Looking Forward To A Digital Omagh In 2017

Digital Omagh is made up of a cluster of entrepreneurs and businesses that share an interest in the digital economy. They meet regularly and recently held a Digital Mobile conference – the first of its kind on running a business from your mobile phone.

While the digital economy provides a focus for the entrepreneurs and companies that meet they also share a number of common problems.

The issues range from the local to the global but focus on getting the right people, finance and connectivity.

Getting the right people

Many digital entrepreneurs and businesses highlight the difficulty of getting the right people with the right skills as their biggest challenge.

The dilemma is that they cannot grow at the rate they want without recruiting people with the experience they need.

Digital entrepreneurs are creative and resourceful and work hard to attract talent but still face shortages when looking for new staff.

In the current climate the difficulty in finding people will continue until government and policy makers alike realise they need to support digital entrepreneurs in their quest to find employees.

Getting the right finance

Businesses often cite getting access to finance as a barrier to growth too, as they try to raise money in the early stages of development to cover the costs of start-up.

On the face of it such a cry is understandable as applying for and attracting finance is never an easy task for a new business unsure of its future.

But there is another side to the issue as loans, business angels, venture capital and government loans are available to support new businesses.

The business idea and associated business plan, however, need to be robust and sales focussed and the entrepreneur has to be credible and convincing about what they want to do and how they are going to do it.

The answer lies in differentiating between the good and the not so good business ideas, as the former find it much easier to attract finance.

Getting the right connectivity

Gaining access to high-speed internet broadband connectivity is an issue often highlighted as a barrier to growth by businesses in the digital economy.

Every business wants super-fast broadband but not every business needs it as a mission critical element of what they do, as many companies succeed by using the range of market offerings.

There is, however, a serious side to the availability or non-availability of high-speed broadband in areas outside the main cities and towns, as it stifles growth and job creation and leads to unbalanced regional development.

Luckily for Omagh, however, getting the right people, finance and connectivity is possible for the entrepreneurs and businesses that locate in the area.

So, the digital economy will grow in the years ahead but with the help of groups like Digital Omagh it will create more local jobs and businesses.