Our Good friends at exist the web design and online marketing experts have kindly offered one lucky Startups.ie facebook follower the chance to win a voucher worth €500.

This voucher can be used to avail of any of the services which exist offer which include: web design, online marketing and social media services.

We have worked with exist over the past few years and their help has been invaluable, so if you are a Startup looking for a leg up make sure you enter the competition which we will be launching in the coming days!.

www.exist.ie

NetStore.ie is a New Online Department Store with big plans to help Irish retailers sell online…

NetStore.ie is a new online department store focusing on getting Irish retailers online and competing with the larger high street UK names that are dominating the market place here in Ireland. Online retail is worth about €3bn a year and growing by 20% year on year so the news that the exchequer is down by some €300m in VAT may come as a surprise to some people.

NetStore is aiming to level the playing field for Irish retailers and to get them selling and competing online with these high street monoliths. The migration from traditional bricks and mortar retail outlets to online is a difficult path for some retailers. Their margins are tight and profit has been squeezed over the last 5 years, in short, there is nothing left in the kitty to invest.

The strategy is simply protectionist. NetStore has developed a free turnkey solution to get Irish retailers online. NetStore will provide the website, shopping cart, payment processing and shipping as well as marketing activity. NetStore simply make a margin on the sale with no entry or subscription fees.

NetStore is also very consumer directed and they have a strong focus on consumer loyalty. NetStore have introduced some new concepts to Irish retail to help people find the products they need and where possible through an Irish retailer who may not be online at the moment. Challenge NetStore is an online personal shopping service. You simply contact NetStore through their website and they have a team of go getters who will source the good or service that you are looking for, they will then place it online for sale.

Club NetStore is introducing the power of group buying to individual consumers in Ireland. If you are part of a large multi-national or public service group such as the Gardaí, you are already enjoying group discounts on a whole matter of things. However a large proportion of us are not enjoying these discounts. By bringing everyone together NetStore will start negotiating with utility, financial services, holiday and general retail providers to get the best deals and group discounts. Effectively consumers are better and have stronger purchasing power together.

For more information on joining Club NetStore, Challenging NetStore or becoming part of their retailer network, simply visit www.netstore.ie or send an email to info@netstore.ie.

There will be a free Start-Up Breakfast for Entrepreneurs and New Businesses in DCU Business School (3rd Floor), 27th July 2011 at 7.45-9.30am. This networking breakfast is in association with “McInerney Saunders Chartered Accounts” and includes

successful entrepreneur speakers such as Pearce Flannery; Author and Business Advisor and Jill Hincks; Entrepreneur and Managing Director for Passion for Creative, a successful award winning marketing agency. AIB will also be offering information on their new “Job Creation Fund for SMEs. For more details click here.

Calling all Start-ups …. We need your help and feedback. We have generated a sample of successful Irish start up businesses in an attempt to gather some insight into the effectiveness of our website

 as well as looking into the motivations of why entrepreneurs or start-up businesses would use such a service. We hope that you can help us to provide a superior service that will be truly beneficial for both new and existing users.  After spending 2-3 minutes on our site we would ask you to complete the questionnaire by following the below link.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/startupsireland

Should you take the time to complete the questionnaire we will enter you in a draw with a chance to win 1 of 2 €50 all for one vouchers, as a token of our appreciation.

Thank You

Calling All Startups. . . . Upcoming Free Event for Start-ups in association with Bizspark and DCU

Accelerating Startup Growth

This lunchtime event is the ideal opportunity for you to further develop your knowledge and skill set surrounding the Microsoft Azure platform, learning from both Microsoft professionals and existing customers, who will share some of their experiences.

Networking with experts

Amongst the speakers at this lunch time seminar will be Josh Holmes and Wilbour Craddock, both of whom are Architect Evangelists for Microsoft Ireland.  Also in attendance will be John Dennehy (Zartis) and Ciaran McGowan (Staff Balance) speaking on their BizSpark and Windows Azure personal experiences and the benefits the programme has delivered to their business.

Date: 28th July

Location: DCU

Where: 3rd Floor DUBS

12pm – Registration – Light lunch & Refreshments

12.15pm - Speakers

• Wilbour Craddock – Architect Evangelist, Microsoft
• John Dennehy – Zartis
• Ciaran McGowan – Staff Balance
• Josh Holmes - Architect Evangelist, Microsoft

13.45pm - Q&A followed by networking

Register here.

