Ireland’s young student entrepreneurs are working hard at school – and at their businesses
The image of a young Mark Zuckerberg starting out his company in a college dorm room has captured the imagination of many, but none more so than a group of Ireland’s secondary school students.
While many people spent Christmas enjoying downtime from school or work, it was one of the busiest times in business for many teen entrepreneurs, as they juggled their companies with exams and school.
One such student was Ciara Whooley (17), who is Ireland’s leading distributor of personalised baubles. The young entrepreneur designs and sells Christmas and landmark-themed baubles to customers in Ireland, Switzerland, the United States, Australia and Africa, under the Irish Baubles brand.
A student at St David’s Secondary School in Greystones, she has signed deals with charities including Barretstown Castle, Down Syndrome Ireland and Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, as well as selling locally and to Irish people abroad.
“This year my main focus has been to maximise profits. We’ve done nearly every craft fair in Wicklow and some in Cork, too. My family and I have been split nearly every weekend in the run-up to Christmas showcasing the baubles at different craft fairs.
“A lot of parents also buy baubles off the website to send to their children abroad. I have baubles featuring various landmarks such as Glendalough, the Dublin Spire and the Shandon Bells, so the parents send them to their kids as reminders of home.”
Whooley has sold more than 2,000 of her personalised baubles this year, including 100 to Dromoland Castle. “I did some sketches of the castle, sent them over to my team in China and they painted them on the inside of the glass baubles. The hotel sells them in their gift shop. I paint all the sketches myself and they are painted on to the inside of the glass baubles by my team in China. I found the team online – they also paint the inside of perfume bottles and snuff bottles. I thought it was better to have the themes painted on the inside so they wouldn’t rub off.”
Whooley plans to expand her line of baubles, which retail at €10 for small ones and €14.99 for larger ones, to include baubles for Christenings, birthdays and wedding anniversaries. “I am taking part in Showcase Ireland in the RDS this month. My next aim is to get the baubles listed in more retail outlets across the country and diversify away from doing Christmas baubles.”
Six-figure order
Also busy in the run-up to Christmas was Kildare teenager Tara Haughton, who runs Rosso Solini. “I ran a few deals on daily deal sites such as Groupon, so got a good few orders from them.”
Haughton may be just 17, but so far this year her designer sole business has sold nearly 200,000 units to more than 50 countries. The company produces stickers for the soles of shoes to create designer heel lookalikes.
The Cross and Passion College student received a six-figure order for her fashion product following an appearance on US shopping channel QVC in September, and plans to make a second appearance on the channel in March.
While many young people spend their school years working for their parents, the opposite is the case for Haughton, who employs her dad.
“My dad runs the business end of the company. He was working in the motor industry for 25 years but things became very quiet when the recession hit and he was left unemployed. I’m glad I was able to give him a job.”
She is the first to admit, however, that combining a business with her studies is not an easy feat.
“I missed a good bit of school last year due to the company. That’s affecting me now as the foundation year was last year and sixth year is the revision year so I’m a bit lost. I used to be quite good at school so it’s frustrating. I’ve no regrets though.”
Fifth-year students Conor McGrath and Shaun McGloin are also setting their sights high in the business world, with aspirations to export their sheep shoe product to New Zealand and Australia.
The teenagers came up with the sheep shoe idea while in transition year at Marist College Athlone, and convinced Dubarry to manufacture it for them at the company’s plant in Portugal.
The leather and velcro shoe holds a sponge that can be soaked in copper sulphate and used to treat foot rot when the shoe is fitted to a sheep’s foot. It costs €20 plus postage and the duo have sold more than 800 units in the past year.
“Our long-term goal is to sell the product in New Zealand and Australia as the market there is huge. There are 80 million sheep in Australia and New Zealand and they often suffer from dry rot, which is treated in the same way as foot rot.”
Whooley, Haughton, McGrath and McGloin are all previous winners of the National Student Enterprise Awards, at either national or county level, and are testament to the programme’s success.
An estimated 16,000 budding entrepreneurs from 370 secondary schools around the State spent this Christmas setting up and running their own enterprises in preparation for the awards.
“It is extremely important, especially in the economy of the future, that everyone understands the fundamentals of business,” says Loman O’Byrne, chairman of the enterprise education committee at the County and City Enterprise Boards.
“The student enterprise awards aren’t a simulation, it’s real-life commerce. The students set up actual businesses, sell products and make money. They learn about creating value, marketing, sales and networking.”
O’Byrne is constantly surprised by the inventiveness of students participating in the programme. “The competition is rife with ideas that typically come out of left field. Our innovation prize is nearly as important as the main prize. It encourages students not to be shy about standing out and being different.”
Traffic light learning
Wesleigh O’Hagan, a teacher of business studies and accountancy at Donabate Community College, says the awards teach students they can create their own job, something that’s very important in the current economic climate where there are very few jobs.
Four of her students won the overall prize at the Fingal Student Enterprise Awards earlier this year with their innovative learning product AFL Aid.
The company name AFL Aid comes from the education term Assessment for Learning, according to managing director Andrew Ennis (17). The aid is an electronic version of the traditional traffic light learning system operated in Irish schools.
“We are currently selling the device to schools in the Fingal area. We recently got an order for 60 units, which is worth €500 to us. We sell them for €8.99 each but give a discount for bulk buying.”
While he didn’t think he would be running his own business while still at school, he says he is glad to be making his own money and building up experience.
Enterprising students: The newcomers
Students at Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh in Cork launched Blaze in October, a mini-company specialising in “clocks with a musical past”.
Peter Walsh, the mini-company’s MD, said the team came up with the idea to spraypaint old vinyl records and turn them into clocks.
“We buy the vinyl records in charity shops in Cork and we’ve nearly cleaned them all out at this stage as sales have been good. We went to a trade day in Blackpool Shopping Centre and completely sold out.”
Walsh attributes the good sales to Christmas demand, saying the team will most likely have to develop different kinds of clock this year.
“We’re thinking of doing graduation vinyl clocks with a picture of the school on them. We will sell them with markers so students can sign each other’s clocks.”
While the team of 11 are making money from sales, Walsh is quick to point out they appreciate their success and are giving back to the community. “We give 10 per cent of our profits to the children’s ward at Cork University Hospital. We wanted to do the business but give to charity at the same time.”
Transition-year student Cathal Leahy, MD of We X Sell, a business that creates QR codes (a type of matrix barcode) for firms in the Fermoy area, is competing in the current student enterprise programme. “We are creating QR codes for 30 companies in the Fermoy area and the feedback has been good so far. We are planning to expand the service to neighbouring towns including Midleton, Youghal and Mitchelstown in the coming months.”
Leahy says some of the companies using the service have created a special offers page advertising reductions on their products. The QR code brings the customer to the page, which is consistently being updated by the company. The QR code remains the same though.
“Mobile advertising wasn’t really used in Fermoy, but it is huge and very successful in America, so we decided to create codes for businesses here.”
