The Entrepreneurship Youth Magazine #4

THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP YOUTH MAGAZINE NUMBER 4

Entrepreneurial Education for Youth Project FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION THROUGH ERASMUS+ PROGRAMME Sprijin si Dezvoltare Association

The content of this magazine does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union.

Responsibility for the information and views expressed in the magazine lies entirely with the author(s).

Sprijin si Dezvoltare Association Romania – Project Coordinator and Applicant Sorina Carmen Vacariu – Project manager Gabriela Rimbu – Intellectual output expert sprijinsidezvoltare@yahoo.com https://sprijinsidezvoltare.wordpress.com/ https://www.facebook.com/SprijinSiDezvoltare/

Inercia Digital – Project Partner

CEFE Macedonia – Project Partner

Project period February 2017 – January 2019 1|Page

Dear readers,

This is the fourth issues of the magazine! This issue is focused on innovation approach to production/ services, logistics, sales, customer relations, distribution, pricing and marketing. The magazine will help you to identify your own business idea. Reading the magazine, you can learn and understand more about entrepreneurship and startup. In this issue we had the pleasure to interview entrepreneurs. They had shared their experience and give valuable advices for you to follow.

The articles from this number will approach: ✓ Innovation: approach in production, in community building and management, in education, in distribution, in marketing, to face the competition ✓ Create and manage a product/ service: developing the product, developing a service ✓ Brand ✓ Launch a business ✓ Customer relationship: identify and reach your customer, maintain your customers, improve the customer relationship ✓ Distribution ✓ Example of business and interviews with entrepreneurs The articles will also explain the social, political and economic context from Romania, Spain, Macedonia and Europe and how the context can influence a business.

This magazine can be used for personal reading and self-education or as an educational instrument and material in non-governmental organisations, schools, universities, vocational education and training organisations or any other organisation and freelancer.

Enjoy, Sorina Carmen Vacariu - Project manager

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Dragi cititori,

Acesta este al patrulea număr al revistei! Acest număr se axează pe abordarea inovativă a producției / serviciilor, logisticii, vânzărilor, relația cu clienții, distribuției, prețurilor și marketingului. Citind revista puteți învăța mai multe despre antreprenoriat și startup. În acest număr am avut plăcerea de a lua interviu unor antreprenori. Aceștia au împărtășit din experiența lor și au furnizat sfaturi valoroase pentru voi. Revista vă va ajuta să identificați o idee de afacere.

Articolele din acest număr abordează: ✓ Inovație: abordarea inovativă în producție, în construirea si administrarea publicului țintă, în educație, distribuție, marketing, și pentru a face față concurenței ✓ Dezvoltarea și administrarea unui produs / serviciu: dezvoltarea unui produs, dezvoltarea unui serviciu ✓ Brand ✓ Lansarea unei o afacere ✓ Relația cu clienții: identificarea și menținerea clienților, îmbunătățiți relația cu clienții ✓ Distribuție ✓ Exemple de afaceri și interviuri cu antreprenorii De asemenea, articolele vor explica contextul social, politic și economic din România, Spania, Macedonia și Europa, dar și modul în care acest context poate influența o afacere.

Această revistă poate fi utilizată pentru lectură personală sau ca instrument educațional în organizații non-guvernamentale, școli, universități, furnizori de formare profesională sau de către oricare altă organizație pentru formare și liberi profesioniști.

Lectură plăcută, Sorina Carmen Văcariu – Manager poiect

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Estimados lectores,

¡Estamos ya en el cuarto número de nuestra revista! Este número se centrará en los enfoques de innovación para la producción/servicios, logística, ventas, atención al cliente, distribución, fijación de precios y marketing. Al leer la revista, podrás aprender y entender mejor los procesos de los start-ups así como profundizar en algunas fases del emprendimiento. En esta edición también tuvimos el placer de entrevistar a emprendedores. Ellos nos compartieron sus experiencias, dejándonos consejos valiosos a seguir para garantizar el éxito.

Los artículos de esta edición abarcarán las siguientes áreas: ✓ Innovación: enfoques en la producción, en la creación de una comunidad/clientela (community building) y la gestión, en la educación, en la distribución, en el marketing y para encarar a la competencia ✓ Creación y gestión de un producto/servicio: desarrollo del producto, desarrollo del servicio ✓ Lanzar un negocio ✓ Distribución ✓ Ejemplo de negocio y entrevistas con emprendedores Los artículos también explicarán el contexto social, político y económico de Rumanía, España, Macedonia y Europa, y como el contexto puede influenciar a un negocio.

Esta revista podrá usarse como lectura personal y autoeducación o como instrumento educacional y material didáctico para para organizaciones no-gubernamentales, escuelas, universidades, organizaciones de educación y formación profesional, así como para cualquier otra organización y para profesionales independientes.

¡Esperamos que os guste!

Sorina Carmen Văcariu – Gerente de proyecto

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Драги читатели,

Ова е четвртото издание на списанието! Се фокусираме на иновативниот пристап во производството

/

услугите,

логистиката,

продажбата,

односите

со

клиентите,

дистрибуцијата, цените и маркетингот. Списанието ќе ви помогне да ја идентификувате сопствената бизнис идеја. Читајќи го списанието, можете да научите и разберете повеќе за претприемништвото и стартапите. Имавме задоволство да разговараме со претприемачите и во ова издание. Тие го споделија своето искуство и даваат совети вредни за следење.

Прилозите од овој број ќе пристапат кон: ✓ Иновација: пристап во производството, во градењето и управувањето со заедницата, во образованието, во дистрибуцијата, во маркетингот, соочување со конкуренцијата ✓ Креирање и управување со производ / услуга: развој на производот, развивање на услуга ✓ Бренд ✓ Стартувај бизнис ✓ Односи со клиентите: идентификување и стигнување до вашите клиенти, одржување на клиентите, подобрување на односот со клиентите ✓ Дистрибуција ✓ Примери за бизнис и интервјуа со претприемачи Во прилозите ќе се објасни и социјалниот, политичкиот и економскиот контекст од Романија, Шпанија, Македонија и Европа и како контекстот може да влијае на бизнисот. Ова списание може да се користи за лично читање и самообразование или како едукативен инструмент и материјал во невладини организации, училишта, универзитети, организации за стручно образование и обука или било која друга организација и слободна пракса. Уживајте, Сорина Кармен Вакариу - проект менаџер

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Contents Create and manage a product/ services ........................................................................................... 8 Developing the product ........................................................................................................... 8 Developing a service ............................................................................................................. 14 Create your own brand! ................................................................................................................ 17 How much will it costs? ................................................................................................................ 19 TODAY IS THE DAY! Launching your business ....................................................................... 20 Customer relationship ................................................................................................................... 24 Where you can I find your product/ service? ................................................................................ 28 VA-Plast - Innovation approach towards in production ............................................................... 30 We Talk IT - Innovative approach towards community building................................................. 34 M3DS - Innovative approach in education ................................................................................... 36 Fresh farm - Innovative approach in distribution of products ...................................................... 40 Vrootok - Innovative approach in marketing ................................................................................ 42 Termin.mk - Innovative approach to betting the competition ...................................................... 45 Week.end - Innovative approach to community management ...................................................... 48 Innovation ..................................................................................................................................... 50 Business innovation ...................................................................................................................... 52 Glovo............................................................................................................................................. 52 Billin ............................................................................................................................................. 53 Ole Corasรณn. ................................................................................................................................. 54 Cabify............................................................................................................................................ 55 Indexa Capital ............................................................................................................................... 55 Figuras TVR.................................................................................................................................. 56 6|Page

Mr. Jeff.......................................................................................................................................... 58 Citibox........................................................................................................................................... 59 Drone Hopper................................................................................................................................ 59 Libelium ........................................................................................................................................ 60 Bioo ............................................................................................................................................... 60 Dentaluz ........................................................................................................................................ 61 Lola Market ................................................................................................................................... 63 Sher.pa .......................................................................................................................................... 63 Wetaca........................................................................................................................................... 64 Neosentec ...................................................................................................................................... 64

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Create and manage a product/ services Gabriela Adam, Sprijin si Dezvoltare Association

Creating the product or service is a very important aspect of your business, and you need to think at any attribute or feature that it may have. The product/ service is the centre of your business, it needs to be a good one so your business will work. Usually when you want to open a business you already have an idea of the product/ service that you want to release on the market, you want to make a restaurant, or you want to give legal or business advice. The product/ service needs to solve an existent problem and to respond to a person needs, can be an existent need or a new one. I have interviewed 10 entrepreneurs and I asked them some advices on what we need to consider when we what to bring a new product/ service on the market. I have structured their answers and I have written the most important aspect for you to consider when you will develop your product or service in the next articles.

When you create the product/ service try to innovate, to bring something new and to create something unique and different from what you find in the market. Even if you don’t have an original idea, and you want to open and provide something that is already in the market, you still need to bring something new to the product, otherwise will be hard for you to sell.

Make a market research and find your clients before making an investment.

Developing the product Gabriela Adam, Sprijin si Dezvoltare Association

First question is ‘What I am going to produce?’. To be easier for you to understand, we are going to take a real-life example. Let’s say that you will like to produce jewellery for women.

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For who you are going to produce? Are you going to develop products for the consumer market or for the business market? In our example, we will sell the product to the final consumers. We could also sell jewellery to other companies. These companies will sell these jewelleries under their logo and brand.

After you have figure it out what you are going to produce you should think on its attributes and features and how you are going to produce it. We will think first at the objective and measurable attributes and features.

What kind of jewellery will you produce? Think on how many products do you want to produce, how many product lines, how many numbers of items and variants. In our example it can be bracelets, rings, earrings and necklaces.

How many types of necklace, earing, bracelets and rings will you produce? How will you name the products? Think on its design, how it should look like? Think on every detail, how will you like to be? Who is going to make the design? Is it going to be an original design or not? If not, what it will be your inspiration?