Follow the discussion about the event on LinkedIn: BizSpark Start-ups and Network Partners, Ireland/Northern Ireland

Follow Microsoft Ireland on Twitter to get updated with this and other events: MSIrlTechEvents

Hashtag for the event: #bizsparkworkshopdublin

According to Dundalk Institute of Technology’s Centre for Entrepreneurship Research, Irish women are less involved in entrepreneurship than other countries, and current mainstream supports are inherently designed for men… This claim does not paint a pretty picture for a forward-thinking modern nation such as ours. Here we will look at the hot topic of female entrepreneurship in Ireland, and explore the options and supports that are out there for those talented women with a business idea or start-up venture.

The statement that women do not want or need different support or ‘special treatment’ is often untrue. Women today are well educated, juggling work and children. But this aspect of family responsibilities is one where we see the major discrepancy between male and female entrepreneurs, general thinking being that women are less likely to be willing to spend as many hours away from the family home as men may be. This factor leads to the types of start-ups most favoured by women; micro scale, home-based ventures, hence the term ‘kitchen table entrepreneurs’. Women will also have a different management approach than men in all areas of business. So we can see that different supports are needed because female entrepreneurship may take on a very different style and form which needs tailored assistance.

There is a general feeling in Ireland that female entrepreneurs are not adequately supported and encouraged, but all that is to change according to the Irish Examiner which reported in July 2011 that Minister for small business John Perry is encouraging more women who have “the motivation, skills and ability” to start their own business right now. Although figures vary, according to this report only 3.9% of women are active in early stage entrepreneurship compared to 9.5% of men in Ireland. Minister Perry described female entrepreneurship in Ireland as an ‘untapped’ area of opportunity that deserves the right environment for development.

Following on from this verification of the importance of female-founded businesses, any females out there looking into self-employment or with a start-up idea should check out the Irish Ambassadors for Female Entrepreneurship. This EU funded initiative follows ten leading business women from around the country including some names you will all be familiar with such as Krishna De of BizGrowth, Liz Cassidy of Irish Time Design, and Grainne Byrne of gbc Public Relations. The aim of the ambassador initiative is to encourage and inspire more women to set up their own business. Follow the Ambassadors on facebook for tips and information that affects women directly in setting up a business in Ireland.
President Mary McAleese is a firm advocate of supporting Irish women in business. During an innovation conference hosted by Enterprise Ireland in 2007, President McAleese stated that “If women in Ireland were to become entrepreneurs at the same rate as men in Ireland, there would be as many new entrepreneurs in Ireland per capita as there are in the United States”. This powerful statement indicates the wealth creation and job creation that more female entrepreneurship would lead to in Ireland. President McAleese also pointed out the ‘perfect storm’ of economic ingredients that have led to a more entrepreneurial country as a whole. Given that this statement was made in 2007, we have yet to see the real influx of women setting up their own business after losing or leaving previous posts since the recession has hit.

So what is Ireland doing for its female entrepreneurs?

www.irishwomeninbusiness.ie is a professional body which represents Irish females in business, providing information, resources, and advice as well as the all important networking events and seminars. So despite the tough slough it takes to make it as a female entrepreneur, there are people out there to assist you, no matter what stage the business is at. Never underestimate the support of your local County Enterprise Board who will advise on all business at a local level, leaving out the jargon and bureaucratic barriers of some larger government organisations.

Sometimes you just want to meet with and talk to other women setting up a business?

• Wicklow County Enterprise Board is hosting its next networking event for entrepreneurial women on the 10th of August 2011.
• Dun-Laoghaire-Rathdown CEB’s next ‘Enterprising Women’ event takes place on the 20th of September 2011. This group meets on the first Tuesday of every month and keeps it fun for all participants with barbeques and presentations of various industries such as jewellery design, and moving into the online sphere for complete newbie’s.
• Longford CEB runs a number of accredited training programmes for its members to make the transition from employee to entrepreneur easier such as it ‘Women in Business’ Fetac Level 5 course, ‘Business Development skills’ also Fetac Level 5, and ‘Entrepreneurship’ which is Fetac Level 4.

These events are peer to peer support opportunities to just get out there and talk about your experiences (the good, the bad and the ugly!) with other women who have seen it all before. As well as this your CEB will most likely be running some kind of course to equip you with the tools to take on your own business venture.

So don’t be disheartened ladies if you come up against a barrier or two, having belief in your business or product is the most important factor in making it a success. Here in Ireland we are coming around to the idea of female entrepreneurship as a wealth of business potential, so start small and talk to your local CEB and other women you know who have set up shop alone. Typical hurdles such as finding funding and negotiating deals will no doubt crop up, but with the right support and know-how you can build your venture into the next big thing. Things are turning around in Ireland, and many believe that entrepreneurship is the way forward in getting the country back on track.

