UNDER THE RADAR LORRAINE SCROOPE thesourcepool.comShe may be still two years shy of her 30th birthday, but Lorraine Scroope is getting ready to roll out her third business next week, along with her business partner Ralph Hosford.
The new business, thesourcepool.com, is an online business-to-business platform which helps businesses source good and reputable suppliers. "We have a pool of ready-to-go market leaders and top performers that we can match to their business needs," explains Scroope.
"It's a transparent service where businesses have full access to our matched suppliers. Once they receive a proposal from them, they can see their company details, history of work, their showcase, links to their website allowing them to compare availability, affordability and experience."
Personal experience sparked the idea for thesourcepool. Having run their own internet company, Scroope and Hosford know the amount of time and aggravation involved in finding trusted professionals required to help in the day-to-day running of your business.
"We have a web and graphic design agency," says Scroope. "We started as a partnership and we wanted to move to limited company status, but our accountant at the time only really did sole traders and smaller business.
"We needed to change our accounting service but trying to find somebody who knew the web and knew how to IP protect was difficult. We had different kinds of needs that I couldn't get downtown in Tralee so where could I go to find someone?"
The sourcepool will now provide access to that someone. Suppliers have been hand-chosen, vetted and selected to ensure quality of service.
"There are only 20 allowed within each industry and they have to fulfil certain criteria in order to become one of our chosen partners," says Scroope. "We have limited it to 20 so that we can maintain the quality element and build a trusted platform."
Users are offered a free service where they can outline their business needs and have trusted suppliers come to them, according to Scroope.
"It offers them an intelligent step-up from the current way of finding a supplier which can be slow, costly and very hit and miss," she says.
The fee to businesses wanting to register their services is €1,000 a year. So what do they get for that fee?
"We offer them the means to grow their business in a cost-effective, time-saving way," says Scroope. "All projects are hand-checked and verified. Qualified leads are sent directly to them via e-mail so they can concentrate on growing their business and allow us to bring them valued clients.
"Projects are worth a minimum of €2,000 and we are guaranteeing at least five matched leads with their 12-month membership with us."
Scroope and Hosford have been working on the project for the past year. It has been funded by proceeds from their other businesses - and Enterprise Ireland has also stumped up about €50,000 in feasibility grants.
"We were delighted to be awarded high-potential start-up status by Enterprise Ireland and were one of 15 companies invited to participate in the pilot venture start programme," says Scroope.
It's not that the State agency is betting its money on an unknown quantity.
Since 2005, Scroope and Hosford have been running Mytradesman.ie, a web-based service which matches reliable qualified trades people with homeowners, using SMS technology and the internet to solve the home-owner's nightmare of trying to get a tradesman who's not a cowboy.
In just over two years, Mytradesman.ie has established a database of 800 registered trades and 3,000 registered users generating in excess of €20 million in business leads in 2007 alone. The company itself is turning over about €200,000 a year.
While the company has been very useful in helping to provide funding towards the new business, the experience gained in setting up and running Mytradesman.ie has been even more invaluable, according to Scroope.
"Having the experience and having something that is proven behind you is worth its weight in gold when talking to potential clients."
Then, of course, there's the pair's original business, New Top Media, a web multimedia and graphic design agency which they set up in 2003. Scroope says this is ticking over nicely in the background.
Running three internet-based businesses may seem an unusual choice for somebody who originally studied fine art at college.
"I was working in America around 2001," explains Scroope.
"I hadn't experienced the internet before going and I got bitten by the bug. I studied digital media when I came home and ended up meeting my business partner on the course."
And that meeting is proving to be very fortuitous and fruitful.
ON THE RECORD
Name:Lorraine Scroope
Position:Chief executive of Thesourcepool.com
Age:28
From:Tralee, Co Kerry.
Background:Studied fine art in Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork. Went to the US and returned home to take a digital media course with Fás in Tralee before helping set up the first of her businesses.
Admires:Jerry Kennelly, founder of Kerry photo library Stockbyte. "He has set a precedent in terms of what to do with your business".
Favourite books:"I have made a new resolution to start reading what I term 'suit books' - those books by people who have actually done it in business and made money."
Interesting fact:Her brother Alan is chief executive of Freeflow and was named Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in 2006.
