By Maia Hristozova | Project Leader
Dear friends,
Many of you have asked us what type of businesses are we helping, in which areas. Our response has always been - a large variety... In this newsletter I will present one of the businesses that you have helped start.
The family of Mery and Alex (these are not their real names) has two children - 14 and 15 years of age. They already have one business in selling handwritten rose flowers.. How surprising would be to give a real rose to your beloved with their name or "I love you" writing, ah? This business is the only one in Bulgaria, but since the demand is not high at the end of 2016 the family decided to start a second business. They have inherited an apartment, next to their own and they started thinking what to do with these two apartments next to each other. While they were pondering they heard about our training for people who have an entrepreneurial spirit. It was very difficult for them to travel to Razgrad, since the family is from Sofia and they had to travel 345 km (215 miles) to attend the training. But Mery had firmly made up her mind to make this sacrifice. So in April 2017 she attended our training and she had an opportunity to talk to our business consultants about her situation. She received guidance and after the training Mery and Alex decided to start an AirBnB business. The two apartments were old and in a very bad condition as you will see from the picture. Mery had to start a full remodeling project and for this she needed our financial help. With our assistance she wrote a business plan and received a loan from us. I would like to emphasize - without your support we wouldn't have been able to help her write the plan and we wouldn't have been able to give her a loan. Mery did a number of renovations and improvements on the apartments. The unpleasant surprise was the bureaucracy and the administrative part in legalizing the business, but eventually in December 2018, 9 months after the training, the business was launched. We are glad to show you pictures of the AirBnB. This transformation was only possible because of you, so THANK YOU very much on behalf of the whole family! Mery is extremely helpful to Janet Allard as well who runs an AirBnB in the USA and she provided multiple useful advises. We are glad to have access to people like you who help us not only financially but with wisdom and guidance as well.
Some of our supporters have developed a short promotion about our work, so please feel free to share it on your Facebooks. https://www.facebook.com/eradicate.poorness/videos/640691149462449/
Thank you!
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