The top start-up funds in Ireland. 6 Great Tools to Kickstart Your Startup. How Shopify Empowers Entrepreneurs | Mahesh Vellanki. Ecommerce Special: How to Set up Your Online Shop in a Day. By Ian Dodson on June 30, 2015 Last week we discussed the 4 fatal factors to consider when deciding to sell online. This week we’ll delve into the techniques you can implement to set up shop and start selling online with ease. The beauty of selling a service online is that you can start selling straight away and don’t have to consider the logistics of shipping and returns. However, if you want to sell products you’ll have to think a little more strategically. We’ll talk you through the best Ecommerce methods for ensuring your products reach the hands of your target market. 1. Setting Up Your Ecommerce Website How you set up your Ecommerce website is dependant on whether you would like to host Ecommerce functionality on your existing website or whether you’d like to create a new website purpose built for selling online. 2.
The first step to choosing an effective payment provider is to decide how to you would like to receive payment details from your customers on your website. Ecommerce Special: How to Set up Your Online Shop in a Day. Technology For SMEs. 10 ways to modernize accounting in 2015 - Xero Blog. We’ve wrapped another successful Xerocon. The overriding theme, in addition to exciting partnership and product updates, has been what it takes to go “beyond accounting.”
To go beyond is to strive to take full advantage of the tools now available and using them to streamline business practices across the board. In the closing keynote, Amy Vetter, Xero’s Global VP of Education & Head of Accounting, offered some valuable insights on how to modernize accounting. She offered 10 ways accountants can overhaul their practices to become a digital-savvy “Connected Advisor.” 1. Realize that small business is a big market As accountants, don’t disregard the opportunity that small businesses present. 2. In the world of accounting, time is traditionally the inventory. 3. To move from being an accountant to becoming an advisor, you need to go through a few steps. Becoming a Connected Advisor means staying ahead of your clients on the technology curve. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Ireland’s top start-up funds and how to get money. Sharing the fruits of your neighbours. How B2B & B2C Companies Can Connect With Customers on LinkedIn.
Open Gallery 1 Useful how-to lists about industry-rich topics.Industry surveys and benchmark reports.Industry opinion pieces.Educational ebooks and whitepapers.Job opportunities and information about your culture, etc. Position your brand as a thought leader by sharing influential, inspiring and educational content.Maximise your company’s LinkedIn profile page by adding an eye-catching header image and including relevant keywords in your description.Join relevant LinkedIn groups and contribute relevant content. Don’t forget to comment and engage with other people’s posts and conversations too. Repurpose your blog content on LinkedIn’s built-in publishing platform, LinkedIn Pulse.Ask industry influencers for their opinions and include them in your content to add authority and credibility and to help extend your content’s reach.
IS online selling right for your business? Here are the four key factors. If you want goals, you need goalposts. IS online selling right for your business? Here are the four key factors. How to do a successful merger: the inside story. Use These 3 Analysis Tools to Prepare a Killer Business Plan. Mission planning in the SEAL Teams always took one of two routes: deliberate or hasty. Deliberate planning assumed a longer term approach (greater than 48 hours) whereas hasty planning was for anything within a 24-hour period -- with some missions as soon as now.
While both planning methodologies entailed the same three criteria -- time, resources and requirements -- two significant differences determined which approach to use: the immediacy of the demand (essentially, the threat) imposed by the enemy (or competitor), and the accuracy of information we had to plan. For the entrepreneur, it’s tempting to vie for the hasty approach, be like Nike and “just do it,” with hopes that your product will just take off into newfound success. Chances are, however, that it won’t. At least, not without doing the due diligence that gathers enough information to formulate an impenetrable business plan. Related: Look Ahead to These 4 Business Plan Milestones 2. Strengths. 3. 7S model. 5 Strategies to Build a Fun Work Culture That's Also Productive. Entrepreneur and CultureIQ are searching for the top high-performing cultures to be featured on our annual list. Think your company has what it takes? Click here to get started.
