January 29, 2022 admin

Understand the Commitment and Challenges Involved in Starting a Business

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Understand the Commitment and Challenges Involved in Starting a Business

Having sufficient capital and cash flow

Here comes Worry N°1 for many wannabe entrepreneurs: the money. You may have a revolutionary idea but without some cash, you won’t go far.

TIPS

Find a job and save money: This can sound contradictory when you are trying to start your own activity and create your income, but many entrepreneurs started by having a job that allowed them to save money for their own business. This job does not need to be your absolute passion, as long as you keep your goal in mind and work for the money. At the same time, you can develop your business idea and network, look for investors and solidify your business plan.
Apply for funds: If you cannot save enough or cannot count on partners to bring the sufficient amount to launch your business comfortably (which is often the case), plenty of funding opportunities exist from different entities. You will find more explanation about how to access those funds in Module 9.
Lead your search in person: Talk to people about your project, get to know people and become friends with them before you ask if they would be interested in joining your adventure. You can also find startups events and conferences, chances are that even if you do not find your future partner, you will make useful connections.
Use the internet: If you do not have time to go around looking, plenty of websites are dedicated to entrepreneurs in search of partners. LinkedIn and Facebook groups are also good spots for this.
Spot the missing skills: Surround yourself with people from different fields and with different skills who will bring other complementary expertise and perspective to your business.

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Mentors

Name: Wafa El Moumi Nielsen
Experience as Entrepreneur (years): None
Experience as Mentor (years): 3 years
Company name: https://kvinfo.dk/
Mail contact: KVINFO@KVINFO.DK

Field of business/description of activity:
Higher Education. I am a Program Manager for a Masters Degree at Copenhagen Business School where I am in constant contact with students helping them staying on track of their studies while preparing them for their future career.

Ask me about / how do you describe yourself?
Motivated with a positive attitude. Always ready to help out. I am multicultural, I have lived in 4 countries and speak 4 languages. I encounter different people in my daily work. This keeps me being open-minded and grateful for what I have accomplished during my 20+ years abroad.

Why do you want to become a mentor?
I believe I can motivate my mentees and serve as a role model for them.

What are your mentoring field expertise?
–

How can you help and inspire migrant entrepreneurs?
I am a migrant myself so I can help motivating my mentees by inspiring them through my own journey. Keeping them motivated and giving them feedback to help them on track of their project.

Name: Garba Diallo
Experience as Entrepreneur (years): 30 years
Experience as Mentor (years): 28 years
Company name: Crossing Borders
Mail contact: garba@crossingborders.dk

Field of business/description of activity:
Non-formal education, civil society and youth work, capacity building, mentoring and coaching of youth from various backgrounds and needs. I have been in the field of providing spaces for youth, immigrants, adult students, youth and teachers to finding out what they are passionate about and help them define, set and pursue their educational and career goals. I normally use goal mapping and goal setting plus SWOT analysis for the individuals to find out their real goals based on their real interest, what they are good at and what they wish to improve in their lives, education and work.

Ask me about / how do you describe yourself?
I was born in family of illiterate parents with ten siblings in Mauritania, West Africa. My parents and 4 elder sisters have never been to school. I went to school for the first time when I was 15, but after 2 months I escaped back to the village. However, when I turned 19, I went abroad to seek education and ended up in Qatar where I studied and worked for 10 years and then 7 years in Norway. I have been living and working inside the folk high school in Denmark since 1992.I am strongly interested in the world with special focus on intercultural dialogue, peaceful co-existence and cooperation in full equality. My roots are firmly planted in Africa while my branches span the globe. I speak 8 languages and have visited more than 80 countries. I love visiting new places and meeting new people. I love multitasking, writing, photography, public speaking and listening to music.I have given lectures in many schools and universities around the world including Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Japan, China, Korea, UK, French and South Africa, etcI have developed and successfully completed some 75 international projects that benefitted about 18.000 youth from some 110 countries. I also loved developing and designing new courses and projects.

Why do you want to become a mentor?
Because it is part of my passion and good experience in mentoring, from which I keep on learning by mentoring and meeting new people with new needs.What are your mentoring field expertise? (Financial, Marketing, Human Resources, Value proposal etc..) My main mentoring field of expertise is enabling people to find out what they really want, can and what to improve in their lives, non-formal education, training and social, eco-entrepreneurship. In sum, my field of expertise is about facilitating and enabling mentees to find their goals and follow their ways toward those goals.

What are your mentoring field expertise?
–

How can you help and inspire migrant entrepreneurs?
I will create conduce spaces and share my life story with the mentees and give them the feeling and inspire confidence in them that Yes, They can be job creators rather than job seekers and that the opportunities are more powerful than the challenges. Finally, as entrepreneurs, they should see social business opportunities in every challenge. With courage, determination and strategy to seize the limitless advantages the modern technologies offer, the limit is the sky.

