"Taking care of business" government event for small business.

ressem

There was a government hosted event "Taking care of Business", a one stop shop attended by Ministers Cannon and Perry.

This consisted of government department employees getting 10 minutes of speaking time to terrify the bejaysus out of anyone with dreams of getting started.

It really did come across as one after another reciting "our regulations are on the website, break them and our department will break you".

(Excluding the patents office speaker who informed us about the http://worldwide.espacenet.com/ free european patent and patent application search site which really does seem to work well.)

If anyone other boardsies attended this or the one in Dublin, did I miss the constructive positive bits while cowering behind the handouts?

I'm sure that many of us have formed an opinion that government departments dislike small business, but this was hostile.

http://www.merrionstreet.ie/index.php/2014/03/taking-care-of-business-200-attend-free-one-stop-shop-event-for-small-businesses-in-galway-ministers-ciaran-cannon-and-john-perry/?cat=12

2moreMinutes

I was talking to someone last night who was at the event yesterday in Galway and they couldn't have been more positive about it.

hfallada

What can government do for SMEs? We have one of the simplest tax systems in the world, some of the lowest taxes in the world( Payroll tax aka PRSI in Ireland, is ridiculously high in places like Germany). Its incredible quick and sample to form a sole trader or LTD company in Ireland( A ltd company in places like Spain requires a solicitor and accountant for company formation).

The only thing the Government could improve on is better unemployment support for self-employed. They have to pay PRSI but get little benefit compared to employees of regular companies. The banks could lend more. Although thats up to the banks to do and the banks will lend if they think can make money out of something

Cookie_Monster

hfallada wrote: »

What can government do for SMEs?

plenty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ease_of_doing_business_index

We're only 15th, lots of room for improvement.

Scofflaw

hfallada wrote: »

What can government do for SMEs? We have one of the simplest tax systems in the world, some of the lowest taxes in the world( Payroll tax aka PRSI in Ireland, is ridiculously high in places like Germany). Its incredible quick and sample to form a sole trader or LTD company in Ireland( A ltd company in places like Spain requires a solicitor and accountant for company formation).

The only thing the Government could improve on is better unemployment support for self-employed. They have to pay PRSI but get little benefit compared to employees of regular companies. The banks could lend more. Although thats up to the banks to do and the banks will lend if they think can make money out of something

I'd have to agree. It's really not difficult to go into business here. What's difficult is anything capital-intensive - or even labour-intensive given the costs of labour. Starting up on your own is easy if what you're looking for is basically a trade, but if you wanted to start something with more demanding requirements, or upgrade to something more demanding as an expansion, it starts to come unglued.

cordially,
Scofflaw

barneystinson

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

plenty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ease_of_doing_business_index

We're only 15th, lots of room for improvement.

We're only behind the Scandinavians & UK in Europe, and if you look at most of the rest of Europe you'll see the trend is generally of falling away, as developing countries increase their rankings... your link suggests we're doing pretty well surely..?

Manach

My understanding from reading various employment acts and cases, that the complex nature of hiring and managing employers is (rightly/wrongly depending on viewpoint) a drag on business.

Scofflaw

Manach wrote: »

My understanding from reading various employment acts and cases, that the complex nature of hiring and managing employers is (rightly/wrongly depending on viewpoint) a drag on business.

That's true as well, but as you say, it's a pro and a con. Obviously if you could hire people for nothing and treat them like disposable items, starting a business would be extremely easy.

cordially,
Scofflaw

ressem

It would be useful to get starting templates for the common form of business, which was in plain english rather than referring back to multiple pieces of legislation from various departments which is difficult for us halfwits to reconcile.

As we're seeing, even the DOJ has issues keeping track of the requirements to remain lawful as the requirements are less common knowledge and more the domain of the legal advisors due to perceived risks of misinterpretation.

E.g. a woman started selling low volumes of homemade scones into a nearby premises, to be shut down after a couple of weeks by the HSE. The primary reason that she came away with was the lack of a kitchen installed with stainless steel surfaces. (even though this is merely a recommendation of the legislation)
Looking through the FSAI site, I'm of the opinion that it provides very little guidance. Moreso referrals back to the legislation, requests to contact the local office.

The UK / NI equivalent (food.gov.uk) is far more readable, not just listing the areas that need to be covered but also the common measures that would need to be undertaken and risk.
http://multimedia.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/publication/hygieneguidebooklet.pdf
http://multimedia.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/publication/starting-up-booklet.pdf

chopper6

One of terh biggest causes of business failure,especially here in Dublin is Upward Only rent reviews...the greed of private landlords needs to be tackled.