New Entrepreneur (NE)
Name & surname: Laura Reilly
Country: Ireland
Sector of activity: Education and training services, Graphic Design
Have you already started your business? Yes
Name of business/website: Creative Avenue / www.laurareilly.net
What is your business? Creative Avenue will provide evening and weekend courses and workshops for individuals looking to learn about Visual Communication. Our courses will cover a broad spectrum of areas including Graphic Design, Photography, Web Design, Animation, and Illustration.
Host Entrepreneur (HE)
Name & surname: Thomas Heinrich
Country: Germany
Sector of activity: Social economy / responsible entrepreneurship
Experience in running a business: 4 years
Name of business/website: Photocircle / www.photocircle.net
What is your business? Photocircle sells art prints and donates part of the proceeds to development projects in the regions of the world where the pictures are from.
Period of Relationship: 08/05/2019 – 01/11/2019
Duration of Relationship: 6 months
How did Thomas’s small business get support with the implementation of new projects involving graphic design?
Thomas Heinrich is the founder and CEO of Photocircle, a Berlin-based business in the sector of social economy and responsible entrepreneurship. Photocircle sells art prints and donates part of the proceeds to development projects in the regions of the world where the pictures are from. Thomas wanted to participate in the “Erasmus for young entrepreneurs” programme in order to establish new relationships with other entrepreneurs, exchange knowledge and skills with them and ultimately further develop his small business and its outreach internationally.
For six months, he collaborated with young entrepreneur Laura Reilly from Ireland in an international business relationship.
Photocircle is a small social business with just a few staff members. Given its size, it sometimes lacks the resources and specialised personnel for the implementation of new projects in certain areas. Especially in the field of graphic design, Thomas and his colleagues are short on resources and staff. New entrepreneur Laura, being an experienced graphic designer, was able to add her special expertise, knowledge and skills to the company in this area. Thanks to her support, new projects, like the design of a calendar and the creation of new printing materials, were realised. She further improved the company’s website and worked on visuals for its social media channels, which led to a big impact on Photocircle’s outreach. Besides that, she also attracted new customers and established new international business cooperations with artists, leading to a broader reach of the company worldwide.
Thomas values Laura’s impact on the business as very high. Her support as a full member of the Photocircle team led to the improvement of the company’s materials for external communication as well as the acquisition of new international cooperations, therefore fulfilling the objectives that were set prior to the relationship. The pleasant exchange of knowledge and skills among the two entrepreneurs was beneficial for both sides and will lead to further cooperations, as they are currently working on future projects together.