This is the second instalment of our advice on country selection. As we said last time when it comes to exporting it is always crucial to have done some homework before committing. The first part of the blog focused on the first two stages of the process of selecting relevant countries for export. If you missed that blog, don’t worry you can read it again here.

This week we will focus on the final three stages of the process. To refresh your mind here is the process again.

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At this point you should have carried out the first two stages and narrowed your target countries somewhat. You are most likely now in talks with EI or CEB’s about your potential to export and they are assisting or giving guidance. What can you do yourself though?

STAGE 3:      Examine the Industry Market Potential

The next stage for you is to examine the Industry Market Potential. In other words the total amount of ‘cake’ on offer by the given countries you have left remaining. When we say you are examining the market potential the reason for this is in order to estimate aggregate demand. So we look at market size as a factor. As mentioned in the previous blog in most developed countries, fairly accurate estimates for many products are available from public or private sources. In emerging markets data may not be available, and even when it is quality may be suspect so beware of this. Your agency should be supportive in this area with resources. You can calculate this using a number of techniques but we will focus on just four simple ones. They are as follows:

• Related Market Size Model
• Analogy Method
• Trade Audit
• Chain Ratio Method

1. Related Market Size

Related markets’ size and related environmental factors can help determine the size of the market you are looking at. You can try finding different statistics on each of your remaining countries and apply them accordingly.

Example:

In 2009, there were more than 1.9 million passenger cars in use in Ireland, up from less than 1.6 million in 2004. In Ireland we have 437 cars per 1,000 – the equivalent EU figure is 463 per 1,000 (2007 figures). If the population rises from 4.2m to 5m between now and 2021 and we reach EU car-ownership norms then we will have at least another 750,000 cars to add to our crammed roads.

2. Analogy Method

The best way of describing this method is where you start by picking a country at the same stage of economic development as the country of interest and for which the market size is known. The method is based on the premise that the relationship between the demand for a product and a particular indicator (e.g. the demand for a related product) is similar in both countries.

Example:

Let’s say Phillips/Sony wants to estimate the market size for DVD Players’ in Russia (r)

For the base country (relative country) we take another Central European country, say Bulgaria (b), for which we know the sales of DVD players. We also choose a proxy variable that correlates highly with the demand for DVD’s e.g. color flat screen TV sales.

In this example, we assume that the ratio of DVD Player ownership to color flat    screen TV ownership is roughly equivalent:

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Since we are interested in the demand for DVD’s in Russia, we can derive an estimate based on the following relationship:

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For this specific example the following information is available (from Euro Monitor 1999):

Fill in those numbers we get:

Estimate VCR Demand Russia

(Sales per ‘000 inhabitants) = ???

17.1(2.9/19.5) = 2.5

However, it is important to note that when using this technique you cannot, as with all techniques, assume it is gospel and that’s it job done. This technique in particular may produce misleading results under certain circumstances as consumption may not be comparable across countries due to cultural disparities, competition or trade barriers may interfere with sales figures and technological advances may allow use of product innovations in a country at an earlier stage of economic development (“leapfrogging” to Blue ray or latest technology).

3. Trade Audit

The trade audit is possibly the easiest to explain as it is simple math. The total market volume per year for a certain country / market can be calculated as:

However for many emerging markets (and even developed countries), such data is missing, outdated, or collected at a very aggregate level so make sure your data is up to date. As recommended Global edge, EI, GMID, Data monitor and CSO.ie are all great sources of this data.

4. Chain Ratio Method

The Chain Ration method is in simple terms an analysis of industrial growth patterns for various countries, to gain insight into relationship between consumption and industrial growth. This method starts with a very rough base-number as an estimate for the market size (e.g. the entire population of a country).

This base estimate is systematically fine-tuned by applying a string (“chain”) of percentages to come up with the most meaningful estimate for total market potential.

