#9: Are You Making the Most of Your Local Enterprise Office?

Elish Bul-Godley (00:31)
Hello, welcome everybody. We’re back here with our next episode, and it’s a special episode nine for Digital & AI Decoded by Content Plan. My name is Elish Bul Godley, and I am here with three guests. We’ve got Caoimhe from the Local Enterprise Office Meath, we’ve got Jill O’Meara from Jill O’Meara Photography, and we’ve got Barbara McAteer from Josie’s Botanicals. And the reason we’re doing this episode, it’s a very special episode because we’re really going to start.

Putting the spotlight on a very important organization, the local enterprise offices. And we’ve got somebody here from Local Enterprise Office Meath, which is Caoimhe, and she’s going to give us a sense of what that LEO does. And we call them LEOs for short. Okay. So they’re really great for small businesses. And a lot of what we’re doing in our podcast is about.

Highlighting ways small businesses can prosper. We’ve been doing it with tips on digital marketing and on AI, but here is a place, the LEO, where they’re actively helping small businesses get that digital transformation every day. So I am here with two people, Barbara and Jill, who have small businesses in Meath, and you’ve been clients who’ve been working with the LEO. And Caoimhe represents the LEO in Meath. And Caoimhe Delaney, she’s a

business advisor. So she’s gonna be explaining to us what the local enterprise offices do in general. So there’s one in every county and it’s not just about Meath obviously, but you know, it represents what every county is capable of doing. And we’ve just picked Meath for today. My name is Elish Bul Godley and I’m going to be asking the questions. So welcome everybody. Let’s set the scene. So what we’re gonna do is hear a little bit from our two small businesses and hopefully that might resonate with those of you out there

In the audiences. So starting with Jill. Jill, give us a quick introduction to your business. Tell us what you’re about.

Jill O’Meara Photography (02:26)
So

my name is Jill O’ Meara and I have a portrait studio here in Enfield. I’m also a commercial photographer, and this is where I work with a lot of businesses. So I would do like your personal branding, your on-location headshots, I would do conferences, architectural photography, and I would do press release photo calls. So it’s quite a diverse business, and yeah, and that’s what I do. Thank you.

Elish Bul-Godley (02:52)
Thank you, Jill.

So now we know what you’re doing. And you’re we could say that you represent the services side of small business and you’re dealing with other business clients as well. So you’re kind of B2B, right? so let’s

Jill O’Meara Photography (03:03)
Correct. Yeah.

Elish Bul-Godley (03:03)
look at it from the thank you, and let’s look at it from the other angle. We’ve got Barbara here. Barbara, let us know what you’re up to with your lovely business.

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (03:12)
Hi everyone. So I’m Barbara and I am based in Dunboyne in Meath. I’m a holistic therapist and I have created my own natural skincare brand in recent years named in honor of my lovely late mom, Josie, called Josie’s Botanicals. I do all my therapies here in my treatment room in Dunboyne as well as on site. have my

my lab where I make all my natural skincare products by hand myself. And yeah, I really love what I do.

Elish Bul-Godley (03:43)
That’s lovely to hear. And it’s really nice to see a different kind of business. Like we saw a service business with Jill. And you’re selling physical products. It’s got an e-commerce portal and you’re selling to consumers. So you’re you’re really a good indicator of the B2C style businesses that are out there doing their thing in in Ireland. Okay, and now

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (03:59)
Thank

Elish Bul-Godley (04:01)
to Caoimhe. So Caoimhe, what is your design? What’s your role in the local enterprise office?

Caoimhe LEO Meath (04:06)
Hello everybody, I’m Quiva Delaney. I’m a business advisor in the local enterprise office in Mead, and every county has a local enterprise office. Some have more than one, but the business advisor’s role is to meet with businesses, advise them on supports, signpost them to other agencies, and help them access those supports that their business needs at that time. So it could be anything from grant funding to productivity supports to training to start your own businesses. So we work with scaling business owners and those.

who have a business idea and who want to start a business in County Mead.

Elish Bul-Godley (04:38)
That’s a really lovely succinct way of just letting us know what’s happening in your in your LEO. So you’re like a great point of contact. If anybody had a question, they could just come up to you and start that conversation. So that’s really nice to know there’s somebody there. And would that be like someone like that in every LEO? Would you have a counterpart in every county?

Caoimhe LEO Meath (04:57)
Yeah, so that’s the the the I I suppose the easiest thing to do is look up the localenterpriseoffice.ie website and find the contact details of your own county and speak to a business advisor. Even if you only have a business idea, that’s worth a conversation, as well as the more established businesses who are looking for maybe that external funding from grant supports or export.

support. So it’s it’s so diverse. We and we meet with hundreds of business owners every month.

Elish Bul-Godley (05:26)
Okay, that’s lovely. so the next question I have is not so much for our clients, Jill and Barbara, but for for the local enterprise office, for somebody who’s never known one, never stepped into one, never saw their website, has no idea what they do, who’s never had to deal with one. what what kind of people or what kind of businesses do you tend to support would be more eligible for the work that you’re doing?

And what kind of first conversation would you normally have in the LEO so that’s for someone who’s never actually walked into one, what’s who’s the right person and what happens when you walk into it?

Caoimhe LEO Meath (06:02)
And

I suppose that’s something that the Leos are trying hard to communicate because there are so many agencies as Enterprise Ireland, the IDA, various LMETBs or training boards within different jurisdictions. And then we have partners with Board BA, Enterprise Ireland, the IDA, and InterTrade. And it can be confusing for business owners, but the local enterprise office deals with businesses in that county. So anybody up to 50 employees is welcome to come into the local enterprise office and have a first conversation with your.

business advisor and that is tell us your idea. What is the unique sale that you have? What market research have you done? Have you tried your product or service? How big is this problem that you’re solving? What do you want us to help you with? What’s your key challenges? Are you making money? Do you want to make more money? Are you profitable? do you want to go full time? Do you want to export? So it’s a whole host of of questions. And it starts with a coffee

phone call, a meeting in person, or at a business clinic in one of our kind of local offices or at many of our events that we host throughout the county.

