HE has a twinkle in his eye and the charm of a snake oil salesman. "This is the champagne of honey," Eamonn Minihane says with great satisfaction, pointing to his last pot of honey. He and his partner, Paul O'Regan, stand behind their produce in a vast UCD hall in Dublin at the national finals of the 1997 Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. "We're sold out," say the two second level students together. There's nothing left to be purchased from the Bandon Valley Honey stall.
"From eight working hives we made 244 jars of honey," says Paul with satisfaction. "And it wasn't a good year - in a good year we could make 350 jars," he adds.
As students at St Brogan's College, Bandon, Co Cork, they entered their enterprise in the Forbairt Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award competition. This year 250 schools throughout the country took part in the event. Those mini companies who reached the final had already come through a series of school, county and regional finals.
Altogether 7,300 students were involved in the competition, which was started five years ago by the Young Entrepreneurs Association, a voluntary group of teachers and parents who wanted to see young people get a taste for business.
"The standard is going up in leaps and bounds," says one of its members, Brian Flanagan. This year's top prize was awarded to Incy Wincy's Nursery Rhymes, a company set up by fifth year students, Claire O'Donohue and Maryellen Holmes, from Sancta Maria College, Ballyroan, Dublin, who saw a gap in the market and set out to produce an Irish sounding tape with verses and songs sung by young people with Irish accents targeted at children around the three to four year age group. The rights to the tape have already been sold and the girls have sold 900 tapes so far. The Incy Wincy tape is now available in 20 outlets around Dublin.
The prizes were awarded in Dublin this month at a packed venue. The young entrepreneurs in the junior section were Jenny Malone and Sharon Gibons from Laurel Hill Secondary School in Limerick. They produced Brainwave, a book of jokes, recipes, puzzles and activities for second level students. They are now about to produce their third book in the series.
For any tired, aching shoulders and joints, two entrepreneurs came up with Jo Bags, which are bags filled with lavender scented wheat. Andrew Simpson and Edward Abrahamson from Sandford Park School in Ranelagh, Dublin, came in first in the intermediate sector. "We've made a profit of £1,072.16 so far," says Andrew. "We get the wheat, sterilise it so that it won't germinate and then put lavender into it. Andrew's mum sews the bags." You have to put the little pillows of scented wheat into the microwave to heat them up and then, bob's your uncle, the joy of it."
Dan Flinter, chief executive of Forbairt, which has been the national sponsor of the competition since 1994, says "what we are really interested in is the participation of second level students. They have to produce a product and sell it."
MEANWHILE, money is changing hands and the country's future business men and women are selling their wares. Louise Cogan and Jennifer Doonan, of Loreto College in Cavan, are doing a great trade with their colourful and original range of candles. Alice Carroll, of St Mary's Secondary School in Baldoyle, Co Dublin, is answering questions about her Listen and Learn storybook and tape, writer, compiled and produced by herself. At another stall, Sile Walsh, Maria Craven and Mia Duithie from Scoil Mhuire in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, are delighted to list the raw ingredients - saw dust, grass seeds and tights, which they use to make a selection of grassheads. The finished product are plants that look like little dolls with sprouting heads. They are selling hand over fist.
"It's great fun," says Sile. Yes, they have learned a lot: "You need to be committed and open minded to your partners ideas and opinions. You need to listen to others and be into research."
