Proper financial planning is the foundation of a successful business. If you are a small business owner or think of launching a startup, you should first dedicate some time to creating a cash-flow system, which will sustain your future endeavors. In this article, we will talk about how financial planning will influence the stability of your company and how you should prepare for the potential expenses that will come along the way.

Why are cash-flow systems so crucial for the success of startups?

If you are operating a small business, the chances are that you are taking money out of your pocket to finance your idea. Even if you have found an investor, the funds that you have provided on your startup timeline will not last for an eternity. This is why the only way to scale your company effectively is to create a working cash-flow system, which will take care of the manufacturing, delivery, and human resource expenses each month. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at how you should manage your financial planning.

Creating liquidity and redirecting your income

When conducting expert financial planning, your first entrepreneur test is finding an effective stream of income, which will cover most of your (if not all) periodic expenses. To do that, you must evaluate the profit you should make to keep the company going. You can do that through the following steps:

Calculate manufacturing and delivery expenses

Depending on the type of business you have started, you will have certain expenses that will go towards creating a product or a service. The manufacturing costs include all the money that will be invested into this process.

If you are producing a physical item, begin with estimating the costs of the raw materials needed. Account for the required machinery and facilities that you will use along the way. After that, summarize these expenses and write down your estimation.

If you are offering services to your clients, try to think about all the payments that will go towards creating this service or providing it to the end-users. These usually include the expert work invested into utilities and the expenses that will go for logistics.  

Evaluate marketing costs

Every successful business is heavily dependent on quality marketing. To sustain an effective cash-flow system, you should carefully think about the different types of marketing that you will indulge in to promote your product/service. The marketing costs include paying for advertisement, conducting promotion campaigns, and providing free samples of your product to users. Estimate the money that the company will channel for marketing and write it down.

Plan for taxes

Planning for taxes depends on what type of product you are offering to your clients and under what regulation it falls. If you are offering services, taxes will be calculated as a percentage of each sale. Most of the taxes will still be conducted on a singular basis for physical items, except for those needing government-issued licenses for selling. Depending on which country the business is operating in, different tax rates will be charged on each transaction. You can check those either on the website of the specific government financial institution or in their local offices.

Estimate the number of sales you will do for a set period of time (preferably monthly)

After you have calculated the manufacturing and marketing costs, it is now time to look at the potential sales you will make each month. These will be the foundation of your cash-flow system and business plan builder, so you should try to objectively estimate the number of individual deals you will make regularly. One of the best ways to do that is to conduct a test offering for several days. After that, calculate the average amount of sales per week and estimate the gross number of offerings that will come for the first month of operation.

Then, subtract the marketing and manufacturing costs from the total amount of money that you assume to make from sales during the first month and write down the sum that is left. This will be the funding that you will have available for further investment in the company and paying out additional expenses.  

Account for employee’s salaries and outsource costs

If your business strategy includes hiring employees or outsourcing some of the work, then you should also include these expenses in your financial planning. To do this, it is highly advisable that you use a sheet on which you write down each individual payment. This way, you can objectively evaluate the total amount of funds you need to dedicate to experts each month. After you do that, subtract this amount from the net monetary assets left at your disposal.

Find/Readjust a competitive price for your products/services

If you have diligently followed the steps above, you already have an estimated evaluation of the financial planning of your company. If your expenses happen to be more than your gross income, then your startup will be ‘burning’ money each month. In such a case, you have two options before you.

The first is to adjust the price of your product/service to turn your cash-flow system positive. This means increasing the cost of your offerings to the point where you won’t need any additional funding to keep the company operating (and scaling).

The other option is to find outside funding, covering the cost of your main processes until your business strategy starts paying off. In this case, you must first decide how you should find further investment and decide which amount will be sufficient to sustain your activities.

Finding additional streams of income will also help you continue expanding your reach and value, so think about other ways in which you can monetize the product/services of your company. This can give you stability and allow you to scale your project further.

Financial planning emergency savings

If your cash-flow system is actually providing you with sufficient resources to continue your work without having to worry about funding, then you should think about adding some safety measures for your company. One such method is establishing an emergency fund.

Setting up an emergency fund is essentially preparing the company for a potential crisis, in which you might require immediate liquid backup to keep the operations intact. This way, you can be sure that unpredictable external factors will not disrupt the core processes of your business and lead it to bankruptcy. Try to set aside a proportion of your net income each month into a specific bank account, which you will use only in case of emergency. Preferably, you should have enough funds at your disposal to keep the company going for about 3-6 months.

Conclusion – How financial planning can help you achieve success

Financial planning is a complex process, which includes managing all the internal processes inside your startup to keep the expenses to a minimum and assures a steady flow of funds each month. If you follow the steps that we have suggested above, you will gradually learn how to manage your finances properly. Ultimately, you will understand how to create a reliable funding structure, which will help you scale your business to new lengths and achieve long-lasting success.

Project specifics

Before we dive deeper into the core of project management, we must first look at the features of a commercial project. These characteristics include:

A timeline

While the practical realization of an idea has no strict parameters, a project has a beginning and an end. Before you decide to launch a new commercial endeavor, you must first define a startup funding timeline and an estimated length of operation.

Actions needed for project completion

While there certainly are many external factors that you do not have control over, you have a certain influence on completing a project. Well-defined consequent actions will be essential for the success of your business plan builder.

Scope

While some of your projects might depend on each other, effective project management requires you to define a particular scope for your purposes. This way, you can set specific boundaries by which your team will be guided and prevent members from rolling away from your initial idea.

Unique outcomes

Before you launch a new commercial project, you must have an overall idea of what you want to accomplish with it. Getting distinct outcomes is the essential ingredient for accomplishing your goals and achieving success with your current campaign.

 How to execute a project

After we have reviewed the features of a project, we must now facilitate its proper execution. To make things easier for you, we have broken down the process into individual steps, showing you how to carry through to your project outcomes gradually.

Identify the goals that you want to accomplish

Knowing what you want to accomplish by launching a certain project is essential for your eventual success. Whether it is about opening a new office, expanding your presence, improving internal communication, or creating a new product, having a broad vision for your intentions is critical. If you have more extensive plans, you can start by splitting your objectives into individual aspects, which need to be accomplished. Moreover, you should define a particular budget and assess the feasibility of each task. Consulting with team members can come in handy in such a situation, as you need everybody to be on the same page as you to apply proper management.

Outline and delegate responsibilities

Outlining what needs to be done is also extremely important when preparing to launch a new project. Finding the right people for individual tasks will help you speed up the process and ultimately save time and resources. After you have established the objectives of the endeavor, it is highly advisable that you gather your team and conduct a ‘project launch meeting,’ where you discuss the different aspects of your idea. Expert project management requires you to delegate specific responsibilities to reach the end goal safely. Think about the roles you want to assign to each member and try to follow through or change your approach as the project unveils.

Define a clear scope of work

Defining a clear scope will help you and your team prioritize the essential processes for your success. Communicating the short-term goals to your employees will help them do their job more effectively and prevent confusion among the involved parties. An extensive scope statement includes defining short and long-term goals, evaluating performance, articulating assumptions, and placing the required limitations.

