As a followup to my article on Hotdesking in Carlow I was invited by Terry Clune to review the hotdesking facilities in the Taxback.com premises in Kilkenny.

The IDA park is on the Kilkenny ring road  – easy to access and within minutes of most parts of Kilkenny City. I was not 100% sure where in the IDA business park that the building was located but as the picture of the building shows – it’s pretty obvious once you get there. There will be no problem giving directions to your customers.

The building is shared by a bank on the ground floor and Taxback.com on the first floor. The top floor is currently set aside for the hot-desking facilities (soon to be opened).

The first signs were good when I saw the milk delivered to the front door.

The area with the hot desk facilities was not
yet complete when I was there but the taxback open plan area gives an idea of what the final facilities will be like. An interesting touch is that the office is equipped with a white noise generator. The idea is that when you are on the phone the microphone is not picking up the voices of others around you. When sitting in the reception area it’s a bit annoying (I thought it was a noisy air con unit at first) but for the office area I can see how it would be very useful.

Some details of the actual facilities

• Each desk will have its own lockable storage space and a partition between the desks. The partition itself is too low for my taste (based on the current floor plan) but if that’s the only thing I can find to complain about then it’s a good sign.
• Visitors will be greeted at the main Taxback reception area and then you get a call. As a visitor it’s pretty clear where you need to go.
• There are current a few meeting rooms available that can be booked – or just grabbed on an ad-hoc basis.
• The hotdesking area has its own kitchen (with a slim balcony – not sure if smokers will be allowed to use it) but I was told that the taxback kitchen area will also be available. This is a really nice room with comfortable seating – great for getting to know your fellow hotdesker’s.
• Access is via electronic key fobs but it’s not clear how out of hours access is going to work as the front door gets physically locked.
• Broadband and phone connection are included  – you will be billed separately for your actual calls.
• There is a nice big parking area which is properly finished. Unlike many other Irish business sites – this one is clean and well maintained.
• Copying and faxing services will be available as well as access to a printer (although there may be a small charge based on usage).
• The lease period is a minimum of 1 month (so not true hotdesking) and the price is currently expected to be 400 Euro per month.

Please contact Kelley O’Neill on 056 778 3400 or koneill@tacback.com for more details and to ensure the details here are still accurate.

Some more photos:

The Taxback.com dining area

The Hotdesking Kitchen Area

One of the small meeting rooms.

We’ve got to try our best to fight the recession but sometimes we can’t help but cut back and let people go. As employers we have a social responsibility to try and help our employees. If we can’t keep their jobs open then we can help soften the landing.

County Carlow Chamber and Skillnet are providing workshops that will help with the transition from employed to hopefully re-employed. I’ve received the following mail from them and asked if I could reproduce it here:

As Businesses in County Carlow go through periods of major change including downsizing and restructuring, inevitably some employees will be put on short time or indeed sadly laid off .

Making the transition for these staff as smooth as possible is the trademark of an employer of choice, particularly when some of these staff have been taking care of your business for many years.

By way of support to companies facing such challenging times County Carlow Chamber through the Skillnet training fund has developed the Outplacement Workshop programme. These placement workshops begin with a comprehensive one-on-one interview with your employees to define unique skills and experience and to identify employment options which may include a similar job, a totally different position and/or self employment.

Often a career option may include re-training or a period of full time study. The emphasis is upon ’self-help’ and personal motivation, with direction and guidance provided by experienced professional people.
The significant benefits of providing this intervention to your staff during these very difficult times are:

• By looking after your staff at this sensitive time, you ensure your staff leaves your business on good terms and with dignity.

