Category: Success Stories

Liam Tutty is the founder of Dead Centre Brewing in Athlone which opened in February 2019. Liam participated in the IBYE (Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneurs) programme which we facilitate for the Local Enterprise Office. 

 Hi, my name is Liam Tuttyy. I own and operate Dead Centre Brewing here in Athlone in County Westmeath. We started a craft brewery here about a year ago, but we’re far more than that. We have a full seven -day publicans license. If I wander back this way, you can see the bar through the glass there and we have a pizza kitchen and then we have a five hectolitre brewery with a 10 hectolitre fermentation capacity here in Athlone. Craft breweries are a dime a dozen in this country, at the moment. The thing that we’re doing different, is the bar and the kitchen and as well as that, the brewery itself is kinda standout. It’s a very pretty piece of equipment and the fact that we’re already working with Tourism Ireland, Failte Ireland and getting as many people into the brewery and experiencing the beers as possible. Last night we actually won, I’m really thrilled about this, we won best Gastropub in County Westmeath. We’ve been trading for 11 months. It’s a big achievement. So, we do things differently. We’re not just making beer, we’re really taking things up a notch, we are trying to anyway.

 

How many years have you been in business now?

How long have we been in business? This is a tough one, because I started Dead Centre Brewing as a contract brand. We had been brewing technically since the summer of 2017 when we rented space from Saint Mel’s Brewing Company in Longford and released our first beer, Marooned IPA and we’ve
been open here as I said, we celebrate our first birthday this month. So February, so we have been open a year at this point.

What course did you participate in with us?

I was lucky enough to actually win best business idea at IBYE or whatever you want to call it, Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur a couple of years ago and in my preparation for that, I did the IBYE course with the Entrepreneurs Academy and that really helped myself prepare for that
competition, which really paid off for us. 

At what point in your business development did you do this course?

At the time, the business was an idea and we had actually, just literally, taken it out of the phase of being just a simple brewery idea. We were lucky enough to work with the Local Enterprise Office really close in Westmeath, they were brilliant. I cannot recommend them highly enough and what became
clear from our feasibility study, the market was crowded, and shelf space was tight. It was really difficult to carve out a little bit of room for yourself in the craft beer market. So, we decided to do things differently. As I said full bar, seven -day license, kitchen, tours here at the brewery and I’m taking a different direction to a lot of the other breweries in the country. 

Did you already have your current business idea when you started the programme with us or did we help you to form or strengthen it?

When I started the course with the Entrepreneurs Academy, I did already have the idea, but it’s been in flux ever since, it’s been an odd one and we’ve been at the point when I did it. I’d probably been 18 months in planning and a lot of that seemed to not just be thrown out, but certainly adjusted, amended, fine-tuned, is probably the right word for it. So I had the idea, but it wasn’t exactly where I needed to be in my opinion.

Can you remember how you felt before the course?

Probably the same way I feel most of the time just kinda daunted and it’s a really, really big undertaking to do. What we’re doing here in Athlone or to do it anywhere for that matter. But we have built a brew pub, a gastropub outside of an major urban area. Technically Athlone qualifies  as a rural area, so it was daunting before I did the course and a little bit less so afterwards but still a bit daunting.

How did you feel after the course?

After the course, I felt like we really tied things down a bit. I think that we had time to be a little bit more fine-tuned on how we were doing things and not just how we’re doing things, but the things that we were doing because we’ve decided to take things in a complete different direction to a majority of other breweries, not every other brewery, but certainly a majority of other breweries in the country. I think that’s what makes us unique. What makes us different and why people keep coming back. And people that do visit once, love to visit.

We aim to help you build the skills, confidence and network to be successful. Was that your experience?

 

The network I built out of it absolutely, you can see that it’s been strong since. People that I met on it, I still deal with fairly regularly. Confidence? Absolutely, I wasn’t confident in the idea that I had probably because craft brewing for me is a passion. But you can’t let your heart rule your head when it comes to business and I really feel like I was possibly trying to shoe horn the business into existence, when technically the business as it stood, wasn’t going to work. I think that really came to light after the course with the Entrepreneurs Academy, to see okay, so A doesn’t work, does A plus B work? Does A plus B, plus C work or does A not work? We just focus on B and it was really good. It was a good lateral thinking exercise and actually making yourself see what is viable here.

How many people are on the team now?

At the time when I did the course, it was just me and even though I wasn’t pulling a wage from it, it was the best idea application. We won best idea, but what I do love is that we came out of that course and entered best business idea in Westmeath and won it and the following year the final, the County final for Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur in Westmeath was held in the premises here. So, it just goes to show that an idea that’s been well researched and well thought out and attacked with a lot of passion will come to fruition and will actually turn into something bricks and mortar. That was a change from running a side hustle basically with zero employees to taking on … we’re currently at about 10 employees here in Athlone, which still kind of frightens the hell of me to say, to be perfectly honest with you.

What are you most proud of in your business, so far?

