Great opportunity for Young Entrepreneurs
CLOGHERHEAD entrepreneur Nikki Reilly of Celtic Adventures is encouraging other young people to enter the Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition.
Nikki took part in the competition, which is run locally by Local Enterprise Office Louth, last year and reached the final in Google HQ.
Celtic Adventures is an outdoor education and activity company offering customers a range of memorable outdoor experiences from canoeing to climbing, stand-up paddling to archery, The Clogherhead based company delivers corporate well-being, team building and schools programmes to clients all across the country. Nikki explains that they were were already clients of the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) in Louth and had availed of mentoring, training and support in the past, so when she got an email about the Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition ,she jumped at the challenge.
‘ The opportunity to access really intensive mentoring,’ was a major motivating factor for her and she enjoyed taking part in the Bootcamp and being challenged by her mentor Rob Marr. She discovered the importance of developing a strong business plan. ‘ Implementing that plan has led to significant growth in our business and a clear road map for the years ahead,’ she says.
She was surprised to discover how many other young entrepreneurs there were in Louth. ‘ There is such a diverse range of businesses being run by young people in the county. It was great to get to meet so many of them and learned so much from each other.’
Nikki advises young entrepreneurs to enter this year’s competition, which has a €50,000 investment fund to be shared between the winners in Louth. It is open to anyone aged 18-35 who has a great business idea or is already running their own business. Praising the networking opportunities, she says:‘It is so important to find ‘your tribe’ and surround yourself with like-minded people.’
Head of Enterprise Thomas McEvoy explains ‘Now is the time for anyone aged 18-35 to log on to www.ibye.ie and enter the Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition. It’s simple, it’s free and it takes about 15 minutes.’
For further information contact Sarah Mallon in the Local Enterprise Office on 042 9324185. The closing date for applications is March 15th.