Elish Bul-Godley (07:04)
That’s lovely. And I sense that when you said that line, it starts with a coffee. It just makes it so approachable. And there’s so many different ways to to get in touch. And it it almost feels like when you list it those questions that you would normally ask people, that you’re kind of triaging them as they come in. Like, you know, somebody might be at a different phase. Maybe they’re just thinking of a business. Some people have a business, some people are growing the business. So so you kind of listen first, I suspect, and you’re

those questions that you’re listening and and you decide what could be the right fit for them in terms of your supports. I figure those must be the types of conversations you’re having.

Caoimhe LEO Meath (07:42)
For sure. And every day we’re meeting business owners or potential business owners who have a new challenge or a new question for us that we may or may not have heard before. So I suppose that’s the support that we provide because if we don’t know the answer, some of our agency partners certainly do. And we have a lot of signposting to other resources within the county as well. So yeah, every day is a learning day for us and we’re always looking at ways to engage with our potential customers.

And our clients throughout the the country. So going on podcasts like this is another way to kind of spread the word about the Leos throughout the country.

Elish Bul-Godley (08:17)
That’s great. What are the most common challenges that people step up to you with? Like is there a trend or are there some very common things that you get asked in the first conversation?

Caoimhe LEO Meath (08:26)
I suppose a lot of people ask us, is is it a good idea? yeah, and that’s probably not for us to, you know, to to say yes or no to their business idea. That’s where we would talk to business owners and get them to conduct a lot of research, find out who their competitors are, what the gap is in the market. so we enable the business owner or the potential client to arm themselves with a lot of

tools where they can kind of keep moving on with the business. And that could be mentoring, it could be courses, it could be training, of course, finances, making profit, scaling, staffing issues, cost of business, wage increases, all of that. And then of course digital AI is huge the last 18 months. So we’re seeing

Elish Bul-Godley (09:07)
Yeah.

Caoimhe LEO Meath (09:08)
a lot of conversation with business owners who do not understand how to use digital

and are a little bit fearful about AI, so they are definitely having a little bit more conversation with us about how we can help them.

Elish Bul-Godley (09:21)
That’s so topical. So thank you so much, Caoimhe, for explaining to us what the LEOs are actually doing on the ground. And I love the fact that their first word in LEO is local, right? Because it’s somebody that really understands the locality. It feels very intimate. It feels like you’re in the village with everybody else. So I’m gonna start with Barbara. Barbara, you must remember what that first day was. We just talked to Caoimhe about people stepping up to her and the questions they’re asking.

Do you remember what that first interaction was like and how did you hear about the LEO in the first place that first time?

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (09:53)
Yeah, well, I wanted to build a website effectively. During the lockdown, I really developed my products and I thought, well, I have to let these to go a little further. I was selling them within my community to my clients and also to locals within more so the Dunboyne area. And people saying you really need to get yourself a website and get your products out there.

So a friend of mine who was in business actually told me about the local enterprise office and how helpful they had been to her. She was a local businesswoman in Dunboyne. So I reached out, I sent an email and I got a response from Caoimhe who was really so, helpful. Met me for a coffee, came up to my home and premises here and sat down and had a really

concise conversation about all the grants that were available and every I had no clue and that there was so much available to me and so I actually got very excited and I did the trading online voucher a couple of times with the local enterprise office.

And yeah, a few of the things that other grants that were available that Caoimhe had mentioned, I got involved with and took advantage of and has really, really helped my business. So thank you, Caoimhe. It’s been fantastic.

Elish Bul-Godley (11:12)
That’s great to hear. You know, the the the feeling I got from that was that, you know, sometimes it can be very daunting and you’re starting a business for the first time and you don’t want to deal with this big machinery and your bureaucracies and you’re worried about forms and things like that. And like

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (11:26)
Yeah.

Elish Bul-Godley (11:26)
the whole idea of just seeing another human being to like take you aside and

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (11:30)
Absolutely, it

made it so, it was very comforting. It made me feel so comfortable. And

Elish Bul-Godley (11:34)
Yeah, so yeah.

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (11:36)
had I been left kind of out on an alert on my own, not knowing where to start, I might not have developed my business the way I have today. So I’m really, really grateful to Caoimhe and to the local enterprise office for all they’ve done for me and my business.

Elish Bul-Godley (11:50)
Thank you.

thanks, Barbara. And over to you, Jill. What was that first moment like when you had to step up and open the door and pick up the phone to the the local enterprise office? How did you hear about them?

Jill O’Meara Photography (12:01)
know, it’s a good few years ago now. It’s actually almost fifteen years ago, which is I know it’s hard to believe. So basically I never heard of the LEO and I was at a networking group. I joined a networking group to expand my contacts.

And somebody mentioned to me about the LEO and I was like, okay, and but she was a mentor, so she was saying, Do you know there is actually mentoring service because I was pivoting the business back then? I was kind of leaving the wedding photography side of it and really focusing on the contemporary portraits. So I did my first mentoring session through the LEO. Then you you I think you got i I think it was five sessions over a number of weeks, and I just found it amazing. And then once I got introduced to it, it was like, okay, what else?

Day to know and like obviously I sign myself up for the newsletter, and that’s brilliant because you get to know all the training courses or the workshops that that’s coming up. So I just did little little workshops, you know, just little by little. But I suppose for me then the the big thing was after the mentoring was the

the trading online voucher, which was I actually did it twice. the first time was amazing. But that really kind of helps the business to put manners on it and shape it, you know, that kind of way. And so then I did that that trading online voucher and then I updated again. It was a two year time. You know, there was there was more elements and

e commerce functions

Elish Bul-Godley (13:21)
Okay. Yeah.

