Like many concepts imported from down under, John O’Donohoe’s idea to launch a business offering football pitches for hire required a little weather-proofing before becoming a runner in Ireland. John O’Donohoe, a seasoned entrepreneur, also needed lots of patience, and a little help from Microfinance Ireland, to get his new business off the ground.
John and his partner Patricia had dabbled in the property business for a short time following the sale of their travel company which they had successfully run for over 20 years. But when they saw where the property sector was going, they knew they were going to have to re-invent their business a third time. “I didn’t want to work for someone else, so we put on our thinking caps for about six months,” John says. “The idea we eventually ran with came from a friend who had opened an outdoor football pitch in Australia.”
Readily admitting to knowing very little about football, John made the inspired move of bringing on board John Devine, a former Arsenal player with 30 senior caps for Ireland, to provide guidance on the pitch design and establish contacts with clubs and coaches around Dublin. Other target markets included rugby and GAA clubs as well as social, after-work teams and corporate events.
“I was convinced there was a market there, what with the amount of football teams around the city and the weather we get. Any week you choose, you’ll see kids as young as six and seven out training in terrible conditions,” he says.
However, the financial institutions the couple approached weren’t so sure. Their loan application was turned down by three banks, all of which liked the idea, John says. But he feels that they ultimately said no because they didn’t have any similar businesses on their books to benchmark against.
Back to the drawing board, they decided to tackle the project in stages and approached Microfinance Ireland (MFI) for a €25,000 loan to finance the first two pitches.
John describes the application and approval process as “very, very quick and very efficient”. “They went through the business plan with rigour. But once they had gone through every figure, they were very supportive.”
As well as securing the €25,000 loan, he says they got some good advice, including the suggestion that they go back to the landlord to get a better deal on the rent, which they duly did. “The positive decision from Microfinance Ireland also gave us creditability with the Credit Review Office (CRO),” he adds.
Even with the best of luck, however, business start-ups rarely run smoothly. A delay in some of the equipment clearing Irish customs put the opening, originally planned for January, back by four months, losing the business its busiest season. But John says that he, again, found Microfinance Ireland to be helpful. “They agreed that we could repay the interest only for the first few months. We opened in April 2013, and we survived,” he says. “Right now, the pitches are fully booked. About 85 per cent of the company’s bookings are for football, from 5-a-side to 7-a-side. But the indoor facilities have also been used by clubs as diverse as the Irish Frisbee Association, as well as for stag parties and corporate team-building sessions. The range of activities on offer includes bubble football (played strapped into a giant inflatable ball), polo football (played riding a segway) and Soccer Saturdays, which provides fun training sessions for kids aged 5 to 13.” The centre now has 4 state of the art pitches.
For more information
Find out more information on Dublin Indoor Football.
Find out more about Microfinance Ireland
Find your Local Enterprise Office.
Interested in finding out what funding is available for your business? Take a look at the Supporting SMEs online tool, which gives information on over 80 government supports for businesses.