focusme issue 2

All Your Business Needs: Marketing / Health & Safety / Company Focus / National and Local Issues

Issue 2 Jan. 2011 Monthly Issue €3.50

plusAIB: APPLYING FOR FINANCE

What The Parties Will Do For Your BusinessCompany Focus: SES Systems & Babog Baby

Is Ireland Destined To Be Stagnant?Black Gold To Black Death-Life in the Gulf of Mexico

Making PILLARS not

CRUTCHES

CommandmentsFor Better networking

Networking

Confidenceit’s all about

Marketing

Is Your Business

Prepared?

Health & Safety

10

The Busines Magazine Dedicated to SME’socusmef The Business Magazine Dedicated To SME’s

www.focusme.ie

2 Volume1 Issue 2 Jan 2011

Finance

Preparing Your Application For Funding

Starting a business is a challenging task, especially in the difficult business environment that currentlyprevails. But even in a downturn there are opportunities, whether it be a change in consumer spending habits, a changing competitive landscape, the application of new technologies to an existing business model, or simply the hatching of new ideas.

It can be daunting for businesses to apply for credit from their bank so it’s helpful for borrowers to understand the thought process from the Bank’s perspective. A bank will use a business plan not only for information purposes, but also as a tool to explore the commitment, competencies and resilience of the borrower and the proposed business idea. A good lender will ask questions, probe responses and build a mutual understanding of each party’s perspective of the business plan. It provides the promoter with ample opportunity to offer reasons why their business idea deserves support and bank finance.

So what does a lender generally look at, when faced with a request for bank finance? AIB has published a short guide to applying for finance, which offers practical help to business customers in their relationship with the bank. In general, the Bank will seek assurance in 5 key areas. For ease these are referred to as ‘the 5 Cs’. It’s worth giving some thought to how your business will stand up to assessment in each of these areas. This will help you to assess your stronger and perhaps weaker points as they are likely to appear to the lender when assessing your credit application.

CollateralCollateral is the security given to a lender for protection in case the business cannot repay the loan. It can be any one of a range of business and personal assets, including buildings, vehicles, machinery and land title. If the business cannot generate enough cash to repay the credit facility, the lender may have recourse to the collateral. But for AIB, as for most lenders, recourse to collateral is always the last resort. The business must be the main source of repayment and so credit will only be given if the business is assessed as capable of repaying the credit facility. It is always advisable to seek independent legal advice before providing collateral against credit facilities.

ConditionsConditions and trends in the business sector and the overall economy are crucial factors in determining the success of your business. Opportunities or threats to your business can arise from external factors such as commodity price fluctuations, weather and disease effects, external regulation and EU policy. You may not be able to control all of these factors, but you must be aware of them and be prepared to respond to change. When you look for bank finance, you need to be able to give your assessment of the market and how your business will cope with potential changes in market conditions.While we have a very high level of entrepreneurship in Ireland, the reality is that the failure rates for small businesses are also high – hence the need to scrutinise each business proposition on its on merits.This responsible lending approach is in the best interests of the business as well as the bank.

CharacterGood character is a basic prerequisite for any borrower. You need to be able to demonstrate that you are an effective manager with a good track record. It’s also important to be honest and upfront about your credit history and any business problems you may have had. How you resolved these will, of course, be helpful in determining how they affect your application.

CapacityYou will need to show how your business will generate sufficient cashflow to repay the credit facility you are seeking. Detailed financial forecasts must show how repayments will be generated. Beyond this, you will also need to set out your capacity to repay the credit facility if the business does not develop as planned. Other sources of income (such as investments), skills you could use to earn additional income, or the support of an earning spouse could provide a sufficient backup plan.

CapitalBusiness capital is split between equity (the money that the owners and investors have put into the business) and debt (money borrowed from banks or other sources). Equity capital acts as a cushion to absorb first losses, while debt capital must be repaid to the lender however the business fares. Since debt capital also comes at a cost of interest, the more debt a business has relative to equity, the higher the level of risk. Start-up businesses potentially can be a high risk for lenders, so if you are seeking to borrow money for a new business, AIB will, like most lenders, need to see that you have input a reasonable level of your own funds.

A well prepared business plan is crucial. It also prepares you and your business for the road ahead and shows the bank that you have thoroughly analysed your business and how it will succeed. Use your bank as a source of advice and information before making a decision, check out the AIB website for helpful guides, a viability template, sample Business Plan and hints and tips on www.aib.ie/business. You can also speak to our SME team in you ur local branch.

AIB said: “Our aim is to always be an active business partner to our business customers. The more we understand their business, the more helpful and supportive we can be on every front.

Talk to your Business Relationship Manager and/or SME Specialist who will be happy to help”.

Editorial

From the Editor

Happy New year to you! Here at Focusme we wish you all the best for 2011 and in the endeavors that you pursue.

2010 is gone... and good riddance, statistics released at the beginning of this month show that insolvencies have risen to over 1500 for the year, while 4 businesses a day are closing their doors forever.

But I am happy to digress to better news inside the magazine.

Our cover story talks about how the Irish economy now needs to build pillars not crutches in order for us to move forward.

Our Company Focuses come from Babogbaby the new Irish speaking teddy bear and SES Systems tell us about creating a company that helps businesses to go green through waterless toilets and systems.

Focus World goes to the Gulf of Mexico to see how small businesses have dealt with the double tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and the BP Oil Spill; both of which have happen in the past five years.

We also have Marketing, Health and Safety and Networking Commandments to help your business, plus a lot more...

Kehlan KirwanEditor, Focusme

Editor: Kehlan Kirwan

Artwork and Design: Print2Post, Shannon,Co. Clare

Printed In Ireland by: KPS Color Print Ltd., Co. Mayo © Focusme MagazineUnit 6 Ballycasey Business Park,Shannon, Co. Clare

Tel: (+353) 061- 719838

E-mail: [email protected]

The Business Magazine Dedicated to SME’socusmef

We are always on the look out for companies doing something different, something outside the box. That’s where you come in because we are a proud supporter of SMEs. Every month we are looking for companies to feature in the magazine Free of Charge. Yes that’s right; it won’t cost you a cent! We know how tight financial margins can be for a small business, so we’re not going to charge you for the privilege of being in a magazine designed to help you.

So if you’re a company that is thinking outside the box, being innovative or doing something different, you’re the company we want to hear from. So simply go to our website www.focusme.ie and download our question form. Send it back to us and we’ll try and put you In The Spotlight.Space is limited per month so get in there fast.

After all - “We’re not Just A Magazine, We’re A Community”.

YOURcompany

infocus

Better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness. - Chinese Proverb

Inspirational Thought

Focusme magazine will not accept responsibility for loss or damage to any person or company as a result of acting or refraining from acting as a result of the information contained in this magazine. Professional advice should always be sought before acting on any matter referred to in this magazine.

3Volume1 Issue 2 Jan 2011

focusme

contentspage

6

NetworkingThe10 Commandments for better Networking8

Company FocusBabog Baby - The Irish Speaking Teddy Bear10

Greatness or PerditionIreland Must Choose it’s Path14

MarketingIt’s All About Confidencce16

Black Gold to Black Death: Living & Working in the Gulf of Mexico

Also in this IssueInterview with Tony Mulcahy - For change to happen, it must begin from the top.

The Top 10: Business Misses & Blunders

A.I.B. BankPreparing your application for funding

Elections What The Parties Are Going To Do For SMEs22

Cover StoryMaking Pillars Not Crutches

Health & SafetyIs Your Business Prepared18

Company FocusSmart Energy Systems - A company Flush with Innovation20

16

6

14

18

8

24

focusme

5Volume1 Issue1 Sept /Oct 20104 Volume1 Issue1 Sept /Oct 2010

10

20

Agri-BusinessWe have a world-beating agricultural base, with wonderful food manufacturing and agribusiness possibilities, again driven by people with vision, energy and imagination. The food and agriculture sector is hugely important to the Irish (http://www.gregrey.com/Other/Wallpaper/Sand%20(Custom).jpg) economy, employing roughly one in seven of the working population. Some of Irelands biggest companies are Agri-Business based; Glanbia, Kerry and Dairygold.

TourismThe tourism industry in Ireland had one of its toughest ever years in 2009,with the global economic downturn, a drop in consumer confidence and adverse currency movements all impacting on visitor numbers and revenue. Ireland suffered a fifteeen percent decrease in tourists for the first nine months of this year. However, more than 4.6 million visitors came to Ireland between January and September and the tourism sector is worth over _1bn to the irish economy each year and proivides valuable ripple effect business.

Manufacturing and Exports.Economists say strong exports and weak consumption may see Ireland move into surplus in its dealings with the rest of the world next year, which could help market sentiment. For the first eight months of this year, exports grew by 2pc in value compared with the same period last year and imports fell by 2pc. However this has been offset by the fact that less than half of Irish-based multinationals expect to increase their exports during the next 12 months.

Working TogetherWe need to work together, talk together, trade together. It is imperitive that we begin to help each other instead of pointing the finger of blame. Problems won’t help the situation we are in, only solutions will. Those solutions are in the minds of business owners, managers and entreprenuers. We must learn to share ideas and suggestions with each other. A few weeks a go I had the pleasure to go to Limerick Open Coffee at the Absolute hotel in Limerick city centre. While there I saw businessmen and woman talking with each other about their businesses. Communicating ideas and helping to provide solutions to each others problems. We can all learn something from that. The solutions will not come from banks or government. They will come from SMEs in the country who are willing to communicate with each other. Progress does not come from an individual, it comes from the collective being progressive together. So lets start building, together. Lets Build pillars, not crutches.

Bone and sinew. Is this all we’ve been left with? Just like the good old days’ all we have is the sweat of our brow and the blood in our veins.

Well actually no its not, we have a lot more than that.

We all know the story by now. A property market that left the Irish economy over exposed and out of money. We hedged our bets into an eternally booming economy, never destined to falter or fail. A bubble made almost completely on property. The great illusion became our biggest crutch. It was a tough lesson to learn, but learn it we must. If we are to begin to move forward as an economy we must learn that crutches soon get kicked out from underneath you.

Pillars, Not Crutches If you look closly at Leinster House what you’ll see, bearing the weight of the decorative facades are pillars, thick grey pillars. Pillars represent strength, an abilty to take the load without ever cracking or breaking. You see the other thing about pillars is there are rarely just one of them. It takes several to absorb the load. If we are to bare the brunt of this recession we must learn that it is diversity which is going to help hold the roof over our head, not a bubble.

Technology, Communications, Agri-Business, Tourism, Manufacturing and Exports. These will be our pillars, our economic raison d’être. With these we can begin to build a future that is stable and sustainable and more importantly, diversified. We must never again become overly dependant on one single commodity, we need to create an economic base which is strong both externally and internally.

The foundation of these pillars is built upon the small business sector and the innovations that they provide. By building upon small business and we can open ourselves up into a new phase of progressive economic hope. The range of what these bring to the Irish economy is enormous:

Technology and CommunicationsThe technology sector in Ireland has seen unparalleled growth in the past fifteen years. Since 1994, the number of technology companies in Ireland has increased by over 250 per cent. Within the technology sector there is an enormous variety of activities, ranging from developing hardware and devices, operating systems and software to providing consultancy and services, systems integration, outsourcing, data supply and storage. As well as high tech activities many technology companies are involved in other business activities such as marketing and sales, e-business and supply chain management.

Cover Storyfocusme

www.focusme.ie

7Volume1 Issue 2 jan 2011

Cover Story

PILLARS not CRUTCHES


We need to work together, talk together, trade together. It is imperitive that we begin to help each other instead of pointing the finger of blame. Problems won’t help the situation we are in, only solutions will. Those solutions are in the minds of business owners, managers and entreprenuers.

Agri-BusinessWe have a world-beating agricultural base, with wonderful food manufacturing and agribusiness possibilities, again driven by people with vision, energy and imagination. The food and agriculture sector is hugely important to the Irish economy, employing roughly one in seven of the working population. Some of Irelands biggest companies are Agri-Business based; Glanbia, Kerry and Dairygold.

TourismThe tourism industry in Ireland had one of its toughest ever years in 2009,with the global economic downturn, a drop in consumer confidence and adverse currency movements all impacting on visitor numbers and revenue. Ireland suffered a fifteeen percent decrease in tourists for the first nine months of this year. However, more than 4.6 million visitors came to Ireland between January and September and the tourism sector is worth over _1bn to the irish economy each year and proivides valuable ripple effect business.

Manufacturing and Exports.Economists say strong exports and weak consumption may see Ireland move into surplus in its dealings with the rest of the world next year, which could help market sentiment. For the first eight months of this year, exports grew by 2pc in value compared with the same period last year and imports fell by 2pc. However this has been offset by the fact that less than half of Irish-based multinationals expect to increase their exports during the next 12 months.

Working TogetherWe need to work together, talk together, trade together. It is imperitive that we begin to help each other instead of pointing the finger of blame. Problems won’t help the situation we are in, only solutions will. Those solutions are in the minds of business owners, managers and entreprenuers. We must learn to share ideas and suggestions with each other. A few weeks a go I had the pleasure to go to Limerick Open Coffee at the Absolute hotel in Limerick city centre. While there I saw businessmen and woman talking with each other about their businesses. Communicating ideas and helping to provide solutions to each others problems. We can all learn something from that. The solutions will not come from banks or government. They will come from SMEs in the country who are willing to communicate with each other. Progress does not come from an individual, it comes from the collective being progressive together. So lets start building, together. Lets Build pillars, not crutches.

Bone and sinew. Is this all we’ve been left with? Just like the good old days’ all we have is the sweat of our brow and the blood in our veins.

Well actually no its not, we have a lot more than that.

We all know the story by now. A property market that left the Irish economy over exposed and out of money. We hedged our bets into an eternally booming economy, never destined to falter or fail. A bubble made almost completely on property. The great illusion became our biggest crutch. It was a tough lesson to learn, but learn it we must. If we are to begin to move forward as an economy we must learn that crutches soon get kicked out from underneath you.

Pillars, Not Crutches If you look closly at Leinster House what you’ll see, bearing the weight of the decorative facades are pillars, thick grey pillars. Pillars represent strength, an abilty to take the load without ever cracking or breaking. You see the other thing about pillars is there are rarely just one of them. It takes several to absorb the load. If we are to bare the brunt of this recession we must learn that it is diversity which is going to help hold the roof over our head, not a bubble.

Technology, Communications, Agri-Business, Tourism, Manufacturing and Exports. These will be our pillars, our economic raison d’être. With these we can begin to build a future that is stable and sustainable and more importantly, diversified. We must never again become overly dependant on one single commodity, we need to create an economic base which is strong both externally and internally.

The foundation of these pillars is built upon the small business sector and the innovations that they provide. By building upon small business and we can open ourselves up into a new phase of progressive economic hope. The range of what these bring to the Irish economy is enormous:

Technology and CommunicationsThe technology sector in Ireland has seen unparalleled growth in the past fifteen years. Since 1994, the number of technology companies in Ireland has increased by over 250 per cent. Within the technology sector there is an enormous variety of activities, ranging from developing hardware and devices, operating systems and software to providing consultancy and services, systems integration, outsourcing, data supply and storage. As well as high tech activities many technology companies are involved in other business activities such as marketing and sales, e-business and supply chain management.

