Business Builders

Produced by Jetbooks, Chartered Accountants Ireland.

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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!

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.

Lory Kehoe is an adjunct associate professor at Trinity College Dublin and Founder of BlockChain Ireland.

Being an accountant, I thought I knew a little about blockchain and cryptocurrency before my chat with Lory, but as you’ll hear for yourself, his depth of knowledge about the subject is fantastic. He is also very excited about the possibilities of this emerging tool. 

We talk about Blockchain and its real-world application, why Lory left a global consultancy partnership to start his own business, and how teaching has helped develop his leadership skills. 

Find out more and connect with  Lory Kehoe here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lory-kehoe/

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 had an inspiring chat with Barbara Turley, Founder and CEO at The Virtual Hub. The Virtual Hub provides virtual, remote assistants to businesses all over the world. 

Barbara has an astounding work ethic and draws a hard line between work and life. She doesn’t let work get in the way of being a fantastic mother to her children and living the lifestyle she wants. 

Having started the business 5 years ago, she has scaled it to 150 staff. Delegation is key for Barbara, and she gives us some very useful insights into avoiding being consumed by your business. 

Find out more about Barbara Turley here:  https://www.thevirtualhub.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.

Vincent Carton’s story reaches back into the 18th Century, where the Carton family began a poultry business involving breeding, feeding and selling in the Dublin area. This is one of Ireland’s oldest surviving companies!

With so much experience and wisdom to share, we’ve brought this conversation to you in two parts. Following on from Part One, where you heard how Vincent came to own the business and how he nearly lost it, in Part Two you'll find out how Vincent and his team got the business back on track and the strategy they used to grow profits from 500 thousand to 13 million in just 7 years!

Check out these videos I mentioned in the episode:

The Whirl Wind
The concept that top management can’t focus on growing and scaling the business if they are caught up in the day-to-day work of the business. Getting out of the Whirl Wind was critical for Manor Farm implementing their strategic plan.
https://youtu.be/ahH2WdrovPg?list=PL7B1E1664C5352A7

First Follower
In order get all employees rowing in the same direction, the board needed to communicate the strategy of the business to everyone in the organisation. To do this, they appointed 23 “first followers” to champion the strategy in their own divisions. It only took 23 people to change a company of circa 830 people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ&list=LL4t6dGleRcIkHHwCqBARENQ&index=73

The Five Monkeys
This was the main problem that Vincent and the board came up against when they tried to create change in a 230 year old business. People will always follow “the way we’ve always done it” rather than embrace change. Vincent and his first followers showed this video to their staff who quickly understood the concept and bought-in to the idea of going back to the facts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZeiSKnhOBc

Find out more about Vincent Carton and Manor Farm here:
https://chicken.ie/about-us

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.

Vincent Carton’s story reaches back into the 18th Century, where the Carton family began a poultry business involving breeding, feeding and selling in the Dublin area. This is one of Ireland’s oldest surviving companies!

Family businesses can be slow to evolve,  as decision making can span several generations. Vincent and his brother Justin saw this and bought out all of the shareholders. They focused on understanding new customer needs, streamlining the organisation and selling off underperforming divisions. 

With so much experience and wisdom to share, we’ve brought this conversation to you in two parts. In Part One, you’ll hear about the history of Manor Farm, how Vincent almost lost the business and how an old college friend helped him turn things around. 

Find out more about Vincent Carton and Manor Farm here:

https://chicken.ie/about-us

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.

Jack Pierse is the co-founder and CFO of Wayflyer, a revenue-based financing service for ecommerce companies.

Wayflyer’s business is a simple one, they lend money to businesses, so that they can buy more online advertising to grow their sales

In under 24 hours, businesses can connect with Wayflyer, connect their online marketing platforms and receive funds towards their online marketing campaigns. 

Unlike a bank who would review a customers’ ability to pay back a loan, based on standard accounting and cashflow reporting, Wayflyer plug in seamlessly to their customers online marketing platforms such as Facebook, Google, Instagram etc, to assess which specific advertising campaigns are performing well.

Dive in to hear about Jack’s revolutionary business model, how he raised venture capital in the US and the importance of thinking big!

Find out more about Wayflyer here:
https://www.wayflyer.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.

Welcome to Season 2 of Irish Business Builders!

On today's episode I chat with Mick Kearney, whose life in business has taken him down many paths since he started out in the early 1980's.

Mick brought Snap Printing to Ireland in 1984,  which quickly grew to be the largest Print and Design group in the country. A position it still holds today.

Then in 2005, Mick and his business partner Ed Murphy, launched another Franchise in
Ireland – Home Instead Senior Care. Their philosophy is to provide a trusted service to older people, allowing them to stay independent and to continue to live in their homes for longer. Over the following 12 years, Mick and Ed grew Home Instead to €70 Million
euros in revenues before selling a majority stake in 2017.

Mick also managed to find time to become Manager for the Irish Rugby team,
a position he held passionately and successfully for for 5 years, alongside colleagues Declan Kidney and later Joe Schmidt.

Mick is open and generous with the lessons he has learnt, his business philosophies and insights. Enjoy!

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!