Mature entrepreneurs get plugged in for the digital age
State-backed mentors are showing older business owners how technology can make them more efficient
Published: August 4, 2024
Journalist: Sandra O’Connell
Client Featured: Flying Cheese Brigade, Dillon’s Joinery Works, Eco Green Resources, Everard Fire and Safety
Flying Cheese Brigade
Dave Jackson — Limerick, Ennis & Killaloe — food market and grocery
Dave Jackson knows about digital disruption. As owner of Empire Music in Limerick for 25 years, he watched the record industry collapse around him. In 2008 he closed the shop for good. Fast-forward to 2014 and he reinvented himself with the Flying Cheese Brigade, now employing eight people across market stalls, a grocery store, and a hot food provider.
This time around, Jackson was determined that digital would be a friend. Through the Digital for Business programme, he worked with LeanBPI to introduce systems covering everything from fridge temperature checks to stock control, all managed through a phone app.
“I’m from an age when we didn’t do computers at school. My knowledge was very limited. Before I was driving in for a couple of hours to look and see what was needed. Now I’m freed up to do so many other things.”
— Dave Jackson, Flying Cheese Brigade
Also featured in this article
Dillon’s Joinery Works
John Dillon — Tipperary — joinery, established 1980
For John Dillon, digitalisation became a priority in advance of his son Sean coming home from Australia to join the business. Everything was paper-based — fax machines, email duplication, writing out everything by hand. Through his digital mentor, many processes now run through a smartphone app, speeding them up and reducing errors, making it easier for Sean to hit the ground running.
“It’s all about margin — and because you get more work done, you can do more jobs.”
— John Dillon, Dillon’s Joinery Works
Eco Green Resources
Bernard O’Connor — solar photovoltaics, established 2018
Bernard O’Connor, in his sixties, worked with a digital mentor to develop an app that mirrored his existing workflows digitally, halving the time it takes to do site surveys. Despite having an electronics background, the business was very much paper-based — he describes the old systems as “dinosaur stuff.”
“If I were ever planning to sell it on, the first thing a person is going to look at is how efficiently the business is running. Unless you have an automated system at a high level, any potential buyer is not going to buy.” — Bernard O’Connor, Eco Green Resources
Everard Fire & Safety
Martin & Tricia Everard — fire safety, established 2010
Before going digital, Everard Fire & Safety’s paper-based systems were, in Tricia’s words, “from the Dark Ages.” With help from an LEO digital mentor, the couple introduced digital order taking, automated pricing calculations, and invoices that are automatically generated and sent to the office for bookkeeping.
“I used to feel that if something happened to me in the morning, nobody would know where to start. Now somebody else could take it on and they’d know where to find everything. That’s very important when you’re getting to a point where you’re getting older.”
— Tricia Everard, Everard Fire & Safety
Delivered through the LEO Digital for Business programme