Cover Storyfocusme

www.focusme.ie

7Volume1 Issue 2 jan 2011

Cover Story

PILLARS not CRUTCHES


We need to work together, talk together, trade together. It is imperitive that we begin to help each other instead of pointing the finger of blame. Problems won’t help the situation we are in, only solutions will. Those solutions are in the minds of business owners, managers and entreprenuers.

4 Listen and ask questions. Remember that a good networker has two ears and one mouth and uses them proportionately. After you’ve learned what another person does, tell them what you do. Be specific, but brief. Don’t assume they know your business.

5 Don’t try to close a deal. These events are not meant to be a vehicle to hit on business people to buy your products or services. Networking is about developing relationships with other professionals. Meeting people at events should be the beginning of that process, not the end of it.

6 Give referrals whenever possible. The best networkers believe in the givers gain philosophy (what goes around, comes around). If I help you, you’ll help me and we’ll both do better as a result of it. In other words, if you don’t genuinely attempt to help the people you meet, then you are not networking effectively. If you can’t give someone a bona fide referral, try to offer some information that might be of interest to them (such as details about an upcoming event).

7 Exchange business cards. Ask each person you meet for two cards - one to pass on to someone else and one to keep. This sets the stage for networking to happen.

8 Manage your time efficiently. Spend ten minutes or less with each person you meet and don’t linger with friends or associates. If your goal is to meet a given number of people, be careful not to spend too much time with any one person. When you meet someone interesting with whom you’d like to speak further, set up an appointment for a later date.

9 Write notes on the backs of business cards you collect. Record anything you think may be useful in remembering each person more clearly. This will come in handy when you follow up on each contact.

10 Follow up! You can obey the previous nine commandments religiously, but if you don’t follow up effectively, you will have wasted your time. Drop a note or give a call to each person you’ve met. Be sure to fulfill any promises you’ve made.When you change your mindset on networking to helping others grow their business and attend to give rather than to receive together with following the Ten Commandments on a consistent basis, you’ll notice your networking success soar.

Towards Your Success!

Is your networking really working for you? For many of the people I talk to on a regular basis, they often say their networking is NOT working. A question I often ask at networking events that I facilitate is “How many of you are here to buy a product or service?” and the answer usually is no one, then I ask “How many are here to sell your product or service?” this time nearly everyone is there to sell apart from those who have been trained to network professionally. Here you can see immediately that going to a networking event with the sole intention of selling your product or service is futile waste of time as most people are not there with the intention of buying. A definition of networking worth considering is “Growing your business by helping others”. Rather than going to the event to sell, go to the networking event with the intention of helping others find the introductions they are looking for, this way you become a connector, or a person who adds value to the other person and someone who is willing to build a relationship rather than executing a mere selling transaction. Dr Ivan Misner, known as the grandfather of modern day networking refers to a concept as “Givers Gain” which is actually the principle of giving without the expectation of an immediate return. Read more about this in commandment number six of this article.Many business people and entrepreneurs feel a little uncomfortable when it comes right down to walking up to someone and starting a conversation. Many others are concerned about getting effective results from the time they spend networking. The process doesn’t have to be traumatic, scary, or a waste of time. When done properly, it can truly make a difference in the amount of business your company generates. With the right approach, you can use it to build a wealth of resources and contacts that will help to make your business very successful.

Use the following Ten Commandments to help you network your way through your next business networking event:

1 Have the tools to network with you at all times.These include an informative name badge, business cards, brochures about your business, and a pocket-sized business card file containing cards of other professionals whom you can refer.

2 Set a goal for the number of people you’ll meet. Identify a reachable goal based on attendance and the type of group. If you feel inspired, set a goal to meet fifteen to twenty people and make sure you get all their cards. If you don’t feel so confident, shoot for less. In either case, don’t leave until you’ve met your goal.

3 Act like a host, not a guest. A host is expected to do things for others, while a guest sits back and relaxes. Volunteer to help greet people. If you see visitors sitting, introduce yourself and ask if they would like to meet others. Act as a conduit.

Networkingfocusme

www.focusme.ie


Networking

Network to Get Work


Ten Commandments for Better NetworkingBy Brian Moore

Professional networking is one of the

tools that is crucial to the success of

any business, and especially to small

businesses. Business networking is an

effective, low-cost marketing meth-

od for developing sales opportunities

and contacts. It is based on referrals

and introductions - either face-to-

face at meetings and gatherings,

and increasingly social and business

networking websites.

Brian Moore is a keynote speaker, networking facilitator & certified trainer for the Referral Institute in Munster & Connacht ( www.referralinstitutemunster.com ) Brian truly “walks the talk” in all regards in business and has helped hundreds of business owners and their employees increase their referral rev-enue. With a strong results focus and a passion and talent for helping others, the highly successful Referrals for Life® program he delivers guarantees to double your income by referral. Brian can be reached at [email protected] or via mobile on 087 8100333.

4 Listen and ask questions. Remember that a good networker has two ears and one mouth and uses them proportionately. After you’ve learned what another person does, tell them what you do. Be specific, but brief. Don’t assume they know your business.

5 Don’t try to close a deal. These events are not meant to be a vehicle to hit on business people to buy your products or services. Networking is about developing relationships with other professionals. Meeting people at events should be the beginning of that process, not the end of it.

6 Give referrals whenever possible. The best networkers believe in the givers gain philosophy (what goes around, comes around). If I help you, you’ll help me and we’ll both do better as a result of it. In other words, if you don’t genuinely attempt to help the people you meet, then you are not networking effectively. If you can’t give someone a bona fide referral, try to offer some information that might be of interest to them (such as details about an upcoming event).

7 Exchange business cards. Ask each person you meet for two cards - one to pass on to someone else and one to keep. This sets the stage for networking to happen.

8 Manage your time efficiently. Spend ten minutes or less with each person you meet and don’t linger with friends or associates. If your goal is to meet a given number of people, be careful not to spend too much time with any one person. When you meet someone interesting with whom you’d like to speak further, set up an appointment for a later date.

9 Write notes on the backs of business cards you collect. Record anything you think may be useful in remembering each person more clearly. This will come in handy when you follow up on each contact.

10 Follow up! You can obey the previous nine commandments religiously, but if you don’t follow up effectively, you will have wasted your time. Drop a note or give a call to each person you’ve met. Be sure to fulfill any promises you’ve made.When you change your mindset on networking to helping others grow their business and attend to give rather than to receive together with following the Ten Commandments on a consistent basis, you’ll notice your networking success soar.

Towards Your Success!

Is your networking really working for you? For many of the people I talk to on a regular basis, they often say their networking is NOT working. A question I often ask at networking events that I facilitate is “How many of you are here to buy a product or service?” and the answer usually is no one, then I ask “How many are here to sell your product or service?” this time nearly everyone is there to sell apart from those who have been trained to network professionally. Here you can see immediately that going to a networking event with the sole intention of selling your product or service is futile waste of time as most people are not there with the intention of buying. A definition of networking worth considering is “Growing your business by helping others”. Rather than going to the event to sell, go to the networking event with the intention of helping others find the introductions they are looking for, this way you become a connector, or a person who adds value to the other person and someone who is willing to build a relationship rather than executing a mere selling transaction. Dr Ivan Misner, known as the grandfather of modern day networking refers to a concept as “Givers Gain” which is actually the principle of giving without the expectation of an immediate return. Read more about this in commandment number six of this article.Many business people and entrepreneurs feel a little uncomfortable when it comes right down to walking up to someone and starting a conversation. Many others are concerned about getting effective results from the time they spend networking. The process doesn’t have to be traumatic, scary, or a waste of time. When done properly, it can truly make a difference in the amount of business your company generates. With the right approach, you can use it to build a wealth of resources and contacts that will help to make your business very successful.

Use the following Ten Commandments to help you network your way through your next business networking event:

1 Have the tools to network with you at all times.These include an informative name badge, business cards, brochures about your business, and a pocket-sized business card file containing cards of other professionals whom you can refer.

2 Set a goal for the number of people you’ll meet. Identify a reachable goal based on attendance and the type of group. If you feel inspired, set a goal to meet fifteen to twenty people and make sure you get all their cards. If you don’t feel so confident, shoot for less. In either case, don’t leave until you’ve met your goal.

3 Act like a host, not a guest. A host is expected to do things for others, while a guest sits back and relaxes. Volunteer to help greet people. If you see visitors sitting, introduce yourself and ask if they would like to meet others. Act as a conduit.

Networkingfocusme

www.focusme.ie


Networking

Network to Get Work


Ten Commandments for Better NetworkingBy Brian Moore & Michael Isner

Professional networking is one of the

tools that is crucial to the success of

any business, and especially to small

businesses. Business networking is an

effective, low-cost marketing meth-

od for developing sales opportunities

and contacts. It is based on referrals

and introductions - either face-to-

face at meetings and gatherings,

and increasingly social and business

networking websites.

Brian Moore is a keynote speaker, networking facilitator & certified trainer for the Referral Institute in Munster & Connacht ( www.referralinstitutemunster.com ) Brian truly “walks the talk” in all regards in business and has helped hundreds of business owners and their employees increase their referral rev-enue. With a strong results focus and a passion and talent for helping others, the highly successful Referrals for Life® program he delivers guarantees to double your income by referral. Brian can be reached at [email protected] or via mobile on 087 8100333.

Children can inspire us to do many things. For Adrian Devane at Babogbaby, thats exactly what happened to him.

The idea came when Adrian and his wife Karen had their first child, Robyn. After six months they wanted to get her a toy that helped her learn Irish. After scowering high and low they realised that there was virtually nothing on the market for an Irish speaking childrens toy. The Irish speaking market was flooded with books and CD's but nothing to help stimulate a young child and get them involved in learning the language.

Then, believe it or not, the banking crisis opened up the door for Adrian.Working as a film producer for Ardmore Studios, there was a realisation that it was going to be a quite year. The main funding bank for seedcorn film production money in Ireland was Anglo Irish Bank. So he decided while he had the extra time that he would follow up on the idea of an Irish speaking toy. After doing some courses in Galway with the Enterprise board, he finally pushed the button on the product in april of this year.Launching the website where children could come on for free and play the interactive sections for free. While on the website they could also learn 33 words of Irish connected to colors, shapes and numbers.

The next step was to produce the teddy itself, to show around shops to see if they were on to something. Would shops agree to stock an Irish speaking teddy bear? The prototype was designed at Block 5 Design in Galway after Adrian gave them an overlay, which they then turned into a workable design.

Getting the voice who would become the life inside the bear came rather easier. Adrian got his three year old daughter to come in a recording studio to call out some shapes, numbers and colors. With the recordings finished the doll was then sent to China to get the prototype made, where the design and voice of the bear would be combined together. Three weeks later and the prototype arrived back to Adrian and they got right first time around. He approved it brought it around to retailers, Irish speakers and even Irish teachers.

After the neccessary approvals, Adrian started taking pre-orders on the website. Since April Babogbaby has sold over 3000 teddies and over 8000 through their retailers. He has just ordered another 15,000 for the christmas period, all of which he expects to sell.

Company Focusfocusme

www.focusme.ie


Company Focus

10

"At the Entrepreneur Show in the RDS in Dublin recently, They really liked the idea and they questioned the viability of it, with the popularity of the Irish language, but I had all my figures and I think I convinced them that the Irish language is alive and well. But they also said 'Who on earth will buy an Irish speaking doll?' Well, I said, the three hundred people across the country who wanted to see the teddy."

Looking Forward

In 2011 Babogbaby have plans to branch out their exisiting model of teddy bears into dolls, a phone and also an animation series, based upon BB the teddy bear, on TG4.

Adrian has plans to move into other languages as well. There has been interest in doing an English version, a Scots-

Gaelic version and a Welsh speaking teddy. The Scots-Gaelic version came about after the Scottish Parliament approached Adrian to make a teddy containing Scots-Gaelic in order to promote and teach the language to a younger generation of Scottish children.In the new year the company

has plans to a massive PR campaign through the whole country.

With the percieved success of 2011 Adrian already has big ideas for the future. Plans for offices and warhouses, in Moycullen, are in the pipeline. These building will employ people from the local area and contain facilities where the teddy is manufactured, keeping jobs and infrastructure in the area.

Adrian thinks its important to keep the jobs local and in Galway. He says that 'From the beginning this was always our plan, Galway is going to be the hub of our operations. For to long people have thought that Dublin is the be all and the end all of business in this country. Perhaps we can use our company as an example that the west has more to offer than people believe. There is a World beyond Dublin and we must recognise that so other businesses can grow and progress.'

BEARS Fruit

A Great IdeaAdrian Devane talks about how he brought his concept to reality.

www.babogbaby.com

Volume1 Issue 2 Jan 2011

The IdeaChildren can inspire us to do many things. For Adrian Devane at Babogbaby, thats exactly what happened to him.

The idea came when Adrian and his wife Karen had their first child, Robyn. After six months they wanted to get her a toy that helped her learn Irish. After scowering high and low they realised that there was virtually nothing on the market for an Irish speaking childrens toy. The Irish speaking market was flooded with books and CD's but nothing to help stimulate a young child and get them involved in learning the language.

Then, believe it or not, the banking crisis opened up the door for Adrian.Working as a film producer for Ardmore Studios, there was a realisation that it was going to be a quiet year. The main funding bank for seedcorn film production money in Ireland was Anglo Irish Bank. So he decided while he had the extra time that he would follow up on the idea of an Irish speaking toy. After doing some courses in Galway with the Enterprise board, he finally pushed the button on the product in april of this year.Launching the website where children could come on for free and play the interactive sections for free. While on the website they could also learn 33 words of Irish connected to colors, shapes and numbers.

ProductionThe next step was to produce the teddy itself, to show around shops to see if they were on to something. Would shops agree to stock an Irish speaking teddy bear? The prototype was designed at Block 5 Design in Galway after Adrian gave them an overlay, which they then turned into a workable design.

Getting the voice who would become the life inside the bear came rather easier. Adrian got his three year old daughter to come in a recording studio to call out some shapes, numbers and colors. With the recordings finished the doll was then sent to China to get the prototype made, where the design and voice of the bear would be combined together. Three weeks later and the prototype arrived back to Adrian and they got right first time around. He approved it brought it around to retailers, Irish speakers and even Irish teachers.

After the neccessary approvals, Adrian started taking pre-orders on the website. Since April Babogbaby has sold over 3000 teddies and over 8000 through their retailers. He has just ordered another 15,000 for the christmas period, all of which he expects to sell.


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10

"At the Entrepreneur Show in the RDS in Dublin recently, They really liked the idea and they questioned the viability of it, with the popularity of the Irish language, but I had all my figures and I think I convinced them that the Irish language is alive and well. But they also said 'Who on earth will buy an Irish speaking doll?' Well, I said, the three hundred people across the country who wanted to see the teddy."

