Brno, 23 years old.
I found out about the program through EYE websites and it really caught my attention. I have always wanted to be independent and to work for myself, therefore entrepreneurship has always been natural choice for my future career. Obviously, entrepreneurship is accompanied by many challenges and obstacles, especially from its beginning. Therefore, opportunity to gain knowledge and skills from someone already experienced in the business became something I did not want to miss.
Since I would like to start my business in the east of Slovakia natural preferred country of choice has been Slovakia, which was final country for me as well.
First of all, I made sure I know the field of business I would like to be a part of in future. Then I decided for the location of my business and subsequently I began looking for host entrepreneurs in particular industry and near the location of my future desired business.
During the stay at my HE I had the opportunity to focus on every aspect of entrepreneurship from the perspective of a business owner. Therefore, my focus naturally ranged from operating activities in the field through managerial activities such as marketing, communication, networking etc. to activities related to starting my own business.
The best description of my activities within the program is as follows:
1. Week: Introduction to the company’s staff, office, procedures and documents related to business activities within real estate services.
2. Week: Office activities – procedures related to acquiring clients and properties and communication with potential and existing clients.
3. Week: Field activities – activities and procedures in the field, viewings of properties with brokers, communication with owners of properties, time management.
4. Week: Field activities – activities and procedures in the field, viewings of properties with brokers and potential buyers, communication with potential buyers, time management.
5. Week: Office activities – after viewings activities from the perspective of office manager.
6. Week: Activities related to legal procedures within the real estate trade,
drafting the contracts, pre-contracts and deals.
7. Week: Field activities related to expert estimations of the value of particular properties.
8. Week: Banking system within the real estate business, mortgages and loans consultancy with clients.
9. Week: Insurance system within the real estates, insurance of commercial and private properties.
10. Week: Closing the deals with clients – NE’s participation on negotiations, deals’ closures and contracts signings.
11. Week: Activities in the office and in the field related to transfer of energy bills – contracts (electricity, gas, water) from sellers to buyers.
12. Week: Procedures and activities related to cadastral office.
13. Week: Activities related to finishing the deals – transfer of properties – handing over of keys, acceptance protocol, arranging furniture removal etc.
14. Week: Management activities within the company from the perspective of owner (CEO) of the company.
15. Week: Marketing and HR activities necessary in order to ensure profitable operation of real estate company.
16. Week: Familiarization with the accounting and financial decision making process within the real estate company.
17. Week: Learning to establish own company from the legal perspective, procedures and business plan.
18. Week: Summary of previous week, clarification of irregularities.
The program definitely enriched me from the perspective of knowledge and skills allowing me to start my own business in future more safely while avoiding common mistakes of new entrepreneurs. As a result, I would sum it up that the program did not just meet expectations but it exceeds them.
For now, I consult my activities leading to my own business with my HE and in the future if everything goes well there is significant possibility of cooperation with HE.
After the program I am planning to work on in depth market analyses and exploring specific places to start my business within the region of choice. Based on that I am predicting to start my own business in the range of six months after finishing EYE program.
I would definitely recommend this program to anyone planning to start his or her own business. It is fantastic opportunity to learn from experienced entrepreneurs and to get in touch with the business itself. I personally learnt a lot about the business I want to start, about the administration related to starting own business and many managerial aspects from the perspective of the owner. I am confident to say I will start my own business much more professionally than I would start it without this program and that’s why I think my business will be profitable sooner.
I’m not very familiar with other stories and different HEs. Maybe I was lucky
or each and every HE in the program is similarly great as mine. However, the point is to make sure HE is in the field you want to start your business at because it makes the program much more useful for NE. Also I would say it is very helpful to communicate with your HE about your and his/her expectations before starting the program.
This article was funded by the European Union’s COSME Programme (2014-2020).
The content of this article represents the views of the author only and it is her sole responsibility; it cannot be considered to reflect the views of the European Commission and/or the Executive Agency of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) or any other body of the European Union. The European Commission and the Agency do not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.