Example:

• Consider a firm that makes baby monitors and is considering expanding into China and/or India.
• Firm wishes to focus on urban areas (easier to access)
• As you can see below although China has a higher population and urbanization, India has a greater birth rate per 000’s making it a more valuable market.

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STAGE 4:      Examine Company Potential (I.E-Your Slice of that cake)

After you have examined each country you will now have a better idea of the markets available to you. You should then take the markets and examine the players operating in those markets already and their positions/power. This will give you an idea as to the level of investment and entry mode choice you will require. Say for example our India example above, as I can see the market is valued highly at 7.8m I should enter. Not necessarily. Perhaps Sony, Phillips and Samsung are in there already and already control 90% of the market. How many other small firms are there competing for that 10%?  Will it be worth my investment? It’s all about looking and estimating how much of that market you believe you can gain. Agencies should be able to help you with this and Enterprise-Ireland in particular has Market Advisors all around the globe who can inform you of the market shares and big players in certain markets to help your decision. You can then remove remaining countries that are not attractive.

STAGE 5:      Best Countries Remain

This is the final stage of the IMS process. Here you will have carried out all steps and your pool of countries will be limited. You select the best 2 or 3 depending on business plan to export and proceed with your plans.

Although this article covers a range of techniques we recommend you do not use it solely as your guide to export. For more advice you should speak with Enterprise-Ireland about your potential to export and ensure you have the plan in place and contacts in place abroad. This article should provide some help and education to those considering exporting. It may prove helpful to those wanting to apply for grants as it can show you have done market valuations.

Best of Luck with the exporting!

Introducing – The Beer Club, Ireland’s online Specialty, Craft & International beer store.

Company: The Beer Club
Website: www.thebeerclub.ie
Founders: Stephen Dillon
Age: 35
Based: Dublin
Staff Number: 10
Date started: April 2011

Tell us what your business does?

The beer club was founded in response to the growing demand and interest in Craft, Specialty & World Beers in Ireland. Our aim is to make practically every beer in Ireland available to anyone in Ireland, not just the lucky few with great independent off licences on their doorstep.

Where did the idea for your business come from?

I have two off licences one in Santry Dublin 9 and one in Kimmage Dublin 12. I noticed the growing demand for good craft and international beers in both shops. More and more people were asking me to get them one beer or another i.e I used to live in Australia/ Germany/ USA etc, can you get me Coopers Pale Ale/ Anchor IPA etc etc. I figured that these conversations were probably taking place all around the country and that there was a need for this service.

Have you always wanted to run your own business?

Oh Yeah!

What planning did you do before you started up?

I contacted all my suppliers to see what they thought of the idea, they were very enthusiastic about it and offered lots of help, promotional material, glasses etc.

What challenges have you faced how have you overcome them?

The main challenge was listing all the beers, I have about 200 on the site now with probably the same again to come.

How have you promoted your business?

Through shameless self promotion on the Startups.ie website , I am launching a PR campaign in the coming weeks and have set up a blog www.hopstarsblog.com to promote the site and keep club members informed of new beers and tasting events taking place at beer club HQ. I am in the process of building a purpose built tasting room in Beer Club HQ Kimmage, we will be able to seat about 40 members for beer talks, tastings and club events.

What has your growth been like?

Just Launched but lots of interest and initial orders have been placed by thirsty beer lovers around the country!

What’s the impact on your home life been like?

Home Life? Please explain what that is…

www.thebeerclub.ie

Dear readers of the Startups blog,
My name is Stefano Messori and I am the founder of Messori Marketing a new and independent strategy consultancy business based in Dublin.

First of all, I would like to thank Stephen for asking me to make a contribution to this blog. One of my hopes in writing this piece is that it will lead to the creation of a new facet to the STARTUPS’ blog, namely a strategy and innovation category. I hope also to generate an interest in the whole concept of strategic thinking.

If you have always dreamed of owning your own company, of being your own boss, now is the time to start. In fact, it has never been easier than now. The new frontiers of marketing allow you to spread your idea easily, quickly and at virtually no cost. Many of the old barriers that characterised an industrial economy have vanished.