To be honest with you, there’s a lot of things and it’s a graft. It is not easy work at all. These are just constantly 80 -hour weeks, again and again and again and it just keeps on going. What I’m proudest about? I have to say recognition is good. I’m not normally one for awards because I don’t understand how people can hang their hat on something that somebody else judges them on, but it was nice to win at IBYE. It was really nice to win at the Irish Pub Awards this year, it was great to win at the restaurant awards this year and I I think I’m just proud of the team. The team here are strong. They’re really good. They love what they do and that shows in everything that they do. The team is what I’m proudest of. It’s been difficult and they’ve come through really really well. I’m very proud of them.

What’s the greatest challenge you have faced?

That’s such a weird question to come right after the last one, it’s probably the team as well. Managing people is not easy and it’s a time sponge. It takes up a lot of the time that you really wish you could put into something else in the brewery. But at the same time, I’m not trying to build a staff here. I’m trying to build a family and I really do want people to be tight knit and close and when staff are unhappy, which is going to happen, that’s the nature of the game, it makes it difficult. People management has been tricky.

What advice would you give other entrepreneurs?

 

This is a strange one, because I say it and I genuinely mean it a lot of the time. People will say, would I do it all again? Honestly, they’re are days when it really gets on top of you. I have a 16 month-old baby at home who I see far too little and I’m pulled between all the different departments. I think that will be the thing I need to stop doing. I’ve employed really, really good people who really know what they’re doing and all I tend to do, is put my nose in, so I would say, absolutely drive, drive, drive and you have to know every area of your business – 100% be involved. But when there’s no need for you anymore, graciously bow out, allow the staff to do what they do best and leave them to it. That will be my advice. 

 

 

 

For more information:http://deadcentrebrewing.com/

Daragh Murphy is the founder of November Seven films and participated in our Momentum “Don’t get a Job – Build a Business” programme.  Daragh is an award winning Irish filmmaker and has been telling stories visually his whole life.

He began making movies at a very young age and finally realised his dream when he moved to New York to attend The New York Film Academy in 2005.

I’m Daragh Murphy. I’m the owner of November Seven Films, which is a film production and animation studio based in Dublin. We produce commercials, music videos, corporate videos, animations, and motion graphics. I myself, I’m a director, cinematographer, editor, writer, colour grader, animator and motion graphics artist. I also do my own accounts and admin and…

I started the business in 2012 – 2013. I was working abroad in New York. I studied over there and studied film and was getting some work over there and then I ended up coming home, straight into a recession, which wasn’t great. So I started working freelance, doing some motion graphics and animation work and that was decent enough where I decided to get an office and, you know, just move out of the bedroom and start trying to log my hours and trying to get a more professional feel and look to just what I was doing and for myself personally.

So I was getting some freelance work but also kind of on the dole at the same time. It was quite a depressing period for a while until that actually, until you moved into that office, it was strange. It was tricky. It was just, I was frustrated because I wanted to be there and I was there, you know, when someone recommended the momentum course to me, I was like, okay, I’ll give this thing a go.

From what I read of the of the course, it seemed like they knew what they were doing. It seemed it was going to be demanding and challenging. So the first day was pretty daunting. I walked into the hotel room in the city center and the 30 people in the class, cause we didn’t, we didn’t have the Entrepreneurs Academy and all the other amenities. We were the first, you know, we were the inaugural bunch.

It was terrifying, but in the right way, you know, we were getting asked the hard questions. You know, the easy question is, what are you good at? And it’s the easiest thing in the world. What I’m good at, I’m a filmmaker. I’m a good editor. If someone’s a good salesperson or musician or you know, gardener, whatever, a painter, whatever people skills are. I remember Steve, who I had actually known for about 10 years beforehand, Steve Thompson when he walked in, I thought he was part of the class when I saw him, so I just said, Hey, what are you doing here? And he said, I’m teaching you today. I was just like, Oh Christ, you know? And so that was terrifying. But he didn’t hold back. He was amazing. And he just kept asking the hard questions, like, look, I know what you do, but how are you going to make money from it? I’m going to make movies for people and I’m going to make, you know, corporate films and music videos or you know, Steve’s like, okay, well but how are you going to, how are you going to get to these people? If you target a company and they already have Joe blogs making videos for them, why are they going to choose you? And that really made me think, was like, well, how do I communicate to people? My worth to them? That was the start of a very long journey.