• Employees retained will have more respect for your organisation and the management team

• Future employees looking to join your organisation will have a positive view if they are aware that you have previously supported staff who were released

• Having a well managed Outplacement Programme helps reduce the impact of any significant loss of knowledge and productivity during the changes to the business

Our approach puts your employees at ease from the start by showing empathy and building trust to make for a successful working relationship, resulting in a smooth transition for your staff and your company.
Depending on the situation, if you are releasing one person or a small team of people, we can take the pressure out of the arrangements for you by liaising with your people direct to customise a outplacement services programme to include:

• Successful CV’s and Self Marketing Letters
• Job Search Strategies and Job Applications
• Winning @ Interviews
• Self Marketing, Networking & Selling Yourself
• Career Planning & Options
• Career Values & Needs Assessment
• Self Employment & Portfolio Careers
• Business Start Up
• Image & Personal Branding

We can run workshops and or 1:1 sessions either on site or off site at venues to suit you and your staff plus also provide the option for telephone/email support The objective of this intervention is to focus on encouraging people to think positively about change, seeing redundancy or short time as an opportunity rather than the end of their career. Where you have groups of employees who may be looking at career change or even self employment options, our successful Move Your Career ‘One Step Beyond’ Career Transition Workshops are especially designed for this purpose
To start this process, please contact, Ashling Ward on info@cktraining.ie or 087 6140386 in the strictest confidence.

Yours Sincerely

Niall McDonnell                                               Ashling Ward
_________________                                             ___________________
Niall McDonnell                                                   Ashling Ward
CEO County Carlow Chamber                            Training Manager
12/03/2009

Note: If you wish to send someone the link for this page – just give them www.keithshirley.ie/showcase

The Background

Following on from the success of Bizcamp in Dublin I’ve decided to use this blog to help promote local businesses. After all – we do business with people we know.

I’ll publish a number of interview style posts here  – starting off with Carlow and Kilkenny based businesses. It’s a great opportunity to raise your profile and hopefully get some more customers.

There are hundreds of boring business directories on the Internet. The profiles I’m trying to publish here will be much more personal, informal and interesting. I love to get to know details of peoples businesses and I want people reading this blog to be interested in knowing about your business.

How will it work?

You can write your own profile or I can help you. Just remember the style should be conversational and should not sound like boring sales brochure material. The questions below can form the starting point and then we can expand on any areas I feel are not clear.

Questions:

• What are your basic business contact details?
  - Who are you? Where are you based?
• What kind of services and products do you offer?
  - In plain English – pretend I don’t know your business.
• Who are your typical customers?
  - I’d like people reading the blog to be able to refer you.
• What makes your business special?
  - Is there anything you are especially proud of? Now is not the time to be modest.
• Are there any other things that you work on that are not necessarily part of your core business?
  - You’d be amazed at how often a business deal twists into something completely different.
• Is there anything about you or your background that stands out or that you’d like to highlight?
  - You might be an Interior Designer with 20 years project management experience at Microsoft. At least I’ll know that my house redesign is more likely to be completed on time.

How can I get the updates?

Hopefully you are interested in seeing the new profiles as they are published. There are a few ways you can do this.

On the right hand side of this blog there are 2 options that you can choose:

“Enter your email address:” – If you provide your mail address you will receive an email every time the blog is updated. Follow the instructions that are given after you click the “Send me Updates” button.

If you feel more comfortable with the technology then you can use the RSS feed by clicking on “Subscribe in a Reader”. This is the fastest way to get updates.

I’d like to have my business included

Great. Please send me an email (K.Shirley@Shercom.com) with the starting questions listed above completed (only as much as you feel comfortable). Please include your phone number. You can also call me – 087 9112027 – but I can be hard to get  – I won’t answer the phone if I’m with clients.

Once I have your details we can get in contact so I can fill out the details.

I know a lot of people are not used to having to promote themselves. I will help you. Note:

• You don’t have to have a website
• You don’t even have to have email
• You don’t need to be in business a long time

Do I have to pay?

No – I’m doing this because I want to help. I plan to leave the posts available for a long time but there is no guarantee. I’ll do changes for you if details such as phone numbers change. My blog is set to allow Google to follow links – that means you can have a link to your website (if you have one) and it’ll get a little it more exposure.