A word of caution, though: do not ride the waves of marketing if you do not know the water you are surfing in. It is tempting, but it can be dangerous, too.

You may argue that you have your business plan; that you did your homework and filled in the blanks in the pre-prepared plan they provided you at the enterprise board. My question to you in that case is: Is business planning (in the way most companies implement it today) sufficient to enable you to compete in the post-Celtic Tiger era?

I’m sure that like me you’ve been noticing many businesses closing down from one day to the next over the last number of months (in some cases with staff showing up for work in the morning only to find the business was gone). Surely not all of these businesses failed because the management neglected to prepare a business plan!

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Actually, these difficult times could be a new beginning for Irish entrepreneurs. To succeed, however, companies must go beyond the traditional concepts of business planning and embrace a more advanced platform of strategic principles and tools that will allow them to build a more sustainable competitive advantage, founded on societal and collective values, aimed at generating positive competition amongst the various Irish businesses and creating a win-win environment.

For this reason, I have made available a few documents that should help you through the early steps in the development of a sustainable business strategy.

These documents can be found on the Messori Marketing website: http://www.messorimarketing.com/en/free-strategy-templates.

You can download these tools for free and I invite all of you to actively try them out in your own organisations. I firmly believe that Irish start-up businesses (and established businesses) can gain many useful insights from the use of these templates.

My hope is that, together with Startups.ie and others, we can create an interest in the new role that small and upcoming businesses play in the Irish economy.
Thanks for reading.

Stefano Messori

stefano@messorimarketing.com
Strategy consultants – Messori Marketing www.messorimarketing.com

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

I was watching a you tube video of an interview with Mark Zuckerberg – founder of Facebook, and I noticed the words ‘Fail Harder’ scrawled on the Facebook office walls in the background.

There has been much talk and analysis of the culture in the USA (and silicon valley in particular) as to why this area is so successful at generating world class entrepreneurs and businesses. The attitude to failure has been identified as one of the major reasons that Silicon Valley (and the USA to a lesser extent) has been so successful. In the US having a number of ‘failures’ under your belt is seen as nearly essential to success. If you are starting a new business or joining a hot new startup, more often than not investors or founders will want to know all about your previous failures and what you learnt along the way.

Ireland alas is a different story, whether we like to admit it or not we are still held back by our traditional parochial culture, we have not left ‘the valley of squinting windows’ that far behind us. Anyone who was born in Ireland pre celtic tiger and not from an entrepreneurial family is probably damaged from the mindset of this era to a greater or lesser extent.

This mindset says, go to a good school, get good points in the leaving cert, take the college course with the highest points (regardless if this is what you want to do!), get a secure job in the bank/ civil service/ accountancy or law firm etc., buy a nice house etc.etc. Which is fine if that is what you want to do but not so great if you try to break from the mould and do your own thing!. Your concerned / jealous family and friends will try to herd you back into the comfort of the fold and it takes great determination to break out. We are not the only culture held back by this type of mindset, Asia is plagued by a culture of ‘honour’ and ‘Shame’ – to fail at a business would bring great ‘shame’ to the whole family (no pressure!).

Things have gotten a little easier for the Irish entrepreneurs ‘in the closet’ as I call them as in recent times as the world has been turned on its head. No longer is the bank / civil service job considered safe, anyone can justifiably now say ‘ I am going to take my chances on my own thanks!’.

The reality is that failure is part and parcel of being a successful entrepreneur, you will fail! probably many times before you are successful. As you fail you are constantly learning and tweaking and gaining experience that will lead you to eventual success if you persevere. This is what ‘Fail Harder’ means – learn from your mistakes, cut your losses and move on to the next phase of the journey. If you read any entrepreneurs story you will see this pattern of repeated failure leading to success, your journey will probably be no different so take it on the chin and keep going…

(PS The ‘Fail Harder’ Image above is made of 150,000 clear push pins and took 351 hours to complete…this mural is in the lobby of a US business)

Sophie Gleeson tells us about her business – Muse Events!

