www.startups.ie

the wine guy

Hi All,

I am currently working on a pet project www.startups.ie, l have set up a number of business over the years and have been frustrated by the lack of real and relevant info out there. There is lots of info but the majority of it is bank/ semi state/ text book stuff.

My hope is to get people who have actually started business to provide advice and inspiration to those in the process of setting up. I would appreciate any feedback/suggestions for the site. Also if anyone would like to contribute their experience, story, blogs or expertise it would be most welcome.

Cheers
TWG

Ashlinggnilsia

jano that sounds like a right good idea!! Will have a look now!

RoadKillTs

Hi the wine guy,
Fair play on the site. Loving Ruairi's blog post

W!zard

Good move
Site looks nice and I am sure more will added to it over the coming months.

Any help you need, just let me know.

arctictree

Nice site - well done!

HealthyWay

Good site - this has the potential to become a community of Entrepeneurs similar to Startupnation.com

Dakor

great idea, this is what Ireland needs. More communication, SME helping each other because we won't get it from Gov.

conman

fantastic site and service you aim to provide.
I would like to make a suggestion that would help both yourselves and the customer..

In addition to what you provide, workshops, business networking, and idea generation meetings would probably complement your service greatly, and thus create a very strong reliable following..

I believe there is a place in smithfield where architects are utilising a unit temporarily to gather ideas and support each other.. There are many many spare units throughout the city, I think you could offer the company a small fee for using it from time to time until they get a suitor. we as entrepreneurs could pay €5-€10 per evening to cover costs..

Mr Biz

Excellent site.. Well thought! Can see this one being a big success..
Best of luck with it!

Mr Biz

MrMatisse

Great Site

Hope it takes off

PhatPiggins

Nice site, very user friendly. Took this quote off it:

1) Don’t listen to anyone’s advice unless they are a business person who is a success and has walked the talk. Enterprise this and Resource that and your local Rural whatever office are full of farmers daughters who couldn’t sell a bone to a dog.

So very true.

spartacus93

Excellent idea, well done

Best of luck

the wine guy

Hey Gang,

Thanks very much for the support it means a lot. I have been trying to gather as much content as possible but it is a vast area and will take ages. I am also tied up with my own businesses so dont have a lot of time to blog even though I am really enjoying it at the moment.

I contacted a few new businesses asking them to share their story and have been pretty demoralised with the response. If I was a new business and anyone offered me a bit of free PR (all be it very small at the moment) I would be all over it. The exception was the lovely Victoria Mackechnie who was really supportive and shared her story on her business Kids in the Kitchen.

Re Conmans suggestions - thanks very much, if this thing takes off I would love to host all sorts of live events, networking opportunities etc.

This time next year Rodney........
Cheers
TWG

spadder

Great Idea, you need a section on Renting and lease agreements for industrial / retail units. I found starting up, that the hardest part is finding suitable, secure premises at the right price, deposits and insurance can be crippling to a start-up.

Another section: Bankers are not your buddies.
Double check and argue every charge they levy on you. Bankers don’t facilitate business anymore, they calculate how much they can bleed from you.
Don't personally guarantee anything unless necessary.

Accountants: Make sure you like him/her and they understand your business.

Taxman: Get to you know your tax officials. Tell them what’s going on. If you’re late with a return, let them know that you are waiting on payments etc.

the wine guy

Great advice Spadder, I will definately be putting up a section on property, leasing etc, it is also an area that is difficult to get practical advice on. The first time that I rented a unit I never even knew about a rent free period, it was only when my neighbour who had the same landlord asked me how long rent free I had secured that I found out about it. Naturally I was as sick as a parrot, the landlord must have forgotten to mention it!:(.

Your other advice is also spot on, it sounds like you have been around the block?

Cheers,

TWG

the wine guy

Hey all,

Once again thanks for all your support and advice, I am happy to report that the website is going really well. It is really satisfying to see what was just an idead a few months ago starting to take off. I am still struggling to find the time to update the site as often as I would like so if anyone out there would like to get involved just get in touch.

Thanks again,

TWG

chowdown

TWG

PM Sent - it's a great concept and I hope it flourishes.

Spinnaker

Great site. Give thought to something like a 'partners' or 'resources' section .. with a view to matchmaking..

Most startups now are one person exercises. The principal may be a product or service expert but needs an equal amount of other skills or a particular resource to launch and run the business.

Host ads where posters ask for what they want in plain speak: ( think dating site )

pretend: ..
e.g. IT professional launching software distribution starup needs business partner with accounting background and e20k seed funding to finalise business plans and administer the business.

e.g. (pretend: ) home cooking instructor wants to partner with low utilisation restauraunt to host kids cooking classes during the day

e.g. product distribution start-up seeks to meet warehouse owner. would like to discuss revenue-share in lieu of rent.

the wine guy

Great idea Spinnaker,
I will definately try to include some sort of Buellitin board where people can offer services to startup companies (maybe swap services?). Thanks for the advice,

Keep the ideas coming,

Cheers,

TWG

Spinnaker

You're welcome, Wine-guy .

Note however that there is an Irish site that is solely totally dedicated to swapping skills and resources already. (I can't recall the URL - tech swap or transfer etc - other posters might ).

Just letting you know to avoid too much overlap or maybe you could leverage it in some way

Mr Biz

Note however that there is an Irish site that is solely totally dedicated to swapping skills and resources already. (I can't recall the URL - tech swap or transfer etc - other posters might ).

Think this may be the website www.swoponomics.com

Also, a mention in yesterday's Herald on www.bizstartup.ie
Might be worth keeping an eye on..

