'˜Take the leap and follow your passion'

Amanda McGeown of Healthy Juice Co; Marion OConnor of Marion OConnor Nutrition; speaker Dympna Hannon and Paula White and Madonna Daly of Bank of Ireland.

Dympna Hannon of the Hannon Clinic looked at the area of goal-setting, and the difficulties people often face when trying to achieve their goals.

She explained: “People often find themselves pondering over for long periods of time, often years, the things they’d love to do and achieve. The barriers they are therefore facing are mental barriers, their self-talk is the obstacle that is preventing them from achieving what they want to achieve. If you on the other hand truly believe that you will achieve something, you will be able to make progress and put your goal into action.”

Dympna encouraged those that have a goal, or a dream, to ‘take the leap, follow your passion and enjoy the journey’.

Councillor Andrew Ewing (centre), Vice-Chair of the council's Development Committee, pictured with local business representatives and Justin Bentley. Justin spoke at the recent networking lunch on how to protect your organisational data and the impacts of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

For those businesses wanting to find new customers, and increase their sales, James Coyle of the JCR Network kicked off the business breakfast for Global Entrepreneurship Week with an analysis of sales negotiations and why they often fail.

James explained: “Satisfying a customer’s need is critical to successful sales negotiations. This means that as the supplier, you need to be aware of their potential needs in advance of meeting. Reaching a ‘win-win’ outcome that then delivers mutual gain helps to clinch the deal.”

Alderman Allan Ewart MBE, Chairman of the council’s Development Committee, commented: “The council wants to support local businesses as much as possible, and to encourage would-be entrepreneurs to take that step into self-employment, as well as work with existing businesses to acquire new skills and knowledge that will support their continued growth.

“I’m delighted with the uptake of our programme of seminars and workshops delivered during Global Entrepreneurship Week, and I would like any local businesses with growth aspirations to contact the council, to find out about the business support initiatives and networking events we have available.”