BEING caught off guard delivered an overnight brutal blow to Sherkin Island native Michael Collins’ digital consultancy business, but in fact it was the best thing that could have happened.

UL graduate Michael launched Wagyu Digital in April 2024. “It started as a consultancy, and I worked mainly with clients in Asia, helping them get into the European and US markets through the connections and network I’d built up in previous roles,” he said.

After setting up the business from his camper van in Tenerife, he spent the next year and a half working on the road before moving to Indonesia in December 2025, feeling confident for the future.

“The plan was to travel, surf and work remotely. But just one month into the trip, the market in the niche we were working in took a bad turn. A number of factors combined, none of which I had any control over. 

“I had all my eggs in one basket, so overnight my business took a

heavy shock, and from that point it was back to the drawing board,” recalls Michael.

What followed initially were uncertain times, but quite quickly he could see the silver lining.

“It was the push I needed to develop the things I really wanted to do, and to gain more independence. And I was lucky to have the financial stability in place to give me time to develop those ideas,” he said.

He always knew he wanted to have his own business, so it was a matter of deciding what he could do with his skillset. Across all of his previous roles he had built up a deep understanding of how websites

work and how traffic moves online, analysing hundreds of websites a week.

“So, it came down to building websites, AI agents and tools, and bringing together everything I’d built up over the years. At the end of the day, the main reason any small business needs a website is to grow.

“So the idea was to take what I knew from sales experience and apply it to the technical side, in a way that helps my clients grow and expand their business.

“There’s no point having a website that looks pretty if it’s not earning its keep. That doesn’t always mean direct sales either. It could be building a portfolio, a profile or an archive. So long as the tool does the job it’s there for, that’s the main goal,” he said.

Three or four years ago, Michael said, a small or medium business couldn’t have afforded an SEO strategy or an optimised website without investing huge amounts of money. AI has changed that.

“I thought maybe I could bring those services to small independent businesses in a cost-effective way, using AI to bring down the costs and building systems based on what I know to streamline the process. But at the same time, I could see a lot of people putting out very generic work because of AI. 

“It felt like everybody was just copying and pasting. One of the things I wanted to achieve was to use those tools to work more efficiently, while keeping the soul and the creativity that good digital work needs. “

He returned to West Cork in July and in August he relaunched Wagyu Digital as a full agency, with a new website.

“I work with all kinds of local businesses, from one-man operations up to firms of 50 people or more; trades, clinics, estate agents, restaurants, artists and creatives, basically anyone who wants to get their business online. 

“Many of my clients are here in West Cork, including the concrete

cutting company Euroconcrete and the Sherkin Island painter Majella O’Neill Collins, who also happens to be my mam. I also help businesses that are struggling to get traffic to their website, or that want to bring in new customers through the website they already have. 

“On top of that, I help businesses bring AI into the way

they work, whether that’s email automations, a digital receptionist or automating how they manage their customer relationships. And I run digital advertising through various channels across the internet.”

Michael, who shares his time between homes in Ireland and Poland with his partner, said it’s a “very exciting time” with expansion plans already in the pipeline.

And the name?

“The name started as a joke between me and a good colleague from my previous job. We always said that as soon as we closed our first big sale, we’d go for a Wagyu steak. We made the sale but never

got the steak, so I named the business after it as a tribute to our success. 

“It suits the business too. Anyone who knows Wagyu beef knows A5 is the top grade, and that’s the standard I aim for in digital services.”