Company: Muse Events
Website: www.museevents.ie
Founders: Sophie Gleeson
Age: 24
Based: 5 Schoolhouse Lane E, Kildare Street, Dublin 2
Staff Number: 1 full time plus part-time promotional personnel
Date started: May 2010

Tell us what your business does?

Muse Events is a unique event management and promotional company based in Dublin city centre. For us here at Muse the essence of any event is that it should reflect the culture, soul and personality of the organisation. Our service is based around these principles and our ultimate goal is to surprise and delight each and every guest at each and every event. Muse Events can provide you with an effective promotional marketing team that you can count on. We take pride in creating an impressive yet practical brand activation campaign outlined to the specific needs of your product.

Where did the idea for your business come from?

I worked in the event industry for a number of years and always wanted to set up my own company. I believed that a recession was a perfect opportunity for a new business to grow. There is more of a competitive market now as people are looking around for the best possible price and service which gives the smaller business a fighting chance!

Have you always wanted to run your own business?

Yes I knew that working for myself and running a business was always my main goal. Event management is my passion; I love creating and designing new and unique concepts that reflect the culture, soul and personality of the organisation or individual which I am representing. My ultimate goal is to surprise and delight each and every guest at each and every event. Owning my own business gives me the freedom to create these designs for my clients.

What planning did you do before you started up?

I started by drafting a business plan, researching competitors, getting advice from other entrepreneurs and calculating the cost involved in setting up a business and renting office space and all in all making sure that it was worth the risk.

Which entrepreneurs do you admire?

My dad is a successful entrepreneur so he would probably be who I admire the most. To be honest I really believe that it is a difficult decision to open up a business and not have the constant security of a weekly or monthly pay check so I respect and admire anyone who gives it a go.

What challenges have you faced how have you overcome them?

The hardest part of establishing a company is building your brand name and maintaining a cash flow. I have overcome these challenge through hard work and long hours!

How have you promoted your business?

I have my own website www.museevents.ie and i have a Facebook page.
I sent brochures, emails and phone calls to potential clients, I have had articles in Confetti Bridal magazine and Steller magazine and many events occur through word of mouth.

Are you optimistic about 2011?

Absolutely it can only get better….

What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?

Make sure you research thoroughly the area that you are thinking of embarking on and know who your competitors are. Talk to as many people as you can and get as much advice as possible from people who have successful businesses. Be confident that you have ample experience and that is the right time for you to take on a new adventure. Setting up a business can be tiring and stressful but at the same time extremely exciting and self fulfilling so make sure to enjoy every minute!

Company: Tobin Shipping & Transport Ltd
Website: www.tobinshipping.ie (off line in Jan for re work)
Founders: Simon & Simone Tobin
Age: 38
Based: Dublin
Staff Number: 3
Date started: 11th October 2010

Tell us what your business does?

Tobin Shipping & Transport is a European logistics Company, providing a comprehensive intelligent logistical service.

What does this mean?

It means that we draw on years of experience and a large global logistical network that has daily co-operation between a large numbers of highly motivated people, from a variety of countries and cultures.

Tobin Shipping & Transport uses this know-how to set high standards in the industry. Our European & Global network is constantly growing. The standards of the European Logistics business network also extend to transport solutions in the Middle East, Asia and the USA.

Our aim is always to be a premier logistics service provider with a strong focus on a partnership approach to Customers and Suppliers. Since our establishment, we have achieved consistent tailored logistical solutions through continued research and development, and through strategic partnerships.

We Provide:

· National transport & distribution

· Daily UK Transport

· European Transport & shipping

· Ocean Freight

· Warehousing

Where did the idea for your business come from?