I reserve the right to edit comments or posts if something is unclear or inaccurate. I also reserve the right to delete a post. You have the right to get me to delete a post. I’ll be allowing people to post comments – that means you might get some good testimonials or some pissed off customers. I suggest you respond to both in a polite and helpful way.I don’t plan to remove negative comments unless they are abusive as I feel a business can shine by dealing with a negative situation in a positive way.

Enough about me – Let’s hear about you!

Pass this on to any friends that you think can benefit. Feel free to copy any text from here that you need. If you wish to send someone the link for this page – just give them www.keithshirley.ie/showcase

Since Lorna asked so nicely, here’s some news of an upcoming event. Hopefully she won’t mind that I plagerised the text from her Carlow Interior Design Blog.

‘Fighting Back’ Against the Current Down Turn

The first element of the Kilkenny Business Club’s campaign to “fighting back” is a high profile event titled “Fighting Back – Survival is Success” being held in the City on the 27th March. The Group, which comprises over 20 local business people, has secured a roster of high profile speakers. The event is being billed as an opportunity to learn the skills required to survive and thrive in the current market conditions, achieve business efficiencies and ultimately structure your business to cope with the challenges.

Speakers include,

• Dermot McConkey, an International Training Consultant with a sterling reputation as Ireland’s “Mr Motivator” and a client list, which includes some of Ireland’s leading firms.
• Hotelier and entrepreneur Liam Griffin, is a leading business and sporting icon and is regarded as one of the country’s leading motivational speakers.
• Paul Schütz was recently appointed as the new CEO of Aer Arann, one of Europe’s fastest growing airlines and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

All are welcome to attend the breakfast event to be held at Hotel Kilkenny, which will kick off with registration at 8am, breakfast at 8.30am and first speaker will begin at at 9am. The event will conclude by 11.30am. Tickets are available for only €25 by phoning Seamus on 0868510358 or email seminar@ kilkennybusinessclub.ie ; they are also available on the morning of the event at time of registration.

I received a very nice thank you letter for helping out with the Special Olympics Fund-raising Event a few weeks ago. My part was so small I was both surprised and delighted to get it.

I thought I’d reproduce the info here – so you can see where your money is going.

“We had a good steady flow of visitors all day and the feedback from the event was how relaxed and enjoyable it was; the lovely atmosphere and how well co-ordinated it was. I am delighted to tell you we raised €3500 on the day.

Who the money goes to

Every Euro is lodged into our Special Olympics Co. Carlow account and monies will be passed on to the 4 Special Olympic Clubs in the county:

1. Delta Centre
2. BEAM
3. St Lazerians School
4. Carlow Special Olympics Club

What the money is for

It will assist with their travel expenses, kit, volunteers and reaching out to more people with intellectual disability including those who would love to be part of the games but haven’t the means.

”

So well done to all those organising the event. It was a fun and enjoyable day – and of course – well done for the funds raised.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Special Olympics Ireland – Fundraising (keithshirley.ie)

Kudos to Motive8 for running a motivation seminar at the Killiney Hotel where anyone who is unemployed /redundant pays just for lunch ( €20).

Details are on the Blog from Motive8 but in summary:

Date; 27th March 2009
Venue: Killiney Castle Hotel
Time; 10am – 4.00pm
Cost; €120 per person includes lunch
Places limited. Book before 15th March and get 20% discount
Anyone who is unemployed /redundant pays just for lunch ( €20)

“This workshop is about taking action. It focusses on how we go about developing an attitude or mindset that will get us through this difficult period with a little less stress and allot more control over the final outcome.”

If you go then maybe you would like to do a guest post here about it. I want to continue the theme of “Feck The Recession” that we started at BizCamp.

At the same time – let me know if there are any other similar events that are running – I’m happy to provide some link love and publicity.

Thanks to Joy from Flexitimers for bringing this to my attention.

