Quotes are a great way to get the entrepreneurial flames roaring, here are some of our favourites:

Quotes are a great way to get the entrepreneurial flames roaring, the problem is that their effect while inspirational tends to be short lived. It is a good idea to stick your favourite quote in a place that you will see it every day so you can set about your day in a ‘watch out world’ kind of way, here are some of our favourites:

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker

“In life and business, there are two cardinal sins: The first is to act without thought, and the second is to not act at all.” – Carl Icahn, Investor and Entrepreneur

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet

“A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.” – Richard Branson, Entrepreneur

“Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes; work never begun.” – Christina Rossetti, Author

“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” Williams Jenning Bryan, Politician and three-time Presidential candidate

“Watch, listen, and learn. You can’t know it all yourself. Anyone who thinks they do is destined for mediocrity.” – Donald Trump, Business Mogul

“High expectations are the key to everything.” – Sam Walton, Entrepreneur

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sassoon, Entrepreneur

“Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.” William Butler Yeats, Poet

“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.” – Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect and Entrepreneur

“Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Alva Edison, Inventor and Entrepreneur

“If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.” – Ray Kroc, Entrepreneur

“The secret of success is constancy to purpose.” – Benjamin Disraeli, Author, Politician and Scholar

“How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.” – Coco Chanel, Entrepreneur

“A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.” – David Brinkley, Newscaster

“I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” – G. K. Chesterton, Author

“Those who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try nothing and succeed.” Lloyd Jones

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”­ – Michael Jordan, Basketball Legend and Entrepreneur

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Alva Edison, Inventor and Entrepreneur

“Not doing more than the average is what keeps the average down.” – William M. Winans, Clergyman

“Six essential qualities that are the key to success: Sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom, charity.” William Menninger, Entrepreneur

“My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no one’s doing but my own. I am the force. I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice. My responsibility. Win or lose; only I hold the key to my destiny.” – Elaine Maxwell, Author

“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd American President

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” – Henry Ford, Entrepreneur

“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible — and achieve it, generation after generation.” – Pearl S. Buck, Author

“It is on our failures that we base a new and different and better success.” – Havelock Ellis, Physician and Author

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” – Goethe

“With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.” – Keshavan Nair, Author – Gandhi Biographer

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” – Anatole France, Poet

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T. S. Eliot, Author

“Some people have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.” Willis R. Whitney, American Chemist

“For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.” – Mary Kay Ash, Entrepreneur

After coming up with an idea, discussing it with friends, family etc. and deciding that you think it is a runner, most people decide “I need to write a business plan!”. Lots of ideas dont actually get much further than this point for 2 reasons 1) It is easier to talk about something than to actually do anything about it and 2) People become intimidated by business plans and get confused and frustrated by templates, how to guides etc.

First things first, business plans are a good thing, they are essential if you are looking for any source of funding, they are useful as a business management tool to give your business some direction and they are amusing to look back on and see how wide off the mark you were.

The first business plan that I wrote was a pretty exhausting experience, my business (an internet cafe) was actually already up and running at the time but I was looking for a grant and the enterprise board required a business plan for this. I spent hours online looking up advice, I even bought a few templates off some American website. By the time I was finished the plan was like war & peace and I was sick to death of it. Whether anyone ever read it I don’t know but I did get the grant. A few years later I was with a successful businessman who was approaching the bank with a business plan for his third shop. I remember being surprised that the plan was no more than 10-15 pages simply presented, he was looking for a substantial sum of money at the time. He received the funding, shop number three in the bag.

The second business plan that I completed was done and dusted in a day or two. I think that I had to struggle through business plan number 1 to get an understanding of the process and to make the rookie mistakes along the way. So why so easy second time around? basically I knew what I was talking about (as obviously did mister 3 shops!). If you are taking ages with a section of the plan it may be because you dont really know what you are talking about, which is perfectly understandable if you have not set the business up yet. You are trying to sound knowledgeable about something that you are guessing about.

The best advice that I can give you is to be clear, concise and stick to the crux of the business. The idea is this, It will make money because of this, Here are the sums to support that. A short well presented business plan will have a much higher chance of being read and if the banks ever decide to lend again you never know you might actually get the money you are looking for.