Try to capture the most important aspects of the project and clearly define them before your team. Then, find the right metrics for evaluating individual and cooperative performance. Account for the assumptions, which are maintained among your team, and try to keep your staff motivated and purposeful. Communicating what needs to be done and constantly updating your team members is what will keep the workflow steady. At last, don’t forget to set certain boundaries on how to operate the project. It would help if you neither constrained your team nor assign them impossible tasks. Try to set realistic expectations and adequately follow through with your associates.

Communicate your idea and begin working on it

Communicating your idea to the staff is very important to successfully execute a project. Try to be as flexible as possible with your approach and adapt according to the results you see. Your primary roles as a project manager are to monitor the conditions in which people are working, make sure that they aim towards the objectives of the project, and communicate potential change into your strategy. Establishing milestones and being consistent in utilizing proven practices will help you create a steady environment for growth.  

How to instill confidence and guide your team

After reviewing the essentials of project management, we should make some honorable mentions about certain aspects of leadership, which could help you guide your team to success.

Instilling confidence in your associates is what will drive them to work relentlessly towards your mutual goals. Try to reward professional behavior and be firm about your decisions. Remember that people will follow you only if you show them that their work is creating a positive change in the company’s development and that they can rely on you to assist them along the way.

You should be as precise as possible when evaluating the performance of each employee and delegating individual responsibilities. Try to keep track of their progress and shift the strategy of the project according to their results. Create the right working conditions and mentor each team member to increase the overall efficiency of the internal processes.

Conclusion – How to improve your project management skills?

Project management skills are what will set you apart as a reliable and successful entrepreneur. If you want to effectively scale your company, you should learn how to properly execute individual projects and guide your team to achieve the company’s goals. Following the steps we have described for you will help you get better at organizing and delegating work among your team members and finding the right objectives and business startup timeline for your endeavor. Don’t be afraid if everything does not work out as intended the first time you launch a project. Instead, focus on improving your individual ability to lead and try to accomplish as many objectives as possible for the time being. As you get more experienced, you will understand the essentials of project management better and ultimately become a successful and well-respected leader.

Developing a business strategy is one of the most important aspects of launching a successful startup. Knowing how to structure your ideas and practically implement them will separate you from the competition and help you grow your enterprise.

Today, we will be taking a closer look at a specific entrepreneurship tool, which has been used by some of the leading global corporations and various small and medium businesses around the world – the SWOT Analysis. Then, to successfully layout your future opportunities and find the right ideas, we will show you how to conduct a comprehensive examination of your business plan step-by-step properly.

So, what is a SWOT Analysis?

‘SWOT’ is an acronym, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of your company is what will allow you to take control over the direction in which you want to develop your business. In addition, understanding external factors, such as the potential growth opportunities and the possible threats that can lead to failure, will help you stay relevant on the market.

A SWOT analysis will assist you in organizing all the aspects of your business strategy and give you an overall perspective of how you should proceed in the future. This way, you can prioritize the work, which will provide you with an advantage before the competition, and leverage your current market position to find the right growth opportunities.

How to conduct a SWOT analysis? (step-by-step)

Decide what the objective of the analysis is

To conduct a successful SWOT analysis, you must define your main objectives from the start. You should find out if most of your current problems are connected to the inner processes of the business or whether the company should focus more on the external opportunities, which are present at the moment. These include introducing a new service/product, finding your way into a new industry, managing business relations, or simply improving the cohesion of your team or the manufacturing process.

Research the specific industry and market

To stay relevant in the sphere of development that you have chosen for your company, you should first research the competition and the customer demand/trends, which are currently viable in the field. You can do that more efficiently if you talk to your team, partners, and clients and discuss the market opportunities you can benefit from the most.

Always start with your business’ strengths

After you have prepared your market analysis, you should start writing down the different aspects of your business. You must always start listing your company’s strengths, as they are the foundation on which your whole business strategy works. The ‘strengths’ could be related to your financial resources, price advantages, marketing, office location, and others. You must make sure to define your biggest strengths first, as that will help you get an overall outlook on the possibilities for development.

Determine your weaknesses

Determining your weaknesses is probably the most challenging part of conducting a SWOT analysis. To successfully do that, you must objectively assess the processes in your company, which are currently lacking, or the disadvantages that you have, compared to your competition. Weaknesses could include the absence of unity between your team members, struggles to offer your clients interesting new products or services, or the lack of intellectual property development. Listing your soft spots will assist you in understanding the improvements that you need to make in the future. It will also help you optimize the inner processes in your company so that you can derive the maximum from your business ideas.

List potential opportunities

After you have reviewed the internal factors of your business, it is time to look at the potential market opportunities that will help you grow your company. Don’t forget that there could be countless development options, from which you should prioritize only the ones that seem most reliable and profitable for your niche. Here, you should assess the current market trends (which you have already written down) and consider how you can turn them into profitable endeavors. This could mean the introduction of a new product or the improvement of business to customer relations. When listing potential opportunities, you must never forget that a good product and a happy client are the foundation for success.

List potential threats

‘Threats’ to the business are all external factors that could lead to problems with the invention and delivery of new products. Such is the loss of essential personnel, increasing competition, constantly moving markets, and all kinds of technical issues. Therefore, when conducting a SWOT analysis, you must always make sure to separate your threats from your opportunities and not list a product as both a liability and a potentially successful market offer.

Make an overall evaluation of your analysis and find the most pressing issues

When you are done prioritizing your business’s strengths and weaknesses and successfully evaluating the growth possibilities and potential future threats, it’s time to make the correct conclusions and decide how to proceed with your business strategy. Before anything else, you should first find the most pressing issues with your current business processes. After that, see which of them need immediate attention and which could be dealt with later.

Develop a strategy to deal with the company’s current problems and rank your ideas for development

After you have sorted the changes that need to occur in your company, you should adequately develop a strategy to address them. Moreover, this is the time to list all the ideas you have come up with during the analysis and find your new market priorities. Finally, think about how you can use your strength to take advantage of the current trends, decide in which way you should deal with the most pressing issues, and find out how to minimize or completely erase the business’ current weaknesses.

The SWOT Analysis will help you achieve your goals and stay relevant in the long-term

As one of the most widely used tools in entrepreneurship, the SWOT analysis is a powerful method that could help you achieve continuous growth and deal with the problems stopping your current development. No matter how experienced you are in the industry, analyzing your business strategy and seeing the “big picture” will benefit your business and help you find the path to imminent success.

Clarify your primary business goals

Knowing your end goal is one of the essential things when scaling your company. Most businesses lose their vision very early in their development stages, which either suffocates their growth or leads them towards less profitable markets. Before you decide on your business plan, you should first clarify the objective your company is working towards. Imagine what your company would look like several years into your future startup business timeline and think about how you can get it there. Moreover, you should forget that once a business is built upon a particular idea, it is tough to change its operating model. Find out what you want to improve in your community, and don’t falter in your ambition to do it. Set your goals based on your passion for your work and think realistically about how far you can scale your operations in the next few years. Being objective and thorough can bring you unexpected competitive advantages.

