We continue to look at how AspiraCon Ltd is progressing from a start-up idea to a business. This month, the directors explain how they found a suitable premises without breaking the bank and keeping in mind future employee growth prospects

LIKE MOST fledgling companies, the directors of AspiraCon, Pat Lucey and Colum Horgan, were faced with start-up issues familiar to most entrepreneurs - presenting the right image, getting your presence known and catering for rapid expansion if it comes.

Immediately, they decided on finding premises straight away for a variety of reasons - to cater for growth and to present a professional image to clients.

"We knew on day one we were going to need premises because we had mapped out a plan which envisaged hiring people straight away," he says. "The mistake I've seen some people make is looking to get premises for their immediate needs and not looking ahead to their medium-term needs. In our case, we knew our plans were to grow quite significantly from the initial two of us up to 15 within the year, so we made sure we got premises that could house that.

"I have seen some start-ups go from pillar to post and have people in different locations, and you lose the synergy then. Having the team in the same office has been really good for productivity. Having everybody in under the same roof, you can get things done more quickly, with greater flexibility."

Lucey says they investigated office space in a number of locations in Cork before settling on the Rubicon Centre, on the Cork Institute of Technology campus. "It is a centre aimed specifically at incubating new businesses. It's tied in with the Genesis programme, which is aimed at helping knowledge-based start-ups and new businesses," he says.

AspiraCon was selected as a participant in Genesis 2007 programme. "The downside of it is that people are limited to a two-year, nine-month timeframe because it is for new businesses. If your business exists after three years, it's time to move elsewhere and make room," explains Lucey. "But it's cheaper than the normal commercial rates, because it is specifically aimed at start-up businesses. Value wise it was the best we found in the area." Parallel with finding office space, Lucey and Horgan concentrated on creating an effective web presence.

"One of the things we wanted to make sure of was to get a name that people could spell and that wasn't owned by anybody else," says Lucey. "We've got the www.aspiracon.com website, but we also took the .ie, .co.uk and .net domains to make sure we didn't run into any problems subsequently. And we put a good bit of effort into trying to get a reasonable webpage and website with a decent looking feel on it that would look okay as well.

"We are dealing with a pretty sophisticated customer base and we try to make sure we present ourselves professionally at all times. I know that some people get carried away with the excitement of setting up their own business and they think that the mere fact that they exist will entice clients to come into them, but the reality is you're going to be in there competing with some well-established big names in the industry. You need to be professional," says Lucey.

Next month: We look at the challenges that faced Aspiracon when they were raising finance