A call has been issued for ambitious female entrepreneurs in Mayo who are looking to scale their businesses to join the latest cycle of Going for Growth, the award-winning business development programme.
The six-month part-time programme, sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG, is open to applications until Wednesday, November 28.
One past participant from Mayo who recommends the programme is Aisling Flanagan of Velvet Cloud, a specialist sheep dairy business based in Claremorris which she set up in 2015 with her husband Michael. Products they sell in Ireland and abroad under the Velvet Cloud brand include cheese and yoghurt.
Female entrepreneurs – across all sectors – who are strongly focused on growth, are sought for the programme. Ideally, businesses should be well established and trading for at least two years.
A spokesperson stated:
"Most owner/managers agree that growing a business can be a very isolating experience and it can be difficult to find someone on your wavelength who understands the issues involved. The Going for Growth round table initiative is designed to address these challenges and those selected will join interactive round table sessions led by Lead Entrepreneurs.
"The Lead Entrepreneurs are successful business women with personal experience of growing a business and urge others to apply for Going for Growth. These high-profile business leaders volunteer their time to encourage participants to set and achieve personalised goals and milestones to address the opportunities and challenges they face in driving growth in their businesses."
Among this year’s lead entrepreneurs on the programme is Fidelma McGuirk, CEO of Payslip based in Westport.
Going for Growth is designed to be action and results-oriented and to go beyond classroom style learning and the usual inputs of professional trainers, consultants and academics. The round tables are based on real experience of what has worked and what hasn’t worked in real life situations.
Julie Sinnamon, CEO Enterprise Ireland, said:
“Supporting ambitious business women to start new businesses is a key priority for Enterprise Ireland and in 2017 more than one in three Enterprise Ireland backed start-ups were led by women, an increase from one in ten just five years ago. Having impacted successfully on the number of start-up businesses led by female founders, a key focus for Enterprise Ireland is to increase the number of companies that achieve scale.
“The Going for Growth programme provides unique supports to ambitious business women in the achievement of their growth ambitions through learning, collaboration and most importantly, through role models and mentoring. We will continue to partner with Going for Growth, to grow the cohort of businesses of scale led by ambitious business women, expanding their reach in global markets, and creating and sustaining jobs at home."
See www.goingforgrowth.com for more details.