Too Big to Fail – The Inside Story of how Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System – and Themselves

This book gives an indepth overview of the events leading up to the collapse of the financial markets in the US and the subsequent fallout worldwide.

The book was written based on interviews the author conducted with the major players in the financial crisis. These interviews are documented through tapes, notes, presentations, calendars, call logs, and more. The level of detail is nothing short of amazing.

This book attempts to provide a moment-by-moment account of the worst calamity to ever affect the U.S. financial markets since the Great Depression. It became a tsunami that triggered financial collapse in the world markets as well.

Sorkin builds a story of how the financial collapse of Wall Street in the fall of 2008 actually started much earlier – in the spring of 2008. Wall Street and Washington were intricately tied together in the collapse and Sorkin details the level and depth of these ties. At the start of the book, he lists his cast of characters. They include the management of all the major investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, along with AIG, Bank of America, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as overseas organisations from countries like China and Korea.

The cast of characters also includes a whole raft of attorneys, individuals from Great Britian, as well as from the U.S. Congress, the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the White House, and the FDIC. This is not an exhaustive list.

Because of the author’s position at the New York Times, he had unprecedented access to this cast of characters and was able to write a book with all the detail supporting the drama of what led up to the collapse of Wall Street and the financial system in 2008. The major players on Wall Street knew that the dominoes were going to fall as early as the spring of 2008 as Lehman Brothers started to fail. Sorkin discusses the events leading from that time to the collapse.

Summary

Too Big to Fail is actually a thriller about a time in America’s financial history when the entire economy could have crumbled and almost did. Greed, the hunger for power, the hunger for money, and the lack of financial regulation all led to the financial collapse. You will see inside the egos of the cast of characters including the politicians involved.

If you want to truly understand what happened when the financial system failed and the economy went into a deep recession because of it, read this book. At the end, you will be astonished and amazingly well-informed.

4/5

In the current economic climate, businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to meet their current tax obligations to Revenue. Dave from Irishaccounts.ie discusses the options…

In the current economic climate, businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to meet their current tax obligations to Revenue. Delays in being paid for goods and services put an enormous strain on the ability of a business to survive.

Since the days of the Celtic Tiger, Revenue have softened their attitude to payment of tax arrears significantly and are now more sympathetic towards those businesses that have fallen into difficulty. This means they are willing to enter into instalment arrangements which stretch over longer periods then before and are more agreeable to reducing penalties where possible.

However the revenue will not accept a situation where the business is allowed to continue to run up revenue debts with no realistic basis or timeframe of payment.

It is also worth noting that revenue cannot waive the underlying taxes themselves as a point of law. Nor can they waive the interest arising. The only way such debts can be extinguished is by liquidation of the company.

So when you find that you are in difficulties with the revenue for unpaid taxes what is the best thing to do?

Find out what is causing the difficulties.

First you must figure out exactly what is the cause of the problem. Vague phrases such as “we are having difficulty getting paid” or “the sales are down from last year” will not be a sufficient basis for an agreement with the revenue.

You need to have definite facts and figures available and a reasonable plan to solve all of the issues you have uncovered. Most important of all, you need to be able to show that the business is viable long term.

Engage with revenue

Once you have all the facts, you then need to engage with revenue at the earliest opportunity with a proposal on how to clear all of the current taxes. This proposal needs to be a realistic one as if the agreement is not kept to, the amounts due will precede to enforcement immediately.

You should have management accounts, cash flow statements, debtors’ lists, company profile etc to support your case.

Instalment arrangements

Most arrears of tax are dealt with by entering into an instalment arrangement with revenue. A certain amount of the outstanding tax will always need to be paid up front. The upfront payment should be as large as possible to reduce interest costs.

Breach of the instalment agreement will have serious repercussions and will entail immediate enforcement measures. Part of the conditions of the agreement will also be that any current taxes arising are kept up to date and do not fall into arrears.

Remember if you are trading as a sole trader or you allow your company to be involuntarily struck off at the CRO you remain personally liable for all arrears of taxes.

