Page 16 - Sligo X North West

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Supports
An exchange where the big bosses help the little guys
24 companies will have 24 hours to meet 24 entrepreneurs for all sorts of advice on business.
Aaron Forde, chief executive of Aurivo, is one of the business peo- ple taking part in an initiative to encourage newer business owners to move up to the next level.
The Entrepreneur Exchange, which is being held in the Radisson hotel in Rosses Point tomorrow and Friday was estab- lished to encourage entrepreneurship in the North West.
It is being run by Sligo Chamber of Commerce, the Western Development Commission (WDC) and the Enterprise Europe Network. Others taking part are Sligo success stories including Fergal Broder of LotusWorks, Tommy Higgins of Access Media, George Mullan of SIS and Frank Boyle of ProTek Medical.
Aaron Forde says that as Aurivo is a
company that grew from the community, it was important to him to volunteer his time at events like the Entrepreneur Exchange.
“It is hugely important to us that we are community focussed and that we are based and rooted in the community and part of that is working with community entrepre- neurs,” says Forde. “We want to encourage all these businesses, from those who will remain small to those who will go on to be- come global successes. They are sustaining the North West of Ireland and anything we can do to encourage that we will.”
Aurivo has 700 staff in the West and North West with more than 200 of them employed in the greater Sligo region. Its genesis came from the co-operative move- ment in the 1890s and 1900s. Aurivo was born from a series of mergers of co-opera-
tive parent companies.
Being based in Sligo is hugely impor-
tant to Aurivo’s roots as a rural company and most of the raw materials for their products come from
the county. However, it
also has a focus on the international market with exporting expected to increase next April with the lifting of the milk quotas. Being based in Sligo helps rather than hinders this work.
“Our clean, green image is extremely important to us. When we bring people from outside Ireland here to
visit they are so impressed by how envi- ronmentally sustainable the whole set-up is. Far from being an impediment, it is a real selling point,” says Forde.
€15,000 from New Frontiers
The North West has become some- thing of a hotbed for startups and businesses of all kinds and many
of them enter an entrepreneur pro- grammed funded by Enterprise Ireland. ‘New Frontiers’ is delivered through a joint collaboration between IT Sligo and LYIT and a call for entry in 2015 is open.
Since 2012, NF North West has worked with over 120 start-ups offering tax-free grants, mentoring and workshop training.
Participants have come from sectors such as food, consumer products, inter- nationally traded services, engineering, clean-technologies, financial, and enter- prise software.
Sean Clancy of Building Control Register.ie , a cloud-based admin and inspection software company, based in
Sligo, said: “I would encourage anyone with a business idea to apply.
“I was provided with fantastic resources including market validation advice, direction on marketing and sales, structured business development, one to one mentoring and coaching. “
New Frontiers is delivered in three phases with those in phase two eligible for a tax-free grant of €15,000.
Programme manager Dr. Michelle Connolly says: “The aim of the pro- gramme is to support and develop sus- tainable businesses whom in turn create jobs and add to the development of the North West.”
The programme is currently recruit- ing for Phase 1 and 2 for 2015. For further information please visit www.newfron- tiersnw.ie
How WestBIC can help growth
WestBIC is a unique support organisation that specialises in assisting innovative start-up businesses all along Ireland’s
west coast.
The company helps to professionalise a
concept or business to the point that inves- tors may be ready to come on board.
Its ‘hard and soft’ incubation services include securing office space, coaching for business plans and angel funding, master- classes in pitching to angel investors and access to international networks.
It has helped Sligo companies on the road to success including CleverMiles, Epo- na Biotech and Episcan, all of them based at IT Sligo’s BIC.
WestBIC Chief executive Joe Greaney leads a team of 14 staff with expertise across a range of business needs such as financials, marketing, business planning, scaling a business and pitching for funds.
WestBIC typically assists high potential start-ups to secure funding from the State, investors and banks, cash that can help a business move to the next level.
Greaney is excited about the possiblities for 2015 and beyond and firmly believes Ireland needs to think beyond Dublin in supporting innovation and job-creation.
“Ireland is suffering badly from a cen- tralist mindset, you can see it in the way news is reported, funding is allcoated, even in the way weather forecasts are made: it’s all an east coast/Dublin perspective.
“The government needs to create the conditions for subventing innovation in the west; with infrastructure, funding sup- ports, giving people reasaons to decentral- ise away from Dublin. There is life outside Silicon Docks!,” adds Greaney.
The Mayo man paid tribute to the way IT Sligo and LYIT continues to collaborate on helping start-ups (WestBIC founded CEIM the first joint campus Platform Pro- gramme to support innovative start-ups.)
“The North West is poised to take ad- vantage of the current uplift,” says Greaney. “The role of the two colleges is immense. Both have a modern, outward looking programme that is open and connecting across borders.”
WestBIC is a member of the European BIC Network (EBN) and Greaney says the ability to leverage the 250 strong-member- ship is a powerful weapon for his clients.
Greaney was EBN president for two years until 2012 and cites how the Stuttgart BIC member has recently helped Clever- Miles on work in the German market.
26 November 2014