Patrick O’Brien chose the name Green Juice to emphasise the Irishness of his juice and smoothies business.

What is special about your business?
We made the transition from selling at farmers' markets to the shelves of national retailers in the space of 12 months. Our products will be available in Tesco in the coming weeks.

What sets your products apart in your sector?
Our products are completely fresh whereas many other smoothies on the market are processed. In my opinion, this compromises them. Our range tastes great, is nutritionally better and, of course, we are an Irish company.

What has been your biggest challenge?
Setting up a business when you are completely broke. When I finally scraped enough money together, the choice was between a lawnmower to start a lawn-cutting business or a juicer to start a juice business. I've had to beg and borrow but I feel proud of what I've achieved and I'm really optimistic about the future. I just need the people of Ireland to try our products. I'm convinced they'll like them.

What key piece of advice would you give to someone starting a small food business?
Have a destination in mind vis à vis your final product but be prepared to be flexible and open minded. Change what you need to change in order to make it work.

Who do you admire most in business and why?
The entrepreneur Pádraig Ó Céidigh, who was synonymous with Aer Arran for so many years. He was my first business teacher back in Galway. I think he has achieved so much and is a very inspirational, even motivational guy. He taught me the word "niche" and it stuck in my head for years.

What two things could the Government do to help SMEs in the current environment?
I feel they are doing quite a bit through organisations such as Bord Bia and Enterprise Ireland, although they haven't helped me much. However, maybe they should look at businesses more broadly without trying to put them in boxes. In my opinion, a company that fights imports and creates jobs of any kind is as important as one that is exporting.

In your experience are the banks' lending to SMEs now?
I was lucky enough to get a small business loan from Bank of Ireland and I'm very grateful for that. But I had a pretty solid business plan and I think that is key if you are looking for money from them.

What's the biggest mistake you've made in business?
In the past, being overly ambitious when I was trying to set up an ethical clothing company. I visited factories and producers in South Africa and had very good suppliers on board. But when it came to getting Irish shops to buy into the idea, they were simply not interested. I think I might have been trying to achieve too much.

But now I see that this experience has been of great benefit in helping me get Green Juice and Smoothies to this point.

What is the most frustrating part of running a small business?
Time is against you when you wear so many hats. There simply isn't enough time in the day.

What's your business worth and would you sell it?
It's hard to put a value on it right now as we are about to go into Ireland's major retailers and that's a major step up. I couldn't imagine selling the business now as it would be like selling my dreams just before they are about to become reality.

In conversation with Olive Keogh