Looking ForwardIn 2011 Babogbaby have plans to branch out their exisiting model of teddy bears into dolls, a phone and also an animation series, based upon BB the teddy bear, on TG4.

Adrian has plans to move into other languages as well. There has been interest in doing an English version, a Scots-Gaelic version and a Welsh speaking teddy. The Scots-

Gaelic version came about after the Scottish Parliament approached Adrian to make a teddy containing Scots-Gaelic in order to promote and teach the language to a younger generation of Scottish children.

In 2011 the company has plans to creat a massive PR campaign throughout the whole country.

With the percieved success of 2011 Adrian already has big ideas for the future. Plans for offices and warhouses, in Moycullen, are in the pipeline. These buildings will employ people from the local area and contain facilities where the teddy is manufactured, keeping jobs and infrastructure in the area.

Adrian thinks its important to keep the jobs local and in Galway. He says that 'From the beginning this was always our plan, Galway is going to be the hub of our operations. For to long people have thought that Dublin is the be all and the end all of business in this country. Perhaps we can use our company as an example that the west has more to offer than people believe. There is a World beyond Dublin and we must recognise that so other businesses can grow and progress.'

BEARS Fruit

A Great IdeaAdrian Devane talks about how he brought his concept to reality.

www.babogbaby.com

Volume1 Issue 2 Jan 2011

You bought them all, except the one that counted - In 1999 two graduate students at Stanford University, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, decided that Google, the search engine they had developed, was taking up time they should have been using to study. They went to former Excite CEO George Bell and offered it to him for $1 million. He rejected the offer, and later threw Vinod Khosla, one of

Excite's venture capitalists, out of his office after he had negotiated Brin and Page down to $750,000. Excite's refused to buy what became a $180 billion company by 2010.

Doesn’t do exactly what it says on the tin - When you launch a new product it’s always best to check it especially if people are going to ingest it. Cue Coca-Cola and their water creation Dasani. Dasani had to be withdrawn in the UK due to contamination with bromate, a suspected carcinogen, produced by the treatment process used on the water and for the fact that it turned out to be tap water from the mains; "Dasani, was revealed earlier this

month to be tap water taken from the mains. Then it emerged that what the firm described as its "highly sophisticated purification process", based on NASA spacecraft technology, was in fact reverse osmosis used in many modest domestic water purification units."- The Guardian.

Top Tenfocusme

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Top Ten


The Most Expensive Toy in History - When one of the most powerful telegraph companies in America, Western Union Telegraph, was asked if they want to buy the patent for a new invention called the ‘telephone’ the answer was an emphatic NO! His reply letter said “We have come to the conclusion that it has no commercial possibilities … What use could this company make of an electrical toy?” Well, half way through the twentieth century they could have purchased the moon.

That’s Just too Much Money - There are two side sides to this story, both involve money. But in 1979 two time Independent U.S. Presidential Candidate Ross Perot did have the foresight to see that Gill Gates

was building a good company. That’s where the two sided story comes in. Perot says Gates wanted $40m-$60m for the takeover, while Gates insists it more like $15m-$20m. Either way Perot lost out on a $260bn computer company and Bill Gates’ own personal wealth of $100bn.

There is no Accounting for Stupiditiy - Some things are bad business decisions, other things are poor judgement, but nothing can excuse down right stupidity. As Gerald Ratner found out to his companies detriment. Five years after inheriting control of his father’s global retail jewellery company, Ratner’s, British businessman Gerald Ratner brought his own company to it’s knees with a poorly timed attempt at humour. Speaking to a selection of company directors, including one reporter, Ratner called a decanter set sold by his company “total crap”, and declared that a prawn sandwich would outlast a pair of Ratner’s earrings. Share prices plummeted overnight, and the company changed its name to prevent further damage. The infamous gaffe is now corporate folklore, to the point where such an act is known as ‘doing a Ratner’.

Top Ten… Business Misses and BlundersYes we know- we’ve all heard the one about the Beatles being passed over by Decca Records. But here are a few more examples of why it’s important not to accept rejection, listen to advice and to think before you act.

Why on earth would you want to change it? - When Henry Ford stood at the end of his only assembly line and ripped apart his creation, the Model T, it was a sign to all not to mess with his creation. By that stage the Model T had revolutionised the American automotive industry making cars available to the masses. But it had been on the market for 15 years without really changing its 4 cylinder engine or body design. Because of this Fords market share went from 60% to just 34% by the end of the 20’s. From then on Ford was always destined

to be second best to the likes of Dodge, Chevrolet and General Motors. Sometimes change isn’t just good, it’s necessary.

‘…get another job, there is no money to be had in childrens books’- After being rejected by the top publishing houses in Britain, J.K. Rowling must have thought it was the end of her writing career. Eventually Bloomsbury gave her a break after the chairman’s daughter, Alice Newton, demanded to read more after seeing the first chapter of Harry Potter. And yes, the rest is history. Harry Potter is now a global brand worth an estimated €5.6bn, and the last four Harry Potter books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history. The series, totalling 4,195 pages, has been translated, in whole or in part, into 65 languages.

Lets Lie about being Honest - In 2001 the Energy company, Enron was the 7th largest company in the U.S. with a value of over $90bn (€72.5bn). But by the end 2001 it was clear that something was wrong, and irregularities in the accounts came thick and fast. When it went bankrupt it took jobs, investor savings, retiree futures and even some lives with it. In following years, it emerged that they shredded documents, started partnerships with their own shell companies, and engaged in massive inside trading. Wikipedia describes the company as

‘Defunct/ an Assetless shell’ a more accurate description however would be- just got greedy.

‘You mean actually drill into the ground to get oil… No Thanks!’ - Whatever about money, oil certainly helps the world go around. Thanks to Edwin L. Drake we learned the importance drilling for the black gold. In 1858 Drake was hired by Seneca Oil to investigate oil seeps on land in which the company owned. While working for Seneca he thought that perhaps he could drill for oil like salt well drillers did. Drake set up a stock company to extract and market the oil. But, while his pioneering work led to the growth of an oil industry that made many people fabulously rich, for Drake riches proved elusive. Drake did not possess good business sense. He failed to patent his drilling invention. Then

he lost all of his savings in oil speculation in 1863. He was to end up as an impoverished old man. In 1872, the state Pennsylvania voted an annuity of $1500 to the "crazy man" whose determination founded the oil industry.

On the 14th September 2008 in New York, shortly before 1 a.m. in the morning, Lehman Brothers Holdings announced it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection citing bank debt of $613 bn (€496bn) and assets worth $639 bn (€517bn). It was, as it happened here in Ireland, a system which collapsed under the weight of a mortgage sector in crisis. Just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, executives at Neuberger Berman sent e-mail memo suggesting, among other things, that the Lehman Brothers' top people forgo multi-million dollar bonuses to "send a strong message to both employees and investors that management is not shirking accountability for recent performance."

Lehman Brothers Investment Management Director George Herbert Walker IV dismissed the proposal, going so far as to actually apologize to other members of the Lehman Brothers executive committee for the idea of bonus reduction having been suggested. He wrote, “Sorry team. I am not sure what's in the water at Neuberger Berman. I'm embarrassed and I apologize.”

You bought them all, except the one that counted - In 1999 two graduate students at Stanford University, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, decided that Google, the search engine they had developed, was taking up time they should have been using to study. They went to former Excite CEO George Bell and offered it to him for $1 million. He rejected the offer, and later threw Vinod Khosla, one of

Excite's venture capitalists, out of his office after he had negotiated Brin and Page down to $750,000. Excite's refused to buy what became a $180 billion company by 2010.

Doesn’t do exactly what it says on the tin - When you launch a new product it’s always best to check it especially if people are going to ingest it. Cue Coca-Cola and their water creation Dasani. Dasani had to be withdrawn in the UK due to contamination with bromate, a suspected carcinogen, produced by the treatment process used on the water and for the fact that it turned out to be tap water from the mains; "Dasani, was revealed earlier this

month to be tap water taken from the mains. Then it emerged that what the firm described as its "highly sophisticated purification process", based on NASA spacecraft technology, was in fact reverse osmosis used in many modest domestic water purification units."- The Guardian.

Top Tenfocusme

www.focusme.ie


Top Ten


The Most Expensive Toy in History - When one of the most powerful telegraph companies in America, Western Union Telegraph, was asked if they want to buy the patent for a new invention called the ‘telephone’ the answer was an emphatic NO! His reply letter said “We have come to the conclusion that it has no commercial possibilities … What use could this company make of an electrical toy?” Well, half way through the twentieth century they could have purchased the moon.

That’s Just too Much Money - There are two side sides to this story, both involve money. But in 1979 two time Independent U.S. Presidential Candidate Ross Perot did have the foresight to see that Gill Gates

was building a good company. That’s where the two sided story comes in. Perot says Gates wanted $40m-$60m for the takeover, while Gates insists it more like $15m-$20m. Either way Perot lost out on a $260bn computer company and Bill Gates’ own personal wealth of $100bn.

There is no Accounting for Stupiditiy - Some things are bad business decisions, other things are poor judgement, but nothing can excuse down right stupidity. As Gerald Ratner found out to his companies detriment. Five years after inheriting control of his father’s global retail jewellery company, Ratner’s, British businessman Gerald Ratner brought his own company to it’s knees with a poorly timed attempt at humour. Speaking to a selection of company directors, including one reporter, Ratner called a decanter set sold by his company “total crap”, and declared that a prawn sandwich would outlast a pair of Ratner’s earrings. Share prices plummeted overnight, and the company changed its name to prevent further damage. The infamous gaffe is now corporate folklore, to the point where such an act is known as ‘doing a Ratner’.

Top Ten… Business Misses and BlundersYes we know- we’ve all heard the one about the Beatles being passed over by Decca Records. But here are a few more examples of why it’s important not to accept rejection, listen to advice and to think before you act.

Why on earth would you want to change it? - When Henry Ford stood at the end of his only assembly line and ripped apart his creation, the Model T, it was a sign to all not to mess with his creation. By that stage the Model T had revolutionised the American automotive industry making cars available to the masses. But it had been on the market for 15 years without really changing its 4 cylinder engine or body design. Because of this Fords market share went from 60% to just 34% by the end of the 20’s. From then on Ford was always destined

to be second best to the likes of Dodge, Chevrolet and General Motors. Sometimes change isn’t just good, it’s necessary.

‘…get another job, there is no money to be had in childrens books’- After being rejected by the top publishing houses in Britain, J.K. Rowling must have thought it was the end of her writing career. Eventually Bloomsbury gave her a break after the chairman’s daughter, Alice Newton, demanded to read more after seeing the first chapter of Harry Potter. And yes, the rest is history. Harry Potter is now a global brand worth an estimated €5.6bn, and the last four Harry Potter books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history. The series, totalling 4,195 pages, has been translated, in whole or in part, into 65 languages.

Lets Lie about being Honest - In 2001 the Energy company, Enron was the 7th largest company in the U.S. with a value of over $90bn (€72.5bn). But by the end 2001 it was clear that something was wrong, and irregularities in the accounts came thick and fast. When it went bankrupt it took jobs, investor savings, retiree futures and even some lives with it. In following years, it emerged that they shredded documents, started partnerships with their own shell companies, and engaged in massive inside trading. Wikipedia describes the company as

‘Defunct/ an Assetless shell’ a more accurate description however would be- just got greedy.

‘You mean actually drill into the ground to get oil… No Thanks!’ - Whatever about money, oil certainly helps the world go around. Thanks to Edwin L. Drake we learned the importance drilling for the black gold. In 1858 Drake was hired by Seneca Oil to investigate oil seeps on land in which the company owned. While working for Seneca he thought that perhaps he could drill for oil like salt well drillers did. Drake set up a stock company to extract and market the oil. But, while his pioneering work led to the growth of an oil industry that made many people fabulously rich, for Drake riches proved elusive. Drake did not possess good business sense. He failed to patent his drilling invention. Then

he lost all of his savings in oil speculation in 1863. He was to end up as an impoverished old man. In 1872, the state Pennsylvania voted an annuity of $1500 to the "crazy man" whose determination founded the oil industry.

On the 14th September 2008 in New York, shortly before 1 a.m. in the morning, Lehman Brothers Holdings announced it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection citing bank debt of $613 bn (€496bn) and assets worth $639 bn (€517bn). It was, a system which collapsed under the weight of a mortgage sector in crisis. Just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, executives at Neuberger Berman sent e-mail memo suggesting, among other things, that the Lehman Brothers' top people forgo multi-million dollar bonuses to "send a strong message to both employees and investors that management is not shirking accountability for recent performance." Lehman Brothers Investment Management Director George Herbert Walker IV

dismissed the proposal, going so far as to actually apologize to other members of the Lehman Brothers executive committee for the idea of bonus reduction having been suggested. He wrote, “Sorry team. I am not sure what's in the water at Neuberger Berman. I'm embarrassed and I apologize.”

Opinionfocusme

www.focusme.ie


Opinion


In grim times even the optimists struggle amidst the wreckage of the Celtic Tiger years. However at some point fear will be conquered and where Ireland will end up on the spectrum from greatness to perdition remains in the hands of the Irish people.It is striking that despite the devastation caused by the failed governance system and the banking crash that there is little evidence of a significant constituency for radical reform and change. Focus has been mainly on the symptoms. For example, the pattern of panic and slow-motion that has characterised the response to the banking crisis over the past two years is not an aberration.It is the way governments have operated in Ireland for decades; respond to a serious issue only when it has become a dire crisis.Ireland became the first of only two countries to guarantee existing bank debt during the global crisis. It was a panic decision and wasn't necessary for Ireland as the European Central Bank had been providing emergency liquidity to Eurozone banks since the previous year. The move foreclosed on options for Anglo Irish Bank before it was nationalised in January 2009 and the contrast with what was done with the floundering General Motors in the US months later, is instructive. The Obama auto industry taskforce pushed GM into bankruptcy in June 2009, wiping out common stockholders and forcing the holders of $27bn in GM bond debt into accepting a 10% share of the new GM. The US government now plans to reduce its 61% stake in the new GM through a stock exchange floatation in coming months.The first step to the future is to have an unvarnished assessment of the failed Irish governance system together with the Irish economy's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the emerging challenges in a fast changing global economy. This first step has yet to be taken.We once aspired to be recognised as a "world class knowledge" economy by 2013. Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway are currently in that league and it's hardly a coincidence that they are also well governed countries where issues such a accountability are taken seriously.In April 2009, I wrote in The Irish Times of a "a part-time parliament of 216 members, who are among the best-paid in the world but during the current crisis most voters would struggle to name five to 10 who have provided a credible response or vision, and a slow-motion process of government, where ministers are generally one or more reports away from making decisions, vividly illustrated by a 17-page reply in 2004, to a D_il question, which confirmed that Minister for Health Miche_l Martin had commissioned 145 reports over four years."

