Started in 2009, but only recently launched, Nubie.com helps you to start, fund, manage and grow your business – it’s a cloud-based platform for start-ups and high performing small businesses, with information and tools to help you succeed in business.

The web-based service aims to meet the immediate business needs of Irish “start-ups”, over 13,000 of whom are formed in Ireland each year (according to BOI’s Business Start-Up Barometer 2009).

It will provide start-ups with customised roadmaps tailored for the Irish market and online tools to research their idea, develop a business plan, check grant eligibility, seek funding and get off the ground quicker. As well as business planning, funding and forecasting, Nubie will also provide a range of related services including invoicing, customer relationship management and marketing.

Social networking has become a mainstream business tool in Ireland with fully 40% of businesses having successfully used social networks to win new business, reveals a new global survey commissioned by global workspace solutions provider Regus.

Testimony to the faith businesses are now putting in the social networking medium is seen in the fact that 26% of Irish businesses are setting aside a proportion of marketing budget specifically for social networking activities.

The survey revealed that in Ireland 41% of companies plan to devote a proportion of their marketing budget to social networking by the end of 2010. It was also revealed that overall, small companies were a little more likely than average to use social networking. 44% of small companies have successfully acquired new customers through social networking compared to medium companies (36%) and large business (28%).

In our most recent poll we asked you ‘What is the main social media tool that you use for your business, if any?’ The results showed that 97% of people who took the poll were involved in some form of social networking for their business.

The most popular social networking tool for business was shown to be LinkedIn, with 55% of those polled citing it as their primary social media tool. In second place was social media giant Facebook with 25%. The most surprising outcome of the poll was that only 12% of Irish businesses are using Twitter.

We recently interviewed the owners of the Pepper Pot Café, Dervla James and Marion Kilcoyne, about setting up their own business. They told us that both Facebook and Twitter have been hugely helpful. Dervla said that “We got an amazing response on Facebook within the first few weeks.” You can watch the video here.

It can be a bit confusing choosing which social networking tools are right for your business. However, in our newest article – The 6 Pillars of Social Media – Fiona Ashe explains how to choose the right one. Click here to read the article.

Facebook has begun the rollout of its new feature, Facebook Questions. While online Question and Answer services are not exactly new, Facebook’s community of 500 million users adds a new dynamic to the space and could potentially create an exciting opportunity for small businesses.

A Facebook blog post explained the service: “Millions of people ask their friends questions on Facebook every day. What new music should I listen to? Where’s the best sushi place in town? How do I learn to play the piano? With this new application, you can get a broader set of answers and learn valuable information from people knowledgeable on a range of topics.”

Similar in concept to Yahoo! Answers, Quora and Mahalo, Facebook Questions gives users the opportunity to ask questions simply by clicking the “Ask Question” button on the homepage. Questions is also available on friends’ profiles in the same way that you would post on someone’s wall. Questions is still in beta but it is clear that Facebook are keen to make it a big part of the site.

For small businesses growing beyond one outlet can be difficult and expensive. The more you grow the more capital you need. Franchising your business can be a good way of expanding yet keeping costs minimal.

So how does franchising work? Well, to start with, your business needs to be successful. Nobody will want to franchise a business from you if it doesn’t make money. A franchised business needs to generate enough profit to make money for both the franchisee and you.

Each franchisee finances their own outlet themselves. While the franchisee meets all the costs and collects the income, you receive franchise fees from the franchisee or a mark-up on your products sold by your franchisee.

The franchisees also run their businesses themselves, reducing the management demands placed on you. The best franchisees will be highly motivated and have local expertise, making your life much easier.

Rather than managing their business, your role involves supporting your franchisees. This could include helping the franchisee find and fit out premises, training the franchisees in the business processes and creating operating systems that help new franchisees to successfully set up and run their franchise.

You would also be responsible for providing marketing materials and resources, such as a branded website. In addition to this you would need to run advertising campaigns to build brand awareness.

