More people are coming to work in Ireland, more people are starting businesses and more companies are hiring.

More people are calling themselves entrepreneurs and more people in Ireland are becoming sole traders, according to new figures from LinkedIn.

LinkedIn, which has over a million members in Ireland, says there was an 80% growth in the number of members describing themselves as an entrepreneur in March 2016 than there was in March 2015. There was also a 23.8% increase in the number of sole traders on the platform.

Companies are hiring more

Companies are hiring more people. The number of employers on LinkedIn with up to ten employees increased by 11.7% over a twelve-month period.

“It is positive to see the growth of SMEs and entrepreneurs as this is a real sign of business confidence,” says Sharon McCooey, senior director international operations and site leader of LinkedIn Ireland.

“We see new companies emerging in a range of diverse fields beyond the technology industry, such as professional services, architecture and the entertainment sector.”

Professionals moving to Ireland 

The Irish software sector has benefited most from professional migration to Ireland.  

There was a 36.1% increase in LinkedIn members based in Ireland working in the industry compared to last year (March 2016 Vs March 2015.)

Other sectors that experienced high levels of growth were the pharmaceutical (20.5%) and recruitment (19.4%) industries.

Latin America was the biggest net contributor of professionals to Ireland, followed by France, the Balkans & Eastern Europe, Asia and Italy respectively.  

In contrast, the regions that attracted the most professionals from Ireland were North America, the United Kingdom, the UAE, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia.

READ: How to use LinkedIn to recruit great people.

Is your’s a new company that manufactures stuff, that makes things? If so, Highway1, the PCH hardware accelerator, will interest you. 

Started three years ago, Highway1 has accelerated 67 new hardware companies, that have raised a combined $90 million in venture and crowd funding

The programme is open to companies in 12 countries, including Ireland.

Show me the money

The benefits of this programme are splendid. If you get a place you will receive full-time engineering support; 24/7 access to on-site prototyping labs; access to a network of industrial designers and mentors; a trip to Shenzhen, China, to learn about supply chain and manufacturing; and marketing, retail and funding support. 

Highway1 will also invest $50,000 – $100,000 in each successful new company in exchange for equity.

“Highway1 is becoming known as the most rigorous hardware programme in the world, and we are very proud of our graduates,” says Brady Forrest, VP Highway1.

Irish success stories

Irish Highway1 graduates include Drop – the iPad-connected kitchen scale, currently available at the Apple Store – and Ayda, a wearable fertility tracker.

The deadline to apply for the Autumn 2016 programme is May 23, 2016. Apply now.

READ: How to build your product and sell it.

Image from Shutterstock. ⊕

Extending the healthy human lifespan is this company’s mission.

Could yoghurt be the elixir of life? The founders of Ageria think so. 

American Corey Howe (front right) and his Austrian colleagues Andreas Stuermer, Alexander Gfrerer and David Weichselbaum set up their Irish company Ageria in 2015 with one radical aim – to develop a food product that offers, if not eternal youth, then at least the prospect of slowing down ageing.

The four met at a biohacker conference, and online, before participating in IndieBio, the Cork based synthetic biology accelerator programme founded by entrepreneur Bill Liao. 

Their goal is to create a high performance ‘second gen’ yoghurt capable of eating into the $260 billion global anti-ageing product market. ThinkBusiness.ie caught up with co-founder Corey Howe at his home in Ohio for a chat. 

The ‘Youngurt’

How would I describe our business? Extending the healthy human lifespan is our mission. Ageria is a company pioneering the custom modification of yoghurt bacterial strains to produce health-beneficial compounds. 

Our first product will be a yoghurt starter culture enriched in spermidine, which is known to extend lifespan in animals by up to 25% when supplemented. This ‘Youngurt’ will be the first direct source of spermidine on the market.

Our biggest achievement to date has been winning the 2015 Bank of Ireland startup award for Best Overseas Startup Setting up in Ireland.

Our lowest moment was when we got negative feedback from a potential partner and we coped with it by taking their feedback as motivation to make the right changes in our business.

Funding

At this point, our funding has been just from the business accelerator programme we participated in, IndieBio, but we have been in talks with several different investors.

We don’t have any state or bank support in our business so far.

If I were to start in business gain, I would act more quickly and spend less time planning. Many people inspire me in business and I admire Elon Musk, for his entrepreneurial ambitions. He just goes for it, no matter how big the project. 

Motivation

Being creative and doing something that has never been done motivates me. 

