In June the three Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) in Cork launched a campaign to find the best young entrepreneurs in their region in three distinct categories, with a €150,000 investment fund up for grabs, as part of a nationwide search find ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’.
The competition, which encouraged young entrepreneurs from all over Cork to ‘just do it, like’and enter, was open to individuals aged 30 and under, will be judged in three distinct categories following the bootcamp:
- best new idea
- best start-up business
- best established business with new add-on
In early October, each of the young entrepreneurs who attended the bootcamp will vie for a portion of the investment fund available from their LEO when they present their business plan and pitch to a judging panel in their region. Each of the three LEOs (Cork City, South Cork, North and West Cork) has a total fund of €50,000 to invest in the three winning businesses according to criteria including businesses’ investment needs and business prospects; with one overall winner in each of the regions eligible for an investment of up to €20,000.
Following this stage of the competition, the winners in each of the three categories will go forward to represent their 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’ at the end of the year. With the Cork region being heralded as the entrepreneur’s hub of Ireland, the overall winner could well be from Cork.
Sean O’Sullivan, Head of Enterprise, Local Enterprise Office South Cork says“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 by Cork’s young entrepreneurs. 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 – more start-ups and a thriving entrepreneurial culture will lead to more jobs being created.”
He continued “Our business bootcamp offered the shortlisted applicants the opportunity to hone in on their business idea, and focus on what is necessary to make it successful. These brave young people have decided to take that next step in to making their business dream a reality. In Cork we would say they decided to ‘just do it, like!’
Visit www.ibye.ie for more information on ‘Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur’. To follow the progress of Cork’s young entrepreneurs, check out @LEOSouthCork on Twitter and Local Enterprise Office South Cork on Facebook.
Local Enterprise Offices
The Annual Action Plan for Jobs is committed to delivering an enhanced, expanded and more integrated support service for micro and small business. As part of these reforms new Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) have been created within Local Authorities and the 35 existing County & City Enterprise Boards have been dissolved.
These new enterprise offices will build on the significant achievements of the CEBs to date and will continue to offer an expanded range of supports.
The services of Cork County & City Enterprise Boards will now be available through the Local Enterprise Offices in Cork.
The Local Enterprise Offices in Cork are the first port of call for anyone wishing to start or expand a business in the region. They work closely with companies at every stage of development, from the initial idea stage right through to growth and expansion.
