Kay's Flower School & Brooch Bouquet Training : Business Action Group

Our First Experience of the

National Ploughing Championships

Well now that we have recovered some what I have decided to update you all on our first experience at the National Ploughing Championships 2014
And what an experience it was for our little Flower School

Coming up the the ploughing we were really busy in the school as we had a group of gents and ladies from Donegal to Kerry on our Module 2 Sympathy Floristry Course, so along with looking after our students we were planning what we would do at the ploughing.

It was thanks to the amazing #BAG Business Action Group that we were allocated one of the 20 slots in the #BAG Marquees at Stradbally.

All of team Kays were pulled in to help with the planning and on the Sunday before the event Kay, John & Tom (the Dad & The Hubby) went down to the marquees and set up our stand, they sent on photos as they went and as we thought they would, they did a great job. It was perfect.
Space was tight and cosy as we called it, but we knew what we had to work with and work with it we did.

Day one of the Ploughing so us leave our houses in Dublin at 4.30am and head on the road to Laois. Traffic was perfect till we turned off the motor way and it began to get heavy and by the time we got anywhere near to rathiniska it was at a stand still, but he traffic measures enforced by the guards and also the Ploughing Stuarts was fantastic and it wasn't long till we parked the car in "the purple cow" car park.

We then walked for approx 20 minutes to get to the #BAG Tent, which we arrives at at around 6.45am. Well the atmosphere around was electric, the excitement, the anticpation, the build up, it all had a magical feeling about it and how lucky we were to be there.

The first customers arrived into out tent (there were 2 tents with 10 business in each) about 8am and from then on we had a steady flow, the people came in waves which was probably a good thing as it gave us a chance to catch out breath, our aim was to speak to as many people as we possibly could, and we certainly did. And with all her chatting Janette even bagged herself a farmer :) he was such fun and game for a laugh, we laughed so much with him, we forgot to ask him his name .

Kay was drafted in from Retirement to go a few hours also :)

Opposite us in out tent was Ken & Trish from KT Metal Design, and they gave us all such a laugh, we were like kids let out for the day.

We also had Darren & Ray from TotalGiftz selling their amazing night lights.

we had the classy and ever so lovely Annie Apple who had the most amaizng handbags and purses, most of them seemed like one offs, cos every one she sold was "the last one" so we all got to calling her "the last one Annie"

Across from Annie was Mary from Addiebeads who stocks the most beautiful beads. Mary had made hundreds of bracelets for the event along with little packs that you could make your own bracelet from.. I thought these were fabulous.

Up the front of our tent was Rachel from NP Liquid Glass System. Now this stuff is magic, it is actually a liquid glass that can be sprayed on most surfaces from concrete to carpets and cars to swede shoes and once coated dirt cant (and i mean CANT) stick to them, I asked could they spray my childern ..lol .. this drew a lot of interest into the tent.

At the other end of the tent was Sara and her gorgeous partner whose name escapes me from Sarah2Scents - Sarah makes all her own fantastically scented candles in all shapes and sizes along with lots of other wax melts, so the aroma from Sarah's stand was sweeping through the tent during the day masking any smell from cattle that may have been close by.

We also had the Funky Crayon Lady Michelle with her tractor shaped crayons that all the kids that stopped were mad about. She also had little gift boxes with crayons made from letters to spell childrens names, they were amazing, I have bought funky crayone from Michelle before in the shape of snow flakes for my daughted Cara's Frozen Birthday Party.

Melanie from Stomp PR & Marketing was at the top of our tent and was one of the most positive and nicest ladies I have met in a long time and she was such an asset to us over the 3 days.

Finnella from Baby Moments had us all in an uproar with her walking balloons each time she walked by you would swear she had a real dog in toe. On the second day she put her walking pet balloons outside of the tent and were they show stoppers...so many people came over to have a look at them and subsequently came into our tent.

But ours was not the only tent, our fellow baggers (as we call ourselves) were in the other tent and creating their own special atmosphere for the customers. Carol from Ioma Essence, Geraldine from the 88 Food Company, Elaine from Sweet Treats Galore, Brian from BioFinch Composting, Noeleen from Creative Ceramics and Craft , Hazel from Pure & Simple, Sharon from Heavenly Headbands, Karen from Enchanted Stationery

During the day we were so delighted the lovely Gavin Duffy and his Wife Orlagh took the time out of their day to come visit the BAG Tents, and Gavin was certainly up for a bit of crack when he posed for photos with some of the business. Also we were delighted to hear more about this amazing Sales Training Workshop featuring Gavin & Ramona Nicholas, & Dermot McConkey to name a few

We were also privileged to be visited from Jed Nash the Junior Minister of State for Business and Employment and again he was happy to post for some photos and showed a lot of interest if the goods and services the businesses had to offer.

