Startups and software producers of the world, unite! Your country and the world needs your creativity, your agility and drive.
Maybe there are no simple answers to these particular brain-teasers, but there is one thing of which we are certain: if you are running a small or mid-sized enterprise, and if you are innovating, creating value and jobs, then you are making your contribution to bringing your country (and, by extension, our world’s economy) back to prosperity.
What’s more, if you are working in the knowledge-based economy, if you are harnessing the creative potential of your people, if your business model is based on high quality and high value-add, and if you are developing new technologies with almost unfathomable potential in the new digital society, you are doing something very important that helps secure a better future for all of us.
Everybody would like to be the new Google or Facebook, but let’s face it, the chances are quite high that’s not going to happen. But it really doesn’t matter. Because you can be absolutely tiny, but if you’re agile, flexible, responsive to customer needs and you know your job inside out, you can make a very respectable living. And it looks very much like this is the future of work – SMEs, micro-businesses, one-man bands and freelancers. Taken together, all of these will be creating the bulk of the world’s income in the years to come.
It’s not easy to start a business, and it’s definitely not easy to run one. It takes immense courage and hours and hours of hard, hard work. We know that all too well. We also know it can be incredibly positive and rewarding.
In Croatia, where UX Passion is based, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) make up 99.5% of businesses. They produce 50% of the country’s income, and employ more than 64% of the workforce. Unfortunately, the business climate over the past decades has been extremely unfavourable for small enterprises. There has been very little in the way of support for those considering the risky move of starting up a business – in particular, moral support and practical advice are almost non-existent.
That’s why we firmly believe in offering our support to other entrepreneurs considering a new venture. So we were delighted when the Croatian Independent Software Exporters association invited us to take part in their round table at the Microsoft conference “Startups and Technology – Partnership for the Future of Croatia”.
On 30 May at 1:40 pm at the Zagreb Hypo Conference Centre, our CEO Vibor Cipan will feature UX Passion along with other dynamic Croatian startups who are also members of the Croatian Independent Software Exporters association.
By sharing our experiences with an audience comprised of over 200 IT professionals, we hope we’ll help demonstrate that it is possible to start up and run a successful private business in Croatia, and that working with clients from all over the planet is within everyone’s grasp these days. We’ll be looking forward to meeting other entrepreneurs, bright sparks, and perhaps even the occasional dynamic government official who’d like to help make things better for all of us.
Microsoft’s BizSpark programme provides entrepreneurs with advice, software and other tools in the areas of technology and management. In Croatia, Microsoft also has two Innovation Centres in the cities of Split and Varaždin which act as incubators for local talent and hubs for regional development. We’ve enjoyed some highly invigorating projects with Microsoft’s programmes in the past, so we’re very much looking forward to today’s experience.