Success stories

New entrepreneur:
Olha Sheredega (Ukraine)
Age: 43
Company name: The Trust (Start-up)
Sector of activity: Community, social and personal services

Host entrepreneur:
Hrvoje Harac (Croatia)
Age: 38
Company name: Udruge Pobjede (7 years of experience)
Sector of activity: Community, social and personal services

Olga Sheredeha is 43 years old and comes from Severodonezk, Ukraine. In her home country she worked as a dentist. Last year, her family took in a dog, a brown Labrador named Bradley. She started spending a lot of time with Bradley and reading a lot of information about dogs. That's how she got the idea to open a shelter "The trust" together with a veterinary service. When she heard about the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme, she thought it would be a good start for her business idea. Therefore, she immediately applied for this programme and received a request for cooperation from Hrvoje Harac. Hrvoje runs the non-governmental organisation Udruga Pobjeda - a dog shelter. Over the years he has gained a lot of experience in founding and managing NGOs and animal shelters. That is why Olga and he found each other so quickly and decided to embark on their adventure.

Throughout the project, Olga has taken on various tasks. Now she has a clear idea of the business she wants to start and the steps she needs to take to do so. She has increased her knowledge in areas such as marketing, human resource management, paperwork and other skills that will help her start a business in Ukraine. She participated in various charity events where she met volunteers and made many new friends. She also spoke weekly with her mentor, who helped her a lot along the way. An important part of her development was regularly attending different trainings. For Olga, the most important thing was to see from the inside how the shelter works and to gain invaluable experience and knowledge. She learned how to manage the staff and work with documents.

From the beginning, Olga set clear goals for the project. Before she started, Olga was afraid of leading a team. For her, this was the most important goal. Now she feels comfortable leading a team of up to 30 people. She has spent a lot of time studying the documentation. At the end of the project she knows exactly how to set up a shelter, hire new staff, keep dogs and other important points without which it is impossible to start this business. A very important goal for her was also to meet new people. Thanks to EYE, Olga has met professionals who love their work. For them it is not a job, but a part of their life. It was easy to learn from such people and she gladly accepted their experiences. Now Olga feelds that she has all the necessary knowledge to start her own business in Ukraine. She will use all the efforts and experience she gained during the exchange to achieve her goal - opening a shelter for dogs in her hometown. Olga and Hrvoje have become very good friends in the meantime and will continue to stay in touch after the end of the project.

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:
TERA Tehnopolis d.o.o. (Osijek, Croatia)

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