Meet the Local Leader: Tara Elzingre

Enterprise Nation is on a mission to take the loneliness out of entrepreneurship. Through our local meet-up campaign, we're offering a ready-made support network to small business owners across the UK and Ireland.

Tara Elzingre is an Enterprise Nation adviser and the Local Leader for Cork... now expanded to encompass the region of Munster. She shares her Enterprise Nation story with us and drops a few business tips on time management.

Side hustling

During her time working in recruitment, Tara set up a side hustle of coaching, which worked alongside recruitment. While on maternity leave with her second child, she decided to take a leap of faith and jump into starting her own business. Parene offers career and life coaching for parents.

Tara explains:

"We really focus on that work-life balance and helping parents to align their professional and personal goals.

"Some parents might come to us more specifically with career progression in mind. A lot of the time it's trying to get that balance between family life and work life."

Since its inception, the business has evolved and in February 2023 Tara launched a membership platform. She continues:

"I decided to focus in on helping moms set up, streamline or grow their businesses while also managing all the loving mom stuff.

"In February of this year, I decided to pivot and create a membership platform. It's different to other networking platforms, where networking isn't the sole focus.

"It's a way of making coaching and courses available to moms and I'm also bringing on more coaches so that members can get a coaching session each month, but they still have a community and ways to collaborate."

Lunch and Learns

Searching for advice on starting her own business and help with lead generation, Tara came across Enterprise Nation just at the right time.

"I've been using Enterprise Nation myself since I started my own business. I found it to be a fantastic platform.

"The Lunch and Learns were absolutely brilliant – very convenient and they fit into the calendar at any time as well.

"There were some amazing free resources, particularly when it came to the marketing side of things. I would have had some social media experience but it just changes so rapidly. It really did help to have the level of expertise that was available."

Tara recently held her own Lunch and Learn webinar and can't stop singing its praises. While the workshop was a crash course to help entrepreneurs make sense of ChatGPT, it provided Tara with the ideal platform to show off her expertise. She explains:

"During the Lunch and Learn, I mentioned that I had a free resource for content creation. I had over 30 people reaching out after the session and that resulted in over 10 clients for me straight away and possibly another 10 now. It's been one of my more successful webinars."

Building a Munster network

Tara took on the mantle of Local Leader for Cork last year and has now expanded the territory to be the leader of Munster.

She explains:

"I think there's such a misconception that entrepreneurship has to be lonely. And I myself have been involved with a female-based network and it was a great networking tool for me.

"I really wanted to have one where it’s available to everybody. I love Enterprise Nation's ethos and love talking to people, finding out about their businesses. So after attending a few local meet-up to see if they suit me and if I was a good fit for the job, I jumped at the opportunity.

"To give small businesses the opportunity to connect with each other and lean on each other for support is absolutely brilliant."

Tara decided to expand the territory as these meetings were primarily intended to be held online and a lot of the members that do attend aren't only from Cork but the surrounding area. She elaborates:

"It's more about making sure that people understand that they're welcome to come and join us, not just people from the Cork area code."

What to expect from a meet-up

Although Tara has a set format for the meeting, no two are ever the same. She says:

"There's always been a different focus, a different agenda, or the people attending change. If you think it's going to go one way, it always goes another.

"I start off with an introduction to myself, the meet-up and Enterprise Nation and then open the floor to other people. I may pick someone new or a bit shy to pitch their business and then ask questions to engage them in conversation. I don't have set questions; it is all very casual and I let it flow naturally."

Five tips for managing your time

And on the theme of support, Tara gave us a few tips to help you manage your time better as you build your business and achieve that all-important work-life balance.

• Break tasks into minutes: There is no task you can’t break down into minutes. Do you need to time block an hour in the calendar or can it be broken down to minutes?

• Add a buffer: When calculating time in your calendar for a task, add a buffer (some minutes) on either side so there is no reason why you can’t complete the task.

• Prioritise your to-do list: Do you need to do it now, delegate it or delete it? As things come up through the day that change your schedule, if you have your to-do list prioritised, you can still get to the tasks that you actually need to do.

• Set boundaries: Which projects can you say yes to in a day? Which projects should you say no to? It’s important you set boundaries for yourself – learning to communicate that to others is very important, too. Is it going to benefit you? Or is it something that is really going to stretch your day all in the hope of a long-term favour?

• If you fail to plan, you plan to fail: Tara’s maths teacher told her this when she was 12 years of age and she has lived by it ever since. Whether you use a digital calendar, pen and paper or notes on your phone, make sure you plan your day/week ahead.

Small business local meet-ups with Enterprise Nation

Local meet-ups take place every month. Find your nearest and reserve your place