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Last year’s winner of Kerry Best Entrepreneur, Derek Counihan of Harpoon. Photo by Domnick Walsh
THE deadline for entering a competition with a €50,000 fund in Kerry alone is fast approaching and young entrepreneurs are invited to take part in this great opportunity.
Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) is a programme run by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs), including LEO Kerry with the support of the Department of Enterprise and Innovation and Enterprise Ireland.
The competition is open to people between the ages of 18 and 35 with an innovative business idea, new start-up or established business.
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Now in its 4th year, IBYE has an investment fund of up to €2million. The closing date to enter this year’s competition is this Friday, September 29, 2017 and there is a €50,000 county investment fund on offer to local winners and runners-up in County Kerry.
IBYE offers a very significant stepping stone into the world of running your own business for young people aged 18 to 35.
It’s not just the scale of the investment fund on offer that makes IBYE so important, IBYE entrants can go on to receive intensive enterprise boot camp training from LEO Kerry under the programme, to help them establish and develop their entrepreneurship careers.
IBYE is run locally by Local Enterprise Office Kerry across three categories: Best Business Idea, Best Start-Up Business and Best Established Business.
Up to 450 young entrepreneurs will be invited by the LEOs to attend free regional ‘Entrepreneur Bootcamps’ later in the year to help them develop their business and new venture ideas.
With an IBYE investment fund of €50,000, LEO Kerry will award up to six investments to three category winners and three runners-up at county level.
The local winners in the Best Start-Up and Best Established Business categories at county level will receive investments of up to €15,000 each and the two runners-up will each receive up to €5,000.
The Best Business Idea winner at county level will receive an investment of up to €7,000 and the runner-up will receive up to €3,000 of investment.
These winners at county level will progress to Regional Finals early next year and the national IBYE finals will be held in March 2018.
To enter, local entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35 should visit the IBYE website at www.ibye.ie, to submit their applications online. The closing date for entries is Friday, 29th September, 2017 and there are no entry fees.
Further information and details are also available from the 31 Local Enterprise Offices nationwide through www.localenterprise.ie
