When it comes to creating strong connections, networking is most effective when online and offline activities are combined.
Social postings can help build our profiles, but it can also be difficult to be ‘heard above the noise’ of the millions of daily online posts.
Some years ago I helped build and grow a global online network. To achieve this I used Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and email marketing. However, I discovered when physically launching the network in New York and London, that ‘on the ground’ networking was as important as the online activity.
Each of us has a combination of strong and weak connections within our networks. We all need to work at improving our networking skills. Here are some tips to help nurture your own business network.
Harry, meet Sally
As appropriate, make introductions between your connections. Ideally you should seek the permission of both parties. We all remember those people who made introductions for us which proved beneficial to our businesses.
Pay it forward
Reach out to share information that may help your contacts. It’s good to ‘pay it forward’ and not to be always looking for something for ourselves in return. This attitude has been a key component in the success of Silicon Valley’s start-up ethos.
Give due credit
Engage with your online connections directly (e.g. by congratulating them on new career roles.) This also gives you a chance to update them on your current situation and explore possible synergies that may exist between you.
Ask to get
The old adage is true: if you don’t ask you don’t get. Use the knowledge and influence of your network, by asking for help when you need it. Most people are glad to help, if they can. It is equally good to engage and offer your help to others. After all, what’s the point in building networks if we don’t help
The startup trying to unearth Ireland’s next sporting superstars
KPOS Sports Management is a startup sports agency set up by four solicitors who believe they can offer athletes unparalleled supports which will help their career progression. Co-founder Stephen Kirwan talks to ThinkBusiness about his vision.
What is KPOS Sports Management?
KPOS Sports Management is a one-stop shop for financial, commercial and legal solutions for individual athletes and sports clubs. We provide financial advice to young athletes who want to play professional sports and we also work with clubs in those areas on an advisory basis.
Why was the company started?
There are four directors on the board and we are all fully qualified solicitors and we feel spotted a gap in the legal market in terms of offering advice on sports law. We’re all really passionate about sport, particularly Irish sport, and when we did the market research we believed there was a void that needed to be filled. There are some really good negotiators out there who deal solely with contracts, but there are very few people who can deal with that along with sorting out visas, financial advice and source commercial deals all under the one roof. By offering all these services together, we can keep our overheads down and not have to outsource different things. So we found that our competitors in the market offer a much narrower product. Also we Brexit coming up, we believe it’s going to offer a fantastic opportunity for Irish athletes.
Is it difficult getting athletes in Ireland on board with what you are trying to do?
The Irish sports market is somewhat stagnant at the moment. When you break it down, there are hundreds of kids moving over to the UK every year to play sports. So we see the UK as one of our primary markets, along with the rest of the continent and the US.
Find the best tradespeople in Ireland
Mick Dillon founded TrustedPeople.ie shortly after he renovated his home. The project gave him his light-bulb moment which he then turned into a business.
TrustedPeople.ie is a website for homeowners where they can view the portfolio work of builders, interior designers, landscapers, roofers and 20+ other categories of home professionals.
“I had difficulties finding competent and capable people to work on my home, and I felt a website showcasing the previous work of builders, carpenters, landscapers and other tradespeople would be a useful resource,” says Dillon.
What is your USP?
We help homeowners find and assess the most suitable tradespeople for a project. The fact that we’re now showcasing over 50,000 photos of completed projects from tradespeople based in Ireland is our main unique selling point. We also detail how many years a tradesperson is in business, their legal status, qualifications and professional memberships.
How did you fund the business?
We started the company out of blood, sweat and tears and the business is self-funded. We hope to launch in the UK within the next 12 months.
“We help homeowners find and assess the most suitable tradespeople for a project.”
What were the unforeseen challenges?
The biggest challenge is having the discipline to prioritise the user experience of homeowners, over short-term commercial opportunities. This requires saying ‘no thanks, we don’t want your money’ to tradespeople we feel don’t fit the ethos of the TrustedPeople.ie website. Also, staying focused on developing features that are the most important to the user, and not getting side-tracked by sexy, glamorous tech and features that ultimately do little to improve the user experience.
If you were to do it again would you do anything differently?
I wouldn’t do too many things differently if I was to do it all over again. I made enough mistakes in my first business to last a lifetime. Away from work, my two
One minute interview: Mick Dillon
After selling his car classifieds website in 2016, Mick Dillon founded TrustedPeople.ie shortly afterwards when he was in the process of renovating his home. That was when he had a light-bulb moment.
TrustedPeople.ie is a website for homeowners to view the previous work of builders, interior designers, landscapers, roofers and 20+ other categories of home professionals. “I had difficulties myself in finding competent and capable people to work on my home, and I felt a website showcasing the previous work of builders, carpenters, landscapers and other trades people would be a useful resource,” says Dillon.
“We help homeowners find and assess the most suitable tradespeople for a home related project. The fact that we’re now showcasing over 50,000 photos of completed projects from tradespeople based in Ireland is our main unique selling point (USP). We also detail how many years a tradesperson is in business, their legal status, qualifications and professional memberships.”
“We started the company out of blood, sweat and tears and the business is self-funded. We hope to launch in the UK within the next 12 months.”
