As part of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition, the Local Enterprise Offices in Cork, hosted an intensive business boot camp over the weekend, with 40 young entrepreneurs.
 
The boot camp was designed to help participants to develop the skills required to take their entrepreneurial ideas and businesses to the next level.

From the concept stage to reality, and building a viable business plan to commercialising their business, the boot camp covered areas including business strategy, financial planning and sources of finance, targets and performance measurement as well as investor proposals. 
 
Each of the young entrepreneurs who attended the boot camp will present their business plan and pitch to a judging panel in their region in the coming weeks to vie for a share of the investment fund available from their LEO.

Each of the three LEOs (Cork City, South Cork, and Cork North and West) has a total fund of €50,000 to invest in three winning businesses according to criteria including businesses’ investment needs and business prospects; with the overall county winners eligible for an investment of up to €20,000. 
 
The 2015 winners in each of the three categories will then go forward to represent their respective LEO in a regional final in November, and if successful there, will fly the Cork flag at the national final to find ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ before the end of the year.
 
Head of Enterprise at Local Enterprise Office South Cork, Sean O’Sullivan said, "We are delighted with the response we received for the 2015 search for Cork’s best young entrepreneurs. Now in its second year, the competition has once again unearthed a wealth of young entrepreneurs in the region who we need to nurture and support. 

"The aim of this initiative is to encourage and support a culture of entrepreneurship among young people in Cork, to promote entrepreneurship as a career choice, and to encourage the establishment and development of new innovative businesses.

"This is hugely important for job-creation, as two thirds of all new jobs are generated by businesses in the first five years of existence, and therefore more start-ups and a thriving entrepreneurial culture will lead to more jobs being created."