This is the final piece of our series which we’ve published to share the common challenges that most of us will face at some point in our business journey. We’re so thankful to have been able to speak to some of the great women in business who we met at the Women’s Inspire Conference last month in Galway.

The challenges we were reminded of at the conference are so real – no person is alone when they feel the struggle of starting up a business. Recognising common issues and addressing them as early on as possible is important to ensure our business runs smoothly, and displays a sense of leadership.

Lucy Hall spoke to us about managing Cash Flow and developing processes within a business at the very beginning which, if we’re not used to doing, can be really difficult to tackle. We advised keeping your accounting very clear and up-to-date, and using a cash flow management tool such as Pulse or Float. As for developing processes at the beginning, delegating work at first can become difficult so learning how to let others take control of some of your work is important. Use a popular collaboration and teamwork tool such as Trello or Slack so you can assign tasks to others and monitor the work being done. Read the full piece.

In our second piece, we spoke to Noreen Taylor Doyle who mentioned finding distribution and stepping online as some of her biggest challenges. When we first start a business, we absolutely must assert ourselves in order to meet new people who can help us and potentially work with us. Noreen resolved her distributor issue by pitching at a food fair as they were then approached. Mixing with others is key. For stepping online, there is always going to be a worry of whether or not it will work out, so it is important to do the research and know exactly who you’re aiming at online. Try and catch their attention. Read the full piece.

CEO of MediStori, Olive O’Connor, gave us great insight into how she started her business and the difficulties she faced including her own mental blocks and presenting her business idea accurately. Tackling your own mind can be the hardest but we need to remember that trying and failing is better than not trying at all. When it comes to marketing our business idea, presenting it appropriately and relevantly is important. Getting honest feedback from different people is necessary, however try to choose people who aren’t friends or family. Read the full piece.

Philipa Jane Farley is a privacy law specialist and she has mentioned the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as a challenge that many of us will face now that we must shift our marketing to comply with it. This will come into effect on the 25th of May, 2018. We must fully understand it and that can be difficult given the amount of information. However, there is a website here which can help explain everything. Learning how to conduct a privacy audit is key. Knowing that you comply with the regulation will give you peace of mind. Read the full piece.

You can find each piece in full on this blog too, and be sure to sign up to hear about new articles on all things SME. We have some exciting new content coming this way.

We attended the Women’s Inspire Network conference in Galway a few weeks ago, and as we spoke to some of the amazing women in business, we were reminded of the challenges we can face while setting up a business. This could be in terms of finance, stepping online and a range of other issues, including the challenges we face within ourselves. If you are struggling with certain things while trying to get your business off the ground, just remember: you’re not alone.

Philipa Jane Farley
Business Consultant
Privacy Law Specialist
Twitter @JustCallMePips

Philipa is a privacy law specialist who has worked in IT and legal advisory positions for 20 years, and is an expert on the General Data Protection Regulation. She and her family moved to Ireland from South Africa in 2017.

“A big challenge for me has been the shift in marketing with the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). There’s a website explaining everything. You can become so paralysed by it so find somebody in your circle who knows what they’re talking about.”

The GDPR will be introduced on May 25th 2018, and anyone in business (individual or organisation) must be aware of it. It’s true that you can become lost in a sea of information, but there is a helpful website here, which explains everything you need to know. Learn how to run a privacy audit on your business, so you can be sure that you are complying with regulation.

“Also, trusting that people will come to you and use your service – you have to make yourself look so good that they do.”

It can be hard to trust that you will generate leads and customers in the beginning stage of business. The fear of failure can be hard to ignore. But if you have faith in your business, are confident in its values and are marketing those values correctly, you are likely to do well, even if it takes a while to get off the ground.

Find out more about Philipa on her website, philipajane.com
Keep an eye on our social media for the next part of our series coming next week.

We attended the Women’s Inspire Network conference in Galway a few weeks ago, and as we spoke to some of the amazing women in business, we were reminded of the challenges we can face while setting up a business. This could be in terms of finance, stepping online and a range of other issues, including the challenges we face within ourselves. If you are struggling with certain things while trying to get your business off the ground, just remember: you’re not alone.

Olive O’Connor
CEO of MediStori
International healthcare speaker
Twitter @OliveBlogs
@MediStori


Olive is CEO of MediStori, the personal health organiser designed to keep all your medical appointments, medications and medical history in one place. This is inspired by her family’s number of health conditions, which can be hard to keep track of without MediStori. She is a wife, and also a mother to 4 children.

“My biggest inward challenge was to pass the mental block; to pass the fear of ‘can I do it? Is it worth the risk?’.”

Tackling your own challenges mentally can be the hardest. We must assess the situation and be honest with ourselves, all the while thinking ‘it’s better to take the leap and find out if it works, than to never try at all’.

“Another equally big challenge was restructuring and marketing my story in different ways to different people, all the while keeping it accurate and relevant. I had to know my core message very clearly while knowing what way to talk about it.”

Presenting your business idea to different people can come with a lot of work. Not everyone wants the same thing from a business. Find your USPs (unique selling points). A good idea to test your business idea is to talk to other people. Beware of who you talk to. Family and friends are often motivated by support for you or fear for you, rather than the validity of your business idea. Try to find people whose opinion is not clouded by emotional support.

Find out more about MediStori on the website, www.medistori.com.
Keep an eye on our social media for the next part of our series coming next week.