Recession bringing out the entepreneur in Irish women!

In their best business wear, women came from the four corners of Ireland to Ireland last Friday, for the chance to mix and network at the National Women's Enterprise Day event, held at the Mullingar Park Hotel.Some 270 attended the event, and all had two major shared aims for the day: to shirk off recessionary bad news stories, and to hear and share great new ideas that would help keep this country's entrepreneurial spirit strong.And, after the somewhat disastrous year it has been for the Irish economy, the participants were in flying form it seemed, with keynote speaker on the day, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Taniste Mary Coughlan setting the tone when telling the Westmeath Examiner:"I think it's hugely important that women realise that they have the capacity to involve themselves in business and that they are good entrepreneurs and even better than men - that's going to be a very strong message!" said the Minister."We've seen some changes in the figures of the people who are entrepreneurs that are women, unfortunately it's not as good as it should be," she admitted, "But it's quite obvious from international studies that are taking place, particularly in the UK, we've noticed that there are a lot more women who are entrepreneurs coming out of the recession and that is equally to be seen here.""We've seen an increase in the number of companies that are registering in this country, I hope this is a good occasion for networking and also a good occasion for role models to give inspiration to other women to allow them to take that risk, because it is all about risk and to re-emphasize that we have the capacity to do it," she said."We're unique in one way in that we can multi-task better than the men, we use our time much better!"Addressing the body of women entrepreneurs on Friday, Mary Coughlan said it was her first time as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to be a room that was 99.9 percent women. Saying she believed that occasions like this were hugely beneficial she went on to state that networking was highly important: "It's all about who you know. It's about sharing experiences, their trials and tribulations," she said. "And I think that is one thing about women is that we say it as it is.Minister Coughlan went on to say that from her 22 years in politics, it was obvious that women sometimes still have a hang up about believing in themselves and their ability to do things: "We really have to forget about that. Each individual in society can bring something to society, each individual will always have something unique," she said."You can never give up. If you are unsuccessful one thing you never do again is make the same mistake again. You go at it and that is the only way you can be successful in business."If you don't lose your vision, you will be successful and that is the key message. Women have the strength and capacity to do it well, if not better, and I really believe in the capacity of this country and I really believe in entrepreneurialism."Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Chairperson of Westmeath County Enterprise Board Frances Guckian, said it was a wonderful day for entrepreneurship in Mullingar and Westmeath:"It's wonderful from the point of view of enterprise having the National Enterprise Day here in our town for the third year in a row," she said."I think the recession can do either one of two things, you can either lie down or say look - I have an idea and I'm going to try it. If we're going to come out of this recession and we want to be successful, the proof is in this town and throughout the whole county is that people are still in business and people still want to start up in business," said Frances Guckian.Christine Charlton, CEO, Westmeath County Enterprise Board said it was very important to get the message out there that if people need help or assistance in their business, that all they need do is contact their enterprise boards."Enquiries are up this year and we will be here if they need help and assistance," she said.Minister Mary O'Rourke also told the Westmeath Examiner that it was important either for women starting out in business or for those who have been in business a long time that maybe are finding it difficult at the moment, to stick with it: "You may have to downsize, you may have to cut salaries, you have to trim yourself back, we all have had to do that at some stage in life, but it's very good therapy to have to take a very hard look at yourself and a very hard look at your business of whatever, small or big," said. Minister O'Rourke."The second thing I would say is always talk to your staff, so that they will know the difficulties you're encountering and I think in turn they will respond to that. Women are very good at that, at responding to where there are difficulties."