Local businesswomen stare down the recession
SISTERS ARE doing it for themselves around Carlow as they qualified as finalists for a prestigious business award.
Female entrepreneurs and businesswomen are staring down the recession in a bid to win a South East Female Excellence in Business award.
A number of top entrepreneurs from the south east will share their stories at the award ceremony in two weeks including local ladies Sasha Stykes from Farm 21 bespoke furniture and Paula Corden from Deycom Computer Services.
Sasha is originally a Bunbury from Lisnavagh House in Rathvilly and Paula gave up her nursing job to help her husband after they set up an IT company.
The day-long conference, which is now in its fourth year, will take place in The Tower Hotel in Waterford and is the brain-child of five local Enterprise Boards Carlow, Tipperary South, Kilkenny, Waterford City and Wexford, which provide information, advice and various enterprise supports to microenterprises and small businesses.
Last year's winner, mother-of-two Fleur Creed, founder of the Genesis Business College in Wexford and Carlow, made an impassioned plea to the Government to fund small businesses through the Enterprise Boards in her acceptance speech.
This year, the businesswoman, who is also judging the awards, wants local authorities to devise a loan system to help small businesses pay their rates over a three-year period.
'Instead of bringing to court people who simply cannot pay, councils should come up with a loan or a payment plan to allow them give it back over the next three years,' she said.
The awards will be presented at the South East Women in Business Conference in the Tower Hotel, Waterford city, on September 17.
