New Entrepreneur (NE)
Name & surname: Chiara Cogliati
Country: Italy
Age: 35 years
Sector of activity: Digital marketing & education
Have you already started your business? No.
Name of business: 2 is better than 2
Host Entrepreneur (HE)
Name & surname: Jonathan Pochini
Country: Spain
Sector of activity: Education
Experience in running a business (in years): 5
Name of business/website: Lezioni di Inglese / https://www.lezionidinglese.net/
Period of exchange: 26/10/2020 – 26/01/2021
Duration of exchange: 3 months
Which improvements did Jonathan Pochini make to his business thanks to his collaboration with Chiara Cogliati and her experience in marketing?
Jonathan has been a freelancer since 2009. After working in Australia, he chose the Canaries as his base in 2014. He worked as SEO consultant and he’s currently working on an English course website. He discovered the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme 2 years ago and decided to participate because he is always trying to improve himself both personally and professionally, sharing in exchange his experience to help other people willing to develop their personal projects. By hosting Chiara, he’s participating for the third time in the EYE programme.
Chiara has a freelancer since 2019. After working in digital marketing roles as an employee from 2009 to 2019, she decided to begin an independent consultancy activity in Digital Strategy. She discovered the EYE programme in a Facebook group and decided to enroll because she wanted to expand her work activity in offering online courses. She was willing to learn everything about managing a business, especially from the project management point of view, offering in exchange her marketing experience.
Chiara helped Jonathan create a marketing and advertising strategy for his website, while Jonathan tutored her from the project management and financial point of view. More precisely, they worked together on activities such as choosing the right channels to advertise on and developing a promotional plan, a lead generation strategy, an email sales funnel, and a communication plan on social networks. During this process, Jonathan could show Chiara specific SEO techniques and his experience from a more financial and commercially oriented point of view, such as pricing definition, ROI calculation, brand value proposition and development, together with the technical aspects of starting an online-based business. Chiara showed Jonathan how to develop a complete digital marketing strategy and how to use online advertising tools such as Facebook Business Manager and Google Ads.
Chiara has learnt about the entire process of launching an online-based business thanks to the insights received about every important phase of a start-up, like the validation of the idea and the day by day operational and financial aspects. She also developed her SEO skills, thanks to the techniques learnt from Jonathan.
Jonathan has developed a strategic marketing action plan, improved his technical skills in the digital advertising field and set guidelines for future work, along with a budget forecast. He has also acquired Growth Hacking skills that will help him improve his product based on real customers’ needs.
The location of the exchange, the Soppa de Azul coworking, was a good place for both entrepreneurs to develop a network with other freelance professionals from all over the EU who can provide their services for Chiara and Jonathan, if needed in the future. The same happened for the network developed with other Italian freelancers and entrepreneurs based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Concluding Remarks
Chiara Cogliati (NE): “This experience has been very enriching professionally and personally. I could learn practical things that will allow me to open my business and I worked in a stimulating environment. Living in Las Palmas offered me a vision of a different lifestyle and I got to know a culture that I really like.”
Jonathan Pochini (HE): “I now have a better understanding of how Paid Advertising works and I also gained useful insights for the marketing of my project. On top of that, I found it quite rewarding sharing my network of professional connections with the NE for the benefit of her education and professional growth.”