I have found in the startup world that I have a great balance regarding both getting to pave a new road and getting to go down a road already travelled. Being the sole provider of a particular product or service to the public is motivating to me too.

Ambition

It’s clear. To become a major yoghurt culture development company for the dairy industry and to be the leading company in the development of next generation yoghurt cultures.

Stress

It has to be time management. That stresses me. I find that there is always more to be doing and I sometimes struggle to stop working for the day because I don’t like the feeling of leaving something unfinished.

Business culture in Ireland

Honestly, I can’t think of anything to change. I have found Ireland to be a great place to start and grow a business. 

Finally, what business advice would you give to another new company?

Actions speak louder than words.

Imges from ageria-bio.com & Shutterstock. Article by Sandra O’Connell. ⊕

The Buddy Bench Aware Program has many aims, one of which is to give children valuable coping skills, including emotional confidence. 

If becoming successful in business requires mental toughness, then Buddy Bench Ireland might be helping foster the next generation of Irish leaders through its Buddy Bench Aware Program. 

Research has shown that anxiety is the most common psychological disorder amongst young people today, affecting up to 20% of teenagers and children. If left unattended, anxiety can have hugely detrimental effects on a young person’s development, potentially leading to underachievement in later life. 

Combating underachievement 

The Buddy Bench Aware Program is aimed at fighting anxiety. The Buddy Bench is a solid bench placed in schools where kids can take a moment to themselves. The Buddy Bench Aware Program is an initiative to build a more supportive culture in schools. It aims to show both staff and students the many reasons why a child might use the Buddy Bench, such as a student being new to the school, or having a problem with friends. 

The uptake among schools so far has been high. “The interest is phenomenal, and comes variously from individual parents, parents associations, teachers and headmasters, and even local community groups or donors that wish to sponsor the Buddy Bench,” says Buddy Bench’s Sam Synnott. However, she highlights the importance of the Buddy Bench Aware Program working in tandem with the physical bench itself for the initiative to be successful. “Our biggest challenge right now is getting the message across that without the Buddy Bench Aware Program and Workbook, which we have developed, the school is only installing another bench.” 

Building resilience 

While traditionally schools in Ireland have been focused on things like academics and sport, the Buddy Bench could help kids develop a host of other skills to benefit them later in their personal and professional lives. “Our mission is to support children to become emotionally confident and articulate. Through cultivating the core competencies of communication, mindfulness, and creativity, we are building emotional resilience and good mental health in our children,” says Synnott. “Children should learn the value of expressing oneself, the importance of difference and diversity in making the whole stronger, more creative, happier and healthier.” 

READ: 50 supports for new companies in Ireland.

Main image from Shutterstock. ⊕

If you are starting or running a business, the first thing you should ask is – how will my customers enjoy their experience with my brand?

User experience (UX) and customer experience (CX) may seem like buzzwords. However, they’ve been around for a very long time, it’s just now, in the digital and social age, they matter more than ever.

Danielle O’Connell’s and Lauren Higgs’ new company, Good as Gold, is a brand experience agency. Higgs says the way your customers experience your brand defines you and can make or break your business.

“The brand experience is the emotive experience people have of your company at all touch points – physically, visually and digitally,” says Higgs.

“People want things now, at the touch of a button, and we want convenience. Brands need to know that if a person has a poor experience at any stage of the interaction with their brand they will not only switch off, but they’ll tell others about it too.”

Don’t lose customers, win them

Your website is often the first time a customer will experience your brand. If it doesn’t look right or they can’t navigate it easily, you will lose them.

“Understanding UX and ensuring a user can navigate a website intuitively is vital, it’ll guarantee their return and continued use,” says O’Connell. 

However, Good as Gold doesn’t just focus on digital. We all live in the non-digital world. UX and CX apply just as much, if not more, in the tangible world of sight, smell and touch.

“We don’t separate ‘digital’ and ‘non-digital’. For example, we recently worked on the launch of a new restaurant which based its ethos around becoming part of the local community. Before it opened the doors, we designed and wrote a beautiful letter, hand-signed and delivered by the owners to the surrounding residents telling them what was happening,” says O’Connell. “This became social media gold as residents took to their Twitter accounts to publicly thank the restaurant – achieving the kind of brand associations we wanted and at the same time making the community feel they were part of this new business.”

What does good CX look like?

“Check out Irish company mustard.ie – superb UX with integrated customer communication tools to get the most out of their users,” suggests Higgs. 

Is there a brand/company out there you’d love to work on because you can see its potential if it was to reconsider its UX & CX?

