Chairperson of the Ennis Chamber Golf Sub-Committee Paddy Darmody said “This annual event is one of the highlights of the business social calendar in Clare and an enjoyable and worthwhile day is guaranteed.  It is also an ideal opportunity to network and reward clients and colleagues alike in a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere.”

A team of four golfers in the Golf Classic costs €300 including a meal served afterwards in the adjacent Woodstock Hotel.  Individual golfers are also welcome for €75 each and will be formed into teams.  The Golf & Spa Resort has also kindly offered every participating golfer a free visit to their top class Leisure Facility, valid for one month from the date of the Golf Classic.  Businesses can also have their name and logo highlighted on the golf course by sponsoring a tee or a green for €100.

To book preferred tee times, please contact Margaret Neylon on 065 684 2988 or info@ennischamber.ie

Speaking yesterday Rita Mc Inerney, CEO of Ennis Chamber said, “Given the recent debate in Ennis regarding a proposed out-of-town development on the Clare Road, we welcome the re-emphasis on the sequential approach to determining a planning permission in the published Retail Planning Guidelines.  However we are still concerned at the decision to raise the cap on planning sizes in Limerick and Shannon given their potential impact Ennis. This is especially the case given the manifest over building in this sector over the past ten years.”

“Ennis Chamber echo’s Chambers Ireland’s concern that the guidelines need to be interpreted across the country on a consistent basis, to ensure clarity for all players in the retail planning process and that the consultation around joint or regional retail strategies needs to take into account people’s shopping and travel patterns and the circumstances of the retail sector in the area,” she concluded.

EmployAbility Clare Launched by Disability Campaigner Caroline Casey 

In line with a recent government announcement of a new national identity – “EmployAbility Service” – for the range of employment services for people with an illness, injury or disability, Clare Supported Employment Service  has formally announced and launched its new identity: EmployAbility Clare.

The new identity was unveiled by Caroline Casey, a well-known campaigner for people with disabilities, while addressing an audience of almost 190 people at Dromoland Castle, Co Clare on Wednesday, 25 April.  Speaking to a theme, Impossible is an Opinion, Ms Casey said the new name, which puts the focus on a person’s ability to work, rather than their innate or acquired disability, more aptly describes what supported employment is about.

 ‘Impossible is an Opinion – The Business Advantage of Thinking Differently’ was organised by EmployAbility Clare in conjunction with Shannon, Ennis and Limerick Chambers, IBEC, and co-sponsored by UCB Manufacturing Ireland Limited, Shannon Development, Vitalograph, Dromoland Castle Hotel, ZAGG International, and the Cregg Group. Broadcaster Leo Enright acted as MC for the event. Ennis companies, Dilger Studios and Clare Adventure Group, provided very valuable gifts which were presented to two lucky attendees at the event.

Team leader at EmployAbility Clare, Alice O’Carroll, in thanking so many people for attending the event in Dromoland, and the many sponsors and supporters who made the evening possible, said: “While our service centres on supporting people with an illness, injury or disability to secure employment, we’re also concerned with assisting employers. People are living longer, and as the population rises, more and more people acquire disabilities. People in the older age groups hold most of the wealth in society and naturally have more purchasing power.  It makes sense for businesses to attract as broad a range of customers as possible. They can learn how best to be accessible to people with disabilities by finding out, first hand, from people with disabilities how to make their products and services attractive and accessible.”

EmployAbility Clare, which offers a range of supports, including workplace adaptation grants, wage subsidies and on-site employment facilitators, is key in supporting people with an injury, illness or disability overcome the challenges of adapting to employment and to being accepted in the workplace. It also works with employers to ensure new recruits make a meaningful contribution to the business’s bottom line.

“We strive to reassure employers and give them the confidence to see the benefits of working with us. The new identity, which focuses on the positive benefits of ‘employing ability’, rather than ‘supporting employment’, will help to address any existing misconceptions,” added Ms O’Carroll.

Cryptic Retail Ireland will give a presentation for retailers on how to assist business owners to protect and increase profit margins and to create awareness of areas where profit margin may be lost and increased through increasing sales, reduce expected and unexpected costs, while also managing and maintaining margins. 

Aoife Madden of the Ennis Development Forum and Rita Mc Inerney of Ennis Chamber will then lead a discussion on Retailing in Ennis by reviewing the recent survey by Retail Excellence Ireland on the effects of a Tesco Extra built on the outskirts of Naas last year has had on the town centre and also presenting a Retail Commitment for Ennis document for attendees to consider. 

Tuesday4Networking is open to Chamber Members and Non-Chamber Members.  All retailers from around the county and businesses associated with retailers are all welcome to attend.  To book, please contact Margaret Neylon on 065 684 2988 or info@ennischamber.ie  Places are €20 with discount rate of €10 for Chamber Members.

On the night Cryptic Retail Ireland will also outline details of an upcoming series of Workshops for Retailers by ACIST Skillnet in association with Ennis Chamber.  The 4 Workshops will take place over 4 Wednesdays of May 9^th, 16^th 23^rd and 30 from 6.30pm-9.30pm in the Temple Gate Hotel and will cover the top 4 topics affecting all retailers namely Increasing sales, Reducing expected costs, Reducing unexpected costs and Managing and maintaining margins. 