What will be the product characteristics and composition? We can say that our jewellery can be made from inox and silver with gemstone. What king of gemstone? What colors? Are you going to sell just individual product? Or are you going to sell also packages? Taking the jewellery example, we ca sell jewellery sets: earrings + necklace + bracelets + ring, or ring + bracelet, or earrings + necklace, or any other possible combinations between the products. The packages and sets will be use only if it is relevant for the business. Depending on the number of your products you can do multiple packages and sets. Customers are more attracted by packages than single products, especially if the products work together.

You should design a product mix that can look like this:

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How much quality will you bring in your products? Is it going to have high or low quality? How you will ensure the quality? Being a product, you can ensure the quality through the raw materials and the production process. If you want high quality you will use high quality raw materials, for example silver 925 for the jewellery, and if not, then you will find raw materials with a lower quality. You can ensure the product quality through the production process, to ensure that the products don’t have manufacturing defects and to verify each item or batch to see if the quality is respected. Each product should have its quality standard manual. There is a battle between quality and price. Sometimes it is more important the quality and sometimes is more important the price.

Think your product where is situated. In our example the quality is very important, nobody will want a wrongly executed ring or some earrings that the gemstone will fall at the first wear. There are cases where the quality is not so important. The product quality will also define the product reliability.

Are going to make an affordable product or you are going to make a luxury product? In our example we will like to do an affordable product, for the general population.

After you define all the product tangible and measurable attributes and features you are going to identify the subjective, irrational and emotional attributes of the product, that are related with the customer experience. These features will also help you in set up your marketing strategy because 10 | P a g e

it is basically important reasons why people are buying your product. For example, the jewellery can be feminine and masculine, elegant and casual.

As you can see there are a lot of details to think in order to develop a good product. To say that you are going to make bread, or jewellery or bicycles isn’t enough, you need to think at each characteristic, attribute and features.

After you develop and think at all the product details it is time to think that maybe you can or need to offer complementary services along with the product. There are some industries where it is necessary to mix product with services, but there are industries where is not relevant. For example, if you have a bakery store, there is no need to provide other services. But if we take our jewellery production, we can offer post-purchasing services, such as cleaning, polishing or repairing.

After you have developed the product and how you like to be, it is time to think how you are going to produce it. You can envision some product and then you can face the situation to change it because you dreamed too much, and you cannot produce it. Don’t get discouraged, this think may happen, but it teaches you how to find solutions. Don’t through away your dream, keep it, maybe someday you will produce the impossible product/ service.

But how will you design the operations system and how will you ensure a proper management? We have elaborated a few clear directions for you to follow. Based on the product line you will going to do create the production process for each product, how you are going to create the product? Think on every detail, from the moment you take the raw materials until you have the final product. Identify the needed raw materials for each product (What raw materials do you need in order to produce?). Don’t think just on the materials that you use in the product, think also on other raw materials that you are going to use in order to produce it, can be fuels, glues, materials for sterilization, napkins or other needed materials. Identify the tools and machineries that you are going to use in the production process to create the final product; can be tool and

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machineries to create, pack, store or transport the product, it depends on each product that you will want to create.

Next step is to identify all the suppliers. Take your time to identify them, don’t rush the process. Your aim is to find the best quality within the money you have. Create a list with all the needed row materials, for each row material write the suppliers that you found and the contact detail. You should contact all of them and ask them for an offer. The same with the tools and machineries. When you ask for an offer you need to mention specific details of the needed raw material/ tool/ machinery specific characteristic, such as quantity or composition. Usually the suppliers are interested in long term cooperation, so when you contact them you can highlight the fact that you aim for long-term partnership. They can give you a better offer for that, because on the long term it is a win-win situation. Negotiate each offer and select the one that suits better to your business.

An important aspect in developing a product is to develop the operations management strategy, where you will plan how you are going to manage the production process. There are a few tips regarding the operations management that me and the interviewed entrepreneurs we like to share also. It is easier to develop the management strategy if you start from the production process description. You can divide the production process into categories, for example Prepare the production, Execute the production, Quality control, Distribution or any other category that you fell that it is appropriate for the production management. For each category set up a timeline and write what you need to do in the timeline.

For example, to prepare the production you will need to buy the raw materials, first you contact the suppliers, they will deliver the materials, then you are going to pay for the materials. Write down how long it will take from the moment you order the raw materials and the moment you receive it. Depending on the materials, you may wait for the delivery just a few days, you can wait weeks or even months. You need to know exactly how each step and task is it going to take, so you can organize the production process. The timeline is very important because not knowing every detail can cause delays and losses.

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You can make weekly, monthly or quarterly plan. Plan how much you are going to produce. These plans are different, it depends on the type of the business and the expiration date of the raw materials. If you have a bakery, maybe it is better to plan it weekly or twice on month. If we take our example with the jewellery factory, one a month can be too often. Write down every raw material that you have and how long do you wait for their delivery. Plan on how you need to order the raw material so you will produce continuously. Make stocks if possible and schedule with the suppliers the days for delivery. Be careful to not create too much stocks, because then you will have troubles with the cash or even worst, the stocks can expire. Identify other actions that you to make before the production, such as new designs or different approvals, and write down how much time it will take for each action. For each action, write in your plan who is responsible for it.

From the moment you receive all the raw materials and you have done all the necessary preparations it means that you can start to execute the production. Write for each item that you produce how long it will be going to take to produce it, what tools, machineries and raw materials will you use for each, how much waste will you produce and what are you going to do with it. Be careful not to overlap the execution of different items that are using the same tools or machineries.

If you have one important machinery, that it needed to be used in order to do the products, that you should consider the time that you use that specific machinery to make each product. Develop the production plan and give the instructions to the employee and identify the person responsible to produce each item.

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Establish when and how you will control the quality, who I responsible and how long it will take.

Then decide on how you are going to distribute the products, who is responsible and how long it will take from the moment you finish the product and will arrive to the final consumer.

Every management strategy it needs to be controlled and evaluated. Decide who is going to be in charge to control the production and to evaluate it. In a small business usually, the owner will be in charge to control and evaluate the production. But if he doesn’t, he will still supervise these two activities. In order to control and evaluate the operations you will develop qualitative and quantitative indicators that you need to follow, such as number of finished products, number of wastes or number of deviations. The control activity will help you to track the indicators and the evaluation actions will help you to understand why and to improve the entire process. The indicators will help you to know exactly what you will control and evaluate. Set up milestones what you need to track and create check-lists. Improve the production process based on the executed evaluations. Always leave room from improvements and listen to your employees, being the once which are executing the products, they can have brilliant ideas on how you can increase the production efficiency.

Developing a service Gabriela Adam, Sprijin si Dezvoltare Association

Developing a service, it can be very different than developing a product. Making a product is not easier or harder than providing a service. The investment may be lower for services, but this fact doesn’t make it easier to develop a service business, it means that it is going to be easier to raise money for the business.

What will service will you offer? Describe your service as you dream about it, be specific on what service will you want to provide,

The investment may be lower for services, but this fact doesn’t

the customers will use and buy your services only if they understand

make it easier to

exactly what you provide. This time we will take another example

develop a service

to be easier to understand how to develop a strong service, let’s say

business

that we will like to provide accountancy services. For who I am 14 | P a g e

going to provide the services? For the consumer market or the business market? Usually the accountancy services are provided for business or other legal entities, so the service will be for the business marker.

As any other product, a service will have attributes and features.

Think on what type of service will you offer? When you are going to provide this service? Why people need your service? Is it a seasonal service? How can you transform the service from a seasonal service into a full year service? It is an original service or is not? Are you going to provide just one service? Or is going to be combination of services and packaging? How much quality will you bring in your service? Is it going to have high or low quality? How you will ensure the quality? Is it going to be an affordable service or a luxury one? What kind of emotional attributes are related with the customer experience the service has (well-being, privacy, security, pleasant atmosphere)?

Do you need to offer other complementary services? Do you like to offer other complementary services? Will you provide any other products or goods along with the service? These are the basic questions that you need to answer when you develop the service.

If we take our example, to provide accountancy service we can say that we will provide full accountancy services: primary accounting, filing statements, making monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements. The service will be provided according the laws, it is not a seasonal service and it is not original. The accountancy services can be divided in packages depending on the customer needs (just primary accounting, or just annual financial statements or just the financial statements, or any other combination between these services). The service will have high quality, demonstrated through the fact that we will execute the accountancy according with the laws, without making mistakes and on time. Transforming an accountancy service in a luxury service it is hard to do it, especially because there are regular services and it is not demand for such thing. Make a luxury service only if there is a need for it. I cannot say that somewhere, maybe on California USA, people prefer luxurious accountancy service, but in a normal city, where the average income it is not so big, there is no need for it. The important aspect of these king of service is to have high quality, not to be luxurious. Along with the accountancy services in this business we can provide business advice and financial analysis of the company. Along with the provided 15 | P a g e

service we can provide also goods: beverages and snacks on the clients meeting, pens, notebooks, files, mugs and other relevant goods. The important aspect of these goods is that you can put the logo on them and make your business more visible.

After you have identified and create each aspect of your service you will need to think how you are going to manage the service.

The most important aspect that you need to control is the consistency and the quality of the service. A service it is not like a product, and if you have people in charge to provide that service and not a software, then you should know that you will probably have differences between each provided service. To reduce these differences, you should train your staff very well on how they need to provide the service, you should supervise them to see how they do it and to give them instant feedback.

Start by preparing the operations management strategy. You can follow the same categories used for production, Prepare the service, Execute the service, Quality control, Distribution or any other category that you fell that it is appropriate to ensure a good management.

Set up a timeline and think on what you need to do in order to provide the service. In the accountancy service the initial preparation is important because will set up the business: buy the software and equipment, service facilities (location, space, design, dĂŠcor, parking), hire the personnel, obtain the needed licenses to provide accountancy services. The preparation in made initially, when the business starts, there is no need to do the same actions every time that you provide the service. One aspect of the preparation phase is to get informed and be updated with the latest trends and laws. Considering our example, even if you have the initial preparation, it is crucial to be informed with the laws and regulations. There are also some licenses to renew or buy new software subscription, so we should take this into account when we create the strategy. To be easier for us to prepare the service we can develop a timeline with the initial preparation and the outgoing preparation with specific actions and measures.