Find which aspects of your business can help you reach your goals

Creating a successful business strategy is a strictly individual task.[PG1]  To do it properly, you should first get to know your company better. We suggest that you first write down the most important processes/components of your business and take a good look at them (SWOT analysis is also a great option).

After that, define your competitive advantages. Find out what separates you from other similar businesses and try to think about how you can exploit it to your benefit. Moreover, you should consider how you can level up your manufacturing/delivery processes, management, and human relation, in cohesion with your financial growth. Be systematic and make decisions based on what you think will be best for the company.

Evaluating the current state of your business is essential for choosing a successful strategy. This is why you should think about both your short-term and long-term goals. Find out the most problematic sectors in your startup and try to find innovative solutions while encouraging your team to keep working towards your business goals.

How to select the proper business strategy?

After explaining the necessary steps to prepare for the development of a proper corporative model, it is now time to review how to select a good business strategy. There are several essential elements of a straightforward business plan builder, which we will now examine.

Experimentation

Every new startup is basically a well-thought experiment. Trying out things on a smaller scale will always prove to be an efficient strategy when you doubt the potential of a new product or service. Sometimes, giving away some money might prove to be more financially efficient for your business model than directly risking all your capital for an untested product.

Scaling/Investment

Scaling your startup from a small business to a larger enterprise is probably the most complex challenge that you will face along the way. When creating your business strategy, you should think very carefully about how it might change while the company is still growing. Be sure to regularly revise your ideas and adapt them to the current state of the business. Try understanding the specific circumstances while keeping a steady course towards achieving your long-term idealistic and financial goals.

While growing into a larger corporation is individual for each company, one thing that you will imminently require is finding new products/services/sectors to invest your capital or revenue. To produce more value, you put either more capital to work or more labor (which also increases your costs). Having the right monetary politics and investing in the right place at the right time might prove essential for your success as an entrepreneur.

Diversification/Integration

Another essential aspect to consider when choosing your business strategy is the opportunities that might emerge in the constantly changing market. This includes the exploration of new industries, the implementation of more effective management techniques, the creation or manufacturing of new products, etc. Diversification helps you reduce the risk of bankruptcy and might keep you financially stable in a time of crisis or when the needs of the consumers are inconsistent. One way to diversify your business processes safely is to integrate what other companies have already found to be working. Don’t be afraid to take the right elements of a successful business strategy (even if it’s from the competition) and implement them into your own.

Social connection/Information 

At last, don’t forget about the importance of business to customer relations. Having a reliable customer base that trusts you will always be a foundation for long-term success. Try to find the most effective way to build up your social capital while continuing to provide new products and value to clients. Moreover, think about the different ways you can get more information about the users’ needs to improve your performance continuously. Having the edge over the competition does not necessarily mean having a highly superior product, but rather knowing your customer base better and providing sufficient value to each individual.

Conclusion – How to adapt your business strategy to your professional environment

After reviewing the core elements of choosing a successful business strategy, it is time to sum up our analysis and make the correct conclusions. As we have already said, the first and most crucial step is to understand your long-term goals. Based on them, you will be able to sift out the aspects of your business that will help you scale while understanding the processes in your company more objectively. Then, you should proceed to individualize each element of your business strategy, depending on your internal and external factors. Don’t forget that your corporate model consists not only of the products and services that you currently provide but is also dependent on your delivery efficiency, customer relations, and long-term scaling prospects.

Choosing the right business strategy means finding out the most effective way to combine the development of these processes while working towards the achievement of your goals. Be thorough, write things down, and base your decisions on facts. This way, you can carefully sort out the best opportunities for further growth and slowly scale your company to various new industries and products.

How to choose a business strategy

Having the right idea will lead you to create a startup that will provide essential value to your community. Choosing a profitable business strategy, though, is what might help you scale your company and achieve big-time success in your field of work. This article will show you how to choose and successfully implement the right business strategy to achieve maximum growth. 

Clarify your primary business goals

Knowing your end goal is one of the essential things when scaling your company. Most businesses lose their vision very early in their development stages, which either suffocates their growth or leads them towards less profitable markets. Before you decide on your business plan, you should first clarify the objective your company is working towards. Imagine what your company would look like several years into your future startup business timeline and think about how you can get it there. Moreover, you should forget that once a business is built upon a particular idea, it is tough to change its operating model. Find out what you want to improve in your community, and don’t falter in your ambition to do it. Set your goals based on your passion for your work and think realistically about how far you can scale your operations in the next few years. Being objective and thorough can bring you unexpected competitive advantages.

Find which aspects of your business can help you reach your goals

Creating a successful business strategy is a strictly individual task.[PG1]  To do it properly, you should first get to know your company better. We suggest that you first write down the most important processes/components of your business and take a good look at them (SWOT analysis is also a great option).

After that, define your competitive advantages. Find out what separates you from other similar businesses and try to think about how you can exploit it to your benefit. Moreover, you should consider how you can level up your manufacturing/delivery processes, management, and human relation, in cohesion with your financial growth. Be systematic and make decisions based on what you think will be best for the company.

Evaluating the current state of your business is essential for choosing a successful strategy. This is why you should think about both your short-term and long-term goals. Find out the most problematic sectors in your startup and try to find innovative solutions while encouraging your team to keep working towards your business goals.

How to select the proper business strategy?

After explaining the necessary steps to prepare for the development of a proper corporative model, it is now time to review how to select a good business strategy. There are several essential elements of a straightforward business plan builder, which we will now examine.

Experimentation

Every new startup is basically a well-thought experiment. Trying out things on a smaller scale will always prove to be an efficient strategy when you doubt the potential of a new product or service. Sometimes, giving away some money might prove to be more financially efficient for your business model than directly risking all your capital for an untested product.

Scaling/Investment

Scaling your startup from a small business to a larger enterprise is probably the most complex challenge that you will face along the way. When creating your business strategy, you should think very carefully about how it might change while the company is still growing. Be sure to regularly revise your ideas and adapt them to the current state of the business. Try understanding the specific circumstances while keeping a steady course towards achieving your long-term idealistic and financial goals.

While growing into a larger corporation is individual for each company, one thing that you will imminently require is finding new products/services/sectors to invest your capital or revenue. To produce more value, you put either more capital to work or more labor (which also increases your costs). Having the right monetary politics and investing in the right place at the right time might prove essential for your success as an entrepreneur.

Diversification/Integration

Another essential aspect to consider when choosing your business strategy is the opportunities that might emerge in the constantly changing market. This includes the exploration of new industries, the implementation of more effective management techniques, the creation or manufacturing of new products, etc. Diversification helps you reduce the risk of bankruptcy and might keep you financially stable in a time of crisis or when the needs of the consumers are inconsistent. One way to diversify your business processes safely is to integrate what other companies have already found to be working. Don’t be afraid to take the right elements of a successful business strategy (even if it’s from the competition) and implement them into your own.

