If you’re starting a business in Ireland, or trying to grow the one you already run, the funding and free advice you need is probably sitting closer than you think. Your Local Enterprise Office is the public body charged with helping micro and small businesses get off the ground and stay there. Most owners we speak to have heard the name but have no clear idea what a LEO actually does, or whether they qualify. This guide answers that plainly, so you can decide quickly whether a call to your local office is worth your time.
What is a Local Enterprise Office?
A Local Enterprise Office is the first-stop shop for anyone seeking information and support on starting or growing a business in Ireland. There are 31 Local Enterprise Offices across the country, with at least one in every county, and they sit inside the local authorities (your county or city council). That structure matters: it means the office down the road from you is the front door to a national system of programmes and supports, backed by Enterprise Ireland and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
The purpose of the LEO in business is straightforward. It exists to stimulate local economic activity, encourage entrepreneurship, and help create new jobs by backing the people most likely to be overlooked by the banks and the bigger State agencies: sole traders, startups, and micro-enterprises. Each LEO runs its own dedicated team, so you deal with people who know the local economy rather than a faceless national helpdesk. With 31 dedicated teams across the country, the network covers everywhere from Dublin city to rural Mayo.
Who is the Local Enterprise Office for?
The LEO is built for micro and small businesses. The standard test is size: your business should typically have 10 or fewer employees. According to Citizens Information, Local Enterprise Offices support businesses that are starting up or in development and promote microenterprises with 10 or fewer employees. That covers a wide field, from someone testing a brand new business idea at the kitchen table to an established firm of eight staff looking to grow their business and reach new markets.
You do not have to be trading already. Much of the early support is aimed at people still weighing up whether to take the leap. If you’re self-employed, the LEO can help you firm up a plan, understand your costs, and access financial supports that a high-street lender would not offer a new business. The one common limit worth flagging early: certain retail, catering, and personal-service businesses that mostly trade with the local domestic market can get advice and training but may not qualify for the larger grants, which are weighted towards firms that can sell beyond their own town or county.
What services and supports do Local Enterprise Offices provide?
It helps to think of LEO support in four buckets. Each LEO will offer you a wide range of help across these areas, and most owners use more than one over the life of their business.
- Advice and mentoring from people with wide experience in business development, finance, and marketing.
- Training programmes covering starting a business, sales, digital skills, and management development.
- Financial supports, including the headline grants and a referral route to low-cost loans.
- Signposting and referrals to national programmes, Enterprise Ireland, and the Enterprise Europe Network when you outgrow LEO funding limits.
The thread running through all of it is that you get a single point of contact who can pull the right lever for your stage of business, rather than leaving you to map the State’s support system on your own.
What advice and mentoring can I get?
The most-used and least-understood support is the mentoring. Most offices run free or low-cost business advice clinics where you sit down, often one-to-one, with an experienced mentor. The mentor is usually a working business owner or specialist, not a civil servant, and the session is shaped around your situation rather than a script.
A first meeting tends to cover the basics that trip people up: pricing, market research, cashflow, sales, and where your first customers will come from. If you arrive with a clear summary of your idea, your target market, and rough costs, you’ll get far more out of the hour. The output is practical: a sense of your next steps, which training programmes are worth your time, and which grants you can realistically apply for. For many entrepreneurs that clarity is worth more than any single cheque.
Beyond the first session, ongoing mentoring can be matched to a specific weakness. If you’re strong on the product but nervous about numbers, the office can pair you with a mentor who has run the financial side of a similar business. The same goes for sales, operations, or hiring your first staff. The point is not to hand you a generic checklist but to put experienced eyes on the one or two things most likely to slow your business down.
What training programmes and events does the LEO offer?
Every LEO runs a calendar of training programmes and events, much of it nationwide and a good portion of it free or heavily subsidised. Formats range from half-day workshops and online webinars to structured multi-week courses and networking evenings.
Some of the better-known national programmes you’ll see offered through the LEOs include:
- Start Your Own Business courses for people in the idea or pre-trading stage.
- Lean for Business, which helps you cut waste and improve productivity and competitiveness.
- Green for Business, a sustainability programme covering energy, waste, and lower-carbon operations.
- Food Academy and the Makers Academy for food, drink, and craft producers.
- The Student Enterprise Programme, the largest of its kind in the country, aimed at second-level students.
National set-pieces such as Local Enterprise Week and the National Enterprise Awards give owners a chance to learn, network, and in some cases pitch their business in front of a wider audience. The right course depends on your stage: pre-start, newly trading, or scaling.
The hidden benefit of LEO training is the room itself. You end up sitting beside other owners at the same stage, in the same county, wrestling with the same problems. The peer network and local ecosystem connections that come out of those sessions often outlast the course content. For a first-time founder who has been working alone, that alone can justify the time.
Innovation, research and the wider enterprise ecosystem
Not every business need fits a standard grant or course. The LEOs also offer innovation and research supports, which in practice means help to validate an idea, test a new product or service, or research whether real demand exists before you build. For some firms that is informal mentoring; for others it is a structured feasibility project or a referral to a national programme.
This is where the LEO’s position inside the wider system pays off. There is a natural ceiling to what a Local Enterprise Office can fund. Once a business is exporting at scale or chasing serious research and development, it usually graduates to Enterprise Ireland. A good LEO mentor will tell you when you’ve reached that point and make the introduction, rather than stretching a support that no longer fits. Knowing where the handover sits saves you from applying for the wrong thing.
What financial supports and business grants does the LEO offer?