Jill O’Meara Photography (13:23)
that I wanted on it. So yeah, it it’s even though it’s fifteen years ago, I it’s hard to believe that. But it for me as a self employed business

Owner who wears all the hats. I mean, to have this constant exposure to school days, like learning something new, is so valuable, like and and it’s so subsidized. I mean, that’s the thing about it. A lot of the courses are only like 20 or 30 euro at the very most. So, I mean, it’s very important to stay updated in especially with technology and all of that.

Elish Bul-Godley (13:54)
Okay,

that’s really great to hear. And you’ve brought like really different experiences and you sort of started getting involved bit by bit. I’m just gonna ask a quick little follow-up question to Barbara. Barbara, Jill may sort of implied that she started with one thing and then and then she realized there was this other thing, and then she didn’t know what and then she saw something else. Like, what was it like for you? Like you started with one thing, you know, starting the business, and what surprised you that you didn’t realize was there? That you go, they have that as well.

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (14:21)
Yeah, well, I mean, the conversation, first of all, with Caoimhe surprised me because I did not know and I got the follow up email then, which was really, really helpful to allow me to know the different grants that were out there and that I was eligible to apply for. And yeah, I would have started as well with the trading online voucher, just thinking, well, I just want to build my website. So this is a great help in hand. But then realizing that there was all these other like that.

the newsletter is a really, really good idea and maybe, you know, for any business to sign up for that newsletter because sometimes you don’t get the time to reach out and see what is available to us. So when it’s in our inbox then on a regular basis, it nudges you. It gives you that nudge to, okay, that sounds fantastic. I’ll sign up for that. So yeah, the mentoring I found extremely valuable. did mentoring PR and marketing.

and it was excellent. I, you know, it enabled me as well to reach out to publications and actually get some good editorial coverage. So

Elish Bul-Godley (15:27)
Okay.

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (15:28)
yeah, had I not had that mentoring, I probably, I may not have done that.

Elish Bul-Godley (15:33)
Mm.

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (15:34)
So it definitely spurred me on to take things a little bit further.

Elish Bul-Godley (15:38)
Wow. So what I’m getting from here is that that, you know, thank you, Caoimhe. You’ve also explained the process to us and it’s very clear that if you have no idea what you’re supposed to do next and you have any kind of business idea waiting to happen, all you have to do is pick up the phone. Nobody, you know, has to have everything figured out when they speak to the LEO, right? So it’s a really approachable space and also

There was a lot of mention here about the mentoring side, which is kind of like guiding Jill and Barbara. So Caoimhe, I’ve heard so much about the mentoring so far. Tell us more about how you do this mentoring and and what it’s the ground that you cover with all of this mentoring that the the people have been talking about.

Caoimhe LEO Meath (16:20)
Yeah, so the mentoring is a really useful service, and it’s probably one of our in our top number of supports here at the local enterprise office in Mead. And there’s a whole range of mentors that we have on our books, and they’re available to business owners like Jill, like Barbara, like anybody listening. so it could be any section of your business where you need help. It could be finance, it could be HR, it could be social media, AI, it could be an IP.

intellectual property, a trademark, like Barbara said, we have marketing, we have a PR, and all of those business areas, we have visual merchandising, retail, food, creative mentors, so and software tech mentors as well. So we’re not subject matter experts, and we put our hand up and say that we are the connector, the facilitator. So if somebody needs help with social media, understanding Google Ads, understanding

Canva

or some AI function, we can put them in touch with that subject matter expert and they get mentoring and that’s available at the LEO. And that’s all free of charge. So it’s a number of hours broken down over a couple of weeks. So you go away, typically you do some homework or try it out, practice it, then come back to the mentor and say, Yeah, this worked really well for us, but I think I missed something. What did I do wrong? The mentor says, right, that was what you did wrong. Let’s try it again.

So that’s where those subject matter and they’re experts and we have some fantastic mentors on our panel. So they’re always willing to help. And this is why people pay their taxes. You know, this is all available to small business owners. So come and look for the mentors and we’ll put you in touch with somebody. and often people refer mentors to one another. So we hear the same names getting requested for certain sectors because some of the mentors get a particular

creative sector maybe and and they have a passion for that or they have come from a background of that. So we’re happy to accommodate when we can connect the the right business owner with the right mentor.

Elish Bul-Godley (18:11)
Wow, wow, that’s great. And it was a really great point you made there, Caoimhe, when you said that that’s where your taxes are going. But also when you go like as a small business person, you know, if you had to pay for a consultant to come in and do stuff with you, like you would pay quite a lot. Or if you had even gone for the some mentoring and then there’s the training you’ve mentioned. So like if I had to pay to go to UCD or, you know, whatever and pay for a a corporate course, I

I would have had to pay thousands for that sort of thing. And here you are, you’ve just got it like at the most, you’ll pay like a tenor for a three-hour module here, and and you’ve managed to get access to some actual good business training. So I mean, when you think about the value of like saving small businesses’ money, I mean that’s the big thing that really hit me. So it’s whatever about the grants and the funding, there’s all these other cost-saving things that are happening. Talking about cost saving, I’ll I’ll bring it over to you, Jill.

Like we heard about the mentoring from Barbara and how that and the newsletter made a big impact. Is there is there a particular thing you started to change about your business? Like what were the big changes that having interacted with all of these supports, what were the big changes that that that it allowed you to do in your business that you could enact as a result?

Jill O’Meara Photography (19:28)
suppose every little piece of work you do with the LEO, you you’re always going to be for me more efficient as a business owner and that

you know, obviously means you get more time to actually for me be behind the camera as opposed to making the ship sail faster. So I suppose I did a lot of workshops, say for instance like the Canva, and it’s just again

Elish Bul-Godley (19:48)
Yes.

