Small Businesses opening during the Recession in Cork

Owen

Pre-approved by Castie!

Just a quick idea to promote businesses opened up by individuals made redundant/given pay cuts to try and fight their own way out of the recession. I'm going to kick it off with 3. Feel free to add your own!

New boutique pet shop.
First up is a new pet shop opening in Ballinlough this week belonging to friends of mine. It's called 4 Paws and a Tail, and is going to be doing verry very healthy dog and cat foods, accessories, DVDs, etc. They have sample packs of all their foods for anyone who wants to take them home and try them out. Ken and Agata at the helm there, and the grand opening is this Saturday. The shop is located between from O'Driscolls supermarket and the Pharmacy on the opposite side of the Ballinlough Road, next to the clothes shop. If you know anyone with a cat/dog/pet, send them in please, they're new, and could really really do with the support.

Owen

First Irish online carpet store
A neighbour of mine has opened up a carpet business online. It's only up and running about a month, but he's optimistic and looking forward to helping out as many people as he can. It's called CarpetShop.ie and posts out samples of carpets to people who are interested. Local installation can be arranged anywhere in Ireland. Brian Healy's the owner, and a top guy to deal with.

Owen

Call out SMART repair car bodywork service
Me! Yup, doing bumper repairs in about 3 hours, parking sensors in about 3 hours, or a full set of alloys in a day. Not going to shill too much as it's me, and that'd just be weird, but all the details for my facebook page are in my sig. Here's a before & after. Still not making a fortune, but paying the bills thankfully

marvsins

Were you on the radio with Neil Tuesday morning ??

Owen

God no

marvsins

There was a guy on about his SMART business that he setup last year having had been made redundent from pfizer the year before.

Owen

Yup, guys is called Rob Virgo, runs a new business called SMART abc repairs which is a UK franchise. Said he was the only person in Cork doing it ... which is news to me!!

Nice guy though, does bumper corners, but AFAIK, only bumper corners, at least I'm cheaper :pac: Right, that's it. End of the shilling. Or else I'll end up banned.

So come on boardsies, anyone else opened up a small business to climb out of financial turmoil? Or bought a taxi? Anything!

One more business - Juice bar in North Main Street shopping centre.
Opened up by a guy I know - Pete (Known as Pete the Pole), Polish guy with perfect english living and working here for years and years, was previously in the motor trade, and found the hours too demanding. So he's opened up the juice bar about 3 months ago. Nice menu, I recommend the chocolate banana smoothie. Yum!

simu

There are a lot of new shops on Oliver Plunkett St. and the side streets off it.

There's also an artists' studio, gallery and occasional cinema on Camden Quay.

Faith

PaintDoctor wrote: »

Pre-approved by Castie!

Just a quick idea to promote businesses opened up by individuals made redundant/given pay cuts to try and fight their own way out of the recession. I'm going to kick it off with 3. Feel free to add your own!

New boutique pet shop.
First up is a new pet shop opening in Ballinlough this week belonging to friends of mine. It's called 4 Paws and a Tail, and is going to be doing verry very healthy dog and cat foods, accessories, DVDs, etc. They have sample packs of all their foods for anyone who wants to take them home and try them out. Ken and Agata at the helm there, and the grand opening is this Saturday. The shop is located between from O'Driscolls supermarket and the Pharmacy on the opposite side of the Ballinlough Road, next to the clothes shop. If you know anyone with a cat/dog/pet, send them in please, they're new, and could really really do with the support.

If they were to sell Royal Canin pet food at a competitive price, they'd definitely find a regular customer in me!

I'd ask people to support pre-existing small local businesses too. For example, buy your school books in Liam Ruiseals rather than Easons, buy your coffee in somewhere like Cork Coffee Roasters or Café Depeche rather than O' Briens, and so on.

corkcomp

Faith wrote: »

If they were to sell Royal Canin pet food at a competitive price, they'd definitely find a regular customer in me!

I'd ask people to support pre-existing small local businesses too. For example, buy your school books in Liam Ruiseals rather than Easons, buy your coffee in somewhere like Cork Coffee Roasters or Café Depeche rather than O' Briens, and so on.

you should be able to get a years supply or royal canin by calling to a few vets and saying you were thinking of switching to that brand.. the number of samples they get are huge.

I wouldnt agree there tbh, i always look at the numbers employed in an establishment rather than how long its been there and the origin.. most small businesses are owned by one or two people and have a few employees but if easons in cork were to close the job losses would be far worse

Owen

Fair play to everyone for supporting local businesses, for whatever reasons - it's important to keep shopping locally when possible, it all goes around and as they say a rising tide floats all boats.

The idea of this thread though, is just to give those people who've started their own business a shout out. To let people know they're out there, and not on the dole. So if we could stick to that I'd appreciate it

FTGFOP

Faith wrote: »

support pre-existing small local businesses [...] buy your coffee in somewhere like Cork Coffee Roasters

I just buy it 'cause it's delicious! Summerhill Blend ftw!

Faith

Faith wrote: »

I'd ask people to support pre-existing small local businesses too. For example, buy your school books in Liam Ruiseals rather than Easons, buy your coffee in somewhere like Cork Coffee Roasters or Café Depeche rather than O' Briens, and so on.

Of course no one local works in O Briens or Easons :rolleyes:

Léan

Don't know if I can put this here or not, sorry mods if it's not acceptable.

But I'm a BMUS student trying to get my name out there as a piano teacher. I'm going into my third year of teaching now and I love it.
I've very reasonable rates. I teach in Douglas or from the UCC School of Music, Sundays Well.

All ages and all backgrounds of music catered for. Playing for fun or exams, or even if you just wanted to get a grasp on harmony, theory or reading music

wideangle

A friend of mine has opened a bike shop in Blarney it's at the same site as the driving range.It's called oddly enough Blarney Cycles.
They sell alot of road race bikes and gear but sell mountain bikes,bmx and smaller bikes also.Great range service and repair's too al model's.

sweetdreamsire

Cork based business newly started. www.sweetdreamsireland.com supplying 8ft X 10ft designer wallpaper murals for childrens rooms. A great addition to brighten any bedroom, playroom etc. Great interaction tool for children who are learning their colours and numbers. Free delivery in Cork City also.

edanto

RoverJames wrote: »

Of course no one local works in O Briens or Easons :rolleyes:

That's not the point.

The point is to support locally-owned businesses as much as possible. But of course everyone is free to do as they want!

The ideas in this thread remind me of an adbusters campaign to support local businesses in your own area. https://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/actions/350-project.html

It might be a little dramatic, and of course they use US statistics, but the basic concept is..

The call to action is simple. Choose three local businesses you can't bear to see go under. Spend $50 a month between the three and help keep their doors open. When you buy local, the ripple effect spreads from cash registers right to your street: 68% of what you spend in an independently owned local store returns to the community through taxes and payroll. With a national chain, only 43% stays in town......Don't let your dollars pad corporate bonuses, get them into the pockets of your friends and neighbors.

Sandvich

Technically the recession peaked a few months ago and we've been slowly on the way up. It's good to see some businesses opening, but it'll be a long time before things recover properly I think.