Kells youngster has a real gift for business
A KELLS mum whose budding young entrepreneur son helped her create an online business during the pandemic says the youngster already has plans for his next venture.
Savvy Shay Deignan is the brains behind the branding of his mum Michelle's online gift business "Pip and Pops" and is already looking for a cut of the deal for coming up with the catchy name!
The enterprising senior infants student has his sights set on a bouncy castle hire company but will firstly have to help Michelle ship out the orders from local ex pats ordering gifts from home as they face another year away from home with travel restrictions.
In October, mum of one, Michelle, opened a pop up shop in Kells and says people abroad like the idea of someone in their locality putting together a personalised gift box for their loved one. Speaking on the special experience of creating the venture along side her young son, she said:
"We were home schooling last year and we were building a business together so he was listening to everything was going on. He was great because he was my target market essentially, we'd look at different suppliers and he'd give me his feedback.
"I was struggling with the name and I said to my husband and Shay at breakfast what are we going to call this company we have to register it and Shay just looked up and said mam, what about Pip and Pops? I loved it and I registered the name that day.
"He is flat out now creating his own business, he wants to create a bouncy castle business called Bouncing Around! I got a call from his teacher last week for a parent teacher meeting and she said they did a sales pitch last week trying to sell a gingerbread house and he really went for it!
"He said to me last week, you know the way that I created the name for this Pip and Pops and I said yeah and he said am I due any money from that? He definitely knows what he wants!"
Michelle and Shay have been busy getting orders ready in response to a demand from Meath ex pats for gifts for family members they will miss out seeing yet again this year.
"We have received a lot of overseas orders from ex pats ordering gifts for home as they were going to miss Christmas yet again due to travel restrictions," she said.
"People living overseas are upset at not being able to get home again and it is probably just so handy having someone in their town and we'd know a lot of them, we'd know their families so there is that personal touch that I think that become increasingly important for people over the last couple of years.
"I always wanted to launch an online kids boutique and I thought how nice would it be to be able to pick exactly what you wanted, someone will wrap it free and put it into a gorgeous tissue paper with everything I wanted specific to that person with a little handwritten card.
"We specialise in custom made gift boxes, maternity products and more. The most important factor being solid customer service, something I felt has been missing in retail shops over the last few years- a smile ,the chat that makes all the difference to people."
The Kells woman's enterprising skills were honed through her family's manufacturing business Masita Sportswear in Kells - sponsors of Meath Ladies Football.
"We got the GAA license a couple of years ago so it has been great and so good to have it local as well and that we can manufacture in Ireland well which is a difficult enough process. We gained tenders for the Cul Camps and the US GAA among others.
"We sponsor the Meath Ladies and the girls have been amazing and are just fantastic ambassadors for women's gaelic, we are very proud of them. We do everything from the design for their kits to sourcing the fabric and sewing it all together from scratch.
"We supply to everywhere in the world from China to Saudi Arabia, places you wouldn't think that there was a GAA presence."
Pip and Pops pop up shop is now open in Kells