The aforementioned project was implemented under the Business-Friendly Municipality initiative in partnership with U-LEAD and Zelenodolsk Local Economic Development Agency.
In August, Zelenodolsk municipality held an online forum where participants presented their business initiatives and discussed the results of the project. According to them, the meetings and knowledge gained during their training allowed keeping their business afloat despite the uncertainty and martial law. Yuliya Stadnyk, Director of the Zelenodolsk Local Economic Development Agency told:
Zelenodolsk was an industrial town, and the vast majority of its residents worked at one enterprise. The layoffs there led to a decrease in the revenues to the municipality budget, which consisted mostly of personal income tax. The goal of the project was to create favourable conditions for boosting and sustainable development of micro, small and medium-sized businesses in the town, as well as the creation of a local business community. As a result, this project inspired a completely new format of interaction between business and government in our municipality. We managed to implement it during the war thanks to our reliable partners, the support of the participants and everyone doing their part,.
The project was aimed at entrepreneurs who are already working, as well as those residents of the municipality who are not officially entrepreneurs but have their own business idea or a hobby that can bring income.
The course covered business modelling, market analysis and strategy, customer service and sales technology, business development and financial planning. A separate unit was dedicated to communications and leadership. Beginner participants received advice on registering as Individual Entrepreneurs and keeping primary documentation. Olena Tertyshna, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Dnipropetrovsk region
When we started to implement this initiative together with the municipalities, our goal was to help establish interaction between the government and the business community, help create a favourable environment for the development of entrepreneurship and new jobs as well as implement sustainable tools for the local business initiatives to flourish. The follow-up for this project shows that the municipalities that trained their entrepreneurs did not lose any of them. And during the war, all project participants became a reliable economic component of municipality development, as well as a driver for many volunteer business initiatives.
One of the project participants, Iryna Karabut, said that she and her husband already had their own business. But the entrepreneur felt the need for development and training. According to her, the quality of the training and acquired knowledge was at a pro level:
One of the workshops taught us how to determine the economic result of the project. Thanks to this, I was able to calculate the profitability of pastille production as well as the production and sales volumes required to stay in the black. I have already purchased equipment for the production of pastilles. Thanks to this training, we are also working on submitting our project for a grant. We would love to develop green tourism, offer people apitherapy and other services. I wouldn’t have even thought about grants and expanding my business if not for that training. We would just have worked like everyone else, taking our produce to the market: take it or leave it. The training gave us a foundation. As they say, they gave you a fishing rod, and then you catch fish yourself. This is not usually taught at free courses.