7th August 2014
As every ISME member knows businesses come in all shapes and sizes, and of course our focus is on the small and medium enterprises – your butcher, baker and candlestick maker…and battery suppliers. ISME training courses can make a dramatic difference to any type of business as Jennifer Carroll of battery suppliers Europower found out.
Just last year Jennifer went on the ISME Advance Business Programme. A key part of this programme is that participants complete a project directly related to their company. In her case Jennifer chose to develop an e-commerce strategy for Europower.
According to research, €4 billion are spent annually online in Ireland and this is forecast to rise to nearly €6 billion by 2016. For anyone whose business can be put online these figures speak for themselves. Every business should have an online strategy.
Following from her course work, in early 2014, Jennifer launched the new Europower sales platform www.batteriesdirect.ie . According to Jennifer, “Online retailing has had a very positive impact on the business. We’ve been able to expand the customer base by capturing new customer segments that we weren’t already targeting through traditional sales channels. The economic investment in the website has already been recouped through online sales and growth has been steady over the past six months. Approximately 20% of sales are now done online and we estimate this figure will rise to 30% over the next two years.”
ISME courses have been carefully constructed with the smaller business owner in mind. To get the most out of a course numbers are kept to a maximum of 14. Participants get eight class room days spread over a number of months, as well as two days of one-on-one expert mentoring. They develop a project directly related to their business and make lifelong friendships and business relationships with the others on the course. All of this for just €1650.
No matter what business you’re in things are always changing. The best way of applying the latest knowledge to your business’s new circumstances is through training. ISME training gives hard results and a compelling Return on Investment.
Talk to Liz at ISME.ie for more information. Phone her now on 01 6622755.