If you wish to discuss any of the above do get in touch with us at info@irishaccounts.ie

The homepage on 99% of websites is the most important page. This is rightly so since this will usually be the first page people will find when they visit your site. There are a few key things to remember when creating content for the homepage.

Directions

The homepage should be used as a sign post for visitors, directing them to various pages on your site. There should be large and clear links to your other pages. You might summarise the page you are linking to, so people know if it is applicable to them. If you have a lot of products or services you don’t need to link to them all from the homepage. Put them in categories and link to the category instead.

Don’t push a sale

The number one mistake I see many people make is giving too much information and trying to sell everything on the homepage. There is a fear that if you don’t give enough info and push the sale your won’t get anything. This may be true for sales executives selling to people face to face as it is important to try close a deal within a set timeframe. This is far from the case when trying to sell your products and services online. People browsing the web have the luxury of time being on their side. They can choose to browse your entire site, your competitors site and spend an hour on each without anyone telling them what to do or how to see things. They might come back and look through your site again in a week or 2.

By pushing the sale you do a lot of different things:

• Seem needy (nobody buys from people trying too hard to sell something).
• Look only interested in your own business.
• Neglect to show the reasons to do business with you.
• Forget about the things that might be important to the customer as you’re blinded by the sales process.

Do not welcome people

This is really my number one issue with homepage content. The “Welcome to our site” text does nothing for anyone.
Firstly the text is usually placed in the h1 or h2 tag on your site. The h1 tag is the most important tag on your site. It is like the headline of a newspaper. H2 is the subheading. Google puts a lot of prominence on the tag structure of your site. So by telling google that “Welcome to my www.yoursite.com” you are saying this is what my site is about. This is my headline. Do you think someone will ever do a Google search for “Welcome to www.yoursite.com” ? I will go into more detail about title tags in a later article.
Secondly nobody really cares about the name of your company or website until you prove that you deserve to be remembered. The name of your site is probably your company name. You also probably have your logo at the top of the page. So there’s no need to keep drilling your name into people before they even know what you do.

Your title or intro line should include the keywords people will search but also show them you do or sell exactly what they are looking for.

wrote by Dave: HiddenDepth.ie

Dublin City University’s Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship announces the establishment of a seed venture fund of 1 million for early stage technology start-up companies.

The Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship has just announced a new venture accelerator fund for high tech start-ups, details can be found on the academy’s high tech entrepreneurship blog www.ryanacademy.wordpress.com

The new venture fund is an accelerator fund, which will help fund new companies develop from concept to product. The aim of the venture fund is to jump-start a number of high technology start-ups in Ireland with an emphasis on software and biotechnology hardware ideas such as medical devices and diagnostics.

The successful companies will get approximately 50,000 in direct funding, as well as a three-month programme of support from the Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship, which will include office space, mentorship and specially-designed networking and educational programmes. The financial support for the venture fund is provided by the One Foundation. In addition any profits generated by the Accelerator Fund will be returned to the Fund for further investment.

“This is an important initiative for Ireland and I am delighted that the Ryan Academy is providing a catalyst for the next generation of Irish entrepreneurs. This initiative is not only another clear manifestation of DCU’s commitment to be the University of Enterprise but also addresses an obvious deficit in the pathway from concept to successful product”, said Professor Brian MacCraith, President-designate of Dublin City University.

The first round of investment will open for applicants in October this year, with the first four successful entrepreneurs being announced before the end of the year. A further eight entrepreneurs will be funded in 2011 and again in 2012. Each of these entrepreneurial groups will then work with the Ryan Academy to develop their company, building key and lasting business relationships along the way to help them sustain a viable business. The Ryan Academy is aiming to work with other seed funds and individual investors, and will be seeking to increase the fund size over time.

“Raising the money to get through the first year is often difficult for entrepreneurs and our objective is to support twenty early-stage entrepreneurial teams over the next two and half years” said Gordon McConnell, Deputy-CEO of the Ryan Academy and venture manager for the new fund. “We will work with other later-stage angel investors, other funds and the venture capital community to help ensure further funding for these new companies. We want to help nurture innovative technology ideas and act as a launchpad for new entrepreneurs.”