To manage the service execution, you can also set up a list and think at how much time will you need to provide the service, what are the busy periods, what are the lighter periods, when are the deadlines to provide each service and so on.

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Think on how you are going to verify the service quality. There are various methods, but one of the most relevant is to see the customer satisfaction. Name a responsible that need to ensure the services quality.

Control and evaluate the provided services by establishing various indicators to track and to evaluate. The control and evaluation procedure can be the same as in the production management.

To develop and manage a product or service can be challenging especially because you need to think on a lot of aspects all together. We can compare this process as a puzzle, you have the ideas, but you need to put them together to create the full story to have the big picture.

Probably you won’t finish all the puzzle when you will start the business and you will have to finish it when you will start the business because, like it or not, you cannot know everything. Or you will notice that some pieces are not properly positioned but don’t worry, you can change it. Some mistakes can cost you financial loss, clients, suppliers, different opportunities. Learn from these mistakes and make sure that it won’t happen again.

Create your own brand!

Gabriela Adam, Sprijin si Dezvoltare Association

Creating the brand is my favourite part from preparing and creating the product/ service because it gives you the opportunity to advertise what you truly believe about your product/ service and helps you to describe it. Discussing with the 10 entrepreneurs I have discover that they have similar opinions regarding the brand and that all of them believes that a well-known brand will sell faster.

Of course, the marketing theory already tell us that the brand can help you to promote your business better and to attract more clients.

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Sometimes can be hard to develop the brand, because it requires a lot of effort and creativity.

Together with the 10 entrepreneurs we have created a list of to do list that will help you to develop easier your brand.

To do list! ✓

What satisfaction will bring to your customer your

product/ service? ✓

What are the needs that your product/ service will

cover? ✓

How you can highlight these satisfactions?

✓ What is the product/ service benefits? ✓ What are the specific characteristics and features of the product/ service that sparks joy? ✓ What are the specific features of the product/ service which differ from the other products/ services? ✓ Develop the business visual elements: logo, website, presentation movies ✓ Give the brand a meaning by highlighting what you promote and the product/ service benefits ✓ Develop the brand meaning by building the image: what is the product/ service, how you can purchase and use, the core values and principle of the business, its history and experience in the field. ✓ Develop the brand by emphasizing the product/ service performance ✓ Identify the feeling and judgments that you want to develop at the customer level ✓ Identify the impact of the product/ service on the customer behaviour (attachment, loyalty or any other impact) ✓ Make sure that you have a positive reaction from the customers, if not change immediately the strategy ✓ Make the brand relevant for the targeted customers by profiling the customers and identify their behaviours, resonance, believes and values ✓ Develop a direct relation between the value and the asked price ✓ Bring something new and try to innovate ✓ Be consistent and ensure that every product/ service has the same quality 18 | P a g e

✓ Develop a marketing strategy that sustains the brand ✓ Make sure that the customers are understanding your brand and your message To create a brand is not easy but it is not impossible. First you need to make sure what you understand the image that you want to sell and then sell it, develop your own brand.

After you develop the brand you need to create a marketing strategy to promote it. Nowadays marketing means much more than you think. There are a lot of products and services and you need to make sure that your product/ service will stand in from of all your competitors. Create your strategy in the line with the brand that you want to promote. Don’t use marketing channels that are not efficient anymore (flyers on the streets or other). Make sure that you are online, have an internet page and use social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn or other platforms).

Use as many free tools and instruments as you can to develop your visual materials, logo, videos and other. Don’t associate the image of the product with things that will affect its image. Develop the strategy, try different channels and then use only the effective ones. Believe in your product/ service and others will do too!

How much will it costs?

Gabriela Adam, Sprijin si Dezvoltare Association

You can set up the price of the product only after you identify all the production costs. You can’t set up a price without knowing how much money will cost you to produce the product or provide the item. You need to take in consideration al the fixed costs and variable costs.

Fixed costs can be salaries and income taxes, depreciation and rent of tangible assets or administrative costs.

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Variable costs can be maintenance and repair of machinery, energy, fuel, selling costs handling, raw materials, packaging, marketing or storage costs.

Each business costs are different, the important aspect that you need to remember us that through the price you need to cover all the costs and to make profit. Identify all the costs and establish the right price, the minimum price to which you can sell in order to make profit.

To establish the price, you should also look on the market. At what price your competitors are selling the product/ service. Depending on your price strategy you can go above, under or use the same price. You should also consider how much the customer is willing to pay for that specific product/ service.

Take all these aspects in consideration when you will develop your price strategy. If you are going to produce/ provide something that will cost much more from other products/ services from the market maybe you should reconsider the business strategy or even the product/ service itself.

Sometimes there are industries where some businesses had developed too much and they can provide certain products/ service at lower costs, costs that it will be impossible for you to compete with.

TODAY IS THE DAY! Launching your business Gabriela Adam, Sprijin si Dezvoltare Association

It is a big deal. Don’t pretend that it isn’t a big deal because it is a very important day. You have struggle so much and finally the day arrive. I have asked the interviewed entrepreneurs how was their first day. They all had different experiences and stories, but all of them lived positive and negative moments.

Based on their experiences I have created this article to help you understand better your felling, possible challenges and issues.

Don’t let anybody and anything ruin your day! You cannot measure the business success in the first day, so take the first day of your business and enjoy it!

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You need to prepare for that day. Your marketing strategy starts before the opening day. If it is possible, prepare the future customers and so they get used to your presence on the market. There can be cases where you can’t reveal too much, but you can reveal enough to raise interest. There are cases when it is necessary to reveal all the details, for example if you open a new restaurant, or a new clothing store, or even a low firm. People need to know where you are going to open and what you are going to open. Sometimes the differences between 2 companies with the same product is image (brand) and marketing. Build your brand before the lunching day. Usually there is a time between opening the business and launchings the product or service, and you can add the marketing costs to the company expenses.

You need to prepare yourself for the big opening. Know very well your strengths and weaknesses and hire people which complements you, people who are good at things that you aren’t. There is no point on hiring people with the same strengths and competences as yours. Have these people to support your back. Prepare yourself for the best and for the worst, I am not saying to just say to yourself ‘Is it going to be good! Congratulations!’ or ‘Thinks can go wrong! You can handle this!’.

No, this is not how you are going to prepare for the big opening. To be prepared means that you are aware on all the situation and challenges that may happen and how you are going to face it. To do that you will need to do a risk assessment, meaning to identify all the situation that you may face in the opening day. Then you need to establish the probability of risks to occur, how likely is to happen. After you know risks and their probability to happen you will identify measures that you need to take in order to diminish the probability for the rick to occurs. In the same time, you will have to identify the actions that you may take it the risk is happening.

What will you do? How will you react? What will do you first? There are steps that you need to follow? What are those steps? This will be your risk assessment plan.

Think at this risk assessment plan as your escape plan from all the possible situations and challenges, like a fire escape plan. As much as you probably think now at the 21 | P a g e

negative situation, I recommend you think also on the positive ones. There are people that can’t handle success and find difficult to handle also positive situations. Identify also the positive situation, how likely are them to happen, what measures will you take in order to ensure the positive situation to happen, what actions you will take if there it will happening.

Create an event and celebrate the event. If it is possible and suitable for your business, do a grand opening where you can invite your friends and family along with future and possible clients. You are inviting your friends and family because you will need them to support you and because you need to share your happiness with them. You can invite also your future clients because you will like to have a reaction from them and to explain them more about the future business. If it not suitable for your business to do a grand opening you can still celebrate with your friends, family, employees or even alone. Don’t let this moment passes unnoticed, you need to celebrate your effort and courage to open the business. This is your moment of glory so plan every detail. What aspects you should consider when you create an opening event. Together with the 10 entrepreneurs we have made a list for you to follow when you are doing the opening event. You don’t need to reach all the list, just select what it is suitable for you. ☼ Establish the aim of the event and the expected results – what do you want to achieve through this event. Usually the aim of an opening event is to promote the business and celebrate the success. Your result can be the number of participating people, the number of sales, the number of customers, the number of ne contacts and relations or any other relevant result for your company. Set up measurable aims and results so you can track and evaluate it at the end of the results. Set up realistic results, make sure that you can achieve it though the event. You will be disappointed if you don’t reach your results, so it is better to set them correctly from the first place. ☼ Establish your target group and set up aim and objectives for them – why will you invite them. Your target group can be friends, family, possible customers, bloggers and local press, stakeholders interested in your product/ service. The press will help you to be more visible at the local level. Of course, if it is relevant you can invite the national press, it depends on the type of your business 22 | P a g e

☼ Develop the event content: what do you want to do and for how many time, identify the channels that you can use to reach your target group, identify the necessary resources and when and how you are going to procure it, who is going to be involved for the event preparation, how you are going to engage your audience, how you are going to measure and evaluate the success and define what means success for you, identify the channels to promote your event ☼ Aim for quality. It doesn’t matter how small or big is your event the quality matters. ☼ Be aware that during this event you will meet your future customers and you need to create a good first impression, is like going on the first date with somebody. ☼ Develop differentiated invitations for different target groups if relevant. Maybe isn’t relevant to send the same invitation to the general public and the press. Send the invitations with 2 weeks

Aim for quality Make checklist Train you staff

in advance, then give them a reminder after 7 and 11 days.

People tend to forget, and you are their reminder. ☼ Announce on the company marketing channels the event one month before the scheduled date. Social media can really help you to promote the event. ☼ People come to events if you give them something, so make sure that you highlight the reasons why they should be there: can be promotions on the products, can be free drinks and snacks, or free products and coupons, or a type membership cards that only the first costumes can get with some benefits. ☼ Make checklist with what will you need to buy and prepare by categories, for example location (tables, chairs, rearrange the office), food and drinks (type of snacks and drinks, the provider, how you are going to buy it), program (write the agenda and for each activity, who is going to be responsible, the needed resources and the description of each activity) ☼ Train you staff how they need to act and what they need to do during the event. Collaborate with your staff to create this event, listen to their opinions and support their initiatives. ☼ You can evaluate the event through observation and questionnaire. If you create a questionnaire don’t put more than 5 questions because usually people don’t like to fill questionnaires.