If not commissioning reports, ministers establish advisory groups to advise on policy or delay making decisions. Last month the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O'Keeffe, announced the fourth advisory body on research strategy since December 2008. We have spent large sums already and billions more have been allocated but we are still in search of a road map. Meanwhile, innovation policy is a no-go area for Opposition politicians. Surely we can do better than this on spending, at a time when the Government is scratching around to fill the budget hole?We could understandably share a kindred spirit with the Irish parliamentarians who in 1859 were criticised by William Ewart Gladstone, British chancellor of the exchequer, for their "eagerness to plunder the public purse." However, in recent decades with the public purse being our own, this common culture of grabbing as much as possible from the public treasury coupled with limited accountability, has been a toxic cocktail. The annual pre-budget submission season is about to begin with many vested interests vying to influence the December budget. Led by the business group IBEC and the trade union congress ICTU, it would be a shock if any group advocates change that could conceivably put Ireland in the same league as for example Sweden.The issue of economic competitiveness is not just a matter of reforming the public sector and this is where IBEC opts for the default conservative approach instead of showing that it is also pushing an agenda of radical reform of the protected private sector to match its expectations from the public sector. Meanwhile, ICTU is also stuck in a conservative rut and avoids calling for reform in the private sector as it would only draw attention to its reluctance to embrace change in the public sector.Only baby steps have been taken to reverse bubble time costs that are not sustainable, while the Croke Park agreement on public service reform is just a wish list. The promise to reverse pay cuts in return for savings has the potential to replicate the benchmarking fudge when average pay and pensions were raised by 9%. There was no reform and the system was accurately compared to an ATM bank machine by a trade union leader. The public staff pensions bill has increased from €1.35bn in 2005 to €2.23bn in 2010 representing a 65.6% increase over the period. There is now 1 pensioner for less than 3 workers and the Comptroller & Auditor General reported recently that the net cost of an additional 1 year's service for ministers and judges is 62% of salary. He also reported that it was a common practice for universities to add pension years for both academic and non-academic staff.

The contrast with the private sector is glaring. The minority of private sector workers who are lucky to have a pension face funding deficits and years of low investment returns. The rest can simply eat cake.Unless the political leadership embraces change, the potential of the economy will not be realised.The new leadership at the Central Bank which came through a baptism of fire in taking on the powerful Quinn Group, gives a glimpse of what the New Ireland could look like.It's hard to teach old dogs new tricks and expecting the existing senior leadership of the public service to drive change is foolish.Overseas public service professionals who have a track record of successfully implementing change in public services, should be involved. Appointment boards for senior personnel and the commercial State enterprises should also have independent members from overseas. "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants," Louis Brandeis said in 1914 - two years before he became a justice of the US Supreme Court. He wasn't referring to a brand of soap.The public sector consumes about €16bn worth of goods and services each year and the most radical reform would be the complete lifting of the veil of Victorian secrecy on public spending. The current system where price information is only available on a piecemeal basis aids insiders, does not promote competition and is against the public interest. Transparency would also force the Department of Finance to modernise its reporting systems, enabling it to track key expense categories across the public service. In the US, the state of Missouri, with a population of 5.5 million, put all its public spending online in a searchable database for less than $200,000.A reforming government should downsize in line with a reformed public sector, review the raft of ignored reports on competition in the private sector by the Competition Authority and declare open season on sacred cows.What better illustration is there of the existing failed system than the public planning tribunal that has been sitting since 1997 investigating corruption? The land rezoning system that makes development land scarce in a country which is 4% urbanised, remains unreformed while lawyers working for the State have become multimillionaires.Even if the international recovery takes hold, Ireland faces immense challenges.Employment in the foreign-owned sector which accounts for 90% of Ireland's tradeable exports, is back to 1998 levels while the global economy’s centre of gravity is moving to Asia. We can only benefit from emerging markets indirectly of

but Ireland as a manufacturing base for multinationals is not in a favourable location relative to Asia.There is also the challenge for all the rich countries including Ireland, from the changing model of globalisation. The notion that the developed world can focus on high paid knowledge work while low-paid manufacturing is dominant in the developing world, is increasingly seen as redundant.The reality is that we will have to fight for our standard of living against educated workforces in many parts of the world.There is no free lunch and we can decline like an unreformed Japan or reform like Germany did to rid itself of the tag: "the sick man of Europe."Change is never easy. Ireland has a history of weak governments surrendering to vested interests.In 1991 as we were recovering from the last period of reckless mismanagement of the economy, we at least had a safety net and the US high tech boom was accelerating.While Ireland will soon be paying 20% of its tax revenues in interest on its national debt compared with 28% in 1991, the net cash receipts from Europe in 1991 at 6.2% of GDP (gross domestic product) more than offset the interest burden. In 2013 we will become a net contributor to the EU budget for the first time since 1973 after receiving over €40bn in aid.We shouldn't expect a return to bubble time income but we can have a competitive economy and a well-governed country like the Nordic model. The alternative is a return to 1950s scenario: slow decline and long-term emigration.

GREATNESS or PERDITION Ireland Must Choose it’s Path

Finfacts IrelandBusiness & Finance Portal

Ireland’s Top Business WebsiteFounded 1997

Opinionfocusme

www.focusme.ie


Opinion


In grim times even the optimists struggle amidst the wreckage of the Celtic Tiger years. However at some point fear will be conquered and where Ireland will end up on the spectrum from greatness to perdition remains in the hands of the Irish people.It is striking that despite the devastation caused by the failed governance system and the banking crash that there is little evidence of a significant constituency for radical reform and change. Focus has been mainly on the symptoms. For example, the pattern of panic and slow-motion that has characterised the response to the banking crisis over the past two years is not an aberration.It is the way governments have operated in Ireland for decades; respond to a serious issue only when it has become a dire crisis.Ireland became the first of only two countries to guarantee existing bank debt during the global crisis. It was a panic decision and wasn't necessary for Ireland as the European Central Bank had been providing emergency liquidity to Eurozone banks since the previous year. The move foreclosed on options for Anglo Irish Bank before it was nationalised in January 2009 and the contrast with what was done with the floundering General Motors in the US months later, is instructive. The Obama auto industry taskforce pushed GM into bankruptcy in June 2009, wiping out common stockholders and forcing the holders of $27bn in GM bond debt into accepting a 10% share of the new GM. The US government now plans to reduce its 61% stake in the new GM through a stock exchange floatation in coming months.The first step to the future is to have an unvarnished assessment of the failed Irish governance system together with the Irish economy's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the emerging challenges in a fast changing global economy. This first step has yet to be taken.We once aspired to be recognised as a "world class knowledge" economy by 2013. Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway are currently in that league and it's hardly a coincidence that they are also well governed countries where issues such a accountability are taken seriously.In April 2009, I wrote in The Irish Times of a "a part-time parliament of 216 members, who are among the best-paid in the world but during the current crisis most voters would struggle to name five to 10 who have provided a credible response or vision, and a slow-motion process of government, where ministers are generally one or more reports away from making decisions, vividly illustrated by a 17-page reply in 2004, to a D_il question, which confirmed that Minister for Health Miche_l Martin had commissioned 145 reports over four years."

If not commissioning reports, ministers establish advisory groups to advise on policy or delay making decisions. Last month the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O'Keeffe, announced the fourth advisory body on research strategy since December 2008. We have spent large sums already and billions more have been allocated but we are still in search of a road map. Meanwhile, innovation policy is a no-go area for Opposition politicians. Surely we can do better than this on spending, at a time when the Government is scratching around to fill the budget hole?We could understandably share a kindred spirit with the Irish parliamentarians who in 1859 were criticised by William Ewart Gladstone, British chancellor of the exchequer, for their "eagerness to plunder the public purse." However, in recent decades with the public purse being our own, this common culture of grabbing as much as possible from the public treasury coupled with limited accountability, has been a toxic cocktail. The annual pre-budget submission season is about to begin with many vested interests vying to influence the December budget. Led by the business group IBEC and the trade union congress ICTU, it would be a shock if any group advocates change that could conceivably put Ireland in the same league as for example Sweden.The issue of economic competitiveness is not just a matter of reforming the public sector and this is where IBEC opts for the default conservative approach instead of showing that it is also pushing an agenda of radical reform of the protected private sector to match its expectations from the public sector. Meanwhile, ICTU is also stuck in a conservative rut and avoids calling for reform in the private sector as it would only draw attention to its reluctance to embrace change in the public sector.Only baby steps have been taken to reverse bubble time costs that are not sustainable, while the Croke Park agreement on public service reform is just a wish list. The promise to reverse pay cuts in return for savings has the potential to replicate the benchmarking fudge when average pay and pensions were raised by 9%. There was no reform and the system was accurately compared to an ATM bank machine by a trade union leader. The public staff pensions bill has increased from €1.35bn in 2005 to €2.23bn in 2010 representing a 65.6% increase over the period. There is now 1 pensioner for less than 3 workers and the Comptroller & Auditor General reported recently that the net cost of an additional 1 year's service for ministers and judges is 62% of salary. He also reported that it was a common practice for universities to add pension years for both academic and non-academic staff.

The contrast with the private sector is glaring. The minority of private sector workers who are lucky to have a pension face funding deficits and years of low investment returns. The rest can simply eat cake.Unless the political leadership embraces change, the potential of the economy will not be realised.The new leadership at the Central Bank which came through a baptism of fire in taking on the powerful Quinn Group, gives a glimpse of what the New Ireland could look like.It's hard to teach old dogs new tricks and expecting the existing senior leadership of the public service to drive change is foolish.Overseas public service professionals who have a track record of successfully implementing change in public services, should be involved. Appointment boards for senior personnel and the commercial State enterprises should also have independent members from overseas. "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants," Louis Brandeis said in 1914 - two years before he became a justice of the US Supreme Court. He wasn't referring to a brand of soap.The public sector consumes about €16bn worth of goods and services each year and the most radical reform would be the complete lifting of the veil of Victorian secrecy on public spending. The current system where price information is only available on a piecemeal basis aids insiders, does not promote competition and is against the public interest. Transparency would also force the Department of Finance to modernise its reporting systems, enabling it to track key expense categories across the public service. In the US, the state of Missouri, with a population of 5.5 million, put all its public spending online in a searchable database for less than $200,000.A reforming government should downsize in line with a reformed public sector, review the raft of ignored reports on competition in the private sector by the Competition Authority and declare open season on sacred cows.What better illustration is there of the existing failed system than the public planning tribunal that has been sitting since 1997 investigating corruption? The land rezoning system that makes development land scarce in a country which is 4% urbanised, remains unreformed while lawyers working for the State have become multimillionaires.Even if the international recovery takes hold, Ireland faces immense challenges.Employment in the foreign-owned sector which accounts for 90% of Ireland's tradeable exports, is back to 1998 levels while the global economy’s centre of gravity is moving to Asia. We can only benefit from emerging markets indirectly of

but Ireland as a manufacturing base for multinationals is not in a favourable location relative to Asia.There is also the challenge for all the rich countries including Ireland, from the changing model of globalisation. The notion that the developed world can focus on high paid knowledge work while low-paid manufacturing is dominant in the developing world, is increasingly seen as redundant.The reality is that we will have to fight for our standard of living against educated workforces in many parts of the world.There is no free lunch and we can decline like an unreformed Japan or reform like Germany did to rid itself of the tag: "the sick man of Europe."Change is never easy. Ireland has a history of weak governments surrendering to vested interests.In 1991 as we were recovering from the last period of reckless mismanagement of the economy, we at least had a safety net and the US high tech boom was accelerating.While Ireland will soon be paying 20% of its tax revenues in interest on its national debt compared with 28% in 1991, the net cash receipts from Europe in 1991 at 6.2% of GDP (gross domestic product) more than offset the interest burden. In 2013 we will become a net contributor to the EU budget for the first time since 1973 after receiving over €40bn in aid.We shouldn't expect a return to bubble time income but we can have a competitive economy and a well-governed country like the Nordic model. The alternative is a return to 1950s scenario: slow decline and long-term emigration.

GREATNESS or PERDITION Ireland Must Choose it’s Path

Finfacts IrelandBusiness & Finance Portal

Ireland’s Top Business WebsiteFounded 1997

BY Michael Hennigan

Marketingfocusme

www.focusme.ie


Marketing


It’s All About... CONFIDENCEBy Brian McNally

1 Education & Training: With almost 15% of our workforce unemployed, the need for training and upskilling has never been so important.

Training and education helps to increase confidence and motivate people to move along with their lives and their career. Education and Training also open new opportunities for people to develop new skill sets, giving them the confidence to change jobs and manage their career. Third Level Colleges, Training companies and the student market represent significant opportunities for growth.

2 Health & Well Being: People still get sick in a recession, so the demand for doctors and prescription medicines will continue to be

there. Also, with some many people retiring earlier, living longer and being more active in their later years, this will result in an increased demand for vitamins, wellness supplements and alternative therapies designed to improve health and well being. Expect to see an increase in demand for Nutritionists, Chiropodists, Life Coaches and wellness spa’s.

3 Entertainment / Escapism: As people go out less, they are much more likely to stay in and find something more important to do.

Consumers are fed up of listening to the doom and gloom in the news and want to switch off. Expect to see more people buying home entertainment packages (SKY), renting more movies (Xtravision), playing on game consoles (Wii and Playstation) and going out to the cinema.

4 Fitness / Sporting Activities: Exercise keeps you fit in body and in mind, improves confidence and boosts your overall well being. The Gym is

fast becoming a replacement for the pub; you can still meet all your friends there, while also improving your overall fitness and health. More people are getting more actively involved in sporting teams, which provides both a social and health benefit. As more people participate in sports, expect to see an increased demand for leisure wear and equipment.

MarketingThe prolonged recession has affected us all in different ways, many people have lost their jobs or have had their wages cut, and more people enjoyed the benefit of lower interest rates and reduced mortgage payments, while others saw their life savings and pensions wiped out in the banking crisis. It is fair to say, as a people our confidence has been damaged

If you were to emotionalise the effects of the recession, consumers today are less confident, more vulnerable, fearful and cautious. Lavish lifestyles and expenditures have been replaced with cautious and resourceful spending. It is no longer about how much money you have it is what you do with it that matters more.

In order to find the growth opportunities amid the recession, we must recognise how consumer attitudes have changed and identify the new needs and wants of the post recession consumer. What consumers need today, now more than ever is confidence, security and certainty. Companies that can provide consumers with a solution to any or all of these problems will do very well in the current economic environment

Growth opportunities in recessionary times can be identified, by providing solutions to the biggest emotional challenges faced by society. Products/ Services that improve confidence, increase security, reduce uncertainty and increase optimism will all do well in a recession and my top 7 are listed below;

5 Environmental: One noticeable trend of the current downturn is that people are moving to the simpler things, growing their own

vegetables, recycling more and enjoying the beauty of nature. Expect to see rapid growth in outdoor activities (Hill Walking, Cycling) and gardening activities. Another area of growth will be using renewable energy sources to reduce heating costs of the homes and businesses; these can include improved insulation, solar panels and triple glazed windows.

