THE GOING FOR GROWTH SUITE OF INITIATIVES

Going for Growth is the brainchild of Paula Fitzsimons who put it forward in response to an initiative on women and entrepreneurship proposed by the NDP Gender Equality Unit in the then Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. ‘My mission in Going for Growth is to support women entrepreneurs to achieve their growth ambitions and to get more women entrepreneurs into a growth frame of mind’.

Since 2009 the merits and excellence of Going for Growth have been recognised repeatedly by the EU, OECD, and European Institute of Gender Equality. In 2015, Going for Growth was awarded the European Enterprise Promotion Award, Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills. In 2016, the initiative was included by the EU and OECD in a compendium of examples of innovative initiatives. The entrepreneurship tool for policy makers, released by the EU and OECD, includes Going for Growth as a case study.

Since its initial creation, Going for Growth has developed into a complementary suite of initiatives which focuses on supporting ambitious women entrepreneurs to achieve their growth aspirations throughout the various stages of their entrepreneurial journey. It also has developed into a virtuous circle whereby many of those who have benefited from the peer support willingly take the opportunity to give back. The one area that has not been covered up to this point is the earlier pre revenue stage.

A SUITE OF COMPLEMENTARY INITIATIVES

Starting Strong is designed for ambitious female entrepreneurs who are at an earlier stage in the development of their business than traditional participants on the Going for Growth programme. However, the application process is the same with those interested registering on www.goingforgrowth.com in the first instance. To be considered the businesses will have moved well beyond the concept and prototype stages and will have made some initial sales. Starting Strong is aimed at exceptional female entrepreneurs whose length of pre-revenue development, degree of innovation and growth potential are all significantly greater than the norm. They should also expect to be exporters. Starting Strong participants have a specially tailored programme including round table sessions with Lead Entrepreneurs and relevant topic based workshops. This is made possible by the contribution of the following Starting Strong Supporters – Beauchamps, Glandore, KPMG, PayPal and SoftCo.

Starting Strong is a rejuvenating program that encourages you to take a holistic review of your company, vision, strategy, tactics, and assumptions, while learning from fellow new entrepreneurs and accomplished business owners. It gives you new tools and skills that can help springboard your company to the next level of growth. But most importantly, it connects you with a network of incredible women who will make you realise you are not alone.

The opportunity on Starting Strong to engage with a group of talented women with such diverse backgrounds, skills and aspirations but all facing similar challenges is a rare and invaluable support. It’s such an engaging and supportive network. Our Lead Entrepreneur was a terrific sponsor and role model. I took learnings away from every session and there was an extra bounce in my step on the days we met.

GOING FOR GROWTH

Going for Growth, which is about to begin its 15th cycle, is focused on established female entrepreneurs, who wish to be supported to grow and develop their businesses. Most of those selected for participation have many years revenues, at a minimum at least two. The initiative is based on peer support – entrepreneurs supporting entrepreneurs. The selected participants are grouped at round tables, which are facilitated by a Lead Entrepreneur, who gives their time on a voluntary basis. They meet once a month over a six month period to look at common issues, share experiences and explore ideas and strategies for growing their businesses.

The most important attributes of the Lead Entrepreneurs are that they have experience of growing a business and have personal experience of the growth journey on which the participants are embarking. They are not, and cannot be, experts in every area of business, but they have first-hand experience of facing the challenges of growing a business. Many are past participants of Going for Growth.

At the conclusion of the six month cycle, participants attest to heightened confidence, motivation, and ambition and the great majority report that they feel nearer to attaining their growth goals. Combining their feedback, the tangible results of increased revenue, employment, and the number of participants with export experience are reported by the participants at the end of each cycle.

“Aimee participated in Starting Strong, Going for Growth and Continuing the Momentum. Of her involvement, she says “Going for Growth has been a super asset to me personally and professionally since 2018. When you go through the stages of business and meet challenges, obstacles and equally successes, it is so lovely to have a roundtable of like-minded businesswomen to discuss these with, gain advice from, and of course learn from your Lead Entrepreneur. I just can’t rate the programmes highly enough.”

