During the first week with my host I learned about the organizational structure of his company and everything concerning his daily activities. I accompanied the entrepreneur to meet his customers, giving me the chance to see how he propose his services as he present his company as the best in the industry. After that, me and my host discussed together the motives behind that specific strategy.
In the second week I learned about the tasks of the human resources department of the company and also I met all its workers. It has been interesting to me because employees are all foreigners and in this way I got to know more cultures. I saw which criteria are used to select the staff and I familiarized with the English law on recruitment (the NIN and the bank account required). In my opinion this is one of the reasons why England has little tax evasion (the state tax workers directly to the bank account and everything follows through, the NIN). I also studied the British banking system, and I realized that any European citizen with good ideas can obtain funding in this country.
On the third week I studied with my host the British system for opening a company and I realized that ,compared to the Italian and Bulgarian system, the British one is much simpler and faster. My host and I discussed the merits and limitations concerning the necessary steps to start a new business in thease three nations. Bulgarian taxation is the lowest but the funding is very difficult to get.
During the fourth week I went out, together with the entrepreneur, to find new customers, learning how to select them, contact them and make appointments. Visiting the fifth area of London I saw many commercial activities of both EU and non-EU foreigners and therefore along with the contractor we developed a business idea aimed at importing typical Bulgarian and Italian food products. This idea came from noting the lack of shops dealing with these products in the territory of the fifth zone, in spite of demand being quite high (especially cheese and Italian coffee are in very high demand).
From my previous work experience I know that the Italian building materials are of high quality and low cost compared to british ones. My host really enjoyed this idea, so right now I’m coming in contact with Italian companies. I hope to be able soon to sign a contract of import from Italy to London. We are also studying the interest of British companies in opening a company in Bulgaria.
