Executive Office Suites & Secretarial Services Ltd., Cork

Catherine Fennell has been in business since 2009. Her first publication was in 2009 when her cookbook Home Grow & Cook What You Sow, inspired by healthy cooking with her family, was released.

In 2011, Catherine formed Codladh Sámh Teoranta, a family-centred home care provider. Codladh Sámh has over the past 5 years grown from strength to strength, establishing the company as a leading provider in the Cork region.

Single-handedly running an SME has created its own struggles. One of the greatest challenges that Catherine encountered was finding a professional environment in which to base her office and as a result, Codladh Sámh was run from home for a number of years. This brought with it the challenge of separating work and family life. "I never seem to get away from the job."

In 2015, Codladh Sámh office moved to a hotdesk and later to a shared office in the Rubicon Centre, CIT. While the change brought a lot of positives, sharing an office space posed a big issue in maintaining the professional, confidential service that Codladh Sámh strives to provide for its clients.

Moreover, Catherine found that the work-intensive nature of SMEs left little time to grow the company - operational tasks kept her working 'in' the business rather than 'on' the business.

In July 2016, following intensive market research, Catherine found that finding a suitable office space for Codladh Sámh would be expensive and time-consuming, taking her still further away from developing her business.

E.O.S. was born as a result.

Why will this work? First and foremost, E.O.S. has an office solution for everyone from start-ups, SMEs, growing businesses to those requiring virtual space.

• Cork City