Jill O’Meara Photography (19:49)
how to kind of produce social media content a bit faster and quicker. That was a very big thing for me and it’s a big investment of my time. And the other thing was the AI course. I’m a big I’m probably a geek actually, which I know unknown to myself. I love AI.

I and I love knowing how I can do things faster and quicker and more efficient. And I did the it was two courses, an eight and a ten week course, through content plan, which is an amazing course. And again, that’s just phenomenal. And I always believe like any course you do, if you only learn three or four new things, you’ve won. You know what I mean? Like ’cause you are thrown with a lot of new information, it’s not all gonna stick. But it’s just, you know, if it’s gonna make, you know, things you know

more effective that that’s a good thing. So I suppose the workshops to me, or the other yeah the Canva course, Debbie Ringwood was amazing. they’re all big, big ticket items to really, you know, make the business as it is today, you know.

Elish Bul-Godley (20:48)
Okay, thanks. Thanks so much, Jill. And for anyone who likes to see Jill’s social media, her LinkedIn profile and her business-to-business content that she puts out is like on point. It’s just like I’m just like I’m constantly liking her on my LinkedIn. It’s like, my god, my god, like she’s so nailing it. And it’s like she’s and actually, you’re actually mentoring other people through your social media because I see you, Jill, sending out really good advice to people about their headshots and all of that stuff.

So it’s just so great to see you sort of passing it on as well, you know? that’s really good. And Barbara, you know, you mentioned that you partook of a a few bits of funding. You mentioned

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (21:27)
Yes.

Elish Bul-Godley (21:27)
the events and the news. What what were the big things that you were able to implement because of the stuff that you partook in?

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (21:34)
Well, obviously the trading online voucher really made such a difference. two grants that I got there made such a difference to building a really good website, a website that I’m very proud of. The second time you kind of learn from the first and then you realize what else you would need to make the website work maybe that bit faster or visually look more beautiful. I took advantage of kind of videography as well and I have that as you enter the website. So I’m delighted with the website.

And thanks to LEO. I also found very helpful the visual merchandising course, which I have done through LEO there not too long ago. And it has made a big difference to, let’s say, my display when I go to exhibitions or markets. the trainer was incredibly gifted.

And so I feel that that has definitely transformed the way I look in the public’s eye when I put my products out there on a table. It looks completely different. Thanks to that training. And I found the the completing your annual tax return just from a practical point of view, very helpful. It’s that time of year. So the lady was extremely good and I found it really, really helpful. So.

All these things add up to helping you succeed in business. There’s so many hats, as Jill said, you have to wear and it’s hard to wear all those hats. So if you can make life a little easier and if you can get help along the way, mean, the help that you get from the LEO is second to none when it comes to building a business.

Elish Bul-Godley (23:11)
Thank you so

so much. Thank you so much, Barbara. So so I mean, it is Caoimhe, there is such a relationship everybody is implying here. It’s like they didn’t just they didn’t just come to you once, right? It sounds like the gals have been coming in and out and and and engaging over the years. I mean, Jill, you said it was quite a few years ago since you first talked to them. So that’s obviously a trajectory or phases that you can take a business through.

And there must be different types of grants and support. So I I heard Jill talk about productivity, for example. So so how what are the main things, like the main programmes? Is it productivity alone, or do you also have digital or do you talk about exports, for example? How would you organize all those topics?

Caoimhe LEO Meath (23:58)
We’ve

kind of to put it simply, we have two sides of the house in the local enterprise office. So we have the funding side, which is for internationally traded services with like that big export potential, and manufacturing businesses. So they can access financial grant aid for salary, for capital expenditure, for big ticket items to make the factory work faster, to access export markets. So they’re restricted to those manufacturing and internationally traded sectors.

But the rest of the side of the supports from the Leo are all of those productivity supports, which are open to everybody as long as you’re under 50 employees. And the mentoring, the soft supports, the training, those management development programs that go really deep for the business owner, such as those digital marketing and practical use of AI for your business, those longer management enabled courses, which help the business owner to run their business better.

run it smarter and ultimately become more profitable. Then we have those productivity supports. So green for business has an energy efficiency grant attached to it, attached to it, which can fund replacement capital expenditure items, fridges, freezers, LED lights, boilers, a whole host of other things. So that’s to make your business more sustainable, reduce your energy bills and I suppose tell a better sustainable journey.

And story to your potential customer. So, what are you as a conscious business owner doing to improve your sustainability credentials? So that’s the green. Then we have lean for business, which is taking out the waste in the business, working with the owner, manager, or a champion in the business to identify where is your waste of time, money, and resources and implementing lean principles. And then we have digital as well, which is kind of a hot topic as we know. And now that is moving into a fully

Full service digital and AI support. So it’s for the business owner who has a lot of systems or doesn’t have any systems, but knows the same thing is happening week in or month in, month out, and they’re doing this manual, repetitive waste of time task, and there has to be a better way. Is there a software they know their competitor down the road is doing something? They know their customer wants a software solution or a digital function. They don’t have the headspace. So that’s where digital

for business comes in and that also has a voucher element where small businesses can purchase software, get funding for training and configuration. But that’s a whole conversation about those productivity supports. And then we have lots

Elish Bul-Godley (26:28)
Yes.

Caoimhe LEO Meath (26:28)
of networking events and the ladies would come to them

Elish Bul-Godley (26:31)
Events.

Caoimhe LEO Meath (26:31)
and and and they’re open all the time. Networking events, network meetings, yeah, so so we run a whole host of those meetup in person events as well throughout the year.

