Between the Wednesday evening networking event and the Thursday morning business seminar, over 130 business owners and professionals came together to make the launch of Do Business Smarter a great success in the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork last week.
The ceremonies were kicked off on Wednesday evening by Donal McCarthy, owner of Do Business Smarter Ireland, welcoming everyone to the event and gave a few words on his background and why he is excited to be bringing the Do Business Smarter coaching model to Ireland after a two year search for what he called "an effective and affordable coaching model that would interface well with the SME sector of the Irish business community".
Donal then introduced Colm Kelly, the founder of Do Business Smarter in the States, who had traveled to Ireland for the launch. Colm spoke briefly about the business model and welcomed Donal to the DBS tea of business coaches and commented how pleased he is to have an office in his home country. (Colm is originally from County Monaghan in Ireland.)
Barrie O' Connell from KPMG representing the Cork Chamber of Commerce did the official ribbon cutting and spoke about how in today's economy, all business owners should be taking advantage of the support services available to them through the Do Business Smarter coaching and consulting model.
Donal Healy (CEO)and Caroline Counihan (President) of the Cork Business Association joined in the evenings conversations to show their support for the launch and the business community. The evening continued with open networking and refreshments until 7:30 with many of the crowd staying to discuss business strategies with Donal & Colm well after the event ended.
Door prizes included a weekend stay in the beautiful Rochestown Park Hotel, Two tickets to attend a strategy training session at Do Business Smarter and Lunch for four in "Nash's 19" restaurant in Cork.
"I was pleased to see such a great turn out of proactive business owners ranging from established businesses to new entrepreneurs launching new companies. The issues the Irish business owners are facing are exactly the same as the issues business owners here in the States are dealing with, tightened credit, lack of funding, marketing challenges, employee challenges ... the same issues we deal with every day with our clients in our San Diego office" said Colm "I'm confident our approach and our coaching model will be well accepted with Irish businesses".
The Thursday morning business seminar drew an even bigger audience than the networking event and started at 8:10AM with Donal welcoming the attendees and Colm and Donal presented 3 &1/2 hours of business strategies used be successful business owners in a seminar called:
12 Smarter Strategies to Position, Market & Manage Your Business for Profit & Growth in Today's economy"
The comments on the feedback sheets afterward ranged from "Comprehensive" to "Love the practical approach", "That was real world information ... not hype", "We need this information" One attendee who called Donal a few hours after the seminar to say " I've been to a lot of seminars since I started my business 12 years ago and I just wanted to tell you that was the best, most practical business seminar I have ever been to".
"I was curious as to how our approach and our strategies would be accepted in Ireland" said Colm "We know they get great results for businesses here in the States, but I was not sure about how the Irish business owners would accept them. Based on the feedback we have received, and the large number of attendees that are already scheduling appointments with us to see how we can help them with their business, I have no worries that Do Business Smarter will flurish in Ireland and wil help Irish business owners that use our services break away from the competition and succeed even in today's economy."
The events also attracted some great media attention, thanks to the diligent work of Eimear O'Brien of Eimear O'Brien PR and was featured in "The Irish Examiner", "The Evening Echo" along with a number of local publications around Cork.
With Colm and the San Diego team now back in the States, Donal is busy meeting with business owners who were proactive in requesting a business analysis meeting to explore if and how a coaching relationship with Do Business Smarter can help them take their business to the next level of profitability.
As Colm put it: "We are officially launched in Ireland, now we continue our work of helping business owners in Ireland and the States Do Business Smarter!"
If you are interested in becoming a business coach with Do Business Smarter you can get more information and start the process here.
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