Niall Collins
Question:443. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation if assistance is available for a start-up business (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2644/20]
View answerThursday, 5 March 2020
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The Local Enterprise Offices are the ‘First Stop Shop’ for anyone seeking information and support on starting or growing a business in Ireland. Located in the 31 Local Authorities Offices nationwide, the LEOs provide a ‘signposting’ service in relation to all relevant State supports available through agencies such as Revenue, the Department of Social Protection, Education and Training Boards, the Credit Review Office and Microfinance Ireland. The LEOs can also offer advice and guidance in areas such as Local Authority rates, Public Procurement and other regulations affecting business.
The LEOs can offer direct grant aid to microenterprises (up to 10 employees) in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sector which, over time, have the potential to develop into strong export entities. Subject to certain eligibility criteria, the LEOs can provide financial assistance within three main categories:
- Feasibility Grants (investigating the potential of a business idea)
- Priming Grants (to part-fund a start-up)
- Business Development grants for existing businesses that want to expand.
It should be noted that the LEOs do not provide direct grant-aid to areas such as retail, personal services, local professional services, construction/local building services, as it may give rise to the displacement of existing businesses. For further information on eligibility criteria see the LEOs Website www.localenterprise.ie.
I am informed that there has been engagement with Mr. McGregor by his local LEO in Limerick in respect to his query.
The LEO in Limerick has recommended the Start Your Own Business Programmes/Courses to Mr. McGregor together with advice on a number of training and mentoring programmes.
Start Your Own Business Programmes/Courses
The programme will guide an entrepreneur through the various aspects of business and business planning. The objective is to assist people in assessing their idea, its viability and to decide if they should proceed or take a step back. The following is the typical content and breakdown of a Start your own Business training programme.
- Identifying, understanding and researching your target market
- Tax, law and insurance
- Financial planning (pricing, costing)
- Sources of funding
- Promoting your business
- Sales and service
- Basic bookkeeping
- Developing your Business Plan.
All LEOs also offer a number of ‘soft’ supports in the form of training or mentoring such as:
- The Mentor Programme which is designed to match up the knowledge, skills, insights and entrepreneurial capability of experienced business practitioners with small business owner/managers who need practical and strategic one to one advice and guidance.
- The LEO Management Development programmes which provide the owner-manager with the management, leadership, business skills and knowledge to achieve sustainability and growth in their business.
- LEAN for Micro which is a targeted programme for Local Enterprise Office clients to help small businesses boost competitiveness, increase performance and profitability as well as building resilience within their companies.
Further to this, if a potential business is not eligible for direct grant aid, an entrepreneur with a viable business proposal can also use their LEO to make an application to MicroFinance Ireland, which offers support in the form of loans of up to €25,000 to start-ups with viable business propositions that do not meet the conventional risk criteria applied by the banks. Successful applicants can avail of a more favourable interest rate from MFI of 6.8% if they make their application through the LEOs.
I would also suggest the ‘Supporting SMEs’ Online Tool which is a cross-governmental initiative to help start-ups navigate the range of Government business supports for which they could be eligible. The tool is available at www.supportingsmes.ie. By answering the eight questions in the Online Tool, a small business will, in one location, be able to:
- find out which of the over 170 Government business supports from 27 different Government Departments, Agencies and Initiatives are available to them;
- obtain information on the range of Government supports for accessing credit;
- identify their nearest Local Enterprise Office where they can discuss the outcomes of the guide further; and,
- download all these filtered results into a document for their further use.
Further information on all the services available from the LEOs can be accessed at www.localenterprise.ie or at Local Enterprise Office Limerick