On April 19, the largest conference for small and medium-sized businesses took place in the Pochaina event hall.
The event, which was designed to provide Ukrainian entrepreneurs with insights and practical advice, brought together several hundred guests, more than 50 speakers, and dozens of businesses that had the opportunity to present themselves in the craft fair area, on the networking stage, and among the projects that pitched to potential investors and partners.
The main stage of the Mind Entrepreneur Summit featured panel discussions and expert guests. The speakers discussed the following topics:
- Financing for business
International programs of preferential lending and grants are successfully operating in Ukraine. To get them, you just need to contact a bank that cooperates with foreign partners and get financing. It is provided on favorable terms and takes into account all the "pains" of entrepreneurs working during the war. In particular, within the framework of cooperation with the USAID Business Resilience Investment Project, OTP Bank supports micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine in four main areas: relocated businesses, businesses affected by hostilities, agribusiness, women in business
- Return of veterans
The key is to return veterans to their communities and support their families. Having experience with veterans and the military, who are now thousands in communities, not all veterans are ready to return as employees. That is why loan and grant programs specifically for defenders are in demand today
- Export industries of Ukraine
As of now, Ukrainian IT accounts for about 5% of Ukrainian GDP and is the number two export industry in Ukraine: we generate 40% of service exports and bring a lot of foreign exchange earnings to Ukraine. We provide stability
- Transition to Ukrainian software
Not every accountant is professional enough to switch from one software product to another. We see that most accountants are tied to the tool, not the process
- And just about Russian software in Ukraine
We urge you to abandon Russian software. We understand that there are analogues on the market, there are opportunities for transition, and the main thing is that the companies present in the hall should be the conductors of this information
- And also about entering foreign markets
There are those countries that are no longer developing, such as European countries: they are already developed, and there is a certain stagnation. Developing countries: Saudi Arabia and the UAE. If we compare them, Saudi Arabia is a more attractive market
The practical stage, as its name suggests, was devoted to everyday but urgent matters.
Pavlo Huzyr, Head of Alternative Sales Channels at OTP Bank, spoke about raising funds for agribusiness. According to him, in 2023, the Bank financed the sowing campaign for UAH 1.1 billion, and this year it provided new loans to SMEs in the agricultural sector for UAH 600 million. According to him, the Bank is the market leader in working with financial agricultural receipts, and the basis for this success is the AgroFabrika scoring project, which simplifies access to bank loans for agricultural producers and offers many partnership programs with leading manufacturers of seeds, fertilizers, and plant protection products.
His colleague from OTP Bank, Oleksandr Rasakhatsky, Head of Customer Experience Management, shared his experience with customer experience and customer values, which are primarily taken into account when developing and supporting all banking products and services, regardless of the type of client - individual, entrepreneur, large corporate client, etc.
"Do regular surveys after a customer purchases something, connects a service, installs an app, etc. It's like regular blood tests to check the state of the body. Checkups are also important - voluminous studies, in particular on the level of NPS - the customer support index. If you need to solve a business problem, visualize the customer experience, for example, create a customer journey map - step-by-step pictures of the path your client goes through," advised Oleksandr.
Lyudmyla Slobodianyk, Chief Compliance Officer, Director of the Compliance Department of Raiffeisen Bank, spoke about the procedure for opening accounts for doing business abroad.
"Given that banking legislation in Ukraine is harmonized with the requirements of EU directives and international organizations, the process of opening accounts for business abroad will not be new. European banks require their clients to transparently disclose their ownership structure, provide information about the real owners, communicate the purpose and nature of their activities, and provide confirmation of these facts. This may include concluded contracts, availability of personnel, production facilities, premises, experience of managers in a particular business area, etc. The procedure for opening accounts in EU banks involves an interview with company management or owners, which may differ depending on the country and the internal policies of a particular bank, and, based on its results, a request for additional information, so businesses need to be prepared for this," Lyudmyla Slobodyanyk shared her experience.
According to her, Raif provides consultations for its clients planning to enter international markets, including opening accounts with RBI Group banks.
Oksana Skorobrekha, Head of B2B at OLX Ukraine, spoke about commercial business development - or rather, about running it with the help of online marketplaces. Her in-depth talk about this area is intended to increase the number of businesses that, despite the difficult B2B segment, want to attract new users online.
Nataliia Katerynets, a leading business analyst at Self-ERP, used the example of her own company to show how the implementation of the ERP system helps to plan resource allocation and analyze costs and performance. This example and the experience of companies where Self-ERP has already implemented this system confirms that the cost of implementation is more than paid off by the ERP system's ability to perform:
- show the management the bottlenecks;
- help plan and control the allocation of resources and costs
- to provide a tool for dealing with almost all of today's challenges by enhancing business automation.
She spoke about corporate information systems for enterprise resource planning - ERP systems. In her opinion, this tool, which is expensive and difficult to implement, can be the answer to almost all the challenges faced by entrepreneurs by "strengthening their business with automation.
Volodymyr Panchenko, Head of the National Projects Department of the MHP-Hromada Charitable Foundation, which developed and is developing the Do Your Own business idea competition, shared his experience in implementing charitable and grant projects. The competition has become quite a popular project and is currently in high demand from small businesses.
"Of all the businesses we have supported, about 72% continue to operate. This applies to the businesses we supported in 2020-21. That is, despite the pandemic and full-scale war, small businesses in communities demonstrate resilience," he emphasized.
About the organizer
Mind is a business publication. We are engaged in explanatory journalism and business and investment analytics. And now we are becoming a platform for business where our readers meet the most influential and progressive businessmen in Ukraine.
Mind has 100,000 daily readers and 4 million page views per month. We achieve our business goals through useful, interesting and high-quality content.
Even in the current information chaos, we work according to the standards of professional journalism. Our mission is not to shock, but to explain, to give the reader the opportunity to make a conscious choice in various areas of life.
In seven years, we have conducted more than 100 investigations and studies and written more than 15,000 stories.
So we think we know something about how the business lives and in what direction it is moving.
We set ourselves three tasks:
- The first is to share a strategic vision of the current state of the Ukrainian economy and its prospects, taking into account all contexts;
- The second is to provide practical value
- The third is to create a platform for communication.
Thanks to Mind Entrepreneur Summit partners
General partner: OTP Bank
OTP Bank is one of the largest Ukrainian banks with foreign capital, a recognized leader in the country's financial sector. It provides a full range of banking services to corporate and private clients.
Official partner: MHP-Hromada
MHP-Hromada is an all-Ukrainian charitable foundation that has been operating since 2015. Its main mission is to make communities a place where people want to live.
Main information partner: OLX
OLX is the best choice for e-commerce in Ukraine, with 22 million users.
Partners:
- IT Ukraine Association
- Kormotech Company
- Netpeak digital agency group
- IDS Ukraine
- Kyiv BCC is a sweet partner
- Drivovo - the first subscription service for new cars in Ukraine
- Trustee Plus - a crypto wallet with a built-in payment card
- Book partner - Nash Format
Main information partners:
EBA, International business community Board, Vchasno, Start global, 4lex, Business radio group, Interfax-Ukraine - main news partner.
Media partners: Ukrainian National News, Evening Kyiv, TyKyiv, robota.ua, Business Capital, Founder.ua, Marketer, Root-Nation.com, Ukrainian Week, All-Ukrainian Agrarian Journal Agro Elita, UN Global Compact in Ukraine, Kommersant Ukrainian, Ukrainian Network of Integrity and Compliance (UNIC), UkraineInvest.
Host partner: Pochayna Event Hall