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â˜ź Enjoy the moment!

Don’t expect a lot of people to buy your product/ service in the first day, unless you are H&M and you are opening a new store in a new city. You will always remember the first day you have opened the business and the first day when you have launched the product/ service, so make both them special.

Customer relationship Gabriela Adam, Sprijin si Dezvoltare Association

Developing a good relationship between your company and the clients can be challenging. You need to make a customer relation strategy and to think and constantly how you can reach, maintain and improve the customers relations. Sometimes it is easier to reach the clients then keeping the clients. I have discussed with the 10 entrepreneurs and they have shared a few important aspects that you need to consider when you are dealing with your costumes. The have learned a lot from their mistakes, and you will do so. Based on their ideas I have developed a customer relationship framework strategy.

Identify and reach your customer Who are your costumes, make his profile: male, female, children, age, studies, preferences, income, believes, values and religion (if relevant)? Who is the buyer and who is the final consumer? Your product is for the business market of for the consumer market.

If your product is for both, consumer market and business market. Then you should do 2 different strategies because what suites for a business may not be appropriate for other consumers. Or, if you like, make only one strategy and write particularities when is necessary for the two customers categories.

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Based on the customer description you will create a strategy how you can reach the customers.

The strategy should be appropriate for you customer preferences and behaviour. For example, the major adult population prefer Facebook, the young people prefer Instagram or children doesn’t use at all (at least they shouldn’t us it), but their parents do.

Identify your online channels, such as social media, online press, newsletter, blog or website. Through each channel think what you are going to write/ post and promote in order to reach your customers and how often. You can for example to promote all your special offers through social media and to pay for ads in order to reach the desired target group. You can offer more details about the product on your website and you can write the benefits on using your product/ service.

Identify the physical channels, such as other events, commercial venue, business fairs and other.

Think how often you are can could reach them, what are you going to say to them and how you will approach them. You can create special events for the community, or an open-doors event where you receive clients, or special prices to win.

To reach as many customers you can, you need to use all the channels that your target group is using, and to be active on those channels. A client will choose your product/ service only of they will like what you promote and if they can identify their benefits and reasons why they should purchase it (could be because of the price, special offers, ingredients, quality-price ratio, results, or other).

Other media channels, such as written press, radio or television. These channels can be expensive, if you don’t have enough money focus your resources on the free channels.

For each measure you need to establish the person responsible and the needed budget.

Maintain your customers You are lucky and you have reached your clients, they have tried your product or service and now you need to keep them. How you are going to do that? It depends very much on what you are doing. There are products that satisfy the basic human needs and, in this case, may be easier (not necessary!). Easy or not you should not lose them. There will be customers which they never return

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because they didn’t like the product/ service, the staff or any other reason. Your goal is to have as many returning customers as you can.

Train your staff how to behave with the customer. The personal feeling will something take over your staff behaviour. You should create a handbook on how they should treat the customers (kind, respect, and other), what they can do (explain, teach, listen, or other), and what they can’t do

Create a conflict

(scream, mistreat, neglects, and other). Discuss together the manual and make sure that they have understood

resolution handbook and

everything. This is a good way to manage the relationship

teach the staff how they

between your staff and the customers. If you are

should handle conflicts

providing services, the staff plays a crucial role in the customers relationship. In the manual you can provide full details how they should interact with the customers

from the moment they enter the store/ office store until they leave the store and even after. Train you employees how they should answer the phone and send email (no grammar mistakes should be allowed).

Create a conflict resolution handbook and teach the staff how they should handle conflicts. I believe this part of the relationship between your company and the customers is the most frustrating part because, the customer is always right. Be open to solve the client’s problems and to give them the best solutions. Imagine the possible conflicts that you could have with your clients and develop their solutions. Take the necessary time to solve the conflict and make sure that you have satisfied the client and that you didn’t lose.

Create a customer support service if is necessary, establish who is going to be in charge and what will be their tasks and competences. Through this service you can give more information regarding the product/ service, you can answer the client’s questions and you can solve conflicts. Through the customer service support you can also make sure that the clients have the possibility to give you a feedback. The performances of this department can be measured by the number of satisfied clients.

Create a loyalty program for clients. There a lot of ways, you can do membership cards where you can give them certain points to use at the future acquisitions, you can make special offers for the future acquisitions, or you can give them free gifts. You need to make sure that the offers that you 26 | P a g e

make are relevant for your clients, don’t give them a 10 Euro voucher for the acquisition of a 1000 Euro sofa, there is no point on doing that. The client won’t be motivated to but the sofa because of the 10 Euro voucher. But maybe a 100 Euro voucher can motivate a client to buy that sofa.

The loyalty program must be very specific, clear and time bounded. You should encourage consumption during the periods when the clients are tending not to buy and make special offers.

Make sure your old customers have their needed attention and always reward them for their loyalty.

They will be even more loyal if you give them what they need.

Always communicate directly and indirectly with your current, future and possible customers. Be present in their lives, post on your website, blog and social media, send them newsletters with special offers, answer to their questions, comments and feedback.

Create a Q&A section on your website and create the infrastructure for them to tell you their positive feedbacks and complains. Answer to their feedback and complains and always try to find solutions to satisfy their needs.

Treat your customer with respect and you will receive respect back.

You are doing the business and the company to satisfy some customer’s needs, don’t forget that. A happy and satisfied client will buy and return to your store/ website and will use you product/ service again.

Improve the customer relationship The customer relationship can be improved through communication. You need to know what needs to be improved so you can do it.

You can ask for immediate feedback after the client purchased the product/ service. Ask them what they have liked, what not, what will they improve or if they have suggestions.

You can also create small questionnaire for them to fill after they had purchased or in any other period that is relevant. The questionnaire can be also made online.

Read all your reviews and respond to every one of them. Nowadays the reviews are very important because it is your online business card, you need to have a good image. Thank for the positive and

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negative reviews. In your response for the negative review try to find solutions for the customer and solve any conflict.

Analyse the feedback and suggestions using statistical methods. Be aware that always will be some standard deviations and that you can’t have 100% satisfied customers, there is always room for improvements. You should take in considerations all the relevant data and ignore the insignificant one. Make sure that by listening to one client you don’t upset other clients. Analyse all the data and make decisions only if they will have a positive impact on your company. Don’t forget that you are the expert, don’t change your product or service based on some reviews, analyse the big picture.

Make sure you communicate every change that you made based on their client’s feedback. It is important to know that their opinion matter and that your company improves their products/ service considering their needs and suggestions. You can communicate through website, newsletter, blog or any other relevant channel.

Where you can I find your product/ service?

Gabriela Adam, Sprijin si Dezvoltare Association

Discussing with the 10 entrepreneurs we have concluded that having a good product/ service and brand is not enough if you don’t make sure that it is well distributed. Based on their advices I have create this article about logistics and distribution.

First of all you should think how your clients will buy your product/ service. Is it going to be online or offline (face to face)? Depending on the answer, you should have 2 different strategies.

Things you should consider if your product/ service will be sold online You should have an online store. Nowadays it is very simple to buy website templates for online stores. Our second magazine form these series provided some examples of companies which are 28 | P a g e

selling these kinds of templates. Create the possibility for each customer to make an online account so they can track their orders and save items. Don’t forget to put the contact page so the customers will know how they can contact you. You should put at least one contact method, usually for online stores other companies are using e-mail, contact form or chat. Only if is relevant you can put the office address or if you have customer support service you should put the phone number. Add just the methods which the customer can use to contact you, don’t add the phone if you don’t want to be contacted by phone.

Make sure that your online store has enough picture for each product and that has the necessary description for each product/ service. Make sure that the stocks from the website correspond with the stock from your deposit, link them. Update periodically the online store with the relevant information, especially if you have made changes for certain product/ service. Create the policy return according to the law. You can create the possibility to the customers to give you reviews for each sold item, if relevant.

Offer enough details on the website on how the clients can buy. Create the possibility for the customers to buy with the credit card through a trusted program and the possibility to pay the product after they receive it. If you sell services usually the payment is done right away.

Identify the way how you are going to deliver the product/ service and make contacts with courier companies to deliver your product. If you send many packages the courier company will make you special offers. You should make the delivery policy and offer free delivery for the clients who buys products over a certain value.

You can also deliver the product/ service yourself, but the costs of doing this activity should be less than using a courier company.

Things you should consider if your product/ service will be sold offline If you are selling your products offline it means that you should find a location for the store or for the office. There is business that doesn’t matter the location. It really depends on what you are selling. Nowadays a store and a location can be found easily though internet. It is easier and simpler. Opening a store/ office for some businesses are mandatory.

Choose your location based on the client’s preferences. For example, to 29 | P a g e

buy a coffee a client will not choose to travel outside the city in a regular day, they will choose the nearest coffee shop. The situation is different if they will want to buy a car, they are willing to travel some miles to arrive at the first dealer.

Things to consider when you rent/ buy the store/ office: the neighbourhood, the distance between you and the other competitors (you should keep them close), the entrance, outside surroundings, accessibility, public transportation and parking. The store/ office should be reached easily through public transportation and you should have some parking lots where the customers can park their cars. You should create the design of the office/ store considering: the style (should be relevant to your product/ service), the furniture, restrooms and other amenities and facilities.

You should have specific details on your website on how the clients can come to your store/ office.

Don’t forget to create a business account on Google and to create a pin with your location on Google Maps. It is absolute important to exist on maps because a lot of people are now using this application to navigate in the city. Google maps will provide for your clients the necessary instructions how they can reach you by car, by public transportation or by foot.

VA-Plast - Innovation approach towards in production Igor Izotov – CEFE Macedonia

Vanco you are a self-made entrepreneur. Can you tell us your story, where did the idea and the strength to say “I want to be start something mine” come from?

My entrepreneurship "story" started 20 years ago when I worked in the Toolkit firm KTZ Kragujevac. I had great wish to start my own business because I had great knowledge in the mechanical and a solid knowledge of plastic materials.

In 2000, I called a friend of a large company in Gostivar from the chemical industry and asked how they solved the problem of closing the bottle for salt and pepper. Because I worked on this 30 | P a g e

“issue� in the previous years I decided this was a problem I will solve, so created my own tools and company for production of plastic parts.

