Going for Growth: Enterprise Ireland calls for 60 ambitious women entrepreneurs

7 Nov 2017

From left: Marissa Carter of Cocoa Brown, Oonagh O’Hagan from Meaghers Pharmacy and Paula Fitzsimons, Going for Growth. Image: Orla Murray/SON Photo

Enterprise Ireland marks 10th anniversary of Going for Growth female entrepreneurship programme.

State agency Enterprise Ireland’s Going for Growth programme is looking for 60 women entrepreneurs to join the latest cycle of the initiative.

Going for Growth is for women entrepreneurs, across all sectors, who are strongly focused on growth. Ideally, their businesses will be well established and they will have been trading for at least two years.

‘Enterprise Ireland wants to see more women scaling their businesses successfully and will continue to work with female entrepreneurs, facilitating access to new markets and growing their businesses overseas’
– JULIE SINNAMON

The deadline for applications for the latest Going for Growth programme is Friday 8 December 2017.

In the 10 years of the programme, more than 500 women entrepreneurs have participated.

Numbers reveal impact of women-led businesses

In the most recent cycle, the 78 participants reported an increase in their combined sales of more than €20m over the six months of the cycle, bringing their total sales to more than €136m.

Almost half of the participants have customers in overseas markets.

Between them, the participants employed an additional 187 people full-time, bringing their combined total to 1,250 people, an increase of 17.5pc over the six-month cycle.

“Enterprise Ireland is focused on supporting companies to achieve their global ambition in export markets, and our aim is to continue to increase the number of female-led companies amongst this cohort,” said Enterprise Ireland CEO Julie Sinnamon.

“We can accomplish this through backing initiatives like Going for Growth, which has nurtured hundreds of ambitious female entrepreneurs over the last decade through collaboration, shared insights and experiences.

“Enterprise Ireland wants to see more women scaling their businesses successfully and will continue to work with female entrepreneurs, facilitating access to new markets and growing their businesses overseas.”

National director of Going for Growth, Paula Fitzsimons, said that the focus of the programme is on action and results.

“Our mission in Going for Growth is to support female entrepreneurs to achieve their growth ambitions and to get more female owner-managers into a growth frame of mind. We have demonstrated over many cycles that the collaborative, peer-based approach really works and delivers significant results for the entrepreneurs and their businesses.”

Julie Currid of Initiafy, a past participant of the programme, said that peer support is one of its most important attributes.

“Going for Growth provides you with an opportunity to meet and work with inspirational women who are experiencing the same entrepreneurial highs and lows as you are,” she said.

“They have your back and are pushing you on to further success by sharing their insights, experiences and contacts.”

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com