ChaChing

The latest additions to the ChaChing family are: Derryshal Sales Consultancy, The Brew Crew, Business Software Solutions, Internet Marketing Clinic and finally The Business Shop.

Derryshal Sales Consultancy – Consultative Sales Training for Technology Companies

Established in 1999 by Tim O`Leary, the main focus of Derryshal Sales Consultancy is working with clients who are selling technically complex solutions and services, helping them to define with more clarity what products/services they are selling and to be more effective at the selling process in general. With some clients, I have helped them find new markets for their products, setup indirect sales operations, and helped them to recruit salespeople and business development managers. Some of Tim`s key achievements include winning, 3 years in-a-row, the International Salesperson Master Awards for exceeding sales quota (with sales totalling more than 10 million pounds sterling in the 3 year period) while working in the UK for Storagetek (now part of Sun Microsystems)

The Brew Crew – Kegs, Beer, Gas, Coolers For Parties – www.brewcrew.ie

Brew Crew supply kegged beer with dispensing equipment for parties and events within Leinster. We stock and supply all mainstream beers. We have been in business 10 years. Call 1800 BEER ME or, www.brewcrew.ie for details. email: chaching@brewcrew.ie

Business Software Solutions – Professional Software Development – www.businesssoftware.ie

Business Software Solutions was established in 2000 to provide companies in the Munster area with practical solutions to business challenges through innovative use of technology. Systems are delivered using standard Microsoft Office toolset, providing low-cost, immediate benefits to our customers.

Our EasyText system is a desktop application which allows the user send text messages to groups, individuals or persons with a specific appointment date.

We also develop custom solutions for customers, delivering tangible benefits to meet specific needs.

We have a number of other systems available including StockTrace food traceability, TimeTrace time recording, EDI Generator for EDI invoicing, BankTrans for direct debit origination.

We have over 20 years industry experience and bring this to bear on the projects we undertake. All projects are designed, developed and implemented in close collaboration with our customers to ensure the business objectives are achieved.

Internet Marketing Clinic – Let’s put the web to work for you – www.internetmarketingclinic.ie

Founded by expert Internet Marketer Eoin O’Leary, the Internet Marketing Clinic has grown to become one of the most successful Internet business and Internet marketing consultancies in Ireland.

We show our clients exactly what to do to unleash the potential of the web for their business, to significantly increase their profits, using plain, jargon-free English.

We offer multiple services, such as how to use Pay Per Click Advertising (Google Adwords ™) to get targeted visitors to your web site. We offer Search Engine Optimisation, so that the Search Engines list your web pages where potential customers / clients can find them. Want to know how to use Facebook or Twitter to grow your business, ask us. If you want to learn to use Google Adwords ™ or Search Engine Optimisation, we can teach you.

The Business Shop – Buy. Sell. Invest. – www.thebusinessshop.ie

TheBusinessShop.ie was founded in 2005 as an online marketplace for business opportunities across the island of Ireland (Republic of Ireland & Northern Ireland).

The idea for the marketplace originated from a challenge the founders experienced while running their first business. In the process of identifying other businesses to purchase to scale their existing business, they discovered that no central resource existed. With this gap pinpointed, the founders quickly set up theBusinessShop.ie to enable businesses all over Ireland to confidentially advertise a variety of opportunities.

Now, visitors to this online marketplace can view a wide variety of business opportunities – businesses for sale, franchises for sales, start-ups seeking funding or indeed established businesses seeking investment or partners. In 2008 alone, Irish business people with opportunities exceeding €257m in value were introduced to buyers and investors at theBusinessShop.ie.

Visitors to the site are typically entrepreneurs, business owners, business brokers, corporate finance advisors, franchisees, accountants, solicitors, private investors and venture capitalists.

Earlier this week I posted on boards.ie in the “Entrepreneurial & Business Management” Section.

Basically I gave a link to www.ChaChing.ie and asked people for their feedback. I did the exact same on the Enterprise Ireland mailling list. Its a new idea and I wanted some general feedback from the business community in Ireland and I figured using the internet would be a quick and easy way to do so.

According to the good folks at Enterprise Ireland doing this is not spam.

According to boards.ie forum moderators this is spam.

Ok maybe a simple difference of opinion, that can happen in life, I accept that. The guys at boards.ie might have a different policy than Enterprise Ireland, which is fair enough.

Except around the same time as my post another post from a guy.. lauching a website… looking for feedback on the idea… is not spam! So my post, about launching a website, looking for feedback is spam, however the exact same thing from somebody else is not spam. Make sense?

Maybe its the fact that ChaChing is commercial? And it was advertising something that costs money? Actually no hang on, ChaChing is completely free. There is no charge to post an advert, and people reply directly to the company who posted the advert.