Elish Bul-Godley (26:39)
Really good to hear. You know what I kept spotting and and full disclosure, I do the social media for a couple of the local enterprise offices, not necessarily me, but other counties. And as I d done them, I got to know how those supports were structured. What I really like about it, Caoimhe, is that you don’t just hand money over to people, right? Like you you give them the opportunity to talk to somebody first, like a consultant.

To help you decide how that money could be used in the best way possible before you, you know, people actually go deep into getting the grant itself. So it’s a very clever way of making sure that when people do get their resources from the state, that you know, they’re using it in the best way possible. They also get the insight, they get the expertise alongside with it, not just a big wad of cash, you know. So I just love that about it. And the other thing was the the community aspect, like the

and and our other two guests have really hinted at the fact that it keeps them coming back whether it’s a newsletter or there’s an event or there’s like the you know women the NWED day where all the women in business get together. There’s always something that you can tap into and and grow through if it even if it’s not grant money or necessarily mentoring. So that’s great. And

I’m gonna segway into a topic close to our heart here at Digital AI Decoded Podcast, which is obviously the digital side of things. Obviously, there’s digital transformation, which is like productivity, there’s digital marketing, and then of course, the new thing, which is AI and how to live with AI. And ironically, for small businesses, AI is this probably one of those things that can really help you grow even faster, be more productive. So

So Caoimhe, you’ve brought in that topic of digital marketing What’s changing? Caoimhe, what’s changing about the way you’re bringing digital programmes together? Like for example, I’ve noticed there was a change and you’ve got those new courses you’re starting to put together, or maybe you’re approaching those digital supports in a slightly different way now.

Caoimhe LEO Meath (28:43)
I suppose it’s coming from the mentoring and client feedback. You know, they’re touching the surface on some of these smaller courses, but there is a certain cohort of people who want to go deeper and want to develop their skill set and do a course on digital marketing on AI, or how can AI improve the productivity of your business? Also, we are having conversations with business owners who don’t understand AI at all and probably have that fear of.

saying that to their staff or their team and they don’t want to get left behind. So they realize they have to do something. They have, I suppose, limited knowledge. So that’s where some of the mentoring or some of those courses, and we do drop in clinics as well for business

Elish Bul-Godley (29:28)
Hmm.

Caoimhe LEO Meath (29:29)
owners to understand AI. And it’s a short one hour clinic where it’s a private conversation and to ask those questions that they don’t want to ask their staff or their peers and get some upfront

kind of feedback and some kind of signpost to what supports or what courses because not everybody is eligible or or ready to go straight to digital for business or straight to some of those other smarter business courses with AI. So yeah I suppose it’s an awareness now and we’re constantly trying to showcase companies who’ve who’ve been on this journey so that other businesses and in me can see, well, if they’ve done it, maybe we need to kind of look at this as as a tool for our business.

and then the staff shortages, holding on to good staff as well and enabling them with tools where they can make their life easier or more efficient and freeing up their time to do more creative work or more bespoke work for clients and i is definitely a conversation that people are having with us now.

Elish Bul-Godley (30:25)
Thank you. Thank you, Caoimhe, for those really good roundup. And I’ve noticed, for example, that you do those multi, because we do some training here at Content Plan, full disclosure for the local enterprise office. And we’re doing before we used to just do like, you know, those one unit courses three hours ago, and now we’ve got like a 10, 10 module course, which is gives people like a really good, rounded understanding. Even our AI courses that we’re doing with the local enterprise office, they’ve expanded them into like five modules that.

So you’re getting a lot of depth, I think. That’s that’s where I see a lot of that change. Obviously, the AI is coming in into every course, if I’m not wrong, Caoimhe. For every one of those digital courses, AI is actually built in as a subtopic, whatever about the the AI course itself. So I’m gonna take this to Jill because Jill, you did mention digital at the start and you seem to me and you did use the word geek geeky about it, I’d say. And

What are the things that you’re doing now that with digital that you didn’t do before you got stuck in with the LEO? Like what are what are those things that you’re excited about now that you’re doing digitally in your business?

Jill O’Meara Photography (31:31)
one

thing is I always try to do everything myself first. There was one thing I couldn’t do is setting up some of the systems in my business. I tried two years ago and I just failed miserably. So then I was speaking to Caoimhe and she was saying, my God, the digital voucher is exactly for this. It’s for implementation and s and software subscription.

I said great, because I just can’t get these parts of the systems together. So what I wanted was CRM, I wanted a booking system, I wanted a newsletter, and I wanted you know, the follow-up needs. So it’s a lot of stuff really. so but to do it all, it’s so technical. Like you you nearly want me to hang up my photography career for four or five months to get all this stuff up and running.

Elish Bul-Godley (32:08)
Yeah. Yeah.

Caoimhe LEO Meath (32:09)
Yeah.

Jill O’Meara Photography (32:11)
So I applied for the digital voucher, but I was really what I did is I got a good few quotes, so I really

And then I wrote out my pain points to my journey for me, so I knew what I wanted, the results out of this. And I had a mentor who wrote report as well, who knew me, and my pain points. And then I applied for the digital voucher. And it was amazing. I got approved there in June, and we started immediately. And it took a good eight weeks to get all the systems in places, so much in it. But now there’s so much automation in my business. It’s amazing. And that’s set up for

Elish Bul-Godley (32:44)
It’s changed.

Jill O’Meara Photography (32:45)
everyone.

Do you know what I mean? Like, and I know, and I also, because of it, I also have training videos from the person who implements it. So now I know, say, six months down the line, if I have to change something, have a video to

to to teach you know record it how to do it so specifically for my for my setup I mean that is a huge digital transformation and that’s the difference with this voucher over the trading online it really is to get that ship sailing faster and I’m telling everyone about it it’s just amazing

Elish Bul-Godley (33:12)
Okay.

