Former Offaly participants encourage applications for female entrepreneur programme

ACORNS is inviting female entrepreneurs from Offaly to submit their applications for the twelfth cycle of the highly successful business development programme.

The programme supports women living in rural Ireland who are in the early stages of starting their own business. It has been supporting female entrepreneurs in rural Ireland since 2014.

Offaly entrepreneur Katie Corbett of KADA Management recently completed the programme. She joins Anne Marie Feighery and Helen Bracken as previous Offaly participants calling on businesswomen to join ACORNS.

The free initiative for early-stage female entrepreneurs is funded through the Rural Innovation and Development Fund by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

The deadline for applications for ACORNS 12 is midnight, September 18. There are up to 50 places available. Those wishing to receive an application form should register on the website (www.acorns.ie).

Katie Corbett, who lives and works in Moneygall, set up KADA Management with her husband David at their home in December 2022 after returning from Australia (www.KADAmanagement.com). KADA Management is a bespoke business solutions consultancy that helps bridge the gap between corporate entities and small and medium-sized enterprises through targeted support. Recognising that smaller companies can do exceptional things, Katie was inspired to support business owners in scaling, growing and building their businesses efficiently and effectively by providing them with practical, strategic expertise.

Katie says: “When I applied for ACORNS 11, I was already trading, already growing, but I was doing it largely alone. What ACORNS gave me was something no business course or online programme had managed to: a room full of women who genuinely understood the journey, led by someone who had walked it herself. From the residential forum in Mullingar to the monthly round tables, every session challenged me, grounded me and reminded me that every small step forward still counts as progress. The Lead Entrepreneur model is what sets ACORNS apart. It’s not mentorship at arm’s length, it’s real, honest, human guidance. If you are a rural female entrepreneur who is ready to grow but needs the right people around you to do it; ACORNS is exactly that.”

Based in Kilcormac, Feighery’s Farm Beetroot Juice (www.feigherysfarm.ie) has already made a name for itself, winning numerous awards and also featuring on RTÉ One’s Ear to the Ground. Anne Marie Feighery attributes the success to date not only to the wonderful quality of the product but also to her fantastic support network and the inspiring women that she met through the ACORNS programme.

She says: “The ACORNS programme has been a truly rewarding experience for me on my entrepreneurial journey to date. To meet such a group of supportive, focused and positive women was truly inspiring and incredibly motivating alongside the wealth of knowledge and vast experience offered up by our Lead Entrepreneur. I am very grateful to the ACORNS network and proud to be a part of it.”

Helen Bracken of Fox Covert Farm in Kilcormac was a participant on ACORNS 8 and ACORNS Plus. Helen produces two hemp seed products — Hemp Hearts and Milled Hemp — grown, harvested and packaged with care on her family farm (foxcovertfarm.ie).

Helen says: “ACORNS has been an invaluable support to my business journey. It has helped me to set clear goals and, just as importantly, stay accountable in working towards them. The programme also provided valuable insights from other growing businesses facing similar challenges, which was both reassuring and inspiring. The guidance and experienced advice from the roundtable lead was especially beneficial, offering practical direction and encouragement at every stage. I would highly recommend ACORNS to any business looking to grow with the support of a strong network and expert mentorship.”

ACORNS is based on the belief that early-stage entrepreneurs learn best from their peers. Participants interact with each other in the monthly round table sessions, which are facilitated by a Lead Entrepreneur with first-hand experience of starting and successfully growing a business in rural Ireland.

The programme is available to early-stage female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland who have generated sales no earlier than the end of June 2023. Selection is on a competitive basis as ACORNS receives many more applications than there are places available.

ACORNS 12 will run from October 2026 to April 2027 and will include six monthly round table sessions, a briefing by various development agencies and an end-of-cycle celebration.

There will be no charge for those selected to participate in ACORNS 12, thanks to the continuing support of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the voluntary contribution of time by the Lead Entrepreneurs.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, launched the call for applications for ACORNS 12.

Minister Heydon said: “My Department has supported Female Rural Entrepreneurs under the Rural Innovation Development Fund for over a decade. To date over 600 women in rural Ireland have completed a cycle of the ACORNS programme.”

The Minister added, “ACORNS has consistently provided the skills, and capability needs that female entrepreneurs require when embarking on their business journey. I am acutely aware of the difficulties that entrepreneurial women can come up against when attempting to start new businesses, especially in rural areas, and the ACORNS programme is a real, tangible, mechanism to mitigate and overcome these challenges.”

Minister Heydon concluded by saying, “It brings me great pleasure to be launching, once again, this innovative and progressive programme that aims to bring about real change in our rural economy, breathes life into our country towns and villages and assists women across rural Ireland to begin and grow their budding businesses.”

Feedback from the most recent cycle underlines the value of taking part. All 53 participants who completed ACORNS 11 said they would recommend ACORNS to others, while 98% felt closer to achieving their business ambitions following the programme and 94% said their participation had brought about practical change within their business.

Nine businesses began trading for the first time during the ACORNS 11 cycle. The combined annual turnover of ACORNS 11 participants grew from €4.1m to almost €6m, while the number of people employed by participants rose by 59 to a total of 134 by the end of the cycle. There were also four new exporters among participants by the end of ACORNS 11.

Each of the Lead Entrepreneurs gives time to the programme on a voluntary basis, as they believe in the philosophy of ‘entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs’.

This year’s voluntary Lead Entrepreneurs are Alison Ritchie, Polar Ice; Geraldine Jones, Skin Formulas; Karen Kerrigan, Kerrigan’s Mushrooms; Larissa Feeney, Kinore, Donegal; Mary B Walsh, Ire Wel Pallets; Orla Leahy, Ireland Chauffeur Travel, Tipperary; and Triona MacGiolla Rí, Aró Digital Strategies.

In addition, experienced businesswomen, Clare Duignan and Geraldine Kelly, who are on the Going for Growth advisory panel, will facilitate ACORNS Plus round tables for previous participants who are committed to continuing driving forward the development of their businesses.