These were the beginnings of my company. Like every beginning, mine was difficulty, especially finding means to buy enough stocks of materials and working capital. In the first year of existence, the biggest problem was how to start cooperating with big companies and make products for them.

However, since then I have invested heavily in quality machines that produce high-quality plastic products (tools) for the largest companies in Macedonia and the region

VA plast was established 18 years ago and in this brief period of time it is the list of 150 best companies operating in Macedonia. Tell us more about the products that VA- PLAST is creating?

In the beginning of 2015, as a result of good results from year to year, our company "VA- PLAST" received recognition from the Ministry of Economy that we are a company that has progressed steady in the first 15 years. This was the result of working with the large Macedonian companies that use plastic materials to store their products. The plastic products made in our company are manufactured by machines with German technology. All the machines in our company are made by the best German brand ARBURG, 31 | P a g e

which makes machines for plastic parts. VA-plast uses plastic from famous brands on the world trade (Lukoil-Russia, BASF-Germany etc‌). The plastic from these companies is not harmful for the environment and for the peoples’ health.

What innovative approaches did you undertook the previous years, which helped you consolidate your business and be where are you now?

As the product the company grew, the company also invested in better and newer machines to be more competitive on the market in terms of quality and quantity of products. In 2017 our company decided to renew its machines and invest in new ones from the German company "ARBURG" which are the highest quality machines and the most competitive in the manufacture of plastic. We have also entered a new and bigger facility so that we can produce products that are for export.

The quality of the machines we use to produce the plastic products lead us to new opportunities and was recognised by the big players in the different industries that we serve. from the many branches that we serve, we chose the cosmetics to be our main target because by making cosmetic boxes we have seen that over the years cosmetic companies have problems to maintain the quality of the ingrediency which they fill in the plastic container (baby cream, face for face, face mask, etc.) if that container is not made from the highest quality

The quality of the machines

and standards. That’s why the first innovation was the

we use to produce the

construction of a plastic container suitable for creams that

plastic products lead us to

protects the cream as long as possible.

new opportunities and was

The second innovation was to make the container from nano

recognised by the big

materials. In this segment we have not done enough testing,

players in the different

because it takes a long time for tests and time will be needed

industries that we serve

to prove the innovation in full.

The third innovation is the make the container decompose

after its initial use. We want to make the box entirely from biodegradable material that will not pollute the environment. This innovation was ranked as one of the most innovative out of 406 companies that participated on a World Bank project.

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Vancho, your company Va Plast works with the biggest Macedonian companies, can you tell the young entrepreneurs how you managed to connect with such companies and what innovative approaches you used in the negotiation with them.

Working with the best firms in our country and in the region requires lot of preparation in every segment of the production process. First, I mean a you need to have product quality. The machine involved in the production process should be in excellent shape and well-prepared for production.

The team leading the production should always keep an eye on the environmental standards required by the clients and, above all, the employees should have appropriate knowledge of the production process and have the appropriate training for the workplace.

All major firms (Alkaloid, Replek Farm, Swisslion, Lyon, etc.)

Working with the best firms in our country and

have DMP norms that allows anyone who fore fills the norms

in the region requires lot

can be supplier to them. This gave us hope from the beginning

of preparation in every

that we can succeed and that the entrance to every big company

segment of the

is possible and it depends only on us. We managed to start

production process.

collaborating with the big companies from the early beginning and we are still their preferred supplier and manufacturer of plastic materials. We cherish the tradition that we need to improve on a daily basis to produce parts for them.

Where do you see the future of VA Plasnt?

The future of our company should be in the part of production of Pharmaceutical and cosmetic plastic canisters and boxes. In these two branches we have the most experience and products. These products are the most basic for making, but demand high quality, service and as a company we always want a challenge. Of course, we are trying to develop ourselves in other industrial branches, primarily in the construction and food industry, but our priority is pharmacy and cosmetics for now. We proved our innovativeness with the production of cosmetic and pharmaceutical plastic products.

The next project of our company will be in the field of pharmacy and our team is working on a major project for the Pharmaceutical industry. According to the estimates, the project should come 33 | P a g e

out in the next two years on the market and of course, we will again be participants in the competition for innovative solutions. This project is ready as a product that can be started with preparation, but we consider it necessary to examine the product in the laboratory and the opinion of the big companies to accept it as part of their program.

We Talk IT - Innovative approach towards community building Igor Izotov – CEFE Macedonia

WetalkIt appeared as an organisation before the UEFA Super Cup 2017 in Skopje as a result of the skyrocketing prices of accommodation. Can you tell us the interesting story how one phenomenon influenced the programming community to gather and create something useful for the thousands of fans that flooded the city?

As a first project, the Super Cup Skopje platform was very straightforward. It was the first meet-up of the group when we decided that we want to put our digital and programming skills into use, creating a project that will help our society. We spotted a social problem with the skyrocketing hotel prices, we had proofs that people would want to give their bed for free and we had the skills to act. We have been all over the news, spotting Macedonia as a country that wants to make profits on the fans shoulders. This was threatening for our country visibility on international level and we wanted to fix that.

It was just a 2-hour discussion, when we made the decision to create a platform for free accommodation, alike the famous couch surfing app, and offer fans a free bad to crush.

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And that is how we had our first hackathon, where we built the Super Cup Skopje platform where more than 100 beds were offered, and nearly 40 people used the service. We were highlighted on Tech Crunch, Mirror and Balkan insight of how techies used their skills to make a good standing for their country internationally.

How big is the community?

The community counts nearly 50 people, from different backgrounds in the digital and tech industry.

What innovative tools do you use to communicate with the community and create wonderful project?

We use Slack to organize teams for different projects and Meetup.com for the new members outreach. Both have proved as a very good tools for communication.

How easy is to manage people using tools like Slack groups?

It can be challenging at the beginning, as with every tool and new organization. But, putting the basics within Slack, was very valuable for us, because people in the group had a feeling like they were having this engaging online place, where they could post ideas, discuss projects and organize tasks. Everything in one place, easy to manage and interact. That is the goal đ&#x;˜Š Who can join WeTalkIt? Although this is a tech community, we invite and welcome everyone who want to engage in activities where we use tech to solve every day problems, discuss advancements, and most importantly support and educate each other to thrive.

Few months ago, you collaborated with lawyers in creating a calculator. Can you tell us more about the project itself and how did u manage to communicate you as developers on one side and the lawyers from the other?

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It was very challenging at first, but, very rewarding when we finished it. It was just 3 months after our first project, where a local group called Skopje Legal Hackers suggested to collaborate on making the first online calculator for legal procedures costs in Macedonia. We were up for it, and that is how we got ourselves a second hackathon. The collaboration and team effort resulted in a beautifully designed calculator with both web and mobile version (iOS and Android) over just a week of work. Community work can do unimaginable things, and we are so proud of the effort that every member put in these projects.

What is next for wetalkIt? We have so much in mind but starting in September we are going to organize meetup talks and hangouts with the whole tech community to discuss ideas for next projects.

Should we organize a tech conference? Or build another social project? Join us and let’s discuss ideas đ&#x;˜Š

M3DS - Innovative approach in education Igor Izotov – CEFE Macedonia

Stefan, few years ago you were freelance 3D artists Today, you run an academy for 3D modelling, game design and a line of kids lining up to join the academy. What is M3DS, why is educational hit among high school students?

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First of all, M3DS is an Autodesk Authorized training center for 3D and game

design.

This

means

after

successfully completing the practical assignments, delivering the final project and their portfolio, each student will be able to receive an international certificate of completion from Autodesk Training Center. Beside of that, we care about our students and we offer them 24/7 support if they have difficulties with some of their assignments and we even help them with personal projects after graduating in our academy. If any student needs to skip some of the classes because of some personal reasons, we have the responsibility afterwards to keep the student on the track with the whole group, so the whole group can continue to work as a team. In our academy, we offer work station for every student and full equipment accessibility, so those things won’t hold them back.

The students can also use our 3D printers to print their models and even use them in their final graduation project. From this year, our academy is proud to announce that we now have motion capture sensors, which we implemented in our academy, so the students can gain deeper insight into the animation pipeline and get more practical knowledge. Our program is focused on the most important stuff from the 3D pipeline and from the practical work on real projects, so because of that we offer the highest quality and specialisation in the 3D field. On the Academy Year the students learn the whole 3D process and they also have the chance to choose whether they want to become a specialist or a generalist. The great thing that we’re educational hit, not just among high school students, but among the youngest kids and the adults also, is because of our programs that are specialized for any age.

How big is the academy, can you give us some numbers?

In September we’re going to announce our 100th student. In the past two years we had over 80 students, that took the three-month course and continued to the Academy Year, because they found themselves in the 3D field. They started working on their professional portfolio, and started chasing their dream job, that will offer them great salary, but also opportunity to reach their biggest

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creative potential. The number of students that come to study here is getting bigger every year, so we are hoping that the number this year will positively surprise us once again.

At the age of 23 you are teaching people even older than you about this interesting field; you even manage to be pretty innovative when it comes to making a bond with your “students�. How did you make this, everybody loves the teacher something that is unheard off in traditional education?

Is not just about being great instructor or having a great program or even to have the newest equipment in your studio. Everything is about giving the student the needed motivation and goal to reach it. You need to be the inspiration to the students, but you also need to push them harder and to believe in them and their potential. Keep their interest high and give them opportunity for good development with giving them the right directions.

Few months ago, you and another Macedonian start-up that we interviewed in the previous magazine Solveo organised iT Novum 2018. Can you tell us something more about the event and how it all went?

IT Novum is an educational event for young people that we organized in collaboration with Inovum, for the third time. The main goal is raising awareness and the development of computer science. The whole event took place from April 20 to May 13, 2018, where over 800 young people had the opportunity to participate in one of the biggest events in Game Design and Design Thinking in Macedonia. IT Novum was held in two locations: our M3DS Academy for 3D and Game Design and the Youth Cultural Center, Skopje (MKC). Three main events were part of this years IT Novum: Game Design How To? Rethink: The Creative Marathon, and the Game Day. In the Game Design trainings, the participants worked in Level Design, as well as models and animations to create games and videos. M3DS as Academic Partners with Unreal Engine and Autodesk Authorized Training Center, gave the participants the chance to train in Unreal Engine

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and get an international certificate of Autodesk 3D Maya. After that the organized teams that created Level Designs competed, and the winners were announced on the final event on May 13th.