Jill O’Meara Photography (33:13)
because that’s it’s just pain points it’s removing the pain points and we all have yeah

Elish Bul-Godley (33:17)
we’ll come back to that. Yeah. We I love

that technique you’re just talking about. We’ll come back to that. So, Barbara, you mentioned at the beginning of our conversation. You talked about how that website was the biggest thing that was like in front of you. And you know, you are doing retail and e commerce. So, like that whole side of it must be so important to your sales, right? How how are you doing it now? Like, what’s what are the things you’re getting excited about in the way you’re

you know, the digital s side of your business has gone improved and and on gone up a notch.

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (33:50)
Yeah, no, I’m delighted with my website and I get a lot of compliments, which makes me happy that people do find it user friendly, because that was very important to me, was to have a website that functions really well, both on a laptop and on a mobile phone. Because a lot of people do use their mobile phone when they’re shopping, for example. And I have implemented a few pieces of software which have become

God send like that just to help speed things up. So an appointment scheduler because I do work as a holistic therapist also so people that there’s a booking system there where people can make appointments they can buy everything online including the treatments and it’s all done so I don’t have to you know I also have implemented the likes of a consultation forms for people as well so

It’s gotten smarter, definitely, with the way I would have been dealing with people. And yeah, I I find as well just, yeah, the functionality of the website I’m really happy with. The website itself is a Shopify platform, which I find very user friendly, and it’s very easy for me to navigate and change.

perhaps on a monthly basis, but have new products coming in or have new services being offered.

Elish Bul-Godley (35:08)
Wow, that’s really good. and what what are your thoughts on the AI, Barbara? Are you s are you starting to see it make a difference to your business at all?

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (35:16)
Yeah, I haven’t gone fully involved in AI, I’ll be quite honest. My niece, she actually is a really good virtual admin assistant and she’s been extremely helpful. I get her to help me with that side of the business quite a bit, I’ll be honest. And so it gives me time then to, because I said I’m making all my products myself.

I kind of, it leaves me to be able to deal with the creative end of things. But certainly Mari, my niece, has been heavily invested and involved with educating herself with it.

Elish Bul-Godley (35:50)
That’s brilliant. and yeah, and like as from our end, you know, we’re on the supplier end, right? So you I mean, I can see that the way the digital supports are structured, it’s really interesting because we’re involved on the mentoring, on the clinics, we’re involved with the training. And where we begin to see how it all clicks together really nicely is the way if we’re giving a course that’s say 10 weeks long, it just gives people a little bit more time.

To absorb the information rather than try and squeeze everything into like three hours. And the fact that the course, like the 10 piece course or the five piece course on AI, has mentoring built in. So like you go for the course and then you can go and do something that’s much more personalized on the side with a mentor. So you can actually enact. And what I like about these courses is that you come away with a practical playbook that you can actually execute on hit the ground running.

when you get so it’s not all academic, you know, like it’s like there’s real things you can physically do, create a plan, create a playbook. So you come out of those courses and then of course you’ve got your little mentoring sessions on the side to just support you that we said I love that the the courses allow you to do that because it’s just stretched out. It just gives people time to breathe and absorb what they’re doing. And they’re all most of them being recorded, right? So then you can like Jill, you hinted at that like, you know, the fact that you get recordings is is really helpful. So I just

I like that about the way that people are being supported with with digital. So I’ll bring it back to Caoimhe. You have so many things, and I know digital is really trendy right now. And like I’m sure AI is a big deal as you’re probably planning a lot more. Are there things that people maybe you want to use this opportunity? Like there are things people always go for, but they’re things they don’t realize are there sometimes and you wish people would actually

Like they were aware that we also have this other stuff that people forget to, you know, use. They they might just go straight for the training or the the and then they forget, there’s all this other stuff happening in the LEO. Is there anything you’d like to add to that?

Caoimhe LEO Meath (37:53)
those those suite of productivity supports, like starting off maybe with a lien for business and getting an expert in who can remove waste, the those physical time, resource, and money wastes that kind of float out of your business. And the idea of that is to increase profitability. So that’s like bringing your car to a mechanic. You don’t know what’s wrong with it until you lift the bonnet and strip everything back. So when you’re working in the business and the same thing is happening.

Every month, you know, it’s very hard to step out and kind of do a complete diagnostic. So that’s lean. Yeah. So I I think when people understand those productivity supports, because people kind of look for the cash, look for the funding. And then often they come back to us and said, that was exactly what I needed. Like we’re dealing with creative businesses, we’re dealing with accountants, dealing with florists, and how they’ve implemented digital.

To their business has been phenomenal. You know, all that repetitive back and forward. We have one creative business who instead of teaching in a class in person in Navin and around me to 10 or 15 people, she is now selling to thousands of people who are doing her online sewing tutorials. So, you know, the income stream and and the efficiencies of doing that. Obviously, there was a whole digital project behind that, and and that takes time and and energy, but

that those opportunities and and the time it saves. Like the florist who finished up digital last week, she was using Google Sheets, spreadsheets, Excel, Gmail, WhatsApp messages. So now when a client emails an inquiry into her website, they get an automated response with a booking link for a consultation straight away. So the customer has a much more professional the client has a much more professional journey and user experience.

And they’re capturing that data straight away and the booking is made there and then for a consultation to move on to the next part of that sales process rather than forgetting about a WhatsApp message two weeks later and that client has booked with another florist. So yeah, we’re seeing all these amazing stories each week.

Elish Bul-Godley (39:56)
Okay, that’s really good. So, so because our podcast is here, guys, to help anybody who has a small business, I’m just gonna recap. In case you didn’t twig, right? This whole session is to just let you know there’s a lot of support out there for you. as Caoimhe has hinted, there’s a lot of things happening that people might not be aware of. The lean for business is that productivity end. So let’s just recap. You’ve got all of this business advice, right? You got the mentoring, the clinics, you know, the one-on-ones.

