The  “GIVING A START” Competition 2011 is aimed at encouraging potential entrepreneurs to follow their dream and to start their own business.

The judging panel will include Bobby Kerr CEO of Insomnia and of “Dragons Den”, Paula Fitzsimons, of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, and Terry Clune of Taxback.com.

The winner‟s prize is valued at €25,000.

This prize will be made up as follows:

-Office, business support, conference and meeting rooms in 11 Patrick Street

-Accommodation and events in The adjoining Pembroke Hotel

Support and consultancy from businesses in 11 Patrick Street to the value of €3,000.00 per business.
-Paschal Bergin Accountants & Tax Consultants
-MD Media PR Consultants
-Brian Dunlop Architects
-Optimize Recruitment
-Real Solutions, Staff training and coaching
-Fitzwilliam Partnership, Strategic and Financial Management

-Support from the Invest Kilkenny Business Support Unit and seed money of €1,000

-A strong PR campaign behind the competition locally and nationally aimed at giving profile to the winner and finalists.

For full competition entry details go to

http://www.elevenpatrickstreet.com/givingastart

The initital euphoria of your new idea may wear off or you realise that actually your goal is going to take much longer to attain than you initially thought. At some point you need to take stock of where you are at & start to put pen to paper, or at the very least the bank manager will need to see a plan. Formalising your goal & how you are going to get there will help to identify the  actions you need to take.  Without a plan, with targets or KPIs linked to it,  you run the risk of wandering around for quite some time, trying desperately (like our squirrel friend) but never quite attaining what it is that you want.

Here’s a simple tool that I have used that helps me to focus:

1. Write down your stretch goal , 5 or 10 year goal. Ask yourself  – What is it, what does it look like, what does it feel like when you are there, what does it taste & feel like (this will help you visualise your goal). How will you know when you have got there? What will you have achieved?

2. Break down this goal into a 3 year goal - this is where you need to start putting down some specifics. How much? How many? How far? Set specific targets or KPIs for you & your business.

3. Break down 3 year goal into 1 year goals. These are very specific & should be tangible. Against these you need to set yourself more specific targets , KPIs.

4. From these 1 year goals should come your day to day actions that you need to be doing to achieve the 1 year goal. This is your action plan going forward.

Make sure your goals & actions are realistic & achievable.   Follow the SMART rules,  Specific,  Measurable,  Achievable, Realistic, Time oriented.

If actions are big or difficult for you, break them down into mangeable pieces. Take it one step at a time & build on the success of each achievement. Each success should motivate you to next one.