Elena Belousova & Vaida Pociuviene - Erasmus entrepreneurs

Success stories

Recent testimonies of successful business networking - Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme

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New entrepreneur:
Elena Belousova (Ukraine)
Age: 43
Company name: ProFood (Start-up)
Sector of activity: Food, beverages, tobacco and related products


Host entrepreneur:
Vaida Pociuviene (Lithuania)
Age: 30
Company name: Vasaris (3 years of experience)
Sector of activity: Food, beverages, tobacco and related products

Period of exchange: 04/2022 until 10/2022
Duration of exchange: 6

 

Business sector of the exchange

 

Food, beveragesy, and related products

 

Elena Belousova decided to start her Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs exchange as a new entrepreneur when the war against Ukraine started. Elena got the idea for her new business in Lithuania – retail of food products. Vaida Pociuviene decided to become Elena's mentor and participate as a host entrepreneur, to teach the basics of working in the trading business. This was a good opportunity for Vaida to prove herself as a leader, get acquainted with the culture of another country, compare the basics of doing business in Lithuania and Ukraine. With time, Vaida realized that Elena easily adapted to the situation, and was able to make decisions herself. The beginning was very hard for Elena, because it was necessary to learn Lithuanian but the programme helped her to succeed. 


Elena and her host Vaida spent six months collaborating together. Vaida helped Elena with the business strategy and Elena learnt more about negotiation, the importance of business networking, and establishing business partnerships. Vaida and Elena exchanged their knowledge in the sphere of marketing and benefited from sharing information about the markets of Lithuania and Ukraine, and different approaches to business.


Elena’s activity is currently operating in Panevezys city, Lithuania; she is not planning to stop and wants to expand and start her own business in Ukraine when war ends. It will be not only for food, but also handicrafts. Thanks to the programme, Elena got acquainted with the partners of the host entrepreneur's company. And these are not only businessmen, but also creative people who are engaged in the manufacture of handicrafts. For Elena, this turned out to be very inspiring and she realized that it was possible to combine and create a trading platform not only for products, but also for creativity. Elena wants to give creative people the opportunity to make money on their hobby. Thanks to the experience gained in the exchange programme, there is an understanding of how to attract people's interest and unite them on one trading platform.Elena and Vaida keep in touch always and might have some common projects in the future. Elena liked many national products presented only in the domestic market of Lithuania. She wants to introduce Ukrainians to them. There are also very few Ukrainian products in Lithuania, and Elena hopes that after the end of the war this gap can be filled.



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

New entrepreneur's contact point:
Alfred Nobel University (Dnipro, Ukraine)

Host entrepreneur's contact point:
European social entrepreneurship and innovative studies institute (Kaunas, Lithuania)

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