Back for Business is an initiative to foster and support entrepreneurial activity among returned Irish emigrants or those planning to return to live in Ireland in the near future.
The six-month part time development programme is aimed at assisting them to start and develop a business. It addresses the challenges that all early stage entrepreneurs face with a particular focus on the additional barriers and challenges faced by those who have been out of the country for some time.
Find out more information, download the brochure here.
Back for Business is for returned Irish emigrants who have lived abroad for at least a year and have returned to Ireland in the last three years, or for emigrants currently living abroad who are planning to return to Ireland in the near future.
Suitable applicants will be (i) those who have recently started a new business in Ireland, or (ii) those who are well advanced in their plans to start a business and have moved well beyond the concept stage, or (iii) they are becoming/have become entrepreneurs through the acquisition of an existing business. If the business is newly established, it will not have generated sales in Ireland before 2022.
Back for Business is based on a model of peer support, entrepreneurs supporting entrepreneurs. Volunteer Lead Entrepreneurs will make their time available to facilitate round tables and to share their experience of starting and growing a business. This approach is well proven as being effective in bringing about increased motivation and confidence among entrepreneurs and having a positive impact on their enterprise development.
They are not, and cannot be, experts in every area of business, but they bring valuable and personal experience of starting and growing a business.
Find out more about the Lead Entrepreneurs here.
Register for Back for Business – The call for applications is now closed.
If you are interested in participating in the next cycle of Back for Business programme, you can register here and you will be sent a link to the application form as soon as they become available (Late 2024).
