This module has to be completed in order to gain the full QQI 5M2468 Business Admin Major Award. An ideal module for all the administrative responsibilities in an office environment with lots of practical tips from Tutors who have years of experience working in different office environments.
Hi all,
My name is Frances Gallagher. I'm the Director of Training at Lir Business Services & Training Centre Ltd., and I'm delighted to meet you.
All About Me
Well, I am passionate about the adult training and e-learning sector and am currently leading as the Director of Training at Lir Business Services & Training Centre. My journey spans over 35 years and is filled with rich experiences in business management, office administration, training courses, and recruitment. My expertise lies in teaching, instructional design and e-learning development, where I have blended online delivery methods to empower countless individuals, trainers, and organisations. My work has helped many realise their dreams, reskill, upskill, achieve their personal and professional goals and gain employment over the years.
As the Director of Training, I embrace cutting edge technology, the latest trends and innovations in the teaching and e-learning landscape. I am committed to exploring new methods to enhance the learning experience for the learner, driven by my passion, expertise, and visionary approach. This commitment has profoundly impacted the lives of numerous learners and organisations. My energy and enthusiasm never wane as I continually strive to push the limits of what is possible in both classroom-based, blended, in-company and online training.
Leadership for me is about fostering a creative, collaborative, and innovative culture, and I proudly do this alongside our incredible team.
36 Year Celebration at Lir
Celebrating 36 years in business and so thankful to all our clients, visitors, learners, staff (past and present) and to everyone who has some input into Lir Business Services & Training Centre. As part of this celebration, we will post several informal chats on how I started initially, to where we are today. So keep coming back to the next chat.
01
Introduction
A quick explanation ... many thanks all.
01
Interview
This is where I answer question based on how I started and so on.
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02
Interview
We are really getting into the nuts and bolts of being self-employed, the good and not-so-good times.
03
Interview
A chance to look at what we are doing and what may be ahead ...
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Lir's 1st Newspaper Article
Published 2nd July 1988
This was our very first newspaper promotion.
Lir Secretarial Services
1 Mount Street, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath
Phone: 044 93 42754
Frances Gallagher, no stranger to Secretarial Work and computers in general, has ten years experience on computers. Recognised the need for a good, efficient, flexible and highly confidential Secretarial Service in Mullingar. Geared towards today’s business needs.
Services available, will appeal to everyone. Everyone needs letters typed, replied to, composed etc. Businesses, no matter what size need Invoices, Statements, Orders, Quotations typed. Hotels, Restaurants, Engineers, Students, Builders, Doctors need Price-lists, Menus, Reports and Projects typed.
The ever-increasing need for Baptismal, Birthday, Wedding and Anniversary Invitations, including Guest Lists typed. Forms of all description need typing i.e. Application Forms, Visa Forms, C.V’s typed.
Extras such as Calling Cards, Information Leaflets, Reminder Notes, Debt Collection letters, Rotas, Labels and Envelopes typed.
Temps
As Secretary to your Club, Association, Company etc. why not make use of a Shorthand Typist who will take the Minutes of your Meeting and type them up the next day. Everyone can be let down at some time or another so why not avail of the Office Temp Service which has been used mostly due to illness, absenteeism, maternity leave and especially during the holiday season. We cannot stress enough, the guarantee of confidentiality that automatically comes with each service.
Frances has been a Scout Leader in Mullingar for the past ten years as the Club Leader for six years and as a Venture Scout Leader (15-21 years) to date. She can fully understand the frustration of many young adults leaving school and trying to cope with future employment especially the Secretarial Year students who have wonderful results but need that extra bit of confidence. A lot of people have signed up over the past two weeks as potential Office Temps but was surprised to note the lack of people who have workable shorthand. My advice to those leaving school for the Secretarial Year is to keep up the skill. Why spend a whole year or two developing the skill and then forget about it.