“We’ll aim high with this one but to be perfectly honest, we’d love to work with Apple,” says O’Connell. 

“In the past, it led the way in UX design and set an exceptional standard when it came to making great products. But, somewhere along the way it slipped.

“Experience is not high on the priority list with Apple at the moment. The company’s original tagline – ‘Does more, costs less. It’s that simple’ – is just an indicator of how far it’s away from its initial focus.”

If you were in charge of a city’s UX, take Dublin as an example, what would you do? 

“The first place to begin with an existing, established product is to find out what makes it so unfriendly to users.

“If we find out what is currently creating the poor experience, we can work to redesign things in a way that makes for happy users.

“When it comes to Dublin City, we all have our grievances, the top four being; anti-social behavior and crime, traffic and public transport, litter and rude people.

“We’d propose a solution to focus on the route of these problems.

“If you take yourself out of Dublin and look at what cities around the world are doing to ensure the best possible experience for their inhabitants and tourists, you’ll find our European counterparts are leagues ahead. Smart cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Barcelona are leading the way,” says O’Connell. 

“By establishing an inclusive society and embracing creativity, we can reduce anti-social behaviour and crime,” suggests Higgs. 

“By ensuring a healthy, safe, culturally vibrant and happy community, we can minimise the number of rude people.

“Obviously, throw in some free city wifi, a give-a-hug initiative and free balloons on Fridays to get the ball rolling!”

READ: How to use Snapchat for business. 

Images from Good as Gold. Dublin image by Bartkowski, Shutterstock. 

The main image features Danielle O’Connell (left) and Lauren Higgs (right). ⊕

Waterford Distillery, set up two years ago by Mark Reynier, is doing something revolutionary in Ireland’s agri-food industry, and it’s all to do with the soil. 

The wine industry worldwide has been built on the importance of ‘terroir’, the set of characteristics imbued in the finished product by the environment in which its raw ingredients are grown. In the whiskey industry, not so much.

Until now.

Waterford Distillery, established two years ago by entrepreneur and third-generation wine merchant Mark Reynier, aims to prove that the soil in which barley grows contributes every bit as much to whiskey as it does to wine.

It’s something he already proved with Bruichladdich, the Scottish whiskey company he founded in 2000 and sold 12 years later to Remy Cointreau for £58 million. In 2014, he took up the challenge again, this time in Ireland, buying the former Guinness brewery in Waterford and renaming it the Waterford Distillery.

“Our whiskey has just three ingredients, water, barley, and yeast,” explains head brewer Lisa Ryan. She is a brewer rather than a distiller because most of the process involved in whiskey making is brewing, she points out.

What’s perhaps unique about Waterford Distillery is that its commercial journey has started not with a view to the end product, nor to potential markets, but entirely on what goes in from the outset.

To this end Ryan has signed up 46 barley farmers in the south-east of Ireland “the finest barley growing region in the world”, she says. Between them, they are growing barley on 19 different soil types, with six of her farmers producing organic grain.

Each farmer will produce 100 tonnes of barley a year which is then dried and malted.

“The malting process tricks the grain, which is initially hard, into thinking it is in the soil. It is heated and sprinkled with water, with the result that it germinates and softens,” says Ryan.

Once distilled, what is then called ‘new make spirit’ is put into oak casks and left to mature.

“By law you can’t call it whiskey until it has aged in a cask for at least three years,” says Ryan. “We’ve only just begun doing that since January 2016, but already we can taste the difference that comes from the various soil types. We’re getting a light, floral quality that is very smooth.”

“When we went out to find our farmers initially, they knew exactly the difference types of barley that their various fields would produce. They ‘got’ it straight away,” she says.

The relationship between the distillery and its farmers is a close one, thanks in part to an app from farm technology company Farmflo. “All our farmers have it on their mobile phones, and they use it to record everything they do on their field, all of which we get to see. Over time, we build up the complete story of every step, which consumers will be able to see too.”

“There are four big distilleries in Ireland and, while they may emphasise their history, their primary internal emphasis is on efficiencies and standardisation. We are coming at things from an entirely different perspective. Our whole focus is on slowness, based on the belief that the soil imparts a particular flavour to the whiskey. For us, it’s all about slowing down the process and allowing those characteristics to develop fully.”

Only then will the company develop strategies around such things as branding, marketing, and sales. “We haven’t even got a sales team yet. Our total focus right now is on making the best possible whiskey we can, knowing that we will then be able to show consumers its provenance, tracked throughout the entire process, right back to the farmer who grew the barley and the field he grew it in. That traceability is entirely new in the whiskey industry.”