What the momentum course gave me personally was renewed confidence. Like I’ve always been a positive person, but around that time it was just like, I’m faltering here. I’m just, yeah, I’m kind of fading away. But it gets structured to the kind of chaotic nature of trying to start a business and trying to build a business. All the trainers just seemed really invested in us as a group. And in me, you believed that they, like I believed that they wanted me to succeed and they would get, a sense of pride and achievement to see me succeed. And at the end of every day you’re walking out of the class 10 feet tall, just like you’re Bulletproof, just like bring it on, bring it on. Why can’t I do it? The course not only gave me the skills necessary to become an entrepreneur and to start your own business, but the kind of camaraderie in the group and that kind of support structure within the group was amazing. Because we were all going through the same journey, all on the same path. We all shared the same trepidation and we all shared the same fears and joys. We all championed each other’s achievements. And, and we’re there when people needed assistance or help or support in any way. And the same thing applies when you just go up to the trainers. They were all just fantastic. What they did because they were entrepreneurs themselves and you, you believed them, you trusted them that not only that they have the knowledge that they could impart on you, but they had gone through the journey that we were going through the highs and lows. And so they were there to really lend a helping hand. That kind of sense of camaraderie and support and friendship and kind of family that was present in our class was the same with classmates, with the trainers and with Joanne herself, who is one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met.

We became very good friends. She’s a fellow tennis player and we’ve worked together numerous times over the past couple of years and I’m working with her again next month on her incredibly ambitious and inspiring new project. The course has really instilled in me a sense of pride, confidence that I could go out and not only start a business but maintain a business and not be a flash in the pan. That I’m constantly growing and growing and becoming better and faster and stronger. And it’s not a word of a lie that I would just not be here without them. They gave me a structure to my business and more so a structure and clarity to my ideas of business.

The biggest piece of advice is just to be dedicated and to be prepared to, to be in it for the long haul, to realize that it’s gonna take hard work and long hours. My first year or two, it was like 60 hours a week, 70 hours a week. In year two, I  topped a hundred hours one week. Cause I just couldn’t say no to projects because it was terrified about turning stuff down. And It’s just, it was hard. And maintaining that work life balance was really, really difficult. But because I love what I do and I still love what I do, I just threw myself into it, threw myself into it. Knowing that like after you get past the first year or two, of just hard work, you know, it does balance out and you get your awards for that hard work.

 

For more information: https://www.novembersevenfilms.ie/

Gemma O’Halloran is the owner and founder of Freestyle Events and has participated in two programmes with The Entrepreneurs Academy. Firstly a Start your Own Business programme in 2012 and she is now a participant on Thrive which is a two-year programme.  Watch the interview with Gemma above, or read through below.

I’m joined by Gemma O’Halloran – Hi Gemma.
Hi Noel. How are you?

So can you tell me what the business name is, where you’re based and briefly what your business does?

My business is called Freestyle events, we are based down here in Gorey, in County Wexford. Basically we’re an event project management service. We take care of those events like  conferences, galas, awards nights, expos, where any business or any event organizer has a gap in the time available, expertise available, or they have a leadership gap – or they just aren’t getting the results and would like somebody else to come in and help them. That is the solution that Freestyle provides. What we try and do is to work strategically with each of our clients to find out exactly what needs to be done and then to strategically work together towards creating an event, an impactful experience that ticks the boxes for both the attendees and for any stakeholders that are involved. Because events can get quite complicated, they can get quite stressful. So that’s where Freestyle Events come in. We are a flexible solution for companies and for events who need that little bit of extra help to make sure that the event has everything that they want it to be.

That is a fantastic range of offerings, Gemma, that you’ve put together as a business. For the sake of the viewers and the listeners, what course did you do with the Entrepreneurs Academy?

I think the first course that I did with Entrepreneurs Academy or with the group was back in 2012. I did a Start Your Own Business course and I had been thinking about starting my own business for several years by then, actually it was already a nugget of an idea, but I just wasn’t in the headspace yet. So I decided I needed to research, as I do. So I went to the Start Your Own Business course and it was absolutely fantastic. It gave me a great overview and then, at the moment, I’m actually on the Thrive course, being run by the business growth program. So I suppose, I’ve had two major courses for my
business, both through the Entrepreneurs Academy.

Gemma, at what stage were you at with your business or your idea when you did the very first course with the Entrepreneurs Academy?

When I did the Start Your Own Business courses to say I really was just at the very beginning. I really needed to better understand what was involved in being in business and I really needed to understand what was going to be involved to be successful in business. Because I knew events inside out, even at that stage. I started working in events in the beginning of 2007 and I had started, I got my postgraduate diploma and I
was like, okay, let’s go. But I hadn’t really thought so much about going into business, I suppose the Start Your Own Business course gave me the confidence I needed to get some things in place to ask questions, which is huge. You can get information, but being able to ask the questions that are relevant to you, which was really huge. So that was brilliant.

And then Thrive, I suppose. Gosh, times now what, 2019 it was when I started in Thrive and it came at a perfect time. I’m nearly five years in business, four and a half years, I’m in business. And it was just perfect timing because my headspace was now turning towards growth, turning towards working on my business, not just in my business. So it was the perfect accompaniment to that. And the people are great, so you get great training in different ways, but then you also have the group of people who were on the course with you and we’re all sharing experiences, learning, asking questions, figuring things out together. And it’s just been a perfect timing because I was ready to make changes in the business. I had to make changes in the business and it made a huge difference to have the support there. Thrive continues to, to have the support there with Thrive.