Our Office Temps comprise of Secretaries, both male and female, Dictaphone Typists, Word Processing Operators, Telephonists, Computer Operators, Accounting Machine Operators, Clerks, and Accountants, Bi-Lingual Secretaries in French and German with shorthand in both. Many have Certificates in Business Studies, Diplomas in Management Finance. Some have attended Secretarial Courses locally.
The experience of these Office Temps means there is someone suitable for every business. Confidential Secretaries to Plant Managers, Executive Secretaries who had access and control of all confidential personnel files for Management and Staff, Secretaries who can prepare Cost Reports, Overtime Reports, Budgets, Job Specifications etc. Office Temps who have worked with Insurance Brokers, as Debtors Controller in Retail Outlets, Farm Accounts, with Novelists, Shipping Supervisors, Manufacturing industries and many more.
Fax Bureau
Another service available is the Fax Bureau. I am trying my best to encourage people to use the Fax more. Most people think that Companies etc. are the only people who need to use a Fax. How many times have you been on the phone trying to describe something, a design, drawing, photograph etc. to the other person when all the fax does is lets you photocopy your information down the phone line and then the option to talk if need be. Shops ordering goods, Solicitors exchanging documents, agreements, etc. quickly, Record shops wanting up-to-the-minute Chart Ratings, Album Covers, Video Covers, Price-lists etc. This list is endless but a definite saving in valuable time and money is an asset to anyone. Fax messages are collected and delivered locally – our fax number is (044) 42755.
Office Space
Modern bright Office Space available for that all important meeting where you would rather meet people away from home if your business runs from home, or away from your place of work where ever it is. Mostly away from places that seem too informal for the talks you want to conduct. A morning, or an evening to conduct interviews. For a day, a week, a month whatever until you establish your business or business needs. I can say with authority, that I know the number of extra overheads that can occur when you are trying to get a business moving.
People in general, are a bit anxious when it comes to handing over their data to someone else, but again I can only stress the guarantee of confidentiality one receives from these offices. Photocopying services available.
Bookkeeping
Computerised Bookkeeping is another service of invaluable assistance to any business, large or small. The service can range from the full Book-keeping service i.e. Debtors/Creditors Ledger, Stock Control then audited by either your Accountant or we can recommend an Accountant to you. On the other hand, if what you require is part of the Book-keeping Service i.e. just an account of your Customers and Suppliers then that can be arranged too.
Many people are asking for Analysis break-downs of the products they are selling by just giving me their invoices and I enter their invoices and can then inform them as to what product they are selling most of etc. Some businesses ran on a day to day basis from Secretarial Services Offices such as ours. Telephone Answering Service, your calls answered during the day. Business address Service where your mail reaches this office for your attention etc. Your daily invoices up-dated to your customer’s accounts, your purchases up-dated to your creditor’s accounts. An Aged Debtors Listing of all your customer accounts and their balances due. A Creditors Listing of your Suppliers balances and the amount owed to you. The invoices can either be your invoices or computerised invoices, the choice is yours.
All these services are just a phone call away or call to the above offices.
Stock Taking
Who likes doing the Stock taking every year or perhaps during the year? So why not let us do your Stock-taking for you? If you want to do the physical count yourself and let us do the costing or vice versa.
Leaflet Distribution
How many times have businesses thought of getting Leaflets printed and then thought of the distribution problem?
The Ancient Story of Lir
The Ancient Story
A retelling of the ancient Irish myth of King Lir, his four children and his powerful wife Aoife, that forms the basis of the ballet classic Swan Lake.
Many years ago in ancient Ireland, lived a King and ruler of the sea called Lir. He had a beautiful wife, called Eva, who gave him four children – eldest son Aodh, a daughter called Fionnula, and twin boys, Fiachra and Conn. When the children were young, their mother Eva died. Lir and his children were very sad, and the King wanted a new mother for his young sons and daughter, so he married Eva’s sister Aoife who, it was said, possessed magical powers.
Aoife loved the children and Lir at first, but soon she became very jealous of the time that King spent with Aodh, Fionnula, Fiachra, and Conn. She wanted to have all of his attention for herself. One day, she took the children to swim in a lake while the sun was hot in the sky. When they got there and the children were swimming in the water, Aoife used her powers to cast a spell over the children, which turned them all into beautiful swans.