This year the distillery will produce one million litres of alcohol, ramping up to three million litres in year five.

But Ryan, who previously worked for drinks giant Diageo, is in no hurry. “We’re in the wonderfully privileged position of not having to look for efficiencies. Where in other companies there’d be pressure to add enzymes to speed up the fermentation process, for example, here we’re seeking to do the opposite – adding nothing, taking nothing away, just keeping it pure.”

Pictured are Lisa Ryan (top) and Mark Reynier. Images from Waterford Distillery. ⊕

READ: Ireland’s craft beer and spirits market is on the rise. 

The energy efficiency and renewable energy sectors offer a potential ‘green goldmine’ for Irish firms thanks to big energy targets Ireland must meet by 2020. 

The number of Irish homes and businesses to be upgraded for energy efficiency needs to treble if Ireland is to meet its energy efficiency and renewable energy targets by 2020, says the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). 

Oisin Coghlan, Friends of the Earth director, says there will be a cost to the taxpayer – in the form of substantial fines – if Ireland’s green commitment is not met. 

“[Businesses] may not be focused on climate action right now, but they won’t thank our politicians if they sleepwalk us into billions of euro worth of fines for missing our targets.”

Coghlan suggests the potential boost to the economy, by going green and trying to meet Ireland’s energy targets, would be enormous. “The investment to achieve the goals would also give us warmer homes and cleaner air and create tens of thousands of jobs.”

Green economy

Ireland’s potential to develop and sustain a thriving green economy has been discussed for some time, but little has been done to take advantage of the opportunities in wind energy, building energy efficient homes, green financing, green agriculture, and electric cars. 

Denmark, similar in size to Ireland with an agricultural heritage like our own, has vowed to become the first country in the world to be entirely rid of fossil fuels by 2050.

It’s so far so good for the Danes. Wind energy now accounts for 40% of Denmark’s annual electricity needs and employs almost 30,000 people. Investment in biomass and green tech are also integral to its strategy. With the same investment and focus from an Irish Government, it’s thought that Ireland’s green economy could mirror Denmark’s.

Opportunities for SMEs

The SEAI report highlights the gap between where Ireland is now and where it needs to get to by 2020, to meet its green targets. With time running out for a Government to act, there are some areas where Irish SMEs could take advantage of emerging green business opportunities. These include:

Retrofitting homes

The SEAI says if targets are to be met, up to 75,000 homes and businesses need to be retrofitted for energy efficiency. With an increase in government grants, construction firms with the ability to make the upgrades could do great business.

Wind energy

Ireland needs an additional 200-250MW of wind capacity before 2020, and will need the engineers and manpower to do it. There’s no reason Irish SMEs could not lead the way in this space, perhaps following the Danish model of offering 20% equity in the projects to members of the local community.

Electric cars

20% of all new cars sales in Ireland over the next five years need to be electric vehicles if we are to hit our targets. This figure seems unrealistic, but with a determined government commitment including grants and subsidies, the sales and servicing of electric cars could be a new, vibrant sector. 

READ: Ireland’s first drive-through green waste centre. 

Images from Shutterstock. d13 / Shutterstock.com. ⊕

James Corneille is a 17-year-old Irish entrepreneur. His latest venture is the Positivity Pack.

Is this your first venture?

I may be 17, but I’ve tried to launch other projects and businesses. This is the first time anything has taken off. I went from failure from failure until I hit success.

What is the Positivity Pack?

Positivity Pack is a chill-out kit for those horrible, rainy, hair-pulling, frustrating and unfortunate days.

There are lots of those with the Irish weather. Who is the product for?

Someone who’s a bit stressed, or unhappy or has a friend feeling blue. It’s also aimed at people who want a bit of fun. I also cater for the corporate side of things with custom, branded packs.

How does it ‘work’?

If there’s someone in your life right now that you think needs a bit of cheering up, you can surprise them with a Positivity Pack, or even get one for yourself. You can send it anonymously (or add your name), and include a personal message. It’s like spreading that Friday feeling. You can also send customised packs to connect with friends. Employers can also post custom, branded packs to employees on special occasions or just to show they care.

What do you want to achieve with this project?

I want to get enough money so I can make a difference and power more positive projects. That’s the end game – helping others.

How do people buy one?

They can buy it from the site from as little as €6 – positivitypack.com.

What’s your ambition for the future?

I’m not sure with regards to college; I’m still applying to go, but at the moment it’s to keep working on Positivity Pack. I’ll do whatever seems best for my career.

