Female Entrepreneurs

0:00Now next on Monday's morning focus, we're shining a spotlight on female entrepreneurship in this county and a program helping women turn business ideas into reality. Acorns is now inviting applications for its 12th cycle supporting women in rural Ireland who are in the early stages of starting their own businesses and joining me now in the show. Our two Claire entrepreneurs who know the program first hand, Breeze Grogan of Little Rock Digital, and Karina Rosengrave of Burn View Farm. And you're both very welcome to the show. Thanks so much for joining us. Breeze, can you start by telling us a little bit about Little Rock Digital? I'm up prompted you to take that leap into entrepreneurship. Hi, Alan. Good morning. Thanks for having me. Yeah, so Little Rock Digital is an e-commerce and digital marketing consultancy. So I set it up in 2022 after about 15 years, I think, at client side and digital marketing and e-commerce rules. And I worked client side and don't sort of everything from A to Z on that side of the business.

1:02And after COVID, I started working more with retailers, training them on their e-commerce and training them on their digital marketing so that they could do more of that work themselves. But then what I spotted was a nation in the markets, realizing that retailers really don't have the time or the skills internally to execute a lot of what they've been learning and digital marketing, any commerce. So I set up Little Rock Digital as a fractional service to retailers. So we mostly work with retailers who don't have a major e-commerce or any e-commerce or digital marketing skills internally to their business. We support them that way so they can have senior resources, they can have their websites, fully resource and managed by experienced people without the cost of a full time hire internally. So that was a motivation really, I was seeing that gap in the markets and then also it was for personal reasons after working for other businesses for so many years, it was maybe time to take that leap and work for myself.

2:04And we'll see, I must be satisfied. I've taken that leap and to see it working out so well. And Karina, your business grew out of the family farm and croixine. Was running a free-range egg business, all of a something you had in mind or is this an idea that you pardon the pun hatched over time? So thanks for having me here this morning. And we would have a family-owned farm and it would have all been socklers. And Jerry, my brother, diversified into dairy over nine years ago. And then in 2023, we diversified the farm into free-range eggs. Having looked at my granny raised backyard hins all her life and gave the eggs to everyone for free, I had often said to her, why don't you sell your eggs? But it wasn't what she did. And when she passed away, then I wanted to remember her and have her ethics and eat us around the farm. And from there, I stumbled into the acorns tent with my sister Mary

3:04in the Taiwan Championships. And I spoke with the girls in acorns and my sister said, that's something you should do. So I took my idea of eggs to Molengar for our first session of acorns, which is acorns line. And it was an idea at the time that how can I get this idea of free-range eggs? How can I supply to the people, a clear to restaurants, cafes, and to local shops? And from there, with the guidance of the group with acorns, they got my idea to the shelves, literally. They had to, with the marketing, the KPIs, your labeling, to get your product. I had no problem producing the egg, it was in order to get my eggs to Markus, with where I was struggling. And the businesses growing from strengths to strengths, and what I love about it is it started with our local shop in Excelruan, where Axina took in my eggs, and also it started with Cax and Crescien.

4:05Just nice and small, for now, I have branched out into shops in NS Care Fruit and Veg, and then to the greater restaurants, Fidland Bowl, your Fennor Cafe, Nikola, and it is just organically grown, but it is thanks to acorns, for giving me the confidence to be able to go in and mark at my egg to the local restaurants and cafes and shops. I know it's clearly been beneficial for Crain and Anobaries, beneficial for you too. I know you've said acorns gave you a structured framework for your thinking and helped you define what you wanted your business to be. Why do you think programs such as acorns are particularly valuable for women, for female entrepreneurs who are starting a business and starting one in rural Ireland? I think acorns were really invaluable to me, and I was actually lucky enough to do two cycles of it, so I did acorns 9 along with Crain and then a couple of years later, then I went back to do ploughs, which is kind of like a long night, and come back and do another one of it.

5:05I think, with my experience of being self-employed and growing a small business, that females are amazing networkers and fantastic collaborators. So acorns provide an excellent framework to bring that together, and I suppose structure that. Guards do so well in those types of environments, because they're very naturally collaborative, but one of the things that I did, I suppose, that I had to do on purpose when I went out of my own was to take mentorship and to engage with people that were able to give me advice and people from industry. And I find that very, very helpful. So to be able to go into a structured program, then sort of take that on to the next level, acorns is very organized. Like you meet your entrepreneur, you're the entrepreneur once a month or six months, you go through each month, there's a sad topic, you know, be out of your finance, be your marketing, your personal effectiveness, you go through a sad topic each month, and it's really pushing you through,

6:06you know, that's the as of growth and growth in your thinking around what your business is and how you're going to grow it. And I think that's valuable for any type of entrepreneur start night, you know, meal or a female. And then obviously the wonderful thing that comes out of it is the relationships, you know, the long-term relationships that you make with other female entrepreneurs, from rural Ireland, they're in similar positions to yourself, which is lovely, you know, regardless. And you know, that's been very beneficial to me. And of course, the deadline for acorns 12, a greener is midnight on the 18th of September, there's 50 places available for acorns 12th cycle. Where can women find out more and apply? I'd be clearly from what both you and Brees are saying that would be usually beneficial for any woman who's got her own business and maybe is looking forward to take it to the next level. Yes, you can apply through acorns.io and I would suggest if there's any woman out there listening to the program today,

7:10no matter how big or small your idea is right now, acorns will help you achieve your goals in a safe, net-rich, king spot. It's a really safe, tight, net-rich space where no matter what questions you have, the person right next door beside you is probably thinking the same thing. So it does give you that confidence to ask the questions. You're given right advice by your lead entrepreneurs and also then you develop a safe network within your core group. For anyone apply, look up the Department of Agriculture website as well because it's the department funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Cash to any of us, even Brees or myself, you know, contact us on our social media pages. We're happy to give you that encouragement to take that step to join. Now the place is our sole image that there is only 50 places available and if you don't get it this year, apply next year.

8:10You know, it's very competitive to get in. But when you get in that circle, it's the most amazing place to network with like-minded business data. Yeah, clearly beneficial to both of you and glowing testimony is there. So if you're interested in getting involved, you've got the details there to apply for the 12th cycle of acorns. My thanks to Kareena Rosegrave of Burning View Farm and Brees Grogan of Little Rock Digital for joining us on the show.