Over the three days, we smiled, greeted, sold, encourages, chatted, giggled, laughed and sometime cried, but it will be one of the most memorable experiences we have ever had.

Will we do it again???? Ask us next year when our legs and feet have fully recovered :)

(BAG) Business Action Group Launch

Irish Business in Action

I told you in a recent blog how we had become part of an amazing group for SMEs whose aim goal is to work together and support and help each other and particularly to help with sales.
Well let me tell you something, we had out BAG Launch on Tuesday last the 26th August in the Green Isle Hotel in Dublin, and what an amazing event it turned out to be.

Let me start from the beginning when we planned the launch. a few of us met in the Green Isle and talked about the group, and how could we let people know what we were about...we are not just another networking group, we do not just want to talk about what we can do, we want action, we want to really help business get off the ground and stay afloat, we want a group who are wiling to help others achieve this, we want everyone to "pay it forward"

So the launch date was agreed, the hotel was booked, the link to order tickets was posted, and then as the days went on our Chairman Ray Wilkins from TotalGifts gave a new surprise every day, firstly he messaged us all to tell us her Got Ramona Nicholas from Cara Pharmacys or better known as a Dragon on Dragon's Den, we were like..OMG how amazing is that our little launch is going to have a "Dragon" at it , then he told us he thinks Gavin Duffy might talk too if he can fit it into his schedule, but Ray being Ray made sure we fit the schedule to Gavin so he could talk. :)
The next week one of our BAG members Anne Tuohy for Room Junkie asked would she see if she could get Nial Harbison... and low and behold all of a sudden we had 3 amazing people coming to our little now Big Launch - no pressure on the committee at all.

Ray continued to work an before we knew it he had got the 3 main banks to agree to come and speak to us also. On top of all this Ray had a big surprise up his sleeve along with 3 smaller ones, that he revealed to the committee but were to be kept top secret.

The day before the Launch arrived and some of us met up in the green Isle to decorate the room to look professional, we had all these really important people coming we needed it to look amazing. And this group being what it is , there was no shortage of offers of help to decorate, design, brand, etc.

At Kay's School of Floristry we got our thinking caps on and decided to do a BAG made from flowers, cos the motto of the group is always "Whats in the bag?" were were delighted with how it turned out and if you click on the BAG OF FLOWERS it will bring you to another blog on how we went about creating it.
We also designed a couple of Topairy Trees more traditionally seen outside the church at weddings for either side of the stage, keeping with the green theme from the Business Action Group.
At Kay's Flower School we have a backdrop that we use for our outside demonstrations, so we used these as the backdrop behind the stage. It was all beginning to come together.

http://bridalbroochbouquet.blogspot.com/2014/08/how-to-make-bag-from-flowers.html

Amanda from Sugar & Spice designed the most beautiful sweet table with the BAG logo and branding used across it. She has cake pops, little muffins, jellies, hazelnuts, bonbons, and much more. It was a stunning display.
Towards the end of the day when Nial Harbison was speaking the hotel smoke alarm went off, and it was funny, cos the Irish being Irish, where did they run to??? The Sugar & Spice Sweet table .

Tara from Cupcakevilla made and decorated an enormous cake which also bore the BAG logo, it was cut and the end an most people got some to take home with them. I had mine with a cup of coffee in the hotel lobby , it was beautiful moist sponge, just like my granny used to make.

Linda from Lovin Letters brought along these Giant Letters that light up, they were just stunning, the really just brought the whole look together.

It was nearly midnight by the time we left the GreenIsle on Monday night, but we went away knowing that the room looked both amazing & professional and most of all it all had come from the BAG group.

At this stage I have to mention the absolutely amazing lady Sharon from the Green Isle who was such great help to us, nothing we asked was a hassle to her, she went above and beyond the call of duty, and we wish her the very best of luck for her up coming wedding, we hope you have someone half as good as you looking after you, because if you do, you will be in excellent hands.