Social connection/Information 

At last, don’t forget about the importance of business to customer relations. Having a reliable customer base that trusts you will always be a foundation for long-term success. Try to find the most effective way to build up your social capital while continuing to provide new products and value to clients. Moreover, think about the different ways you can get more information about the users’ needs to improve your performance continuously. Having the edge over the competition does not necessarily mean having a highly superior product, but rather knowing your customer base better and providing sufficient value to each individual.

Conclusion – How to adapt your business strategy to your professional environment

After reviewing the core elements of choosing a successful business strategy, it is time to sum up our analysis and make the correct conclusions. As we have already said, the first and most crucial step is to understand your long-term goals. Based on them, you will be able to sift out the aspects of your business that will help you scale while understanding the processes in your company more objectively. Then, you should proceed to individualize each element of your business strategy, depending on your internal and external factors. Don’t forget that your corporate model consists not only of the products and services that you currently provide but is also dependent on your delivery efficiency, customer relations, and long-term scaling prospects.

Choosing the right business strategy means finding out the most effective way to combine the development of these processes while working towards the achievement of your goals. Be thorough, write things down, and base your decisions on facts. This way, you can carefully sort out the best opportunities for further growth and slowly scale your company to various new industries and products.

How should you start your company after the pandemic is over?

Starting a company is never an easy task. Being able to begin a business venture successfully is heavily dependent on the circumstances of the market and the value you provide to customers. The pandemic has brought forward some very conflicting changes to the global economy. A lot of new development opportunities will be open for exploration after the end of social isolation. To help you realize your idea into a functional business strategy, we have showcased some of the most prominent advantages of starting a small business in the near future.

New industries to explore

The effects of the pandemic have impacted almost every existing industry on the market. While some physical products/services have become widely unavailable to the public, others have increased in both value and demand. Going back to the founding principles of business, if a niche has experienced rapid growth in use cases and demand, it is only natural that its development will continue in the next few years.

If you desire to provide some kind of value to your community, but you don’t have a particular idea shaped into your mind, you should probably focus on what is essential for the people at present. For example, during the pandemic, most people were denied the ability to interact effectively with each other and enjoy social activities. Consequently, after the crisis has ended, there will be a high demand for services in the entertainment industry.

The pandemic has also forced many small and medium businesses to go digital, which has opened up space for new expert firms to fill in the needs for online services of any kind. Starting a small business, which could adapt itself to the needs of corporations or regular customers will help you achieve high profitability and find solid ground for future growth.

A more accessible user base

Due to the unfortunate circumstances of the COVID-19 crisis, a lot of people have found new ways to fulfill their market needs. The lack of accessibility to standard products and services has made users more aware of the companies and brands that could provide them with value. And while startups may face harsher competition due to government-imposed restrictions, they can quickly raise a reliable user base if their product meets the consumer’s demands. This means that you will have more time to focus on your manufacturing (or service creation) quality and worry less about people not finding out about you.

Market gaps that could be exploited to your advantage

The rapid market shifts that will have occurred until the end of the pandemic will predispose the economy to leave new gaps in production and delivery. Suppose you manage to set a good startup timeline. In that case, you can not only find a profitable new niche that will let you expand significantly but also face little to no competition in your desired industry. Achieving success can depend heavily on what product you decide to offer and when you offer it to the consumers. After the crisis is averted, small businesses will have the unique opportunity to spread out throughout the community and create a definitive long-lasting impact. 

What to look out for after the pandemic

While the end of the pandemic will allow you to make use of various new market opportunities, the financial threats that your company will face could prove to be lethal (if not adequately taken into consideration.) As most of you already know, after almost two years of constant market depreciation, there will be some inevitable consequences to the global economy.

Unemployment and lower salaries will force customers to limit their spending, focusing more on essential products and less on luxury items. The decline in purchase power will also be detrimental for companies that do not meet the requirements of their clients. Moreover, waiting for the recession to hit to expand your services will almost certainly result in significant losses, and ultimately, in an unsuccessful endeavor.

If you plan on starting a small company after the crisis, you must first carefully build your business plan according to the upcoming market shifts. This way, you could prevent losing valuable customers and find the right time to expand into new industries and products.

While for some entrepreneurs, the insecurity of the shifting economy could seem scary and unpredictable, small companies that are sensibly governed will always manage to stay afloat and continue their growth. If you are unsure of whether you will be able to resist the perpetual change in customer demand and the fluctuating market, you should remember to remind yourself of the basics of business and be objective in your decision-making. Chaos could be synonymous with success if you know how to properly take advantage of it and use it to achieve your business goals.

In other words, there is a moment in the life of every person when they think “Screw it – I’m an entrepreneur and will disrupt the Whatever Industry with my fresh ideas or methods”. Though, before saying everything you think into the face of your boss and finishing the speech with the words “I’m going to be a wealthy entrepreneur”, wait a moment and think about a few actual questions.

Are you enjoying your 40-hours working week?

Because if you aren’t, then you definitely won’t enjoy the unlimited working schedule of an early-stage entrepreneur. The truth is that if you’re going to launch a new company or a startup, then you will realize pretty fast that time is money. Usually the billable units of time are days (servers, domains, and many other), which would lead you to an assumption that you really can’t afford weekends and 8-hour work days any more. You would be working 12 to 16 hours a day and still it won’t guarantee you success of your startup.

Is your product or idea really disruptive and supercool?

Because if it’s not, then just save yourself a few months or years of life and a visible amount of grey hair on your head. Seriously. Don’t start any startup without believing in it. Even if you’re planning to re-sell some random things from the internet (it’s called dropshipping, and can actually be profitable) – you have to believe in the idea and business model really hard.

Let’s try a simple drill to reveal if you’re going to make it with your business idea. Go visit your granny, or ask to visit your younger friend’s granny (you’d probably have to emphasize on the purpose of the visit) and try to explain your idea to her. If you won’t be able to explain your innovative idea or business plan to a senior citizen and convince them that this would work – then you probably won’t be able to do the same with your future potential customers. The thing is that the intelligence of The Crowd and their tolerance to new disruptive ideas would be very close to tolerance of a senior citizen to things which they totally don’t understand.

Do you have family and friends?

Cause if you do and you still want to become an entrepreneur – forget about them. Of course, it’s a joke, though just try to warn them that they would be forgotten by you for a few months or years. The only exclusion would be a situation where your newly launched startup would need some fundraising and the first people whom you will contact would be your friends and family.

Did you make it this far below the questions? Really? And you still want to start your own business, regardless of all the warnings we’ve tried to give you? Because the scary part of the article is coming to an end and below are some of the best life hacks of where to run if you want to start your own company. Sit yourself comfortable and enjoy the reading!

“I want to start a business but don’t know what to do” cheatsheet

1. Look around – there is always a thing

This is the killing advice for people, who just desperately want to do SOMETHING by themselves. Start observing the world around you and ask the correct questions. We’re not defining “correct questions” here, because it’s too personal. After all, even the creator of Useless Machine could have achieved their goal of making something really recognizable over the world. For those who are unaware of the Useless Machine – it’s basically a box with a switch. When you press the switch, the mechanism from inside the box triggers and returns the switch to the initial position.