6 Staycations / Holidays: faced with falling incomes many consumers are now replacing the traditional two week foreign holiday, with

shorter breaks at home, where there are fantastic deals to be had. Expect to see an increase in short breaks, midweek breaks and a move from the traditional 7 Day Holiday to a 4-5 day holiday. Hotels and B & B’s that provide a great experience and value will do well in the downturn.

7 Discount Retailers: Consumers are doing more with less and this has resulted in a mass exodus from traditional retailers to discount

retailers like ALDI and LIDL. Shoppers are tired of being ripped off and paying over the odds for goods and are now looking for real value and quality, which is the promise provided by these discount retailers. Expect to see growth in the discount retail market.

One of the biggest challenges facing small business today is a confidence crisis. Our economy has taken a battering over the past two years and this has impacted both on business and consumer confidence. For our economy to grow and prosper we need more confidence and small business can make this happen. Companies that will do well in the recession are those that can help consumers improve their confidence and allow them to take control of their lives again.

the place of work who might be exposed to the specific risks outlined in the safety statement. When bringing the safety statement to the attention of employees, it must be in a form, manner and, if necessary, a language that can be understood by employees.Health & Safety is risk management for your business, efficiently run H&S systems add significantly to your bottom line.How do I start?The effective protection of employees in relation to their safety, health and welfare often does not require any major financial outlay. In a small business where the risk to workers is relatively low, it may just require a responsible and competent person who is aware of the possible risks and has put in place practical steps to minimise those risks.There are three very simple steps that person can take to minimise workplace accidents:

Discourage• risk-taking behaviour: If someone undertakes an unsafe act and “gets away with it”, the potential consequences of that act should be made clear to all concerned. Lead by example and don’t take chances yourself. If employees see you taking risks, don’t be surprised if they behave the same way.

Encourage• individuals to behave safely: Explain to employees why unsafe or risky behaviour is not acceptable. Verbalise the consequences both to their own safety, health and welfare and to those of their colleagues. Comment positively on examples of good practice when you see it. Where possible, reward examples of good safety and health behaviour.

Improve• safety behaviour in the performance of routine tasks: Research shows that it is when performing routine tasks that people become less vigilant and concentration can become less focused. Try to rotate tasks and allow those who must undertake routine work to take regular on-the –spot “time outs” from standard routine activity.

In terms of introducing a system to manage employee safety, health and welfare, a simple five step process should be followed:

Identify• the hazards, i.e. anything that could cause harm.Assesst• he risks, i.e. the likelihood of the harm occurring and the severity or the consequences if it does.Select• the control measures, i.e. measures to eliminate or reduce the hazards.Write• the safety statement, i.e. a written outline of the control measures identified above and details re whoever is responsible for implementing them.Record• the findings and review, i.e. the safety statement should be updated as circumstances change and existing risks diminish or new risks emerge.

Risk Assessment

In order to fully understand how you, as a small business owner/manager, should manage workplace safety, health and welfare, it is necessary to have an understanding of risk assessment. Risk assessment is fundamental to good health and safety practice and, is a legal requirement under section 19 of the Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. In a typical small business, it can be undertaken quickly and easily.All employers regardless of the size of business are required by law to carry out a risk assessment at their place of work and to keep a written record of that risk assessment. In essence, a risk assessment is simply a careful examination of work activities carried out at a workplace in order to:

Identify hazards (i.e. potential for harm).•Identify the level of risk for each hazard (i.e. the •likelihood of harm occurring coupled with the potential severity of injury or ill health as a result).Identify the controls or improvements that need to be •put in place to avoid or reduce the risk.

Carrying out a risk assessment means you must carefully assess what in your workplace could cause harm to your employees and other people who may have a reason to be at your workplace including customers, suppliers, sales representatives, etc. It is important to remember that, in identifying hazards and assessing risks, employers should only consider those which are generated by work activities. There is no need to consider every minor hazard or risk which we accept as part of our everyday lives. For example, you do not need to identify the lifting of a 1kg package as a workplace hazard; but lifting a 25kg box of 1kg packages would be a hazard.

Safety StatementYour safety statement represents your commitment to the safety, health and welfare of your employees while at work and other visitors to the workplace including customers, suppliers, sales representatives, etc. The safety statement should be based on the identification of the hazards and risk assessments carried out. It is a legal requirement under section 20 of the Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005.The safety statement is the place to record the significant findings of any risk assessments. This means writing down the more significant hazards and recording the most important conclusions. For example, a workplace where fumes from welding may pose a risk may state: “Local exhaust ventilation has been provided. Manager to ensure that it is always used and is checked every month”.The safety statement must be reviewed and, if necessary, amended when there has been a significant change in work practices, e.g. the introduction of new machinery, or when there is reason to believe that it is no longer valid, e.g. a “near miss”.You are required to bring the safety statement to the attention of your employees and to any other persons at

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Health & Safety


The place of work may be a physical location such as a factory or office or it may be a green field site where employees are working remotely away from the main offices e.g. Telecom workers laying cables. if this is the case then the same rules apply that apply in headquarters. You must ensure safe access and egress, smoking is not allowed etc.

What are the Benefits?The benefits of effective health and safety management to small businesses are very significant. There is clear evidence that effective health and safety management contributes directly to overall business success. This is true across all industry sectors and amongst businesses of all shapes and sizes. Apart from the obvious legal and moral duties you have as an employer, consider the possible consequences of a serious workplace accident in your business. Think about managing without a key employee while he/she is recuperating following an accident. Think about the damage to your brand and your business reputation. Think about increased insurance premiums or compensation claims. A positive and proactive approach to health and safety management can minimise the potential for financial damage to your business. Remember prevention is cheaper than cure.

Did you know?There are 19 million SMEs across the EU, employing some 75 million people. SMEs record 82% of all occupational injuries, rising to 90% of all fatal accidents.60% of SMEs that are forced to close for 9 days or more do not reopen.

Europe’s workforce is :- 1. Ageing2. Becoming more female3. Employing an increasing number of migrant workers, both legal and undeclared4. Using more temporary and part-time staff5. Making increasing use of new technology6. Increasingly absent through work related stress7. Reporting increased instances of bullyingRecognise your business? Chances are that you have first hand experience of at least one of the above scenarios.

What do I need to do?Under current legislation, namely Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 (SHWW) and the General Applications (Regulations) 2007 your primary concern as an employer is to provide and maintain a safe place of work. This covers mental as much as physical health so emphasis needs to placed on areas such as bullying, work place stress and harassment.

Health&Safetyandthe

SME

Having an engineering background, meant there was a number of areas of starting a new business we did not have enough information on. As a step to improve this, we completed a course through the County Enterprise Board on Starting your own business, this was a big help, but it’s a learning curve and we are still learning and making mistakes, but that’s all part of it.As a starting point we offered companies an auditing service, basically we looked at there existing setup, logged there meters, (water, electricity, gas or oil), with this information we produced a comprehensive report detailing the findings above, making recommendations on how best to reduce there bills, we also showed them the investments required and the payback period in months or weeks.Marketing wise we commenced working with some local

companies, schools, hotels, etc. At the start we used existing contacts to secure our first number of contracts, we also sent out a number of letters e-mails to other companies, which secured us some more work. We quickly recognised that it was important to offer clients products along with our auditing service, so we commenced sourcing suppliers.

The Downturn & CompetitorsThe downturn of the economy was the main reason we took the plunge to go out on our own. As a result of the down turn it has made attracting new clients easier for us. There are very few business owners/managers out there that will not listen to you, when you tell them you can save them money.We are aware of our competitors, but who isn’t? I guess our approach/goal is to ensure we mind our existing clients and work on securing new clients. We are very mindful that you only get one chance, so for that reason we make sure we mind our clients. We believe we offer a very good service and all our products come from recognised manufacturers. As a result of our attention to detail and our existing client base, we have been very lucky in securing sole rights to Ireland for some of our products. One such product is our Waterless Urinal System, which at the moment is one of best selling products.Going forward we see Leak Detection as our main service; to date we have carried out work on leaks with a number of large companies. We have also recently started distributing Leak Detection Equipment for a Canadian Company, as a result of this we are now in working with a number of County Councils on leaks and the supply of equipment, over the next number of months we hope to expand on this and secure more contracts through the Councils. We will also continue helping more and more organizations reduce there bills through offering them some of our products and services.


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Company Focus


Products and ExpansionWe are constantly expanding our range of products and with the introduction of our online shop we hope to expand our range even more. The key to expansion is successful sales with our existing products. This is something we monitor very closely. You can have all the products in the world, but if you don’t have a market it’s know good.The range of equipment we use to locate and pin point leaks is as advanced as it gets, for this reason technology is very important to our company. To date as a result of our development, we have been very lucky in securing some grant aid from our County Enterprise Board. We are also currently working with Enterprise Ireland, with the help of NUIG on the development of a new product, we hope to continue this work in the future, and our long term goal is to have an R&D department within our organization,

to work on this project and many others we have in the pipeline.

Keeping Our PassionAs our company is a relative new company, we have some very high points and the odd low point also. I suppose it is this uncertainty and the fact that everyday brings a new challenge that makes going to work everyday interesting. Since starting our new company we have had a real rollercoaster, highs and lows, meeting new people, clients, people from other companies, SME’s etc…I suppose on average I meet or speak to about 3 new people everyday of the week, so this makes everyday, both challenging and interesting.It is hard to say “what is the most important thing about managing/owning a business”? I would say there are a number of things.First of all it’s very challenging, so it’s important that you really get on with the people you go in to business with. I suppose I am lucky in a way, that I knew Alan (Business Partner) for a number of years prior to going in to business with him, so we had a good relationship before we ever started working together.It’s also important that you have good staff, these are the people that are representing the company, so it’s important they know what they are doing and are able to communicate with the clients.It’s also important that your family and friends are supportive and that you have as many mentors as possible. Good advice is invaluable, and should always be listened to.I suppose another important thing is your mentality. Don’t go into it thinking you are going to be rich overnight, it takes time, everything takes time, so making sure you are prepared for this is very important.

A CompanyFlush

With Innovation

Smart Energy Systems By Michael Lynch - Company Director

The BeginningComing from an Engineering background and having worked for a number of years with a couple of different companies on a range of projects. I recognised that as a result of the downturn, a lot of companies were starting to look at there bottom lines and ways of reducing them. Following a stage of early development, working part time, etc… we launched SES (Smart Energy Systems) Ltd, at the end of 2009, aiming at helping business owners/managers reduce there bills.

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11Volume1 Issue1 Sept /Oct 2010

Recruitmernt


The Governmentand Small Business

With the forthcoming election, we asked the three main political parties what they would do for small businesses and why you should votefor them

Small businesses employ 700,000 workers out of a total labour force of 1.9 million. They range from the corner shop to larger firms employing up to 250 workers with turnover of up to €50 million. Cumulatively, these enterprises account for some 270,000, or 90pc, of all businesses here. In short, small businesses are the bedrock of the indigenous economy. They have this Government's full support. The Government's enterprise policy is to create a pro-business environment and support businesses through targeted help from the State development agencies. We want a high-productivity economy based on sustainable enterprise growth. Our jobs and growth objectives are supported by a whole economy approach delivering the best conditions for increased productivity, more exports and new sustainable jobs.

Although Ireland has technically emerged from recession and growth is predicted for the second half of this year and into next year, job growth is always slower to materialise as other economic indicators pick up.

But we know that the best way to get people back to work is to get our house in order - and we are doing that by fixing the banking system; restoring order to the public finances; regaining our competitiveness; and getting credit flowing to viable small businesses.

All four of these factors have deep implications for small businesses - but perhaps competitiveness and credit are the ones exercising the sector most of all.

Although our competitiveness is improving, we must do more to reduce costs and drive efficiencies across the public and private sectors.

Unit labour costs have fallen over 5pc; construction costs are down 14pc; commercial rental prices have dropped 18pc; electricity costs are down between 5pc and 10pc; and gas charges for medium-sized businesses are about 11pc below the European Union average.

I have asked some of the country's local authority managers to examine ways to cut the cost of water and waste water services and commercial rates.

I want to ensure that better procurement strategies and more flexible public sector contracts are in place so that small businesses are not shut out of the tendering process.

And I want the major professional service-providers to review their consultancy fees to help boost competitiveness and reduce the financial burden on consumers and businesses.

I am determined to deliver on the Government's target to cut the administrative burden on businesses by 25pc.

We are now in the process of measuring costs to businesses - so-called information obligations - so that we can draw up a plan to cut the financial and bureaucratic burden by a quarter.

In particular, I am looking at the red tape burden in Company Law, Employment Law and Health and Safety Law.

We know, too, that credit is a major issue for small businesses.

The recently published lending plans of Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks outline how they will achieve the target of €3 billion lending each over each of the next two years. The credit reviewer, John Trethowan, has said he considers the plans credible.

The Government and the Credit Review Office will get monthly and quarterly progress reports from the two banks which will allow us to ensure that they deliver on the strong commitments given in their plans to support viable small businesses in all sectors of the economy and in every community.

Over the past few weeks, both my Ministers of State and I have held regional meetings with small businesses to gauge their views on bank lending practices.

I have fed back these views to senior bankers and reminded them of their obligations to the Irish people who have sacrificed much for their reckless irresponsibility in the past.

The submission of the banks' tailored lending plans, together with the new internal appeals mechanism and Credit Review Office, are significant steps the Government has insisted on taking on behalf of small businesses which rightly demand a credit return on the huge investment they have made in our banking institutions.

If our bankers continue to refuse credit to viable small businesses, the Government will use our legislative powers to force them to lend - but only after they are named and shamed.

The Government's commitment to Ireland's economic recovery is steadfast.

I fought hard at Cabinet for more investment in enterprise as the spending plans for the job creation agencies and the innovation sector show.

During the summer the Taoiseach announced the six-year €39 billion capital review plan.

Under the plan, we will invest almost €1.2 billion in our job creation agencies to create more than 270,000 jobs up to 2016.

A further 30,000 jobs will be supported annually under the capital infrastructure programme while some 10,000 jobs will created through retrofitting and energy projects.

We will invest €2.4 billion in science, technology and innovation programmes to create new high-quality jobs and bring more researchers and firms together to produce the high-tech products of tomorrow.

I have set aside €1.4 million for a pilot management training fund for small businesses aimed at driving productivity and improving workplace skills.

Research shows that improving management capability in SMEs through this type of training can lead to significant returns in terms of increased value added, employment, better business survival rates and a more skilled workforce.

The number of high-potential start-up (HPSU) firms the Government supports through investment will rise to 100 within six years after I set aside an extra €55 million to give early-stage entrepreneurs capital to get their businesses off the ground.

We expects the number of new HPSUs generated by supports from Enterprise Ireland to rise from 70 this year to 100 by 2016 following the extra €55 million funding injection.

Meanwhile, initiatives such as the Employer Job (PRSI) Incentive Scheme, Employment Subsidy Scheme and Enterprise Stabilisation Fund are supporting employers and securing many thousands of jobs.

