Success stories

New entrepreneur:
Izabela Filipowska (Netherlands)
Age: 34
www.escueladeisabela.com (Start-up)
Sector of activity: Education and training services

Host entrepreneur:
Javier González Expósito (Spain)
Age: 36
www.tivity.es (7 years of experience)
Sector of activity: Hotel, restaurant, tourism, travel services and wellness

Javier successfully participated in the EYE programme as a new entrepreneur. During his exchange, he became aware of all the advantages that the programme offers to the young entrepreneur, but also to the host entrepreneur. Therefore, he registered as a host and looked for a new entrepreneur with the same goals as him: to create and offer "responsible tourism" that protects nature and culture and contributes to society. A new entrepreneur could bring fresh ideas to the company and help him with marketing and design, for example. Izabela had the desire to start her own business and network with other businesses. Her idea was to combine language teaching with outdoor activities to protect the environment, but she did not know how. She created her own website and uploaded materials for Spanish language students and teachers on social media, but got nowhere there. Unexpectedly, she came across Javier's company Tivity and realised that an exchange there was just the missing piece.

Throughout the exchange, many projects were carried out with a variety of themes related to outdoor language learning, active tourism, sustainability and recycling. The audience was also diverse: from children and young people to adults and older people. Izabela supported Javier in his multitasking job on a daily basis. All the projects carried out gave Izabela the opportunity to gain valuable experience in outdoor education. She helped improve projects already in progress, such as an online game and a beach cleaning project. Izabela helped Javier to improve his use of social media: she taught him how to make the design of his platforms more attractive and how to engage his followers. She also informed him on how to collect feedback from his customers. Javier started actively blogging on his website and posting stories on his Instagram platform to get closer to his customers. Together they worked on new activities for Javier's business.

Izabela helped Javier organise various activities, such as a 'Creative Recycling' project. She collected new ideas and developed them further. She organised an activity called 'Learning through Mindfulness' which she did with Erasmus students. The EYE exchange also helped her understand how the market for outdoor linguistic activities works on the island of Tenerife and what she should consider when developing her own business. Thanks to Javier, she learned a lot about WordPress and Trello. She has since created her own website. In the last month of her exchange, she ran a workshop on the Canarian dialect, which was booked up almost immediately. She ran the event and designed a guide for the activities, took pictures, developed the materials needed and made a short film. Javier gained new ideas for activities in his company. Both want to stay in touch and continue to work together and grow each other's businesses.

For more information, please contact the local contact points involved in the exchange:

New entrepreneur's contact point:
QUOACH (Helmond, Netherlands)

Host entrepreneur's contact point:
INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO DE CANARIAS,S.A. (Santa Cruz De Tenerife, Spain)

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