So you mentioned there, moving from the Start Your Own Business course to our Thrive course. What was the catalyst either before or after joining Thrive that made you make changes to your business?

So when I started with Thrive, I had a business. I had been in business about four years. You know, it was going well. You know, I had great clients. All my business was word of mouth and referral, which was amazing and you know, in theory everything was fine. But for me, I just knew there was something, there were different things that I needed to finesse. I knew there was a different way that I could look after the business and what I was doing. And my hope was that by going on this course, which to be honest, I came across quite, you know, by accident, through networking. And I was so delighted that I did because it has, as I say, I had the idea for the business. I knew that the business was event management. I knew that’s what I was doing. I knew what I had done for my clients, but I really hadn’t finessed exactly what I was doing and how I was doing it and how that was a business. So it was in fact the perfect timing and it did help me shape. It is helping me shape what I’m doing and it gives me support and confidence to go after things I want to do with the business. And that’s what makes 2020 such a big year. It was just perfect timing and remained so, so that, that’s the big thing for me.

So you mentioned there Gemma, the value of networking. So you would have built up contacts and have you added to your team, have you people working with you?

Right. So Freestyle Events is just me. I’m a solopreneur if you want to call that a sole trader. But I do have an extended team that I work with. Other freelancers, other consultants, other micro businesses, small businesses. I call them the freestyle network. They are the group of professionals who know how to do amazing things that are all required around events, in different stages, different times. So like event managers, registration managers, transportation coordinators, virtual assistants. Fantastic. You know, helped me with marketing and other smaller details. And then, you know, there’s also pure teams, the different consultants there digital marketing, websites, branding, anything and everything. An event is many things and sometimes a client requires me to come in with a solution that ticks all these boxes. So that’s the nature of Freestyle Events. That’s the great thing about Freestyle Events.

It can scale up and scale down depending on what the exact clients’ needs are. So, you know, and in that way it’s incredibly lean. It’s incredibly efficient and it’s a bespoke solution for each client on their brief and on their needs. So that has been amazing. So I suppose, I’ve a network of subcontractors, if you want to call them that. My, I call them the freestyle network and we work together either the planning or the execution of the actual event itself. And that’s my team. They’re the people I love to work with and it’s brilliant because I keep meeting new people. I keep finding out about new insights, new people who do different things and together we have chats and we can create something new and we’re all constantly fresh cause we’re all working on different projects at different times. So it’s amazing what you can do when you’re a group of people who are experiencing different things on a daily basis and then you come together as a team on one particular project. It makes for great results. I absolutely love it.

That’s amazing to hear how the business has grown with you leading it from the front. So I suppose that leads on to asking you what are you most proud of so far? What’s the greatest achievement?

Wow, that’s a big question. I think I’m proud I did it. You know, I think I’m proud I did it. I was employed for nearly 10 years in events before I went and did and started up my own business. I think I’m proud I did it. I’m really, I’m proud of my team, the people I work with and the results and the service we deliver to our clients. Without exception, we give 150% and you know, seeing a project come together that you’ve been working on, that you’ve been, you know, thinking about, talking about, figuring out doing is huge source of satisfaction. So I would say I’m really proud of that track record. There are moments where you could just burst with pride, you know, with certain things that happen when people work together and you see the results seemlessly coming together in an event we see the attendees really, really enjoying, you know, the planning and the design of an event that you have been part of. That’s really cool. It’s really great. It keeps me motivated. So I’m proud of all of that. Because being in business, running events are all challenging things and you know, if, if there was anything to be proud of it, it’s doing your best for the people and being able to run your own business successfully and continue to do so.

Leading on from successes, I suppose, what is the greatest challenge that you have faced within the business?

Well, the greatest challenge. Okay. That’s probably, that’s probably an even bigger, a bigger question to answer at this stage. I would say the biggest challenge is to have the faith. It still holds your nerve. When there’s so much about having your own business, it’s amazing. There is so much about it that I absolutely love, it’s been something that it has made me thrive not to overuse the course name, but it has made me thrive and I absolutely love it. But there are moments where cheerfully, you would just go, Oh my God, I can’t do this. I need to say I’m going to walk away. I’ve never quite got that far. But there are moments, particularly around, you know, financing and managing all the red tape and all of these kinds of things. Where you go. Right? Hold the nerve, take a moment to catch the thoughts. Don’t let it go too far. Put a plan in place and find a solution. I’ve managed to start to get, got to be at the challenge is holding the faith. It’s, you know, constantly keep on going and enjoying and believing and supporting. And I think the more there’s a group of people around you, like in Thrive where we have an amazing group of people plus the trainers plus everything else it is amazing because you feel like you’re, when you’re working on your own, you can be in a silo sometimes. And I think that’s, you know, the other part of the equation, it’s keeping connected to people. It is talking to other people. It’s sharing the questions you have about your own business and helping them find solutions. It’s asking for help when you might need it. I think that’s a challenge. I think that’s something that does pop up for a lot of entrepreneurs, but there are solutions out there, there are ways to do it and if you work hard and you know, you have your plans for marketing, you’re getting out there, you will get your sales and you know, finance and everything will come with that. But it takes time. And so yeah, I’d probably say that’s probably core of the challenge about having your own business.