Though it’s a lot more complicated than that. Every product or a company in this world is designed to resolve some pain points of their targeted audience. What you have to do is live your life open-minded. Every time, when you feel bored or unhappy with the thing happening now or done by you now, spare a minute and think if this is a common problem for a lot of people. If the answer is positive, try to think if there is a chance to fix this paint point with a viable amount of investments and your knowledge. That’s how bi ideas are born.

2. Best products are born naturally

Have you ever thought of the origin of things around you? Yes, we all know how cool Steve Jobs was when he introduced the iPhone in 2007 and disrupted the whole world. But there are a lot of smaller, yet more marvelous stories to tell.

For instance, have you ever heard of stretching wallpapers, which were supposed to be heated and put on the walls? Well, you’ve probably heard about the bubble wrap and used it at least a hundred times in your life. Back in 1957, when bubble wrap was invented, it was supposed to be stretching wallpapers and then greenhouse insulation.

Similarly, MailChimp, the most popular email automation software to date, was founded as a side project of a web development agency with the name Rocket Science Group. They’ve created Mailchimp for their internal use. Then, they were asked to share it with some of their clients because it was really easy and cheap to use. After 6 years, the founders switched to work only on MailChimp. By the way, the CEO of MailChimp is a billionaire now with the help of this small side project of his web development agency.

So, you have to ask yourself, are there any things which you are using every day at work, or you’ve created a Minecraft server to backup smth valuable? You will be surprised, but there is a Minecraft server which works as a virtual version of some library in the USA during the COVID thing.

3. Mind the risks

Even if you’ve invented how to travel in time, don’t put all the eggs in one basket. Some of the most experienced VC managers say that everything is invented or, at least, could be invented in a certain moment of time. The reason why it isn’t invented is because the founders of the projects couldn’t find money to make it working.

To avoid this situation and these calls of desperation to your friends and family in search of funding, you have to work over the budgeting and business plan. Initially, the excel spreadsheet would work. Make two different columns – one for expenses, and one for potential incomes. Then add timeframes. What would be the expenses of launching your startup or supporting it’s operations for a week or a month? Similarly, what should happen within these timeframes to generate at least some income for your project?

After you’ve done this and most probably realized that your project is a huge money-devourer, not a business, try some scenarios on your financial plan. What would happen if a guy whom I know with 5,000 friends on Facebook would post a review of my idea? What would happen if a local startup conference would give me an award in its startup pitch contest. Be as precise as you can with all these scenarios. Ideally, after finishing the drill, you would know a defined set of events and occurrences necessary for your project to survive and prosper. And obviously, you would know the burn rate of your idea.

4. Get off the sofa and Act

At this point of giving birth to a startup, you have to be totally clear with the idea of your future company. The main question now is how to go from ephemeral thoughts in your head to real action. In other words, what does it take for an idea to become a startup. In fact, there are a few things:

Business plan

It was already stated above, that everything is invented, or could be invented. The reason why it’s not happening is the survivability of the idea. The main thing to prove that your future startup is worth a thing is a precise and detailed Business Plan.

There are not many universal pieces of advice, which would fit any business plan of any company. Even though you have to try to think of a situation, when your company would bring yourself and possible investors or stakeholders profit and ability to scale the results. Also, you have to be honest with yourself while creating this plan, because it essentially reflects if your future company would be able to survive. Sometimes it feels right to play with numbers a little bit to make a fake breakpoint opportunity for your future company in a year or two. But don’t be so careless – it would be very painful to see the failure of the project on which you spent more than a year of your life.

Apart from being honest and profitable, you most certainly would need to identify the differentiation point and market positioning of your company. It would be hard to stand a chance against your developed competitors while trying to do “basically the same as them but cheaper and with less automation because we are an early stage startup”.

Name protection

There are plenty of toxic people in the world. Some of them are living to make the lives of other people worse. One of the most painful things for a startup is to face a representative of these people – a patent troll. These guys would patent everything if they would see an opportunity to make a few euros from it.

That is why it’s always recommended to spare some time and take care of legal things at the very beginning. Just submit the papers to confirm your right to own the following naming and branding of the company or whatever item. According to the Companies Registration Office (CRO), it would cost you only €20 to €40 to submit a Business Name Registration form for online and offline forms respectively.

So, as you can see, it wouldn’t take much time and effort to do this, while dealing with the possible negative outcomes of not registering a business name would cost a lot – both in terms of money and time.

Register Your Company

This is the moment of truth – finally it’s time to submit a legal document incorporating your idea into a real and operational company, Isn’t that exciting?

In order to incorporate a company in Ireland, you would have to fill a Form A1, which is available on a Companies Registration Office website. If you’re looking towards an Ltd type of company – you would be able to go through the whole process online. For other types of companies, you would still have to go through the offline part of the registration.

Tax registration

Congrats! The company of your dreams is incorporated. Though, you won’t be able to operate properly, because it would require transfer of funds between your company and other agents. That is why you would need one last legal thing covered – your tax registration number.

Often, your tax agent would support you on this thing, and submit an online registration application to Revenue Online Service. If, for any reason, you don’t have a tax agent, who is supporting you, there is an option of submitting the papers yourself.

5. The beginning of the long journey

Now, when all the paperwork is done, and hopefully your idea is developing with an insane pace, there is one complicated question that you should ask – “How to get people’s attention to my company?”. And you shouldn’t expect a simple answer to this question.

There are several success stories of people developing some sort of ideas, which suddenly became extremely popular and brought tens of thousands of users daily or even hourly shortly after the launch. Though, the reality is that in the modern digital world, where information is surrounding the people 24/7, it’s not so easy to actually catch someone’s attention.

Strategizing on the topic of startup marketing is a topic for a book, not even a separate article. Though, there is one simple life hack, which will help you set up the rough plan of your traction achievement. Make yourself comfortable with a pen and paper and think for some time on all the methods of traction achievement, which may be beneficial for your company. Include all of them, like Social media marketing, Search engine optimization, Influencer outreach, PR, or even handing out leaflets, but try to focus on some of the industry or product-specific ones, because they are usually the most rewarding.

When you have the whole list ready, take another sheet of paper and draw a graph of 2 axes there – one should represent the Cost (ranging from Free to Extremely Expensive) and the other should be Effect in time (Fast to Slow). Try locating the axes in a way that the first quadrant (upper-left one) would represent the cheap and fast methods. After the graph axes are created, try to put all of your traction achievement methods on this graph. For example, SEO would be in the cheaper and Long-playing part of the graph, while Social media ads would be in expensive and fast-playing one.

Now, all you have to do is to start from the cheaper and fast resulting part of the graph and try the ideas one by one. Afterwards, steadily move to cheap and long-term along with the expensive short-term ones. The last ones should be the expensive long-playing actions, for instance building a self-brand of a founder as an industry expert.

6. How to scale the results?

Most probably somewhere between the first and second priority in testing the hypotheses of achieving traction, you will find a mix of a few tactics, which brings better results. Though, the challenge is that, most certainly, they would be working as they are, meaning there is no real way of making a 10x outcome from these methods in a viable future. Even more, in the real world even doubling the positive growth  trends is unbelievably challenging. So how do you scale your company exponentially, knowing that both time and money are limited?

