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.

Heads Up On Audio Headgear

More and more, modern life seems to demand a soundtrack. But for many athletes and others who like to listen to music on the go, the headphones and earplugs typically required to wire them for sound as they step to the beat are unwieldy and uncomfortable. It's difficult to get lost in the music when you're tripping through the wires or plugging your ears.

If The Cap Fits

When Padraig Clarke's wife and business partner Sinead found conventional headphones uncomfortable whilst out running, they decided to research and design their own wearable technology solution to the problem. And so, Saorbuga, loosely translated from the Irish as Move Freely, and offering wireless audio headgear, was born.

Padraig, our featured guest on Kickstart Your Business, introduced three types of bluetooth audio headgear: the traditional beanie, the sports beanie and the sports headband. With the market for wearable technologies exploding worldwide, their design seems to tick all the boxes, so there is likely to be a significant opportunity for Saorbuga.

Talking Heads On Listening Heads

George immediately saw how Saorbuga might make his round of golf all the more enjoyable, and we were quick to acknowledge how this audio headgear has applications in all sorts of environments were people on the move want to walk or work handsfree whilst listening to their favourite sounds (or picking up on calls and messages).

However, I suggested that whilst the market opportunity is enormous, Saorbuga faces the challenge of building their brand quickly before the traditional technology giants come out to play. Padraig and Sinead need to focus on the core of their market, find their Bullseye Customer, and work to build a strong customer base in a sizeable niche (e.g. running clubs).

Throw Your Hat In The Ring

What can Padraig and Sinead do to get the world listening to music whilst sporting the latest Saorbuga headgear?

Listen back to Padraig 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.

Trendster: Talking To My Generation

As adults, we're often quick to dismiss the opinions of teenagers on world affairs as ill-informed and superficial, particularly as seen and heard on social media. Mind you, that's a charge that could be typically levelled at the opinions of young and older alike when aired in those open spaces.

When everyone's a publisher, the role of the editor becomes increasingly important if we're to say something worth hearing. Free speech can too easily become cheap speech, and if words come cheap, they rarely cost a thought. So when most of what we hear from teenagers comes unfiltered to our adult ears, it's easy to conclude that they don't hold thoughtful and well-informed opinions on the things that matter to us all, young and older alike.

Read All About It.

There's no shortage of media targeting young people, but none seem to seek their informed views on issues that matter. Enter a new Editor-in-chief. Although still in school, our featured Kickstart Your Business guest, Harry McCann has been an entrepreneur for the past three years. He was prompted to set up Trendster with his schoolfriend and business partner Jack Cullen, in order to give young people a platform to tell their own stories, comment on the news, and give a thoughtful voice to a generation.

Harry is Editor-in-chief to a team of correspondents across the world from Ireland to the Caribbean island of St. Kitts and beyond. Whilst the new publication is still finding its voice, it's evident from the growing readership here in Ireland and further afield, that there's a real appetite for news for the young people, by the young people.

Airing Harry's Views

As an inveterate opinion-maker and news hound, George was audibly impressed by Harry and Jack's precocious ambition and enterprise as publishers and reporters. And he was quick to acknowledge the challenge facing any youthful entrepreneur of gaining access to the same levels of funding and supports enjoyed by their adult counterparts.

Meanwhile, I was struck by the challenge Harry and Jack face in striking a balance between being both the young head and older head on young shoulders at the same time. Whilst the appeal of Trendster to its target audience is likely to lie in its youthful exuberance and freedom of expression, Trendster the business will need to operate in the adult world when it comes to issues around press standards, accountability etc. These youthful entrepreneurs will need to grow up quickly, but not too quickly that they lose touch with their teenage peers.

Your Turn To Start A Trend

What can Harry and Jack do to get teens everywhere tuning in to Trendster?

Listen back to Harry 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.

To The Waters And The Wild

After a slow start, the return to nature in what we eat is finally well-established as both a lifestyle choice and a viable market, with all of the major supermarket retailers now featuring a substantial 'free-from' section or aisle. Those of us who care a little or a lot about what we put into our bodies are now better catered for than ever, with the allergic or intolerant less likely to be dismissed as cranks.

However, the revolution in the food we eat hasn't been matched by similar changes in the perfumes and other toiletries we put onto our skin, many of which contain harmful chemicals and additives. Free-from in this case usually means avoiding their use entirely, which means missing out on the extraordinary range of delicious fragrances offered up by Mother Nature.

Come Away O Human Child

This week's featured guest on Kickstart Your Business, Joan Housden, offers Mother Nature a helping hand in bringing some of those natural fragrances into the mainstream. Although her own background is originally in music production, June's interest in natural health and nutrition prompted her to team up with her friend Joan Woods to develop Ireland's only certified organic range of fragrances, Waters + Wild. Made in an ancient stone barn in West Cork, Waters + Wild are a range of scents inspired by the pristine nature and beauty of their location using age-old traditions of perfume making with a 21st century twist.

If I Could Save West Cork In A Bottle

Both Bobby (standing in for George) and I were suitably impressed by the smells and sights of Waters + Wild's fragrances and packaging, agreeing that the fairly minimalist bottling and labelling supported by inspirational images of locations and ingredients worked well.

However, I suggested that June and Joan might go even further in helping potential customers online and elsewhere 'smell' the choice of products through sight when introducing the individual fragrances, which are currently presented without the related imagery. Rose & Oud for example could really be brought to pungent life with the assistance of some of the beautiful pictures that appear elsewhere on the Waters + Wild website.

The Sweet Smell Of Succes

What do you suggest June and Joan do to send the gorgeous fragrances of Waters + Wild wafting across the world to potential customers everywhere?

Listen back to June 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.

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.