That’s great, Gemma. What advice would you give other entrepreneurs based on what you’ve were experienced so far?

Advice? Advice… do it, if you have a great idea. Do it. Okay. Seriously though I would say simplest questions are the toughest ones to answer. So take your time to figure those out, because if you figure those out, you’re absolutely golden. So what I mean by simple questions, I mean, why are you in business? What are you doing? What problem do you solve? What problem does your business solve? What is the solution that you provide? You know, who are you providing that solution to or for? Who is your ideal client and how are you going to reach that ideal client? And these are really simple questions, but they are really challenging at times to answer. But if you really drill down into it and distil down everything you could think about for your business and simplify it,  they’re amazingly strong answers. If you have those answers, you can base everything that you do for your business around that.

It’s really easy then to explain very quickly what your business does. You solve a problem. You know, why are you doing it? And then all the other information that you received and all the training that you would receive goes with that. That’s another thing I would say , advice wise, there are a lot of different trainings out there with different groups, networking groups, LEOs, private groups. There is an awful lot on offer. Do your best to go to things that will help you understand more. I would say that’s been a huge help to me. But I like researching. I like hearing, learning and trying new things. So that’s always been huge for me. I would say be yourself, you know, as the quote goes, ‘Be yourself, everyone else is taken’ – it’s your business. You’ve most likely started your business because you had an idea or you wanted an idea, an idea of what you wanted to sell or an idea and then how you wanted your life to be. So work on your business in order to create that life and that balance and how everything works. Don’t get lost in the business. One of the big things that came out of Thrive for me was during the leadership mastermind sessions that we had, with Murieann Fitzmaurice. She mentioned the book, The E Myth to me. And to be honest with you, I went on Amazon and I had a quick look, to see what a few of the different recommendations were. I said, okay, this sounds like it was just perfect timing.

I was so ready to hear what that book had to say. It goes into how you can be in a technician role, manager role, an entrepreneur role in your business. I was very stuck in the technician, little bit of manager, but really stuck in the technician and I wasn’t really happy there. It wasn’t bringing out the best in me and I was still delivering for the clients, still doing all that, but I was getting slightly miserable and that wasn’t good for anyone. So, through reading that and just exploring things myself and asking myself some really hard questions, I’ve now turned it around quite a bit and I now treat my business like one of my clients. I’m now working on the business and the changes that are going to come from that are hopefully going to be amazing. 2020 looks set to be the most adventurous and interesting year for us in Freestyle and for me. I’m really, really grateful for that. I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens, slightly terrified, but really, really excited to see what happens. So I would say, work on your business, not just in your business and you’ll be amazed what that perspective will bring and how that can really help you move forward. So I hope that’s helpful.

Gemma, that is fantastic. Thank you very much for your time and for sharing your story so far and for being part of our journey of our 21 years in business. 

For more information: http://www.freestyle.ie

Maeve Ryan, with The Book Centre https://www.thebookcentre.ie/, talks about managing four locations in Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny and Naas. 

I’m with Maeve Ryan, who runs The Book Centre, Maeve do you want to tell us a little bit about what you do?

I’m the Managing Director of The Book Centre and Barker and Jones in Naas. We’re an Irish owned family-run business. We’re in business since 1971. We are four shops, we’re bookshops predominantly, but, they’re about 10000 square feet each, so they’re large stores. So we sell books. We have a huge children’s selection of books and games and then we also sell lots of other products. We have a magazine department, and a large gift department, greeting cards, stationary, eco-friendly products, Leonidas Belgian chocolates and school books. 

That’s fantastic Maeve, I have to say your shop in Waterford is absolutely phenomenal. It’s not just a bookshop. It’s so much more than a bookshop and it’s an experience, I imagine if I lived in Waterford, it’d be a place that I would frequent quite often. Really stunning. What have you done there to make yourself more special? I mean it’s the experience first of all but all those things you offer what’s been most successful for you?

To be honest with you Sarah-Lyn, harping back to, people talking about the recession, they talk about how are books doing, that sort of thing and really our biggest success has always been our books and our book product and also as you mentioned the experience and the atmosphere of our shops. People often say to me. ‘Oh, my treat to myself, is going into The Book Centre on Friday evening or Saturday, or whatever day it might be and I grab a cup of coffee and I relax and I browse a few books. I browse the magazines or the gifts.’ We have created an environment where you don’t have to feel like you have to buy all the time, you can come in. You can spend time at the one in Waterford, for example, it is an old art-deco cinema, so there’s a huge mural, actually all of our shops have  murals on the wall. The one in Waterford is up where the old cinema screen would have been. It’s all about what’s going on in the shop, the atmosphere of the book shop in general. We have a Cafe in all our shops as well. People just love to come in and browse, chat with the staff and the staff know that this is to be a welcoming place. It’s not about the hard sale and while all our products do work for us. Thank God. you know it’s the books and the book related products and especially the children’s books that do really well for us. 

