Mayo entrepreneur Tracy Armstrong encourages women to take the next step

For Mayo entrepreneur Tracy Armstrong, one of the biggest benefits of running her own business is also one of its greatest challenges: there is nobody else telling you what needs to be done.

When Tracy moved back to Mayo three years ago after more than 15 years working in professional marketing, she brought experience from HELLO! Magazine in London and worked on the University of Galway’s rebrand with her.

But starting again in a new chapter of her life meant rebuilding her professional network and finding her place in the local business community.

It was against that backdrop that she joined ACORNS 11, the business development programme for female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland.

Now, as applications open for the twelfth cycle of the programme, Tracy is encouraging other women in Mayo with a business idea or an early-stage enterprise to put themselves forward.

“I had moved back to Mayo and I was kind of starting over again in a lot of ways,” she explains.

For Tracy, the decision to establish Tracy Armstrong Marketing, or TAM, came from recognising a gap among small and medium-sized businesses.

After years working across different areas of marketing, she saw that many smaller companies needed professional marketing expertise but might not have the budget or the need for a full-time marketing employee or a large agency.

Gap in market

“I just saw a gap to kind of help businesses, like small, medium businesses, to work out what marketing they need,” she says.

Today, Tracy works with businesses at different stages, taking a tailored approach to their individual needs. Her work can range from developing websites and e-commerce strategies to broader marketing plans, digital campaigns and, increasingly, helping businesses understand how Artificial Intelligence can be used to improve their marketing.

“I love working with early-stage businesses who are starting out,” Tracy says. “But I can work with small or medium-sized ones who are just at the stage where they know they want to progress and they just don’t really know what they need to do with their marketing.”

Yet, while Tracy was busy helping other businesses develop, she realised she was neglecting her own. That was where ACORNS came in.

“I was working on a few different clients’ businesses, but I wasn’t really working on my own business,” she says. “I kind of made the decision to take a little step back and give myself that time to work on the business rather than in the business.”

The six-month ACORNS programme gave Tracy that opportunity. Through monthly round-table sessions, peer support and guidance from an experienced Lead Entrepreneur, she was able to step away from the day-to-day work and focus on the bigger questions around her own business.

“It helped me get clarity on where I want to bring the business and what I can do and who my customer is,” she says.

For Tracy, the value of ACORNS went beyond business plans and targets. Running a business can be lonely, she says, particularly when there is no team around you.

“You lose having a team and having somebody to kind of be telling you what to do,” she explains. “Acorns comes along and you have a peer group. You have different opinions and different perspectives and they can kind of help you if there’s any questions that you need to ask.”

'Positive accountability'

There was also the benefit of what Tracy describes as “positive accountability”. Each month, participants set goals and returned the following month to discuss their progress.

“It’s never in a negative way. It’s completely in a positive, supportive way. But it kind of just does give you that bit of accountability.”

The experience also helped Tracy rebuild her network after returning to Mayo.

“I think the biggest challenge in a rural location was that kind of lack of network,” she says. “And you have to really build that. And that’s, again, where ACORNS came in.”

The friendships and connections formed through the programme have continued beyond its formal six-month structure.

“It’s not like it just ends at the six months,” she says. “There’s always follow-ups.”

Tracy came away from the experience with greater clarity, confidence and structure — including the habit of setting goals for her own company, something she admits can be easy to overlook when you are busy working for clients.

“I’m proud of the businesses that I’ve worked with and the help that I’ve given them,” she says. “I can see results from the work that I’ve done in the clients that I’ve worked with. And I’m proud to have a fully formed business now. It can only get stronger.”

ACORNS 12 will run from October 2026 to April 2027, with up to 50 places available. The free programme is funded through the Rural Innovation and Development Fund by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Applications are open to eligible female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland until September 18, midnight.

“I would really encourage any female business to go and apply for the programme,” Tracy says.

Having taken the opportunity herself, she knows that sometimes the most important step in building a business is simply giving yourself permission to stop, take stock and work out where you want to go next.

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For more information and to register to receive an application form, visit www.acorns.ie. Tracy’s business can be found at tracyarmstrongmarketing.com.