Mauro Cherin is planning to start a company Tropico that will be focused on solar energy systems installation. His dream was to run a small business, but he still needed to learn various things for running a small company and to gain more enterpreneurship skills. And for that reason, Mauro decided to participate in Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs, where he would see and understand how a certain company is structured and operated. After searching for a potential company, he found Mr. Oliver Cunningham, an owner of an Irish Coffee and Tea shop called „Wall & Keogh Tea“. It is an organic Tea house and cafe with over 150 blends for everyone’s choice, and a wholesale deliverer for other small businesses. Oliver and Mauro both needed a marketing strategy for their companies, so their match was ideal to work and learn for each other.
Mauro and Oliver worked together during Mauro’s 4 months programme of exchange where Mauro learned an in-depth skills to start and run a company, to work with people and to deal with different sorts of problems that can occur. He spent most of his working hours by carrying different tasks in the cafe just like all the other workers (including the HE). He was expected to learn how to serve clients properly and to put attention on what is going on at the cafe. After he learned basic things about running a company, it was time to go to the next stage of his training, and that was to achieve more interest from the public about the company. So he and Oliver came to the conclusion that, in order to grow into a bigger company, it is of big importance to increase the social media activity. Mauro then worked on marketing ideas, collecting material and discussing these ideas with the HE, setting up a web page for the company, as well as doing all the tasks needed to learn secrets of social media marketing.
Benefits for both entrepreneurs were significant. Mauro brought the ability to adaptation to team work which he gained in situations where collaboration was reacquired. His personal background provided him with good communication skills and linguistic competences. On the other hand, Oliver already had skills for running a company, that was much needed for Mauro to set up his start up. Thanks to this exchange, and the knowledge that has been handed down to him, Mauro will be able to minimise his mistakes when running his own company. He has more informations and skills to start his own business and will manage to identify potential risk on time and to know how to react on them. Mauro learned that, as an owner of a small business, you must learn how to carry out all the tasks which are usually done by your employees. It is the best way to achieve the maximum of efficiency.
˝This exchange has been very prolific for me. The knowledge and experience that I gained is something that I will carry forever.˝, Mauro said.
„Mauro as a young entrepreneur is a very honest and hard working individual, wants to learn and has many good inputs himself. The relationship is symbiotic. He integrated well with other staff members and has earned their respect, he also takes his duties seriously and can be depended on to complete them.”, Oliver said.