You’ve got all those training programs, right? And those training programs could be like one session that’s three hours long, or it could be 10 three-hour sessions all linked together in one large prograamme. You also have management development programmes because you have programmes that like they’re not just for people starting out, they’re for people who are in management roles. They want to learn leadership, they want to grow it to be an even bigger business. And then you have all of the financial supports or whatever about the training and the mentoring.

There’s financial, and of course, the financial supports also can come with consultation first, so that when you are getting that funding, that you’re spending it in the best, most efficient way possible. So talking about efficiency, you’ve got your lean for business, right? You’ve got your green for business as well, you’ve got your sustainability brand, and then you’ve got the the digital supports, digital start, digital for business. you’ve also got export-led support so that if you’re going further afield.

And and it’s all very topical. You know, you’ve got your fuel issues, so you want to get and your energy efficiency up, there’s something for that. So we love that. there is a very lovely 360 approach, Caoimhe, that I sense is coming out of the the LEO. So for those of you who didn’t know this was happening, and of course, you know, there are events as well. So I’m gonna bring it back to the two gals here, and we’re just gals after all, aren’t we?

just gals of so so Jill

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (41:43)
Huh?

Elish Bul-Godley (41:43)
if you if you

Caoimhe LEO Meath (41:44)
Mm-hmm.

Elish Bul-Godley (41:44)
met another small business owner they haven’t gone near the LEO what would you say to them what should they get there you had that pain point thing I thought that was really good that pain point thing that you did was like you knew what you wanted first before so like what was the kind of advice you give to someone who’s about to go into the LEO for the first time what would you say to them

Jill O’Meara Photography (42:04)
Yeah, definitely, you know, if you write down your pain points with the stuff that’s causing you a headache in your business model, I mean that’s the supports you should be seeking from the LEO. But I suppose I always believe like getting out networking is the most important thing because you’re gonna meet other business owners who have the same pain points and successes. And when you get chatting, you’re gonna realise most that is pointing back to the LEO and the supports. And there’s nothing better than finding out from another business owner how they navigated it and how what

what actual you know workshop they did or what mentor do they use or so to me is networking really is the key for me. I always try and go to the women in business tech, it’s four times a year. LEO are always there. You hear about what’s happening the next quarter, you’re meeting other business owners, they say, I did that course. I did that. Do you know what I mean? I think to me being

Elish Bul-Godley (42:50)
Mm.

Jill O’Meara Photography (42:51)
on the ground, out of your office, meeting other business owners is is a massive yes for me. And that’s how you realise the impact of the LEO services on other business owners and then you’ve got to go

Elish Bul-Godley (43:02)
Okay. And and Barbara, what would you say to somebody? So that’s your your turn. So so somebody who’s thinking about contacting the or what would you say to them? Like what what should they be doing beforehand or thinking about?

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (43:11)
I will first of all definitely make that contact. And as I said, I found it invaluable meeting up with Caoimhe and having that cup of coffee and having that chat because I got so much information that I didn’t know was out there. And actually, as a result of that, I ended up becoming a part of Meath Made, which I am thrilled to be a member of now. So that’s really big for me. And being a solo business person,

And like Jill, know, it can feel daunting sometimes kind of you’re out of a limb on your own, having a network, as Jill says, is so important and networking with people. And I’m getting a huge supportive network through MeathMade. And that was all thanks to to my local enterprise office. And so, yeah, I’m just so grateful to the local enterprise office. And I just feel definitely get the newsletter.

newsletter is invaluable as well. Sign up for the newsletter so that you see what’s happening out there and what you can avail of.

Elish Bul-Godley (44:13)
Okay, that’s really good. And and back to the that takeaway thing that we talked about. So if somebody is a small business owner, we’ve explained local enterprise office, but you guys have a lot of experience just running a business on the ground. So LEO or no LEO, right? Whatever about the LEO, if you could give people who are listening who actually are struggling working at a way at their small business now.

What’s the big thing that you and start with Barbara, what’s the big thing that, you know, you that big piece of advice that you give to somebody, here’s one thing you should try and do this week, or here’s my big piece of advice, that, you know, as a small business owner,

take it from me. This is what you should be doing right now.

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (44:55)
Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. For me, I have found getting people on board who are really good and are experts at what they do has helped me so much. My end of things is the creative end of things, creating my product. As I said, I do have my niece who helps me with the admin side of things that has helped so much with my website. I have a product photographer now since the beginning of my business who

People buy with their eyes, so I love using my product photographer. like that Jill is, you know, having a photographer is just so, so important, I think, when you’re trying to sell a product. So getting people networking and getting people on board who are really good at what they do to help you with stuff that you’re not good at or you may not

Elish Bul-Godley (45:41)
yes.

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (45:41)
be as good at, you know what And building that all together to create…

is very helpful in creating a successful business in my eyes.

Elish Bul-Godley (45:49)
That’s that’s really sound, right? And what I’m hearing from you is that you really need to know what you’re good at and you need to know in a in a little way your limits. So yes, you know, you could learn you you could

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (45:59)
Exactly, exactly.

Elish Bul-Godley (46:01)
you could learn a few things, you could go for the courses, but at the end the day, it’s like what’s your competitive advantage? I’m good at making stuff look good and th but there are things that I will take longer to do. And if I can get an expert to help me instead, if I can network and find another

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (46:16)
Yes.

Elish Bul-Godley (46:17)
Like like Jill here, right? So like if you know Jill’s great at taking photos, she’d do it in less time. And then you’re also kind of supporting someone. Yeah.

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (46:23)
Exactly, exactly. think photography is invaluable when it comes

to, you know, putting you and your business out there, because I really do see the difference and the just the whole benefit that it gives a business.