The fund is unique as it is both a university-related venture fund for start-ups across Ireland, as well as offering a programme of support for these startups through the Ryan Academy and its network.

The new fund will be governed by a Technology Advisory Board, which will be announced later

About The Ryan Academy

The DCU Ryan Academy is a partnership between Dublin City University and the family of the late Tony Ryan (Ryanair). The Academy exists to promote entrepreneurship and innovation and to use our iconic building in Citywest as a dynamic hub for entrepreneurs and researchers to develop ideas, learn new skills and network. There is widespread agreement in business, political and academic circles that the key to Ireland’s recovery and future is the development and exploitation of our best and brightest people who have developed world class ideas to fuel world class competition. The Ryan Academy is working with researchers and entrepreneurs to help them achieve their potential.

The Academy believes that specific areas of the economy, in particular the Social Economy and Green Technologies, will play a key role in Ireland’s economic recovery and we are committed to providing leadership and support to these and other key sectors

There has never been a better time to set up a company in Ireland. David Brannigan explains the new tax exemption for startups

The Irish Government has introduced a scheme whereby new start-up companies are exempt from paying corporation tax for the first three years of their operation.

In order to avail of the scheme the companies

1) must be incorporated on or after 14 October 2008,
2) commence qualifying trade in 2009 (now extended to 2010),
3) have corporation tax liabilities that do not exceed specified levels.

In order to qualify, the trade of the company must not have been previously carried on by another person or formed part of another person’s trade.

The relief also does not apply to “service companies”. These are companies which are controlled by five or fewer people who carry on a profession or supply professional services.

The maximum relief allowable is for a corporation tax liability of €40,000 per annum. There is also marginal relief where the corporation tax is between €40,000 and €60,000.

If you need any further advice and information about any of the above, do get in touch with us at info@irishaccounts.ie

A new website has been launched to benefit parents and expectant parents in the recycling and purchasing of baby clothes, furniture and equipment.

BabyBay.ie facilitates the buying and selling of new and used baby clothes and goods for a minimal monthly membership fee.

The site is the brainchild of Kildare-based mother-of-three and entrepreneur, Mandy O’Rorke. As a busy mum Mandy spotted a gap in the market for an online outlet for mums to buy and sell their used baby clothes and goods. This came from a personal need to offload her own baby clothes and goods amassed over a number of years.
She comments, “With three young children under the age of five I had a huge amount of clothes, toys, cots, buggies and accessories which were taking up space and which I no longer required. After looking for an online outlet to pass these on to, I was surprised to find that there wasn’t a site specifically for the trading of baby goods. I spent time researching online and chatting to other parents before bringing the concept to fruition. I have developed BabyBay.ie to be easy to use and good value for money. My aim is to provide a useful service that families will use over and over again, whether buying or selling.”

Items available for trading on the BabyBay.ie site include Boys and Girls clothing, Maternity Clothing, Prams and Buggies, Cots and Nursery Furniture, Baby Accessories, Toys, DVDs and Books, Christening Gowns, School Uniforms and more. Registration on the site costs €3 for four weeks allowing unlimited postings of baby goods along with your own personal account to manage your ads and receive messages and enquiries from interested buyers.

Mandy continues, “By selling the baby items you no longer require, you can earn some extra cash or simply save money by buying quality baby clothes and goods at reduced prices. By recycling your used baby clothes and goods you’re also doing your bit towards helping the environment. Given the current economic climate we’re all trying to be a bit smarter with our money and I believe BabyBay.ie offers families a way to save money but also to make some extra cash too”.

Not alone helping parents de-clutter and save money, BabyBay.ie has teamed with Ireland’s leading independent children’s charity Barnardos in an effort to help and support children around the country. BabyBay.ie is delighted to be donating a percentage of their profits annually to the charity.

Going through Dublin Airport the other day I noticed this “special offer” sign… wow an Irish brekfast for only ¢11.60!

Why not give the poor tourists who have been ripped off around the country a final kick in the arse as we send them on their way?