The answer is simple – you have to look for some external funding. Similarly, to marketing, there is a topic of separate discussion, but generally there are a few options available:

– Family and friends fundraising. The most secure and easy method – just ask your siblings, cousins, or parents for a few thousands of euros to grow your business and most probably you will get your first external capital. Though, it’s not always enough to fundraise a few thousands in order to really grow the company.

– Look for angel investments. So basically there are some people in the world, who has quite a lot of money and want to have even more by giving a few tens of thousands of euros to promising startups at an early stage in return for the share of equity and future profits. If your startup is a rockstar – then you can try to get the first seed investment from these guys.

– Crowdfunding and alternative finance mechanisms. So, if you don’t want to get someone else’s money in exchange for the share in your company, you may want to try crowdfunding campaigns. There are many unique pitfalls and peculiarities in crowdfunding, but essentially you would just look for a concerning amount of people sharing a few euros with you. While you would promise them to give certain benefits when the company would utilize the fundraised money.

One of the types of crowdfunding is alternative finance systems and mechanisms, for instance, cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, which is a pioneer cryptocurrency, is trusted by a certain amount of people, while some other cryptocurrencies would let you hold an automated and trustless fundraising with crypto for your project. Often, those who invest their crypto in your project expect to get your company’s tokens in return, which are sort of a digitized asset of your company. Cryptocurrency-related fundraising may look easy, promising, and effective, though it is often affiliated with a huge amount of scams and a negative reputation of being a “shady method” of acquiring external capital.

Instead of conclusion

Congrats for making it here! We will see in Analytics if you’ve read it all, or just scrolled down 

Anyway, hopefully, this guide helped you to understand if you would really like to start your own company as well as make it to a logical conclusion of your efforts in the form of consistent growth and development of your idea.

Obviously, this guide is just a small hint on a big journey of being an entrepreneur, though we’re more than sure that you would enjoy the whole process! If you have any inquiries abut the guide content, or would like to get some expert’s assistance on how to launch your company within the shortest possible time, as well as achieve the best results – we would like to welcome you to a personal conversation on the topic.

Starting a company may seem to be a challenge of life for a person at the beginning of an entrepreneur’s journey. Also, the nature of people is such a thing that every person thinks that their challenges are the most outstanding ones.
Though, every experienced entrepreneur would agree with the statement that launching something isn’t that tough to do. Coming up with an idea for a startup is tricky and one should have the spirit and mood to do this. But, after all, an idea can’t be milked out of any person per request.
On the contrary, what is really a challenge is to support the company operational and scale it multiple times is the real challenge. In most cases, a consistent ramp in key metrics is possible with the certain external funds raised. Luckily, there are options of fundraising and funding in Ireland for different purposes and requirements. So, there is always room for almost every promising idea or professional to get proper treatment and funding.

Initial Funding and Support

The first where every beginning entrepreneur would head is one of the organizations or programs from this category. Some of the options are partially or totally supported by the government or NGOs, though, all of them aim at sort of a “hardcore startups”. To be eligible for these options, one should be an early stage startup, with some sort of innovative solution or has to solve some sort of critical issue for the country – for instance, solve or facilitate the COVID-19 outcomes.

Local Enterprise Offices

The first and quite common option of fundraising are grant applications to the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) . There are 2 main types of grants available for local entrepreneurs from their counties – Prime Grant and Feasibility Grant.
Prime Grant is the main tool to found the new startups in the area. It is available to all micro-enterprises within the first 18 months of their operation. To be eligible for the grant, you need to fit the following criteria:

• Be located and operating in the county of LEO;
• Employ not more than 10 employees;
• Be manufacturing, or domestically traded service business with the prospects of getting traded internationally;
• Be a business which will fit the Enterprise Ireland portfolio upon growth
• Have a need in funding in order to develop and scale the business.

Generally, the requirements aren’t tough, even more, they are more than acceptable. Essentially, Local Enterprise Office is interested in projects, which would develop manufacturing in the area, or will be service companies of certain size.

Another popular type of grant is a Feasibility Study Grant, which is given to the local enterprises seeking funds for different types of research and development expenses. This grant is created to assist different businesses in their efforts of conducting industry research and studies in order to optimize their business and costs, as well as identify the best and most promising niches to occupy.
The types of research and analysis headings, which are eligible for the grant is as follows:

• Market Research;
• Salary or labor research;
• Prototyping, Innovations, or Technical development;
• Consultancy costs;
• Miscellaneous costs.

Both grants are obtainable for almost any early stage company and serve the purpose of giving sort of a small “head start” for the local enterprises.

Enterprise Ireland

Enterprise Ireland is the national organization to support the Irish companies on all stages of their development. As it was mentioned before, Enterprise Ireland is sort of a next step for a successful company in its path to success and scaling. In fact, one of the requirements of a Prime grant from the Local Enterprise Office was to be eligible for Enterprise Ireland’s portfolio.
The journey of a successfully growing startup should be shifting from LEO’s Prime grant to Enterprise Ireland’s grants, which include the following options:

• Online retails scheme fund;
• COVID-19 products scheme;
• Powering the Regions – Enterprise Centre Scheme;
• Brexit – Ready for Customs grant;
• Lean Business Continuity Voucher;
• Business Financial Planning grant;
• Sustaining Enterprise Fund;
• Sustaining Enterprise Fund – Small Enterprise.

Similarly to the case of LEO grants, these options are designed in a way to reflect the current needs and challenges of the country and priorities of development. For instance, there are separate grants for COVID-19 products and solutions because it is obviously the biggest challenge for the whole world in 2020.

Revenue.ie

Revenue.ie is an Irish tax and customs authority website. They have a few options to support the Small and medium enterprises with funding. The most wide-spread and popular one is the Relief for Investment in Corporate Trades, which is available for the trading companies.
These funds are invested by individuals in return of the equity share provided to the investor. Apart from the mentioned relief, the organization offers a number of other startup support initiatives, like decreasing the tax pressure schemes, and research and development support.

Údarás na Gaeltachta

This organization is a non-profitable party, which aims at preserving, developing, and
popularizing Irish native language. They are doing this by a wide set of activities, including,
community development, business support, regular event organization etc. Also, in terms of
funding, these guys have some really broad opportunities including:

• Feasibility study grants;
• Research and Development grants;
• Online trading scheme;
• Capital grant;
• Employment grant, and other options.

All of the opportunities are available, yet there may be some particular limitations applied to some of the applicants because of the nature of organization and their honorable mission.

LEADER program by National Rural Network

Essentially, this program is an option only for those, whose projects are targeted on
development and sustainability of rural areas. There are three main categories of projects and
products, addressing different problems of the rural areas:

• Economic development, Enterprise Development, and Job creation;
• Social Inclusion;
• Rural Environment.

The criterias of identification of the company’s main goal and suitability are strict enough, which makes it an outstanding opportunity for those, who really care about rural development.
The grants’ funding varies from €30,000 to €500,000 or various types of projects. The funding rate also varies from up to 50% for private projects to 100% for some of the community projects.

