INTERVIEW PETER CLUSKEY:IT'S RARE that a business idea which looks good when it's brainstormed in a university environment emerges virtually unchanged into the cold light of commercial reality and scores an immediate success – but that's what happened to Aoife O'Driscoll.
“I remember it clearly,” laughs O’Driscoll (23). “Our lecturer at DCU, Emer Ní Bhrádaigh, decided we needed a change of scene so that we could learn to think outside the box. So we went to the park to knock a few ideas around.
“I’d been in the shower that morning, shaving my legs very awkwardly and thinking to myself in frustration, ‘there’s got to be an easier way’. And now that moment came back to me.
“I figured there just had to be a market for a simple, inexpensive shower step that would make women’s lives a lot easier. It seemed so obvious. I knew right away that it would work.”
But that would probably not have been enough to turn O’Driscoll’s “Eureka moment” into a reality. She needed a second dose of blindingly good luck – and entrepreneur Dave Brennan was it. “I went to talk to Dave Brennan as part of a college assignment, explained my idea to him and he was hugely enthusiastic. I think what struck him most about it was the size of the potential market – 50 per cent of the population.”
Although that’s only three years ago, the rest is already history. When Aoife O’Driscoll graduated in 2007 she went into business with Brennan, setting up Concepts Plus Ltd to commercialise the shower step idea.
Brennan brought on board design engineer Andrew Middleton, who had experience manufacturing in China for the western market, and last year the first 10,000 units of the shower step, now branded as ElevEase: The Shower Step, trundled off the production line in the port city Ningbo, a trading post for the outside world since the days of the Silk Road 2,000 years ago.
It’s the decision to manufacture in China which has made ElevEase a commercial proposition, says O’Driscoll. “It wouldn’t have been viable if we’d made it in Ireland,” she says simply. The unit cost in China is €7, which includes everything from injection moulding to packaging, whereas in Ireland that could be as much as €11. Here the box alone would cost €2 – whereas in China it costs 50 cent.
From here on, the key to success is largely marketing – which is why O’Driscoll herself has taken on the role of sales and marketing director.
“We’re in bathroom stores and pharmacies around the country already. We’re selling online and we’re looking at the UK and the US as well, especially at the shopping channels.
“About 30 per cent of our sales are online, so shops are more important. But the benefit of selling online is that you’re paid up-front and there’s more margin – and also you can contact buyers later on to do follow-up market research.”
They’ve also found that their potential market, in fact, is actually more than 50 per cent of the population. “Elderly people, men and women, find it extremely useful, which is something we hadn’t expected. For example, one woman who contacted me has arthritis and has to apply cold water to her ankles everyday. So that’s a direction we also plan to expand in.”
The promising reception means that O’Driscoll and Brennan expect to sell 50,000 units in Ireland, Britain and the US in the year to March 2010 with anticipated turnover for the same 12 months of around €650,000.
O’Driscoll is already looking at ways to expand the ElevEase product range. “We’re planning to add exfoliating gloves and razors.”
ON THE RECORD
Name:Aoife ODriscoll
Company:ElevEase. www.elevease.com
Job:Co-founder and sales and marketing director
Age:23
Background:Graduated from DCU with a business degree in 2007, and joined entrepreneur, Dave Brennan, to commercialise the shower step idea shed had in her second year in college.
Set up Concepts Plus which now manufactures ElevEase: The Shower Step in China.
Inspired by:"Anita Roddick because, not only was she a highly successful female entrepreneur, she was also a social entrepreneur, and brought environmental issues to the fore in business. Also, on a personal level, Caroline Kennedy of Kennedy PR. I met her after she spoke to a womens networking meeting in college and she's been very helpful …"
Challenges:Selling 50,000 units of ElevEase: The Shower Step in the year to March 2010, moving into Britain and the United States, and expanding the ElevEase product range. It helps that I am the very female market were aiming to attract. I am that demographic.
Most Important Thing Learned So Far:"What has really struck me has been the importance of networking. People I've met in that way have been unfailingly helpful and Ive learned a lot. Ive also learned that things take a lot longer to achieve than I initially realised