Best of luck!!

policymaker

Hi The Wine Guy,

Their is a seminar on Sustainable Learning Networks being held in the Granville Hotel Waterford on the 18th of this month, the seminar is free attendance although one muct register in advance,-
Discussions include What makes networks work? - Networks in Ireland and Wales -Lessons Learned - SME owner/manager's perceptions of networks and networking - seminar day is run run by Centre for Enterprise and Regional Economy and the seminar is of significance to those interested in organising, developing, managing, participating in and/or researching successful business networks.
Thought you might be interested.
I will look again at your website in December, if I have time over the xmas period I will write you a few blogs on the health general well-being of the entrepreneur/business individual -stress management etc.
You definitely should get yourself to that day of seminars as their your blog writers await your aquaintance.

mrgaa1

great website - how about a section on investment or investors - how to get hold of such people - maybe entice legit investors to register an interest in someone's ideas etc......

byrne0f56789

Good luck. It's good to see an Irish specific site.

the wine guy

Thanks all,

Policymaker Re

"I will look again at your website in December, if I have time over the xmas period I will write you a few blogs on the health general well-being of the entrepreneur/business individual -stress management etc."

I for one could definately use some advice on this, boy is it rough out there at the moment!

I am happy to put up info on the seminar if you like..would love to attend.

Does anyone think there is a merit in regionalising Startups? i.e www.startups.ie/cork etc just a thought that I had..

Cheers,

TWG

policymaker

Hi The Wine Guy,

Re:- health general well-being of the entrepreneur/business individual -stress management etc."

"I for one could definately use some advice on this, boy is it rough out there at the moment!"

Yes - It's good to hear you are aware of it's impact. I will look forward to scrolling to your website from my bookmark.

I think that their is quite some talk in Ireland about innovation, companies needing to adapt to a changing economy and way of approaching business.

Their is experienced individuals losing their job's, taking cutbacks and hearing this loud noise through the media about - innovation, emerging markets and... - Their is information online about starting a business - What is the value of this information - who is it geared towards, time after time we read in our broadsheets about the need to innovate, a time for change.

So you have the guy/girl who has lost his/her job 6 months ago.

They log on to an 'innovative' website which gives details of suggesstions on how to cope.

The guy spends days and nights sifting through the noise about starting up their own business, they jump from idea to idea - they may finally get their feet on the ground.-
-
so new to business/self-employment? what next, a business plan. they listen to the banks ipod advice on 'values' in business and the importance of 'values' - they go talk to their bank with regards funding - values are perhaps, the complete opposite of what your current banker will look for?, even though their general ethos for start-ups will promote values. So perhaps this guy has not got his 7,000 funding - the guy sees that the enterprise board is not receiving any more applications for this year. My point being that innovation needs to start in processing realistic information.

Psychologists maintain that brain-storming does not work, that each part of a group should go off and think of their idea by themselves and return for a group discussion and analysis. I think their is too much brain storming going on at this stage.

6 months from now that enthusiaistic entrepreneur is going to be afraid to think of an idea, let alone ask for help.

I am personally finding it difficult to portray what I am trying to say right now, however I am a good listener, so perhaps you will answer the following 4 questions and I will write you an article based on your 4 answers.

Who is the assessor of your business idea? (e.g bank manager)

How comfortable are you to ask questions you do not know the answers too? (e.g I will go to the enterprise talk but will I actually ask what I need to know or instead ask a question I vaguely know the answer too, that way I will look impressive to the others.

How important are values in business? (e.g integrity)

Have you a business confident, if so/not -what are/ would be the benefits?
(e.g -your friendly accountant)

I personally find that too many people nowadays question whats in this for me? as oppose to listening, offering genuiness and positive regard to whats being said.




P.s - I think breaking your project into regional ideas will be powerful. It enables you to develop 26 microcommunities, you will be able to see which county needs to be ignored and which invested in, Online we're seeing voices synchronized and thus amplified, each voice is a little louder, a little more important, that means the rest of us can see whats hot, and we make our decisions accordingly.


Yours Sincerely,

BusinessBroker

The Wine Guy,

Well done, great idea and a great site.

You may feel this isn't relevant to a site focued on Startups but I'd be happy to contribute something appropriate on the issues of preparing your business for sale and getting the right structures in place from day one so when the time comes to exit the business (and we all have to exit our business at some stage) you have a higher probability of selling and extracting the equity value built up in the business. This is usually the farthest thing from the mind of a business owner starting out but getting the business set up from day one so that it will be appealing to a buyer can add a lot of long term value and save a lot of re-engineering of the business to prepare it for sale at a later date.

Have a look at my blog on www.businessbroker.ie to get a feel for what I'm talking about and in particular the article on Understanding and increasing the value of your business.

Regards,

BB

the wine guy

Thanks business broker will pm ypu next week if that is ok. Policy Maker I will try to answer your questions ASAP

Cheers

TWG

Realex: Jonathan

Hi Wine guy, if you have any questions about e commerce or even just getting into that space at all don't hesitate to PM me. I work for Realex Payments but I'd be happy to give you any advice i can without a Sales Pitch!

the wine guy

Hey Jonathan Realex and Business Broker PM's sent. Just back from a nice weekend in Paris, good to get away from it all. Apparently being on boards "is not very romantic":o so sorry I am just getting back to you now,

Cheers
TWG

redwindowdesign

I have come up with something similar but focuses more on setting up and advertising networking events. www.inetwork.ie

Let me know if there is anything we can do together but I would be more than happy for you to post your articles and resources on our own website to help advertise yourself if you are interested.

Steve