To continue supporting new and potential entrepreneurs, the Nordea Business School “From Idea to Investor” is opening its new training season. For the seventh year now, over 50 authors of the most viable business ideas and most motivated new entrepreneurs will have an opportunity to obtain valuable knowledge for free, benefit from practical advice and share experience with leading industry experts and entrepreneurs. At the end of the training programme the most successful business ideas will be presented to potential investors. An application for the programme can be submitted until 28 October on www.nordea.lv/biznesaskola.
“Nordea Business School has proven itself and the support programme for new and potential entrepreneurs has been praised by the public. The philosophy of the programme “teaching a man to fish rather than giving him a fish” keeps proving itself. Every year we find that often more crucial than the financial aspects of starting a business for a new entrepreneur is to receive necessary support from people sharing the same ideas, to master the lacking abilities and skills, as well as to obtain valuable business contacts”, says Signe Lonerte, Head of the Nordea Business School and Nordea Bank’s Head of Communication in the Baltic States. “Over six years, over 3,700 business idea applications have been submitted for the programme, approximately 400 new entrepreneurs participated in training, and one third of them presented their business ideas to the public and successfully continues developing their business.”
Graduates of the Nordea Business School “From Idea to Investor” often admit that they have learnt to trust their strengths during the Nordea Business School and understood which steps are needed to implement their plan in practice. Jānis Linde, a graduate of the previous year’s Nordea Business School season and the author of HackMotion business idea, admits: “During the Nordea Business School, I made an important step — left my paid job to be able to fully devote myself to the development of my business idea. It seems that the Nordea Business School was the fastest period of growth and learning for the last 25 years. It is a great place for establishing new contacts, being among people sharing the same ideas, learning about funding possibilities, meeting investors and, of course, obtaining valuable knowledge.”
The Nordea Business School, in cooperation with the most prominent industry experts in Latvia, leading training and consulting companies and experienced businessmen, will offer new and potential entrepreneurs a free six-month training course covering a full business start-up package. The programme includes sharing knowledge and experience — from elaboration of a business plan, market research, team building principles and identification of sales channels, to cash flow planning, sales and export consultations, marketing and brand management advice, as well as a “rendezvous with an investor” at the end of the programme. During the programme each participant has the chance to benefit from additional mentoring and coaching consultations, as well as share experiences with the Nordea Business School’s Alumni community.
Any interested, new or potential entrepreneur with a viable idea and preferably previous experience in entrepreneurship and/or selected industry can apply for the programme until 28 October on www.nordea.lv/biznesaskola.
To date the Nordea Business School’s graduates include widely-recognised Latvian brands such as the coffee production company Andrito Kafijas Grauzdētava, children’s designer furniture KUKUU, designer dishware Vaidava Ceramics, special food storage packaging Bee In, clothing brand PAIYA, biking accessory Velo sock, decorative concrete designer products Zefīrs, Latvian-made breakfast cereals Musli Grace, a programming club for primary-schoolers Learn IT, designer sports clothing brand MUTA, multi-functional designer furniture DUSIS, the giant toy building blocks GIGI BLOKS and many others.
Nordea Business School Partners: The Latvian Business Angel Network, the Mentor Club of the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, the Līdere Business Support Association and entrepreneur Aiva Vīksna, coaching experts, the ZINIS knowledge and innovation society, personnel training companies Triviums, Apmācība and Fontes, Vadības Konsultācijas, the Latvian Packaging Association, Fristads Kansas Production LTD.,logistics specialist and brand leader Gludināmais koks’s Ilzе Baumane, intellectual property protection consulting company TriaRobit, entrepreneur and cost-benefit analysis expert Normunds Čiževskis and the company Bizpro, export consulting and market research company GatewayBaltic, accountancy service company NUMERI, recruitment company CV-Online Latvia, consulting company Demarsch, LID business information service, the Young Entrepreneurs Centre, finance company Capitalia, DDB creative advertising agency, logistics expert Uldis Piekuss and the Business Efficiency Association, the Latvian development financial institution Altum, and the franchising consultancy company Francity and management services and consultion company "MM Studija".