In an enterprising role reversal, two fifth-year students have turned their business studies teachers into customers, writes Caroline Madden.

The next time you're sitting in a business studies class, take a look around the room. Chances are that you're surrounded by four bare walls. No colourful pictures to grab your attention just when you're drifting off into a daydream. No interesting diagrams to break down a difficult concept. No catchy graphics that might ingrain themselves in your memory and pop up just when you think your mind has gone blank under exam pressure.

Luckily those bare, uninspiring walls could soon be a thing of the past. Thanks to a range of visual resources launched by a new venture called Business Illustrated, by the time you return from the summer holidays, your business studies classroom will very likely be transformed with colourful images, photos and diagrams guaranteed to make business subjects more stimulating.

Business Illustrated is the brainchild of two enterprising fifth-year students in St Patricks Classical School in Navan - Colm Gore and Séamus Crosbie - who, in an interesting role reversal, are selling teaching aids to business studies teachers.

Their posters have already attracted a deluge of praise, with the president of the Business Studies Teachers' Association of Ireland Caroline McHale describing them as outstanding, and Minister for Education Mary Hanafin giving her stamp of approval. With such a positive reaction to their product, it's not surprising that Colm and Séamus were crowned overall winners of the 2007 Student Enterprise Awards last Sunday - in the process winning €500 and a trip to Valencia.

As well as proving that teachers can learn a thing or two from students, the two young entrepreneurs have developed a commercially viable business model that could make them a small fortune.

From September onwards, educational publishers Folens will be manufacturing, marketing and selling their product for €75 per pack of 12 posters. Folens have agreed to pay royalties of 10 per cent of each sale to Business Illustrated.

With a potential market of 2,000 business studies teachers in Ireland, this could earn the students a cool €15,000 - not bad for a school start-up.

How did they manage to secure this deal?

Let's rewind to the start of the process. With their teacher Pádraig Doherty, Colm and Séamus had a brainstorming session and identified business studies as an area where their strengths lay, as they had both achieved As in the junior cert. They then examined what was happening in relation to subject inspection and the requirement for visual stimulation in the classroom.

They discovered a gap in the market and, after considerable market research, developed a unique range of posters using a chief examiner's report to identify and tackle areas of common difficulty in exams. Printing expenses were covered by sponsorship deals that they managed to secure with companies such as Snap printers, the Meath Chronicle and Euro Farm Foods.

By the time Folens became involved, Colm and Séamus had already built up a significant customer base and proved that there was a demand for their product.

"I was their first customer," says their teacher, Pádraig Doherty. "I have them up on my walls now and I wouldn't be without them - absolutely not.

"I'm hoping it will kickstart an enterprise culture in the school," he continues.

"This was our first time to enter the competition. I'm going to use this as a prime example of what can be achieved. I already have a number of students in junior years with ideas for next year. The amount of creativity out there is incredible and, only for a competition like this, it wouldn't be tapped."

Ger Enright, chairman of the Student Enterprise Programme and chief executive of Waterford County Enterprise Board, explains that the purpose of the programme is to promote entrepreneurship among second-level students. He says more than 12,000 students took part this year, setting up 2,600 businesses.

Michael Bradley of the Irish Franchise Association was a senior judge at the finals, and was struck by how the standard of entries had improved in recent years. "Some of them are exportable, and with a little bit more development probably could be turned into an Enterprise Ireland-backed company," he says.

Bradley was also particularly impressed by the runners-up, including Tullamore College's Lingo Ltd, which created mini-phrasebooks in five eastern European languages, and Acceler-Aces, a road safety board game developed by students of St Fachtnas de la Salle in Skibbereen, Co Cork.

" I think we've probably got a couple of budding Denis O'Briens!" he added.