Everyone wants to work somewhere fun. Ask anybody in the world what type of place they want their office to be, and only a tiny percentage will reply “someplace boring, where nobody enjoys themselves and everyone only pays attention to the work in front of them.” Yet, many workers find themselves in such an environment. That’s because there’s a dissonance for business owners that’s difficult to resolve. Yes, “fun” workplaces get more attention and seem to have happier workers, but at the end of the day, you’re running a business, and you need to make sure your workers are productive if you have any chance of remaining profitable. Related: You Can Know What Employees Are Doing Without Being Big Brother This isn’t the only way to go about this, nor is it the best way. 1. Friendly competition is always a good thing.
10 Tools for Getting More Done Every Day. It’s natural for a professional to feel that there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. This is especially true for entrepreneurs building a business alone. Being forced to handle the many daily tasks associated with running a business can easily stretch a person to the breaking point.
With so many tech tools available, however, solopreneurs and consultants can automate processes, eliminating the need to hire additional staff or contract processes out. But there are so many tools available, it can be hard to choose just one. Here are 10 great tools that can help you power through your day more efficiently. 1. This iOS app helps you record fragments of ideas that come to you throughout the day, then convert them to ideas later. 2. If procrastination is your problem, this app could be the solution. Related: Procrastinators: How to Fight Your Genes and Get Stuff Done Now 3. 4. 5. 6. To-do list apps can help you get organized. 7. 8. 9. 10. 20 Productivity Apps to Keep You On Task (Infographic)
Apps mainly do two things: They either distract us or keep us on track. If you’re a busy entrepreneur or someone who works for one, it’s best to stick to the latter kind, at least during working hours, especially if you want to be a productivity powerhouse. Productivity apps can give you -- and, yes, your boss, too -- a leg up on putting your most organized, efficient professional foot forward. Some are built to tame your inbox, while others streamline your to-dos or track your expenses. You can also use efficiency apps to sharpen your focus before a big meeting or to communicate with your coworkers under the radar (for strictly work-related conversations, right?). And then there’s the type that bosses love the most, procrastination-preventing apps that whip you into action. Related: 10 Tools for Getting More Done Every Day Click to Enlarge Image credit: Adecco Related: Procrastinators: How to Fight Your Genes and Get Stuff Done Now. Website opens the door for SMEs funding. VIDEO - FundSME: New website for small business funding goes live 480p 720p480p360p high360p low Embed video Dimensions: This advertisement ends in: 04:19 A one-stop-shop website for small business owners who are seeking funding to grow their firms goes live today....
Open Gallery 1. How you can get the State's financial muscle behind your business idea. Problem solver: I'm frustrated with struggling to maintain my shop's standards. Open Gallery 1 Q: I am struggling to maintain standards in my shop and find myself repeatedly frustrated. What am I doing wrong?... Problem solver: Why does my company need sales targets anyway? Open Gallery 1 Q: I don't understand the need for sales targets in my business and perhaps you could elaborate on the benefits?... Irish sports science data specialist ORRECO raises €1m from investors, set to double workforce. Open Gallery 1 An Irish company that counts golfers and Major winners Graeme McDowell and Padraig Harrington among its clients has raised €1million from investors, which will allow it to double its workforce this year.
ORRECO, an analytics and sports science data specialist based in Sligo but operating in centres including London, New York and Florida, uses its unique technology to help elite athletes around the world to achieve peak-performance. The firm has grown quickly and its client list reads like a who’s who of world sport with Newcastle United, Nike Oregon Elite Running, New Balance Running, Formula 1 driver Max Chilton as well as NBA and Major League Baseball teams on the books. Major winner Graeme McDowell explains how ORRECO’s technology and specialised data analysis helps him play better and train more effectively. McDowell, says: “2014 was my most consistent year ever, I only missed one cut. Numerous top 10s on both sides of the Atlantic, all over the world. Online Editors. Irish hot water devices set to clean up. Open Gallery 1 There is an old saying: it is an ill wind that doesn't blow somebody some good. For Cork entrepreneur Martin Lane it was the water charges that kick-started a very successful venture.
Whilst the country at large fulminated about the new impositions, he decided to supply water-saving products to householders. Not surprisingly the new line of business took off like a rocket. A former carpenter, Lane was involved in the building industry before going into the drain maintenance and cleaning business. Irrespective of the poor trading conditions businesses were still paying enormous commercial water bills; so he felt that a business that could save these customers money had a good chance of surviving. Even if water charges were abolished altogether, Watersave Ireland, based in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, believe that the business is future-proof owing to the almost forgotten cost of water usage - namely energy.
