Small businesses responding to Covid-19 challenges

Atopsy-turvy year for Derek Walker in 2020 has been steadied by the support received from Local Enterprise Office Donegal. Derek and his wife Anna run NatNoot, which sells a range of natural, cold-pressed juices. The business received a Business Expansion Grant in 2019 to help fund equipment upgrade.

Sales were impacted in early 2020 when offices and gyms were closed. Problems were compounded when NatNoot’s distributor ceased trading. Derek responded by securing a Trading Online Voucher to establish a website. He also started doing his own distribution, putting a van on the road and hiring a driver from the previous distributor.

“The site will provide a platform for small companies like NatNoot to tell their story and talk about their products,” says Derek. “We will also provide a distribution service for their products along with our own, using a delivery box idea, where people can pick and mix between different Irish brands and get the box of goods delivered.”

Derek adds: “I am legally blind and I got help from LEO staff to fill in the grant forms. They are also mentoring me about the distribution part of my business. I don’t know how any small businesses can get going without LEO supports.”

Mailo Power has been a client of Local Enterprise Office Waterford since she founded Monkey Cups in 2018. The Dunmore East venture sells barista-standard reusable coffee cups with a range of colourful lids and bands.

The Covid-19 crisis caused corporate sales to fall sharply. Monkey Cups’ online sales held up, but Mailo wanted to do better. Working with Peter Grogan in Imagine Media, she devised a plan to introduce bespoke designs to her website’s coffee cup shop.

A Trading Online Voucher financed the creation of a function that enables online shoppers to pick their own colour combinations to design novel coffee cups. “The first weekend that it went live we had more sales than the entire previous month,” says Mailo.

“I have also completed a lot of courses through LEO Waterford. They have been with us on our journey from the start, and the mentorship and training programmes give you access to expertise that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.”

Mailo Power, founder of Monkey Cups