We should recall that, in the last recession in the 1980s, political instability and an unwillingness to take tough decisions quickly resulted in massive emigration and a slow painful recovery.

This time, I believe our recovery will be faster and the pain shorter-lived because we are pursuing the right policies on the public finances, investing wisely in enterprise and jobs, helping small businesses to be outward-looking, innovative and lean, and generating confidence to lend, spend, invest and hirre

by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O'Keeffe TD


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Fine Gael Small Business Spokesperson John Perry TD outlines some ideas on the steps that should be introduced immediately to support small business.

There are some 86,000 small businesses employing approximately 650,000 people in the country. The sector is a significant source of employment, makes a significant contribution to the national economy, is domestically oriented, makes a major contribution to Government revenue income and collects a wide range of Government taxes and charges. Small business owners are effectively tax collectors.

Small business is important to the national ec http://images.psxextreme.com/wallpapers/ps3/red_rose_01.jpg onomy and to commercial and social life in rural Ireland. The sector is an essential part of the supply chain for larger firms and a critical part of the support infrastructure needed to attract foreign investment. Small businesses form one of the most significant employer groups in every county. They play a key role in the development of a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation.

The challenges facing small business are enormous. Many have seen their business decline by between 20% and 40%. Insolvencies are at a record level. Most enterprises going out of business are typical small businesses. Local jobs have been lost in every town and village throughout the country. Small businesses have done what they can to survive, so far without any Government assistance.

On the key area of reduction in red tape, nothing effective has happened. After 3 years, only 4% of promised red tape reduction has been delivered. Three years ago, the Government promised to reduce the unnecessary cost of business compliance by €500 million. In today’s fiercely competitive business environment that is €500 million that business can’t afford to part with. To date, past the halfway mark, only €20 million in savings have been achieved. Cutting out unnecessary red tape must be a key part of a new Government’s agenda to make the Irish business environment competitive again.

The small business sector can do its part to bring the country out of the present crisis through the creation of jobs at local level. Traditional local small businesses, whether manufacturing, tourism, retail, wholesale and construction, etc have the potential to create new jobs. Many of these businesses are being held back because of the lack of Government support. They must get as much attention as the smart economy.

Fine Gael will think big about the potential of the small business sector to kick start local economic recovery and job generation. As soon as Fine Gael gets the opportunity, we will support small enterprise in every village and town because it is the backbone of this economy.

Steps that must be taken immediately include:Freeing up credit;•Addressing late payments by State agencies and •authorities;Supporting entrepreneurship and innovation;•Supply-chain credit guarantee facility;•Incubator Centres to nurture new businesses;•Resourcing advisory and support services for the sector.•

•businesses under severe pressure. Many small businesses can demonstrate

Restoring the flow of credit to the small business sector is an immediate priority. Fine Gael policy is that a partial loan guarantee for small and medium-sized enterprises be introduced immediately.

Despite what they may say in public, the banks have shut up shop and are hoarding capital. This is putting viable small commercial viability yet fail to obtain loans, typically because of issues relating to risk assessment. nt problem. The Government must immediately introduce a targeted small business credit initiative. The scheme must be based on the principle of risk-sharing between the State and the banks.

The Government should also introduce a supply chain credit guarantee facility whereby large multinational companies would jointly provide a credit guarantee with the Government for viable suppliers, partner companies, etc. This will maintain the viability and cost competitiveness of the supply chain during the downturn so that they will be ready for the upturn when it comes.

There is also an urgent need to ensure all government agencies, local authorities and state-owned companies promptly pay. Numerous surveys have confirmed the extent of the late payment problem. Small businesses are not banks and nor should they be expected to be. There is an urgent need to ensure that the major public sector agencies set a 60 day deadline for payment, working down to 30 days over the next few years.

The economic climate is likely to drive more people toward starting their own business. We must encourage those self starters. Entrepreneurship and business development must be promoted as the fastest and best option for new jobs, economic growth and wealth creation.

There are some supports and initiatives in place, but the small business sector needs a new strategy specifically aimed at the sector. In order to support job generation, Fine Gael proposes an employer’s PRSI cut, as one way to reduce wage bills by on average 3%. This plan will help make 1.7 million jobs more secure and reduce the cost of hiring new employees.

There is urgent need to review the financial incentives for the small business sector. We must drive new private investment in job creation through new business expansion schemes and seed capital schemes. As part of the effort to reinvigorate and grow the small business sector, one of the highest priority tasks is to upgrade management skills and management practice in the sector. Now is the best time to invest in management development for the small business sector.

It is time to do something about the challenges facing the small business sector. It is also time to think big about the potential of the sector. The Government must take action in the areas of credit supply, late payments, entrepreneurship and innovation, and advisory and support services for the small business sector.

We need a comprehensive support strategy aimed at the small business sector. We must get back to an innovation-driven economy, with traditional, local small business at its heart. The strategy must give equal support to retaining small business and generating new business. Emerging small businesses in the health care, biotechnology, the creative industry, green energy, agriculture and aquaculture will be sure of high priority attention. These segments are full of potential and Fine Gael will actively support them.

Fine Gael – Thinking Big about the Small Business Sector

The Group is examining five key areas where businesses have stated where they have issues. These include the burden of complying with tax law, health and safety, employment law and environmental regulations. The fifth area is company law and the related area of statistical returns.

I have questioned the HLG on the cost burden arising from the work of the Health and Safety Authority. I wish to see the regulatory cost burden being reduced without comprising the safety of workers.

On Health and Safety, let us take the IO/20, risk assessments, and IO/13, safety statements. The administrative costs associated with these were €167 million for the former and €146 million for the latter. As a percentage of the overall cost burden, these amounted to 51% and 44%, respectively. How, in practical terms, is it proposed to reduce the burden of these two areas by 25% by the end of 2012?

I am a little sceptical about the possibility that the Health and Safety Authority will reach that target. I do not get a sense of urgency about reducing the burden.

I question whether there is a realistic staffing quotient applied to this mechanism in the first instance. In fact there is no way that the High Level Group can ever hope to achieve such a mammoth task on a staffing quotient of eight.

We need some real targets and we need to ensure that the process is adequately resourced.

On the 2nd of June Last, Mr. Seán Gorman, Chairman of the High Level Group on Business Regulation, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, attended the Economic Regulatory Affairs Committee to discuss the work of the group in identifying ways to reduce the administrative burden on business arising from regulation

The high level group was established in 2007 to act as the fulcrum through which Government, business and unions could tackle issues like administrative burden issues, red tape issues and propose simplification procedures.

According to the terms of reference of the group as elucidated by Mr. Gorman - “Its remit is to identify the administrative burdens placed on businesses, in particular small and medium sized enterprises, arising from regulation or other administrative requirements, particularly in the areas of taxation; health and safety regulation; employment law; environmental regulations; company law and statistical returns; to determine ways to reduce and simplify administrative burdens and to eliminate them where they are unnecessary.”

The bottom line for the group was to reduce the paperwork associated with regulation and simplify and streamline the information flow between business and Government.

The question for the Group is whether of not it has achieved its aims and whether or not adequate resources are attributed to this task.

Since 2008, the CSO in co-operation with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation has adopted its standard cost model to compare the results. According to Mr. Steve MacFeely of the CSO (who also addressed the Committee that day), “Previously we had been using the EUROSTAT recommended methodology. The standard cost model measures the burden in terms of money rather than time. From those studies, we estimate that the CSO imposes a burden of approximately €10 million per annum on Irish businesses. That accounts for about 0.5% of total regulatory burden and is consistent with findings in other countries.”

The Labour Party would seek to address the baseline target. If the target is a reduction of 25% by 2012, it would appear there is not enough staff to deal with it adequately to move the agenda forward.

I am not convinced that any target has been reached in terms of reducing the regulatory burden for small businesses to date. A new political impetus should drive this agenda and no more lip service should be paid to reducing the cost burden. The Government has signed up to the EU target. The challenge facing us now, given that this process started in 1999 and has been through two transitions, is that we are in an economic downturn. There is a serious urgency about this because of the cost implications for business.

There is a 25% target for 2012 but it has to be remembered that the SME sector is under significant pressure. We clearly should have had a yearly target. The HLG has only met five times in 2009

If the need to reduce the regulation burden on businesses is critical then why is the group not meeting monthly? This is a view that was raised by my colleague Kieran O Donnell TD when we met in committee with the High Level Group.

LABOUR WILL STRIVE TO REDUCE THE REGULATORY BURDEN ON BUSINESSES

24 Volume1 Issue 2 Jan 2011 25Volume1 Issue 2 Jan 2011



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Fine Gael Small Business Spokesperson John Perry TD outlines some ideas on the steps that should be introduced immediately to support small business.

There are some 86,000 small businesses employing approximately 650,000 people in the country. The sector is a significant source of employment, makes a significant contribution to the national economy, is domestically oriented, makes a major contribution to Government revenue income and collects a wide range of Government taxes and charges. Small business owners are effectively tax collectors.

Small business is important to the national ec http://images.psxextreme.com/wallpapers/ps3/red_rose_01.jpg onomy and to commercial and social life in rural Ireland. The sector is an essential part of the supply chain for larger firms and a critical part of the support infrastructure needed to attract foreign investment. Small businesses form one of the most significant employer groups in every county. They play a key role in the development of a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation.

The challenges facing small business are enormous. Many have seen their business decline by between 20% and 40%. Insolvencies are at a record level. Most enterprises going out of business are typical small businesses. Local jobs have been lost in every town and village throughout the country. Small businesses have done what they can to survive, so far without any Government assistance.

On the key area of reduction in red tape, nothing effective has happened. After 3 years, only 4% of promised red tape reduction has been delivered. Three years ago, the Government promised to reduce the unnecessary cost of business compliance by €500 million. In today’s fiercely competitive business environment that is €500 million that business can’t afford to part with. To date, past the halfway mark, only €20 million in savings have been achieved. Cutting out unnecessary red tape must be a key part of a new Government’s agenda to make the Irish business environment competitive again.

The small business sector can do its part to bring the country out of the present crisis through the creation of jobs at local level. Traditional local small businesses, whether manufacturing, tourism, retail, wholesale and construction, etc have the potential to create new jobs. Many of these businesses are being held back because of the lack of Government support. They must get as much attention as the smart economy.

Fine Gael will think big about the potential of the small business sector to kick start local economic recovery and job generation. As soon as Fine Gael gets the opportunity, we will support small enterprise in every village and town because it is the backbone of this economy.

Steps that must be taken immediately include:Freeing up credit;•Addressing late payments by State agencies and •authorities;Supporting entrepreneurship and innovation;•Supply-chain credit guarantee facility;•Incubator Centres to nurture new businesses;•Resourcing advisory and support services for the sector.•

•businesses under severe pressure. Many small businesses can demonstrate

Restoring the flow of credit to the small business sector is an immediate priority. Fine Gael policy is that a partial loan guarantee for small and medium-sized enterprises be introduced immediately.

Despite what they may say in public, the banks have shut up shop and are hoarding capital. This is putting viable small commercial viability yet fail to obtain loans, typically because of issues relating to risk assessment. nt problem. The Government must immediately introduce a targeted small business credit initiative. The scheme must be based on the principle of risk-sharing between the State and the banks.

The Government should also introduce a supply chain credit guarantee facility whereby large multinational companies would jointly provide a credit guarantee with the Government for viable suppliers, partner companies, etc. This will maintain the viability and cost competitiveness of the supply chain during the downturn so that they will be ready for the upturn when it comes.

There is also an urgent need to ensure all government agencies, local authorities and state-owned companies promptly pay. Numerous surveys have confirmed the extent of the late payment problem. Small businesses are not banks and nor should they be expected to be. There is an urgent need to ensure that the major public sector agencies set a 60 day deadline for payment, working down to 30 days over the next few years.

The economic climate is likely to drive more people toward starting their own business. We must encourage those self starters. Entrepreneurship and business development must be promoted as the fastest and best option for new jobs, economic growth and wealth creation.

There are some supports and initiatives in place, but the small business sector needs a new strategy specifically aimed at the sector. In order to support job generation, Fine Gael proposes an employer’s PRSI cut, as one way to reduce wage bills by on average 3%. This plan will help make 1.7 million jobs more secure and reduce the cost of hiring new employees.

There is urgent need to review the financial incentives for the small business sector. We must drive new private investment in job creation through new business expansion schemes and seed capital schemes. As part of the effort to reinvigorate and grow the small business sector, one of the highest priority tasks is to upgrade management skills and management practice in the sector. Now is the best time to invest in management development for the small business sector.

It is time to do something about the challenges facing the small business sector. It is also time to think big about the potential of the sector. The Government must take action in the areas of credit supply, late payments, entrepreneurship and innovation, and advisory and support services for the small business sector.

We need a comprehensive support strategy aimed at the small business sector. We must get back to an innovation-driven economy, with traditional, local small business at its heart. The strategy must give equal support to retaining small business and generating new business. Emerging small businesses in the health care, biotechnology, the creative industry, green energy, agriculture and aquaculture will be sure of high priority attention. These segments are full of potential and Fine Gael will actively support them.

Fine Gael – Thinking Big about the Small Business Sector

The Group is examining five key areas where businesses have stated where they have issues. These include the burden of complying with tax law, health and safety, employment law and environmental regulations. The fifth area is company law and the related area of statistical returns.

I have questioned the HLG on the cost burden arising from the work of the Health and Safety Authority. I wish to see the regulatory cost burden being reduced without comprising the safety of workers.

On Health and Safety, let us take the IO/20, risk assessments, and IO/13, safety statements. The administrative costs associated with these were €167 million for the former and €146 million for the latter. As a percentage of the overall cost burden, these amounted to 51% and 44%, respectively. How, in practical terms, is it proposed to reduce the burden of these two areas by 25% by the end of 2012?

I am a little sceptical about the possibility that the Health and Safety Authority will reach that target. I do not get a sense of urgency about reducing the burden.

I question whether there is a realistic staffing quotient applied to this mechanism in the first instance. In fact there is no way that the High Level Group can ever hope to achieve such a mammoth task on a staffing quotient of eight.

We need some real targets and we need to ensure that the process is adequately resourced.

On the 2nd of June Last, Mr. Seán Gorman, Chairman of the High Level Group on Business Regulation, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, attended the Economic Regulatory Affairs Committee to discuss the work of the group in identifying ways to reduce the administrative burden on business arising from regulation

The high level group was established in 2007 to act as the fulcrum through which Government, business and unions could tackle issues like administrative burden issues, red tape issues and propose simplification procedures.

According to the terms of reference of the group as elucidated by Mr. Gorman - “Its remit is to identify the administrative burdens placed on businesses, in particular small and medium sized enterprises, arising from regulation or other administrative requirements, particularly in the areas of taxation; health and safety regulation; employment law; environmental regulations; company law and statistical returns; to determine ways to reduce and simplify administrative burdens and to eliminate them where they are unnecessary.”

The bottom line for the group was to reduce the paperwork associated with regulation and simplify and streamline the information flow between business and Government.