If you were the ‘ruler of Ireland for a day’ what would you do?

I’d Google ‘How to be the ruler of Ireland for a day!’ Ha ha. I’d make more importance on mental health and probably do a few more press releases about Positivity Pack.

READ MORE: Bill Liao and Sean O’Sullivan give their top tips for survival to new companies and budding business people.

Photos from James Corneille. ⊕

If you sell online or plan to sell online, you should know how to use Google Analytics.

Used properly, Google Analytics allows you to:

• Understand your customers, their preferences and online behaviours
• Establish the key terms that are used to find your products and services
• Help you channel traffic through your website and to key destination pages such as a registration processor logging an enquiry
• Identify how traffic comes to your website and the mix of that traffic
• Focus your resources – both money and time – on online advertising campaigns that deliver the best return on investment 

Not too long ago larger businesses used to pay several thousands of euros each year for analytics software on their sites that didn’t provide many of the features that Google Analytics currently provides. Many smaller businesses did without and instead relied on guesswork to understand how their websites were performing and how they were adding value.

Not anymore. Google Analytics has transformed how businesses analyse and act on website traffic. Many larger businesses no longer pay for web analytics, finding that Google Analytics meets most of their needs. There are exceptions – some eCommerce businesses and online publishers which rely on digital advertising for revenue will use other specialist analytics software on their websites to provide granular data or commercial metrics they need.

For many smaller businesses, Google Analytics has provided rich new sources of data that can be used to make everyday business decisions and also to assist with their strategic planning.

The obvious benefits

Here are five ways your business can benefit from use of Google Analytics:

1. Keyword insights: you may think you know your customer or your prospective customer. You may also think you know the words and phrases they will use to find your business or your products or services. The reality is that you don’t really know. Google Analytics will give you objective evidence about the important keywords used based on the data currently being used by your target audience.
2. Customer insights: once you understand the keywords used, you can then understand through analytics more about their online behaviours. For instance, you can segment your customers or prospects into groups who use your brand name as a search term and those who don’t. Then you can compare each group’s behaviour on your website. Through this type of data you can optimise your website to maximise goals such as online visibility, engagement and conversion.
3. Traffic insights: analytics will help you identify the traffic that lands on your site and what happens to that traffic. That will help you understand which search engines, social media or paid advertising campaigns are referring traffic and lead to a conversion into a sale. That will help you decide on where you should focus your advertising budget and your energies
4. Page analytics: you can understand if each page is meeting user needs and business goals. You can set up analytics so that it reports how well each page is performing and whether or not it is sending potential leads down the “funnel” to make a purchase, complete a form, register for a service or simply contact you through your “Contact Us” page.
5. Better decision making: using this data you can make better decisions based on real data. You can decide which marketing channels to focus on. You can decide on where to make web development or content decisions. You can track performance daily, weekly, monthly – or whatever interval best suits your business. Over time this data will build up into a long term view about what is driving your target audience to and from your website. This can allow you to make some strategic business decisions.

Learning about analytics

Google Analytics is designed to be used by non-technical people. The set-up – placing a tracking code on your website – is best handled by a web developer. However, you should ensure you control the Google Analytics account yourself and that you do the the administrative set up (username and password).

Apart from the fact that the account provides access to sensitive data that relates to your business, if a third party has access to your account there could be handover issues if you want to switch developer at some stage in the future. This has been the unfortunate experience of some business owners who have had disagreements with web developers or who decide to switch to new suppliers and who find themselves locked out of their Google Analytics accounts.

While there are courses available on how to use Google Analytics, the reality is that Google itself provides a lot of training and support for free. The Google Analytics Academy provides help to novice users. It provides eLearning courses along with a dedicated YouTube channel and an analytics blog.

Most people who use analytics are self-taught. The analytics “interface” – what you are presented on the screen – is easy to use. To get maximum benefit from Google Analytics, you need to set goals and customise the settings to ensure that the reports that are generated meet your business needs.

Other analytics packages

Some businesses opt to run other analytics packages on their sites. For smaller businesses, other popular choices include:

• OpenWeb Analytics: this open source platform is completely free to use, has no data limits and can be used on an unlimited number of websites. Advantages include conversion statistics, visitor flow, mouse movement records and multi-page click heatmaps, but the downside is you must install it onto your web server yourself
• StatCounter: an Irish platform, StatCounter can be used to monitor activity in real time, and is free to use. Advantages include quick results, good individual tracking and an easy set-up process.