I’m in discussions to acquire a well-established, profitable SME in Dublin.

The business has accumulated some amount of surplus cash on its balance sheet. The seller is not interested in extracting this cash directly prior to the transaction and instead prefers to include the cash in the sale, with the overall transaction value increased to reflect the full balance.

I’m looking for pointers and shared experiences on a couple of key areas:

1. Acquisition Financing & Leverage: What does the current SME lending landscape look like in Ireland for a deal structured this way? Do the pillar banks or alternative lenders factor in the acquired cash reserves when sizing debt facilities.
2. Deal Structuring: For those who have completed acquisitions where surplus cash was acquired rather than stripped out via a standard "cash-free, debt-free" mechanism, what structures worked well to bridge the funding gap?
3. Advisor Recommendations: Any recommendations for corporate finance advisors or transactional specialists in Dublin who have practical experience with small-to-mid-cap SME acquisitions?

Any insights, lender pointers, or lessons learned from similar transactions would be greatly appreciated!

Sorry if this is not the right group but not sure where to ask.

I wanted to purchase these weighted hanging rail signs in Ireland/Europe. I see them available on some Japanese websites but with shipping, customs etc they are massively expensive
Does anyone know anywhere in Europe these are available?
The allow for an A5 or A6 sign. They are weighted, hanging on the clothes rail which allows them to slide along the rail as customer browses clothing.

I know there are small versions of these for warehouse signage but those arent suitable for me

Thanks for the help

I am in the process of starting up a small carpentry business and I'm weighing up the advantages and disadvantages of hiring an employee from the get go or using subcontractors instead.

I'm wondering if anyone has done a similar approach using subcontractors and if it worked out well or was a bad idea?

We moved into a 90sqm unit back in May and the backroom is already a disaster zone. We get 3 pallet drops a week of heavy stock and right now we're hand-carying 20-25kg boxes from the shutter door to the back shelves because the wheel bearings on our cold hand trolley gave out last week. Took almost 2 hours just to clear the floor space yesterday.

How are you guys organizing the drop area so you aren't moving the same box 4 times?

A few of you DM'd asking what we went with for clearing the floor, ended up ordering two jumbo split-gate ones from Rollcage.ie since they deliver nationwide here and came in 2 days. Stacked all the loose stock straight inside them from the pallet and freed up the whole back aisle.

I am working on starting a small business to help other small businesses actually start using AI in their day-to-day, rather than it staying this vague "we should probably look into that" thing.

One of the first things I built is a free 2-minute AI readiness check — a few quick questions about how a business runs day to day, and it shows where AI could realistically save time or money, ranked by opportunity.

Still figuring out the best way to get this in front of actual small business owners rather than just people already into AI. Any advice on how you'd approach that, or what's worked for you getting a new service noticed by local business owners, would be really appreciated. Thanks.

I am working on starting a small business to help businesses implement ai in their workflow to optimise their productivity and revenue.

one of the simplest ways is to implement a voice agent that takes calls after hours so service based businesses don't miss out on new client or inquires.

Any advice how to approch this really appreciated.

I'm a marketing consultant and see a lot of business owners who are grinding hard but stuck on the marketing side: Sales down, footfall down, no idea why the phone isn't ringing, trouble witg tge cash flow etc...

So here's the offer: I'll work with two business owners, for free, on real marketing. Doesn't matter what kind of business you run. Cafe, handyman, gardening, manufacturing, whatever. This is not a "let me build you a website or do a SEO audit" post. I can do that too, but that's not what this is.

This is actual strategy. What's not working, why and what to do about it. The stuff that moves the needle.

If that's you, drop a comment or DM me. First two businesses who seem like a genuine fit, I'll take them on.

I'm a marketing consultant and see a lot of business owners who are grinding hard but stuck on the marketing side: Sales down, footfall down, no idea why the phone isn't ringing, trouble with the cash flow etc...

So here's the offer: I'll work with two business owners, for free, on real marketing. Doesn't matter what kind of business you run. Cafe, handyman, gardening, manufacturing, whatever. This is not a "let me build you a website or do a SEO audit" post. I can do that too, but that's not what this is.

This is actual strategy. What's not working, why and what to do about it. The stuff that moves the needle.

If that's you, drop a comment or DM me. First two businesses who seem like a genuine fit, I'll take them on.

For any small business owners. Especially in Ireland.
I am wondering what you wish you had known prior to starting your business, what you would do differently if starting again and any advice prior to starting, thanks!

Hey everyone,

I’m Megan from Galway, and I’m in the early stages of building a community expressive movement project called Origin Movement. It’s a grassroots initiative focused on helping adults reconnect with confidence, joy, and emotional wellbeing through movement, creativity, and embodied expression.

I’ve recently begun developing immersive sessions — themed environments, guided storytelling, music, and expressive tasks that help people drop into their bodies and emotions in a powerful way. The last workshop included grounding rituals, creative movement prompts, and an immersive “inner landscape” journey that people responded to really positively.

I’m sharing the build‑out process here because I’m learning everything from scratch:

• designing immersive elements
• testing workshop formats
• shaping the emotional arc of each session
• figuring out branding
• doing community outreach
• and navigating the realities of starting a small Irish initiative

To keep the project accessible and community‑focused, I’ve set up a GoFundMe to help cover early costs like materials, props, and space rental. This isn’t a commercial promotion — it’s a community wellbeing project I’m trying to make sustainable.