“We help homeowners find and assess the most suitable tradespeople for a home related project”
“The biggest challenge is having the discipline to prioritise the user experience of homeowners, over short-term commercial opportunities. This requires saying ‘no thanks, we don’t want your money’ to tradespeople we feel don’t fit the ethos of the TrustedPeople.ie website. Also staying focused on developing features that are the most important to the user, and not getting side-tracked by sexy, glamorous tech and features that ultimately do little to improve the user experience.
“I wouldn’t do too many things differently if I was to do it all over again. I made enough mistakes in my first business to last a lifetime. Away from work, my two kids have helped me the most.
ThinkWaterford
What does County Waterford have to offer startups and what supports are available to entrepreneurs in this wonderful county? Ita O’Sullivan explores what’s on offer.
This post was originally published here - https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/thinkwaterford-starting-business-in-county-waterford/ on
The ThinkBusiness Show – episode two
Pamela Laird is of the most innovative entrepreneurs ThinkBusiness has interviewed. Here, Pamela gives fascinating insights into how to bootstrap a business and then scale it with a global ambition.
The ThinkBusiness Show is a business show with a difference.
[SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE HERE.]
A Fitbit for farm animals
Richard Hobson set out to build an inexpensive tag to monitor the key performance indicators of farm animals, for the one billion people, who rely on livestock, for their livelihood around the world.
In 2015, Hobson travelled from Dublin to Eagle Labs in Cambridge to access funds and developed an initial prototype. Here he tells the story behind his ‘Fitbit for farm animals’ vision and the groundwork in opening up new global markets for tagging and tracking, from cashmere goats in China to wild stock conservation of rhino and buffalo in South Africa.
How are you different for the other monitors on the market?
We offer a smart device that helps you to monitor farm profitability, and because of its intelligent design, we don’t need to charge the earth for it. It’s also the world’s first tag that can be used on any animal, making it both flexible and cost-effective. Herdsy’s primary target market is the (non-dairy) dry stock farm which is most in need of affordable digitisation, as current ag-tech is proving too expensive and too complicated for the needs of these farmers.
Herdsy is a unique technology as it only requires a small number of tags (from two to four tags, depending on herd size) to extrapolate the health of an entire herd, radically cutting down the cost of ag-tech, which means that it’s 95% as good as tagging every animal but 98% cheaper. The first Herdsy collar combines a mix of smart sensors featuring GPS, a 3D-accelerometer, temperature sensors, barometric pressure, heart and pulse monitors and body mass measures.
We aim to help the farmer optimise profitability by using our technology to monitor his herd or flock continuously and provide alerts and updates on lameness, weight gain, location mapping and even informing the farmer if a dog is chasing his sheep.
“We have
‘Starting a business in Ireland is so much easier’
Luca Micheli moved from his native Rome, Italy, to Dublin to set up a business, Customerly. He has developed iOS apps ever since the App Store opened with his most successful app receiving 6.5 million downloads. This is his story.
What is Customerly?
Three years ago, some friends and I started building what Customerly is today. It is an all-in-one platform with a simple goal – to bridge the gap between you and your customers.
“In Italy, everything is more complex. Here in Ireland, everything is easier.”
What need are you meeting?
Previously, we had to use at least three different tools to run automated marketing campaigns, to help customers online and to run surveys. Those days are over. Customerly users are experiencing huge benefits with the help desk perfectly integrated with their own database and CRM.
With our product you can:
Acquire more leads
Support your users and visitors
Nurture them with automation triggered by their data and behaviour
Collect their feedback
Run surveys
The good news is that you can achieve all of this without importing and exporting data through different services. There are two kinds of people: those who struggle by using three different tools to support, collect feedback and automate their businesses and those who want to keep things simple and in just one place. This is the value that makes Customerly so powerful and unique.
“The good news is that you can achieve all of this without importing and exporting data through different services.”
Was it difficult to set up a business in a new country?
No, not at all. In Italy, everything is more complex. Here in Ireland, everything is easier. I can still remember the first call with my Irish accountant, I was just so astonished by how easy things are here. This is one of the reasons why we chose Ireland to set up our business. Bank
One of Ireland’s best cycling holidays
Having moved to Australia to work in financial services, chartered accountant John Kennedy decided he wanted to try something different when he returned to Ireland. Here’s the story of West Ireland Cycling.
Why did you start West Ireland Cycling?
I started West Ireland Cycling in July 2016. My wife’s uncle and his uncle before him had run cycling businesses in Galway since the 1960s. My mother grew up on Eyre’s Square and so I spent a lot of my childhood in Galway City and always wanted to live here.
Spending time away from Ireland helped us appreciate just how lucky we are to have grown up here. Ireland is full of amazing, unspoilt scenery. The people are extremely friendly, we have an ancient history dating back thousands of years and evidence of this history is carved into a breathtakingly beautiful landscape.
Shortly after we returned home to Ireland my wife’s uncle, unfortunately, passed away and his cycling business closed down. We saw a chance to re-open the business, take it in a new direction and share our passion for Ireland and cycling so we moved to Galway, opened a new shop and the rest is history. It has been a huge learning curve but we knew we made the right decision.