This got me thinking about the whole area of pricing your product or service..basically the options are apply a standard margin and trade away or slash your margin and go for volume. For example our freinds at Dublin airport could have chosen a Special offer Irish brekfast at ¢5.99 this may result in a much busier operation with more throughput and presumably additional add on sales as people go through the establishment.

A recent article in the Sunday papers with a successful banker now entering the UK market also caught my eye, his opinion was that “profit is in volume” (at a tight margin). Certainly the most successful companies in retail in particular apply the stack em high sell em cheap principle. Once you get the ball rolling your increased purchasing power allows you to take additional margin and advantages the trick is to not let your overheads gobble you up before you get traction.

With my new business I am pushing for the volume & value principle so I will find out soon enough if it is the way to go. Consumers are however flooded with special offers so if you are selling something “on Special” it should be something that the consumer can relate to as being good value i.e they have bought a full Irish before for around ¢8 and now it is on offer for ¢5.99 hmmm not bad.

Right all this talk of breakfast is making me hungry, any opinions on the above are welcome….now what shall I have? not a full Irish anyway..

S

Fascinating book on how the billionaire Chuck Feeney made his money and then gave it all away…

In his superbly written page-turner, The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune, Irish journalist Conor O’Clery chronicles Feeney’s fascinating life. He also probes the psychology behind Feeney’s stark rejection of life as an exercise in conspicuous consumption. Feeney’s Depression-era childhood, Catholic upbringing, charitable parents, and poor-kid status at ritzy schools all conspired to influence his largesse. In crisp, Dickensian detail, O’Clery gives us the smells, sights, and sounds of Feeney’s hardscrabble upbringing; his explusion from Manhattan’s selective Regis High School; and his financing his way through Cornell University’s hotel management school as the “sandwich man,” selling 700 baloney-and-cheeses a week out of a wicker basket.

Feeney’s early days in business were an exercise in frugality. He held meetings in coffee shops and had an entertainment budget of zero. With his business partner, Robert Miller, he built Duty Free Shoppers into an international behemoth. That part was known throughout the 1970s and ’80s. What wasn’t known until 1997 was that 15 years before, Feeney had decided to systematically give it all away. He had grown tortured about the state of the world and his having so much. In 1982 he secretly transferred his share of Duty Free to an offshore Bermuda foundation he’d set up named Atlantic Philanthropies. It was one of the biggest and most unusual philanthropic feats in history.

Feeney was obsessed with concealing his identity and even keeping the endowment a secret from Miller, who revels in a life of ostentation and whose socialite daughters went on to marry a prince, a Getty, and a von Furstenberg. Any grant from Atlantic came with hyper-lawyered nondisclosure agreements and vows of secrecy. He agreed to this book only because the story was already leaking out, and he wanted to make sure the details were correct.

O’Clery also shows how Feeney used his philanthropy to further political ends—notably Feeney’s role in trying to advance the Irish peace process through backdoor diplomacy. Irish leaders credit Feeney with helping to build reconciliation in that country.

As the father of the “giving while living” school of philanthropy, Feeney has had a great deal of impact in philanthropic circles. This carpe diem approach has influenced other super-philanthropists, including Bill Gates and Michael Dell, to donate their fortunes during their lifetimes as opposed to bequeathing riches posthumously. The philosophy goes against the grain of most American philanthropy, where charities limit annual giving to 5% of their endowments. In 2003, Feeney’s Atlantic made a stunning announcement: It planned to spend itself out of business over the next 12 to 15 years, giving away $350 million annually to four causes: disadvantaged children, the care and treatment of the elderly, global health problems, and human rights.

Feeney’s spend-it-now philanthropy has also influenced others to better prepare their children for lives of privilege minus the psychological hex wealth can sometimes be. In keeping with his ideas that life should not be an acquisition spree and that work and a sense of purpose ultimately bring a richer existence, Feeney long ago bestowed modest sums on each of his five children. He did the same for himself. The worth of his stake today? $1.5 million. Feeney isn’t just influencing current philanthropic practice. He’s also picking up where Andrew Carnegie left off: As the legendary steelman said: “The man who dies rich dies disgraced.”

4/5