Our family have been in the shipping and transport industry since 1946, and have built up many business in Ireland & the UK. I have now taken on the legacy and established a new business with a reach into Europe, Asia and the USA.

I had worked in the industry for the past 19 years and achieved senior roles in major European logistics companies and plc’s, following restructuring of the company I last worked for I was made redundant, and decided to take up the family tradition and commenced my own business.

Have you always wanted to run your own business?

Yes, I stayed out of the family business and went my own way in the corporate world but always had the itch to do it for myself.

What planning did you do before you started up?

5 months of planning, networking and seeking agents / suppliers globally. Draft business plans and all the legalities and administration infrastructure that is required.

Which entrepreneurs do you admire?

Denis O Brien

JP McManus

Richard Branson

Michael O Leary

What challenges have you faced how have you overcome them?

Trade Credit

Rising Fuel Prices

These are the two main challenges that are a daily on-going problem, we are striving to partner up with other similar / related business to collectively buy services and negotiate on credit terms. With regard to fuel which is 32 % of cost in road transport, we constantly seek to try get a fuel surcharges but struggle. It is the norm in the UK and Europe.

How have you promoted your business?

Daily and hourly, via networking

Are you optimistic about 2011?

Yes, down to my own belief in myself and the will and drive to succeed.

What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?

Do your research, you are always leaning, you will never be an expert or know everything, constantly network and meet people, be honest and humble, know who you are and where you came from, never give up, work hard but keep your family values and work life balance, take calculated risks but never gamble, close your eyes and imagine where you want to be in life and business, and live it, act ON IT > GO FOR IT !

John Egan Managing Director of Archipelago talks to startups about the vision of this exciting new enterprise…

Company: Archipelago

Date started: April 2010

Tell us what your business does?

There are 3 different Archipelago companies: Concepts, Works & Epoch all with different functions, 1) Enterprise, 2) Leveraged Strategy, 3) Design, Arts & Culture all administered by Archipelago. To focus on Concepts; Concepts’ focus is the facilitation of young Enterprise in Ireland. To that end, we have created a service, Conceptum, which significantly reduces the costs incurred while starting a company while also making it much more time efficient. We have done this by securing discounts and preferential rates with high end service firms in Dublin and coupling it with our own in-house strategic services to create a complete start up solution, from registration to web-design.

Where did the idea for your business come from?

We felt enterprise in Ireland was massively inefficient and staggered. Start ups weren’t nearly as sophisticated as they needed to be to survive and it was principally because 1) cost of enterprise was too high, 2) Clear, concise guidelines with solutions weren’t readily available. 1,500 -2,000 companies start in Ireland every month and 75% of them will fail. In normal circumstances most of those failures will start again or go back to regular employment, but for people of our generation, in this climate it equates to forced emigration. We believed we could fundamentally change the way business was done in Ireland by imposing a level of sophistication and efficiency on Irish enterprise.

Have you always wanted to run your own business?

Yes, absolutely. We all feel a responsibility to justify ourselves and enterprise is the most efficient way of doing so.

What planning did you do before you started up?

A phenomenal amount. The unique and broad nature of our undertaking necessitated an almost academic amount of research. We needed to understand the system of enterprise in Ireland better than anyone else and how it worked from start to finish. We had to recruit service firms, some of which (for example Vodafone & AIB) were large corporates
who required a significant amount of formal due process. We had to build a process for each service we offered and build 3 completely bespoke business models.

Which entrepreneurs do you admire?

Branson because he’s the prototypical entrepreneur and he understands the positive role entrepreneurs can pay in society. Niklas Zenstrom & Janus Friis the founders of Skype for completely changing the telecoms industry with a simple idea and minimal costs. Per Andersn – the founder of Metro Newspaper for creating a newspaper that can actually work in this day and age, Tyler Brule (Founder of Monocle and Wallpaper magazines) for producing two of the worlds best quality magazines and succeeding by juxtaposing old and new business models. Bob Young founder of Lulu.com for creating an ingenious online model and an old school example: King C Gillette for coming up with the razor and blades model over 100 years ago and it’s still one of the most successful business models around.

