Category Archives: Our Blog

Blog: Don’t Bank On Things Changing

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What a a past few days we’ve had. Roller-coasters of ‘will they won’t they ‘and T.D.’s walking out of the Dail in the early hours of the morning like it was September 2008. Slaps on the back have ensued with said politicians trumpeting that they ‘have delivered on creating a better deal for Ireland’.

But in reality it’s a false dawn. For the ordinary person on the street and the SME owner nothing will change. The challenges we face have morphed beyond a toxic bank and it’s lingering legacy.

We need to find 400,000 jobs, create a better framework for domestic business to grow and thrive, fill in the gaps between those who fit ‘ criteria’ and those who don’t. When the budget was announced last year it gave us the meandering points of the 10 point plan. These points were so memorable that I have no Idea what they are just a few months from them being announced.

Ireland’s problems no longer lie within banks. They lie with consumers, long term unemployed and taxing everything in site. Those taxes will soon include income taxes and so another squeeze for workers, owners and managers.

By facing down problems in the EU we have neglected the serious problems at home. As one economist described on primetime last – ‘we have a Tsunami of debt coming down the road’.

For SMEs very little changes. We still have to re-invent new ways of doing business to survive. If we stop moving we die. So all this posturing and cheer leading is irrelevant, because our domestic economic issues are far greater than a good deal. Small Businesses are at the coal face of this economy and we know that it will still be very difficult for some time to come.So stay focused and don’t bank on things changing any time soon.

Budget 2013: One More Barrier For SMEs To Plough Through

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This was never going to be a fair Budget. The nature of Austerity is take, never to give.

And so it will be for SMEs around the country who will pick up tomorrow’s papers or read about it on numerous websites. Furiously checking what extra money has to be taken out of an already fragile bottom line. Then the realization that all the hard the work, all the positive ‘can do’ attitudes and all the sense of perseverance has hit the reset button. Here we go again…trying to find the silver lining.

SMEs in Ireland have developed a thick skin in recent years, they’ve had too. Everything that’s been put in front of them they have taken and tried to make it work in their business. No matter the subject or the unfairness of some recent budgets, SMEs have found away to survive. Tough decisions have been made and pain taken.

And so it will be with this budget. Small Business will be told to add more costs to their business and will have to find some way of paying for it. They always find a way of paying for it.

So while I am sceptical that Budget 2013 will yield very little for Small Business to cheer about, I also get the impression that they will find the answers to it too. We have clever, resolute and imaginative business people in this country and they will find away.

The question is  - For how long can they keep doing it?

I’d Vote No, But We’re In To Deep

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It’s a catch 22. We’re damned if do and we’re damned if we don’t. In weighing up how I’m going to vote I really don’t see the ‘benefits’ in voting either way. What I’m being asked is to choose the lesser of two evils.

The fact of the matter is that decisions taken by this government and the previous government have led us down a road where we dare not turn back. The inability to stand firm and state our case aggressively to the EU has brought us to this point where we must be forced to vote yes out of fear of being cut off from funding and fear of Mr. Noonan threatening us all with ‘tougher budgets’.

We have been led by the nose by a group of people who have lacked the guts and political imagination to develop better and more credible solutions to a problem that is fours years old and which keeps rumbling on. In voting yes we are being asked to become tighter to the EU, an organisation that has shown that it is incapable of focusing deeply and quickly on solving a crisis that they aided. Why on earth should we move ourselves closer to an organisation like that? If anything we should distancing ourselves from the ineptitude and crippling indecision. But then again look who we have sent to represent us.

Where Will The Growth Come From?

This government loves to blame the previous government for situation which we are in. Did they inherit it – yes – have they had opportunities to change the direction in which has led us to this point – yes. Time after time opportunities have shown themselves which could have been used as bargaining chips to get something more for our benefit – Bank debt, Greece, growth measures inside the fiscal treaty. This lack of imagination and ability to simply take what we are given says to me that this government has neither the imagination or the will to do things differently than the previous regime. In business the first lesson you hear when you talk to people and network is what the definition of insanity is – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

But ultimately, because of where we have been put, we must go for where the money is. Voting yes will give us the security that we need…for now. I’ll choose the lesser of two evils.

So when I vote Yes in this referendum it will be with deep scepticism and a heavy heart.

By Kehlan Kirwan, Editor

Just Ask – What Would Billy Do?

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When Billy Beane took over as the General Manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team in 1997 his task was simple. How does he get his team to compete with the best team in the land, the New York Yankees. There was however one glaring problem – to do this he had just $37m, the Yankees had near $112m to spend on players and their wages. How do  you bridge the gap with no money?

He would have to think of something new, something different.

Then Billy discovered, sabermetrics, the statistical analisation of players. This was the direct opposite to the ‘gut instinct’ analysis of the clubs and indeed baseballs scouting system who judged players by look and feel on the baseball field.

His objective now changed. Instead of buying players, he would buy wins based upon the statistics of players who had been overlooked by an outdated scouting system.

Heavily criticised for getting ‘misfit’ players, Billy never wavered from his belief that what he knew was better than what others thought they knew.

Then in 2002 something magical happened. After an indifferent start to the season the A’s, against all the odds, set a record for most wins in a row. They won 20 straight games, beating a record that had stood for near 60 years. In 2003 they won the American League West Division.

The odds had been turned on the casino.

Whats The Point?

My point is this.

All around the country we are seeing small business turning the odds on the casino. Thinking differently and exploring new ideas is no longer for the brave of heart or the adventurous, it is a must if you want to survive. This is helping to turn the odds against the casino and create a system within small business that is helping it to survive.

The likes of the Export Co-Op and Hireland have shown that with initiative and new thinking we can find credible solutions to long outstanding problems. We have in our own hands – not in the hands of government or institutions – a real opportunity to change the way we create and do business.

We no longer have to look in Ireland either. Modern technology has allowed us the ability to search out new and innovative ideas from around the world. We are no longer hemmed in by language or border. So you have a problem or something in your business you need help or understanding with? Then pick up the phone, send that e-mail or talk face to face with somebody on the other side of the world with video chat – either way there is a solution.

We are changing the way we do business, we are changing our future.

The story of Billy Beane is now a major motion picture called Moneyball. It is based upon the book of the same name written by Michael Lewis. 

Water On A Stone – Fighting A Suggestion Box Goverment

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Yesterday I and a few of my colleagues from the #SMEcommunity on twitter got the impromptu opportunity to say a few words to Joan Burton, the Minister for Social Protection. We gave her our opinions on what needed to change for SMEs in Ireland. As ever the opportunity for a politician to have a real conversation with their core audience was passed off by asking us to send in suggestions for change. Continue reading →