Start Your Own Business Programme - Delivered Online
Starting Tuesday 7th January 2025 - Evening Sessions
The Start Your Own Business Programme is a key support available for new business start ups in Donegal. We are now making this programme available online to help reach those budding entrepreneurs who are isolated and restricted at the moment. Hopefully this will create a time for participants to develop their ideas and plans and get their new business up an running or develop their new business.
- Start Date: Tuesday 7th January 2025 at 6.00 p.m.
- Dates & Times: Each Session will run from 6.00 p.m. to 9.30 p.m.
- 7th & 9th January
- 14th & 16th January
- 21st & 23rd January
- 28th & 30th January
NOTE: Dates are subject to the number of confirmed participants in advance of each individual programme.
- Format: Delivered Online over 8 sessions, Two evenings per week, across four weeks.
- Mentoring: Each participant will be allocated up to 4 Hours of mentoring to help develop their business plan and business idea.
- Cost: €25
What do you require to participate Online:
- Access to a Smart Phone
- Access to a computer i.e. Desktop / Notebook / or Laptop to complete exercises
- Internet Connection
Start Your Own Business Aims:
It is important to plan in advance of setting up a business. Preparation is the single most important thing you can do to ensure your new business gets off the ground.
Key Issues Include:
- Is your business idea viable?
- Can you develop a competitive and sustainable enterprise?
- Are you prepared to take the risk?
- What skills do you require to achieve your objectives?
Who Should Attend?
This program focuses on:
- Anyone with a business idea they want to develop
- Anyone looking at self-employment as a realistic career option
- Anyone who has recently started a business
The programme will guide you through the various aspects of business and business planning. The objective is to assist you in assessing your idea, its viability and to decide if you should proceed or take a step back.
Program Overview:
Introduction to Enterprise & Self-Employment
- Being an Entrepreneur: The Road to Self-employment
- The realities of starting and running a business in a competitive environment
- The reasons for small business success and failure
- Trends for 2025
- The importance of networking for success
Preparing a Business Plan
- Why Develop a Business Plan?
- Key Elements of a Business Plan
- Completing a Business Plan: Pitfalls to avoid
- Understand the purpose of business planning
- Setting Goals & Objectives for a business plan
- Practicing the Pitch
- Business Plan templates
Legal Issues for Your Start-Up
- Guide to Choosing a Legal Structure [Sole Trader, Partnership or Company]
- Registering a business name
- Employment Law: Quick Guide
- Understand insurance & tax implications for a small business (incl. VAT, PRSI, PAYE)
- Purpose of opening a business account and bank reconciliation
Sales
- Sales techniques and approaches
- Setting sales targets and developing a sales plan
- Developing your Elevator Pitch
- Closing effectively
- Forecast and plan for future sale
Marketing Your Small Business
- Best practice marketing tools
- Markets Size & Trends: How my Product/Service meets the needs of customers
- Creating a Value Proposition
- Identifying target markets and segments
- Digital Marketing made easy
Finance
- Fixed and variable overheads
- Establish initial running costs
- Break-even formula
- Budgeted Profit & Loss
- Pricing your product or service
- Understanding financial analysis tools
- Developing a lean business model
Basic Bookkeeping
- Prime books of entry
- Preparing a trial balance
- Preparing a projected Profit & Loss Account
- Preparing a projected Cashflow
- Preparing a projected Balance Sheet
Taxation & Funding Sources
- How to plan capital requirements
- What are the sources and uses of funding
- Examination of personal, private & corporate equity
- Financial ratios for business
- The importance of credit control
- Maximise profitability through optimum liquidity
Mindset
A summary of LEO supports & services will also be incorporated into the programme and delivered by LEO Donegal.
If you have any questions in relation to this programme and how it might help you, please email info@leo.donegalcoco.ie