The County and City Enterprise Boards (CEBs) and Bank of Ireland Business Banking announced the launch of an exciting and innovative concept – a mobile support and advice unit for budding entrepreneurs - The Enterprise Bus. This joint initiative has been put in place to provide free local community support and advice to people thinking about starting a business and those in the early stages of new business development. Greg Swift, CEO of Dublin City Enterprise Bus said, “More and more people are considering starting a business. This is confirmed through the GEM report which shows that some 270,000 people are expressing a desire to start a business over next 3 years.
The Enterprise Bus will bring the right information and advice to these people in their own communities and will make it easier to find the right solutions for individual prospective entrepreneurs”.

With 18,740 new businesses set up last year and a similar number forecast for this year, we anticipate and look forward to being of help to as many as possible in their local communities in terms of achieving their start-up and growth objectives. The enterprise bus will visit multiple locations around Dublin city in the last week of September. Business owners, or those thinking of setting up a business, will be able to avail of support and advice from enterprise mentors and business advisers on aspects of training available, developing business plans, accessing the right type of finance and guidance on other services available to enterprises. Small businesses continue to be a significant contributor to the economy accounting for 97% of all businesses in Ireland. The network of CEBs around the country has been supporting businesses for almost 20 years and has been a significant contributor to the success of Irish enterprises in this generation. The partnership with Bank of Ireland will ensure a professional delivery of advice and support to early stage entrepreneurs countrywide. This initiative fully complements the overall Enterprise Board strategy of delivering a comprehensive information service and promoting enterprise awareness of the broader CEB offering for small businesses.