I imagine your own children like to go into the shop?

They love it and because, I’m always here for work. They give out that I don’t actually bring them in enough, they tend to come in with their Granddad more than they do with me.

Maeve, you joined us last year on our AIB Growth Academy programme. So just for the listeners. This is a programme that’s run by AIB and it’s facilitated by the Entrepreneurs Academy. It’s all about leadership, so it’s for businesses that are a bit more established. Can you tell me Maeve, how you felt before you went on the programme?

I was thinking about this, Sarah-Lyn and about the programme when I knew I was going to come on to chat to you. I think, before the programme, I suppose, yes, I did see myself as a leader, but to be honest, I had a little bit of an impostor syndrome, like, no, the business would run without me and I’m not really a leader. I’m just saying I’m the managing director, and I was a little bit lost, I think I was kind of going along and reacting to a lot of things. I suppose not seeing the importance of me in the business and the importance of my role as a leader to my entire team. So, it really helped me put myself at the forefront of the business. If I become a better leader, my people, my managers, my staff will become better at their job and then it will all benefit the business in general. I think it definitely gave me a sense of purpose and kind of self-reflect and a say as to how can I improve myself as a leader and also say yes, I am a good leader for the business. I know that I can follow through with that. It gave me the confidence to do that.

You’re leading quite a substantial team. How many are on your team now?

There’s about one hundred of us, which is great. We would have a four central people, three of them would be managers and then we have four shop managers. Then we have all the staff.

Having completed the AIB Growth Academy programme Maeve, do you see yourself as a leader now?

Yes, I do. It’s amazing, like it’s even funny saying that out loud, but I do. 

It was a lovely programme, the group of ladies that came on that programme. I have to say I think they were an amazing bunch.

They were fantastic and the fact that we’re all still in contact is just really lovely. It gives you a circle of people who, as somebody else said to me, ‘I’m glad I’m not the only crazy person in the world’, you know there are other people who can have family life and do all that sort of thing. They’ll like-minded people.

I suppose the fact that the network of that group as well, even this year, and going into the years going forward, you’re still in touch and you’re still providing support for each other, which is a massive thing at the end of a programme.

I know if I have any query on anything, that I could ring up any one of those girls and just say listen what do you think, which is a lovely asset to have because sometimes you don’t have anybody to knock ideas off. To have a whole group of people that you know in a similar position to you, it’s really good. It’s really comforting you know. 

Maeve, what are you most proud of in your business so far?

I think it probably comes from having done the course. Actually, I think I’m more proud of actually now taking the business on, you know I inherited it from my dad. My dad is 83 now, he has retired, but I still always said and I still do say it is his  business, I think now I’ve made it my own and I just said right, no, this is me, I am the leader of this business and it’s my business to take in my direction, the way I want to do it and I’m proud of myself. I’ve been able to get up and to do that and make it my own, which was a hard thing for me to do having grown up in and always seeing it as somebody else’s. 

It’s really important and it’s great that you’ve come to that realization. Maeve, what advice would you have for someone going into business and running their own company?

I think just do it. I know that might sound like a cliche, but if you know you have an ambition, go and do it and then don’t be afraid to turn up to all the networking events that are around you because it is an effort to go, and you go on your own, it really might push you out of your comfort zone, but it really is a help to meet people that are like-minded to you and they’re in similar situations. So it’s to get out there and meet other people that you can chat about and to make you feel more normal in what you were doing and the problems that you have because everybody has all sorts of different problems in business. Especially when you’re setting up first. I do think it is important to surround yourself with like-minded people.

Great advice Maeve, thank you for your time today. 

Deirdre Moloney, with Doolin Inn, who has participated in the AIB Women in Enterprise Growth Academy in Limerick and now the ‘Board You Can’t Afford’ programme, tells us about the transformation of two hostels into what’s now a modern country house, your home in the heart of Doolin.  Watch the video above to learn more, or read through the interview with Sarah-Lyn below. 

I’m with Deirdre Moloney here today from the Doolin Inn in the lovely County Clare. Deirdre would you like to tell us a little bit about your business?

Absolutely, thank you for having me on, Doolin Inn is a Modern Country House in the heart of The Burren in Doolin, County Clare. We currently have 17 guest rooms, with another five being added on, so in March, we’ll have 22. We also have conference facilities, a little roofed hidden garden, where you could do your activities during your team building and we are a five minute walk from the beautiful Cliffs of Mohr walking trail.

Sounds incredible and I’ve seen the photos, it’s stunning down there. You must be rushed off your feet with 22 bedrooms.

We are very fortunate to have a team of 12 exceptional staff members and one fantastic manager who keeps me sane all the time.

That’s great and so what is it that you do a little bit differently to your competitors down there? Because you’ve got such a great location and it seems that you’re not just running an inn. You’re running so much more than an inn. What are you most proud of that you’ve done so far?

