Vanessa O'Brien, who returned to Leitrim from working in California to take part in a Graduate Enterprise Programme, and start her own furniture-making business. Photograph: Paddy Whelan
Vanessa O'Brien has some good advice for returning emigrants who've grown accustomed to a higher standard of living in sunnier climates. The 32year-old graduate in analytical science made the transition from a high-paying job in Silicon Valley back to her native Leitrim by spending a year back-packing around Africa and South America.
She is now taking advantage of a graduate enterprise programme, designed to keep graduates in the north-west, to start her own furniture-making business. At a time when the housing market is so buoyant, Vanessa decided to leave behind a career in science to design her own range of furniture aimed at the middle to upper end of the market.
She says she has no regrets about leaving a job in research and development with a pharmaceutical company in California, as she now has the satisfaction of working for herself.
"You do get used to a good life, good food and good weather. But there are pros and cons to every way of life. And once you make a decision, you accept it and don't say one is better than the other.
"Taking the break to go travelling before coming back was a great idea. I didn't go straight from one to the other. And after back-packing for a year, if you have to wait in a queue or whatever, you don't complain." She spent her first year back in Ireland working with a large pharmaceutical company while planning to start her business.
The programme manager of the graduate enterprise programme, Anne Hennessy, says Vanessa is typical of many emigrants, who are coming back with "new ideas, and their own money" and who see opportunities offered by the booming economy.
The 14 participants on the programme, which is based at the Institute of Technology in Sligo, have had the potentially risky step of leaving full-time employment to set up their own enterprise made a lot easier with attractive financial incentives.
Because Sligo is classified as a Border county, the programme attracted funding from a range of sources, including the EU's peace and reconciliation fund, EU funding for Border areas, the International Fund for Ireland, and Enterprise Ireland, which initiated the scheme.
As a result, those taking part in the year-long programme are guaranteed an income of 50 per cent of their last certified salary, up to a maximum of £15,000, and also get £3,350, or 50 per of their total costs, spent on prototype development and technical consultancy.
The programme, the first of its kind in the west, started last September as a pilot project and focused initially on giving the participants a business training. Of the 14 who started, five are already trading.
"The focus is very strongly on people actually setting up their businesses while they are on the programme. It is not a case of doing the programme and then starting the business," says Anne Hennessy.
Unlike Vanessa, most are setting up businesses linked to their original qualification, and while the programme was originally intended to keep graduates in the region, two non-graduates were also selected because of the quality of their ideas. The main criterion is that businesses are in the "manufacturing or internationally-traded services" sector.
The companies being set up by the 14 participants vary greatly, and a number involve innovative ideas, for which patents are being sought. Some are involved in software development, another is recycling used fluorescent tubes, while others are developing products in the food, medical and sports industries.
One participant is making top-of-the-range dolls' houses and architectural models, while another is making custom-built generators.
Vanessa has already taken a number of commissions, and is now focusing on marketing. She hopes a number of leading retailers will stock her range of furniture, made from stainless steel and glass. She contracts out the manufacturing work to a company in Co Louth and is encouraged by the initial reaction at a number of trade shows.
Futuristic in appearance, many of the pieces are dual purpose - a hall table by day serves also as a lamp at night. Shelving is made to be adaptable to suit modern homes and apartment dwellers.
The turnabout from scientist to designer has not been a problem, as she says she always had an inclination toward art and design, but the economic climate in the 1980s made it more difficult to pursue. "If I was going to college now, I would probably do something in art, but then the emphasis was on getting a job," she says.
The year-long programme is due to begin again in September, but a second six-month programme, aimed at people who are at a more advanced stage in starting their own businesses, will start in July. People on both sides of the Border can apply. Information from the Graduate Enterprise Programme on 07144663. Vanessa can be contacted on 087 2888255.