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A Pre-Budget Submission Every Small Business Should Read

By 10th October 2014April 4th, 2022News, Small Business

 

First of all, what is a pre-budget submission? It is a submission to the sitting government proposing amendments and changes to the forthcoming budget. Submissions are generally put forward by political parties, trade associations, industry lobby groups and a broad array of other groups and individuals. In the main, the submissions contain proposals that reflect the ethos and beliefs of their respective authors. No surprise there!

Therefore, I think it very worthwhile that every small business owner should read ‘Pre-Budget Submission on behalf of the Irish Startup Sector’. Researched and written by StartUp Ireland, it is an excellent and well written submission that provides great insight and background into what a startup is and the challenges facing young startups in Ireland.

Though the focus of the submission is on tech startups many of the challenges are universal and no matter your business type, you will find plenty of points to nod your head in agreement to. Check out the key list of recommendations below and tell me most of them are not something that you’d love to see changed.

Pre-budget Submission on behalf of the Irish startup sector

We are witnessing a global expansion in the number of tech startups and there is no doubt that a thriving tech startup sector is good for the Irish economy. The submission recognises that the majority of Ireland’s technology startups are concentrated in Dublin, but they do make recommendations that pertain to the benefit of startups across the island.

Hopefully the minister of finance will take on board some of the recommendations from the team at Startup Ireland. Budget day will reveal all!

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Related: Setting a successful foundation for your start up

Marc O'Dwyer

Marc O'Dwyer

After completing a Graduate program in Marketing, Marc’s impressive sales career began at Allied Irish Banks, Pitney Bowes and Panasonic where he received numerous Irish and European sales performance awards and consistently exceeded targets and expectations. In 1992, Marc’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to set up his own business, Irish International Sales (IIS). Initially, this company was a reseller for Take 5 Accounts and Payroll software. Within four years, IIS became the largest reseller of Take 5 in Ireland, acquiring four other Take 5 resellers. He also found time to set up two mobile phone shops under the Cellular World brand and a web design company offering website design services for small businesses. In 2001, he bought the majority share in a small Irish software business, Big Red Book. At that time, the company was losing money. The company became profitable within two months, and Marc then acquired a payroll company to compliment Big Red Books Accounting products. In 2003, IIS were appointed as Channel Partners with SAP for their new SME product, SAP Business One. Marc sold his Take 5 business and concentrated on developing this new market for SAP As a result, by 2007, IIS was recognised as the largest Channel Partner for SAP in EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa). In 2008, the IIS Sales Manager bought the Company from Marc in an MBO. He launched Big red cloud in June 2012, the online version of big red book, to date the company successfully converts 59% of trials into sales and the number of customers is growing rapidly. Marc continues to run both Big Red Book and Big Red Cloud which now support 75,000 businesses. He is a very keen sportsman, having played rugby for 20 years, represented Leinster at under 16 and under 20 levels, and league squash with Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club for 10 years. Marc has competed in 11 Marathons, including the London and Boston Marathons, and has completed several Triathlons and Half Ironman races. He has also completed six Ironman Races in Austria(x2), Frankfurt (Germany), Nice (France) , Mallorca (Spain) and Copenhagen (Denmark)