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Sean O’Sullivan, South Cork Enterprise Board; Noeleen Cronin, Home Instead and Paul Allen, Motorway Parts & Accessories, photographed at the official launch of The Beacon Initiative, a programme developed to help SMEs at Vertigo, County Hall, Cork Photo: Gerard McCarthy

The Cork business community came out in force for the official launch of the Beacon Initiative, Grow Programme late last week. The event, which took place in Vertigo County Hall, was packed full of business men and women all eager to get solid advice, support and help for their SME businesses, which have the potential to survive and thrive.

Business owners were invited to attend and meet the talented and diverse Virtual Management team who have been recruited by the Beacon Initiative to provide professional management support to SMEs in the Cork county area.

The Beacon Initiative is a joint initiative between Cork Institute of Technology, Cork County Council and the Enterprise Boards. It is funded by the County Council under the Economic Development Fund. It is designed to help SMEs with more than 10 employees in the Cork county region in a number of practical ways across all sectors that would benefit from external management expertise, to grow their turnover, profitability and staff numbers.

County mayor Noel O’Connor was in attendance at the event to show his support and spoke about the importance of this type of initiative in today’s climate “This is a very important programme that we are extremely proud of. It is funded by the county council and every councillor is extremely positive about the programme and the help it gives to business owners”.

The initiative is being co-ordinated by experienced businessman and entrepreneur, Padraig O’Sullivan who presented the steps involved and the business potential of the Grow Programme for SMEs in the Cork county region. Padraig said “During the course of my work with the Beacon Initiative I visited many SMEs. I noticed that many had core strengths but were often lacking in some vital skillset or expertise, which could make a huge difference and help their business reach a new level. We wanted to provide some practical support so we recruited a diverse pool of talented management professionals, who are available to qualifying SMEs to fill these gaps.”

CEO and owner of Digital Documents, Ger Morgan also spoke at the event and stated how the Beacon Initiative has helped him and his business, “Through the Beacon Initiative we were able to achieve clarity and focus which was the starting point for us and helped us move forward. The initiative gave us renewed confident and determination which in today’s climate can sometimes be hard to find. The proof of the success of the programme is that since we got involved with the Beacon Initiative and their team of experts, we are now uncovering new opportunities and have now started recruiting and re-hiring”

For further information on the Beacon Initiative, the resources available and criteria to avail of the resources visit http://beaconinitiative.net/

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