This is where the LEO becomes most valuable. The offices provide a range of financial supports, and the three core grants below are the ones most small businesses ask about. Grant amounts and exact rules vary slightly by county, so always confirm the detail with your own office before you build a plan around a figure.
| Support | What it funds | Typical level | Best for |
| Feasibility Study Grant | Researching and validating a new product, service, or market before you commit | A majority of approved research costs, capped per office | Early-stage ideas needing market research |
| Priming Grant | Start-up costs in the first 18 months of trading | Up to 50% of eligible costs, to a maximum of €150,000 | Newly established micro-enterprises |
| Business Expansion Grant | Growth costs for businesses trading beyond 18 months | Up to 50% of eligible costs, to a maximum of €150,000 | Established firms scaling up |
The Priming Grant is a business start-up grant available to eligible micro-enterprises within the first 18 months of setting up. It can support costs such as salaries, rent, marketing, and capital items, paid at up to 50% of eligible spend. The Business Expansion Grant does the same job for firms that are past that early window and investing to grow. The Feasibility Study Grant sits earlier still, funding the research and market validation that should come before you spend serious money.
One important note: in nearly every case these are not cash up front. You complete and pay for the approved project, then the grant is paid out against receipts. Build that cashflow timing into your plan.
Trading Online Voucher: getting your business selling online
If your priority is digitalisation rather than premises or hiring, the Trading Online Voucher is the one to ask about. It is designed to help small businesses build or improve an e-commerce presence, and it’s among the most popular supports the LEOs run.
- Worth up to €2,500, or 50% of eligible costs excluding VAT, whichever is lower.
- Open to businesses with fewer than 10 employees and turnover under €2 million.
- The business should generally have been trading for at least six months.
- A business can avail of up to two vouchers in total over time.
You usually have to attend a short information session before applying, which also doubles as useful training on what actually works online.
Microfinance Ireland loans through your LEO
When a grant is not the right fit and the bank has said no, the LEO can refer you to Microfinance Ireland. These are small business loans, typically from €2,000 up to €25,000, for viable micro-enterprises with fewer than 10 employees and turnover under €2 million.
The reason to apply through your Local Enterprise Office rather than going direct is simple: you get a 1% discount on the interest rate, and your LEO will help you put together the cashflow forecasts and business plan the application needs. That hands-on support often makes the difference between an approval and a rejection.
How to contact your Local Enterprise Office and get started
Every county has its own office, so the first step is to find yours. Search the county directory on localenterprise.ie and you’ll land on your local LEO page with contact details, the local events calendar, and the grants offered in your area.
Before you make contact, do a little homework so the first conversation moves fast:
- Write a short summary of your business idea or current trading position.
- Be clear on what you need: mentoring, funding, training, exporting help, or digital support.
- Rough out your costs and goals for the next 12 months.
A sensible first 30 days looks like this: book an initial mentoring or business advice session, attend one relevant training event, identify one or two supports worth pursuing, and start preparing an application pack if you’re chasing funding. The earlier you involve a LEO, the more options stay open to you.
Where Kinore fits alongside your LEO
The LEO will get you advice, training, and grants. What it will not do is run your accounts, file your tax, or build the financial plan a grant assessor wants to see. That’s where we come in. Kinore is a large, senior-led accountancy firm built for ambitious Irish SMEs, with dedicated client managers rather than a rotating cast of juniors. We regularly help owners pull together the cashflow forecasts, financial statements, and tax-clearance position that LEO grant and Microfinance Ireland applications depend on, then keep the business compliant once the funding lands.
If you want the numbers behind your grant application to stand up to scrutiny, talk to us before you submit. A short conversation now can save weeks of back-and-forth later.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to be trading already to get help from the LEO?
No. A large part of LEO support is aimed at people still at the idea stage. You can get mentoring, attend training, and apply for a Feasibility Study Grant before you trade. Some grants, such as the Priming Grant, do require you to have started or to start within a set window, but advice and training are open to anyone considering a new business.
Are LEO grants the same in every county?
The core grants, the Priming Grant, Business Expansion Grant, and Feasibility Study Grant, run nationwide, but exact amounts, local priorities, and which sectors qualify can vary office to office. Always confirm the specifics with your own Local Enterprise Office rather than relying on figures from another county.
Can the LEO help me export or sell outside Ireland?
Yes. The LEOs run export-readiness supports and market research help, and they’re connected to the Enterprise Europe Network and Enterprise Ireland for businesses ready to scale internationally. If exporting is your goal, raise it early so your mentor can point you to the right programme.
How long does a LEO grant application take and what do I need?
Timelines vary by office and by grant, and decisions usually go through a local evaluation committee, so allow several weeks. You’ll typically need a business plan, financial projections or accounts, quotes for the costs you want funded, and evidence of tax compliance. Preparing these properly upfront is the single biggest factor in a smooth approval.
What is the difference between LEO mentoring, training, and programmes like Lean or Green for Business?
Mentoring is one-to-one advice tailored to your business. Training programmes are scheduled courses on a set topic. Lean for Business and Green for Business are structured improvement programmes, the first focused on efficiency and the second on sustainability, that combine a diagnostic, a plan, and implementation support over a number of sessions.
The information provided in this article is for general guidance and informational purposes only. It does not constitute professional accounting, tax, or financial advice, and should not be relied upon as a substitute for advice tailored to your specific circumstances. While we take care to ensure the content is accurate and up to date at the time of publication, legislation, tax rates, thresholds, and compliance requirements in Ireland can change.
