Brexit-proofing your business

What is the best way to protect your business and employees from the unpredictability of the economy and general business sector in a post-Brexit state? Skillnet Ireland seems to have an answer to that problem– increased training. This national agency’s main goal is to facilitate education in the workforce so that Irish workers can be highly skilled in all of the new and dynamic tools in order to be able to compete as a nation against other highly skilled nations.

During last year alone, the company has trained over 56,000 Irish workers in the small-to-medium business sector so that these smaller companies will have the edge up on larger corporations. Skillnet can provide assistance and training through classes with the help of 50 other diverse industry partners. 

The largest category that has participated in the upkeep and acceleration of their workers skills through these classes is micro-firms. Out of the 16,462 firms that participated in educational courses, 56pc of them were smaller than 10 people. Agriculture and general services were the largest overall sectors that felt the need to update …

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SME debt rises

Debt can come from a variety of places, especially when you are working within the confines of a business and it’s very specific budget. Many times, debt for these institutions is in the form of owed money; this owed money was usually a loan from the bank. 

Within the recent years, the prices of these loans, or borrowing costs, have increased. The first three months of 2019 have seen significant growth in this area, despite economist’s predictions that interest rates would be falling within the year. 

SME’s, or small-to-medium enterprises, saw these high borrowing costs as a sign that they should proceed with extreme caution when working within the borrowing market. These businesses already pay some of the highest interest rates in the European Union and have made sure to be well educated on the possibilities of economic changes or interest hikes on their finances. 

Small-to-medium enterprises are extremely important to have in any market, given that they play a key role in employment. Small enterprises are defined as having less than 50 employees and have an annual turnover or …

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SME Awards 2015

We are fans of business, in particular SME’s and thought we’d help spread the word about the SME Awards 2015.

Here’s the detail:

The SME Awards are an informal national business awards ceremony that will take place on April 25th in the Radisson Hotel, Cork. The Awards are modelled on the Web Awards and the Social Media Awards, two very successful awards shows run yearly by Mulley Communications.

The SME Awards differ from other awards as:

FREE – Any SME can enter the awards without paying a fee.

The public are involved in judging as are your peers.

Sponsors can’t be nominated in any category and can’t influence judging.

The costs to come along to the ceremony are not prohibitive and tuxes are not required. €50 early bird tickets but you can still win if you don’t attend.

They’re informal and fun.

Is it not another awards show in a sea of hundreds more?

Not really. We ourselves are a small business and we work with SMEs daily. We know the stresses, the joys and the high you can get …

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Newstalk Business Breakfast with Conor Brophy, 6th July 2010

Today we were delighted to do the first of what will hopefully be a regular slot on the Business section of the Breakfast Show on Newstalk 106 with Conor Brophy. The topic today was that of Site Value Taxation (we had an article in the Sunday Times about it this week), property prices and then a mention of our Investment Property Profile which was done in association with PropertyWeek.ie and ODKM Architects in Terenure.

We looked at some properties in the Dublin market that might obtain a 7% yield, they require some work (sweat equity!) and although they all didn’t come out at 7% some were above 6%. This is helping to reinforce the believe that the market in general has not rationalised but that in particular you can find good value if you look for it.

Aidan McLoughlin of of the Independent Trustee Company was also there with …

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