Elevate

Co. Down entrepreneur Wendy McCaughan is the founder of Kan Teq, which designs and produces equestrian body protection. Kan Teq was one of the first local businesses to benefit from the Elevate programme and is now reaping the rewards of expanding into new markets.

"When running a small business you have limited resources, so to have the opportunity to avail of a consultant’s expertise is invaluable, especially when that consultant has specific knowledge of your new marketplace. I selected our consultant based on their technical experience and they helped us to enter the market in the Republic of Ireland with a structured and logical approach. Our projections in this new market for the next financial year are extremely positive."

"With aggressive plans for new customers to bring increased revenue as well as the financial backing required to expand into new markets, I am extremely pleased that I participated in the Elevate programme. It is an ideal starting point to help small businesses fast-track their cross-border trading and increase their turnover. My business is already benefiting from the results and I see much more to come."

Richard Baird, is the Sales Director at WASP Technologies Ltd a local Cork company specialising in deploying Sales Force Applications on Tablet devices to the FMGC sector.

"The Elevate program opened doors and opportunities for us in the Northern Ireland market. The local knowledge of the local NI based Elevate consultant was a key element in creating business introductions otherwise not possible. We are now at an advanced stage of engagement with a number of NI companies who we are confident will deploy our IntelliBrand FMGC system. The Elevate program has been a valuable element in our expanding business in Northern Ireland and I would recommend the program strongly to other companies."

"Elevate was just the right programme for SourceDogg.com to begin our business entry into Northern Ireland, a brand new market for us. InterTradeIreland matched us with the perfect market expert for our business as he really understood our requirements and challenges. He very quickly introduced us into a series of high level engagements which allowed us to gather the market intelligence we needed to make secure plans for the future. Having the access and advice of someone who has 'been there, done that' was really invaluable."

Kildare entrepreneur, Mark O'Loughlin, is the Managing Director of Sanctuary Landscapes Ltd (trading as Sancturarysynthetics.ie), who specialise in installing artificial lawns, and inventor of the hidbin.

Speaking about the programme Mark said "Diversification is key in this economic climate so we were delighted to avail of the Elevate programme's assistance which yielded valuable market research and actionable information and plans. I'm glad to report, several months on, additional revenues from both our artificial grass and hidbin sales. The border is more psychological than physical and there's a whole new market just up the road!"

Dublin entrepreneur, John Beckett, is the Commercial Director of Eirtight Technology, a local company specialising in cloud software development and software development outsourcing.

"The Elevate Programme was of great benefit to Eirtight. By enabling us to engage directly with experienced personnel in our target market, we were able to quickly identify our key differentiators in the market and apply our resources in a more focused and strategic way. I would have no hesitation in recommending other companies who are seeking similar market knowledge to consider the programme."