SPONSORED: A bit of good luck and a lot of hard work helps plucky Kilkenny business reach global audience

A determined Kilkenny businesswoman is reaching out to a global audience in her drive to make her small company an online success in the face of the pandemic.

Anne Healy of Biddy’s Good Luck Horse Shoes recently got the opportunity to showcase her enterprise on the prestigious Women’s Inspire Network (WIN), which was founded by Samantha Kelly, also known as the ‘Tweeting Goddess’, after the pair were introduced on air by local presenter Roisin Ni Chleirigh on the Start Me Up business programme on Community Radio Kilkenny City.

Anne said she was delighted to be able to get “Kilkenny and my business in front of a global audience” and sharing a platform with leading international author, speaker and social marketing strategist Ted Rubin and American-Canadian actress Alison Arngrim, who played the role of Nellie Oleson in the Little House on the Prairie and a host of other well-known speakers from New York, Philadelphia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

As Anne puts it: “It was a fantastic experience and I was very proud to give Kilkenny a voice on the platform and to get my name out there to an international audience.

“It had an immediate impact: the hits on the Biddy’s Good Luck Horse Shows website went through the roof and my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts grew substantially after I got to tell my story and what I do.

“As I result I also an opportunity this week to join the Irish Business Organisation in New York for one of their Zoom meetings. This was another great opportunity to pitch my business – and I managed to get a few Christmas orders out of it as well which was very welcome!”

Anne’s business began with her children’s horse riding hobby. It started at a trot, grew into a canter and was getting ready to gallop when Covid-19 restrictions reined it in.

But Anne is not a woman to be beaten by a virus. She has taken Biddy’s Good Luck Horse Shoes on a new turn, concentrating on personal presents, baby gifts and gifts for special occasions.

So now the Kilkenny company, which began with the design and decoration of old horseshoes for wedding parties, has a whole new range of products.

Anne this week launched her brand new website – www.biddysgoodluckhorseshoes.com – and has moved 80% of her business online in a bid to break into the export market.

So horseshoes have proved lucky for Anne. But an awful lot of hard work has also gone into this Kilkenny success story.

Ann’s two sons, Edward and Mike, were both keen on horse riding (her daughter Christine was more into swimming). So when Mike, her youngest, left home for college, she found she had a lot of horseshoes and a bit of time on her hands.

“As we had the horseshoes I started experimenting with them and giving them as gifts to friends,” she recalls. “It was a lovely hobby. But then I was then encouraged by family and friends to start selling. That’s how it all began – a business which started from my children’s hobby.”

When Anne had married Edward they were given a lucky horse shoe and she could see the potential of turning her own stock into marketable items. “I didn’t know if it was going to be a viable business and I did know it was a tradition that had dropped slightly,” she says. “But it was something I could do as I had the horseshoes. If it worked, it worked.”

It worked so well that in 2018 Anne took her idea to the local Enterprise board. With their help, and mentoring from Network Ireland, she set up a web site and really got the company moving. Early the next year Ann took the big step of giving up her job with a major insurance company.

“And there the dream began,” she recalls. “Last year was spent trying to get the word out. I attended Bloom and the Dublin Horse Show which were very successful events, Butler House Craft Fair was also great. I was active on social media and friends were very supportive. Leader were also hugely supportive

“January and February were spent preparing for the season ahead. I also had a good few weddings booked in from attending wedding fairs. And then …   ”

We all know what happened then. “Covid hit! Weddings were cancelled, Bloom was cancelled, the Horse Show was cancelled!”

For a terrible moment it looked as if Biddy’s Good Luck Horse Shoes could itself be cancelled. But Anne drew breath, took stock and decided to carry on – and diversify.

“I decided to publicise that I was open for business and kept working,” she says. “We started changing the product range: making fairy doors and concentrating on baby gifts, gifts sent directly to the person, writing personal notes. I was kept busy.”

Ann is continuing to diversify and, with the help of Kilkenny’s Local Enterprise Office, is looking at rebranding and has an eye on Australian and American markets.

“I also need to continue working on the Irish market, as I have only tipped the edge at the moment,” she says. “The challenge is big.”

The Biddy in the company’s title is named for Ruthstown Biddy, a horse her son Edward rode. They won a lot of Pony Club competitions together.

“She minded and protected him during his years of riding,” explains Anne. “A gem of a horse that gave 150% all the time.”

A good name, then, for a company that always does the same.