, trade

Propeller, one of Ireland’s leading start-up accelerators is coming to Dublin’s Silicon Docks and is now open for business. Applications are sought from early-stage, hi-tech start-ups with deep domain expertise, B2B experience and massive scalable potential to take part in this five-month programme right in the heart of Dublin’s tech quarter. The deal on offer from the Ryan Academy is a cash injection of €30k towards business operating costs, complemented by a €15k package to include participation in the 5 month accelerator, working space in The Liffey Trust Centre, access to the DCU Ryan Academy’s extensive pool of investors and experienced mentors, and a full programme of workshops. Drew O’Sullivan,

This is how I brought an idea into the public domain Firstly find out who your target market listens to on the radio or watches on TV. What newspaper do they read? What magazines or social media platforms are they most likely to be on? Listen to the radio and target the talk show radio stations or ring them if you hear them talking about anything relevant to what you are doing. Write a press release. Send the press release to any radio/TV program, magazine or paper that you think would be interested in your product or service. This should be interesting with pics and have a hook or problem/

“Try reading a book while doing a crossword puzzle. That’s the intellectual environment of the Internet.” In his book, “The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” Nicholas Carr describes what we have long suspected–that our use of the Internet is creating neurological changes in the brain, affecting our ability to remember facts, or pay attention long enough to fully understand what we read. Now, what was that again? Though many disagree with Carr, the research he cites in his book has important implications for content creation. Among the findings: The more links there are in an article, the lower the comprehension of the reader. This may be

Hand Print Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark and Canon have touted their web-enabled printers for years–but the hardware wasn’t all that useful or necessary. That has changed. Now, thanks to the current crop of mobile devices, you can send documents to printers directly from your smartphone or tablet. Instead of lugging along a load of collateral materials on your next business trip or stuffing a lot of just-in-case papers into your briefcase, you can store the documents on your device and print them as needed. “Whether it’s a real estate agent on the move who needs printed copies of contracts or an insurance agent who needs to print several forms quickly, printing without

1. Where can I find current and past examples of your work? Experienced candidates should readily share links to examples of their work that clearly demonstrate their capabilities, says Jason Hong, associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science and chief technical officer of Wombat Security Technologies, a Pittsburgh-based cyber security training company. “Carefully examining their portfolio and work samples can help you assess their overall style and skills,” he says. Their work samples also can be a jumping off point to discuss their more technical skills, including HTML5, UNIX, JavaScript and database management. 2. May I have a list of your current and past clients? Candidates should

For small-business owners, working with sales reps for the first time can be a frustrating experience. But establishing expectations early can go a long way toward heading off misunderstandings. Business owners should be able to tell potential new hires how many prospecting calls they’ll be expected to make in their first month, how many appointments they’ll be expected to go on during their first business quarter and how long before the new sales representative is expected to start selling. Anyone charged with managing a sales force needs to be able to answer those questions. Yet, because they aren’t sure how to set appropriate sales goals for the new hire, many

Sales meetings are a critical component of a great sales culture — an opportunity to build the skills of the entire team and motivate them. In each meeting, if you provide your team with just one idea, strategy or tactic that will improve their game, and motivate with some positive reinforcement or reward, you will see a gain in productivity and sales results. Here are six keys that guarantee your next sales meeting will help deliver the results: 1. Start with an energizer. Begin your meetings on time and start with some fun. Reward those who are punctual to help eliminate the lateness factor. From week to week you’ll find