Keeping it local with Martha Clancy

Martha Clancy is the Business Development Manager for the Mullingar Chamber of Commerce, and as a Mullingar woman, she knows the importance of attracting business into the town and 'keeping it local'.She started in the Chamber last August, and as her title suggests, she is involved in all aspects of the business. However, with a strong background in marketing, Martha is proving to be the right woman for the job.Born and raised in Clarkmount Avenue, Clonmore, Martha went to school in Presentation, and attended secondary school in St. Joseph"s, Rochfortbridge. She packed her bags and went to study marketing in DIT for four years, securing a job with a marketing communications company, that researched the 'why behind the buy', for companies who wanted to understand the shopping trends of their customers and how to keep them coming back.She then moved from Dublin and made Longford her new home, working in recruitment and PR, before applying for the job as business development manager in the Mullingar Chamber of Commerce. So, with a good marketing background behind her, and a love of her home town, Martha was identified by the Chamber as the perfect candidate for selling and raising the profile of the town of Mullingar and its companies.The importance of shopping localThe Mullingar Chamber is a business organisation that represents local companies, providing a platform to help them network their company and showcase what they"re about and where they are located.'We provide a voice for companies and lobby issues which affect them, such as VAT rates, and promoting Mullingar as a place to do business,' says Martha.'For instance, lately our focus has been on speaking to the IDA about why the Marlinstown Park is empty, and other issues of that type are high up on our list right now.'You can see the ripple effect when a company closes down, but likewise you can see the ripple effect when a new business opens up. It"s great for the local economy and at the moment we are really trying to push Mullingar as a retail hub.'The introduction of the Chamber Vouchers is something which ensures that money stays within the town, so there isn"t a leakage of local money out of the town. Obviously, it is something that happens, but it is our job to talk to people and let them know the importance of shopping local and how that can affect local jobs,' she continues.'When one company suffers it has a knock-on effect, for instance, they might have to let a staff member go, and then that person isn"t going for their lunch or cup of coffee on a daily basis as they used to, and so on. Everyone is affected.'The Mullingar hubMartha sees Mullingar as an important hub of the midlands, located in the centre of both NUI Maynooth and the Athlone Institute, with a good catchment area of skilled workers.'The fact that we have NUI and AIT so close, it means Mullingar and the surrounding areas have a strong catchment of trained individuals which attract companies here, And it"s also good for training into the future if companies need to train people in the future, they know they have a place to go to upskill their staff,' she says.But again, networking is important for business, as Martha tells us:'Especially in this economic climate, people ask what do I get for my money, and want more bang for their buck, so heading into 2009, we are in the process of doing up our calendar for next year"s events, such as the monthly networking events.'These have been proving a great success, where a different company hosts a networking event every month. It is a chance for the company to showcase their offices, putting a face to a name, and advertise their location and what their company is all about.'Everyone who attends gets the opportunity to speak about what they do as well, so business cards get passed around and personally for me, it"s lovely to be able to put faces to names. And again it is always easier to do business with people you know.MoralIn the tough economic climate, how does Mullingar compare with other towns in the midlands, and indeed across Ireland?'I suppose everybody is struggling. I think last weekend, judging by how close to Christmas it is, things have begun to pick up a little, but morale out there is low and talking to Chambers Ireland, who are over all the chambers nationwide, the feedback is that people are struggling.'I had a lady come to me yesterday who has just reached the stage that she can"t try any more. When it"s your own business, it"s your baby. An awful lot of people aren"t pulling a wage: they"re just keeping their heads above water.'However, in opposition to that, I was talking to another woman the other day who has just started up her own marketing business in the town, and that is wonderful to see people who are starting up their own business in these times. Thank God it"s not all doom and gloom. It was something she always wanted to do and she did it, so fair play to her.'I think we have a great town and there are some wonderful shopping outlets. Of course, I"m going to be biased because I"m from the town, but we really have a brilliant town and we need to be pushing that to an outside audience.Looking forward'The Chamber is just like any other business, we"ve got to look at our strategy going forward and how we are going to retain our customers, no more than the shop across the road has to,' adds Martha.'I think the thing that will become key is customer service, and that is something that Mullingar has. If you are a regular customer, companies will look after you, and you can always get the few bob off because they know you, and I think that is something that will stand to the Mullingar shops.'Right now, there is a lot of value for money to be got up and down the town this Christmas and I think it is the consumer who will definitely benefit.'As regards the Chamber and looking ahead to the New Year, we will try to do our best for our members, as regards lobbying for VAT rates to be reduced and so on.'We are innately aware of the economic environment that we"re in at the moment. We don"t have the answers to everything, but we have an open door policy and we are there for our members.'We have a good executive council that are constantly looking at the issues that affect our members, and sometimes we could be in meeting until 10 o"clock at night, or there could be phone calls going until 9 or 10 o"clock over issues that need to be rectified for the following morning.'2009 will be tough but we will do our best on issues that are affecting any of our members, they are our priority and we will try to provide information that will be of use to them,' she finishes.