‘Derry Girls Mean Business’ recipe for success for female entrepreneurs

Ebrington’s Walled City Brewery was the venue for ‘Derry Girls Mean Business’ - a Go Succeed networking event for female entrepreneurs in the city and beyond.

Victoria Killeen, enterprise development manager with Enterprise North West, warmly welcomed the incoming participants to Monday morning’s event. 

Based in the Skeoge area of the city, Enterprise North West is a social enterprise which offers business mentoring and support for start up and growing businesses.

It delivers the Go Succeed programme, a free service funded by the British Government, in partnership with Enterprise Northern Ireland and the 11 councils across the North, including Derry City and Strabane District Council. 

Speaking to The Derry News, Ms Killeen explained Go Succeed supported entrepreneurs, new starts and existing businesses with “easy-to-access advice and support including, mentoring, master classes, peer networks, access to grant funding, and a business plan, at every stage of their growth journey”.

“We offer one-to-one mentoring, as well as hosting workshops and events like ‘Derry Girls Mean Business’ to help the owners of small businesses to get together and network,” she added.

“The focus of today’s event is empowering female entrepreneurs. We have three fantastic guest speakers: Shauna Froydenlund from The Exchange Restaurant; Ciara Duffy from The Pickled Duck; and Catherine Hamilton representing our hosts, The Walled City Brewery. 

“All three women have brilliant backstories. They have come up through different jobs and positions. They have overcome adversity in their businesses. They have great experience. This is a wonderful opportunity for the women present to hear their stories. Hopefully they will inspire other female entrepreneurs to start their own businesses.

“There is a lovely mix of female entrepreneurs here today. We have some clients who are just at the idea stage. They are looking for inspiration. They want to find out what direction they want to go in. 

“We also have businesses which are well established. They have premises in the city. They are female owned and female led. They include, opticians, beauticians, wellbeing practitioners, holistic therapists, the hospitality industry, and arts and crafts creatives, a wide range of entrepreneurs. We even have some people travelling up from Limavady,” said Ms Killeen.

Smiling, she added: “We used the iconic TV Derry Girls as our tagline for this Go Succeed event because we wanted to convey the feeling of empowerment. All of the young women on the show had their own personalities and their own strengths, just like our entrepreneurs. Today is about getting all our female entrepreneurs together.” 

‘Derry Girls Mean Business’ keynote speaker, Shauna Froydenlund revealed to The Derry News, she and her husband, Mark, will be opening their new restaurant in Ebrington in the not too distant future.

She added that her central message to the entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs attending the ‘Derry Girls Mean Business’ event was that “hard work can pay off”.

“I am originally from Derry. I moved away to study at Sheffield Hallam University where I did a business degree with culinary arts. I then worked in London for 15 years as a chef, which was really, really difficult,” she added. 

During that time, Ms Froydenlund met her husband Mark and started a family. 

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“I always knew I was interested in the cooking side of things, which is why I ended up in a kitchen in London, but that degree gave me an all-round view of how to run a business, which was amazing,” she said.

“My dad - Mark Caithness - wanted to retire and he offered us the business (The Exchange restaurant)  so we decided to move back home in 2022, when our second child was born. At that time we thought we would just settle in and find our feet, and then look for another restaurant space which would represent us. We have now found it here in Ebrington Square and we are in the midst of trying to get it open.

“The dream was always to do something for ourselves but it just wasn’t feasible in London, especially with having a family, so, when the opportunity came to take over The Exchange, which is an amazing, well-established business, with a brilliant core team, we were delighted to run it as a family-loved restaurant.

“My message to the women here today would be to understand what you are doing and what you want to do. Hospitality, especially, is hard work. You have to love what you do to make it a success. I think that is the most important thing. Don’t go into something thinking, ‘I’m going to do this to make a few quid’. You have to really want to do it and really love doing it because it needs to get you out of bed every morning and make you feel inspired.

“Events like ‘Derry Girls Mean Business’ are incredible. I spent my whole career being inspired by other people and that’s what drove me forward, seeing other people’s successes. To be able to ask for advice is also very important I think. It is amazing to have events like this morning available to people.”

Prospective entrepreneurs can contact Enterprise North West via social media or its website: www.enterprisenorthweat.com and the Go Succeed team at: www.gosucceed.com.