The unit costs €165 to buy and less than €100 a year to run. If you've kids in college, crowns, or rent out a room, get your tax refund. Open Gallery 1 The Government is promising to cut tax and the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, has promised to ease the tax burden on the self-employed in the next Budget. Before we look at what to expect, it is worth looking at what we have. Every year, millions of euro in tax refunds remain unclaimed and it's not that taxpayers don't care. In many cases, they just don't know, or didn't think they could get it back. Health expenses are the most common, and sometimes, when you add it all up, it amounts to a lot. You can look back over the last four years to claim back tax, and even though most health expenses only attract tax relief at 20pc, if you spend €500 a year on them and it includes visits to the GP and prescription medicines, then that's a refund of €400 (€100 per year).
Routine dental work is not deductible for tax, but many that we consider routine, such as root canal treatment, crowns and braces, are deductible. Many people are confused with tax relief for tuition fees. Startups: so hot there's even one to decide which one is the hottest. Open Gallery 1 They came by the hundreds, spilling out of Ubers and Lyfts to wait in a line snaking for two blocks from the front door of Jones, a bar in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. A passerby asked if a band was playing. No, the draws were free beer, Ryan Hoover and Product Hunt, the hot arbiter of the coolness of the hundreds of apps, services and gadgets released in any given month.
More than 3,700 people RSVP'd to an invitation Hoover posted on Facebook for his website's first-anniversary party, a pavement-jamming testament to tech's reign and Hoover's particular brand of celebrity. "I haven't seen anything that captures the magic of the times we live in the way Product Hunt does," says Groupon co-founder Andrew Mason, whose new company, the travel guide service Detour, scored a Product Hunt shout-out last year. Venture capitalists put $48.3bn into US startups last year, the most since 2000, when the last boom was blowing up.
And he's not naive about his access to capital. €400m loan programme to support SMEs announced. An initial tranche of €400 million is to be made available for lending to Irish SMEs by the new State-backed Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) The body was established late last year to make cheap, long-term loans available to small and medium-sized business. As part of the first phase of its programme, the bank, which is backed by German, European and Irish money, will offer loans of up to €5 million at discounted rates for periods of between two and 10 years.
The SBCI said its first batch of SME-friendly loan products would be available from March 9th through AIB and Bank of Ireland, which will act as On-Lenders to channel the loans to companies. Eligible applicants for the loans must be independent enterprises which employ fewer than 250 persons and which have an annual turnover of less than €50 million and/or an annual balance sheet total of less than €43million.
The SBCI was established in a bid to improve access to credit for small and medium-sized businesses. Innovation finalists: cloud recording studio, model kit and educational toy. Ger O’Sullivan: ‘It’s like being in the Stone Age in 2015’ Rural Ireland needs better broadband to compete globally. Ten best mobile apps to save you money when out shopping. If you don't innovate, you won't survive. Small food firms set to benefit as new €400,000 grant scheme announced. What government support is available to me, I'm setting up my own business?
Thomas Cooney: Where do I go to get a business idea? The idiot/ eejit's guide to distorted Irish national economic data. Ireland: Jobs in foreign-owned exporting sector in 2014 below 2000 level. Forty American firms account for two-thirds of Irish exports. Ireland has 4,000 exporters, Denmark has 30,000. 'Living the dream' - I quit my job in finance, moved to the countryside and set up my own children's clothing company. How I harness the sun's energy to cut heating bills in half. How to sell more - by stocking less on your shelves. Food Cloud's Ward and O'Brien win top social entrepreneur gong. From tide to your table, one Dingle fish company really scaled things up. Hassle.com: The high-flier who left office job for online cleaning firm. How can I get better at measuring my business's performance? I need to find a balance to spend more time with my children. Opensky to provide stock software to Lloyds Pharmacy Ireland. Former Dragon Sean O'Sullivan plans to make Cork global hub for carpooling.
Myles Crofton sees biggest court judgment of this year.