New Entrepreneur (NE):
Name & surname: Fabio Strazzeri
Country: Italy
Age: 29
Sector of activity: online training
Did you already start your business? no
Host Entrepreneur (HE):
Name & surname: Stefano de Carlo
Country: Spain
Sector of activity: business automation
Experience in running a business (in years): 22
Name of business/website: AUTOMAIKING, www.automatiking.com
Period of exchange: 29/04/2021 – 30/07/2021 & 03/09/2021 – 26/11/2021
Duration of exchange: 6 months
How did Fabio manage to move on from an unrealistic business idea to something new?
My name is Fabio, I am 29 years old and I am a boy from Rimini, a wonderful Italian tourist resort. The path that led me to want to create my own business is not very linear and I decided to tell it, hoping that someone can see themselves in my words and maybe decide to participate in the Erasmus program for Young Entrepreneurs.
Since my adolescence I have never had too clear ideas about my future and what my position in the world of work was: I attended two different courses of study, the first years in a scientific high school and then turned to artistic subjects from which I felt more attracted. Once I finished my studies, I still didn’t understand what I was really good at, I think this is quite common. So, not knowing whether to enroll in a university course or to start working, I made the simplest decision for me: my parents have a small business in the restaurant business and I started working alongside them. Spending years in the business, however, I realized again that this was not the best way for me and I began to feel a sense of dissatisfaction again. Paradoxically, however, this sense of dissatisfaction was also the element that more than any other brought me closer to the path I have been undertaking in recent years: despite the fact that I did not like working in the restaurant, I began to be fascinated by all the purely entrepreneurial and communication management part of the local, which my parents were not particularly accustomed to, given their lack of knowledge of social networks. Soon I left the place to undertake a course of study in marketing and once finished I began to have my first work experiences, following the communication of various activities. Until the pandemic arrived. Staying indoors for months and months was really hard (I think it was like that for everyone) and I began to feel the same sense of dissatisfaction again that I had already accused previously. In fact, working as an employee required that I had to manage my time and my activities according to the choices of my employer at the time and in such a marked routine I began to have the desire to gain new experiences and try to start my own business. It was at that moment that I discovered the EYE Program, about which a dear friend told me, and that I met my host entrepreneur, Stefano. I already knew his company, AutomatiKing, since it also has a YouTube channel for disclosure on Business automations and I didn’t really miss any of the videos that came out, among the best in the Italian panorama. So I applied as NE for Stefano and I had a first interview with him, but he gave me bad news …
“I really liked your application and you would really be the ideal candidate, if it weren’t for the fact that there is no technical time to make the exchange … registration on the EYE program platform may take some time and may even pass before it is accepted of the months … “
Well, do you know what I did? I worked like crazy all day to draw up all the documentation that was requested and I called all the IOs on the platform to find one that had the necessary funds to start the exchange, until I found it.
Within a month I packed my bags and left for Las Palmas, in Gran Canaria (it could have been worse, right?). The work done during the 6-month exchange was absolutely stimulating and formative, both from a human and professional point of view, changing me from every point of view. Of course, if I said it was easy I would be lying. It wasn’t.
I really went through a thousand difficulties: my idea of business with which I introduced myself was nothing exceptional and Stefano (whom I thank) literally demolished it for me. Basically I started with the desire to create a business and after a few days I no longer had a business to create. In addition to this, I had never lived abroad, and clearly I had various difficulties in settling in a place where a language I did not know is spoken. And finally, as if that were not enough, I also got sick with COVID, not the best for a truly hypochondriac person like myself.
Ok, this was the “dramatic” part that was needed to create a bit of suspense, and if you have come this far you may be wondering …
“And now?”
Well, now that I have completed my Erasmus I have to say that I am really happy and grateful for this experience. With Stefano’s expert guidance I was able to understand what was the right direction for me and my talents and strengths, so that I could channel them into a new business and we decided to continue collaborating together, as we have always found ourselves very in line on projects carried out together.
So I gave birth to “Riempilo!”, my service to help local businesses find new customers every day, thanks to my marketing services. Now that I have finished my Erasmus I will “just” have to do the hardest part, which is to find my first clients. I am really excited about what will happen in the next few weeks and to start this new adventure. In conclusion I wish good luck to all NEs who will take part in this program, stay hungry, stay foolish!