Elish Bul-Godley (46:39)
Yeah, and there’s a little thing that I’m and I know this is a LEO thing, but in general it’s a good idea. It’s it’s a campaign they have called Look for Local. And then really, like even as small business owners, if we just use each other, we all prosper if we look for local, right? Because if we if we get a local photographer to help us, then she she’s across the road and she actually understands our area or she might understand the the place we’re in much better and so on. So Jill, back to you.

You’ve given us a good tip, the pain points tip about you know, before you walk into LEO, but just in general as a small business, you’ve been around for a few years now. if somebody is starting out or somebody’s like grappling with having their small business, what’s the big piece of advice you have for other small businesses that, you know, they can take away from your experience, like passing on what you’ve learned so far as a business?

Jill O’Meara Photography (47:31)
I

suppose firstly is you know a lot more than you think. And that’s the truth. You know what I mean? But still at the same time seek help if it’s just a mentor or try one on the training courses or the workshops.

And and just if you only learn two or three new things, nuggets I call them, little nuggets of knowledge, in those workshops, you’re in your you’re in your A game. So that’s what I always say. You know, people can just look at a course and just be very unconfident going, god, no, I won’t sign up if you actually know more than you think and just do it. You know what I mean? And get out of your own way and keep

Elish Bul-Godley (48:04)
Yes.

Jill O’Meara Photography (48:05)
I keep signing up for courses, as you know Elish, I was on Elish’s course last week. I mean

Elish Bul-Godley (48:08)
I’ve seen them, yeah.

Jill O’Meara Photography (48:09)
like yeah, yeah, ’cause it’s really important.

to keep learning, learning, learning, learning. yeah, so just get out of your way and do it.

Elish Bul-Godley (48:17)
Don’t stop. Yeah, get out of your way.

Don’t let your ego get in the way. Right. And just just be happy that you don’t know and just keep learning. Like I I always say in my in my sessions, you know, a lot of people they come to our digital sessions and they get it they’re very apprehensive and they’re very tightly wound because they’re they’re a bit freaked out that you know, I’m and they come in with the headspace like I’m bad at this. I’m bad at digital. And I’ve like and I said, Well, there’s a nice way to get out of this is like remember what you were like.

When you were five. I’ve you you’ve heard me say this. Be like a five-year-old, right? Just press all the buttons and not the cash button, obviously. Don’t not the credit card button, but just press all the other buttons and just see what happens, right? So like if you put a five-year-old in front of an iPad, they’ve no issues. Like two year olds, like, and I know it’s bad for them, but like they they actually pick it up in seconds and nobody explained anything. And the only way they learned how to do it was because they just got their hands dirty and just

Started doing things like and to see what would happen next, right? So that’s like I say to people like, come into this like it’s play with especially with the digital stuff. Think about it like it’s play. Try everything, test everything at least once, and only you will know at the end of the day which one works for you if you didn’t. And no one can actually tell you that at the end of the day. Like, even in our social media, we go, you know, I can tell you all the different ways you could make a piece of content.

But you need to test them out on your audience because only you know your audience and what they like, what they don’t like. And you’re never gonna know, you know, unless you throw it up against the wall and see what sticks, right? So yeah, I think I love I love that, that kind of thing of just get out your own way, get that park that ego at the door, put the fear away, put on your five year old head and just have some fun. Have some fun and learn. so I think that’s a really nice way for us

to do that and it’s like I always say and if anyone’s been in my class, I’d like the last line is always like, Go and have some fun guys. Go and have fun with this and see what happens next. So thank you very much. Anybody has any last words if you like to add that in? anybody going to be at an event that where somebody could see you and your products, for example.

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (50:26)
Next week is in the Dumboyne Castle Hotel. It’s a women in business. I’ll have a stand there with my Jocys botanicals. I actually live next door. I live in the Dumboyne Castle Estate so I don’t have too far to go. So

Elish Bul-Godley (50:39)
Okay.

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (50:40)
yeah, are you going to that chill?

Jill O’Meara Photography (50:42)
No, would you believe I’m photographing and the the the LEO Event actually, but not that one. I I’m actually a Wicklow LEO. Yeah, it’s it’s cool.

Elish Bul-Godley (50:53)
we’ll definitely make sure everybody follows. So Jill, where’s the best place to follow you online?

Jill O’Meara Photography (50:57)
well it’s just my name, Jill O’Meara Photography on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and the website is the same name.

Elish Bul-Godley (51:04)
And and Barbara, are you in the same places?

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (51:06)
Yeah, mainly Instagram and Facebook and my website. Yes, and I am on LinkedIn, but it’s through my own name, Barbara McAteer, but the Josie’s Botanicals is on, yeah.

Elish Bul-Godley (51:17)
Okay, so everybody, everybody out there in podcast land, you know what to do before Christmas. Get your photo done with Jill and get those botanical gift boxes in time for Christmas.

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (51:26)
Thanks, Elish.

Elish Bul-Godley (51:29)
so thank you, everybody. And Caoimhe had to head off, but thank you again for to the local enterprise office for explaining to us what was happening there. And don’t forget, the local enterprise office is one of many government supports. There’s a you know, there’s a whole host of them as you get bigger. There’s Enterprise Ireland, there’s lots.

there’s loan supports as well out there so if you want to know the wider range of supports you actually starting with the LEO they’ll actually put you in the direction of all of these other government agencies as well so thank you everybody and thank you guys it’s always nice to

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (51:58)
Thank you. Yeah.

Elish Bul-Godley (52:00)
see you guys and I just you know I just feel really guilty now that I haven’t done my headshot with Jill and I haven’t bought any paper jersey yet.

Barbara – Josies Botanicals (52:08)
well, you know where to find us. Thanks so much. Take care. Bye.

Jill O’Meara Photography (52:09)
Yeah, you know I think you are we are. We see you ladies. Thank you.

Elish Bul-Godley (52:10)
Okay. Okay. Thank you guys. Mind yourselves. Take care.