 

We have a reputation for very friendly service, a relaxed atmosphere and really good local produce. All of our staff have completed the Failte Ireland welcoming standards, so they all have certificates in that. Our main focus is on service to the guest as they come in, my husband and I are both from hotel backgrounds. We’ve both worked in five-star hotels, so service is always our top focus. 

So, it’s got a feeling of a five-star hotel from the moment you walk in, I’m quite sure the moment you walk in. You are the most important person there from the moment you walk through the door. I have to say I’m liking the sound of this Deirdre. So tell me, you came on our AIB Growth Academy programme last year, and just for our listeners, AIB run an incredible leadership programme and the Entrepreneurs Academy facilitate this programme for them and you were on the Limerick Growth Academy. Can you remember how you felt before you went on the programme and then how the program changed you during that course over those few months?

Absolutely, I remember I was stale very stale in my business. I was exhausted, frustrated, working extremely long hours, but didn’t seem to be achieving anything and when I went into the first masterclass, I remember thinking ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t belong with these women’. They are all top of their roles. They’re very successful. I will have nothing to relate to them, but after the first full day with this dynamic group of women, you just refocus, you’re so comfortable with them, you learn so much from them and everybody there is willing to help each other. You come out of it with fresh eyes, you’re rejuvenated with energy and you actually get excited about your business again.

That’s exactly what we’re looking for in that programme. We really want to help people to build their confidence, build their skills and create a great network in the process, which sounds like it ticked all those boxes for you.

 

Absolutely and I have to say when I came home from my first full day there, the first thing I did was I ripped up my business plan. I said, I need to rip it up and start all over again. It was just absolutely incredible. You reassess your business. I’ve redefined my goals. I actually had two business starting off in Women in Enterprise. I have closed one now, I had a Doolin Inn and a Hostel. I have now closed down the Hostel and I am opening up a six-suite luxury townhouse, which I wouldn’t have had the courage to do without the Women in Enterprise and the support I got from that. 

Wow, that’s incredible and I actually remember the day when you told us that that was your plan and everybody around the room was just in awe and you know what, that’s what we were looking for in that, that whole transformation of your business into something that was good, but something that’s so much better. Would that be something that you’re most proud of then, Deirdre?

Absolutely, I mean when we took over this business eight years ago, it was two hostel buildings. It took us four years to renovate the first building to turn it into the Doolin Inn, to what it is today. So it’s only through the Entrepreneurs Academy that I made the bold decision. I threw it out to all the women in the room that this is what I’m thinking of doing and the support I got from that was just absolutely incredible. I remember, the day, coming home from the meeting telling my husband, so the business plan has been ripped up again and this is what we are now going to do and it has just been… well, I’m
so happy we decided to do this and we are excited about it again, which is the main reason we got into this business. I’m excited about what we love doing and I remember at one of the meetings, Joanne Hession saying that to us ‘do what you love doing’ refocus – ‘why did you get into this business in the first place?’ I was stale, I wasn’t excited about it and now I am back excited about my business again. It was a fantastic team.

You’re also part of a Board You Can’t Afford programme that we have recently set up. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yes, I’m really enjoying that with Nancy Ward. It is the Board You Can’t Afford, it’s like they set you up with a group of people who would be your board of directors and you are answerable to them, they will guide you along the way. It’s people with incredible knowledge of their business level like we have an HR expert, we have so many different people on that can help you, finance experts on it, that can help you with any decision you have in your business. We have a solicitor on it, so whatever issue you are facing there is somebody at the table that can put their hand up and go, I have a little bit of information, a gold nugget of information, that may be able to help you with this, and it’s just priceless. They become a group of friends. So I now have my Entrepreneurs Academy WhatsApp Group and I also have my Board You Can’t Afford WhatsApp group, so it’s two WhatsApp groups, so no matter what’s going on in business. Somebody from one of those can help me with it.

It’s so good Deirdre, because I find certainly from listening to a lot of entrepreneurs and people who are in business that it can be a lonely place to be, so when you you’re talking about these networks of maybe 20 – 30, that’s a lovely support to have around you. 

 

Absolutely and for anybody out there running a business thinking of starting a business you can’t do it alone. You need your backup and when you’re trying to juggle kids, family life and business at the same time without a backup, it just doesn’t work. You need somebody that you can go ‘help me with
this’ or somebody who can go, ‘I did something similar a couple of years ago and this is who I reached out to’ without that support it can be it can be very frustrating. 

Paul Malone – GameVan

Eadaoin has participated in two programmes with The Entrepreneurs Academy to include Thrive which is a two-year programme that Eadaoin is participating in at current. Watch the interview above, or read through below. 

Thanks Eadaoin for being with us today. We’re going to chat a little bit about your business. Do you want to tell us the name of your business and how long you’ve been running?

