In our fifteenth series Linda Pearson talks to Jane Gilheaney one of the co-founders of the Shaylyn Group, about her business’ crux at present.

VITAL STATISTICS

Jane Gilheaney, one of the co-founders of the Shaylyn Group

Business Name: The Shaylyn Traditional Arts Centre     Year of Set Up: 2000     Founders:Jane, Martha and Laura Gilheaney     Location: Ballinamore, Co Leitrim     Business Type: Traditional Performing Arts

Shaylyn is a voluntary community organisation, limited company and social economy business. The group was established by the Gilheaney sisters in 2000 to promote cultural, and social development through the provision of quality performance and development opportunities for talented musicians, singers and dancers beyond the classroom and competition experience.

Background

Shaylyn’s aim is to actively enable the local community to meet social, cultural and economic needs through the development of a natural indigenous resource. Furthermore, Shaylyn aim to increase national value, practice and appreciation of traditional performance arts and to promote excellence in the practice of these.

Shaylyn is an indigenous business that combines social entrepreneurial skill with a strong commercial aim. They seek to succeed as a business by establishing a market share and generating income while emphasising the long-term benefits for employees, consumers and the community.

Current Status

Thanks to Interreg IIIA funding through ICBAN and Peace and Reconciliation funding through Border Action, Shaylyn along with their partners have established a dedicated Traditional Performing Arts Centre in Ballinamore. Jane Gilheaney has stood down as a director for the funded period and is now an employee of the organisation while representatives of the other partner organisations have now become members and directors.

Current actions carried out by Shaylyn include the establishment of Ireland’s first part time third level training opportunities in Irish Dance and Music with the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, due to begin in June. Shaylyn are also working on Ireland’s first course exploring Irish and Ulster Scots Dance on a cross border/community basis. The Cross Border Culture and Dance Reconciliation Initiative will develop a show that will tour the border counties region.

The continued national and international development of Shaylyn has seen them work on the establishment of Ireland’s first International Traditional Talent Agency, the development of two accredited courses which are Business with Arts Management and Culture and Heritage Studies, and the running of group and private classes for adults.

Shaylyn have developed regional performance residencies which is a series of traditional nights where visitors and locals alike can book their ticket for dinner and a show. Shaylyn also developed the International Dance Festival/Holiday which will be from September 7th to 9th 2007. The festival will feature international dance acts, parades, performances, dance workshops and master classes, and lectures relating to traditional arts and the economy as a means of peace and reconciliation.

Financing

The Cross Border Culture and Dance Initiative has been granted €185,916 and is part financed by the European Union through the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by Border Action on behalf of the Cross Border Consortium. The Shaylyn Group Ltd Project has been granted €221,940 part-financed by the European Union through the Interreg IIIA Programme managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by the ICBAN Partnership. There is a required element to match funds for the Interreg funding. To date these funds are coming in from activities such as the adult classes plus donations and support from private local business and our local council. Shaylyn are also currently seeking funding and sponsorship for the International Dance Festival in September. Shaylyn Ltd was established in 2000 for the development and production of a professional two hour show on a voluntary basis in the border counties region. The voluntary organisation has survived due to a talented and dedicated membership plus intensive public relations activity. Shaylyn was established with minimum funds invested by Jane Gilheaney, one of the founders, and has managed to remain debt free.

Expansion

Shaylyn plans to expand in various key areas. They plan on focusing on the quality and uniqueness of training on offer, on building on their current cross border and cross community activities, on international tutoring and performing, and meeting the visitor expectation of Irish dance.

Future Plans

Shaylyn’s five year plan include sourcing opportunities for a permanent base, running diploma and degree level programmes, securing FETAC approval, and sustaining current jobs while also creating more.

Future anticipations within the company also involve having training courses, classes and agency up and running at full capacity, and moving to a visitor’s centre complete with exhibitions, information resource on traditional arts. This centre would have a coffee shop and festival office, provide the option to book private or group classes in Irish and Ulster Scots dance, and provide information on arts as a means of peace and reconciliation and for cross border and community development.

Shaylyn also want to see the yearly growth of the International Dance Festival/Holiday and of traditional performance residencies to meet the tourism expectation.

Crux Of The Matter

The crux of the matter for the business right now is getting everything up and running within the funded period which is to June 2008. Leading on from that Shaylyn need to continually seek additional funding opportunities and identify what areas are most likely to facilitate a successful exit strategy from being fund dependent.

QUESTIONS FROM SHAYLYN TO THE PANEL

1. Shaylyn are reliant and building on their existing international contacts and want to know how they can further develop international awareness of their activities?
   
