To make the move from a hobby/crafter mindset to a business mindset takes courage and a huge deal of effort.  There is a huge difference between making for pleasure and making for profit and you need a business orientated approach. It’s easy to underestimate the resources in terms of time and skill that has gone into the process of making what you do.

For existing businesses you may be looking to explore and develop new market opportunities. There are many possible opportunities for achieving growth and each business needs to assess its own model and resources to determine what is achievable.  

Following the successful pilot of this programme in 2013, the Local Enterprise Office Kilkenny is again running this programme. Past participants include Chairperson of MADE in Kilkenny Marie Therese Walker, MTW Jewellery ; Claire Molloy, Claire Molloy Ceramics along with Justnya Mackowska, The Conker Tree and Susan Boland, Susan Boland Ceramics to mention just a few.

The #CREATE Kilkenny programme content consists of a mix of workshops with one-to-one training for individual participants in the alternate months.  Workshops will provide participants with an understanding of the creativity and innovation models, tools and techniques in common use in the business world.  Each workshop will conclude with the development of a clear action plan for each participant to implement in the subsequent weeks.  This will then be followed up with “motivation one to one mentoring sessions” to help each participant successfully apply their learning.  The programme will conclude with a possible opportunity for participants to exhibit under ‘Create Kilkenny’ at Showcase 2018.

The programme will be delivered by Aisling Hurley, founder of the Small Business Fairy and Managing Director of Teamwoodcraft.  She advised that “there is so much creative talent in Kilkenny; this is a fantastic opportunity to harness it. The programme involves looking at product development and brand identity as well as the financial and marketing elements.  She added “Showcase Ireland attracts international buyers from around the world so it’s amazing opportunity to get your work out there.  It can literally open up doors into top level retail locations around the world and the best thing about the programme is it’s a team effort with super support from LEO Kilkenny” 

The #Create Kilkenny programme is due to commence mentoring on Friday 3rd March with a second date on Wednesday 15th March for further information and dates, please visit the Local Enterprise Kilkenny website www.localenterprise.ie/kilkenny