Thank you so much, Sarah-Lyn. The business is Firechild Photography. It’s been in operation since about 2014. It kind of started off quite slowly. I built it as I was working full time as a teacher and since February 2017, I’ve been full time. I initially started the business kind of marketing as a wedding and family photographer. And then towards the end of 2017 I moved to specialize in personal branding photography. So that’s the main thing that I offer now. I work with business owners who are kind of struggling to stand out in their market, they want to be able to tell their story in a really easy way that connects with their clients. They want to feel like themselves in the imagery that they use.

So how do you go about making that happen for them, because it’s obviously quite a different field to the wedding type photographer that you were before. How did you flip that?

It’s quite a process with each client, with each individual. I have studied personal branding for over 10 years, for myself initially, and then as I’ve grown the business around it. So there’s quite a process. I need to be able to know exactly what the business is about, who its clients are, what their story is. And so we find out all of that information before we start planning the shoot itself.

So you’re essentially giving them marketing advice along the way then as well, how to best brand themselves in the market?

I suppose in a way, yes. But it’s more about uncovering their brand that’s already there.

You’re three years full time in your business now. You started a program with us, the creative leadership program in 2018. Where were you in your business when you joined the Entrepreneurs Academy program?

I was getting to a point where I was becoming known as a personal brand photographer. But in terms of being able to lead myself in the business management side of things, I was probably struggling a little bit.

So important to lead yourself while in your business, especially when you’re starting up and you’re getting yourself your roots put down and so forth. It’s very important to make sure you manage yourself properly or you’ll go under very quickly. So what did you find most useful in that program?

To be honest, it was the fact, that it was hands on, it was kind of, workshop style sessions rather learning something from a book or from a webinar, that we could be there and we could ask questions, that was really useful. So whether it was around financial planning or sales techniques or even just in terms of solving problems within the business. You know, we were able to interact with each other, learn from each other as well as the facilitators.

We try to build your skills, build your confidence and increase your network as well because you’re working with other like minded people. Did you find that that was the case for you on the program?

Absolutely, 100 percent. In terms of skills, like one of the biggest things that I walked away with was a business plan that was valuable to me as a business owner. I’d seen and scrolled through business plans before that were a million pages long, but I just I didn’t know where to start. So actually walking away with something that I felt I understood and that was useful to me was really inspiring. And then the connections that I made with the facilitator and the other participants was brilliant.

So what are you most proud of in your business so far?

I suppose the fact that, three years in, the business is still here and it’s still growing as well, which I’m really, really proud of. The fact that I’m now at a point where I’m learning to blend a little bit more of my own personal life back in. In the early days, you sacrifice a lot of that personal time for, business development, networking. There’s a lot to learn in those early days. While, there’s always more work to be done, the potential for a nice blend of work and life is possible.

What would you say the challenges have been along the way? If you were to give some advice to young entrepreneurs, starting out now, have you any little pieces of advice that you’d like to offer?

Definitely for me, one of the biggest challenges, early on, was networking so not being afraid to get out there and meet people. I think taking courses with The Entrepreneurs Academy is such a beautiful way of networking because you’re working on your business, you’re developing your own business skills, but you’re also meeting these other business owners, and like-minded business owners as well. So, they can be potential clients. They can be really great resources, allies in business. That’s something definitely, starting out, feeling that fear of networking and trying things out. It’s not all horrible and dark rooms of bad coffee. I suppose the other thing is, I specialize in personal branding photography, so that’s the only type of photography that I do. As scary as it was initially to say that, ‘this is what I’m going to do’. It has so beneficial to my business. So, finding that thing that you’re really good at and also really passionate about and not being afraid to say no to the other stuff.

You’re part of our Thrive business support program at the moment with The Entrepreneurs Academy. I see the participants helping each other along the way. You’re all very, very interactive. How are you finding the program?

It’s absolutely fantastic. While a lot of the main headings would be very similar to the leadership and creative business program, I’m now coming at it from a different perspective, a different level, and it’s a lot more in-depth as well.

We have the in-person workshops, but then we also have online master minds. The fact that it is a lot of different styles of learning as well. We’ve got the group stuff, the in-person and online, and then we’ve got the question and answer sessions as well, which is really great. So from the Entrepreneurs Academy point of view, that’s a fantastic learning resource. But then the group, it’s been just fantastic. They are an amazing mix of people and businesses. I think the one thing that joined us all together is that we are all working very hard in our business, but we also want to help each other.

You’ve kindly offered a gift to share with one of our lucky followers. Can you tell me a little bit about the gift that you’re offering?

Absolutely. So as I’ve already talked about, I offer a personal brand photography and then also I offer mentoring service to creative entrepreneurs, particularly photographers. So I would love to offer your winner 50 euros off either one of those services.

Thank you so much for that. And thank you so much for taking part in this, because we love having you on our programs. You’re such an asset to the people who were there as well. Thank you so much for being here today. And best of luck with on Firechild Photography. 

Thank you so much. Happy Birthday to the Entrepreneurs Academy.

For more information: https://firechildphotography.com/