The retail landscape and customer behaviours, both online and in stores, have dramatically shifted over the past few years, placing significant demands upon retailers. They are having to innovate faster and increase buyer engagement while also finding significant operational efficiencies and addressing sustainability goals. This episode is a special edition in advance of the Retail Symposium being held in March by Tipperary County Council as part of Enterprise Week.     In this episode Aisling is  joined by Eimear Dwan who is the recently appointed marketing manager for the Cres ..read more

2023 has been designated European Year of Skills by the EU Commission. In advance of the LEO Tipperary event on Thursday the 15th of November - How to Grow Local Talent, Aisling speaks with Sinead Heneghan of Landdi.ie about a huge issue amongst the SME community -  which is attracting and retaining talent.  Currently three in four EU companies have difficulty in sourcing workers with the skills the organisation needs, which is leading to prolonged and chronic shortages of the skills required to deliver on the organisation’s strategic objectives.  Learn about the changing workf ..read more

Imagine if you were considering exporting and could do it without the hassle of customs, flights or ferries?  A whole export market is available to Southern based businesses via Northern Ireland - and you may even be eligible to get help to access it! In this episode, we explore the fascinating world of business collaboration and cross-border trade. Our spotlight is on an organisation that plays a pivotal role in fostering partnerships and driving economic growth in Ireland and Northern Ireland.   Join us as we delve into the realm of Intertrade Ireland, an innovative agency that ch ..read more

You may have read the title of this podcast and wondered whether it was the pod for you, or even groaned.  Let’s face it none of us really enjoy pouring over the book-keeping but trust us, by the end of this episode you will look at financials in a completely different light and you will actually enjoy it.  You will also learn about how one business turned 100k into 9.9 million. Today Aisling meets Sir Steven Wilkinson, founder and CEO of Good & Prosper.  Steven has been involved in business finance and investment for the best part of 30 years having started working for Mer ..read more

In this episode Aisling talks to gaeilgeoir Grainne Moore.  The Irish government has been actively trying to promote the Irish language.  The objective of Government policy in relation to theIrish language is to increase, on an incremental basis, the use and knowledge of Irish as a community language.   Grainne and Aisling discuss ways that you can bring Irish into everyday use in your business.    Go raibh maith againn as éisteacht (thank you for listening), and if you enjoy the podcast please share it, give it a 5 star review and subscribe, that will really help us ..read more

Learn how to start with ensuring your business processes are run as efficiently as possible.  Find out what the 4 steps are to look at before automating any process, no matter what type of business you have.  Lear how Japanese businesses have influenced our way of working, how to eliminate waste from your business and how the new Digital Start programme can help.  In this episode Aisling talks to Dermot Freeman who has worked in the area of business process streamlining for over 3 decades.  He is a Master Blackbelt practitioner of LEAN, a certified Scrum Master and certifi ..read more

Did you know you could be sitting on a goldmine within your business in the form of unregistered Intellectual Property?  It’s not as hard as you think to register IP (yes, really).   In this episode Aisling talks to the IP and brand master that is Liam Birkett.  Liam has had a vast career in  Intellectual Property, design, marketing, sales and P R.  His company was responsible for the corporate identities, product and brand creation plus marketing initiatives for both blue chip companies and SMEs in Ireland and internationally.  Liam is a consultant expert to the ..read more

Are you  looking at your business wondering how you can increase efficiencies, productivity  or cut costs?   Then this is the podcast for you.  There is a programme that can help you identify where any time savings - and as a result -possibly financial savings - can be made and it’s called Lean for Micro. In this episode Aisling meets Audrey McDonnell from sola.ie.  Sola are a Tipperary based Energy Efficiency Supplier to the Retrofit and New Build Market and have been featured on RTE’s Room to Improve with Dermot Bannon.  An incredibly progressive business Sola ..read more

There is a growing awareness and demand driven by consumers globally to engage with businesses who are climate conscious and stand for more than just their product or service.  But if you are a small business how do you make a change and where do you start to make your business greener?  In this episode Aisling discusses how to take your business green and learns about the Green for Micro Programme.  John Butler of The Bookworm in Thurles, Co. Tipperary shares his experience and insight from doing the programme and Stuart Nelson of Jigsaw Better Business Solutions advises how t ..read more

If you are wondering whether innovation is relevant to your business remember that plenty of companies running the world today started as small enterprises. The visionaries behind these companies were innovators. They hit on a winning formula and the rest, as they say, is history. So what is innovation, where do you start and how do you get help? In this episode Aisling meets Richard Whyte  of Design Plus who manages the Innovation Voucher process for the Institute of Technology Carlow.  He explains how to get a voucher, how to use a combination of them worth €25,000 for larger proje ..read more