Bizcamp was featured a few times on the news. The sentiment that came across was exactly what we wanted – Feck the Recession – let’s just do business.

I appear in the background a few times.

Is that a claim to fame? My backside appeared in the news?

The RTE Link:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0307/6news_av.html?2502888,null,230

The News Report On Youtube:

Caelen King, CEO of ravehealth.com on fundraising

Campbell Scott, CEO of igopeople.com on fundraising

Keith Bohanna, Co-Founder of dbTwang.com on fundraising

I was right - it was a great day. A special thanks to all the presenters and the sponsors for their support and work. The feedback I’ve been getting from the attendees is great.

What did I get from the day? – Passion/ Action / Brass Balls

Passion:

It’s contagious. You need to have it to make your business really successful. If you are not passionate about what yu are doing then you cn’t expect much from your customers or potential supporters.

Action:

Just get up off your arse and do it. Now. Get started and keep pushing. Ideas are pretty cheap – they only become reality when you do something about it.

Now is a great time to start a business – you will learn how to be efficient and concentrate on core business requirements. When things pickup you’ll be in the position to make the most of it.

Brass Balls

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Don’t be afraid to try something new and quirky. Be brave and confident aboutwhat you offer and make sure people get to hear about it.

It’s a bit like waiting for a bus – Back in August I lamented about the lack of hot-desks in Carlow and now I find out that both the Shamrock Plaza and the Enterprise Board are going to have them.

Shamrock Plaza is being promoted by Jacqui McNabb (former Carlow Chamber of Commerce CEO). I met with her last week to review the offices and to talk to her about the facilities needed for hot desking. I am both happy and impressed to be able to say that she has covered all the points I could raise.

The building itself is located where Doyles of the Shamrock used to be – right on the Dublin/Kilkenny road in the centre of town. It’s a very impressive building with a finish that I hope other businesses will be inspired by. It’s always a pity to see a company move into a new premises and to let themselves down by using poor signs/flooring etc. There are a number of large corporate suites (with suspended floors) available which at the moment are completely open – you can configure them to match your requirements.It’s the small offices and hot-desk room that was most interesting for me.

The details are being finalised but the following were the points we discussed:

Lease Period: The offices will have short lease periods. This is important because in the current climate it’s hard to commit to a 5 year lease when you don’t know if you will still be in business. The vision for the hot desks is more of a mini office – you just rent the desk rather than an office. Real hot desking would involve leaving an empty desk at the end of the day. In this case you keep your desk – but if you still have it in 2 years then you need to make a commitment and upgrade.

Costs: Sorry – can’t say much about this yet and the details are being finalised. An office is available for 900 Euro a month – including phone line, power and internet link. The hot desk will be comparable. This is fantastic as it will allow people to try out an idea without having to sink all their savings into non productive assets. The hot desk includes a phone line and broadband.

Day-rental offices: There are no day rental offices as such – but they probably are not needed. Rented a meeting room for a day will probably cover most peoples needs.

Central Reception: The reception will be run by a Carlow company – AutoOffice – which I didn’t even know existed. They will provide full virtual admin services – answering the phone in your name, taking in post and deliveries and generally helping a small business to run efficiently and look like a bigger business. The phones are an interesting point – your bill be come via the central reception services – you don’t need to pay a seperate line rental.

Meeting rooms: There is a boardroom type meeting room available and a big room suitable for large meetings and training.

Out-off hours access: Everyone gets a little RFID chip that gives them 24 hour access. Obviously – if you are sharing an office with others you need to be a little more careful with securing your desk before you leave (this includes data protection issues).

Storage facilities: Each hot-desk will have some storage space with it. I spoke to Jacqui about providing extra space when needed but this might not happen.

Furnished desks: Furniture is included. It would kind of have to be. The good point is that it’s included in the standard office l;easing as well.

Parking: The building has underground parking as well as a few street level spots for short stays. It looks good and should avoid a lot of headaches.