The question for the Group is whether of not it has achieved its aims and whether or not adequate resources are attributed to this task.

Since 2008, the CSO in co-operation with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation has adopted its standard cost model to compare the results. According to Mr. Steve MacFeely of the CSO (who also addressed the Committee that day), “Previously we had been using the EUROSTAT recommended methodology. The standard cost model measures the burden in terms of money rather than time. From those studies, we estimate that the CSO imposes a burden of approximately €10 million per annum on Irish businesses. That accounts for about 0.5% of total regulatory burden and is consistent with findings in other countries.”

The Labour Party would seek to address the baseline target. If the target is a reduction of 25% by 2012, it would appear there is not enough staff to deal with it adequately to move the agenda forward.

I am not convinced that any target has been reached in terms of reducing the regulatory burden for small businesses to date. A new political impetus should drive this agenda and no more lip service should be paid to reducing the cost burden. The Government has signed up to the EU target. The challenge facing us now, given that this process started in 1999 and has been through two transitions, is that we are in an economic downturn. There is a serious urgency about this because of the cost implications for business.

There is a 25% target for 2012 but it has to be remembered that the SME sector is under significant pressure. We clearly should have had a yearly target. The HLG has only met five times in 2009

If the need to reduce the regulation burden on businesses is critical then why is the group not meeting monthly? This is a view that was raised by my colleague Kieran O Donnell TD when we met in committee with the High Level Group.

LABOUR WILL STRIVE TO REDUCE THE REGULATORY BURDEN ON BUSINESSES

24 Volume1 Issue 2 Jan 2011 25Volume1 Issue 2 Jan 2011

Focus PoliticsFocus Politicsfocusme

www.focusme.ie

You can’t go to the tax net for the answers. The key thing is to go into these agencies. We need to write emergency legislation to combat this, because we are in an emergency. We need to get rid of the ‘Jobs for the Boys’ culture. Getting rid of the nepotism and end the waste of money that is not being managed.

QYour a member of the Fine Gael party. If FG were elected into power next week, are you seriously

telling me that things would change. That your party would begin wiping the slate clean, so to speak?

A If things don't change, I won't have anything to do with it. I won't have anything to do with the party.

I will not sit here and tell you that there needs to be change and then not expect it from my own party. The country is in serious disarray. I would not want to be part of another big quango state. Our party needs to sort out the problems otherwise the country is lost.

Q As a FG member how can you justify Enda Kenny as the leader of the your party given that poll after

poll he remains no more than a few percent above Brian Cowen as the person they would like to see lead the country?

A The only opinion poll that matters to me is the one where people talk to me on the street. There is no

other way to say it but the people I meet have a problem with our leader. He is a very nice man, but there is a confidence issue with Enda among the peole; that goes for Brian Cowen for that matter too. Have I raised that concern with the party...absolutly.

Q Can I ask you finally to look into your metaphorical crystal ball and tell us where you see this country in

five years time? How do we advocate change?

A Well the important thing now is not to advocate change, but to have change... radical change. Its

about sorting the country out for the generations to come. Unless we have radical change, nothing will change. If we don't change things now then, Kehlan, there is no future here for you, your children and a lot of people on this island.It will take courage. No pussyfooting around the issue. It means saying enough is enough to the 'boys' being paid half a million a year and not simply asking them to buy cheaper toilet paper to save the state money. Everybody within the public sector should have a sign on the wall that says 'Can we Afford It'.Because when we change the attitude in the top echelons of goverment and pulic sector, there will be change for me, you and your business readers crying out for change.

Recruitmentfocusme

www.focusme.ie


Interview

10 Volume1 Issue1 Sept /Oct 2010

QWhat has it been like for SMEs during the recession in Clare?

A Lets call it what it really is. What we are living and working is not a recession its a depression, lets not

sugar coat that part.

Clare has been no less effected than another county in the country. Its been a massive struggle for them and their employees. The ordinary business person has had to cut overheads in order to survive, their pensions have been hammered and they don’t have anybody to turn to to bail them out. In my own business we went from feeding over 300 people to just 90 in the space of 8 months.So its been tough for everybody. But these struggles are all to evident to you and me, but they haven’t dawned on government, quangoland, senior public servants or banks...

QHasn’t it become a balancing act though. I mean since almost the beginning of the state, hasn’t

the public sector been allowed to dictate terms to the government rather than the other way around?

A Well to be honest its about time somebody developed some balls when dealing with this issue. If it was up

to me I’d close the whole system down and start from scratch. This is a challenge that needs to be taken on. We can only change the direction that this country is going when we change it from the top.

It all started with ‘The Man in the Cupboard’...Bertie. When he came to office there was 220,000 public sector workers now there is more than 330,000. That equals more pay and more pensions. Obviously we can’t get rid of the public sector, but we have to start managing it properly. For me, I would say the magic number has to be no one recieves more than _100,000...

Q I’snt the average pay for a public sector worker around €80,000 ?

A...Lets differentiate that for a moment. In fairness to the average public sector worker they do not earn

those wages, its the senior civil servants who are adding to the high average wage. A perfect example of which is here in Shannon. Member of the DAA got wages of _655k , a _50k bonus a couple of hundred thousand on a pension. He sits on two other boards and the DAA made a loss of _13m last year. Where is the justification for that kind of money. This is an example of the changes that need to be made. All the talk is about raising more moneyand taxes alon with who its going to hit the hardest. No one is addressing the cost factor of all of this.

An interview with Tony Mulcahy, Mayor of Shannon and Fine Gael member.

Things won’t change for

Small Business unless things change at

the TOP

focusmeInterview


You can’t go to the tax net for the answers. The key thing is to go into these agencies. We need to write emergency legislation to combat this, because we are in an emergency. We need to get rid of the ‘Jobs for the Boys’ culture. Getting rid of the nepotism and end the waste of money that is not being managed.

QYour a member of the Fine Gael party. If FG were elected into power next week, are you seriously

telling me that things would change. That your party would begin wiping the slate clean, so to speak?

A If things don't change, I won't have anything to do with it. I won't have anything to do with the party.

I will not sit here and tell you that there needs to be change and then not expect it from my own party. The country is in serious disarray. I would not want to be part of another big quango state. Our party needs to sort out the problems otherwise the country is lost.

Q As a FG member how can you justify Enda Kenny as the leader of the your party given that poll after

poll he remains no more than a few percent above Brian Cowen as the person they would like to see lead the country?

A The only opinion poll that matters to me is the one where people talk to me on the street. There is no

other way to say it but the people I meet have a problem with our leader. He is a very nice man, but there is a confidence issue with Enda among the peole; that goes for Brian Cowen for that matter too. Have I raised that concern with the party...absolutly.

Q Can I ask you finally to look into your metaphorical crystal ball and tell us where you see this country in

five years time? How do we advocate change?

A Well the important thing now is not to advocate change, but to have change... radical change. Its

about sorting the country out for the generations to come. Unless we have radical change, nothing will change. If we don't change things now then, Kehlan, there is no future here for you, your children and a lot of people on this island.It will take courage. No pussyfooting around the issue. It means saying enough is enough to the 'boys' being paid half a million a year and not simply asking them to buy cheaper toilet paper to save the state money. Everybody within the public sector should have a sign on the wall that says 'Can we Afford It'.Because when we change the attitude in the top echelons of goverment and pulic sector, there will be change for me, you and your business readers crying out for change.

Recruitmentfocusme

www.focusme.ie


Interview

10 Volume1 Issue1 Sept /Oct 2010

QWhat has it been like for SMEs during the recession in Clare?

A Lets call it what it really is. What we are living and working is not a recession its a depression, lets not

sugar coat that part.

Clare has been no less effected than another county in the country. Its been a massive struggle for them and their employees. The ordinary business person has had to cut overheads in order to survive, their pensions have been hammered and they don’t have anybody to turn to to bail them out. In my own business we went from feeding over 300 people to just 90 in the space of 8 months.So its been tough for everybody. But these struggles are all to evident to you and me, but they haven’t dawned on government, quangoland, senior public servants or banks...

QHasn’t it become a balancing act though. I mean since almost the beginning of the state, hasn’t

the public sector been allowed to dictate terms to the government rather than the other way around?

A Well to be honest its about time somebody developed some balls when dealing with this issue. If it was up

to me I’d close the whole system down and start from scratch. This is a challenge that needs to be taken on. We can only change the direction that this country is going when we change it from the top.

It all started with ‘The Man in the Cupboard’...Bertie. When he came to office there was 220,000 public sector workers now there is more than 330,000. That equals more pay and more pensions. Obviously we can’t get rid of the public sector, but we have to start managing it properly. For me, I would say the magic number has to be no one recieves more than €100,000...

Q I’snt the average pay for a public sector worker around €80,000 ?

A...Lets differentiate that for a moment. In fairness to the average public sector worker they do not earn those

wages, its the senior civil servants who are adding to the high average wage. A perfect example of which is here in Shannon. Member of the DAA got wages of €655k , a €50k bonus a couple of hundred thousand on a pension. He sits on two other boards and the DAA made a loss of €13m last year. Where is the justification for that kind of money. This is an example of the changes that need to be made. All the talk is about raising more moneyand taxes alon with who its going to hit the hardest. No one is addressing the cost factor of all of this.

An interview with Tony Mulcahy, Mayor of Shannon and Fine Gael member.

Things won’t change for

Small Business unless things change at

the TOP

focusmeInterview


There is still 11,735 disaster loans outstanding from hurricane Katrina, our people are borrowed to the hilt already. As of early September, 50,000 claims, 44,000 of those for lost income, had been filed. Over 10,000 claims had been paid, totaling nearly $80 million (€57.7mn).By mid September, about 15,000 claims remained unpaid. The claims were from individuals and businesses that had been fully documented and had already received loss payments from BP. The claims 'Czar', Kenneth Feinberg, acknowledged that he had no excuse for the delay.

Businesses criticized the claims process, claiming it has gotten worse under Feinberg's leadership, some saying that BP "should dump Feinberg if he doesn't get his act together soon". The Obama Administration responded to criticism from Florida officials, including Gov. Charlie Crist and CFO Alex Sink, with a stern letter to Feinberg, saying the present pace of claims is "unacceptable" and directing his office to make whatever changes necessary

to move things along. "The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill has disrupted the lives of thousands upon thousands of individuals, often cutting off the income on which they depend. Many of these individuals and businesses simply do not have the resources to get by while they await processing by the GCCF" associate U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perrelli wrote.Feinberg responded to the complaints in a news release. "Over the past few weeks, I have heard from the people of the Gulf, elected officials, and others that payments remain too slow and not generous enough," Feinberg said. "I am implementing new procedures that will make this program more

efficient, more accelerated and more generous."By early October, denied claims dropped from 528 to 116, as checks were cut and mailed to businesses that were initially told they would get no help. In addition to those still waiting for money, dozens of people say they have received small fractions of the compensation they requested.

The SimilaritiesIn many ways the physical devastation in the Gulf of Mexico mimics the financial and psychological damage that small business in Ireland has gone through. Picking up the pieces from a whirlwind number of years of devastating loss and the ripple effect of hardship that it has brought. Whether physical or psychological the result has still been the same. A government slow to react and a sector of the economy which must start to find the answers for themselves. It has become clear that the answers we seek will not come from banks, government or big business. We must go out into the toxic mess and clean up the mess that others have created for us. The solutions for SME’s must come from SME’s; the people getting their hands dirty, the people trying to save their environment and the people who have what it takes to wade through the sludge and come out clean on the other side.

Being a small business in Louisiana in the southern United States has been tough in recent years. If you lived there you might be forgiven for thinking that universal forces were aligning against you.

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina ripped its way across the gulf of Mexico. At least 1,836 people died; Flood water reached inland more than six miles, in some cases more than twelve. The total cost of the disaster was estimated at $81bn(USD 2005). The world famous city of New Orleans, once vibrant with music and dance, saw eighty percent of the city flooded. Lives were irrevicobly changed and nothing would ever be the same again.

Then just as a business community was picking up the pieces from that devastating storm, there was an explosion on a British Petroleum offshore oil platform called Deepwater Horizon. For four months 53,000 barrels of crude a day gushed into the gulf of Mexico. Eventually when the well was capped and sealed an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil had found its way across the gulf, sticking on to the southern coastal states, Louisana being one of those states.

The damage done to the fishing and tourism industry was phenominal. In Louisiana the fishing industry has over 27,000 employees, most of them employed by small businesses. The spill also had a rippling effect across other industries. Businesses from car dealers to retail stores have been hurt. Carmen Sunda, director of the Louisiana Small Business Development Center in the Greater New Orleans area, says 'the spill has had a multiplier effect on charter boats, vacation property owners and tugboat owner as well, who are all seeing customers cancel contracts. Used car sales are down twenty percent, sporting goods stores are down 80 percent and even Mardi Gras has been hit because the spill coincided with the beginning of the internationally renowned festival. Simply put, know one knows just how bad the impact of the spill will effect hem, so they are saving thier money.'

Mike Voisin, owner of Motivatt Seafoods Inc, processes the gulfs oyster rich beds. Its a typical american small business. Its has a had a family member at the helm for seven generations. But now all of that might have to change. His son and daugher work for him, and for the first time in his life, he doesn't know whether they will be able to carry on the business and the family legacy.

Where is the Help?The Small Business Administration has been trying to capatilise on the spill. When hurricane Katrina struck five years earlier, many accused the SBA of responding poorly to businesses. Twenty eight SBA centers have been set-up through out the gulf region. It is providing up to $2mn (€1.5m) in working capital loans at four percent interest for five years with an application process of just five days instead of the typical eighteen. However Louisiana state senator Mary Landrieu, has argued that more loans are not what the members need. Our people don’t need more loans they can’t pay;they don’t need arbitrary deferrels with balloon payments at the end.

Focusworldfocusme

www.focusme.ie


Focusworld


Black Gold to Black Death

There is a lot of similarities between us and the Gulf of Mexico...

‘A government slow to react and a sector of the economy which must start to find the answers for themselves. It has become clear that the answers we seek will not come from banks, government or big business.

There is still 11,735 disaster loans outstanding from hurricane Katrina, our people are borrowed to the hilt already. As of early September, 50,000 claims, 44,000 of those for lost income, had been filed. Over 10,000 claims had been paid, totaling nearly $80 million (€57.7mn).By mid September, about 15,000 claims remained unpaid. The claims were from individuals and businesses that had been fully documented and had already received loss payments from BP. The claims 'Czar', Kenneth Feinberg, acknowledged that he had no excuse for the delay.

