Oh, The Sweet Smell Of Success

In our fast paced, 'get in and and out of that shower quickly' modern rush, there is something deliciously indulgent about soap. Even the name 'soap', along with its implied old fashioned qualities, invites us to slow down, suds up, and take the time to enjoy one of life's simple pleasures.

Let Them Make Soap

Our featured company on Kickstart Your Business is ready and waiting to slow us down and soap us up! Mianra, a business founded by Hajni Kele, a woman fuelled by a love of craft, perfumery and a good dose of curiosity, decided after being made redundant in 2013, to create natural, handmade soaps and bath delectables.

Based in Cork, the business makes soaps full of skin-loving luxurious ingredients likely to tap into the growing trend for feel-good products that do good too.

A Little More Soft Soap, Please!

There is much to admire in how Hajni has gone about pitching her wares, not least the stunning photographs on her website which truly evoke a world of bathing luxury.

Whilst Hajni has some great ingredients for her brand story, Gerard suggested that she needs to work up a narrative lather all of her own  in order to create a compelling and enduring brand that will make her the natural choice of customers in gift shops across Ireland and further afield. These ingredients include the name she has selected for her range (Mianra means Mineral in Irish), her own Hungarian origins, her new home in Cork, and her own enduring fascination with all things soap.

Over To You

What other ways can Hajni help customers to get into a lather? Listen back on Kickstart Your Business (Mianra Soaps) 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 6.20pm and is available on Playback.

Never Mind The Plastics, It's The Puncbottles!

We've all gone a bit mad on the fitness and health front lately. Kickstarting the day with a glass of delicious juice straight from the masticating juicer, and then filled with nutritional virtue, we head out on bikes or foot to take over the world, one healthy step at a time.

We may even take an extra bottle of juice with us, ready for the mid-morning slump. But what type of bottle to bring that will keep the juice fresh and uncontaminated? Trying to answer the question may well put a dent in your healthy buzz.

Here's Looking At You, Punc!

Don't panic! This week's Kickstart Your Business feature was PuncBottles, a company set to solve precisely this dilemma. Founded by Trish Mulvaney, who, with a long personal and professional interest in health (she sources and sells juicers and water filters), decided to create a drinking bottle that is non-plastic, reusable and good for the pocket and the environment. Now the healthy buzz never needs to end!

Punc Rocks!

Both George and Gerard appreciated the immediate visual appeal of Puncbottles (so important when you're introducing a new product to a mass market), whilst Gerard suggested that Trish also needs to make more of the distinctive name she's chosen for these bottles with attitude, by creating her own verbal currency (e.g. Do you feel healthy, Punc? Well, do you?). In this way, she helps the all-important word-of-mouth take on a life all of its own.

Over To You

What other ways can Trish make sure her website packs a punc? 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 6.20pm and is available on Playback immediately afterwards.

Movie-Making Never Was This PC (or Android!)

Long gone are the days when only the professional video maker could make a video. From home movies to sales videos, ordinary people are taking their creativity and cameras in their own hands and making great videos.

Up to now the technology to edit home videos has only been only available to Apple product users, denying PC or Android product users their chance to unleash their creativity on the world. All they axe for is a bite of the apple!

Creativity Unleashed

Well, thanks to TrakAx, this week's feature on Kickstart Your Business, PC and Android users no longer have an axe to grind! Business owner Caitriona Barry has created a toolkit that enables novices to shoot great videos regardless of their choice of device.

Whether the customer wants to capture the moment for a home movie or an impressive sales video, TrakAx will transform the raw content into the final product, ready to amaze the world.

Video Woos The Radio-Star

As an inveterate maker of videos, since his pioneering days splicing rugby footage in the earliest days of the medium, George was quickly won over to the benefits of using TrakAx. Gerard observed that for others who might be newer to the whole business of cutting and pasting, selecting soundtracks, title credits and the rest, the beauty of TrakAx is that it's been built using tools that are familiar to users of the latest smartphone technologies (which we know from even toddlers take to with gusto). So making movies with TrakAx really is child's play!

Over To You

What other ways can Caitriona win over new customers to TrakAx? 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.