The creative marathon Re-think was a three-day event where participants worked intensively to find innovative and creative solutions using modern technology to make the city a better place to live in. During the period from May 11 to May 13, 2018 the participants from different fields (economics, computer, science, architecture, design, etc.) worked in multidisciplinary teams in intensive workshops and created innovative solutions for more efficient and useful services that will improve life in the city.

The Game Day was the third event that took place. It was one-day gaming event, where the participants tested their skills in the most popular board games like Warhammer, Yu-Gi-Oh! Pokemon, Hearthstone, Magic and Ravensburger Puzzles. The national championships were also organized, and every winner went home with great prize.

How important are events such as It Novum to keep great customer relations with your students from the academies?

The civic association for the IT society of Macedonia, aka iNovum from Skopje is the main organizer of this event.

With

collaboration

our we’re

bringing the Macedonian IT culture a step further than it is now, with that helping to increase the employment rate in Macedonia. Along the way, we tend to inspire, not just our students, but all the youth about the change they can bring with their hard work.

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You are preparing the first exhibition of 3D models created by the students of the academy. what do you expect? For the first time we’re organizing exhibition of 3D models and I’m proud of my students, that they’re working hard during the summer to complete and finish their models. We still have a lot of things to do, but hopefully we’re going to finish them on time, so we can offer the audience to witness some of our professional 3D artworks made by our M3DS students.

What advice will you give to young entrepreneurs about starting their own business regards the importance of good customer relations?

Do not be afraid. If they have clear vision and goal they want to reach, they just need to believe in themselves.

They’re going to face with small failures, but that’s normal. The key is to get back on track and to keep working harder and harder. At the end all the hard work pays off.

What does the future hold for M3DS? We are going to keep up the good work and we tend to collaborate with other studios, to make our work even more professional and appreciated.

Fresh farm - Innovative approach in distribution of products Igor Izotov – CEFE Macedonia

Fresh farm was started as a company for production of eggs in 1982. Can you give us a short overview of the company?

The company was built with domestic capital, and the main purpose is the production of chicken eggs for consumption. The eggs are produced in controlled conditions from healthy layers (chickens). As a subsidiary(secondary) product of the company is the breeding of chicks. (the

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process of keeping the chickens in special, highly controlled conditions until the time they start to lay eggs).

What are the major accomplishments in the previous more than 35 years of existence of the company?

Continuous growth and expansion of production through capacity building. Improvement of working conditions, and full automation of the production process from the very beginning.

The main investment in the last few years is the construction of a state-of-the-art facility with all European standards for the breeding of chickens. So far, besides the production of eggs, Fresh Farm also dominates the chicken breading industry.

In order to have be present on the market for so long, you must be doing something good, can you please tell us what is the special “sauce� of the longevity of Fresh Farm?

We could not just single out one thing in the successful operation, so I would say that in that "special sauce" there are more ingredients. At the outset I would separate the responsible work towards both our clients and our suppliers. Here they would also deliver their own distribution and logistics that operate at a high level, because it's about fresh food distribution should be at an enviable level and always timely.

What were the innovative approaches that your company took in the way of distribution and logistics in such a traditional business as egg production?

The distribution of Fresh Farm has been working for several years. The company owns its own vehicles (trucks and cars) with which a delivery is made on a daily basis, through the previously determined location of the companies to which the goods are delivered. The eggs are supplied fresh and submerged at the optimum temperature.

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What will you recommend to entrepreneurs that plan to start similar traditional business?

What are the ways for success?

The first thing I would recommend to all young entrepreneurs is to start their own business, to create an image, to be innovative, but above all responsible. Also, my recommendation when starting a business is to make a good SWOT analysis to determine all the strengths and weaknesses but also to anticipate the possible threats and chances of the business itself.

What is the future of Fresh farm? Where do you see the company in 10 years?

Our company has a vision and mission for the future, and it is globalisation. With the expansion of production there is a need for new markets, and with the entry into the EU new opportunities for placement will be opened up.

Vrootok - Innovative approach in marketing Igor Izotov – CEFE Macedonia

Teodora, last year you opened vrootok.mk as a marketing and consultancy agency to help companies and startups. Can you tell us something more about Vrootok.mk?

Vrootok is a Macedonian based agency that helps international clients in developing and executing their marketing strategies, by using modern and creative approaches. We mostly work with clients from the blockchain industry, as well as SaaS and MedTech companies, and modern retail companies which are somehow connected to technology. Our long-term vision is our professionalism and expertise to provide the best marketing solutions for our clients to achieve their full potential in the modern tech industry.

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Where did the idea for opening such a consultancy come from?

As an active and very energetic person, I was always in love with marketing, since a very young age. The process of understanding what people need, their visions and goals as well as finding creative ways to help them achieve those goals through communication is a very rewarding experience for me. It might sound clichĂŠ, but it was my dream since I was 8 years old. I remember organizing events in my yard where I would invite my friends and teach them about a topic that was interesting for us as kids.

Fast forward 20 years, it was a logical and natural reaction for me to step out of my comfort zone and turn my childhood dream into a reality. What I mostly love about this job is that we get to help businesses and people grow each day. By sharing our knowledge and know-how in the everyday work, we inspire them in the process, and they are happy with the results.

How do you see the marketing in the world? is there room for improvements and innovations?

With the everyday changes in the IT industry and the fact that AI, AR and Blockchain are no longer just a talk, but a reality, we can already feel the global marketing sector being disrupted. Like IT in marketing there is always a room for improvement and innovations. I would even say that marketers are everyday innovators as they always try to find new and creative solutions for their clients. However, I do believe that globally, there is a lack of marketing knowledge that has yet to be shared. What companies can do to stay up to date with the fast-paced environment is experiment and learn as they go. Nothing great ever came from a comfort zone, right? đ&#x;˜Š What does your agency do differently?

We step out of our comfort zones on a daily level. What I love most about my team is that none of them is ever afraid to be straightforward with our clients. We are here to help the clients achieve their goals, and sometimes we must provide feedback which is contrary to what our clients believe.

By keeping it real, we ensure that our clients always work with reliable and dedicated team of experts.

What is innovation in the marketing field nowadays?

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I have 3 favourite marketing innovations for 2018. The first one is the so called “Physical marketing”, which is marketing related to our everyday lives, it is incorporated in the physical activities that we do every day. With McDonald’s aiming to replace more than 50% of their workforce in the restaurants with order displays, it is inevitable that this trend is yet to grow.

Micro influencers. Instagram profiles with paid followers are no longer “the thing”. Nowadays, it is quality vs. quantity and people want to follow brands and people they relate to. This is when the micro influencers come to stage. They are usually regular people which share their hobbies with the audience and impact their followers in a positive way. These influencers get their following naturally, and do not have bought followers. Their followers are people that love the content these influencers display, so when an influencer of this kind advertises a product, it is usually to the correct target audience, thus making the sales much more successful. People nowadays respect relevance way more than bough followers and fake built brands.

Video marketing. In a few years from now SEO in the traditional sense will be a thing from the past. We have seen a rise in the sales for Alexa and Echo, which are voice search based. Because of this, the website content will change to more conversational and the SEO will change as well.

We have also been witnessing many companies turning to video advertising and starting to forget about SEO. It is because you can show more emotion on video than you can express with words.

Video marketing is yet to conquer the market, 2018 is just the beginning.

Where is Vrootok in a couple of years from now?

In a couple of years from now, Vrootok has 2 more offices, one in Europe and one in the USA, and is a leader in Blockchain marketing.

What is your advice to young entrepreneurs who are now preparing their marketing plan for their start-ups?

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My advice is “Pour your emotions and your passion into your marketing plans. Don’t forget the numbers of course, but make sure your passion is felt by whoever will be reading your marketing plan. In marketing, is all about how you make people feel, and you want to make people feel happy and in love with your team, your start-up, your product and your goals.”

What is the one tool without which a marketing

person

like

yourself

cannot live without?

One? Add a zero next to that and make it a 10. :) I can’t live without Slack, Trello, my notebook where I scribble random creative ideas, and my Calendar. Oh, and my bike is my tool as well, a tool that keeps me healthy.

Termin.mk - Innovative approach to betting the competition Igor Izotov – CEFE Macedonia

Filip, you and your co-founder started an online booking business 3 years ago. Why, what was the drive to start your own business?

There are several main motives that drove me to start my own company. Firstly, one of my biggest drives for starting my own company was – instead of seeking for a job on the market and work for someone else, I wanted to create my own digital product/service that will solve real market problem. In the same time, using my potential and realise my professional goals not someone’s.

This idea was solving one of my biggest problems – how to find a perfect time slot in sports venues for recreational sports and activities. When i realised that other people have the same problem as myself I decided to open the business.

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In 2-3 words what is termin.mk doing?

We help future wedding couple, parents and event organizers to find a time slot in their perfect wedding venue, children’s room, and any type of event house, with only 3 web clicks. Also, we provide a web platform where our collaborators could easily promote their services.

Before termin.mk appeared on the Macedonian startup system, there were similar providers of restaurant booking businesses, what management tools did termin.mk use to beat the competitors?

In the beginning with had only one serious indirect competitor. Firstly, we did comprehensive analyse on their advantages and disadvantages and then we created an improved system. What we did: • We added extra value to our web platform • We used creative approaches in promoting our brand • We paid special attention and care to our clients/collaborators and customers After 3 years you are rebuilding the web platform for reservations. Why now and can you give us overview how the whole process of rebranding goes?

At the very beginning this whole project was something new for the whole market and it was very difficult to change the way how the venues were operating before, and how the customers were searching the dates. Even one of our original features - “Sports” didn’t succeed. We are very happy right now to announce that most of our collaborators (restaurants and children’s room) are using our app as their organizing tool and the customers are using our web as a service. Unfortunately, we still have some difficulties, firstly because of the culture, and secondly because of the level of education of our market, but we are doing our best to improve the service – by working on our new mobile app + some improvements on the web.