What challenges have you faced how have you overcome them?

Too many to name. Trying to create something atypical means you’ll always stumble upon people who try force standard procedures on you. We believe as an entrepreneur you should constantly challenge convention, change the game instead of just keeping up.

How have you promoted your business?

Very quietly up until this point. We needed to put stress on the structures to see how they held up and what we needed to change. We’ve tried to keep business to a trickle until we were ready. Now we are.

Are you optimistic about 2011?

Extremely, Archipelago is a product of this economic environment, we feel very comfortable within it.

What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?

Probably 3 things that might not mean anything to you until your faced with it, but….

1) Justify yourself: constantly challenge convention and peoples accepted norms. If your business is to be mediocre you’ll fail, sooner or later. Change the game.

2) Resourcefulness: Remember there’re are many alternative forms of currency – opportunity and sacrifice to name but 2 and when your starting out it’s probably all you have. Resourcefulness is the key characteristic of the entrepreneur; do your best to foster it.

3) Getting back on the horse: it sounds clichéd but enterprise is often lonely and often times it doesn’t take much to make you doubt yourself. If you can’t get back on the horse, enterprise isn’t for you.

http://www.archipelago.ie/

I like the start of a new year, after all the hustle and bustle (read -stress) of Christmas it is a period of reflection, a time to think of the year just gone and to plan for the one ahead.

For many it is the time of the new year resolutions, I have been a fan of doing resolutions for a number of years now. We normally have an evening where we put them to paper. I like to mix in a good measure of enjoyable ones with the usual world domination kind, one of my favorites from previous years was to visit an island smaller than Ireland – done! thank you Pangkor Laut!

For any of you who’s resolution it is to start their own business in 2011 we salute you, we are here to help if you need us! My advice for what it is worth is to not set your sights too high at the outset (I will make a million in 12 months!) why not try, “I will match my current net take home pay with the proceeds of my own business in 2011″ or if you have lost your job “I will replace my last net take home pay with the proceeds of my own business in 2011″. What an amazing achievement that would be in a year, to have removed your dependency on others and taken control of your own financial destiny in a year!

I am an optimist by nature in my opinion what is the alternative? to mope around using the state of the economy as a thinly veiled excuse for not having the courage to do something? – No thanks. I am amazed at the amount of economic experts that have sprung up in the last while and I never knew that there were so many clairvoyants amongst us! example we will only start coming out of this recession around 2014, the country is fuc**d for at least 10 years etc. It is important to appreciate the difference between opinion and fact, unfortunately many people take opinion as fact (again often conveniently). I don’t care about things that are outside my control, for the main reason that ehh they are outside of my control!. I would rather focus on building businesses, creating things and making things happen, why? because it is rewarding and makes me feel good!. Simple.

Whatever your plans for 2011 are I wish you well, opportunities are around every corner you just need to be open to them, good luck and let us know how you are getting on! I am off to Oz for two weeks of Sunshine and R&R so if you are getting in touch I probably won’t be able to get back to you until early Feb!

Take care,

S

Some of the more observant amongst you may have noticed our new logo for startups.ie.

The logo was designed by Dave from hidden depth, a contributor to the site and all round nice guy!. I enjoyed working on the logo with Dave, we wanted a logo that would capture the spirit of the site which is about getting started…going for it..pushing the button!!. After dismissing rockets and arrows etc. we finally agreed on the power button.

The new logo is another baby step to taking the site to where I see it in my head. We still have a very long way to go but there are some cool developments in the pipeline and I am very excited about a new feature that we will be launching in the new year. I could tell you about it but then I would have to kill you..so for now im staying stum.

I am very happy with the quality of forum posts so thanks to all who have contributed. I am on the look out for some inspiring startup stories so let me know if you have any suggestions.

All feedback on the new logo and site in general is most welcome…

S