About me and my company Entrepreneurial skills & character Education for business

1. Overview: • About me and my company • Entrepreneurial skills & character • Education for business • How to push young businesses forward • Problems I encountered at start-up for CEDEFOP Nov. 2010

2. 1. About me and my company • Cosmin Malureanu – age 29 • Second business – 100% owned • First business at age of 22, 25% owned – initiator – sold • 2 years stocks market trader living & passion • Economy & IT studies • Like seawater diving • Ascendia Design – started in 2007 • Outsourcing eLearning materials – simulations, applications, educational games, interactive 3d • 17 employees, 500k approx. turnover for 2010 • First own branded product – to be launched – EduTeca – The Seasons - 8CD eLearning series for kindergarten pupils www.ascendia.ro cosmin.malureanu@ascendia.ro

3. 2. Entrepreneurial skills & character • Self-confidence, self-control • Leadership – ready to take action • Communicative – socialy connected • Solution oriented as opposed to problem oriented • Free thinker – think out of the box – be creative • Risk-taker • Visionary • Long life learner and especially able to learn from mistakes Not all people will become entrepreneurs, but all can learn to be more entrepreneurial in the way they work, regardless of what they do. www.ascendia.ro cosmin.malureanu@ascendia.ro

4. 3. Education for business • General economic studies – able to understand any business model and how economy works in general • Economic applied studies – hands-on approach – see and understand that theory is good to know but practice is good to do • Management studies – must manage time, money, team and material resources • Cross-disciplinary studies – focus on math, statistics, informatics • Communication studies - the most important bridge in any aspect of life, though in business too The most important aspect when teaching business related subjects is to bring reality into the classroom! www.ascendia.ro cosmin.malureanu@ascendia.ro

5. 4. How to push young businesses forward Guides for young people: • Get exposed to new cultures&ways of life. Learn to think outside the box. • Learn other languages, travell and live in another country for a period if possible (studies?) • Take your life into your own hands • Listen to other's oppinions and advice (family, friends), but take your own decisions! • Get a job first and learn to work,not to simulate working • Get involved in competitions, whatever the field of activity. For a business should be rather economy related (stock market, management, virtual companies, etc.) • Search the programs of NGOs like Junior Achievement www.ascendia.ro cosmin.malureanu@ascendia.ro

6. 4. How to push young businesses forward Policy Makers: • Easy capital access – business angels/loans • University incentives or prices for young achievers • EU/National incentives for promising businesses owned by young people – tax reduction • Easy access to consultancy www.ascendia.ro cosmin.malureanu@ascendia.ro

7. 5. Problems I encountered at start-up First thing - you need an accountant from day 1 You got a project, you need a lawyer when making papers What I need from my programmers is not learned in any school Software is expensive – lack of leasing/rates option Money flux – must always be prepared to sustain the business, even if is profitable (salarys, VAT…). Never know for sure when money will come. Being young is often wrongly seen as equivalent to unprofessional www.ascendia.ro cosmin.malureanu@ascendia.ro

8. Be inspired! www.ascendia.ro cosmin.malureanu@ascendia.ro