HORIZON Grants

HORIZON is a program by European Commission to support quite a wide range of
industries and projects. To be eligible for the grant, your project or company should fit one of the
areas , which are now supported by the Commission. Also, the project, in most cases, should
find three partners for this project with the necessary facilities or experience. The evaluation
process also takes five months, which makes this option sort of a tough call for the majority of
the startups.

IntertradeIreland

Another option of fundraising for Irish companies during the first few years of operations is InterTradeIreland’s support and funding. Being in charge of developing the trade and business on the island, the organization offers 3 types of funding support to Irish companies.

Acumen program is a sales and marketing support program, which aims to help businesses target new cross-border markets effectively as well as identify new potential customers. Fusion, which is the second program, helps businesses to find and onboard talents, specialists with necessary skill sets and experience who will enable the growth of the company.

Finally, Elevate is a program to provide consultancy and help building a cross-border sales
development plan and realization of the planned activities. Any of the options are actually
available for a wide range of companies as the requirements aren’t that strict.

Angel Networks

One of the many starting points for the long journey of some of the startups. For Irish startups, the majority of angel networks are located in the Western region, and they would be more than happy to review and invest in some of the promising projects.

HBAN

HBAN, referring to Halo Business Angels Network, is a network situated in Northern Ireland, and accomplishes 15 different angelg groups, with 5 regional networks and 10 syndicates. All of the groups are aimed at projects of different industries and have different application requirements.
In general, Hall Business Angels Network is responsible for more than 500 companies investments with a total of €112 million invested.

Venture Capital and Investment Funds

Support of early-stage projects is thought to be the most rewarding method of investment. Also, it is widely supported by Irish and European authorities. Though, if we’re talking about further growth of the company and scaling it to the point of becoming an enterprise, venture capital and investments become the more often and preferred option. In Ireland there are quite a few opportunities of attracting VC funds to the projects.

Western Development Commission

Has a reputation of a private entity supporting the development of the Western region of Ireland. There are two main models of funding in WDC. The first are enterprise loans with special terms and decreased interest. The second option is venture funding, purchasing the company’s equity. The WDC is quite a large fund with a portfolio of €72 million and more than 5,000 jobs created.

Investments to certain sectors

FREED

Funding Resources for Innovation in Energy Enterprise Development is a European organisation, which attracts private and public funding as well as provide support options itself for the projects, community and businesses aimed at development of Energy Resources Innovations.

Western Development Commission – Creative Industry and
Sustainability Initiatives

Western Development Commission is a private organisation mentioned in the previous section about venture capital. Though, apart from investing into prosperous projects, they are also supporting creative industry participants by giving loans with a very rare case of funding their private rounds (mainly when they qualify for equity investments for general companies). The same workflow is applicable to projects and companies aimed at sustainability solutions development.

Banks and Credit Funds

Allied Irish Bank

First option of raising some funds on your company’s development is to apply for a SME loan at Allied Irish Bank. The amount of money, which you can raise with this option is no more than €60,000. The description of this loan product from a AIB states that it is available for all companies who are in need of additional funding to stay operational and active as a company.

Bank of Ireland

Similarly to AIB, Bank of Ireland has a special product called “Startup Account” which includes special rates and requirements for the majority of services, necessary for startup-accounts. Obviously, it includes business loans, having options of funding up to €100,000. Additionally, startups can request asset finance assistance, with the options of Hire Purchase, Leasing, and Insurance Premium finance. The hard cap for this sort of funds attraction is €150,000 in the form of equipment, vehicles or other facilities.

Ulster Bank

This bank also offers a separate option o a startup account with a package of services. Though, there is no emphasized opportunity of getting business loans for startups, while applicants can choose an option of getting a corporate credit card with certain limits.

Microfinance Ireland

Is an organization, which sole purpose is to provide loan opportunities to Irish startups. The loan size is up to €25,000. This option is quite easily obtainable for almost any startup, though it is reflected in interest rates.

Another option of getting some additional funding for your company in all the above-mentioned banks, is the loan scheme of European Investment Bank. This scheme is designed in cooperation with the mentioned banks and some other Irish organizations dealing with business growth and prosperity.
Basically, almost any company which would follow the requirements has an opportunity of requesting the mentioned loan scheme. To be precise, right now European Investment Bank is looking for companies which will bring new jobs in small businesses, innovations, along with the climate and infrastructure projects. The strict exclusions for the applicants are the so-called grey and black niches, like illegal activities, pornography, casinos, weapon sales, etc.

Wrapping Up

As one may see, there is a number of options available for Irish companies at an early stage. Even more, some of the prospects could lead to a bigger scale and participation in Enterprise Ireland’s programs and grants. Obviously, your project has to be perfect and super charming to impress decision makers in any of the options mentioned. Though, every fundraising opportunity, especially a grant-type one, has very clear and precise requirements of application. This means that if your goal is to go with grant funding opportunities with your
company – you can get yourself prepared in advance before application.

When some crazy guy starts the company, very often they are motivated by 90% of initiative and desire to change the world, and 10% of strife to make money. That is why very often startups and ideas die on paper or during the half year of operations. Luckily, Ireland has a broad number of programs to support the launch of new companies in different ways – almost every business idea would be able to find an option for their needs.

Grants

Local Enterprise Offices

The first and quite common option of fundraising are grant applications to the Local Enterprise Office (LEO). There are 2 main types of grants available for local entrepreneurs from their counties – Prime Grant and Feasibility Grant.
Prime Grant is the main tool to found the new startups in the area. It is available to all micro-enterprises within the first 18 months of their operation. To be eligible for the grant, you need to fit the following criteria:

• Be located and operating in the county of LEO;
• Employ not more than 10 employees;
• Be manufacturing, or domestically traded service business with the prospects of getting traded internationally;
• Be a business which will fit the Enterprise Ireland portfolio upon growth
• Have a need in funding in order to develop and scale the business.

Generally, the requirements aren’t tough, even more, they are more than acceptable. Essentially, Local Enterprise Office is interested in projects, which would develop manufacturing in the area, or will be service companies of certain size.

New Frontiers Entrepreneur Development Programme

The aim of the program is to support sustainable early stage startups across the country, which has a tangible growth potential. Funding in this program happens on a competitive basis. Every application should also fit the criteria of eligibility. The successful applicants should be able to prove their eligibility of extensive future growth and ability to employ more than 10 employees in a course of the next few years.

Innovation Vouchers

The initiative is launched and supported by Enterprise Ireland, and is aimed at SMEs, who are looking to develop their product or operations, but face the intellectual property issue. The voucher of €5,000 is to the SMEs to facilitate the process of cooperation by knowledge and technology providers (universities, research centres, etc) and small and medium businesses.

Lean Business Continuity Voucher

The mentioned voucher is an initiative of Enterprise Ireland, which provides the eligible companies with opportunity to access up to €2,500. These funds are transferred in the form of training and advisory support to the businesses to ensure the continuing operations of these businesses during the current pandemic.

