• Mortgage interest for the house in which you live– if you bought your first house within the last 7 years
• Medical Expenses 20% of the amount paid.
  • Not apply to routine dental and optical work
  • Nursing home, maternity
  • Keep receipts
  • Claim VHI/BUPA first
  • Form Med 1 available from Revenue
• Medical insurance paid on your behalf by your employer. 
• Wheelie bin charges (amount paid by 20%) capped at €80
• If you are renting accommodation
• If you have paid a pension (barring one paid through your employer’s payroll).
• Trade union subscriptions- €70 per year
• Professional subscriptions and any expenditure necessary for your job e.g. Medical indemnity for doctors 
• Certain College fees – course must be over 2 years.- approved college
• Certain donations to charities and sports bodies
• Over 65s can earn up to €20,000 if single and €40,000 if married free of Income Tax and Income Levy. If you are over 65 and in receipt of a pension / deposit interest you may be entitled to a refund.    
• Certain trades are entitled to flat rate expenses eg. a nurse who provides and washes her own uniforms gets €733 x 20% = €146 per annum.  
• You may also be entitled to relief if you are married and the lower earning spouse is earning less than €27,400 or is not working at all.

However, the prize for most effort must go to Tír Na Nóg who dressed one of the lads up as Nógie the clown to promote her birthday parties. Not only did this bring great fun to the event but yours truely made a few bob by threatening to post picture of Nógie on Facebook. 

After that, it was down to business and  views were swopped on what marketing was working for our businesses and what wasn’t. Although different techniques worked for different business models, the common thread that emerged was that if it wasn’t correctly targeted, it was a waste of our very valuable time!

As I suspected, Adrian had many ideas to hit us with, but I will admit to have been a little taken aback when he said he wanted to discuss sex. Well to be more specific how “sex sells”. This was definitely a new departure for the gentle members of BEN, but in fairness to Adrian what he really wanted  to do was to make us see how we too could alter our sales pitches and introduce exciting new angles to liven things up a bit.

It worked too, as in no time there were pitches that showed how Whizzkids Summer Camps would keep the mothers of Ireland happy, how Tír Na Nóg would put adventure into the lives of children and Accountant Frank Wharton could have saved a host of famous celebreties from destitution had they just come to him to do their tax returns!

Following that we examined how to ”introduce the pig”, which has nothing at all to do with pitches and everything to do with pricing. Those of you already in business may be familiar with this practice, but if you are not, why not join us at the next meeting where we might just share the secret with you!

If you want to learn more, come and join us at our next business networking meeting in Charleville Park Hotel, 8pm, 28th April 2010.

At the the recent BEN get together we tried to do just that. It came up when we were discussing how each of us tracks progress against our sales targets. Without naming names, some of us are better than others and yours truely is probably one of the worst! So much so, we decided to call on the doctor. Yes, despite the depth of experience that lies within our midsts, we have called upon Seamus Hayes of Fitzwilliam Training & Consluting to do a sales target workshop at our meeting this evening to show us how it should be done.  

It also stuck me after the meeting, that not only does one not always track ones progress against annual sales targets, one doesn’t always recognise how far has travelled in terms of experience. As we often do, we had a couple of people attending the meeting who were not running their business just yet. However, they are keen to get their business established and attending a network meeting such as ours allows them to get real insights into what running a business is all about. As usual people were more than willing to share their experiences, but for me at least, it just showed how far many of us had travelled since we first dipped the toe in the water. 

At times it really is hard to see the wood for the trees.

For a start there was Laura, whose business Credit Control Covered was an offshoot of Richard’s, All Ireland Credit Services. Then there was Adrian  who is wearing two hats these days as MD of Out of the Wood and partner in DaVinci Creative. And Accountant Frank Wharton is now lecturing new start-ups in LIT as well as his regular tax consultancy service.

Obviously they had a few interesting observations of diversifying into new areas, but practically everyone else present had examples of how they had adapted their businesses. Some identified new niches, such as FRS who in the last couple of years had been extremely busy with a new offering to recycle farm plastic. Some wanted to broaden their services such as Gerald Duggan who threw off the shackles of being a tied agent to set up Acumen Assurance & Investments. 

All were more than willing to share their suggestions, but none more so than Thomas Bibby,  Ballyhoura Development Enterprise Officer. Thomas using all his experience of advising SME’s waited practically till the end when he then suggested solid new business lines for about ten members of the network. The real pity was that the meeting was only an hour in duration or he would have had one for everybody in the audience!

The network affectionately known as BEN by it’s members, has been in operation for 3 years now and has built up a group of businesses that will not simply roll over and die. In fact they feel that it is only in times of a tough trading environment that the true business manager emerges and that they are willing to rise to the challenge.

The meeting was chaired by Garry Lowe of Whizzkids Training, who posed the question of what SME’s should prioritise in 2010. Maintenance Contractor, Seamus Fitzgibbon took a determined stance from the off. He stated that “survival was the name of the game. Keeping your costs down and your price attractive was essential to maintaining customers”.

There was general agreement on that, but others, such as Niamh Ní Chearbhaill of Spiralli Web Design, pointed out that business must be sought out. “SME’s need to be proactive in engaging with customers and for business to business operators, networking was essential to broaden your base”.

From there the discussion expanded to consider advertising and an interesting engagement ensued as Pat, of O’Hara Video Production, put a radio advertising offer he had received up for analysis. Whilst the offer had appeared attractive at first, the open discussion allowed Pat to draw on the experience of others and highlighted some issues he needed to consider. It was typical of the meeting format, but it was this interaction that highlighted the value of these network to it’s members. Thoughts were raised. Experience was shared. Belief was built.

Even against the bleak backdrop of the deepest recession this country has seen since the World Wars, the 20 businesses present preferred to focus on the positive and are a testament to what local entrepreneurs can achieve.

They say it is an ill wind that blows no good and in a lively discussion those present pointed out it that although the trading environment was tough, it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Nora Lane, who runs Sew Soon, a  dressmaking businesses in Kildorrery, pointed out that her alterations business was up, as people sought to repair rather than replace. Laura Kelly, of Credit Control Covered, said it was the ideal time to launch her online tutorials on how to avoid bad debts.  

The downturn had other side effects and one Governement initiative had benefitted Spiralli Web Design. Sales Manager, Niamh Ní Chearmhaill, said they were able to take on someone through the FÁS placement scheme. At a time when they need all the help they can get, SME’s can now avail of talented workers looking to expand their CV, which is of mutual benefit to employee and employer.

Only time will tell who will be standing when the economy returns to an upward curve, but one thing is for sure, the businesses at the meeting last week were not going to mope around, sitting on their hands, waiting for it to happen!