Acorns project supporting female entrepreneurs

Meath female entrepreneurs are encouraging others from the county to join the latest cycle of Acorns - a highly-successful development initiative to support early-stage female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland.

Eimer Hannon of Hannon Travel is a Lead Entrepreneur on the programme and encourages other business women to apply.

“The Acorns programme is a great initiative for any female start-up entrepreneur. It allows them the time to take a helicopter view of their business and their group acts as the board they could never afford, in a confidential environment.

“If you can commit the time to be involved, you won’t regret it,” she says.

Programme organisers are looking for female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland, who wish to start and develop new businesses or who have recently started a venture.

A total of 50 new entrepreneurs will be selected and the free initiative will run over six months from October 2021 to April 2022 with the deadline for applications midnight on 10th September.

Past participants from Meath include: Catriona Callaghan of The Bunnery; Clare O Connor of Clare O Connor Coaching; Jan Douglas of Rocky Island Speckle Park Beef; and Louise McGrath of Deenamic Ltd. All four businesswomen have encouraged anyone interested in Acorns to apply for the programme.

“Being part of the Acorns Community made a big difference to both me and my business,” says Clare O’Connor.

“Attending monthly meetings with the support and expertise of the Lead Entrepreneur and my fellow Acorns resulted in the growth of my business and myself. Having these ladies to be accountable to, receiving feedback and advice from them, and having the support from the whole community is priceless.”

Catriona O’Callaghan said: “I would highly recommend Acorns to anyone thinking about applying. It was a wonderful, professional and confidential programme from start to finish. I enjoyed every minute of it, gained confidence and made lifelong friends.”

Among the 50 new businesses that took part in the last cycle of Acorns during the Covid-19 pandemic, many changed their career direction completely to establish their businesses.