New Entrepreneur (NE)
Name & surname: Vesselina Runkwitz
Country: Germany
Age: 39
Sector of activity: Self-employed video producer and online marketer
Have you already started your business? yes
Host Entrepreneur (HE)
Name & surname: Mathias Haas
Country: Austria
Sector of activity: Social Media Agency
Experience in running a business: 9
Name of business/website: SuperSocial / www.supersocial.at
Period of Relationship: 25/06/2019 – 25/10/2019
Duration of Relationship: 4 months
How could Mathias and Vesselina support each other in their field of work of social media?
Mathias is a passionate Erasmus Entrepreneur. His credo is: one Europe – Economic, demographic, political, social. He participated in the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Program as a young entrepreneur to grow his own business over Austria’s borders and he learned from different market situations. Then he founded his company SuperSocial and became a host entrepreneur who wants to share his knowledge – he has already hosted five young entrepreneurs!
The last business exchange was with Vesselina from Germany. She thought that the exchange with experts in the field she founded her agency in would be extremely valuable for her business – and therefore she applied for the program. Her intention was to share her skills in marketing, social media, video production and event organization and to contribute to the successful project accomplishment of the company she will be working for. In June 2019 they started their business exchange.
Vesselina took part in all internal meetings as well as with clients and also participated in the Digital Storytelling and the social media. She did research on Social Media related topics, which definitely had a positive impact on Mathias’ business: thanks to Vesselina’s work he has had great research results. She created several videos for his projects as well as for clients. Mathias was able to gain new insights into video producing and phonography. Furthermore, he established a partnership with the German market. At the same time, Mathias shared his knowledge on managing a business as well as preparing a business plan.
He describes the exchange as follows: “most of our objectives were fulfilled. I would say more than we expected.” And what was challenging about the exchange: “It’s hard to plan everything ahead in detail as the social media and agency world is fast paced and challenges appear quickly. All in all, there was a lot of knowledge transfer and significant win-win experiences.”
During Vesselina’s last month with SuperSocial she had the chance to put her digital skills into even more practice by supporting the SuperSocial team during the LED Professional Lighting Conference in Bregenz. As part of the organizer’s social media team, Vesselina and Mathias worked together on providing and managing the live postings on the social media wall of the event using Canva, Twitter, Facebook, Fortunately. Mathias and Vesselina will definitely continue working together on social media, videos and perhaps on some non-profit programs.
Concluding remarks
Mathias Haas (HE): “Erasmus and going abroad is one of the most valuable things to experience life and work in another country, not just for the own business but also for yourself. The European Union has set an extraordinary example with the Erasmus program not only for students but also for entrepreneurs.”