That Great Business Show

Six figures in debt.
Then Kel Galavan did something fairly extreme. She put her family through a No Spend Year and cut their annual outgoings by €27,000.

Today, Mrs Smart Money says she has a seven-figure net worth.
Naturally, I wanted to know how.
Where did the money actually come from? How much difference did the No Spend Year make? Why can intelligent people earn very good salaries and still have absolutely no idea where their money goes? And why does Ireland remain so uncomfortable talking about investing?
Then Kel drops something else into the conversation.
She's building a personal-finance app in Ireland that she believes can eventually be rolled out across Europe — and this one, she says, will need funding.

Also back at the table is Geraldine Jones of Skin Formulas.
When Geraldine joined us five years ago, Skin Formulas was bootstrapped and she was thinking about Britain and perhaps outside investment.
She never took the investment.
Instead, she kept control.
Today there are 170+ stockists, a flagship store in Nenagh, a 2,500 sq ft warehouse, B Corp certification, manufacturing relationships in Britain, Korea and Turkey, European expansion underway — and Dublin Airport is next.
Oh, and Geraldine has just recruited someone who was selling for Trinny Woodall.
Not a bad five years.
The common denominator?

Both women came through ACORNS, the extraordinary programme for female entrepreneurs in rural Ireland.
Applications for ACORNS 12 close 18 September 2026.

And, inevitably, we finish with Hire in a Heartbeat.
Geraldine wants Emma Grede.
Kel wants…her husband.
She eventually even tells me his name.
Kel Galavan — Mrs Smart Money
Geraldine Jones — Skin Formulas
That Great Business Show with Conall Ó Móráin.
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E309 That Great Business Show with Conall O Morain

I thought the kidnapping was the revelation. Then I asked about his family.
After our interview, Vince Lawson told me he had never told his parents. His children hadn’t been told either. Almost none of his work colleagues knew.

In Episode 309 of That Great Business Show, he describes being bundled into a van in Tanzania, threatened with machetes and driven into the darkness. He explains how patchy Swahili and a conversation about football helped change the atmosphere.
Then we get down to business.
Vince’s career includes Fever-Tree, itsu and now Biotiful Gut Health, where he is Chief Marketing Officer. We discuss:
• Twice the price. Half the size. Why customers still bought.
• The difference between a passing fad and a business with staying power.
• Wellness overload—and the opportunity in making things simpler.
• Why customers saying something matters doesn’t mean they’ll buy it.
• Biotiful’s plans for growth in Ireland.
Plus British roller-skating medals, six years completing a three-year degree, and Hire in a Heartbeat.

Supported by De Facto Shaving Oil, made in Mayo: defactoshave.com.
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Frank Olden is a pharmacist.
So naturally, he went to Toyota.
Why? Because he was fed up wasting time.

Frank once calculated that simply looking for a pair of scissors in pharmacies was costing him about nine working hours a year.
Nine hours.
Looking.
For.
Scissors.

So he started applying Toyota’s Lean principles to community pharmacy.
Five small changes later?
46 hours of labour saved.
And this is not really an episode about pharmacies.
It is about something almost every SME does: waste time without noticing.

Frank explains why some apparently busy workplaces actually achieve very little; why Toyota gives workers time every day to remove tiny pieces of friction; why standard processes matter; and why fixing a recurring problem beats repeatedly fixing the consequences.

There are some particularly Irish moments too.
Seven years training to become a pharmacist — and then spending your day printing labels and sticking them on boxes.
And until recently, certain HSE reimbursement claims could still involve putting paperwork into an envelope, adding a stamp and posting it.
We also talk about:

why chaotic businesses can feel busier than productive ones
the Toyota Andon cord and the importance of fixing problems once
knocking two seconds off repetitive tasks
reducing prescription waiting times
the bank that responded to Frank's request for business finance by trying to sell him pension and income-protection products
and why the best process improvement may be ridiculously small.

HIRE IN A HEARTBEAT: Ryan Tierney of Seating Matters.
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Gráinne Mullins thought 2020 was going to be her year.

She had just won Young Chef of the Year.
Then Covid arrived.
Restaurants closed.
Everything in the diary disappeared.

So Gráinne went home to East Galway and started making hand-painted chocolates on her parents’ kitchen counter.
That little experiment became Grá Chocolates.
The first online launch sold out in just over five minutes.
Actually, it did better than that.
The website crashed and accidentally sold twice as much chocolate as Gráinne had made.

Fast forward. Grá Chocolates now employs 18 people, with more joining at peak times.
Every single chocolate is still hand-painted.
And Gráinne has just set up UK distribution, now Selfridges and Harrods are firmly on the hit list.
In between came one other fairly useful development.
She entered the Stelios North–South Business Cooperation Awards.
The application took about 15 minutes.
Then came a Zoom with Stelios Haji-Ioannou himself.

Then came the phone call.
Grá Chocolates and Northern Ireland partner Needi won €100,000.
And the money was in the bank within roughly three working days of the competition.

There is €500,000 available again this year through the Stelios Awards.
For the full practical detail on who qualifies, the prize structure and how to apply, listen to the Barry Sherry episode of That Great Business Show.
This episode is the other half of the story: what winning actually feels like — and what it can do for a young business.

Also in this episode:

the Valentine’s Day disaster that ended with chocolates being hand-delivered around Ireland
why Gráinne treats business competitions as a management exercise
how Michelin kitchens taught her how to run a company
why she wants to move production back to rural East Galway
the importance of Northern Ireland as an obvious first export market
and a remarkable 16-year-old employee who gets Gráinne’s Hire in a Heartbeat.
That Great Business Show is brought to you by De Facto Shaving Oil — the world’s finest shaving oil, made in Mayo and sold worldwide.
Find all episodes at www.ThatGreatBusinessShow.com
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Twenty minutes. €100,000 cash. No equity handed over.
That got our attention.

Barry Sherry and his co-founder built their Monaghan-based energy business into a 20-person company working North and South.
Then Barry spotted the Stelios North–South Business Cooperation Awards in his local newspaper.
He reckoned they ticked the boxes.
The application took about 20 minutes.

Then came a Zoom. Then another Zoom — this one with Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
Then, on a Saturday evening, Barry opened an email telling him they had won €100,000.
And there’s another twist.

Not long afterwards the company was acquired.
Did winning the Stelios Award help?
Barry says the eventual buyer had seen the business in the media, knew about the award and asked them about it.
This is a very practical episode for any SME doing business North and South.
Barry explains:

exactly how they applied
what Stelios appeared to like about the business
why having a founder on each side of the border helped
why he sees Northern Ireland as an opportunity rather than an export market
how they built a business capable of being sold only three years after starting
why clean management accounts made four-month due diligence possible
and the bizarre problem of people working on one side of the border being refused mortgages on the other.

And there is €500,000 in cash available again in 2026.
The 2026 Awards have one €150,000 Gold Award, two €100,000 Silver Awards and six €25,000 Bronze Awards. Applications close 7 September 2026, with the winners announced at Castle Leslie on 28 October.
Barry’s advice?
Apply.
The worst they can say is no.
The best they can say is €150,000.
That Great Business Show is brought to you by De Facto Shaving Oil — the world’s finest shaving oil, made in Mayo, sold worldwide.
Find all episodes at www.ThatGreatBusinessShow.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.