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LOCAL ENTERPRISE OFFICE Sligo County Council is working with partner Counties Donegal and Mayo, to develop an International Marketing Strategy for the North West. The Strategy will focus on the North West region in attracting both domestic and overseas visitors. Funding is now in place under the Leader Co-Operation fund to carry out a feasibility study and plans are progressing in completing the overall application. The Local Enterprise Office (LEO) is the first-stop-shop for those entrepreneurs starting a small business or expanding an existing one. It provides an integrated support service focusing on the needs of small businesses from the Council’s offices in City Hall. Since Covid-19, its training supports continue to be delivered online to clients. Likewise, the vast majority of meetings between LEO staff and clients have been conducted online. Online delivery is set to remain a significant component of the way LEO business is conducted going forward (and is an approach the LEO had been progressing prior to Covid-19). Face to face training and other engagement from our Offices/training rooms in City Hall will also form part of that offering, given its advantages in terms of the learning that accrues from real-world networking of LEO clients. Supports provided include training, mentoring, financial assistance, advice, counselling and promotion of an enterprise culture (including through programmes run in schools). The LEO also signposts clients to the Council’s other business-related services and to business-related services operated by other agencies. Covid-19 saw the introduction of a number of additional Government supports for small businesses. In particular, Business Continuity Vouchers were made available to provide consultancy to business owner managers on how to sustain their businesses through the pandemic. 282 applications were received of which 207 were approved under this scheme, with the remainder offered other forms of support. In an effort to assist businesses start to trade online or to increase their existing online sales efforts, the LEO approved 273 Trading Online Vouchers and has also provided a range of complimentary training and mentoring programmes on doing business online. As well as Covid-19, 2020 also involved a range of additional LEO programmes introduced to help businesses deal with the potential consequences of Brexit. Workshops were run on topics ranging from customs documentation to supply chain, potential implications on costs of materials, exporting to Britain post-Covid, and so on. While agreement between the EU and Britain was reached which will avoid a “hard Brexit” and, thus, the worst possible outcome for businesses, the implications of Brexit require further LEO supports into 2021. The LEO assists broader economic development through, for example, the advancement of tourism, workspace and city centre developmental activities. In those regards, it was heavily involved with IDA Ireland and IT Sligo in the development of the Landing Space, which comprises ultra-modern office space for indigenous and external businesses looking to set up a base in Sligo. The LEO played a key role, with IT Sligo, in sourcing funding for an Industry 4.0 facility to be located in the Council premises in Market Yard. With a working title of Digital Manufacturing Futures Centre, it will specialise in logistics, provide services in all matters related to industry 4.0 and help advance Sligo’s growing reputation in matters ICT. It will also contribute to the Council’s objectives of smart city status for Sligo and feed into the achievement of some of the objectives of its Digital Strategy.
SLIGO COUNTY COUNCIL ANNUAL REPORT 2020
