Host Entrepreneur’s participation
+++ Your benefits: new ideas, new markets, new knowledge +++
You can participate in the programme, when:
- You see the potential of future business collaboration and/or to internationalise
your business through cooperation with a New Entrepreneur from one of the participating countries - You are the owner-manager of a small or medium enterprise or a person directly involved in entrepreneurship at SME board level
- You have been running a company for more than 3 years
- You are willing to share your knowledge and experience with a New Entrepreneur and you are available to act as a mentor (an average of minimum 5 hours a week dedicated to NEs business development)
- You want to have a business relationship with a New entrepreneur (and not with an intern)
What´s the difference?
The EYE programme promotes business relationships between new (NE) and experienced host entrepreneurs (HE). It is not an internship programme and there are no employment relationships foreseen – both entrepreneurs shall meet on the same eye level.
The NE receives an EU grant as a compensation of the extra costs (travel, accommodation, subsistence) resulting from the stay abroad. If you plan to support your NE additionally this is welcome, but please check first the national regulations (or contact your local contact point) so that you do not turn the business visit unintentionally into an employment relationship (regulated by minimum wage and other rules).
Application
- You identify and contact your intermediary organisation (IO) in your country and consult them for any questions (see our IOs of the OPEN-EYE network here)
- You can consult the helpful registration guideline for the application
- Privacy settings: You can choose in your profile, if you want to publish your contact details in the database, only part of them, or only the contact details of your IO
Find your New Entrepreneur
- When your application is confirmed by your support organisation (IO) you can start to build a relationship with a New Entrepreneur
- How to find them?
- You can make use of the programme’s database (called IT-Tool) and propose a “match” to a potential candidate, who is accepted in the programme, too
- Your IO offers to guide you during the searching and matching process. Should there be an interested New Entrepreneur (NE), your IO will forward the proposal to you and reply to the counterpart your final decision.
- Search for a NE outside of the IT tool (e.g. make use of contacts through fairs, conferences, social networks, etc.) and convince him/her to register in the programme (your IO can support you)
- Not a prior existing business relationship?
Please be aware: If you are in contact with potential New Entrepreneurs (especially outside the EYE database) make sure that you do not start working or doing business with your contact before your relationship is established officially in the programme. - Not an employment relationship? Mind you that the EYE programme promotes business relationships between new (NE) and experienced entrepreneurs (HE). It is not an internship programme and there are no employment relationships foreseen, i.e. the programme expects entrepreneurs meeting on the same eye level. The NE receives an EU grant as a compensation of the extra costs (travel, accommodation, subsistence) resulting from the stay abroad. If you plan to support your NE additionally this is welcome, but please check first the national regulations (or contact your local contact point) so that you do not turn the business visit unintentionally into an employment relationship (regulated by minimum wage and other rules).
- Prior existing (business) relationships are not funded. Please be aware that it is not allowed to have a prior business relationship or professional cooperation before your relationship isn´t accepted in the IT-Tool. Prior existing business relationships are not supported hence not funded by the Erasmus for Young entrepreneurs programme.
Workplan (Commitment)
After confirmation of your business relationship you prepare a common work plan (commitment) together with the New Entrepreneur.
The commitment has two objectives:
- It allows you to manage expectations from both new and host entrepreneurs; we strongly recommend to discuss this in a skype or telephone meeting
- It allows intermediary organisations (IOs) and the European Commission to check, if the stay complies to the programme requirements, i.e. the commitment will be checked and approved from different parties
The workplan covers the following aspects, as described in our
template for the workplan (commitment)
Example questions to prepare skype meetings with the New entrepreneur (NE):
- Which expectations does the NE have towards the relationship? (so that they can be addressed in the commitment)
- What can the NE contribute to your business?
- How can you mentor the NE? (you should be ready to invest an average of minimum 5 hours a week dedicated to NEs business development)
- How to balance the NE’s work on the own business plan and the contribution to your business?
- What are your own expectations?
Start of your relationship
- Your IO will send you a letter of consent for signature, which informs you of all “rights and obligations” during the exchange.
- You confirm to your IO the actual starting and ending dates of the stay (if changed to original plans) and planned dates of interruptions of the stay (if any)
- Stay in contact with your IO in case of any problem or doubt
After your relationship
- You complete the feedback report in the database (IT-Tool), which is mainly a questionnaire (please complete the report in one go, as the database has no cache memory and the session ends after a short period without further notice, so that your data might get lost). To save time: please enter your text feedback in another document first, then copy / paste it into the official report form and finally submit it directly.
- You complete an impact questionnaire about your relationship at the end of the exchange and after one year.
- You want to have a further relationship with another New Entrepreneur? Get in contact with your IO about this!
- If you feel the exchange is a success use the channels of the EYE programme to promote your success story (contact your IO for more details)