As part of the New Frontiers Phase 1 programme in ATU iHubs Galway and Mayo (formerly GMIT), Donncha Hughes, an independent business advisor will meet participants in person for a One 2 One session to review their draft applications prior to the final Phase 2 application submission deadline. New Frontiers Phase 2 Application – One…
The idea behind the Lean Canvas is to quickly sketch the business idea instead of using several weeks to develop a business plan. I am delighted to announce that my latest online training programme, ‘Complete a Lean Canvas for your Startup Business Idea’ is now live. This blog post will explain what is contained in…
Are you participating on one of the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers Phase 1 programmes being delivered by the Incubation Centres in the Technological Universities in Ireland? If yes, you may have started completing your Phase 2 application form (download pdf) As a trainer over the years on the programmes in SETU Waterford and Carlow, ATU…
I recently met with Clare Carroll of Inc60 to record a podcast about the pre-startup and early stage business journey. The Lean Canvas as outlined in the book Running Lean is an ideal tool at this stage. The 30-minute podcast also discusses Sales, Mentoring, building your Team and supports for business. Thanks to Maria Staunton…
The Business Model Canvas is a well-recognised tool for business planning for both Startups and established businesses. This article discusses the tool with specific reference to Social Enterprise citing examples of Irish businesses for each of the nine building blocks. BMC for Social Enterprise As I explained in this LinkedIn Pulse article entitled “Inspiring: Social…
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…
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…
I am proud to be an advocate of the Lean Startup movement. I have worked with lots of startups to firstly explain the principles and secondly to use the tools. Why – because when I read The Lean Startup, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development, particularly Running Lean and most recently The Lean Entrepreneur, the…