Many start-ups are moments away from success but we all know that for most of us the first years of any successful business are the toughest. They test you mentally and physically and often become too much for some people.

What are the solutions? Should you hire extra help? Should it be full-time or part-time? Each case is different but I hope to offer some friendly advice and tips that you may find helpful.

Before making that big decision you need to sit yourself down and look at the questions. Why? Who? What for? How Long will I need them? Do you actually need someone?

Below is a list of questions you should be able to answer regarding the new hire. You may find it helpful to write down the answers to help you draw up a job specification.

• Why are you hiring this person? As a source of direction for the business? A source of support? A source of ideas?
• Who is it you are looking for? Is it a specific skill? Is it administration support?
• What for? What will their role involve? How long will they need to spend per week at these tasks? Do they require experience or training?
• How long will I need them? Is the contract part-time or full-time? Do I require them to be present with me? How much will I pay them?

After answering these questions you should be able to identify if you require the hire. You will be able to weigh up the costs vs. spending more time yourself on your venture. You are now ready to hire.

Your first hire, whether part-time or full time should be recruited, selected and managed in the same way, start as you mean to go on. You should take the answers from the questions above and use the answers to populate the job specification. It is very important that you yourself compile the job description for the role, as you and only you will know the exact person you are looking for. Do note however that you shouldn’t be overly specific, we’d all love that technical expert who’ll go above and beyond, has every qualification and a wealth of experience and will work for €10k a year!

Compiling the job specification

Everything needs to be clear when describing a job. Many business owners use job specifcations to simply outline the duties, tasks and responsibilities for the job- in other words what you want the employee to do from day to day. However if you take the time and put detailed effort into the spec you will in turn be rewarded with the best, most qualified candidates for the job. Below are three tips a good job description should include:

Skills

First you must assess what competencies and skills the employee must possess in order to actually do meet the objectives you set.  The majority of skills are transferable from job to job and industry to industry.  Some simple examples could be verbal and written communication, team player, attention-to-detail, leadership, problem-solving, analytical, and planning.  By specifying the skills you may find that the candidates might bring something extra to the table that you could use in another area of the business.

Education & Experience

There is a huge difference when recruiting to what is required and what is preferred by the employer.  When specifying what you need it is crucial not to eliminate candidates for no reason. Where you may want the best candidate with MBAs MBS’s etc you may overlook those with the practical real-life experience. This is why when composing the education part of your job spec set a minimum e.g. undergraduate and state “Masters may be preferable” or “relevant experience will be considered”. After all you must remember as start-ups we want to keep expenses at their lowest so we are all not going to be able to offer high salaries and packages, therefore it would be a pointless task for example to specify masters education/5 years experience or above only and only offer a standard graduate salary.

Work Environment

This section is not just about explaining who/where the candiadate will be reporting to/working but an opportunity to sell your company. You should describe the work environment, the company and working atmosphere. This can be very effective in getting candidates to apply.

Good job descriptions keep you focused on what you want and communicate your expectations to your future employees. They will also help you set targets, KPIs and measure the success of hiring that extra person.

Start-ups Recruitment Tip

There are many sources of recruiting new hires out there with so many agencies, job sites and the likes but our tip for start ups if on a shoestring budget would be to look to the universities. For years now the country has been investing in these educational institiutions and many of us are not even aware of what we can get from too. Every year several universities around the country have students seeking work experience both paid and unpaid for 3 month to 12 month placements. It is reported that from DCU alone over 800 students per year are hired for placemnt.

Some universities also have MBA/MBS/MSC students looking to complete area specific 3 month/6 month projects and these could actually fit with exactly what you’re looking for. Examples of some of the projects can be SEO reports, Social Media Marketing, Charity Fundraising, Google Adwords and Summer Practicum Projects. The students come in an array of subjects ranging across Science, Maths, Computing, Electronic & Mechanical Engineering, Business Studies, Marketing, HR, Finance, Accounting & Journalism to name a few. These placements and projects are a great, economic and time saving way of getting a certain piece of work completed and also of a step to recruiting a long term employee. They also free your exisiting staff from time consuming but essential jobs so they can work on the more immediate or growing areas of your start up- a problem we all know to well!

All start-ups should try call their nearby university to ask about these placement programmes and projects. Some sources we are aware of are DCU INTRA and DIT placements, both Dublin based. If you are interested why not enquire and email maeve.long@dcu.ie (DCU) or stacy.maccarthy@dit.ie (DIT).

Best of luck with your recruiting!

