This is a guest post from the inimitable Ciara Crossan, CEO of WeddingDates.ie, and participant in iGAP 2.

I am one of the current participants of iGAP 2, and have been asked to write about my experiences on the program.  iGAP is a 6 month program and is fairly intensive work-wise.  One day per month, all the participants come together with their cohort leaders, EI and the presenters and have a full day session on one topic, hear war stories from other successful internet entrepreneurs and discuss in their groups the challenges faced by the previous sessions assignments.

I am the Founder and CEO of WeddingDates.ie an innovative website that generates leads  (wedding couples) for hotels and wedding venues for dates they have available to sell.

In his previous blog post, iGAP leader Brian Caufield said that “many entrepreneurs fail simply because they don’t have a clear vision of what their business really is…who their customers are; what their proposition for those customers is; how they are going to reach those customers; how they will make money from those customers.  In a nutshell, they don’t have a clear strategy.”

Thus far, we are finding the programme invaluable.  In terms of the speakers and the assignments, iGAP really challenges your assumptions about your own business and forces you to work on developing a concrete strategy.  We have found going through the exercises outside of the day-to-day operations a real benefit and we are already thinking about our company differently than before.  I feel that iGAP is giving us a more mature long-range outlook on the business and has brought our own team together to develop the strategy as a single unit.

We have made concrete changes to our business on the back of the iGAP sessions.  We have re-evaluated our pricing model, and have honed our communication of value to our customers.  We understand better what exactly is the difference between us and our competitors and why our customers value us.

One of the main benefits of iGAP is that 2 people from the company do the programme together, and for us it has meant much closer collaboration between myself and my colleague Paul.  Previously, Paul was much more operations focused and by him being involved in this programme, he has become completely engaged in the strategy of the company alongside me.

Another massive benefit is the learning from the other iGAP participants themselves.  We have gained great inspiration from our peers in our cohort group and from our cohort leader and know that there is so much that we can all learn from each other, as well as the fantastic range of high profile speakers.

The iGAP programme packs a huge volume of material into 6/7 months and the assignments require a huge amount of focus and additional work outside of your day-to-day so there is significant time commitment involved.  But in terms of the value that you get from going through the work that iGAP expects you to do, it is certainly time very well spent.  I would highly recommend the iGAP programme to any internet entrepreneurs who are gearing up for growth.

Share