The point of ChaChing is to try and help Irish businesses make extra revenue while also helping individuals make some extra cash. To post an advert is FREE. Its a FREE advertising route to get new customers. How can it be spam when its offering a FREE service?

Lets look at the sentencing aspect of this, Im now banned for 4 days from that particular forum on boards.ie. Maybe thats not so bad, but when you look at this thread the same moderator gave a 5 day ban to a member for earlier for using foul and abusive language to another poster. So now according to boards.ie asking for feedback on a forum about something that you are offering to the Irish business community completely free of charge is 80% as bad as using foul and abusive language?

boards.ie is a great resource but maybe it should have some form of an appeal process? All I can do right now is send a message back to the person who banned me asking him why. Even criminals get a chance to appeal to a different judge, dont see why individual posters to boards.ie should not have the same opportunity…

UPDATE:

Seems it was not completely down to lose cannon forum administrators on boards.ie! From talking with the forum administrator in question he told me that it was down to a user complaining. To be fair boards.ie must listen to their users and if a user complains they have to take action. However when I complained about the original banning on the Open Talklist one person in particular seemed to know a bit more than he should.. I wonder if he was the mystery complaining user from boards.ie? It’s something I will never get to know the answer to, but sure would like to know!

Im forever forgetting this one liner to search and replace text using perl, I can’t be the only one!

Here it is: perl -p -i -e ’s/oldstring/newstring/g’ filename

This week we would like to welcome Graphic Workshop, BFM Consultants, Digital Active and Blueface to ChaChing!

Graphic Workshop – Graphic Design & Website Solutions – www.graphicworkshop.ie

Graphic Workshop, based in Offaly are the people behind great websites such as Goffs & Kildare Water Safety. Headed by Tom & Silvia they provide great solutions and due to their close relationship with some of their clients have a unique insight into the needs of equine markets. See Graphic Workshop on ChaChing www.chaching.ie/graphicworkshop

Digital Active – Limerick Web Design and Internet Marketing Company – www.digact.com

Digital Active partners our client forward to achieve their online business objectives. We have the full range of capabilities to make your project an ongoing success.

We can advise and deliver solutions in creating your online business strategy, website design / development. In addition we have the full range of inhouse tools available to deliver your successful online email marketing campaign. We were founded in 1995 and have won clients throughout Ireland and overseas. Our Clients include organizations of all sizes both domestic and multinational. See Digital Active on ChaChing www.chaching.ie/digitalactive

BFM Consultants

Company with 25 years Banking experience, with the skills to address any financial issue from Accounting to Finance. The Company is also involved in Property Management in the Limerick city area. See BFM Consultants on ChaChing at www.chaching.ie/bfmconsultants

Blueface – The Future of the Phone – www.blueface.ie

Blueface was founded in Dublin in 2004 to provide Internet telephony services to the Irish and UK markets. Blueface develop open-standards based VoIP technologies, including a private label (white label) platform. This has been deployed to major ISP’s in Ireland, in Southern and Eastern Europe and in the Caribbean. Blueface operate infrastructure in both Ireland and the UK, with direct interconnects with the incumbent operators, along with VoIP and TDM interconnects for worldwide voice termination. Blueface is a privately owned company with offices in Dublin and London. See Blueface on ChaChing www.chaching.ie/blueface

I really like the billboards placed around Cork by the Cork Chamber about beating the recession. It beats hearing the usual doom and gloom we get hammered with from the media. Granted it is still an advert all the same, but it has a bit of a call to arms appeal I think. I haven’t seen anything else like it around the country so I think the whole concept is a Cork one. I’ll try and get a picture of one if I remember to bring my camera next time I’m around the city. You can see the details on the Cork Chamber website www.corkchamber.ie

Came across the Starting Today seminar on the examiner website here. I have to say I think its a great idea and well done Joan Mulvihill. I remember somebody telling me a while ago that he believed the only way out of the Irish recession is for individuals to create new successful Irish businesses and that neither government or the unions had the answers. I tend to agree with this thinking and we need more people like Joan Mulvihill, heres a quote from Joan:

“In this recession, people need to take charge of their own world,”

“I am not emigrating again. Don’t ask people who are 35 years old, or people with families and mortgages to go to Australia. Don’t panic. Think about what you want to do. A lot of people set up businesses in the 1980s and 1990s just to avoid emigration. We must ask ourselves ‘what can I make?’ Or ‘what can I do?’”

More information is available on the Starting Today website – www.startingtoday.ie

Donedeal.ie are a finalist for the All Ireland Marketing Awards I have used the website in the past and found it to be really useful! So best of luck to donedeal.ie! For more info click here