Aug 2013
12
The Government has developed a Microfinance Fund to assist start-up and growing enterprises across all sectors with 10 or less employees. Loans of €25,000 are available to companies considered to be commercially viable even though they may not meet the conventional risk criteria applied by commercial banks. Applicants will have to demonstrate that they have been refused credit by a commercial lending institution before their application is considered.
The new fund will generate €90 million in new lending to 5,500 micro enterprises which will support 7,700 new jobs. Borrowers will pay a commercial interest rate. For more information see www.microfinanceireland.ie.
Bright Contracts – Employment contracts and handbooks
BrightPay – Payroll Software
Jul 2013
22
Is your Business online? If not, the Government is offering Vouchers for €2,500 to assist you! If yes, have you an ecommerce site – is it working for you?
The evidence is that if your company engages in online trading - your business is more likely to grow twice as fast.
The first phase of the state's National Digital Strategy will provide vouchers worth €2,500 to small firms who want to build their presence on the web. The funds will go to 2,000 businesses around the country to help them "prioritize digital, get the resources, training and expertise needed to develop an online trading presence". The Vouchers will be available for redemption in 2014. Watch this space - Thesaurus Software will alert all our customers as to commencement of the application process.
There will be no geographic restrictions on the vouchers, so businesses from across Ireland will be able to apply. Quotas for different areas will not apply.
Some six out of 10 Irish adults now shop online and 61% of consumers plan to increase their online expenditure. However, 73% of this is leaking out of this economy to international vendors. There’s no point in trying to stop that, but what we can do is compete and sell our wares and services online.
The plan also aims to reduce the number of people who don't use the internet – so called non-liners – by 50pc to 288,000 by the end of 2016.
Launching the plan, communications minister Pat Rabbitte said the State needed to focus more on the practical aspects of doing business online. "Governments tend to focus on the engineering side of the internet – building out the hardware. We need to get more small businesses set up for Ecommerce."
Bright Contracts – Employment contracts and handbooks
BrightPay – Payroll Software
