Christmas market at LIT
Students at Limerick Institute of Technology showed their entrepreneurial flair.
NewsShow me the money
Show me the money
25.02.2010
Colum O’Sullivan, or Sully as he’s better known, founder of food company Cully & Sully, says research into how you go about financing your business is as important as every other area of research.
“It’s no different than doing research for recipes or packaging; you must also research your finance options. You should meet all the different banks as every bank is offering different things to start-ups. The majority will look for some sort of personal guarantee. Cully and I ended up getting a big businessperson to give us a personal guarantee – fortunately we didn’t default, so it didn’t cost him anything,” he says.
“We had huge problems getting finance in the early days but eventually got it through one of the banks. One thing I’d advise is negotiating interest rates at this stage and being aware of charges. Internet banking should be free for you for the first two years. Investigate all those things as they do add up.”
Raising finance
Sully says when he and Cully were raising finance in 2004 they borrowed €100,000 and had to pay back €2,000 every month for five years to pay it back and haven’t borrowed since.
“We don’t want any more borrowings. Remember when you are asking for a sum to borrow that the repayments have to be made every month and when you look at your audited accounts at the end of a year you could be looking at €5,000–€6,000 in interest. This could pay for a person helping you out in the business. Really question what you need all the money for.”
Frugal living
Both Cully and Sully lived frugally for the first year and availed of whatever supports were available through Enterprise Ireland, local Enterprise Boards and Bord Bia, which facilitated them with research.
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