After 15 years working with global brands, Ennis-based ACORNS alumni Breige Grogan wants to help SMEs achieve e-commerce success with her business Little Rock Digital.
We talk to rural women entrepreneurs from across Ireland who recently took part in the ACORNS 9 programme.
Acorns recently celebrated a decade of support for female entrepreneurship in rural Ireland. 57 women entrepreneurs who completed the recent programme saw their turnover increase by more than 40%.
“Having often dealt with blue chip clients in my previous role, I love working with small retailers, because they are often family businesses, and you develop a deeper connection with the client”
Women in rural Ireland with new businesses or at least with well-developed ideas are being invited to join next phase of the programme, ACORNS 10.
The ACORNS programme is designed to support early-stage female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland through a peer learning approach. Thanks to the support of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the voluntary contribution of time by Lead Entrepreneurs, there is no charge for those selected to participate.
Only early-stage female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland, and who have had no sales before the end of June 2021, are eligible to apply.
ACORNS 10 will run from October 2024 to April 2025 and will include six monthly round table sessions, a workshop on understanding financials, a briefing by various development agencies and an end-of-cycle celebration.
Little Rock Digital
Breige Grogan, who is originally from Carrickmore in Co Tyrone, set up her business at her home in Ennis, Co Clare, in August 2022 after spending over 15 years working in digital marketing and ecommerce for global brands.
“Little Rock Digital is a digital marketing and ecommerce consultancy which helps retailers who don’t have an internal digital or marketing resource, to grow profitable ecommerce businesses,” she explained.
Breige brings her experience to bear in providing guidance and mentorship to retailers on their ecommerce businesses.
She decided to go out on her own after having her daughter, Áine, in 2021 as she wanted more flexibility to manage her work/life balance.
As well as the personal reasons, Breige had also identified a gap in the market.
“The acceleration to online retailing that happened during the pandemic had put a lot of pressure on SMEs and smaller retailers to get their online offering up to scratch very quickly.
“Having often dealt with blue chip clients in my previous role, I love working with small retailers, because they are often family businesses, and you develop a deeper connection with the client.”
Since setting up Little Rock Digital, Breige has had wonderful support from larger agencies that she subcontracts work from, and she built on that to the extent that she recently hired a digital marketing executive to help her three days a week.
“The ACORNS programme provided a structured framework for my thinking and helped me define what I wanted the business to be. One of the best things about it was the sharing and learning from each other as participants.”
Breige’s immediate plans are to consolidate existing growth and win new business on the consulting side.
“In the longer term, I will look to hire new team members.”
What is ACORNS?
ACORNS, which stands for Accelerating the Creation Of Rural Nascent Start-ups, is in its 10th year. It is funded through the Rural Innovation and Development Fund by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM). ACORNS was a runner up in the 2018 European Enterprise Promotion Awards, Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills. The programme was developed by Fitzsimons Consulting.
Eligibility Criteria for participation on ACORNS
To be considered for ACORNS, applicants must:
- Have set up a new business which has generated sales no earlier than the end of June 2021 or be actively planning a new venture and have made good progress towards getting the new venture off the ground. Indicators of actively planning a business would include organising the start-up team, sourcing equipment / facilities, money saved for the start-up, writing the business plan, etc.
- They must own or part-own the business and be living in a rural area, that is in an area outside the administrative city boundaries of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.
- If selected, applicants must be available to attend the launch Forum and first round table session on October 21 and 22, 2024.
- They must expect to become an employer within three years.
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