The cost is just €25 per workshop per person.  The workshops will cover profit margin within a business that has employees, products and a premised such as a retailer, however many of the principle of profit margin will apply to all business owners and managers.

The Ennis Chamber would like to congratulate two of it members that won the County Awards

Best Customer Service went to The Town Hall Bistro, Ennis, Co Clare

Best Hotel Restaurant went to The Long Room at The Lodge, Doonbeg, Co Clare and a special mention goes to Wade Murphy who won Best Chef for The Lodge.

All County winners will now compete for the Regional and All Ireland Title which will be announced at the Irish Restaurant  Awards in the Burlington Hotel Dublin on Wednesday 14^th May 2012.

For further information contact Amy Woods, Chambers Ireland on 01 400 4319 or email amy.woods@chambers.ie.

Your business can survive and thrive with the GrowthCLUB Business Performance Day on Wednesday, the 4^th of April.  After attending a GrowthCLUB, you just may achieve more in 90 days than most business teams do in a year.  GrowthCLUB allows you to create a 90 day “Roadmap for Your Business.”

One day every 3 months is your chance to step out of the business and get focused.  ActionCOACH work with you to map out a winning game plan for the next 90 days of your business.  Plus, with practical workshops and expert training, you and your team will get back to your business with clear direction and new tools to achieve your goals faster.

You’ll create momentum… and by the end of this high energy day, you will have a clear picture of where your business will be within 90 days, and a step-by-step GrowthCLUB plan to get you there.  Using this roadmap, you and your coach will take your business from where you are to where you want to be.

Get More Done, in Less Time…
You’ll learn how to plan your week in just 20-30 minutes, and to get the most out of every day in 5-10 minutes. Plus, you can also bring your whole team – and just imagine the results you could achieve if everyone in your business knew how to get more done in less time …

GrowthCLUB Creates Massive Results…You will walk away with…

• Energy, vision and focus for the next 90 days in your business
• Take home strategies to build your profits right away
• A ready-to-implement, real time 90 day plan
• Set goals for the next quarter
• A switched-on network of business contacts to work with
• The skills and the tools to get more done in less time

“PPPP – Poor Planning leads to Poor Performance.  Derek’s quarterly planning days have been invaluable to me in taking time out from hectic day to day activities and raising my outlook to the months ahead.  It is helping us to be more proactive rather than reactive to the challenging business environment.  We now recognise results when goals are achieved rather than drowning in the never ending list of To Dos.  Derek helps you focus on where you are going and not where you are and where you have been.”
Diarmuid McMahon, Director, Sherry FitzGerald McMahon

The GrowthCLUB 90 Day Roadmap Business Planning Day which will take place on Wednesday the 4^thof April from 9am to 4pm at the Temple gate Hotel, O’Connell Square, Ennis.  The cost for the day is normally €250 but is available through Ennis Chamber for the special price of €175.  Contact Derek O’Dwyer on 087 222 0720 of derekodwyer@actioncoach.com for bookings.

Business customer demand in Ennis for a quality internet connection that offers greater upload speed at an affordable price led to the extension of the product roll-out.  Backhauled onto its existing Tier1 Fibre network at Westpark Business Campus in Shannon, the FibreAir service offers businesses secure internet connections with scalable bandwidths from 10Mb up to 100Mb, a dedicated service to each customer with no sharing of bandwidths, and a fully synchronous service with the same upload and download.

The Official Launch of BBnet’s FibreAir product will take place on Friday, the 30^th of March from 8.15am-9.30am in the Temple Gate Hotel, O’Connell Square, Ennis.  All businesses interested in learning more about the service are welcome to attend this free event.  In addition to the launch of the service, BBnet have lined up two exciting and impressive speakers for the benefit of businesses; John Page of DELL Computers will present some case studies on applications of Cloud Computing while Mark Scanlon, CEO of Sourcedogg.com in Galway will present an informative presentation on developing a new business, based entirely in the Cloud.

Speaking ahead of the launch, BBnet Managing Director Barry O’Halloran said: “The provision of competitively priced, high capacity, bandwidth which is totally independent of the incumbent provider’s network and infrastructure, will greatly assist companies that are migrating to cloud computing and that need greater upload speed.  With more and more video conferencing applications and remote connectivity being used within the business setting, to and from headquarters, there is a widespread interest in upgrading to higher-speed services.  Using a combination of fibre and the latest wireless technologies, this new service will facilitate the migration to higher capacity services and accelerate the migration from copper-based networks.”

All businesses are welcome to attend this free Launch and Talk by contacting BBnet on 061 364 315 or sales@bbnet.ie.  All attendees will be entitled to avail of a LIMITED special offer voucher which can be used to obtain significant savings against the first year’s subscription for the FibreAir service.

Any queries, please contact Críona Brassill, Senior Policy Advisor – Tax and Finance, Forfás Tel:  +353 1 607 3182 criona.brassill@forfas.ie