Tags: Alan Glesson, Anthony Byrne, Business Plan, David Quaid, First Impressions, Gerard Tannam, Gillian Horan, How to, Jenny Taaffe, Johnny Beirne, Liz Barron, Loyal Customer Base, Marketing, Perfect Pitch, Price Your Product, starting up a business, Veronica Canning

Are you thinking about starting up your own business? Want to know 'how to' get everything up and running? Or maybe you have launched your first business but are not sure 'how to' take it to the next level? The All About Business panel of SME contributors and advisors have written a number of ‘how to’ articles which will point you in the right direction! Here is our top ten “how to” articles from the starting up toolkit but there are many more articles on the site which you can check out here: Starting up toolkit: How to make the leap from employee to entrepreneur by Liz Barron Read article How to start a business in Ireland – just what does it take? By David Quaid Read article How to write a business plan by Alan Gl  [...]
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Tags: Entrepreneur Tips, Guerrilla Marketing, Marketing, Reputation, Social Media, Start-up ideas

Innovative and attention grabbing, guerrilla marketing can make a big difference to your business. The term was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson with SMEs in mind and is defined as an unconventional method of promotion that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing spend. Typically, guerrilla marketing campaigns are unexpected and unconventional; potentially interactive; and consumers are targeted in unexpected places. The objective of guerrilla marketing is to create a unique, engaging and thought-provoking concept to generate buzz, and consequently turn viral. (more...)  [...]
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Tags: Branding, Customer Retention, Economy, Marketing

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 abou  [...]
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