Waterford entrepreneurs ‘leading the pack’ for National women’s enterprise day.

Frances O’Reilly is the creator and owner of DogDry, based in Crooke, Co. Waterford.

The idea for the business came from Frances’ dogs.  Luna, a golden retriever who loves nothing better than to splash about in the water at Woodstown beach, and Jerry a blind springer/collie cross, who loves to roll around the wet grass, wrestling with Luna. 

Frances got fed up dealing with smelly wet dog towels and thought there must be many more people like her, who like to see their dogs happy and active outdoors, but don’t like cleaning up the mess they bring in. That’s how DogDry of Waterford came about. 

DogDry is made with 3 layers of performance fabrics.  The inner layer wicks away moisture and odours.  The super-absorbent middle layer locks it away, the waterproof top layer keeps the mess within the coat and out of your car and home.  

Frances received support from her Local Enterprise Office, “I would not be starting this business if it were not for LEO Waterford.  The grant support, training and mentoring they can offer is essential for any new business.  

They have been encouraging, responsive and when I needed it, challenging. There was one call I won’t forget when the message was ‘the business plan wasn’t up to scratch’, so I spent the weekend reworking the plan and managed to get my priming grant application in just before the deadline.”

She recommends any Start-Up to contact their Local Enterprise office and any female entrepreneur to make the most of events like the National Women’s Enterprise Day in October, “The LEO can give you great support, whether it is mentoring, grants, training, or the chance to take part in a start your own business course to help you to figure out if starting a business is the right thing for you. Their clients are also a valuable network so you feel less isolated when working for yourself. Events like NWED are really important.”

DogDry is in the final stages before launch and Frances is optimistic for the future of her business, “We are about to go into production and we are on the lookout for dog models who will feature on our website and social media pages, modelling a DogDry.   We are looking for family dogs of all shapes and sizes, pure breeds, mixed breeds, ‘nobody knows what’s in the mix’ breeds.  The only criteria are that they are dogs who love being outdoors and sometimes get wet and messy. Tag us on @getawetdogdry and we will be in touch.”

Traditionally National Women's Enterprise Day puts on events for female businesswomen across the country and in Waterford for those who may have a business idea they want to get off the ground.  However, the event went online in 2020 due to restrictions and will take place online again this year. 

The free event, titled “Build the Future”, takes place online on the 7th of October and will feature some of Ireland’s best known female entrepreneurs including the likes of Aimee Connolly of Sculpted by Aimee, Rachel Doyle of The Arboretum and Sharon Keegan of Peachy Lean, who was recently supported on Dragon’s Den UK.

The day’s programme will cover a whole host of areas on how to build the future of a business covering topics like, how to get started, internationalization, finding new markets, trading effectively online, sustainability and innovation.  This will be coupled with breakout rooms for networking and a host of one-to-one advice clinics for any business issues. 

Click the link to find out more about the Local Enterprise Offices latest training programmes.