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Welcome to #StartUpLife

By 28th June 2016April 5th, 2022No Comments

A big welcome to #StartUpLife, our new videos series and as the title suggests, it’s all about the life of a start up. Over the course of the past 4 years with Big Red Cloud and indeed, way back to 1992 with Big Red Book, we’ve worked with thousands of amazing startup businesses. Using our accounting and payroll software, many of them have gone on to create employment for thousands of people in a wide range of sectors across the country.

During that time we’ve been handed great insights and from time to time, we’ve compiled those words of wisdom into a guide. Today, we have over 20 guides for business owners and managers and you are free to access and download them here. In addition, our blog and SmartBiz newsletter offer daily and weekly advice to our customer base and small army of followers on accounting and general business issues.

As much as we try with our guides, blog and newsletter, we do miss the nuances of the personal interview and the absolute honesty that you get from a video interview. This is typified in our first #StartUpLife video interview set with Oliver Cruise, owner of the brand new Network Cafe in Aungier Street, Dublin.

Interviewed by our CEO, Marc O’Dwyer, Oliver opens up, over the course of three short videos, on issues, such as following his dream to open his own business, in this instance a coffee shop, how branding plays an important role, and to cap it off, how crucial the partner selection is for your business. For Oliver and Network, key partners are 3FE for the supply of world class coffee, Clover for the supply of an integrated EPOS and payment management system and ourselves, Big Red Cloud, for the provision of an easy accounting software solution.

So, are you thinking of staring up your own business? We encourage you to watch #StartUpLife and listen to Oliver and how he made his dream come true.

Marc O'Dwyer

Marc O'Dwyer

After completing a Graduate program in Marketing, Marc’s impressive sales career began at Allied Irish Banks, Pitney Bowes and Panasonic where he received numerous Irish and European sales performance awards and consistently exceeded targets and expectations. In 1992, Marc’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to set up his own business, Irish International Sales (IIS). Initially, this company was a reseller for Take 5 Accounts and Payroll software. Within four years, IIS became the largest reseller of Take 5 in Ireland, acquiring four other Take 5 resellers. He also found time to set up two mobile phone shops under the Cellular World brand and a web design company offering website design services for small businesses. In 2001, he bought the majority share in a small Irish software business, Big Red Book. At that time, the company was losing money. The company became profitable within two months, and Marc then acquired a payroll company to compliment Big Red Books Accounting products. In 2003, IIS were appointed as Channel Partners with SAP for their new SME product, SAP Business One. Marc sold his Take 5 business and concentrated on developing this new market for SAP As a result, by 2007, IIS was recognised as the largest Channel Partner for SAP in EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa). In 2008, the IIS Sales Manager bought the Company from Marc in an MBO. He launched Big red cloud in June 2012, the online version of big red book, to date the company successfully converts 59% of trials into sales and the number of customers is growing rapidly. Marc continues to run both Big Red Book and Big Red Cloud which now support 75,000 businesses. He is a very keen sportsman, having played rugby for 20 years, represented Leinster at under 16 and under 20 levels, and league squash with Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club for 10 years. Marc has competed in 11 Marathons, including the London and Boston Marathons, and has completed several Triathlons and Half Ironman races. He has also completed six Ironman Races in Austria(x2), Frankfurt (Germany), Nice (France) , Mallorca (Spain) and Copenhagen (Denmark)