   
2. How can Shaylyn best use this funded period to facilitate long term survival and growth of the business?
   
   
3. Shaylyn wonder are they missing out on any valuable assistance, links or opportunities that would help them in the long term?
   

Kevin Sheehan, Partner, SME Services, Deloitte, heads up the panel of experts below who give their advice on ways in which the Shaylyn Group could steer their business.

Kevin Sheehan, Partner, SME Services, Deloitte. It is unclear whether Shaylyn is a not for profit organisation promoting the arts, or a commercial enterprise which provides services and earns profits. The company has plans to provide training and education services, promote awareness of performing arts, provide employment, run an arts centre and coffee shop, seek additional funding, run an annual festival, set up a talent agency, promote and run live performances; its all too diversified and is bound to result in failure. This entity needs a realistic plan. The company should decide what its core activities will be into the future. With all of the ideas currently on the table it seems that little has been done by way of market research, particularly in the area of education and training. Is there a demand for these services? How much will it cost to run the courses? Long Term Survival Shaylyn has been successful at securing grant aid in excess of €400k. The company should use some of these funds to assess which of the numerous ideas is financially sustainable and will generate revenues to cover the cost base, in particular employee and establishment costs. It is easy to take on financial commitments now with money in the bank, but without a secure revenue stream the company will always struggle to achieve its objectives as it spends more and more time seeking and securing grant aid to make ends meet. Kevin Sheehan, Partner, SME Services, Deloitte. Head of Panel for Crux of The Matter.

Brian O’Kane, Managing Director, OAKTREE Press Shaylyn’s doing what every voluntary group in an area that they are passionate about tries to do; which is do everything all at once. They are doing well at it, but their hard-won external funding is like fuel thrown on a fire. Plan Ahead The need to spend now, to meet the objectives set out in the funding application and thus the funders’ expectations, focuses attention on the present to the detriment of the future. If Shaylyn is to survive, let alone grow, it needs a plan. More importantly, it needs a plan for the long-term. First, Shaylyn’s management team need to consider whether, realistically, the organisation can ever be totally free from some dependency on funding. If not, accept and work with it. Set a target date by which time Shaylyn will have reduced funding to an acceptable level. Then work back, setting interim targets. Prioritising Next, look at current and planned activities and prioritise them in terms of their capacity for growth and funding-non-dependency. The aim must be to build nonfunding revenue sources. It may be a challenge to do this while still meeting the objectives for which Shaylyn was founded, but while the fuel is there to propel it, Shaylyn needs to be working on a slowburn. Brian O’Kane, Managing Director, OAKTREE Press

Mark Fielding, Chief Executive, ISME My reaction to reading about Shaylyn was one of overload and overwhelm and an inability to grasp the totality of what Shaylyn is and what Shaylyn proposes. In any business the secret is to keep everything simple; structure, goals, finance and business plan. It seems to me as if the pure simplicity of the original Gilheaney vision has been hijacked, expanded and gentrified to satisfy a vast and varied set of stakeholders who now run the danger of making a pig’s ear from what started out as a silk purse. Re-Examine Plans The advice would be to re-examine the business strategic plan, simplifying and breaking all strands down into ‘essential must haves’, ‘maybes’ and pure ‘luxuries’. Then look at a realistic timeframe for the different strands and their corresponding financial implications and recast the projections accordingly. On the assumption that these figures and timelines are appreciably different from what has been produced before, then this has to be ‘sold’ to the management committee and that is where persuasive leadership becomes crucial to the business mix. The initial objective of Shaylyn should be to create a solid and stable platform from which all the other aspirational things can come, in time. Currently it is trying to do too much too quickly. Mark Fielding, Chief Executive, ISME

Ann Murtagh, Business Strategist, AIB For the long term survival of Shaylyn, costs must be controlled and the mantra, ‘cash is king’, must be kept in mind in spite of a period of funding where there could be a temptation to ignore such issues and focus solely on growth. Cashflow Shaylyn must avoid the common problem of trying to grow too fast as this can place significant pressure on cashflow. It is good to see that Shaylyn has developed a plan for expanding but this plan must be consulted and updated or it is worthless. Shaylyn should seek to identify the areas that are profitable and add value, and focus on these while fading out unprofitable activities. Growth This period of funding is a perfect opportunity for Shaylyn to concentrate on growing their business model. Growth often requires a company to stretch beyond its means and take on debt. However, Shaylyn can be fully focused on growth rather than being concerned about debt and generating enough funds to secure that debt. As such, Shaylyn can try to penetrate new markets and can use this time to diversify or concentrate resources on stronger areas to meet their long term business goals. Ann Murtagh, Business Strategist, AIB

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