What kind of business can you build on the love of fishing? How to connect all family members to the embodiment of their dream of creating a toy production? Will there be an auto cafe in the resort Narač village? These questions were answered by the participants of the fourth Startup Weekend in Kamarova, which was held on May 11, 2018.
At the event, business ideas were presented by residents of Miadziel, Astraviec, Smarhoń and Pastavy districts, who were trained at the School of Rural Business in Kamarova from January to April 2018. A strict jury of representatives of local authorities, businessmen, Belarusian and foreign public organizations determined which initiatives will receive financial support in the amount of 2 to 10 thousand euros from the project of the European Union.
Above all, the jury evaluated the initiative of Ilya Agarkau to recycle the waste from the poultry farms into live fly larvae (dowry) and zoohumus. The entrepreneur plans to take waste from the enterprises on his own transport and feed them a special kind of flies, which will allow him to help enterprises with waste disposal and provide pet stores, fishermen and farmers with a wry pelt. The production will be located in the Panara village, 14 km from Smarhoń. If the entrepreneur is able to realize all his plans, then in the future there will be production of fish and crayfish.
Private initiative of Dzmitryj Ivashanka for the manufacture of children's educational toys did not leave indifferent among them all participants of the event. Dzmitryj has long been engaged in carpentry and manufactures custom furniture in his own workshop. The idea to start a new direction was born for good, being a dad of three children, he tries to give them only the most environmentally safe and interesting toys. His sons he jokingly calls the "quality control department", and her husband helps with the design of future products. Wooden toys from the brand "Papa Dima" will be available for people with different incomes: the basic set will cost 15 rubles, and the more advanced equipment will be 25-30 rubles.
The Marozau family represented their business plan for raising cattle together. Pavel and Sniazhana have been engaged in livestock breeding for many years. Sniazhana even managed to unlearn the first issue of the School of Rural Business and present a business plan for opening a cheese factory, but then she did not become a winner of the Startup Weekend. This time, the husband developed the business plan and he is involved in the cultivation of meat bulls for sale. The plans of entrepreneurs to buy very young animals weighing about 100 kg and raise them to 600 kg, after which they sell them to wholesale buyers.
Yuryj Abramovich from the Miadziel district convinced the jury that the Narač village lacks an autocafe with delicious pancakes for local residents and tourists. The last according to the entrepreneur, in the village for a year there are about 60 000 thousand, and places of public catering can be counted on the fingers. To realize their business ideas, the entrepreneur lacks only a special caravan, which he plans to buy for the money of the project.
The jury supported the idea of Anatolij Kasten' from Pastavy district to create a shoe repair workshop with an orthopedic bias. The entrepreneur has long been repairing shoes and modernizing it in case of special needs of customers, and with the help of financial support the project will be able to improve and expand the quality of the services provided. The initiative was highly appreciated by the jury due to the fact that it helps to reduce the formation of new waste.
Next Startup Weekend will be held in July and all business people who want to open their business from 4 districts can present their business plans, even if they did not attend the School of Rural Business in Kamarova.
Reference:
The School of Rural Business in Kamarova works within the framework of the project "Development of Rural Localities in the Republic of Belarus: Boosting Rural Entrepreneurship in Belarus and Launching a Rural Business Incubator in Kamarova". The project is funded by the European Union and co-financed by the US Embassy in Minsk, its budget is 588 thousand euros, where the EU contribution is 556.5 thousand euros. The project is being implemented by the IPO "Ecopartnership" (Minsk) and the NGO "Women for the revival of the Narač region"(Kamarova). More information on ecopartnerstvo.by.
