YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS:TY students didn't need much encouragement to come up with innovative business ideas this year, writes PETER McGUIRE
IT’S HIGH TIME for fresh ideas in business. Old ways of thinking have been swallowed into the recession’s void, and all across Ireland, young people have been building new possibilities. In the past month, three enterprise competitions have challenged students to develop their own business ideas.
The largest, the Get Up and Go mini-company competition, saw over 28,000 Transition Year business projects vie for the title of Sean Lemass Award for Enterprise. The winning project, from Loreto Secondary School in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, was an imaginative cross between The X Factor and Dragon’s Den.
"We brainstormed a few ideas, everything from board games to cosmetics," explains Helen Laffery (16). "Then came the idea for Fuelled by Music, a CD featuring musical talent from all the years in the school."
The CD contains music from a wide variety of genres, from rock to pop to country. The school’s only male teacher performed a rap song. Over 50 students auditioned to be on the CD. A panel of five judges made the final selection. The class hired a producer and built a recording studio off the school hall.
"We found some great musicians," says Helen. "We took a lot of risks, especially by hiring a producer, which cost €2,500. We pre-ordered the CDs to help pay for this, and we've since marketed the CD heavily. We were on RTÉ Two's Iceshow, The Right Hookon Newstalk, and local print media and radio stations."
The CDs were distributed and sold around Letterkenny, and have nearly sold out. Four of the singers have already been approached to sing at other events. The risk has paid off.But it wasn’t all plain sailing, and Helen has some sound advice for mini-company students: “Choose your idea early! We left it far too late to decide what to do, and it left us with just eight weeks to complete the project. We had to come in during weekends and on holidays.”
Last month, Aindriú O Fearáil, a student at Coláiste Mhuire, Thurles, Co Tipperary, took the crown of All-Ireland Youth Entrepreneur of the Year at a ceremony for the National Foundation for Training Entrepreneurship (NFTE). The organisation provides business training to 32 schools and youth centres in low-income communities around Ireland.
AINDRIÚ’S COMPANY, Stress Busters, designs and manufactures a stress-busting doll which is being marketed as a fun and effective way to beat recession anxiety. “I noticed that teachers can become stressed at school, but also that the recession had raised stress levels in general,” says Aindriú. He was competing against over 350 businesses, selling such items as decorated handbags, Easter chocolates, handmade cards and wishing wing angels, plus a web design business and a profit-making talent show.
In another enterprise competition, TY student Michael Dillane’s business, schoolgiftsforgrads.com, provides speciality gifts for Leaving Certificate students. Michael saw off competition from over 350 students in Kerry and the Shannon region’s Young Entrepreneur Awards, set up to encourage the development of an entrepreneurial culture. “I’m now running the business from my own home,” says Michael. “It’s a real challenge but I think this company has great potential.”
