Crowd funding

I was at the Innovation 2.0 conference and at the entrepreneur’s day as part of the world conference on entrepreneurship. Two great conferences. There was a common theme (Drucker has always said that entepreneurship and innovation are two sides of the same coin) and that was crowd funding. In Ireland we have Linked Finance, Fundit, nTrai, iFund, Moneycrowd and Cofunder. I am sure that I forgetting some and please let me know if I have and we will include you.

Micro finance

Another form of finance is Microfinace Ireland. With its spanking new CEO Michael Johnson, an old friend of Smallbusinesscan. They manage the  Microenterprise Loan Fund. It is targeted at start-up or growing microenterprises across all industry sectors. We work with businesses based in the Republic of Ireland, with less than 10 employees and a turnover of less than €2m. Providing unsecured business loans of €2,000 to €25,000 for commercially viable proposals that have been declined bank credit.

They will also consider co-funding bank proposals. Microenterprises that have experienced both formal and informal declines from their bank are eligible to apply for a loan with us. The interest rate on our loans is 8.8% APR fixed and repayments are by monthly direct debit. Loans are generally for 3 years for working capital facilities. Loans up to 5 years may be considered if it involves financing of capital expenditure such as equipment, machinery or vehicles. The business can be trading as a sole trader, a partnership or a limited company. You can apply here

And you are not alone. Adare farm, Kitchen incubators Kerry, Big Adventures Island and Castemine farm are examples of successful applicants

If you need help with your application, let us know, we be happy to help.

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