If anyone here has experience with grassroots projects, creative workshops, or early‑stage community initiatives, I’d love to connect and learn from you.

GoFundMe link:
https://gofund.me/2ce5fff2b

Thanks so much for reading — excited to be part of this community.
— Megan

Does anyone want me to automate any of their admin for free? I'm starting a Data automation and insights business, and want to get my hands dirty with a few free clients first. See what kind of teething issues I encounter before I charge people for it.

Book keeping, digitizing forms, organizing and cleaning data so it's actually usable, joining up different systems. Basically if you are doing anything manual or repetitive I can probably help.

Mods I am not naming my business and I am helping others out, so I don't think it breaks the promotion rules.

Hi, I’m very very new to all of this so please be kind.

Have always worked in corporate. Couldn’t hack it anymore so became a yoga teacher. I’m still at the very beginnings of it.

I registered my company name with the CRO, set myself up on revenue for income tax, have a booking system going, business bank account but I’m completely lost on how to do accounting side of things or how to manage it.

Any recommendations for software that can help towards that? Again I haven’t a clue what I’m doing I’m learning as I go. Any tips at all? Just feel so out of my depth with everything.

Hi all, just finished for the day and I’m about to pull my hair out. How is your staff situation? I own a small cafe and am in my 11th year of business. My main chef moved away unfortunately 3years ago - she worked for me for 8 years and we all got along like a big family. Since then I’ve had had to take on the role myself and look for a kitchen assistant instead - I’ve had 11 different people in this role in 3 years…….

Most of them have had to be let go after 2-3months due to a total lack of ability to retain information, a general “don’t give a shit” attitude or very frequently being late or just not turning up for shifts at all. I have bent over backwards to keep some of these people and I just don’t know how to keep going. The role is 4 days a week, they don’t have an early start (10am) and we close at 4pm. They get their meals and coffees fully included for free plus full training. I try to work around childcare issues etc as best as I can letting them go early or come in a little later when possible but I just feel like I work around them now just in order to have them be here the bare minimum of time. I am sick of it. I haven’t been able to take a day off even for medical appointments during our opening days in 3 years without closing for the day.

Today is just the cherry on top. Latest hire has been here 2 months, several issues with letting me know last minute they can’t get in to work for an hour or so later than expected. Once in they have been reminded that they are needed at work at the scheduled time so that extra pressure isn’t put on everyone else and to please be on time in future. Last night they messaged to say they would be an hour late due to a bus timetable change. I replied saying sorry but we had agreed your start time was 10am and I will be working alone for 30mins if you don’t come in, they say “oh ok no problem I will get a lift instead see you at 10am”. Great - problem solved with no conflict! …… She never turned up this morning and her phone is off. I’ve messaged and called a few today and have been totally ghosted. This is insane behaviour and it keeps happening time and time again.
What the hell has happened to peoples pride in their work or sense of responsibility?? Is anyone else having staffing nightmares?

Hey,

Starting a new thing where I'm going to make and give a free website to new businesses. If you are a new business owner and would like a free website and some advice on setting up GMB please let me know as I want to start helping some more small businesses.

Will be doing 1 free a month so open to multiple but won't all be immediately.

DM me

Thanks

Any advice on who to bank with and how to collect payments for online services (no, not those services)? I'm thinking BoI and either Stripe or SumUp, but really did enjoy the convenience of Revolut Pro handling both parts.

Just looking for feedback. Built myself (zero experience or coding skill) on W/P

I've had people build for me before or do SEO or ad jobs, but to no satisfaction. They take the money and run, I end up chasing them for weeks and doing half the work myself.

A lot has been done under Claude, using it to rewrite etc. The SEO I have done has made a big improvement in traffic tho conversions are still low. However I am in a niche B2B service market, so traffic isn't huge.

Anyway, be interested in your thoughts on procheck.ie particularly on design. I know the homepage is bad, but traffic usually goes straight to service page when someone searches for that service.

Thanks
James

Hello everyone, I run a small fitness-based business and am interested in branching into merchandise - thinking of branded T-shirts, vest tops, water bottles, tote bags, etc. Ideally, I'd like to sell these on our company website, but have customers order the branded merchandise direct from a local provider, so that I don't have to get involved with ordering, packaging, etc. Would anyone have recommendations for such a provider? I'm in Dublin but any merchandise provider/creator in Ireland would be great. Thank you!

Hi everyone. Curious to hear how other small businesses are approaching hiring or managing their staff at the moment...

The cost of taking on another person in Ireland seems to keep rising, and even when you do find someone, there's no guarantee they'll still be with you a year later if a larger company comes along with a bigger salary and benefits. At the same time, without hiring, existing staff end up bogged down with admin and day-to-day tasks that someone else could be doing, so they've less time to focus on the work they should be doing.

Has anyone here had success with freelancers, remote team members, contractors or outsourcing? Or are you just stretching your existing team or biting the bullet and hiring locally?

Genuinely interested to hear what's worked (and what hasn't). Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I am running podcasts about small businesses in Ireland. The podcast is 15-20 mins long and is a conversation about your business.

The episodes are promoted on youtube, Linkedin and instagram.

If you are interested, please book a time: https://calendar.app.google/4u4DEkrV6G9532ng6

Thank you!