“A shared experience outside the normal corporate environment has a big impact on team building.”
How successful has it been to date?
It has been great. We have been growing each year and the feedback from our customers is really rewarding. We rely heavily on word-of-mouth and TripAdvisor and these have been going really well for us. We received the Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence Winner 2015, 2016 and 2017.
The fastest growing part of the business is short-term, customised, activity based breaks for corporate clients. We have some of the top four accountancy firms and larger banks coming back to us this year which is great to see. They say a shared experience outside the normal corporate environment has a big impact on team building and team morale. Ultimately this makes for stronger relationships within a team, improving communication and increasing efficiency.
The other growing part of the business is our bike shop here in Galway. We offer sales and bike repair service to the local community too and as word spreads, we are seeing more people come through the doors, which is great.
“We tailor the holiday to the customer’s need and add in a few surprises we think they might like as well.”
What is your USP?
I grew up in Mayo and love the outdoors. I love anything to do with history, cycling, running and swimming in general. I love sharing this passion with as many people as possible. A lot of our competitors are internet-based businesses offering the same all-inclusive holiday experiences as West Ireland Cycling but are not based here. They don’t live here and I feel that our passion for this part of Ireland really gives us a unique advantage, and the feedback from customers is great. We genuinely feel that Ireland is a great destination for a cycling and activity based holiday. We tailor the holiday to the customer’s need and add in a few surprises we think they might like as well.
What are your plans for the future?
Expansion along the coast and developing some overseas markets particularly across the Atlantic are the long term goals. In the short-term, we are concentrating of promoting our cycling tours in the quieter times of the season. The best time to cycle around Ireland is September and October. The weather is usually nice, the evenings are still long and the best cycling areas are quieter than they would otherwise be midsummer.
What inspired you to start a business?
My main motivation is my family. We have two young kids and a third on the way so I want to be able to spend time with my kids as they grow up, live in the west of Ireland close to family and friends and work at something that I enjoy every day.
“I feel that our passion for this part of Ireland really gives us a unique advantage.”
The west has a strong tourism sector, do you see other attractions as competition?
No, I wouldn’t see other attractions in the west as competition. On the contrary, I see these as complementary to the service we offer and a busy tourism sector means there is a healthy market which is all good for us. Ultimately, Ireland is competing with the rest of the world for tourism. We have a lot of excellent attractions and also the potential for a lot more. Learning to develop and harness these attractions in a way that benefits the people who live here is the main challenge as I see it, whether that be through tourism or any other way.
Did the growing popularity of cycling in Ireland play a key role in setting up the business?
Sure, the growing popularity of cycling helped us be more confident in our decision to take this on. No doubt about that. I think cycling becoming more popular in Ireland reflects a broader trend of people moving away from spending their money on material things and opting instead for an enjoyable and memorable experience. Whether that be in the mode of transport to get to work, a holiday or as a hobby. It is more rewarding, in my opinion, to move across the land under your own steam, by bike, for example than face the alternative journey by bus or car. Attitudes are changing in Ireland and the growing popularity in cycling is one small part of that.
What has been the biggest help to your business?
I cannot overstate how important the Workbench in Galway was in getting our business off the ground and I know a half-dozen family-runly run startups who feel the same way. It creates jobs. It helps turn ideas into viable businesses. It is great to see such forward-thinking from the management at Bank of Ireland and I really believe they are on to a long-term winner with this one.
Related Resource
Cycling outdoors is one of the best forms of fitness, but check out these very good alternative methods you can use
This post was originally published here - https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/best-holiday-cycle-in-ireland/ on
Related Resource
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Cycling outdoors is one of the best forms of fitness, but check out these very good alternative methods you can use
Diary of a student entrepreneur, Vol. 2
Three student entrepreneurs on the LaunchBox programme at Trinity have agreed to chronicle their adventures, the highs and the lows, as they build their businesses. Here are their second diary entries.
Lizzy Hayashida, Change Donations
In September 2018, I landed in Dublin to start my MBA at Trinity, and before I knew it, I was boarding a bus to Belmullet with the other 48 students in my cohort.
Day one was about meeting the class of 2018 and learning a bit about Irish history. On day two we were assigned the teams we would be working in for the remainder of the year. It was in this first team assignment that Willie, Amelia and I first met.
We’ve come a long way from the day we first met fresh off the bus in Belmullet. Since then we have gone from having a vision (to digitise the donation process), to creating our company, Change Donations. We have (almost) completed our MBAs and we have been working on the LaunchBox, Trinity’s student accelerator, since early June.
“The best advice we’ve received to date has been the importance of refining our story until we could quickly and easily explain our vision to anyone.”
LaunchBox has been an excellent way for us to really focus on building Change. Probably the most significant benefit from the programme and the best advice we’ve received to date has been the importance of refining our story until we could quickly and easily explain our vision to anyone who was interested (and some who weren’t). The plethora of speakers and mentors that we have had access to has been invaluable, helping us refine our story and ensuring that we stay focused on the core business first.
We still have a lot of work ahead of us, which we have broken down into two-week sprints. Over the