She knew that if she killed the children, their ghosts would haunt her forever, so instead, she cast this spell, forcing them to live as swans for 900 years - three hundred on Lake Derravaragh, three hundred on Straits of Moyle, and three hundred more on Isle of Inish Glora. The spell would only be broken when children heard the ringing of a bell, and the arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland.
But Aoife’s spell had not taken away the children’s voices, and so it was that these four beautiful swans would sing beautiful songs and were able to tell their father what had happened to them. Lir, who had been searching for his children, came down to the lake and saw Fionnuala, now a swan, who told him of the spell cast on them by Aoife. Enraged, he banished Aoife into the mist, and she was never seen again.
Although saddened by his children’s fate, Lir remained a good father and spent his days faithfully by the lake listening to their singing. Their three hundred years on Lake Derravaragh were filled with joy, but at end of this first part of the spell, the children had to say goodbye to their father forever. They travelled to the Straits of Moyle, where they spent three hundred years enduring fierce storms and spent much time separated from each other. But they survived these three hundred years, and eventually travelled, together again, to fulfill the final stage of their spell, on a small saltwater lake on Isle of Inish Glora.
The King by now had passed, and his once glorious castle - nothing but ruins remained. One day, they heard the distant ringing of a bell – one of the first Christian bells in all of Ireland – and the swans followed the sound, knowing that the end of their spell was near. They followed the sound of the bells to the house of a holy man called Caomhog, who cared for them during the last years of their fate.
One day though, disaster struck again, when a man appeared at the house dressed in armour, saying he was the King of Connacht, and he had come for the legendary and mystical swans with beautiful singing voices. He threatened to tear down and ruin Caomhog’s house if the swans did not come with him, but just as he was laying his hands on them, the bell tolled again, and the mist of the lake came and enveloped the swans, turning them back into the children they were nine hundred years before.
The frightened King of Connacht fled immediately, and the children in their human form started to age rapidly. Caomhog knew that they would die soon, so he quickly christened them before their human bodies passed away, so that their legend and their names could live on forever, for these were said to be the Children of Lir.
The Present Story of Lir
The Present Story
'The nut is coming, the nut is coming' ... from the time I taught my younger sister how to say 'nurse' instead of 'nut' and from my fascination with my father's side of the family, I knew I would teach ... someday ... somehow.
Roll on 1988 when I was made redundant from my job and decided to set up Lir Secretarial Service (until I got a 'real' job) ... that's ironic in its own way.. Why call it 'Lir'? Well, 10 years earlier I was a Leader in the early stages of the 1st Westmeath (Mullingar) Scout Group, mainly Cubs and later Venture scouts. We started off in the Tara District, then because the Lir District. A 10 year journey where I attended training sessions in Lough Dan and came across structured programme planning, class plans, skills demonstrations for the first time.Lir Secretarial Services became busy so I had to leave scouting aside.
I was self-taught when it came to computers, fascinated by 'basic' programming language and applications (mainly DOS) and was asked to teach others. First training session as Lir Training: keyboarding and Word processing using 'Wordstar'. How fantastic was that, 2 fonts, with the combination of bold, italic and underline ... such choice, I was in heaven! you would completely understand that, if all you had before were various daisy-wheels on your typewriter ... well, that's another story.
There were little, if any, companies running short certified courses for Adult Learners, especially those who wanted to work in an office environment.
Within two years, with the support of Joe and the arrival of our daughter, we added Lir Recruitment Services There was great satisfaction in training, upskilling, developing great relationships with businesses, and finding job placements for many of our Learners.
Was I business-minded then, no, honestly I had created a job for myself, not a smart move, but you know, it was so satisfying. I was constantly learning.
I'm never going to fit my story into this column in full, so if you are interested, go on over to the Lir Blog to catch up on my journey, or the link below ... what I did, and who knows ... Frances (Lir).
Frances Gallagher
Director of Training
www.lirbusinesscentre.com