Tax Refunds

Three-year corporate tax exemption

With the help of this program, new companies can apply for tax relief during the first three years of operational activity and trading. The relief goes as high as €40,000 per year, making it €120,000 maximum for three years. If the company’s corporate tax is between €40,000 and €60,000 a year then this sort of company could file a partial tax relief for them.

R&D Tax Credit

Every  company with R&D expenditures taking place in the European Economic Area are eligible for application on the 25% tax relief. The subject of relief is the part of the corporate tax, which was paid due to R&D activities.

Incubators

NDRC LaunchPad

This incubator program is run by the National Development and Reform Commission in cooperation with Enterprise Ireland. They are giving pre-seed rounds of up to €20,000 during an extensive three-month incubation program. Moreover, the incubation program includes not only financial support, but a huge amount of guidance by expert mentors and assistance in definition of product’s UVP and positioning.

Enterprise Allowance Incentives

Short Term Enterprise Allowance

This program is designed by the Irish government to support those individuals who have lost their jobs, and are seeking opportunities of starting a new business of their own. The mentioned enterprise allowance replaces Jobseekers allowance. A future entrepreneur can receive funds within the program for 9 months.

Back to Work Enterprise Allowance

The second enterprise allowance program is designed for those who are out of work for more than 1 year. If such individuals set up a business of their own, they would be allowed to keep all of the welfare payments for the first year. In the following 2 years the eligibility to keep payments would be cut by 25% per year – to 75% and 50% respectively. The Enterprise Allowance program lasts for 3 years, which is a realistic period to develop a company from scratch.

Further Growth

Grants, Funding, and Special Programs

Local Enterprise Office

Feasibility Study Grant, which is given to the local enterprises seeking funds for different types of research and development expenses. This grant is created to assist different businesses in their efforts of conducting industry research and studies in order to optimize their business and costs, as well as identify the best and most promising niches to occupy.

The types of research and analysis headings, which are eligible for the grant is as follows:

• Market Research;
• Salary or labor research;
• Prototyping, Innovations, or Technical development;
• Consultancy costs; – Miscellaneous costs.

Both grants are obtainable for almost any early stage company and serve the purpose of giving sort of a small “head start” for the local enterprises.

Enterprise Ireland

Enterprise Ireland is the national organization to support the Irish companies on all stages of their development. As it was mentioned before, Enterprise Ireland is sort of a next step for a successful company in its path to success and scaling. In fact, one of the requirements of a Prime grant from the Local Enterprise Office was to be eligible for Enterprise  Ireland’s portfolio in future.

– Online retails scheme fund

This scheme is created to enable the Irish-owned e-commerce and online retailers to grow and expand their operations outside the country. The main goal is to build a more resilient business in the homeland by accessing new markets and opportunities outside the country.

– Powering the Regions – Enterprise Centre Scheme;

– Brexit – Ready for Customs grant;

– Sustaining Enterprise Fund

Is a program of liquidity and medium term financial support from Enterprise Ireland. With the €180 million fund created in April 2020, any company can apply for funding of up to €800,000 at different growth stages – from established companies to startups.

– Sustaining Enterprise Fund – Small Enterprise

Is a program that will provide from €25,00 to €50,000 to small and medium enterprises as a short term capital injection to support continuity and ability to return to active trading within the course of 3 years.

– Strategic Consultancy Grant & Key manager grant

This grant provides partial funding to enterprises in their strife to hire a manager or a consultant with skills, crucial for operations continuity and growth.

– Business Process Improvement Grant

The business process grant is designed to support short to medium term projects of the company that will improve efficiency and business processes in the organisation. This grant also gives prospects to specific E-marketing support of the company’s operations with the goal to make internet a profitable and tangible source of company’s development.

LEADER program by National Rural Network

Essentially, this program is an option only for those, whose projects are targeted on development and sustainability of rural areas. There are three main categories of projects and products, addressing different problems of the rural areas:

– Economic development, Enterprise Development, and Job creation;

– Social Inclusion;

– Rural Environment.

The criterias of identification of the company’s main goal and suitability are strict enough, which makes it an outstanding opportunity for those, who really care about rural development. The grants’ funding varies from €30,000 to €500,000 or various types of projects. The funding rate also varies from up to 50% for private projects to 100% for some of the community projects.

Business Loans

The Future Growth Loan Scheme

This scheme is a long-term (7-10) years loan scheme to support businesses in their struggle towards sustainable growth and expanding operations. The loan is supported by the Department of Business, the Department of Agriculture, Enterprise and Innovation, Food and the Marine, the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund (EIF). The size of the loan can vary from €25,000 to €3 million per applicant.

Leasing, Hire purchase and other flexible funding schemes

Is another option provided by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, which covers a set of financial and entrepreneurial instruments. The common point between all of them is that the SBCI provides funds for purchasing certain equipment (cars, vehicles, machinery, etc) and gives these equipment to an applicant in return of certain regular payments. When the contract ends, the equipment is passed to the applicant under the different terms and conditions.

Invoice Financing

Is one of the flexible schemes, when the size of finance assistance is tied to the invoicing of the SMEs, motivating them to increase their trading and operations.

Brexit Loan Scheme

The mentioned loan scheme Is designed to support innovation, adaptation, and changes happening in the region due to Brexit taking place. The loan scheme is offered in partnership with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. With the help of these schemes, applicants are able to develop solutions to fit the new economic reality in the region and reflect the changes occurring with the Brexit.

COVID-19 Support

Enterprise Ireland

Business Financial Planning Grant

This COVID-19 initiative enables eligible Irish businesses to work with third-party consultants on detailed and financial planning, including forecasts and assumptions. The forecasts and assumptions are conducted keeping in mind the current state of the global and Irish economics of the COVID-19 era.

Lean Business Continuity Voucher

The mentioned voucher is an initiative of Enterprise Ireland, which provides the eligible companies with opportunity to access up to €2,500. These funds are transferred in the form of training and advisory support to the businesses to ensure the continuing operations of these businesses during the current pandemic.

COVID-19 products scheme

The COVID-19 outbreak revealed a severe imperfection in the continuity and adaptiveness of the businesses to diverse unpredicted economic events. Especially, industries like public health, as well as health products and solutions have shown their inability to shand the overloads and demand spikes due to pandemic outbreak. In response, the State Aid framework was temporarily amended to support the facilitation of research and development of the coronavirus-related products.

Powering the Regions – Enterprise Centre Schemes

This program is aimed at supporting the enterprise centres, which were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in their strife towards continuity of operations.

SBCI

COVID-19 Loan Scheme

The two main purposes of the COVID-19 Loan Scheme is to support innovations, adaptation, and change initiatives related to COVID-19, and fund working capital requirements. The applicants can apply on either of the two main goals. The loans are available through AIB, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank. The review process and due diligence are also subject to the bank’s own procedures. Though, one can’t file an application for this loan without a letter of eligibility from SBCI.

COVID-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme

This scheme is designed to facilitate lending to Micro, Small, and Medium sized enterprises, which were hardly impacted by COVID-19. The main target of this scheme are primary manufacturers – Agriculture and Phishing industries. Though, other industry participants can also apply to the loan scheme.