Monday, 7 September (afternoon), Wicklow – see Wicklow County Enterprise Board website for details / booking.

Friday, 11 September (morning), Waterford – see Waterford City Enterprise Board website for details / booking.

Monday, 21 September (afternoon), Longford – see Longford County Enterprise Board website for details / booking.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

(C) 2007 John O’Donohue – www.johnodonohue.com

Just beautiful! Should be required reading for all would-be entrepreneurs. If it doesn’t speak to you, perhaps you’re not ready yet?

2.  It’s going to take longer and cost more than you think.

3.  The ONLY thing that matters is sales.

4.  WHO you know is more important than WHAT you know.

5.  No-one cares how your technology works – only that it DOES.

6.  Your bank manager is not your friend.

7.  You have no entitlement to support from State agencies.

8.  Whatever your business plan shows, that won’t happen – but you still need to plan (in fact, that’s WHY you need to plan).

9.  Cash is more important than profitability – but you must show CREDIBLY how you are going to get to profitability – and when.

10. And, last, despite all the above, if it’s right for you, it’ll be the best thing you’ve ever done!

If you’re at BizCamp Limerick on 21 March, I’ll fill you in on the thinkng behind these truths.

• Strong needs for control and independence
• Drive and energy
• Self-confidence
• A point of view of money as a measure of performance
• A tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty
• A sense of social responsibility

and that they are good at:

• Problem-solving
• Setting (and achieving) goals and targets
• Calculated risk-taking
• Committing themselves for the long term
• Dealing with failure
• Using feedback
• Taking the initiative
• Seeking personal responsibility
• Tapping and using resources
• Competing against self-imposed standards.

How do you measure on these criteria? Be honest with yourself.

Very few entrepreneurs can lay claim to all of these characteristics. Making the most of your best characteristics and using ingenuity (including the skills of others) to bridge the gaps is perhaps the most frequently encountered entrepreneurial characteristic of all!

However, despite the great variety of people who end up as business-owners, probably the most important personal characteristic for an entrepreneur is determination.

It’s easy to start a business; it’s more difficult to keep it going. When you are faced with long hours, with working through nights and weekends, with extended periods away from your family, and with seemingly-permanent  financial worries, the thought of a secure permanent pensionable job is tempting. Determination is what will see you through these lows until you break through to success!

The first port-of-call for anyone thinking of starting a business should be their local County or City Enterprise Boards. There are 35 CEBS across the country – at least one in every county, with four in each of Dublin and Cork – you’ll find a complete list and more information at www.enterpriseboards.ie. Yes, they do provide grants – for capital equipment, employment, feasiboility studies and web development, among others – but they also provide a valuable range of other supports, including subsidised training, mentoring and business advice. And these supports are usually available, even if your business / business idea does not qualify for grant aid (like all enterprise support in Irreland, the CEBs are primarily focused on manufacturing and internationally-traded services – local services are not usually supported).

The CEBS are targeted at businesses with less than 10 employees – above that, Enterprise Ireland (or Shannon Development or Udaras na Gaeltachta, depending on where you live) take over. EI provides a wide range of supports and has deeper pockets than the CEBs. However, EI is looking for a speical kind of business: what it describes as a “high potential start-up” (HPSU), which will achieve sales of €1m+, 75% export and 10+staff within 3 years. While it’s easy to write a business plan that shows all of the above, it’s more difficult to convince EI’s experienced development advisers that you can deliver on it – that’s where the challenge lies!

And there are many more organisations that can help a start-up – see the Resources page for a selection.

If you are excited about an opportunity that you have spotted, it’s hard to be objective and to listen to well-meaning advice that urges you to be cautious – but, it’s more sensible to tread carefully on a new path, even it chafes a little.

On the other hand, if you feel you’re being pushed into self-employment and are not comfortable with it, then it’s unsurprising that you see negatives all around.

In both cases, you need to identify and isolate your own feelings, so that you can consider self-employment without bias – not easy, but important to try to do. Talking out your idea for self-employment with someone who can offer you constructive criticism can help you to look at it more objectively and is always a useful exercise. A colleague, friend or family member may be able to help, as may a Business Adviser from your local County & City Enterprise Board (see www.enterpriseboards.ie).

Whatever your circumstances, be objective. Look at the minuses as well as the pluses, think about the downside – but don’t let it get you down! And then, when you have made up your mind, give it your all!

A critical step in preparing for self-employment is to get a clear understanding of how much you actually need – as opposed to would like – to live on. And, until your business is able to pay you this amount regularly every month, this is the amount that you will have to take from your savings each month in order to live.

Another useful calculation is “cash burn” – calculate how many months’ spending your financing represents. In other words, if you got no further investment and made no sales, how many months could you keep the business open? Clearly, the higher the figure, the better your margin of security.

Having worked with start-ups, written for them, taught them and advised for over 15 years now, I thought it might be worthwhile to put some of this material in a book, where it would be accessible to people. And, then based on the fun I had in writing a blog on my 2008 Route 66 roadtrip, I thought that a blog / website might open it up to a wider audience.

So, whoever you are, however you found yourself here, welcome! I hope you find something of interest and use to you. Please feel free to comment and add suggestions.

Best wishes, Brian O’Kane