Emer proves to be a natural entrepreneur

A “natural young entrepreneur” was fittingly recognised at a national enterprise competition last week.

St Anne’s Community College, Killaloe, celebrated its first national award after competing in at least seven Student Enterprise Awards, thanks to the remarkable success of a budding Ogonnelloe businesswoman.
Emer Mooney, 13, a first year pupil at St Anne’s, was the toast of the school on Friday after scooping third prize in the junior category of the Student Enterprise Awards national final in Croke Park with her project, Natural Hampers.
Christmas Fair from Ennis Community College took part in the intermediate category and Starling Records from St Anne’s represented in the senior category.
Emer’s hampers contained an Irish product, a natural product, a little piece of luxury, a charity reward product and a product you could alter slightly to sell all year such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
Emer believes all the components make her hampers unique, making her business more viable and innovative.
Deciding to go for a quality product, Emer wanted to keep the money flowing in Ireland and so all her products are Irish. She was also conscious of the environment so she sourced natural soaps. To make her business extra special, Emer gives 20% of her profits to Trócaire.
Her siblings Hannah (11), Fíonn (9), Pearse (7) and Tara (6) were delighted to get a day off school to join her for the event in Dublin together with her brother, Sean, who is in college in Galway and proud parents Lorretta and Brian.
Her teacher and mentor in St Anne’s, Mairead Ryan described Emer as a natural young entrepreneur and a great child. Ms Ryan noted the Clare Enterprise Board had spent a lot of money promoting the event, which made this event possible with the co-operation of secondary schools like St Anne’s.
However, she warned more cutbacks in teaching hours would mean schools would find it extremely difficult if impossible to provide teaching cover for extra-curricular activities like the enterprise awards competition.
“Emer’s first year will probably stand out for the rest of her five years in St Anne’s. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and she grabbed it with both hands. She is a great example of the hard work that is needed to succeed. This is St Anne’s first year to win a prize in the national awards,” she said.
While her family were aware of her hard work, Brian admitted they were surprised she won an award considering the very high standard of projects from all over the country.
He told The Clare Champion she is very keen to enter another project in the competition next year. “She displayed great attention to detail, devised a quality product at a reasonable price. We were all delighted with her success on the day.  This will be a great confidence boost for her,” he said.
Emer said she had a great day in Dublin and loved the whole experience.
Lucy Reidy, Clare County Enterprise Board organiser of the Clare awards, said the overall standard at the national final was outstanding and stressed it was a great achievement for Clare to be among the winners.
“It was very encouraging to see the innovation in the projects and to see so many young people are inspired to set up their own businesses.  The experience of setting up a small business and the work put into the projects will, no doubt, stand to them when setting up their own business in the future.”