Men in Ireland are twice as likely as women to set up a business. National Women’s Enterprise Day 2015, which takes place on Thursday 22 October, is one effort being made to remedy this. Of who that started a business in Ireland between January 2011 and June 2014, 70% were men and 30% were women.

According to last year’s Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s (GEM) annual report for Ireland, just 37% of women perceive they have the necessary skills to start a business (compared with 58% of men), while 48% of women report that fear of failure would act as a deterrent to engaging in entrepreneurship (compared with 37% of men).

Speaking at the launch of National Women’s Enterprise Day (NWED), Eamon Ryan, head of Local Enterprise Office (LEO) and of the NWED organising committee, said: “By providing a framework where aspiring female entrepreneurs can learn from businesswomen sharing their experiences, [they can] speak to those who have already started out in business, and build connections with other aspiring entrepreneurs. [This way] women can be supported in managing their fear of failure and find the confidence to set up their own businesses.”

“Female-owned businesses are increasing in number, but women are still under-represented in the world of small business. Increasing the number of female-led startups is an integral part of the Government’s action plan for jobs,” added Minister of State for Business and Employment Ged Nash.

One of those due to inspire at National Women’s Enterprise Day is Deirdre Bounds from the UK, who started up her business – i-to-i – from a bedsit and turned it into the world’s biggest gap year travel company. She sold it for £20m in 2007.

i-to-i runs courses for those who want to teach English abroad and also helps them find their work placements once they are qualified. Deirdre wanted to make the gap year experience accessible to more than just those from middle-class backgrounds and offered £125 weekend courses in the place of the £1,000 TEFL courses.

Deirdre’s late parents were Irish, both from Co Kerry. Her father was from Castlemaine and her mother hailed from Annascaul. She says she has great memories of Ireland, visiting here every summer growing up and working in her aunt’s restaurant in Cahirciveen. Deirdre says she set up the business out of desperation because she couldn’t get a job.

“I hadn’t done anything with my life, I’d been a kind of a dropout backpacker. I was 29 and I was unemployed and unemployable, so the only way forward was self-employment.”

One job interview she did go for before setting up her business was that of a recruitment consultant. She arrived 10 minutes early for the interview, but there was no one around.

At 11am sharp all these men in suits emerged from their tea break to go back to work. The idea of being corralled into a tea break room for exactly 10 minutes in a testosterone-fuelled environment did not appeal to her. So much so, that she left and didn’t even do the interview.

“I knew it wasn’t me. It’s good for some people – structure and suits – but I never liked being told what to do.”

Why does Deirdre think there aren’t more women setting up businesses?

“It’s a question of confidence really. Men do a couple of things better than women. They have confidence to bolster themselves up. They seem to have the confidence to borrow money. They’re not as concerned. We’re wired to watch money – women are more cautious in general. It’s the difference between men and women really.”

Deirdre says, however, that it’s becoming more common in the UK for women to go into business.

“I think that’s the whole area we’re in now with programmes like Dragon’s Den. It’s pretty cool to be working in a startup and not working for anyone else. It’s easier to start a business now. You can be a bedroom entrepreneur.”

What does she think can be done to encourage more women into business?

“You must start at school. Entrepreneurship should be encouraged as a career opportunity in school and more should be done in teacher training.

“Students should do a module of enterprise and entrepreneurship. You don’t have to have a big business. You can be a freelance writer, you can make apple pies at home. You can be a freelance designer, a freelance lawyer. In America self-employment is the future. Many people are going to be self-employed in the future and schools need to recognise this.”

When it comes to being an employer herself, Deirdre looks for weirdos – yes, you heard right. She finds that if someone is a bit off the wall they’re more creative. And in marketing in particular, people need to be creative.

“Business today is about standing out from the crowd. And to do that you need someone who is different.”

Her recruitment style has also evolved since she started out. Deirdre now strongly believes that one good way to get employees to care about the business even a fraction as much as the owner, is to give them a share, and this is what she did in the latter stages of i-to-i. In her new company, GoCambio, a number of staff have had shares from day one.

GoCambio

GoCambio connects people who want to travel with others to improve their language skills. The traveller gets a place to stay, a few meals and a warm welcome, in return for a few hours of conversational language tuition with their host. GoCambio even offers a free guest training course. The company is based out of Cork and Deirdre says she found the LEO here very helpful for GoCambio, more so than the LEO equivalent in the UK.

Deirdre’s brother helps run the company and they employ between 14 and 15 people – mostly young people from all over the world – with language skills.

“We need people from other countries because we need, for example, someone who speaks the marketing language of Spain – we need our product marketed to Spain in Spanish by someone who has knowledge of the local market,” says Deirdre.

She says she has no problem getting such people to come to work in Ireland.

“I’m really pleased that GoCambio is based in Ireland. Ireland has a great brand. Globally, everybody likes the Irish.”

Deirdre thinks that when it comes to business, the Irish are particularly good at marketing.

“The Irish are good at looking at things differently. That can be good and bad – it’s good if it’s channelled in the right direction. We need emotionally sensitive marketing language and the Irish are great at communicating. Down in Cork and Kerry, the way things are described is very interesting, it’s very unusual and peculiar. It’s the way the Irish think and speak. With the right training, Ireland could be one of the best countries at marketing.”

Deirdre’s advice to those thinking of setting up their own business is to “go into everything with your eyes open. If you’re going to go into business or be self-employed be prepared to put in everything you’ve got. If you don’t, maybe it’s better to remain employed by someone else. Anyone I speak to who is really successful in business never really switches off. You’ve always got to be on”.

Deirdre says that when she sold her business and essentially retired, it took her two entire years “to come off. You’ve been running at 1,000 miles an hour. It’s impossible in a short time to come down off it”.

Deirdre will be a guest speaker at National Women’s Enterprise Day 2015, which takes place at the Galway Bay Hotel in Salthill.

The event

The following entrepreneurs are also taking part in the event: Oonagh O’Hagan, CEO Meagher’s Pharmacy; Triona MacGiolla Rí from Aro Digital Strategy; Anne Cusack from Critical Healthcare; Claire Bannon from Avokado & Co and Niamh O’Neill from the same-named fashion label. The conference facilitator is Síle Seoige, while Clare Culligan will facilitate a business networking event on 21 October. Tickets cost €100 and are available at www.nwed.ie. National Women’s Enterprise Day 2015 is organised by the network of LEOs.