Launch Day
Up nice and early we arrived to the Hotel around 8.15am and there were already people there, there was already and electric feeling in the room, the excitement was amazing.

We had decided at one of our launch meetings that we would like to give Ramona, Gavin & Nial something as a thank you for giving up their time to come speak to us, so it was decided like everything we do, we would ask the group if anyone would like to donate a gift we would make them into hampers for the 3 speakers. Wow we did not expect the response, some were posted to us before the event, but most arrived on the day, and Janette was on hand to sort out who wanted what in what hamper, then later in the day both Janette and myself parceled up the hampers, we were nearly running out of the Hotel with them, there was amazing things donated. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when they were being opened as there was things from Baby Shoes, to Lampshades, from cooking oil to body oil, cupcakes to dog food, picture frames, to wall art, and lots and lots of vouchers......the list is endless. But the hampers were a great success and thank you to everyone who gave something for them.

Tony Malone from Alonze Productions put together an amazing video about the Bag Group, click here to see it.

Fionnualla from O Brien Windows & Doors opened the launch with a coupla focal and went on to introduce two of the bankers to speak to us from Bank of Ireland and also Ulster Bank and without selling and pushing themselves on us they gave a very informative talk on what these banks have to offer us SMEs.

Aoife from G rippersoles spoke about her journey in the shoe industry and how her business has changed since going online, she advised using Leanstack.com to build a business model rather than a plan. She told us shout your accolades from the rooftop, and one saying that will stick with me that Aoife said was "Turnover is Vanity, Cashflow is Sanity" and for so many SMEs now adays that is so through.

Ray spoke about his journey on Dragons Den and finally told everyone what the BIG Surprise of the day was - Ramona Nicholas has agreed to be Honorary President of our Business Action Group, well the cheers from those presents was spine chilling. Ray had really pulled it out of the Bag.

Ramona then spoke to us about her journey with Cara and the difficulties and issues they faced and how they overcame some of the issues, but when she spoke to us, she spoke from the heart, she was not a Dragon at all, she was exactly the same as every other SME in that room, and she knew what some of the group were going through, she was very open and honest and it was like listening to a friend. she was full of empathy for entrepreneurs as she under stood the guilt and the loneliness we can sometime feel.

Some point that stuck with me were
Work you Backside Off
Reject Rejection
You can only control what is in your zone
Break things down into smaller pieces
Trust your Gut and Listen to it
Read "The Secret"

Ramona struck a chord with so many it that room, it was not suprising she got a standing ovation when she finished.

Gavin Duffy had us all in an uproar, he says it as it is and he spoke about the disease we all have that cannot be cured.... entrepreneurship, he says its an affliction, but isnt life much better when you are pursuing your dream. Gavin told us its not how successful you are, it is how your treat failure that makes you an entrepreneur, and nothing will happen in business until you sell , selling is so important, and guess what? that is what BAG is about , we want to get you out there selling.

During the day we had chosen 3 people from the group to do a pitch to the dragons and the bankers, this was not a real dragons den, but they could gain some useful advise about their business. The three business that spoke were Michael On , Margo Flemming from Book Splits and Karen Bowers from At Home Pampering. The three of them did amazingly well and as a reward each bank kindly donated €200 to give to each business to help to develop their business.

Cathering Moroney from AIB actually decided that the presentation she had prepared was not what this group was about and spoke to us off the cuff, she advised us to ask the banks what they can do for us, weather its her bank or not, Banks wants SMEs, so get the best package they can offer.
She advised when selling to friends, business is business and no more thank a 10% discount should be offered. You will be taken more seriously and respected because of it.

Niall Harbison spoke about his ups and his downs and he spoke about celebrating the small things in your business ( they had just bought a couch for their business that day ) He advised all business, the future is mobile, smart phones are exploding, make sure your website is compatible.
Work in fun environment, Niall normally wears a hoody to work and brings his dogs along too. He was such a motivational speaker and as the author of the book Get Shit Done, he certainly lives by that motto too

The day wound down with the presentation of the humongous hampers which took two to carry, some more networking and lots and lots of photos.

Niall later posted a short video about his Hamper - See Here

Everyone commented on how amazing a day it was, it was not like any other networking event that had been too, there was a strange feeling in the room and for me it felt like a Bonding feeling, like we all belonged there and we were all looking out for each other..