Ireland Wants Women Entrepreneurs to Lead and Succeed

It's only fitting on St. Patrick's Day to blog about what's going on in Ireland for women entrepreneurs.

Enterprise Ireland and women’s business organization Network Ireland, in partnership with Entrepreneurs Academy, recently announced details of the annual nationwide Fueling Ambition Roadshow, which aims to encourage the ambition of women entrepreneurs at a national level.

The roadshow will included a leadership masterclass and an elevator-pitch competition with a cash prize of €2,000 sponsored by Facebook at each location. Additional prizes include 10 sessions with Enterprise Ireland mentors, annual membership of Network Ireland and attendance at Enterprise Ireland’s Excel at Export Selling training program.

Read more about how Ireland is driving support for women entrepreneurs to take on the o'world.

Push Yourself To Grow Your Business

Here's a look at Europe's perspective (from an expert -- Paula Fitzsimons, Irish national coordinator for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and director of Ireland-based Going for Growth, a business consultancy) on women, entrepreneurship, business ownership and growth.

An excerpt:

But if you want to make a significant contribution to economic growth, innovation and productivity, those [women-owned] businesses must become capable of growth. It's quite clear that Europe needs more 'gazelles' – i.e. companies capable of significant growth – and the point we're making is that we need to encourage women to not only be self-employed but to break the barrier to employing one or two people, or to move further if they're already significant employers.

In short, we should be pushing for them to have a growth aspiration at the earliest possible stage. They must have this initial strategic positioning.

Read the entire interview here.

Do you need to be pushed to grow your business? Do you think this is a trend indicative to the United States too?

Supporting Budding Women Entrepreneurs

Over 360 women attended the first National Women's Enterprise Day, in the Mullingar Park Hotel, Mullingar (Ireland), yesterday. Aimed at encouraging and motivating women to start up a business, the event facilitated discussions between aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs about the challenges faced when starting up a business in Ireland.

And I love this quote because it applies to all of us:

Businesses exist to succeed but success can only exist with a strategy and a plan to drive it. I would encourage anyone, be they in business or considering a start-up, to believe in themselves as, with this allied to a well-planned business strategy, anything is possible.

Read the short piece here.