Name: Marzena Jankowska-Mihułowicz, PhD, Eng.
Experience as Entrepreneur (years): 14 years
Experience as Mentor (years): 21 years
Company name: Rzeszow University of Technology, Department of Enterprise Management
Mail contact: mjanko@prz.edu.pl

Field of business/description of activity:
Field: economic sciences
Discipline: management science
Specializations: decision theory, strategic management
Research and publications: determinants of strategic decision making, leadership, ethical problems of management.

Ask me about / how do you describe yourself?
I am working as assistant professor in the group of research and teaching staff. I am a highly motivated person who challenges myself daily to do my best work. I enjoy meeting new people and can find a common language with them. I think this is a very important skill in mentoring.

Why do you want to become a mentor?
Mentoring is a way to develop talent and increase leadership potential. Watching mentees develop their skills and knowledge gives me great satisfaction. The time and effort spent give me a sense of accomplishment that goes beyond leadership and management.

What are your mentoring field expertise?
Education and training, Creative industries, Entrepreneurship development, Strategic management, Team management, Business coaching, Leadership.

How can you help and inspire migrant entrepreneurs?Migrants very often face obstacles through which they are unable to start their own business. This may be due to a lack of self-confidence and lack of necessary competencies. Very often they also face language barriers and discrimination. To start a successful business, they need to create a good business plan, have skills in financial management, leadership, etc. I believe that my experience and skills can help migrants who want to become entrepreneurs. Through mentoring, I would like to develop their skills and knowledge.

Name: Magdalena Malinowska
Experience as Entrepreneur (years): 20 years
Experience as Mentor (years): 20 years
Company name: VIVA FEMINA
Mail contact: vivafeminafoundation@gmail.com

Field of business/description of activity:
I am working in a women foundation based in Rzeszów. The foundation is called VIVA FEMINA and it was set up in 2012 as an independent initiative. I’ve been previously involved in different initiatives for combating violence and discrimination against women, and social exclusion. At VIVA FEMINA I am the vice-president of the Board and a volunteer. The Foundation implements good practices in gender issues and promotes equal opportunities for women and men in all areas of life. The Foundation contributes to the activisation of women and other groups on the labour market in Poland.

Ask me about / how do you describe yourself?
I am an EU project management, working as a head of an enterprise that involves team-building skills, team management skills and interpersonal competencies. I am working with the social research team, study programs and coordinating educational programs. I am also an employment specialist and labour market expert, guiding in this respect. My international experience stems from the participation in EU-funded projects as a project manager.

Why do you want to become a mentor?
Mentoring is an opportunity to understand what the world looks like through the eyes of someone else. New perspectives yield new and innovative ideas. By sharing my knowledge, I help others grow personally and professionally while consolidating my acquired knowledge.

What are your mentoring field expertise?
Education and training, Creative industries, Entrepreneurship development, Strategic management, Team management, Business coaching, Leadership.

How can you help and inspire migrant entrepreneurs?
Anyone that wants to be an entrepreneur must be good at communication, team-work, spotting opportunities and planning management. I would like to share my knowledge with migrant entrepreneurs and help them start their businesses as well as develop key skills that will help them in their personal development.

Name: George Romnios
Experience as Entrepreneur (years): 5 years
Experience as Mentor (years): 3 years
Company name:GRINCO SA
Mail contact: info@grinco.gr

Field of business/description of activity:
The purpose of GRINCO, is the production of Biodiesel. Our product is one of the most sustainable fuel according to the European Standards. We analyze the market, the needs and the opportunities in order to take advantage of them while we are improving our production process in order to minimize the costs and be more competitive.

Ask me about / how do you describe yourself?
I would say that I am a highly competitive person with personal expectations at all levels. I set goals and I try to reach maximum performance in order to achieve these goals. Passion, willingness and optimism are three qualities that could describe me best.

Why do you want to become a mentor?
The idea of enlightening another person’s life always add to me additional happiness. By coaching someone just entering the work force, I will be in the pleasant position to get them just as excited about the job as I am, and to truly become a master on that task. By becoming a mentor, I can keep on top of new trends and technologies through my mentees.

What are your mentoring field expertise?
Financial

How can you help and inspire migrant entrepreneurs?
Open-mindness and the ability to think out of the box certainly defines me, which I consider as essential ingredients for entrepreneurship. I can also encourage their motivation and willingness, as well as their ability to undertake risks and manage them properly.

Name: Mike Triantafillou
Experience as Entrepreneur (years): 10 years
Experience as Mentor (years): 5 years
Company name: KAINOTOMIA & SIA EE
Mail contact: mtriantafillou@kainotomia.com.gr

Field of business/description of activity:
The purpose of KAINOTOMIA is the implementation of Programs for Continued Professional Training addressed to the unemployed, workers, self-employed and members of sensitive social groups as well as the practice of related activities such as the development of research, surveys, guides, notes and the provision of consultation services to people belonging to sensitive social groups. In addition, the promotion and support of employment for learners that complete the programs of professional training by the Center for Lifelong Learning KAINOTOMIA remains our main objective.

