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Back for Business, the government-backed programme for returning emigrants seeking to start a business in Ireland, is now open for applications.
There are up to 50 places available on the development programme, and there is no cost to those who are selected to take part.
Back to Business was created in 2018 to foster and support entrepreneurial activity among Irish emigrants returning to Ireland. Now in its seventh year, the programme has helped entrepreneurs to significantly grow sales and employment.
Next year’s cycle will run from February to June, and the closing date for applications is 5pm on Monday, 15 January. Back for Business is funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
“Since 2018, Back for Business has helped large numbers of returning emigrants to seed and nurture their business ideas,” said Minister of State with responsibility for International Development and Diaspora Seán Fleming.
“I would encourage people with a business idea who might be thinking of coming home – or have returned recently – to apply for selection.”
Back to Business is targeted at those who have lived abroad for at least a year and have returned to Ireland in the past three years. It is also open to those who are abroad and are soon to return.
The cycle addresses challenges that early-stage entrepreneurs encounter, but also focuses on additional barriers faced by emigrants who have been living away from Ireland.
Participants will meet once a month on a peer supported round table, facilitated by the programme’s voluntary lead entrepreneurs, who have experience of successfully starting and growing a business. Many of them have also lived abroad before returning to Ireland to start their business.
This year’s lead entrepreneurs are serial entrepreneur Hannah Wrixon; Morgan Browne, CEO of Milner Browne and Enterpryze; serial entrepreneur Paul Coyle; Paul Duggan of The Gardiner Group; Seamus Reilly, co-founder and formerly of Critical Healthcare; and Thomas Ennis, founder of the Thomas Ennis Group.
“I was lucky enough to receive excellent peer-to-peer support when I was starting out and developing my businesses and it made all the difference,” said Wrixon.
“It is great to be in a position to give back and to support those at the start of their entrepreneurial journey.”
Back for Business has been designed and is being implemented by Fitzsimons Consulting, specialists in areas related to entrepreneurship and growth.
Applicants will have recently started a new business in Ireland, either on their own or with another business partner, or they will be well advanced in their plans to start a business and have moved well beyond the concept stage.
Alternatively, they are becoming or have become entrepreneurs through the acquisition of an existing business.
The business will not have generated sales in Ireland before 2021. If acquired, it will not have been acquired before 2021.
(Pic: Orla Murray/Coalesce)
In respect of the business whether new or acquired, they will be a major shareholder and key decision-maker in the venture. Furthermore, they will have the ambition and expectation of becoming an employer of others within three years.
There is no restriction on the sector in which the new business is focussed, but strong preference will be given to those who have returned to Ireland.
Photo: (l-r) Shemaine Doyle, Brave; Seán Fleming, and Barra Kelly, SHD Consulting Engineers. (Pic: Orla Murray/Coalesce)
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