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What did you learn in the whole process of re-branding/ republishing termin.mk?

Loading‌ (We are still working on it) đ&#x;˜Šđ&#x;˜Š I would just add – it is very difficult to work with developers in Macedonia :D. Find your CTO, build a relationship and stick to him.

What innovative resources can entrepreneurs use in Macedonia to get to more clients?

There are much more business events, services and funds nowadays who stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit in my country, compared to the days when I was starting my business. The access to resources is much easier nowadays. Moreover, social media played big role in connecting people with similar interests. However, there is still space for improvement, especially in the segment – access to finance and quality of labour.

What is the future, the team behind Termin.mk is preparing some interesting new innovative product, can you give as a quick pick?

Currently we are finishing our re-design. It will bring several new features that we realized are unnecessary for growing our business. Also, we are working on our mobile app which will improve the whole process of managing our clients’ dates.

As soon as we finished our technical improvements, our plan is the try again to expand our business to the Serbian market. Oh yes, I haven’t mention before, we had one unsuccessful story in the Serbian market with our startup‌ after six months we closed it. I hope this time we learned from our mistakes đ&#x;˜Šđ&#x;˜Š

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Week.end - Innovative approach to community management Igor Izotov – CEFE Macedonia

What is Week.End? Week.End is an innovative platform for promotion of events, musical artists and venues and reservations of the same ones. The platform also holds a system for arranging reservations and helping the management of the venues understand and get to know their clients better You launched Week.End some weeks ago. Can you tell me how did the promotion go?

The promotion went really fun, we had a party out of it. We switched few types of music, held a short presentation of the platform, gave people free booze and made them register on Week.End before they go đ&#x;˜Š Where did the idea /the concept for innovative service like Week.End come from?

The idea for Week.End came from everyday situations. We just listed the problems our community is having and started finding ways to solve them. Starting from problems such as non-listed options of places to visit, non-listed events and the main one getting a table in the club đ&#x;˜Š You were part of pre-acceleration program, how important is external help and tutoring for entrepreneurs and start-ups?

External help and tutoring are very important for any entrepreneur. Making the right choice for your business is quite a challenge especially if this is your first start up, the lack of experience can be very well balanced with knowledge from pre-acceleration programs.

Is the future of night life digital?

In a way it already is. Just go in to a club and look. People are already on their phones. Taking photos and videos, sharing how their night is going, talking to friends. Taking in consideration

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how much the digital era itself has stroke us, I do believe that we slowly come to a place where the whole process of going out is getting digitalized Some people are asking is this concept viable in the Balkan countries, what has your research showed till now?

Our research has shown that this is going to be a viable concept. It might take time and hard work, but digitalization is a process we must fall Into. Our research has shown that especially on the Balkan there is a great percentage of people who look for ways to simplify their life, and this concept is all about simplifying options.

Working with restaurants and coffee bars can be tiering, do they understand the innovation in change that is happening?

Some people do, while some people are still sceptics and need educating so they can actually trust the process. Thankfully, their clients have embraced the innovation and saw the need of it, and we all want to give the best to our clients.

Is now the time to start your own business, what will you recommend to young people around Europe?

Honestly yes. It is the time to start your own business. It will not be easy, but it will be worth it because at the end of the day If you don’t build your dream someone will hire you to help them build theirs.

What is a sentence that motivates you on daily basis?

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it - Henry Ford.

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Innovation Igor Izotov – CEFE Macedonia

Innovation approaches in doing business is always difficult to quantify, and that’s why you never know if something that you have made is worth the trouble or not. In the previous interviews we saw many small details that Macedonian entrepreneurs did and that lead to their employees to think out of the box in solving work related problems. This approach ranged from small things such as having cooking days at the office to making the office virtual/remote. In the more traditional business, we saw some innovative approaches in distribution and way we do our finances.

We might not know what the future holds but for sure it will not be a something that we expect.

At the beginning I wanted to make this ending a summary of what all entrepreneurs said about the innovative approaches they took in running their companies, discussing sales deals, doing their numbers, but I realised that I will just put things into a box and loose the innovative perspective I wanted to have when I did the interviews with them.

Instead I decided to summarise all that is said, put some theory in context and create 6 thinking points that can be a good starting point and good help for any entrepreneurs that wants to add innovative approaches in doing business. Nevertheless, there is tons of material that can help you think of better ways to make innovative changes in your organisation, I am just touching few of them.

6 WAYS TO BOOST INNOVATIVE THINKING IN YOUR COMPANY 1. Rearrange working hours - remember how in the interview Adeva told as that they started doing remote working and started using the office just as a focal point for meetings or where people can pop up, well maybe that is the future. Wired.com, PwC, Telenor, NASA, Forbes among others estimate that by 2025 up to 50% of all the world workforce will be freelancers, solopreneurs, independent contractors or remote workers, so the faster you bring this kind of innovative approach 50 | P a g e

to doing business the better. Think of it this way, millennials want their freedom and more and more of them will do everything but the normal 9 – 5 work hours. Maybe approach like remote Friday or working from your favourite restaurant or bar with the team one day per week can be a good start.

2. Make Mistakes and don’t fear them- From early age we are thought not to make mistakes and mistakes are bad. But this behaviour in organisation can bring everything except innovation and betterment. There should be balance of course and distinction between reckless behaviour and unintended mistakes, but we want people to work outside their confront zones and they will do mistakes when are faced with the unknown. A good start to having this approach can be having weekly meetings where you discuss with your employees what mistakes they made in the previous period and what they will do to avoid them in the future. Speaking out loud about your mistakes can bring positive change in the way team members think about the mistakes.

3. Bring your Ideas to work - create idea challenges where employees can freely talk about their ideas and ways, they can

Make Mistakes and

improve the working of the company. Have this every month or

don’t fear them

as often as you can. There is an old saying that many head think better than one.

4. Leverage technology - During the interview with the representative with WetalkIt, a communal organisation that arranges various events and meetups for IT guys in Macedonia, we found out that they use extensively Slack to communicate to their members. Arguably the most important aspect of developing innovation in the 21 centuries for every manager/entrepreneur will be their skill to leverage technology. If an entrepreneur truly wants to take an innovative approach in business, technology must be involved, either be applications, software or hardware or process of optimising tools. For example, an innovative entrepreneur nowadays will focus on social media marketing in order to communicate to its stakeholders opposite to traditional marketing management channels.

Also, this manager will carry a book written by social media influencer how to get more followers on his/her personal blog and social media profiles.

5. Make it to stick - There is a great book that i recommend to everybody called “Made to stick”

by Like Chip and Dan Heath. A key concept of the book is to tell you how to make ideas into viable businesses. They basically say to making an idea sticky is to tell it as a story. Stories 51 | P a g e

encourage a kind of mental simulation in humans and encourages participation of the listener and almost instant action. Think of it this way for example a learning language is way better by speaking it than learning it via flash cards. Create story about your company that everybody in the firm knows it. Tell your employees you intend and where you see the company in period of time.

Don’t give them day task give them the vision that they need to follow, don’t put them in a box just give them a canvas on which they can draw on.

6. Be different - In the intro to this magazine I wrote that people change bosses they don’t change jobs. Be better person and first and foremost leader and employees will cherish you and come up with ideas and approaches to solving problems that you never thought of.

Business innovation Inercial Digital

In the next articles we are going to present different star-up in Spain which have taken a more innovative approach and make use of the new technologies to work and which present innovative ideas to be more conscious about the world. Even though Spain is not at the top of the list on innovative companies, it is something that it is starting to change and day by day more and more innovation is being embraced by entrepreneurs in Spain with great ideas for the future.

Glovo Inercial Digital

This is a company created by Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud in Barcelona. They created Glovo in 2015 and it has spread internationally being also used in Latin America.

Glovo works through a mobile app and it is focused on delivering things in the shortest time, 30 minutes maximum and now and hour of the day you 52 | P a g e

decide. These types of deliveries are offered to individuals and enterprises they are collaborating with, such McDonalds for example.

Glovo also provides an insurance up to 2000 euros in their products and they offer deliveries all the 365 days of the year.

Billin Inercial Digital

This fintech was built in 2015 by Marcos de la Cueva and Diego Goya. Even though is not widely known among people, it is important and used for entrepreneurs with more than 25.000 companies and entrepreneurs singed up to it.

The purpose of Billin is to provide SME and self-employed the opportunity to control their invoicing circle accessing a cloud where everything is collected and allowing them to access to it from everywhere. With this they aim to simplify the bookkeeping of small companies and selfemployed and all for free.

To use Billin the users only need to be connected to internet, there is no need for apps. In the cloud they can manage all their invoices, create them, send them or payment among other things. The could provide unlimited storage.

They also offer a paid program where the companies can adjust the parameters they prefer and create the type of accountings they prefer.

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Ole Corasón.

Inercia Digital

From the union of

How did Ole

commercial experience

Corasón

and the ability to draw

emerged?

To increase in What kind of objectives

points of sale.

does the enterprise has for the present year?

Beautiful, a

How were the

great creation

first months of

process

development?

Was the enterprise affected by the crisis? How?

It wasn’t affected, it was born in a period

of crisis How do you

I have no

imagine Ole

fears.

Corasón in ten years from now?

What is your greatest fear as entrepreneur?

We will know in ten years from now.

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creation

Cabify Inercial Digital

Cabify was built in 2011 by Juan de Antonio in Madrid. This start up provides a service of renting cars with drivers in more than 36 cities around the world. It presents itself as an alternative to Uber, and it goes in the correct to become the most important option globally.

By using an app, people can rent their cars and have them by the exact time they need them.

Cabify’s focus is the make the ride as comfortable as possible for the client so they provide a great variety of cars for their clients to use, the best drivers, water and the option to select the music they want to listen to in their ride.

Cabify is a growing start up with a global growth of more than 500% of gross incomes.

Recently they have sing up a contract with taxis in Spain so now people can also use Cabify to rent taxis.

