Produced by Jetbooks, Chartered Accountants Ireland.

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FleishmanHillard, if you haven't heard of it, is one of the world's largest PR & communications agencies. This week I talked to Rhona Blake, Managing Director of FleishmanHillard, who works with clients from large multinational corporations to start ups.

In this conversation, Rhona talks about her early days in Public Relations,  what it takes to build a successful PR agency and how an early opportunity led to gaining a crucial mentor and eventually a career long business partnership.

Find out more about FleishmanHillard here: https://fleishmanhillard.com/

Irish Business Builders is brought to you by Jetbooks. Jetbooks provides online bookkeeping services for Irish Businesses. For a free 15 minute online consultation, visit www.jetbooks.ie

Produced by Jetbooks, Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth.

For our second episode of 2021, I had a chat with Bart Kane, who is the Regional Director of The FD Centre, a provider of part-time CFOs and Financial Directors with a passion for growing businesses.

With over 25 years experience as a key Finance Executive, Bart has a strong understanding of how to manage a growing business to ensure success. Surprisingly, this isn't always a straightforward strategy and growth can sometimes hurt a business more than it can help.

Bart talks to me about the key things we must think about when scaling a business, how this exponential growth can actually kill an organisation and why the financial director is an entrepreneur's secret weapon!

Find out more about The FD Centre here: https://www.thefdcentre.ie/

Irish Business Builders is brought to you by Jetbooks. Jetbooks provides online bookkeeping services for Irish Businesses. For a free 15 minute online consultation, visit www.jetbooks.ie

Produced by Jetbooks, Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth.

This week I had a chat to Andrea Reynolds, whose time spent in the finance industry allowed her to start Swoop Funding, which provides assistance to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to be linked with funding providers.

Starting her career at KPMG, Andrea later became a corporate finance advisor to smaller businesses in the UK, which is where she saw how difficult it was for these SMEs to navigate the funding world themselves.

We talk about how Andrea grew Swoop from 1 to 50 employees in 3 years, how she became a non-executive director at Berkshire Hathaway European Insurance and what it's like to have Warren Buffett as your boss!

Find out more about Swoop Funding here: https://swoopfunding.com/

Irish Business Builders is brought to you by Jetbooks. Jetbooks provides online bookkeeping services for Irish Businesses. For a free 15 minute online consultation, visit www.jetbooks.ie

Produced by Jetbooks, Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth.

This week I had a chat to Chris Burge, founder and CEO of Spark Crowdfunding, a platform that allows companies to raise new funds from accredited investors who are interested in growing businesses with high potential.

Chris's journey from engineer to entrepreneur is very interesting, and he shares the challenges of growing a marketplace platform and what is daily life as a startup CEO looks like.

Find out more about Spark Crowdfunding here: https://www.sparkcrowdfunding.com/

Irish Business Builders is brought to you by Jetbooks. Jetbooks provides online bookkeeping services for Irish Businesses. For a free 15 minute online consultation, visit www.jetbooks.ie

Produced by Jetbooks, Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth.

You'll notice that I've talked to a lot of entrepreneurs in the hospitality industry. That's mainly because I love food, but it's also a fascinating area of business with people doing exciting things. Peaches Kemp is no exception.

Peaches and her sister Domini started Itsa Bagel in 1999, and haven't slowed down since then, as you can tell by the impressive list in the title of this episode.

Peaches talks to me about the highs and lows of her entrepreneurial life, and shares advice she's learnt along the way. No matter what industry your business is in, you'll get something from this episode.

Find out more about Itsa Bagel here: https://www.itsa.ie/

Irish Business Builders is brought to you by Jetbooks. Jetbooks provides online bookkeeping services for Irish Businesses. For a free 15 minute online consultation, visit www.jetbooks.ie

A big heartfelt thank-you to all of the listeners who have tuned in this year.

It's been a tough one for many businesses, but having conversations about highs and lows with all of my guests on the podcast has definitely helped me to get through.

Enjoy these highlights from this season's conversations and join me for the first episode of Season 3, coming next week!

Produced by Jetbooks, Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth.

Thanks for listening and see you all for Season 3!

Produced by Jetbooks, Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth.

Maurice Pratt's life in business is exactly the conversation I'd wanted for the finale of Irish Business Builders Season 2!

He has been at the head of 10 companies, including Quinnsworth, Tesco Ireland and C&C. More recently, Maurice acts as Chairman of Uniphar Group, as well as holding numerous positions as a Non-Executive Director and Chairman for organisations across tourism, non-profit and healthcare sectors.

Maurice also shares his views on managing ones time as a public company CEO and the best advice he ever received, from none other than Gary Weston.

Find out more about Maurice Pratt here:

https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/person/1876971

Irish Business Builders is brought to you by Jetbooks. Jetbooks provides online bookkeeping services for Irish Businesses. For a free 15 minute online consultation, visit www.jetbooks.ie

Thanks for listening and see you all for Season 3 soon!

Produced by Jetbooks, Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth.

This week I sat down with Brian Crowley and talked about all things entrepreneurship, challenges and growth.

Brian is a former international Irish boxer, who now has a played a part in the forming and managing of several companies. He founded TTM group, a specialist healthcare and recruitment company in 2002. After receiving an investment from Broadlake, Brian felt the need for a change and became a partner at Broadlake.

Brian's story is one of resilience. He nearly went bust in 2008, but bounced back and is experiencing strong revenue growth with Broadlake.

Connect with Brian Crowley here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crowleybrian/

Irish Business Builders is brought to you by Jetbooks. Jetbooks provides online bookkeeping services for Irish Businesses. For a free 15 minute online consultation, visit www.jetbooks.ie

Thanks for listening!

Produced by Jetbooks, Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth.

I had a great chat with former professional rugby player and now general manager of Zambrero, Darragh Fanning.

Zambrero is a Mexican food franchise which started in Australia, with a focus on healthy and affordable food, which also helps to save world hunger. Every burrito or bowl purchased means a meal donated to someone in need with Plate 4 Plate, a charity partnering with Rise Against Hunger. To date they've donated over 40 million meals!

Darragh talks about how he discovered Zambrero whilst in Australia in his mid-twenties, how his life changed afterwards and his professional rugby journey.

Find out more about Darragh Fanning and Zambrero here:
https://www.zambrero.com/

Irish Business Builders is brought to you by Jetbooks. Jetbooks provides online bookkeeping services for Irish Businesses. For a free 15 minute online consultation, visit www.jetbooks.ie

Thanks for listening!

Produced by Jetbooks, Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Subscribe to the Business Builders Newsletter for the very best ideas I've discovered on business and personal growth.

This week I caught up with Norman Crowley, a successful serial entrepreneur who is doing remarkable things in business and in environmental awareness.

Norman Crowley founded and sold 3 businesses with a total worth of $750million before the age of 40. Norman actually retired at the age of 28, but as you'll hear in our conversation, that was short lived. Under the Cool Planet Group, Norman has several businesses that all share the goal of creating a more environmentally friendly and sustainable future. We talk about why having a mission in business is so important and Norman's drive to do good for the planet.

Find out more about Norman Crowley and The Cool Planet Group here:
https://www.coolplanetgroup.ie/about

Irish Business Builders is brought to you by Jetbooks. Jetbooks provides online bookkeeping services for Irish Businesses. For a free 15 minute online consultation, visit www.jetbooks.ie

Thanks for listening!