Entrepreneurship is just having the courage of Just do it!
Surmounting business challenges
One becomes an entrepreneur by learning to become one through hard work and dedication. Veronica and Aurica started their enterprise «Plai magic" Ltd in November 2003. Company’s activity focuses on producing ceramic souvenirs, especially plates of different sizes.
Eleven years after graduation with a university degree in foreign languages the two ladies decided to join and start their own business. The start up capital was gained mostly from doing free lance translations. Business idea searching lasted for about 2 years. "We had so much energy and enthusiasm" they recall "Back then it was not uncommon to work until midnight in searching business ideas". They haven't had any economic background or previous business experience but still managed to do the unexpected: to seize the opportunity of starting a business.
"Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there's a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction. But be prepared for a lot of folks to wave you down and tell you you're headed the wrong way"- these are the words the two would be entrepreneurs beard in mind whole thinking about their future company.
Everything started from the Exhibition forum "Small business 2003" where they came to find more about the business world and challenges. Veronica and Aurica collected from almost all booths flyers, informational notes, announcements, programs, press releases etc. and in the evening at home while reading them their attention was attracted by the booklet offering business related training courses on a subsidized basis delivered within the Voucher program of USAID/BIZPRO project.
The booklet draw their attention by the interesting business topics proposed to people willing to start their own business.
Veronica and Aurica took the chance and went to the course "How to start you own business" followed by "Marketing and advertising" and "Techniques of effectives sales".
No one says that entrepreneurship is a ticket to sure-fire success: you can either win or lose. The mark of a true entrepreneur is having the courage to rise above failures and bravely go on! Leadership and excellence are qualities ingrained in Veronica and Aurica. At the training courses they were taught to be self confident and keep the faith.
"Our faith and acquired knowledge had often been the determining factor of going on. We started by searching in the Internet local pottery factories, but we didn't succeed. Our next step was to search on the neighboring markets-Ukraine, Russia and Romania. Ukrainian and Russian prices were too high so we turned to Romanian market and established contacts with a factory whose prices were convenient to us", Aurica says.
The other challenge they faced was to find a highly skilled painter/designer. "Designing turned to be one of my passions. If somebody will ask me what is my favorite part of the business I would tell-design. I didn't even realize that I could be good at it!" Veronica says.
The two business ladies enjoy working with their talented painter who was recommended to them by some of their friends and finally it is a pleasure for them to be involved in such an artistic process. Remembering and using the skills and information received during the training courses as well as the knowledge obtained from consulting lecturers they are always in search of commodity markets and continuously look for ways to improve their work.
"Entrepreneurship is not just about making money; it is about earning money while enjoying what you do".
Today "Plai magic" Ltd is a developing company that has created 3 working places and plans to extend in the future. The subjects depicted on the plates-souvenirs illustrate historical places and episodes that are of big interest to locals and tourists. The company has got the first big order and the custom oriented approach adopted by the entrepreneurs turned to be very efficient.
The plans for the future are very ambitious: more orders from corporative clients and a more aggressive advertising campaign. Ceramics decoration is different but for a higher quality you need good raw material and paints. To please our clients is our major focus, because souvenirs are for a lifetime and will remind you either of the people who gave it to you or of the place you've been to.
