Which Start Your Own Business course + grants?

Flimbos

Hi all.

Just looking for your opinions on which SYOB course is the best. I'm unemployed at the minute so the FAS course would be free for me. Then, I have heard good things about the course provided by my local county Enterprise Board (in my case Fingal), although this would cost me €200 I think. I'd appreciate if people could tell me about their experiences of these courses.

I'm also looking into grant aid for a small start up, to help with basic start up costs and marketing. Any advice on the best place to look? I'm thinking of the enterprise board again, but do they have criteria in which I would need to have completed their SYOB course to qualify?

Also, does the above type of grant aid take the form of a no-strings grant (based on an appropriate business plan of course) or would it be in return for an equity stake?

Thanks in advance people.

D.W

As far as I know most CEB's that offer a grant to start ups would expect you to match/pay a certain percentage of what they would offer. I'm also assumming that many local CEB's have no funds available for a lot of projects as budgets have been allocated but this can often be down to the time of year so I could be wrong. CEB's need you to demonstate that your new business is capable in time of employing people.

Came across this site which may be worth a look perhaps and may have some pointers http://www.first-step.ie/

ed2012

hi everyone does anyone know where i can get any information on the Fas 'start your own business courses' and if there any good!!

bizzyb

ed2012 wrote: »

hi everyone does anyone know where i can get any information on the Fas 'start your own business courses' and if there any good!!

Hi Ed, i am doing a start your own business course with FAS and it is very interesting, i have only 2 of the 10 weeks completed but already we are straight into starting our business plan. The course is split into 10 modules. If i can be of anymore help feel free to drop me a pm.

Bakemate

I did a SYOB course with Dun Laoghaire Rathdown CEB. It was probably the best €150 I've ever spent. They used a crowd called QED to host it and they were so helpful. I even got a call a few months later saying to contact them if I needed help with anything, even if it was a year later! You don't need any experience or even an idea for a business. Anyone can go along who is interested in how to start a business now or in 10 years time!

I applied for the Loughlinstown Fás run SYOB scheme.

Has anyone done this? Is it any good?

(Didn't feel it warranted it it's own thread btw)