Business is a multidisciplinary field. You have to master the area in which you do business, have knowledge in accounting, know the laws, know how to talk to people and be a good leader, you also have to be a great businessman and project manager and above all you have to have a clear vision. Last but not least, you have to manage stress and withstand the pressure. Doing business is not easy. And there is no need to play invincible and omniscient. On the contrary, from ours programs in the Innovation Center of the Ústí Region, which aim to support entrepreneurs, it turns out that the one who realizes this complexity and accepts the fact that he does not manage all aspects grows the most.

How can the Innovation Center help entrepreneurs grow their companies? Simply, through a comprehensive network of experienced people throughout the Czech Republic who offered their knowledge and skills to those who currently need them. Let's call them, for example, mentors. This is precisely the help of the Innovation Center of the Ústí Region, which mediates and pays for the first meetings between the entrepreneur and the mentor. Subsequently, it is up to the entrepreneur and the mentor if they want to continue working together. The entrepreneur already finances this phase himself. And this entire process is covered by the PLATINN program. A program that helps entrepreneurs overcome their limits and not hinder their business.

A hockey stick means growth

In the startup environment, the term "hockey stick" means steep growth (according to the shape of the growth graph). If there is no hockey stick, there is no startup. And it was precisely this "aha" moment that Michal Čížek, CEO of the startup GoodAccess, who has been using the PLATINN program for a long time, experienced firsthand.

"I have drawn the curve of our growth in the near future. When our mentor from PLATINN came, he took a pencil and drew a so-called hockey stick on the graph. That is, the exponential, which completely overshadowed our drawn curves and just said to me: Michal, if you want an investment, you have to be able to think big,” Michal Čížek recalls one of his first sessions with a mentor and adds: "For a long time we moved in the field for end customers and then partly in the market for companies. Now we focus mainly on services for companies. This requires a change in mindset, and yes, that's why we were looking for a person with experience in international trade in the PLATINN network." explains Michal. In the Platinn program, they first completed a free phase, currently they have moved to a paid one. Simply because it's worth it to them.

Even an experienced person needs advice

Did you know that the average startup is 42 years old and comes from a corporate background? What does such an experienced person even want to help with? You can manage huge budgets in your department in a large company, but that doesn't give you the experience of running your own company anyway. Tomáš Riese, CEO of VirginGrip, knows his stuff.

"I knew I had no business experience. Although I managed large international projects, I still saw gaps in myself. I thought that it would be a bigger mistake if I didn't try Platinn. My luck was that we sat down with my mentor Filip Kvapil. I take him as my "business psychoanalyst", to whom I confide and he gives me feedback from which I benefit in the business for months to come. In fact, I realize that without him the journey would have been even more difficult." Tomáš praises the cooperation with his mentor and comments that even the rapid growth of the company is often not a reason to smile: "We've been growing by 100 % every year for four years in a row. It probably sounds good, but at the same time it is a big pressure on the processes inside the company and the flow of money. Fortunately, I have a great team around me, to whom I can transfer operatives, and thus I can deal with the company's strategy."

When you find a hole in the market

That finding a hole in the market is the golden grail? He and such a golden grail have many questions that determine success. The non-profit organization Social Agency of the Ústí Region, headed by director Jaromír Lick, found such a hole in the market. And she was faced with a decision - to occupy the market and thus choose the path of quantity, or to go the path of quality, to deepen the relationship with current clients, but to miss part of the market?

"Our Platinn mentor helped us a lot during the meetings. It was thanks to him that we survived this difficult period, and also after these consultations, we decided that we wanted to go deeper in cooperation with companies, so we chose the path of quality, not quantity. Even so, after completing the Platinn program, we managed to increase sales by 20 %," Jaromír Licek evaluates experiences from Platinn.

However, the social agency benefited from pausing for a while. "We were afraid of the so-called startup overheating. And so we needed to stop, look around. We were clear that we wanted our service to be regionally focused. We just had to realize that this is also our competitive advantage, because at the place of our business we build strong ties with our partners, we know them best, and this significantly increases the quality of our service." explains the balance between predatory and healthy growth of Lips.

More about the PLATINN program

You know the most about your company. And that is why you need an equal partner who understands business issues, processes in the company, the market and the role of a manager, and who can also move you forward and look at your company from the outside. And such services are offered by the ICUK Platinn program. In short, the service is exactly for you when you need:

• An outside view of your company or a sub-aspect of your business (business, marketing, processes, finance...) and reduce your own "operational blindness".
• Discuss in depth, and at the same time completely confidentially, the "bottlenecks" and opportunities of your business (expansion into new markets, development, innovation, financing...)
• Consult with experts in the selected aspect (business, marketing, processes, finance...) and the business sector, or directly with executives/founders of successful companies.