We need your help and feedback

We have generated a sample of successful Irish start up businesses in an attempt to gather some insight into the effectiveness of our website as well as looking into the motivations of why entrepreneurs or start-up businesses would use such a service. We hope that you can help us to provide a superior service that will be truly beneficial for both new and existing users.  After spending 2-3 minutes on our site we would ask you to complete the questionnaire by following the below link.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/startupsireland

Should you take the time to complete the questionnaire we will enter you in a draw with a chance to win 1 of 2 €50 all for one vouchers, as a token of our appreciation.

Thank You

Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship Propeller Accelerator outlines the first
cohort of six companies on its Techstars Network member programme:

The Propeller Accelerator, part of the DCU Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship,
has released details of the first group of companies funded and supported
under its mentor-led programme. These startups, five from Ireland and one
from the UK, cover key technologies such as mobile applications, cleantech,
online gaming, informatics, Facebook ecommerce and social media.

This first group of six companies has already begun their 3 months intensive
programme of mentor-led acceleration that culminates in the Propeller Demo
Day on the 6th of May, when the startups present to a group of investors.
The first group of companies are:

Associate Mobile: Associate Mobile is developing cloud-based mobile platforms
for enterprise and consumer markets. MobileMinder – a parental supervision
platform for mobiles is the company’s first commercial output. www.associatemobile.com/mobileminder/

Fantom: Fantom’s goal is to be the premier provider of social media software
for fan-based websites. It currently operates in social media for politics
and hopes to use the Propeller opportunity to pivot into other domains. www.icitizen.ie

GreenEgg Technologies: GreenEgg Technologies are a research and development
company focused on technological solutions for the clean technology and environmental
sectors. They develop innovative eco-friendly products for a range of applications
and their research focuses on the development of products that enable the
smart and efficient operation of technology. www.greenegg.ie

HealthComms: HealthComms aims to become a leading specialist in providing
health and security solutions to the Equine Industry. They have developed
Equinewatch, which provides continuous monitoring of location and telemetry
of animals. Their highly visual based systems provide a means for alerting
owners when unusual events such as isolation, agitation or temperature variation
occur. http://equinewatch.com

Simple LifeForms: Simple LifeForms: Simple Lifeforms is an online games development,
publishing and consultancy firm. They develop games for the world’s most
dynamic game platforms such as Facebook, iPhone and iPad. www.simplelifeforms.com

Vendorshop: VendorShop enables businesses to sell products on Facebook via
their social shopping cart application. VendorShop is free to install and
takes just minutes to set-up. It currently powers 15,000 stores worldwide.
www.facebookvendor.com

“We had over seventy applications from across Ireland, the UK and Europe
and even included the US and Brazil” said Gordon McConnell, Director of the
Propeller Accelerator and Deputy-CEO of the Ryan Academy. “We are delighted
to have such an exciting group of startup companies working in the Propeller
Space, and a group of over 40 mentors to work with them over the next three
months.”

The Propeller Accelerator was recently announced as a charter member of the
Techstars Network, which was announced in the White House. It has also agreed
partnerships with the Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN) and the Irish Technology
Leadership Group (ITLG) in recent weeks.

A number of Irish-based companies have also signed-up to support the Propeller
Accelerator programme including software company Sage Ireland, legal company
Arthur Cox, marketing and sales company Publicis D and legal intellectual
property company Tomkins IP. National Irish organisations such as the Irish
Small and Medium Enterprises (ISME) organisation and State agency Enterprise
Ireland are also partners. Propeller is also linked to the Venture Catalyst
at Arizona State University.

Gordon McConnell
Deputy-CEO of the DCU Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship
& Director of the Propeller Accelerator
Citywest, Dublin
Ireland

Tech Entrepreneurship blog: www.ryanacademy.wordpress.com
Social Enterprise blog: www.ryanacademyse.wordpress.com
Green Tech blog: www.ryanacademygreen.wordpress.com
Innovation Blog: www.ryanacademyinnovation.wordpress.com

Twitter: RyanAcademySE
Facebook: RyanAcademy Dublin

Phone: +353 (0)1 7007763
Mobile: +353 (0)86 8330536

We are delighted to be sponsoring the Start Your Own Business session at the DCU Get Started conference Next Friday the 18th Feb.

If you are available please come along to the conference which promises to be an inspiring day for all involved. We at Startups have received great help and support from DCU over the past year and we look forward to working with the DCU business school in the future. The fact that progressive universities like DCU are introducing students to entrepreneurship as a viable career is a great step forward in developping the entrepreneurial spirit and culture in Ireland. Hope to see you there,

S

Start Your Own Business – Supports and Tools (QG27) – Sponsored by Startups.ie – 16.00 – 18.00

17.30 Microsoft Tools and BizSpark

PLEASE REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT @ www.techspectations.org