After months of regional competitions among 17,000 secondary school students from 370 schools across Ireland, the countdown is on to the National Finals of the 2016 Student Enterprise Awards.
The awards, now in their 14th year, are coordinated by all 31 Local Enterprise Offices across Ireland, and split into three categories: Junior, Intermediate and Senior. The main aim behind the awards is to encourage enterprise culture among students in Ireland, so that more school leavers consider self-employment and entrepreneurship as a career option.
As this year’s finalists prepare to gather in Croke Park later this month to make their business presentations, #allaboutjobs spoke to one business to see how they’ve progressed since their win in 2013.
Students Matthew Hewston, Fergus Munday and Luke Sheridan were crowned the Senior Category Overall Winners in 2013 for their educational science toy business, Squeazy. Supported by the Local Enterprise Office in Leitrim, the trio came up with a fun science kit which sees users squeeze a water bottle to try and hook together two characters, Drip and Drop. The idea came about after the trio took part in a science experience during Transition year and saw the potential for more fun.
“Overall we found the Student Enterprise Awards process hugely rewarding,” said Fergus Munday.
“Not only did we develop our business during the process but we developed as people as well. We met lots of great people and were given some really good advice from both the judges on the day and the teachers present at both a county and national level.”
The trio also said they benefited from the publicity they received for entering the awards.
Squeazy the app
With all three of them sitting the Leaving Certificate last year, the team knew they would have less time to devote to producing and selling Squeazy and so came up with an idea for another product; the Squeazy app.
“Releasing our own app was something we had always planned to do. When we started sixth year we felt that it was the best time to start working on the app because with Leaving Cert approaching, we didn't have as much time to produce Squeazy's as we used to.”
The app, which is a digital version of the physical product, was released into app stores across all major platforms in conjunction with Sillan Studios with the help of the Local Enterprise Office.
The trio also appeared on the Irish version of Dragon’s Den in 2014 and said the hours of practice and rehearsing for the pitch was a worthwhile experience.
“It’s about doing things fast”
Fergus’s advice to young entrepreneurs thinking of entering the Student Enterprise Awards is that it’s not about doing things perfect, “it’s about doing things fast”.
“In the case of Squeazy, we had our product in front of the customer and on sale at the beginning of December [2013], whereas our rival mini companies were still in the development stage of their business. Not only did this give us a great head start in sales it also helped develop the product.”
This approach helped Squeazy learn more from how the customers reacted to the product and gave the entrepreneurs the ability to make minor improvements based on feedback in the early stages.
New markets
This year, Squeazy are looking at how they can turn the product into a viable business in the long-term through licensing and new products for the Christmas market. They’ve redeveloped Squeazy into a fun ‘make and take’ science kit, where kids get to make up their Squeazy, learn some science and have fun with the finished product.
Squeazy has also undergone rebranding and redevelopment with the updated product launched earlier this year at the UK’s largest trade show, the Spring Fair. As a result, Squeazy is now available in some retailers in Ireland and the UK. They also linked up with a potential licensee who is interested in bringing the product to the US, Australia and Eastern Asia.
And their last aim for 2016? Making Squeazy Eazy Science Ireland’s most exciting educational toy brand!
For more information
Find out more about Squeazy by visiting their website.
Learn more about the Student Enterprise Awards.
Follow this year’s awards on Twitter with the hashtag #studententerprise