William Power from Power Physiotherapy winner of Best Established and overall winner of the Irish Best Young Entrepreneur 2018

This week, Carlow County Council hosted a celebration of all things enterprise with over 170 business people from across County Carlow gathering for Celebrating Excellence with David Meade and the presentation of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur County Investment Fund of €50,000, Lean for Micro Certificates and Management Development Graduates with IT Carlow.

During the event over 30 companies received Management Development Certificates from IT Carlow & Lean for Micro Certificates from Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Office.

The showcase presentation of the evening was Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur. Run by the Local Enterprise Offices, IBYE is supported by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland. Now in its 4^th year, this year attracted almost 1,500 applications nationwide.

Kieran Comerford Head of Enterprise in Carlow County Council’s – Local Enterprise Office explained: “The search to find Ireland’s best young entrepreneur started back in August and we were delighted with the calibre of entries. After a very successful Enterprise Day, Bootcamp and County Final, I’m pleased to confirm that the future of enterprise and job creation in Carlow is bright.”

There was joy for William Power of Power Physiotherapy as they were named winner of the Best Established Business award. They were joined by Amy Power of The Hair & Beauty Chalet who took the runner up title in this category.

The Best Start Up category was a particularly hard-fought contest. With Dylan Scully from Matchday named winner while Maire Nolan of Flawless Foto Finish was named runner-up.

Dylan Scully from Matchday winner of Best Start Up category 

Paddy Byrne of BOKS winner of Best Business Idea category.

Many innovative new business concepts emerged in the Best Business Idea category. The winner was Paddy Byrne of BOKS while Cm Yilmaz scooped the runner up title.

William Power of Power Physiotherapy was named the Overall Winner of IBYE for County Carlow.

The adjudicators in this year’s competition were Yvonne Jones , Carlow Chamber , Jerry O’Driscoll , Industry Representative , Michael Kelly , Industry Sector , Ailish Delaney , IT Carlow , Derek Shannon , Bank of Ireland and Pauline Hoctor of Local Enterprise Office Carlow. The awards ceremony was attended by other special guests including International Speaker David Meade.

Guest Speaker on the evening David Meade

Kathleen Holohan , Chief Executive with Carlow County Council

Speaking about the awards and presentations Kathleen Holohan , Chief Executive with Carlow County Council said “Evenings like this are a fantastic showcase for the enterprise talent in County Carlow and demonstrate the commitment of entrepreneurs to stay ahead of the curve in terms of business development and competitiveness” she concluded by saying “we are really proud of our entrants to Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur and each of the winners and runners-up will share in an investment fund of up to €50,000 from the Local Enterprise Office to help grow and develop their business. The 3 category winners go forward to the Regional Finals in Wicklow in January”.

End – For further information contact Kieran Comerford on 086/8252037 E-mail: kcomerford@carlowcoco.ie

Background:           About www.IBYE.ie Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur:

• Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur is an enterprise initiative run by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEO) around the country and funded by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland. A €2 million investment fund is available through IBYE which supports young entrepreneurs through training, mentoring and direct financial investments.
• IBYE was open to people between the ages of 18 (at date of application) and 35 (at 31st December 2017) with an innovative business idea, new start-up or established business, including: individuals, venture teams, partnerships, existing businesses with a new idea, or people overseas (including Irish emigrants) who will headquarter in Ireland.
• Each LEO will have a total fund of up to €50,000 to invest in six businesses (three category winners and three runners-up) according to criteria including businesses’ investment needs. The three categories are as follows:
• Best Business Idea (pre-trading) – up to €10,000 investment fund through every LEO (€7,000 for category winner and €3,000 for runner-up, through every LEO)
• Best Start-Up Business (up to 18 months), with up to €20,000 investment fund through every LEO (€15,000 for category winner and €5,000 for runner-up, through every LEO)
• Best Established Business (over 18 months) with up to €20,000 investment fund through every LEO (€15,000 for category winner and €5,000 for runner-up, through every LEO)
• The county winners will proceed to eight regional finals in January and February 2018 from which 24 contenders (three from each region – one in each category) will be selected to compete for the national title of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur. A further €100,000 investment fund will be available to invest in the winners of the three categories at the national final, one of which will also be named with the prestigious title of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur.

Local Enterprise Offices

• The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) are the ‘first-stop-shop’ for providing advice and guidance, financial assistance and ‘soft’ supports in the form of training and mentoring to anyone wishing to start or grow a business.
• The LEOs provide a ‘signposting’ service in relation to all relevant state supports available through agencies such as Revenue, the Department of Social Protection, Education and Training Boards, the Credit Review Office and Microfinance Ireland.
• The LEOs can offer direct grant aid to microenterprises (10 employees or fewer) in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sector which, over time, have the potential to develop into strong export entities. Subject to certain eligibility criteria, the LEOs can provide financial assistance within three main categories, i.e., Feasibility Grants (investigating the potential of a business idea) Priming Grants (to part-fund a start-up) and Business Development Grants for existing businesses that want to expand.
• The LEOs also offer advice and guidance in areas such as Local Authority rates, Public Procurement and other regulations affecting business.