Ask me about / how do you describe yourself?
I would describe myself as a person with a high devotion in whatever I do. I chase the constant development of my abilities through lifelong learning while at the same time I continually set goals to keep my motivation at high levels.

Why do you want to become a mentor?
I could describe myself as a person who wants to help. This fact, combined with the cooperation that I have with young people, where I listen their concerns and goals, urges me to become a mentor.

What are your mentoring field expertise?
Business Strategy, Financial

How can you help and inspire migrant entrepreneurs?
Through my experience in my private company which deals with education and through the 10 years’ experience that I gained also from the industry sector. I can inspire migrant entrepreneurs in order to achieve their goals, by providing them with many case studies and success stories of my field and by presenting them the current needs market opportunities.

Name: Cécile Sauvage
Experience as Entrepreneur (years): 4 years
Experience as Mentor (years): 7 years
Company name:Markeut Skills
Mail contact: cecile@meuskills.eu

Field of business/description of activity:
Non formal soft and entrepreneurial development and training.

Ask me about / how do you describe yourself?
I am a young entrepreneur that is shared between work and intense family life. I chose this activity in order to better combine both aspects of my life, as entrepreneurship provides more freedom to work from the place you want and when you want / can. As for my personality, I would say that I am a quite organised person, and that I don’t like to have pending tasks, so I prefer to make things today than letting them for tomorrow. I have some creativity, despite this can always be improved. And I am very oriented to international / multicultural aspect. This is one aspect of my work that I most like.

Why do you want to become a mentor?
I became a mentor before being myself an entrepreneur. In my case, things where somehow reversed. I worked in a consultancy helping entrepreneurs in the development of their activities. And this is probably this experience that motivated me to become myself an entrepreneur. My activity of mentoring has been oriented to the support to small entrepreneurs and self-employees in running their business, especially for the implementation of new projects, human resources aspects and access to funding. I became, thanks to this working experience, expert in those fields and provided assement and mentoring to numerous entrepreneurs.

What are your mentoring field expertise?
I have expertise in the field of Human Resources, as I have been working for many years in a HR consultancy, providing new and innovative forms of training oriented to team building, but also selection of new staff and talent management. I have a lot of experience in teamwork and how teams should be managed to get highest performance. In addition, I also have mentored entrepreneurs in the field of access to funding for the launch of their projects, especially in the field of EU grants, both for project in transversal fields linked to entrepreneurship as for technical projects, for instance helping entrepreneurs in presenting SMEs instruments requests, etc.

How can you help and inspire migrant entrepreneurs?
To start with, I am myself a migrant, I come from France in Spain, so it is not that far, but even though, I had to deal with a different language and culture. Some of my colleagues would always find me a little bit weirdy for some typical french habit that are not the same here. But I am also aware that I didn’t have to deal with such discriminations that other migrants might suffer. Then, I like to work on interpersonal skills and entrepreneurial attitude, as I believe that those are key for succesful entrepreneurship, and I hope that I might be able to inspire migrant in these fields. I think that working on good behaviours, respect, trust, responsibility and other entrepreneurial values is fundamental for the development of good relationships of the entrepreneur with his surrounding environment, and will help him to get supported by a solid network of collaborators, internally and externally, thus helping him in launching succesful initiative. I hope being able to inspire migrants with those value to encourage them in this field.

Name: Pilar Aguado
Experience as Entrepreneur (years): 4 years
Experience as Mentor (years): 16 years
Company name:Markeut Skills
Mail contact: pilar@meuskills.eu

Field of business/description of activity:
Non formal training.

Ask me about / how do you describe yourself?
I am an enterprising person, with experience in business collaboration, who loves helping other entrepreneurs to grow and expand their knowledge. I like teamwork, both internally and with other organizations, I am a committed person, I am passionate about my work, and learning new business focuses, being now focused on learning about circular economy and sustainable business.

Why do you want to become a mentor?
I have been working in the field of the entrepreneurial ecosystem for many years and my day to day has always been business collaboration, helping each other, I really like seeing how businesses grow over time and being able to help as much as I can.

What are your mentoring field expertise?
I have expertise in the field of business idea, business creation, business plan, creating network, stakeholders, circularity, sustainable business, management, value proposal, financial, and national and EU grants.

How can you help and inspire migrant entrepreneurs?
I can inspire and help from experience as an entrepreneur and as a member of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, especially in areas of business models, and starting up the idea.
Also, through the contact between different entrepreneurs given the wide network that I know. As well as, transmitting all the knowledge of the local, national and European regulations that I know.

Understand the Commitment and Challenges Involved in Starting a Business

Having sufficient capital and cash flow

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