BUSINESS MOTIVATION

Carol Bolger, Regional Director for Greater Dublin, Ulster Bank

The findings from a recent survey by Ulster Bank on what motivates people to start a business reveals that while new businesses were once considered the preserve of men, the trend towards male dominated industry is no longer prevalent, writes Carol Bolger.

Research conducted on Ulster Bank’s behalf by market research company TNS MRBI, surveyed ownermanagers in 403 SMEs in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick and the results were very interesting. It is a wellknown fact that the increase in female representation in the work-place in the last number of years is one of the key success factors of the Celtic Tiger economy. Naturally, that has led to women becoming far more prominent in starting up their own businesses, and certainly a great number of startup customers that I have worked with in the last few years have been women.

Survey Findings

Our survey also found that fewer women than men (7% compared to 21% of men), set up their own businesses with the main objective of generating money. In fact, 40% of the female correspondents (and 25% of male correspondents) surveyed said that their main reason for setting up their own business was to have greater control of their own destiny’. Of course money is an important factor in setting up any new business, but the results make sense when you consider that working solely for financial security is less of an issue now than it was say ten years ago.

There’s more money, confidence and demand around now. If you lose your job, you’re less inclined to think you won’t get another.

Business Goals

Start-ups make up a substantial part of our day-to-day business and an important part of that from our perspective is to get to know the person’s idea. Our Enterprise Advisers work with people setting up a business, to really get to grips with what they want to achieve with their business goal. Arising out of that, we deliver a well thought out package to suit the entrepreneur.

Business owners need to be very savvy people. The most successful ones look for value and proactively build relationships with their key suppliers and that applies to banking services as much as raw materials. Our advice is to make sure you negotiate to get the best value out there in everything.

Experienced Entrepreneurs

Besides money, there are other reasons why new business owners are motivated to start an enterprise. Passion for a new idea inspires some people to set out on the road for the first time and they simply learn the ropes of leading a business and all that that entails as they go. These people may have a lot of passion about their idea but some may lack basic business knowledge. Others, at the other end of the spectrum are highly experienced entrepreneurs, those who run new businesses as a profession. There are countless success stories emerging every year about these entrepreneurs, whose greatest ‘buzz’ comes from bringing ideas into reality, selling up or moving aside and starting again.

They include Eleanor McEvoy, who spotted a gap in the market and established the Phonecard Warehouse company in 2000. She grew the business from an idea to a thriving company with a turnover of €50 million within six years. The concept behind the business, using high-tech GPRS technology to facilitate the sale of prepaid mobile phone credit, proved an instant hit, with the machines now ubiquitous in retail units across Ireland. McEvoy sold the Phonecard Warehouse for €6.1 million, and is currently exploring a number of potential business opportunities.

Networking For Success

So if you’re motivated to set up a business and you have the idea, the passion, the stamina to go the whole course, where can you get the right support and assistance? The environment is now far more in favour of entrepreneurship and business growth. Companies have access to support and information networks which provide a wealth of knowledge across business sectors, and offer opportunities for networking and an invaluable forum for the exchange of information and experiences. The importance of networking was confirmed by a report by development body InterTrade Ireland, which stated that thousands of Irish companies are proactively involved in mentoring, networking and tracking programmes, with 110 different business networks now in operation across the country. These range from sector-specific associations to accountancy bodies and banks, from Government agencies to business organisations such as the SFA, ISME and Chambers of Commerce.