Bootstrapping and doing everything yourself puts early-stage entrepreneurs in the seductive position of being in full control, but this comes at a growing cost over time.
A business student's perceptive question about whether the payback for long hours justifies the grind didn't get the response it deserved from me. Here's my imperfect attempt at answering her properly.
Despite several pockets of weak performance, and some early warning signs that our economy might be cooling, economic activity in SME Ireland remained buoyant in Q3 2025.
In the third part of this series, fictional entrepreneurs Sarah and Jack Harbour structure their business and assets to attract buyers and maximise their net proceeds from a sale.
In the second part of this series, fictional entrepreneurs Sarah and Jack Harbour set out to translate the principles of their strategy into a performing business.
Entrepreneurs are busy with day-to-day operations. But long-term value creation depends on much more structured plans. This three-part series tracking a fictional family business explains how.
Ireland's economic performance is masking deeper vulnerabilities such as over-reliance on corporation tax and exposure to global shocks. Now might be time for a Plan B.
Values aren’t just a collection of hackneyed phrases filling up space on a website, they are the foundation of culture, cohesion and clarity in a growing business. The first step in writing them out is to call out the bullshit.
Irish SMEs have become more financially savvy since the 2008 crash, and the funding options available to them have also evolved.
Irish SMEs have behaved differently from their counterparts in comparable European countries in the aftermath of the economic crash. Badly burned by the crisis, they’re borrowing less and hoarding more.
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