Eamon Ryan from Practical Business Solutions (PBS) came in to talk to us on Friday Night. His presentation was really good and highlighted some of the key things that makes a successful business plan (and ultimately a successful business) . What’s been hammered home is the number 1 asset in the company is YOU! What I took away from his presentation were 

Distinguish your product, do the market research, see what’s out there and identify their strengths and weaknesses.

Understand your Value Proposition - What do you offer, what is the real benefit and what pain does it address for your customer. What is your competitive advantage?

When trying to sell something to a customer  - do your homework, research the company, understand their product and try understand where their pain comes from. You’ll probably have to look beyond their technology/services to find their real pain. Understand and the customer is Key.

The second half of his presentation was on the business plan.  The business plan is not just for the bank manager/EI/VC it’s for you.. A business plan that will help you get to where you end up (not necessarily where you intend to go).  It should be based around your Value proposition.

Austin Ryan from AMCS came in at 9ish to talk about his company – wow – what a story.  Established in 2003, now employees 45 and with a turnover of 5.1M euros. I liked his presentation on a couple of levels. 

• Technology. They use loads of different technology, RFID, GPS, GSM, GIS, SQL etc etc. I understood exactly what they used, how it works and how it connects together. The technologist side of my brain was satisfied however I was here for business so my business (small but growing) part of the brain was curious.
• Business. They looked past all the technology and placed themselves as the one-stop-shop solution provider. Whatever the customer wanted – they got. AMCS heal pain for their customers and their customers make more money in a monitored efficient way. Win-Win. 

Saturday – Alan Carey from Carey and Associates (business consultants) came in and talked to us on the legal aspects of setting up a business. Basically there are 100 and 1 legal aspects to consider when running a business, if you handled them all at the one time your brain will fry and you’ll lose the will to get out of bed in the morning. But different legal things kick in at different times: pre-startup, startup and when your up and running (contracts, t&c’s payments etc.) If you prioritise, but yet keep the other 100 things in mind, and systematically go through them they won’t seem so daunting. 

Shane McAllister from Mobanode came to talk about his experience for the past year of being a business. The presentation was slick and he communicated his product/idea very clearly.  He knows what Mobanode is able to offer and to whom. I think the presentation wrapped up the weekends other set of presentations (even though it was a last minute thing for him). Shane has done tremendously in the past year – he is generating revenue, he had some of the sales with events last year and is looking to get more. It’s something to aspire to. 

Unfortunately I won’t be able to make next weeks presentation – as I am attending the Irish Software Association Awards where there will loads of companies to meet. So the next round up will be from sides.