Female entrepreneurs gathered in for the first day of the 17th cycle of Going for Growth, the award-winning business development programme, supported by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG.
Going for Growth, which is designed for ambitious female entrepreneurs determined to grow their business, is marking a major milestone as it welcomed its 1,000th participant onto the programme since it started 17 years ago.
A total of 83 female entrepreneurs have been selected to participate on the 17th cycle of Going for Growth.
The programme is designed to support these entrepreneurs to achieve their growth ambitions, helping create new jobs and grow their sales.
Between them these entrepreneurs already have annual sales of €68m and more than half of them are already exporters.
They currently employ 994 people, with more than 600 of these full time, and have very ambitious plans for their future growth.
A further 16 entrepreneurs, who are members of the Going for Growth Community, have also been selected to continue their growth journey through participation on a Continuing the Momentum round table.
Between them these entrepreneurs currently have annual sales of €28m, more than half are exporters and between them they employ over 300 people, with further growth planned.
A total of 55 female entrepreneurs completed the six-month Going for Growth programme last year, while another 30 women also completed the Starting Strong programme, which is for more recently established, ambitious businesses.
Going for Growth is free for participants who are supported on their growth journey by voluntary Lead Entrepreneurs.
Photo: Louella Morton, TestReach, Olivia Lynch, KPMG, Sofie Rooney, Chimac Sauces, Carol Gibbons, Enterprise Ireland.