Indexa Capital Inercial Digital

This start up was created in 2015 by Unai Ansejo, François Debaix and Ramón Blanco and it uses technology to take out the maximum profit out of the investments made.

It is the first one created in Spain.

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Entrepreneurs can make use of it in organize their investments with lower commissions than the ones we can find in banks and it promises a year profitability up to a 3,2% higher than the ones offered by banks and investment funds.

In the years that Indexa has been active, it has managed over 150 million euros, overcoming every expectation upon it.

In order to use it, potential users need to take a quiz to determine to which extend are they willing to take risks, so they can propose the best wallet for them.

Indexa counts with a great counsel with people lie Pedro Luis Uriarte, Luis Viceira or Manuel Conthe.

Figuras TVR Inercial Digital

His name is Ivån Våzquez Rivera and his company is called Figuras TVR and is dedicated to the sale of collectible items of merchandising collection figures in Huelva. This is a type of business new in Huelva and that it’s nowadays all around the world is at its top because lots of people are interested in merchandising of different movies, tv series or comics.

What made you become an entrepreneur?

Well, I became an entrepreneur because I' have worked in several jobs and it did not go very well.

You know, they did not pay me, and I had problems with some bosses and I decided that I did not want to work for anyone else and I thought about starting something, a business, something that there was not much in Huelva and I decided to do this, for this kind of things How did your business emerge?

Well my company arose because, I started to discover this world when I was traveling to Madrid and I saw there were many comic stores that had many collectible figures and around here in Huelva that was not visible, so I liked it a lot and I say why not to set a store like that here in

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Huelva, since there was not many around here. I said try it and let's see and so far, it has had acceptance and all that What objectives does Figuras TVR propose for this year?

The objective of the company for the current year is to be paying off some debts that I have, because I was renting, and now I bought a store, and my goal is to pay off some debts I have, especially with the Treasury, and that, because of the paperwork of buying a local and also little by little expand the stock here in the store and get new things What is your greatest fear as an entrepreneur?

The greatest fear I have as an entrepreneur is that people stop coming to buy, that people get bored of the store and that they stop coming so I cannot face many expenses that I have, that is my biggest fear How were the first months of development?

The first months were complicated because I started in a town, I started in Palos de la Frontera, and there were very little fans, people had to come from abroad because there in the town, it was complicated, and people also saw the store and it seemed strange because there are things that they had never seen.

Which tool do you consider essential to become an entrepreneur?

A key tool, well, you need to have enthusiasm and have money to start if there is no money is complicated How could you self-manage your expenses and incomes?

My expenses and income, we take it to an agency so I'm calmer, because I took everything at the beginning, I started taking it and I made mistakes on how to make the income statement and others, so I gave it a management and I'm calmer and everything is fine.

Was your company affected by the context of the crisis in Spain? How? 57 | P a g e

Well, I started the same year that the crisis started, and I did not notice it too much, I do not know, since I did not have the business before the crisis I do not know, but I did not really notice it.

What are your ideas for the future of Figuras TVR? Well my future prospects are, so continue with the business and continue to have more and more items in the store, so people can find everything they are looking for. I do have many things already but keep improving little by little.

If you went back to the past after everything you've learned, would you start again?

Well I do not know, I would think about it because it is complicated, it is complicated because a business has many expenses and especially Finance and that, and if you have to rent and others things there are many expenses, but, it also depends on how you go and if it suits you and that's if it's working but I do not know, I'd think about it, I do not know if I'd start again

Mr. Jeff Inercial Digital

Mr. Jeff is a star-up that was created in 2015

by Eloi Gómez, Adrián Lorenzo and Rubén Muñoz in Valencia. Its focus is to your time. The make your laundry while you can focus on other things.

They aim to spread and not only take care of the laundry but to other tasks in the house with a minimum prize and all by just using your mobile phone. They come to your house to collect your clothes and in less than 24 hours you have it back.

In 2018 they started to work in Mexico and Brazil too and the plan to keep getting bigger and reaching more houses.

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Citibox Inercial Digital

This is a startup created by David Bernabeu in 2018 and that aims to make a total change in the delivery field.

With Citibox you can receive your shops from the supermarket, dry cleaners or any other company affiliated at your house, even if you are not there. To do so they are building smart post-boxes.

With an app in your mobile phone you can have track of your buys. In order to open your smart post-box, you need to scan the code in the locker and that you will receive a code to open it.

Citibox aims to expand itself and spread abroad to other countries along Europe and step by step keep growing beyond it.

Drone Hopper Inercial Digital

Drone Hopper is a start-up created in 2015 by Pablo Flores in Madrid. The innovation of this start up is the creation of drones in order to extinguish fires.

Its first prototype in 2015 could carry up to 300 litres of water, it had remoted cameras and remote navigation, so it could be used easily.

In 2017 Drone Hooper was rewarded with the Award of Aeronautic Innovation by COIAE (Colegio de Ingenieros AeronĂĄuticos de EspaĂąa)

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Libelium Inercial Digital

This company created by David Gascón and Alicia Asín in Zaragoza in 2006 is getting really famous. It works in more than 120 countries.

Libelium is focused on creating hardware and software development kits that can be use in for companies in the internet of things, smart cities and systems od machine to machine.

They have work with NASA in different projects and to make smart cities better controlling the quality of the water and the air, controlling the traffic and trash, among other things.

One of the most important things they have built is My Signals, a hardware and software that can measure the vitals of a person as if that person where in a real hospital.

Bioo Inercial Digital

This company created in 2015 in Barcelona by Javier Rodríguez, Pablo Vidarte and Alexandre Díaz and developed by the Spanish company Arkine technologies aims to change the way we live.

By using photosynthesis, they manage to generate electricity that can be used in our daily life.

Bioo won the innovation price of the fifth edition of South Summit.

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Now they have developed a flowerpot, named Bioo Lite, that can be used to charge your phone. It allows up to three charges and it can be used during day or night.

Dentaluz Inercial Digital

We interview Soledad Sรกnchez who has set up a dental clinic in Huelva. With it she aims to help people to get a decent treatment of their mouth at prices affordable, so everyone can have a healthy set of teeth.

What made you become an entrepreneur?

Well, I was working up to 30 years for someone else, and wanting to set up something so that people could benefit from it, because the world of dental clinics is a bit economically high, and I have very good prices here, lower prices and obviously the opportunity to work for me How did your business emerge?

It came up because I've been working as a dental hygienist for 30 years, I've seen how the franchise works, and then I think the world of franchising is a bad world, and I did not like it, so I wanted to set something up so that people who came would have many possibilities to fix their mouth at very economical Price.

What objectives does Dentaluz propose for this year?

The objectives are trying to help as many people as possible so they can have their mouth healthy What is your greatest fear as an entrepreneur?

The fact that they charge us a lot with taxes, which seems to me a thing that the average business, the average businessman, they have difficulties with that and the fact that we have no help from the Government. And also, the help they want to give you, if you have a problem, you have to return it with interest. A bit like they drown you, they do not let you try to lift the business, but they oppress you.

How were the first months of development?

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Well, the truth is that the first few months were spectacular. I opened, and at 5 months I already had more than 400 patients, because I already knew a lot of people. Due to that they came looking for me to be here. Many people know me by other clinics where I have been, then, the truth that I cannot complain. Though it is true that I was closed for a month and a half to make a bathroom for the disabled, something that for a person who is opening is a little bit annoying.

Which tool do you consider essential to become an entrepreneur?

The key tool to undertake, to receive more help from the Government, places like Junta de AndalucĂ­a, FOE. They do not provide help so that people can start and take business forward.

How could you self-manage your expenses and incomes?

I have an agency to take control of it, If it is not that way you cannot manage anything Was your company affected by the context of the crisis in Spain? How? Yes, well, mine not much because I opened it when the crisis was already active. But it is true that, patients, to finance an orthodontic treatment nobody has 2000 and 3000 and 1000 â‚Ź and people already have many debts to get into another.

What are your ideas for the future of Dentaluz?

My future perspective is for my clinic to go perfectly, to have a lot of clients and to be able to set up another one somewhere else.

If you went back to the past after everything you've learned, would you start again?

I think so, because I like my work a lot. If it is true that I would be careful with some things before undertaking, how to look for a partner, that is something to take into consideration

before

undertaking, but of course I would, why not?

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Lola Market Inercial Digital

This company was built in 2015 by Álvaro Gómez, José Luis Vallejo and Luis Pérez.

It is an online platform where you can buy anything you want from more and 250 commercial

establishment,

both

big

commerce and small shops, and you get them deliver at your house by a personal shopper who makes the shopping for you.

Now is available in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza and La Coruña.

For the deliveries, once you have done your shopping you can choose between 4’90 for standard or 6’90 if you want it to be done in less than an hour. Also, when you complete your order, you can make comments on how you want the fruit (more or less ripen) or if you want your meat of fish cut and how.

Sher.pa Inercial Digital

This start-up was created by Xabier Uribe-Etxebarria and it is gaining a lot of respect. It has won the Red Herring Europe in 2017, the Bully Award in 1017 and the Best Mobile App Award. It is also, according to CB Insights included in the list of 100 most innovative business related to artificial intelligence.

Sher.pa is developing a smart assistant that can learn from the likes and uses of the different users in order to show a more personalized information.

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Sher.pa allows you to use the assistant in any type of mean, so it can be use on your TV, your phone or your electrical appliance. Sher.pa can organize your things, and after getting to know you

it can tell you which email you need to answer, which TV channel are you most likely to watch or the temperature of the heather.

Unlike other assistants, sher.pa has chosen a masculine voice for the assistant and you don’t need to continuously call it by using your voice.

Wetaca Inercial Digital

This innovative star-up was created by Efrén Alvarez and Andrés Casal and it has been a total success since its beginning in 2015. The focus of Wetaca is take outs but, with food made by chefs, so people who has not time to cook can still eat healthy food.

Neosentec Inercial Digital

This company offers solutions of augmented reality using their own developing engine, called Onirix. With it they allow companies to create their own contents on augmented reality in a really easy way, fast and with a good price. It started in 2016 and it was built by Pedro Javier Sáez, Carlos González and Pablo Soto.

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