Elizabeth with her sister Hazel and mother Lisa
Entertainment service venture for children plans for expansion
FACE painting at events led one young entrepreneur to start her own venture, which has added on aspects of fun activities including balloons and juggling, to cater for a wider offering of services.
Elizabeth Ruane (25), a Mullingar native, is behind Happy Faces Entertainment Ireland, a Saggart-based venture which provides an entertainment service for kids at events around Ireland.
Elizabeth first dabbled in the work while in college working with an agency.
“I was doing face painting at events and realised how popular it was. It is the first thing for kids to do at events. A lot of people were coming up to me wanting to know when I was doing it next,” said Elizabeth, who has a Masters in Entrepreneurship.
“I first started facepainting in The Blink Group agency. A key member who really helped me was the general manager, James English who has always been a great support throughout my time there and thereafter.”
The next step for Elizabeth was to start her own venture Happy Faces. She worked alone at community events, Halloween parties, markets, shopping centres, and birthdays.
However, after a while she “roped” in the services of sister Hazel Ruane and cousin Ava Kenny to cope with demand, further expanding by enlisting the services of other specialists for roles in entertainment such as jugglers and balloon makers.
“At the moment we are more focused on racecourses at the likes of Naas and Kilbeggan. They have family fun days. We also do the Bloom Festival in May, doing kids entertainment. It is good for parents who can drop their kids off at a safe fun place for a while when they go to events.“
“My mum Lisa Quigley and my sister and cousin have been a key support system for me attending events.”
Ask Elizabeth where she is based and she tells you “all over” such is the nature of the business, and although she only started up last year, expansion is on the horizon.
“We have grown because we get a lot of word-of-mouth enquiries. I’d love to do corporate events. A lot of big companies like Facebook (Meta) have fun staff days which we could accommodate in our schedule.”
Elizabeth is also a part of the South Dublin Enterprise Office network which she found helpful in meeting other start ups and for advice on marketing and social media.
