A Place At The Table

Although it's a popular claim, one size fits all hardly ever works for everyone. Invariably, that one size that seems to suit everyone else, leaves someone feeling very left out. Not much fun if you're that someone on the outside looking in. For anyone hosting an activity for people of different abilities then, the challenge is to create place where everyone feels equally welcome and involved.

Willing And Able

Our featured guest on Kickstart Your Business, Caríosa Sullivan of AbleTable.ie, introduced a true one size fits all solution that naturally makes a space for people of all abilities to sit around the table and interact easily. When Caríosa's mum and Special Needs Assistant Esther was looking for a table for her classroom, she was unable to find one. One size simply didn't fit all. And so she asked her husband Martin, who's pretty handy, to make one and he created the first Able Table.

The Able Table is designed in such a way that able-bodied and people of varying abilities can eat, work and play side by side without anyone feeling left out. Caríosa and Martin are now manufacturing Able Tables for a growing and eager market in both the mixed abilities and senior sectors where disability of any kind can often mean subtle and not so subtle exclusion from social activities.

Tabling A Discussion

Both Shane Coleman (sitting in for George) and I were immediately won over by Martin's very simple solution to a complex problem, and admired both his ingenuity and can-do attitude, often the hallmarks of the great entrepreneurs.

However, I suggested that they are being too coy in presenting their pricing to potential customers on their website in particular. Now this is a not uncommon challenge facing someone who wants to make a difference, but struggles to put a commercial value on the difference they make. When a prospective customer, whether carer or client, knows the cost of something, then they're much better placed to determine the value of it, and able in turn to make an informed decision around their purchase. Keeping people at arms length from this all-important detail simply doesn't make for good business.

Pull Up A Seat

Why not visit AbleTable.ie and suggest how else Caríosa and Martin can make a place at the table for more and more customers?

Listen back to Caríosa on Kickstart Your Business  (with thanks to Energia) and tell us what you think? We'd love to hear from you.

Kickstart Your Business is broadcast on The Right Hook on Newstalk every Thursday around 6.25pm and is available for playback immediately afterwards on Newstalk.com.

How To Make A Happy Camper

Even the most cheerful of festival-goers can become heavy-hearted when faced with the prospect of lugging camping gear from home to festival site. And that final leg of the journey from carpark or bus-stop can kill the buzz of even the happiest of would-be campers. So how to get a weekend's festivities off on the right foot?

For All Intents & Purposes

With a background in sales and customer service, Wendy Riordan, recognised an opportunity when she heard a friend describe how he and his partner fell out whilst hauling their gear from parked car to festival campsite. What if there was a company who could deliver your camping kit to you directly on site? This week's Kickstart Your Business feature Pamper The Camper is Wendy's helping hand to the beleaguered camper.

Seriously Lads, We Deliver To Festivals

Wendy really seems to have thought of everything. Customers book their camping gear and extras (including Ladies & Gents' Pamper Packs filled to the brim with the essentials for a great weekend) through the website, nominate the festival they're attending, and then simply stroll up to the Pamper The Camper pick-up point (and shop) at the festival campsite.

Although George professed his own horror of camping, even he allowed that this is a brilliant idea, and likely to become a great business. I suggested that Wendy has really got her own essentials spot-on: Pamper The Camper is a great name, and she's invested in a eye-catching and memorable visual identity that makes it easy for word-of-mouth to do the rest in terms of spreading the word to would-be happy campers.

Pitch In Yourself

What else can Wendy do to win over the hordes of festival-goers, first here in Ireland and then in the UK and beyond?

Listen back to Wendy on Kickstart Your Business (with thanks to Energia) and tell us what you think? We'd love to hear from you.

Kickstart Your Business is broadcast on The Right Hook on Newstalk every Thursday around 6.25pm and is available for playback immediately afterwards on Newstalk.com.

Winning Hearts & Minders

Whilst recovery from a heart attack often begins in the hospital, it doesn't have to end there. However, across the world, recovery from and management of chronic conditions can be painfully slow as overburdened health professionals and the systems that support them struggle to deal with the numbers of patients coming through the hospital service.

Wouldn't it be great if the patient could self-manage their recovery through a bespoke programme that bridged the gap between enthusiastic amateur and the health professional?

Her Heart's In The Right Place

That's just what this week's Kickstart Your Business guest, physiotherapist Avril Copeland, thought as she worked with patients in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital. She turned thought into action by developing TickerFit, a cloud-based app that links with smartphone and other wearable technologies to provide health professionals with all of the information they need to support patients in their recovery.

Avril is targeting large health organisations such as the HSE in Ireland, NHS in the UK and private hospitals across the world.

TickerFit For Purpose

Shane (standing in for George) immediately warmed to this innovative application, and wondered how Avril might go about realising her ambitions to see TickerFit adopted by health organisations the world over.

I suggested that Avril needs to ensure that her best customer for TickerFit, the ideal patient who will get the most value from her innovation, doesn't get lost in worldwide web of technology investor who can quickly lose sight of the heart of the matter when it comes to building value in a business.

As it happens, Avril's dad is the legendary Dublin tailor, Louis Copeland, and Avril would do well to reflect his focus on the customer, that same focus that prompted her to set up the business in the first place.

Set Our Hearts Beating Faster

What can Avril do to win hearts and minders the world over?

Listen back to Avril on Kickstart Your Business (with thanks to Energia), and tell us what you think? We'd love to hear from you.

Kickstart Your Business is broadcast on The Right Hook on Newstalk every Thursday around 6.25pm, and is available for playback immediately afterwards at Newstalk. com.

Let's Talk About Sex Siopa

For a nation that's famous for our gift of the gab, we are slow and more than a little uncomfortable talking about sex openly. And don't ask us to talk about sex toys or products! That may lead to 'wink wink, nudge nudge and sure what we would know about such things?'

What we do know is there is a demand for good quality and safe sex products (yes, even in little old Ireland!) and because the industry is largely unregulated and customers are unwilling to talk openly about their consumer needs, there is a real danger that customers will end up purchasing badly designed and poorly made products, all for want of a mature conversation.

Starting The Conversation

Sex Siopa, this week's feature on Kickstart Your Business, is just the company to get the conversation going. Founded by Shawna Scott, who on a visit back to home to her favourite sex shop in Seattle, was struck by how completely normal the shopping experience felt and was determined to bring a similar approach to sex shop retailing in Ireland. Sex Siopa stocks well designed toys and accessories as well as providing customers with current, up-to-date information about toy care, safe sex and the products themselves.

Get Ireland Talking

As with any product, it's important to get customers using, talking about and reviewing their purchases. That's a challenge in any industry but particualty in this one. With her well designed website and matter-of-fact and informative blog, Shawna is making it easy for customers to have mature and engaging discussions about their shopping experience.

Over To You

What other ways can Shawna keep the conversation going through her website? Listen back to the show on Kickstart Your Business and let us know what you think. 

We'd love to hear from you.

Kickstart Your Business is broadcast live on The Right Hook on Newstalk106 in Ireland every Thursday at 6.40pm and is available on Playback.

  

Meanwhile, for those of you Kickstarting your own business in 2015, why not check out our Raising A Brand Programme, a practical course (one afternoon a week) over six weeks during which Gerard teaches you all you need to know about researching, developing and building a brand that will make you the natural choice of customers.