Across Ireland communities are seeing small local businesses struggling to remain competitive against larger chain stores that are popping up everywhere. While many are lamenting the loss of local businesses few are doing anything about it.

However, independent businesses in Carrigaline, Co. Cork have decided to group together and do something to keep the local economy thriving.

Businesses have taken the initiative to launch Ireland’s first town-wide Loyalty Card. Cardholders can use one card to collect points in multiple local businesses and redeem them for a range of rewards.

The more the customer uses the card the more points they earn and the greater the reward they get. As the business is not giving a discount to every one-time visitor who walks through the door they can give bigger rewards to their most regular customers.

An EU study on entrepreneurship has revealed that Ireland has an above average entrepreneurial spirit when compared with the rest of Europe.

The EU Survey looks at entrepreneurship and employment preferences across Europe and some of the other major world economies.

31% of those surveyed in the Republic who are employees felt that they could become their own boss in the next five years. 23% of respondents said that they were taking steps to start a new business or had done so, while a further 13% were thinking realistically about it.

When new entrepreneurs are trying to get their business off the ground, they are juggling so many balls in the air, that putting structured policies in place may not be the first thing on their mind.

However, when the time comes to hire their first employee, most entrepreneurs spend the time needed to put a formal contract in place – including a written holiday policy.

According to an article in Business Week, a U.S. based IT consulting firm start-up called ‘Bluewolf’ decided to go against the grain in this regard. They let their employees take as many holidays as they wanted, whenever they wanted —as long as they meet their goals.

As the new business grew and as expanded their team, the founders let staff take paid time off for holidays, travel, and rest when they wanted, without asking permission—just letting managers know as a courtesy.

The owners doubted the start-up could sustain the approach as the company expanded. They didn’t think it would scale when they reached 20/50/100 employees. However, now with a staff of 200 and $18 million in revenue in 2007 they don’t consider the loose vacation rules a risk that employees will shirk their duties.

O2 has just released results from a survey conducted by Behaviour and Attitudes with over 300 SMEs. Interestingly, the results indicate that the number of SME directors teleworking or working from home has doubled in the last five years.

According to Alan Brown, business sales director with Telefónica O2 Ireland, “We may be witnessing a perfect storm of better mobile office solutions, more flexible attitudes to working and the need for greater productivity, which is creating this upsurge in teleworking,”

The survey found that 48% of SME directors in Ireland telework at least one day a month, while 26% of SME directors work from home more than four days a month.

Interestingly 23% of SME directors predict that teleworking will rise in the future.

They say that you can tell a lot about a society by its advertising. If this is true, Irish society has shifted in the past twelve months as ‘staying in’ is becoming the new ‘going out’. You may have seen brands capitalise on this with changes in their messaging such as the new Smirnoff ‘Dress up and Stay in’ ads.

TV stations are also updating their programming with new shows such as RTÉ’s ‘Take on the takeaway’. This new show features celebrity chefs such as Kevin Dundon compete against the contestants’ take-aways to try to beat them in the area of price, speed of delivery and taste.

As consumers demand better value on their weekly shop, they are turning to review websites and forums to find out where to shop and what products to buy. One website that is catering for this effectively is CheapEats – a blog about eating well in Ireland while getting value for money.

If you have ever bought anything online, you’ll know that it can be tricky to get your package delivered on time, especially if you live in the countryside. If your parcel is not being handled by your local post man, the courier company may not know where your house is located in a particular townland.

Irish entrepreneurs that sell products online are only too aware of these delivery issues and have long campaigned for the introduction of Zip codes into Ireland. 

This week, SMEs received some good news as our version of the Zip code “the All-Ireland digital address code system” went live. The new address code provides precise address information and will be invaluable to businesses that need to deliver products and services across the island.

The initiative has been developed by Cork-based company Loc8 Code Ltd in collaboration with Garmin Europe. One of the benefits of the system is that it can deliver considerable savings in transport costs because of the precision of the address when used in conjunction with a satellite navigation device.