12 things that Business Advisor, Donncha Hughes would like to share with startup and small business owners on the topic of Finance. Talks about business models, pricing models, getting paid and the importance of financial projections (and upskilling management with finance skills) this is part one of a two part series on Finance for Sta
Figuring out how to access finance for your business is a key business planning activity – both before you start your business and on an ongoing basis particularly if you want to drive growth. This blogpost will outline the options for accessing finance in Ireland for startups. The funding staircase is a graphical representation of possible steps on the journey from starting to scaling and Exit.
Peer to peer (P2P) lending, also known as crowdlending, involves applying to a platform for a loan which then offers it out to its members who collectively fund the loan. It would not be unusual for €200,000 to be funded by up to 800 bidders. Online Peer to peer finance providers like Flender and Linked…
Enterprise Ireland launched the Pre-Seed Start Fund in October 2022 effectively replacing the highly successful Competitive Start Fund (CSF). The Pre Seed Fund provides funding of €100,000 – former recipients of CSF can apply for €50,000. Over the years, CSF has been tweaked and this latest change resulted in a new name along with increased…
I write business plans for some startup and SME clients. I review business plans for Enterprise Agencies. I also provide training on business plans. A question I am often asked is, ‘what content goes into a business plan’, with the follow up being, ‘how much information should be included in an Executive Summary‘. Most people…
I am delighted to announce that my latest online training programme, ‘Writing Your Business Plan’ is now live. To publish this online training was an early goal for 2020 as it was on my ‘to do list’ for a while as I regularly deliver one day workshops on preparing business plans for New Frontiers, IBYE…
I have said for years that the best investor ready business plan preparation guide is the Business Cube Methodology published by InterTrade Ireland the organisors of the SeedCorn Investor Readiness Competition. So I was delighted to see that a modernised edition, now referred to as Business Cube, has been published in 2019. It is a…
Congratulations to all the national winners of IBYE 2019 …link to official IBYE release I was delighted to hear the results via Twitter on Sunday 15th September that Sharon Cunningham of Shorla Pharma was selected as Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur having earlier scooped the National Winner in Best Start Up Business – TIPPERARY Sean McGarry,…
I am delighted to announce that I have published an online training programme called ‘Creating Financial Projections for a Local Business‘. One year access is €50 including VAT. This ONE HOUR online programme is for you if: You a startup promoter or small business owner who needs to create financial projections for your business to…
Managing a startup business is NOT easy. Startup entrepreneurs have lots of balls in the air. Lean Startup books, theory and practice are brilliant but the question is which model or framework do you follow and when – and are they all relevant to an Irish startup situation? To address this dilemma Donncha devised the…
I am delighted to publish a Case Study of and testimonial for my work. It outlines in detail how I worked with a specific client to prepare a business plan for their business. It details the time involved and the process and methodology. What is the Case Study about? The document addresses in detail (19…
I am often asked by startup entrepreneurs what makes a High Potential Startup Company or HPSU? as defined by Enterprise Ireland. While answering this question, I am struck by the fact that I am never asked the follow up question which I have often pondered myself: So how do the companies who are selected as…
How to address Exit in a business plan involves convincing an Investor that they will get a big return on their investment – the options from Trade Sale, IPO and further rounds are discussed with Irish examples (plus a short excerpt from a brilliant article about Facebook). The key issue of Valuation is also addressed.
I write several business plans for clients every year and I also regularly create tender documents for my own business, with partners and for customers. I review many more business plans to include InterTrade Ireland’s Seedcorn competition and tender submissions. Having a professional-looking document is a great start. Here are some of my top tips…
Bullet charts are a superb data visualisation tool – if you want to present results of a metric such as Sales across two periods e.g. this year versus last year (or against this year’s target) in for instance a business plan update. The advantage is that they allow presentation of comparative information while also presenting…
This blogpost will focus on writing your business plan so that it proves valuable to you during your first year in business – we don’t want it to just gather dust, that is never be read again. In essence, your business plan should concisely detail what your business is about, who your customers are, and why they buy from you. It will also set out how you plan to grow the business. You should write your business plan with the objective of copying and pasting the words, descriptions, images and graphs into other communications during your first year. You can refer to your business plan to explain to suppliers such as website and graphic designers and your accountant what your business is about. You can also use it with agents, partners, and your bank manager to set out the vision for your business. Finally, you can also use it for yourself and your team to record ideas for the future and most critically to track the progress of your business.
I volunteered to speak at BizCamp Galway tomorrow (Saturday 10th September) on the topic of ‘Ten challenges to help your business plan succeed’. We have been allocated a 30 minute slot to include Q&A. My talk and this blogpost focuses on my experience of working with hundreds of startups to present the key issues that…