Aimee Connolly, Sculpted by Aimee

CONTINUING THE MOMENTUM

On successful completion of a cycle, participants can stay connected by joining the Going for Growth Community. Members can apply to participate in Continuing the Momentum round tables, take part in topic based workshops, attend a Meet the Leads event, and are invited to attend the annual Community Forum. The Community of past participants has developed into a powerful network of female entrepreneurs all committed to supporting each other to overcome challenges, seize opportunities and continue their growth journey.

Continuing the Momentum was developed following a clear demand by many participants for continued participation on Lead facilitated round tables to continue their growth journey, through a focus on goals and milestones and the benefit of an advisory panel of peers.

Supported by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG, the activities of the Community are tailored to deliver focused developmental support to the individual member and her business, together with enhanced networking opportunities.

LEAD ENTREPRENEURS

The Lead Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Going for Growth. One of the strengths of the Going for Growth programme is the high quality of the Lead Entrepreneurs, all of whom give their time on a voluntary basis to the programme.

They are not and cannot be experts in every area of business, but they have faced the challenges of starting and growing a business. Their facilitated group sessions are a central part of the initiative. Several of the Lead Entrepreneurs are previous participants.

INSPIRING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs is a natural extension of the Going for Growth suite of initiatives. To include the ideation/ pre revenue stage in the entrepreneurial journey of female entrepreneurs further strengthens the virtuous circle – supporting female entrepreneurs at every stage of their growth journey, while creating structured and coordinated mechanisms for those further along the journey to reach back to those less advanced, in a spirit of altruism and peer support.

The proven approach of peer support, voluntary role models, goals and milestones and measured outcomes (qualitative and tangible) will be harnessed for a new group of potential women entrepreneurs – those with an innovative idea. Like the other initiatives, Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs draws on the voluntary contribution of time and enthusiasm of women entrepreneurs, and the contribution of expertise, time and other support from Enterprise Ireland, KPMG and other experts.

The positive effects of this initiative may be expected to be far reaching as the Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs is intended to open minds to entrepreneurial possibilities among those with good potential entrepreneurial capacity. The effect may be at another time or may give rise to another type of new enterprise.

We look forward to this new cohort of potential entrepreneurs stepping forward, who themselves in time may become Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs.

THE GOING FOR GROWTH SUITE OF INITIATIVES: A VIRTUOUS CIRCLE

Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs is proudly supported by:

What people are saying

“Enterprise Ireland believes that Ireland’s economic success will depend on a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem which utilises all the skills, ambition and talent of a diverse population. Increasing the opportunities for women entrepreneurs and women in management is a key focus for Enterprise Ireland, and our six-year Women in Business Strategy aims to grow the number of women becoming entrepreneurs and leaders. We’ve set ambitious targets, including doubling the number of women-led companies in the export market by 2025, and progress is now clear. In 2022, 58 (more than one-third) of the 161 start-ups we invested in were women-led, up from just 8% in 2012. ‘Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs’ is all about reaching out to and supporting women who want to become entrepreneurs and build innovative businesses of scale, focused on export markets. I have no doubt that many of these will be leading Irish companies in the future and we look forward to supporting them on their journey.”

“KPMG has a strong track record of supporting women in business, so we are proud to be involved with Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs. We are excited to see all of the opportunities that this initiative will open for women who have a vision to harness their skills to be entrepreneurs growing scalable businesses. This tailored initiative will encourage more women to establish innovative businesses focused on growth with global ambition. In addition to the panel of Inspiring Female Entrepreneurs who will offer insights into their entrepreneurial journey, KPMG’s experts will facilitate a series of Inspiring workshops and share their expertise with this year’s ambitious entrepreneurs on a wide range of key business matters such as cyber security, corporate and tax governance, raising finance and much more.”