Galway Independent Column - 17 November 2010

Nurturing the entrepreneurs among us is vital to our economic recovery. The truth of this statement is borne out by the Government’s Innovation Taskforce Report, by events such as the Farmleigh forum over a year ago, by the gathering of technology giants founders a couple of weeks ago in Dublin and also by an upcoming Enterprise Week.
Speaking at the launch of the Taskforce Report the Tánaiste, Mary Coughlan T.D., said: "Our success to date in turning investments in research and development, in entrepreneurs, in innovative companies into world beating competitive advantage for jobs and growth must be redoubled. Critical to this is the removal of barriers to success and seizing the opportunities that the Taskforce has identified."
Removing these ‘barriers to success’ is key and interestingly something that has been written about extensively in the media recently is our attitude in this country to failure. This was addressed by some of the participants in the ‘Founders’ conference in Dublin at the end of October.
Jack Dorsey, creator, founder and chairman of Twitter spoke about ‘failure’ in California being almost a badge of honour or a rite of passage…a springboard to success. He told a packed audience that there was no better time than a recession to create something.
Risk is part of being an entrepreneur and the courage to take that risk should be seen as a positive rather than a negative attribute. We need our entrepreneurs and we must create a culture in this country that has less of the ‘begrudger’ attitude and more of the ‘empowerment’ attitude.
Bank of Ireland will hold another National Enterprise Week starting this Friday November 19th to November 26th. This follows the success of the National Enterprise Week held in May to encourage and nurture the entrepreneurial spirit of small and medium sized business sector.
With the primary objective of supporting and aiding business recovery, Bank of Ireland customers and non-customers have been invited to avail of the opportunity to showcase their products and sell their goods and services in the branch premises in the 'Show Your Business' event. This will provide a platform to network with other businesses and discuss challenges in the current economic climate. Last May over 1,400 businesses availed of this opportunity and many of them generated new sales as a result.
Opportunity still exists to take part in the 'Show Your Business' event over the week in branches in Eyre Square, Galway Industrial Estate and Oranmore. To avail of this opportunity contact Galway Industrial Estate - John McGrath @ 091-705747; Eyre Square - Gemma Costello @ 091 537013;
Oranmore - contact John Harkin @ 091-794529
Bank of Ireland is also supporting entrepreneurial spirit by continuing their sponsorship of RTE’s Dragons’ Den this year. As the blurb for the show says: ‘One idea, one pitch, one deal away from the dream’. The Irish Dragons are successful entrepreneurs and business leaders who have been there, done that. This year will see the introduction of brand new Dragon Norah Casey, who will join Gavin Duffy, Bobby Kerr, Sean Gallagher and Niall O’Farrell in the Den.
The deadline for applications for the show is November 28 2010. Check out the details on www.rte.ie/dragonsden.