For owner promoters, both startups and microenterprise, get strategic guidance on your business across marketing, finance and delivering on your goals.

Donncha works with a small number of Customers each year providing one to one mentoring & consultancy. This page summarises each service category - check out the pages in the navigation menu for more detail.

Mentoring : Enterprise Agency

I fundamentally believe that Mentoring is a fantastic resource to make available to small businesses particularly Startup promoters.

I am a member of the Enterprise Ireland mentor panel and the mentor panel administered by LEO in Galway, Roscommon and Mayo. I am a former member of the Enterprise Boards panels in Limerick City, Limerick County, Clare, North Tipperary and South Tipperary before I moved to Galway.

If you have business issues which you feel that a mentor may assist you with, please contact your local enterprise agency in the first instance. They will work with you to select a mentor with the requisite skills to address your requirements.

Free Business Mentoring in Galway

In January 2013, I joined the SCCUL Mentor Panel - a panel of mentors who are willing to offer pro-bono mentoring to small business owners & start ups/ emerging businesses in Galway City & County on a short term basis- three one hour meetings. Branded since 2016 as BizMentors, the network provides pro-bono access to business expertise and wisdom to people in small businesses (existing or start-up) who may otherwise have difficulty in accessing such expertise. To apply for mentoring contact BizMentors.ie directly (located in the SCCUL Enterprise Centre,  Ballybane, County Galway).

Consultancy: Business Plan Preparation

I have written business plans for companies in a diverse range of sectors to include: online retailing; fish processing; hospitality; software services; eLearning plus many many more. I can help you to write a business plan or I can write the plan by working closely with you. The plans will include full financial projections as required by banks, state agencies and investors.  Several of my clients (see testimonials) have secured bank finance and grant funding on the strength of the plans that we have prepared.

See my Business Plan preparation service page for more details of how this service works for you and check out my blogposts on this topic.

Consultancy: Business Advisor

Not dissimilar to the mentoring provided via Enterprise Agencies, I also work with clients on a one to one basis as a business advisor. I use tools such as the Lean Canvas, Business Model Canvas, One Page Marketing Plan and One Page strategy canvas to help startup promoters and owner-managers of small businesses to work through issues facing their business and to leverage opportunities for growth. Feel free to check out my Marketing Blog posts and One Page Marketing Plan.

 

A feasibility study undertaken over several weeks to several months determines the viability of opportunities across four related areas: Technical, Commercial, Financial and Team. I mainly work with clients to supervise their feasibility studies - often as part of a LEO mentoring assignment - my strong view is that you need to undertake your own research to include talking to potential customers. I will work with you to provide guidance and direction and ensure that the feasibility is delivered on time.

See my What is a Feasibility Study? for more details of how this service works for you.

In 2019, working with a Medical Engineering consultant, a report on the Commercial Potential of a new technology being developed in NUIG was produced by Donncha Hughes, Business Advisor working closely with the TTO and primary researcher as part of their Commercialisation grant application to Enterprise Ireland.

As a specialist in technology startups, the service is not to undertake the Commercialisation study, rather to work with the team to document the business plan and create financial projections having guided them on customer discovery, market validation and business planning. The team to spin out is a key factor in successful 3rd level R&D commercialisation.

 

Donncha works with startups and established business owners on defining and delivering pitches for their businesss. I specialise in both pitches for investment and also for Sales. These are two different decks with a lot of overlaps:

- For the Sales Pitch to a customer, the problem has to described and defined in terms of the short term. How is affecting the individual business right now - what are the pains and frustrations it is causing and can these be quanitified. For an investor pitch, the audience is equally interested in the problem faced by the customer but from the perspective of how big a problem it is for customers and how likely they are want to solve this problem over the medium to longer term.

- The other big difference is the financials. An investor definitely wants to know how you are going to make money while the customer probably just wants to be sure that the business is profitable and going to continue to be in business as opposed to knowing about your costs and margins.

Check out my free online training, 'Introduction to Pitching'.

I assist small business clients to develop response to Public Procurement requests. Tender management can be a key element of your Marketing and Business Development plans. I have experienced Tenders from both sides of the procurement divide. When I worked in the Enterprise Centre in LIT, I managed several high value tenders (to include building fit-out; security alarms; and business training). My business is significantly influenced by tenders and I have significant experience of assisting clients to win tenders. You might find this blogpost 'Six Key Tips for Tendering' a useful starting point.

My most popular (FREE) online training programme is called 'Introduction to Tendering for Small Business: How to Win a Public Procurement Contract in Ireland'. Below is a promo video for a workshop delivered on Public Procurement for LEO Roscommon.