Businesses criticized the claims process, claiming it has gotten worse under Feinberg's leadership, some saying that BP "should dump Feinberg if he doesn't get his act together soon". The Obama Administration responded to criticism from Florida officials, including Gov. Charlie Crist and CFO Alex Sink, with a stern letter to Feinberg, saying the present pace of claims is "unacceptable" and directing his office to make whatever changes necessary

to move things along. "The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill has disrupted the lives of thousands upon thousands of individuals, often cutting off the income on which they depend. Many of these individuals and businesses simply do not have the resources to get by while they await processing by the GCCF" associate U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perrelli wrote.Feinberg responded to the complaints in a news release. "Over the past few weeks, I have heard from the people of the Gulf, elected officials, and others that payments remain too slow and not generous enough," Feinberg said. "I am implementing new procedures that will make this program more

efficient, more accelerated and more generous."By early October, denied claims dropped from 528 to 116, as checks were cut and mailed to businesses that were initially told they would get no help. In addition to those still waiting for money, dozens of people say they have received small fractions of the compensation they requested.

The SimilaritiesIn many ways the physical devastation in the Gulf of Mexico mimics the financial and psychological damage that small business in Ireland has gone through. Picking up the pieces from a whirlwind number of years of devastating loss and the ripple effect of hardship that it has brought. Whether physical or psychological the result has still been the same. A government slow to react and a sector of the economy which must start to find the answers for themselves. It has become clear that the answers we seek will not come from banks, government or big business. We must go out into the toxic waste and clean up the mess that others have created for us. The solutions for SME’s must come from SME’s; the people getting their hands dirty, the people trying to save their environment and the people who have what it takes to wade through the sludge and come out clean on the other side.

Being a small business in Louisiana in the southern United States has been tough in recent years. If you lived there you might be forgiven for thinking that universal forces were aligning against you.

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina ripped its way across the gulf of Mexico. At least 1,836 people died; Flood water reached inland more than six miles, in some cases more than twelve. The total cost of the disaster was estimated at $81bn(USD 2005). The world famous city of New Orleans, once vibrant with music and dance, saw eighty percent of the city flooded. Lives were irrevicobly changed and nothing would ever be the same again.

Then just as a business community was picking up the pieces from that devastating storm, there was an explosion on a British Petroleum offshore oil platform called Deepwater Horizon. For four months 53,000 barrels of crude a day gushed into the gulf of Mexico. Eventually when the well was capped and sealed an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil had found its way across the gulf, sticking on to the southern coastal states, Louisana being one of those states.

The damage done to the fishing and tourism industry was phenominal. In Louisiana the fishing industry has over 27,000 employees, most of them employed by small businesses. The spill also had a rippling effect across other industries. Businesses from car dealers to retail stores have been hurt. Carmen Sunda, director of the Louisiana Small Business Development Center in the Greater New Orleans area, says 'the spill has had a multiplier effect on charter boats, vacation property owners and tugboat owner as well, who are all seeing customers cancel contracts. Used car sales are down twenty percent, sporting goods stores are down 80 percent and even Mardi Gras has been hit because the spill coincided with the beginning of the internationally renowned festival. Simply put, know one knows just how bad the impact of the spill will effect hem, so they are saving thier money.'

Mike Voisin, owner of Motivatt Seafoods Inc, processes the gulfs oyster rich beds. Its a typical american small business. Its has a had a family member at the helm for seven generations. But now all of that might have to change. His son and daugher work for him, and for the first time in his life, he doesn't know whether they will be able to carry on the business and the family legacy.

Where is the Help?The Small Business Administration has been trying to capatilise on the spill. When hurricane Katrina struck five years earlier, many accused the SBA of responding poorly to businesses. Twenty eight SBA centers have been set-up through out the gulf region. It is providing up to $2mn (€1.5m) in working capital loans at four percent interest for five years with an application process of just five days instead of the typical eighteen. However Louisiana state senator Mary Landrieu, has argued that more loans are not what the members need. Our people don’t need more loans they can’t pay;they don’t need arbitrary deferrels with balloon payments at the end.

Focusworldfocusme

www.focusme.ie


Focusworld


Black Gold to Black Death

There is a lot of similarities between us and the Gulf of Mexico...

‘A government slow to react and a sector of the economy which must start to find the answers for themselves. It has become clear that the answers we seek will not come from banks, government or big business.

Manufacturing Sector continues upward trendDespite the disruption caused by the severe weather conditions in December, the recovery in the manufacturing sector continued last month.The seasonally adjusted NCB Purchasing Managers' index rose for the third month in a row in December to stand at 52.2 compared to a reading of 51.2 in November. The improvement was the biggest since May.The index revealed that both output and new orders rose at solid rates while

employment also increased for the first time in seven months due to increased workloads.NCB says that solid output growth was seen last month on the back of rising new business from both domestic and overseas markets. Production has now grown in each of the past ten months, with the December increase the best since June.Overall new order growth expanded last month, with new export business continuing to increase at what NCB called a 'solid pace'. Asia, the Middle East and Britain were listed as the main sources of growth.

Newsfocusme

www.focusme.ie


News


Thirty firms a day went bust in 2010Thirty firms went bust every week last year, a business study by insolvency company Kavanagh Fennell has shown.More than 1,500 companies were declared insolvent during 2010, according to statistics complied by insolvencyjournal.ie. As expected, the construction sector was hardest hit with 472 companies, 30% of total, unable to pay wages and bills.Ken Fennell, a partner with Kavanagh Fennell which compiled the data, said the figures were not as bad as had been feared.“2010 saw no let-up in the number of businesses becoming insolvent, although the increase on the 2009 figure is not as bad as some had predicted, 2011 will again be a very difficult year for Irish businesses, and particularly the retail and hospitality sectors will see a large number of failures.”

Mr Fennell said he believed the overall number of insolvencies has probably peaked. Services were next hardest hit with 279 insolvencies and the vast majority of these had construction links such as architects and quantity surveyors.Some 194 businesses in the hospitality sector failed and 177 in the retail trade. The news of insolvencies was annouced as the Small Firms association announced that more than 1,000 jobs were lost every week in 2010. More than 60,000 redundancies were notified to the department of enterprise, with an average of 1,075 jobs lost in this country every week in for the year.

IDA says it created 11,000 jobs in 2010Almost 11,000 new jobs were created by IDA-supported companies last year, significantly up on the previous year’s total of 4,615, according to figures released today.In its end-of-year review the agency said a total of 126 foreign direct investments (FDIs) were won for the country over the 12 months.However over 9,500 positions were lost during the same period.Some 47 companies investing in Ireland for the first time, up 20% on 2009. Amongst these were D&B, Telefonica, Warner Chilcott, LinkedIn, EA, Riot Games, Webroot, FC Stone, Spencer Stuart, Fi-Tek, Genband, Synchronoss, Aspect, Streamserve and IIR.

IDA-supported companies directly employ around 139,000 people and contribute over €19bn in direct expenditure to the Irish economy.The agency said that while the global outlook for FDI in 2011 remains challenging, a continuing focus on improving competitiveness will place Ireland in a favourable position to win further significant FDI and contribute strongly to export-led recovery.

A new Intellectual Property (IP) search system Virtual IP Officer (VIPOS) – has been launched in Ireland designed to help SMEs better search and get advice on the patenting process. PatentNav, based in Belfast and Dublin and set up nearly a year ago, believes the VIPOS release is timed perfectly to assist innovators navigate the IP and patenting process but at considerably reduced costs.CEO Dr Eddie O‘Gorman, who has over 11 years experience in the IP sphere, said: “Fast-moving developments in innovation and te http://maxcdn.youngentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/protect-intellectual-property.jpg chnology across European and BRIC nations make it essential for companies to be aware of trends within a range of technologies and geographical areas. The potential costs of duplicating research and of registering products can be debilitating for small businesses. The European Patent Office has estimated that the cost of duplicate research is in the region of €20 billion a year in Europe alone. In addition to being complex, the IP process can be expensive – many of the advanced patent databases can cost from €5k to €6k a year to subscribe to. PatentNav will be hosting an interactive workshop event on patenting in Kilkenny and Belfast in April. The event is designed to raise awareness of issues relating to patenting so as to ensure SMEs are best equipped to enter the process.

LIMERICK City Council is to bring in a new incentive scheme for retailers LIMERICK City Council is to bring in a new incentive scheme for retailers early in 2011 which it hopes will breathe new life into the city centre. City manager Tom Mackey said grants would be available for those occupying vacant units while Mayor Maria Byrne said those setting up shop in the heart of the city in the coming months could benefit from lower rates bills.At a rate of around 25%, Limerick has the highest retail vacancy rates of any major city in Ireland. McGovern's Menswear on William Street, which is to close its doors on January 22 after almost 50 years in business, is the latest in a long line of casualties.Mr Mackey said City Hall now intends making grants available provided the shops are "desirable" and would not displace existing retailers. "The legalities have not been fully worked out," Mayor Byrne said, "but we are looking at bringing in reduced rates and other incentives.

UK Chancellor defends dramatic VAT increaseBritish chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne has defended the increase in sales tax, which came into effect today, as the "least damaging" way to tackle a budget deficit in excess of 10% of national output. The UK's Labour party condemned the increase in VAT to 20% from 17.5 % as "the wrong tax, at the wrong time."However, Mr Osborne said the increase would help to shore up public finances, rather than derailing economic recovery. The increase is expected to raise over £13 billion annually by the end of the current parliament in 2015."The VAT rise is a tough but necessary step towards Britain's economic recovery and it helps deal with those debts that everyone knows we've got to deal with," Mr Osborne told BBC Radio 4.The coalition governmant of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, which took office last May, has announced deep spending cuts over the next four years to help rein in the budget deficit.Most retailers are expecting lower sales in 2011, as weak consumer demand combines with higher inflation and taxes.The Office for Budget Responsibility watchdog has said the rise will shave around 0.3% off economic output in 2011/2012.

N E W SAnd Updates

Manufacturing Sector continues upward trendDespite the disruption caused by the severe weather conditions in December, the recovery in the manufacturing sector continued last month.The seasonally adjusted NCB Purchasing Managers' index rose for the third month in a row in December to stand at 52.2 compared to a reading of 51.2 in November. The improvement was the biggest since May.The index revealed that both output and new orders rose at solid rates while

employment also increased for the first time in seven months due to increased workloads.NCB says that solid output growth was seen last month on the back of rising new business from both domestic and overseas markets. Production has now grown in each of the past ten months, with the December increase the best since June.Overall new order growth expanded last month, with new export business continuing to increase at what NCB called a 'solid pace'. Asia, the Middle East and Britain were listed as the main sources of growth.

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Thirty firms a day went bust in 2010Thirty firms went bust every week last year, a business study by insolvency company Kavanagh Fennell has shown.More than 1,500 companies were declared insolvent during 2010, according to statistics complied by insolvencyjournal.ie. As expected, the construction sector was hardest hit with 472 companies, 30% of total, unable to pay wages and bills.Ken Fennell, a partner with Kavanagh Fennell which compiled the data, said the figures were not as bad as had been feared.“2010 saw no let-up in the number of businesses becoming insolvent, although the increase on the 2009 figure is not as bad as some had predicted, 2011 will again be a very difficult year for Irish businesses, and particularly the retail and hospitality sectors will see a large number of failures.”

Mr Fennell said he believed the overall number of insolvencies has probably peaked. Services were next hardest hit with 279 insolvencies and the vast majority of these had construction links such as architects and quantity surveyors.Some 194 businesses in the hospitality sector failed and 177 in the retail trade. The news of insolvencies was annouced as the Small Firms association announced that more than 1,000 jobs were lost every week in 2010. More than 60,000 redundancies were notified to the department of enterprise, with an average of 1,075 jobs lost in this country every week in for the year.

IDA says it created 11,000 jobs in 2010Almost 11,000 new jobs were created by IDA-supported companies last year, significantly up on the previous year’s total of 4,615, according to figures released today.In its end-of-year review the agency said a total of 126 foreign direct investments (FDIs) were won for the country over the 12 months.However over 9,500 positions were lost during the same period.Some 47 companies investing in Ireland for the first time, up 20% on 2009. Amongst these were D&B, Telefonica, Warner Chilcott, LinkedIn, EA, Riot Games, Webroot, FC Stone, Spencer Stuart, Fi-Tek, Genband, Synchronoss, Aspect, Streamserve and IIR.

IDA-supported companies directly employ around 139,000 people and contribute over €19bn in direct expenditure to the Irish economy.The agency said that while the global outlook for FDI in 2011 remains challenging, a continuing focus on improving competitiveness will place Ireland in a favourable position to win further significant FDI and contribute strongly to export-led recovery.

A new Intellectual Property (IP) search system Virtual IP Officer (VIPOS) – has been launched in Ireland designed to help SMEs better search and get advice on the patenting process. PatentNav, based in Belfast and Dublin and set up nearly a year ago, believes the VIPOS release is timed perfectly to assist innovators navigate the IP and patenting process but at considerably reduced costs.CEO Dr Eddie O‘Gorman, who has over 11 years experience in the IP sphere, said: “Fast-moving developments in innovation and technology across European and BRIC nations make it essential for companies to be aware of trends within a range of technologies and geographical areas. The potential costs of duplicating research and of registering products can be debilitating for small businesses. The European Patent Office has estimated that the cost of duplicate research is in the region of €20 billion a year in Europe alone. In addition to being complex, the IP process can be expensive – many of the advanced patent databases can cost from €5k to €6k a year to subscribe to. PatentNav will be hosting an interactive workshop event on patenting in Kilkenny and Belfast in April. The event is designed to raise awareness of issues relating to patenting so as to ensure SMEs are best equipped to enter the process.

LIMERICK City Council is to bring in a new incentive scheme for retailers LIMERICK City Council is to bring in a new incentive scheme for retailers early in 2011 which it hopes will breathe new life into the city centre. City manager Tom Mackey said grants would be available for those occupying vacant units while Mayor Maria Byrne said those setting up shop in the heart of the city in the coming months could benefit from lower rates bills.At a rate of around 25%, Limerick has the highest retail vacancy rates of any major city in Ireland. McGovern's Menswear on William Street, which is to close its doors on January 22 after almost 50 years in business, is the latest in a long line of casualties.Mr Mackey said City Hall now intends making grants available provided the shops are "desirable" and would not displace existing retailers. "The legalities have not been fully worked out," Mayor Byrne said, "but we are looking at bringing in reduced rates and other incentives.

UK Chancellor defends dramatic VAT increaseBritish chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne has defended the increase in sales tax, which came into effect today, as the "least damaging" way to tackle a budget deficit in excess of 10% of national output. The UK's Labour party condemned the increase in VAT to 20% from 17.5 % as "the wrong tax, at the wrong time."However, Mr Osborne said the increase would help to shore up public finances, rather than derailing economic recovery. The increase is expected to raise over £13 billion annually by the end of the current parliament in 2015."The VAT rise is a tough but necessary step towards Britain's economic recovery and it helps deal with those debts that everyone knows we've got to deal with," Mr Osborne told BBC Radio 4.The coalition governmant of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, which took office last May, has announced deep spending cuts over the next four years to help rein in the budget deficit.Most retailers are expecting lower sales in 2011, as weak consumer demand combines with higher inflation and taxes.The Office for Budget Responsibility watchdog has said the rise will shave around 0.3% off economic output in 2011/2012.

N E W SAnd Updates

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