T-Mobile Takeoffs supports small businesses. This year, the programme will also offer information about business opportunities.

• The share of small businesses in the economy of the Czech Republic is the fifth lowest in the EU
• T-Mobile Takeoffs has announced the seventh edition and will again offer help and free consultations to start-up businesses
• Together with the Samizdat team, this programme aimed at supporting small businesses will bring an interactive map of business opportunities

Prague, 30 January 2017 - According to the Czech Statistical Office, there were approximately 2.8 million business entities registered in the Czech Republic at the end of last year. Following the deduction of non-active entrepreneurs based on data from the Czech Social Security Administration, the data appear different: in reality, there are only slightly more than one million individuals and 300,000 companies actively conducting business in the Czech Republic. Eurostat’s data show that the share of small businesses with up to 50 employees in the Czech economy is below average. According to the latest available data, these businesses generated only 34% of the economy’s added value in 2013, which was the fifth worst result in the EU. Moreover, the number of businesses with up to four employees has been dropping.

“Small businesses are the backbone of every economy. They provide approximately one-half of jobs and play an important role in local communities. They also contribute to fostering social life in their communities and economic relations with other business entities in the region,” says Tomáš Ryšavý, Strategy Director at T-Mobile. The T-Mobile Takeoffs programme, the seventh edition of which is launched by the operator today, has therefore long supported start-up businesses.

Several thousand beginning entrepreneurs from different areas have taken part in the programme in the past six years. The roughly 350 regional and overall winners include successful owners of confectioneries, cafés, kindergartens and photo studios, as well as bakers, producers of cosmetics, clothes, shoes and accessories, and application and software developers. The programme offers free workshops, consultations and a competition to help small businesses get started. The winner of the national round of the competition can receive financial support, services and consultations worth approximately CZK 600,000. Applications for T-Mobile Takeoffs can be submitted by 19 March; all information is available at www.rozjezdy.cz.

Doing business in the regions

This year, T-Mobile Takeoffs in cooperation with Samizdat, a team of data journalists, will newly provide a view of economic development in the individual regions of the Czech Republic and an interactive map of business opportunities. “When determining in which regions entrepreneurs prosper, we took into account their population and deducted those businesses and self-employed individuals that are not active,” explains Petr Kočí of the Samizdat team.

For example, there is one active business entity per four inhabitants in Prague, while the business activity in the Ústí nad Labem region, which ranked last, is two and a half times lower. The average in the Czech Republic is roughly in the middle, i.e. 7.33 inhabitants per one economically active entity.

In cooperation with the Samizdat team, T-Mobile will prepare a detailed analysis of business activities in the regions and in communities on the basis of publicly available data. In addition to the number of business entities per capita, it will bring information on where selected fields of business are thriving and where different forms of business activities are least represented. Therefore, beginning entrepreneurs will be able to see where new opportunities may open up for them. The analysis will be published in the first quarter of this year and will include an interactive map that will be available online to anyone who is interested.

Region	Registered business entities	Active business entities	Number of inhabitants	Number of inhabitants per active business entity
Ústecký	173,878	81,375	822,850	10.11
Moravskoslezský	250,213	125,607	1,213,311	9.66
Olomoucký	139,097	70,244	634,720	9.04
Karlovarský	75,921	34 240	297,804	8.70
Pardubický	117,554	61,481	516,149	8.39
Vysočina	110,643	61,186	509,475	8.33
Plzeňský	143,478	71,022	576,635	8.12
Zlínský	140,175	72,470	584,676	8.07
Liberecký	116,006	54,639	439,639	8.05
Královéhradecký	136,566	72,380	551,421	7.62
Jihočeský	162,106	84,133	637,834	7.58
Středočeský	324,902	175,449	1,326,857	7.56
Jihomoravský	304,729	161,202	1,175,023	7.30
Praha	573,682	314,378	1,267,449	4.03
Czech Republic total	2,768,953	1,439,806	10,553,843	7.33

Source of data: Czech Statistical office, calculations by Samizdat 

About T-Mobile Takeoffs

T-Mobile Takeoffs is a programme aimed at supporting start-up businesses. It offers free regional workshops on issues relating to starting a business; another part of the programme involves a competition in which the best business ideas are selected. During the period from January to March, those who have not yet started a business or who received a business licence in the past 12 months can register in the competition at www.rozjezdy.cz. In each region, three programme participants can win and receive financial support, advisor services from experts in different areas of business, packages of telecommunications and banking services and tangible prizes to help them launch their business. The overall winner, i.e. the winner of the jury prize, will receive prizes worth approximately CZK 600,000. In addition to that, online voting is held to determine the winner of the prize of the public. Free regional workshops will take place in April and May.

The seventh edition of T-Mobile Takeoffs will be held this year. The main partner of the programme is Česká spořitelna and the other partners are Agentura Najisto and Samsung. The expert partners are Lovebrand, MADE BY VACULIK and Proboston, and the regional partners are BEA Campus Olomouc, Dům Techniky Pardubice (House of Technology Pardubice), the Faculty of Social and Economic Studies of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, Innovation Centre of the Ústí nad Labem Region, South Bohemian Science and Technology Park, Cooltour Cultural Centre, Moravian University College Olomouc, Regional Chamber of Commerce of the Plzeň Region and the VIDA! Science Centre.

 

T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.

T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.

More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).

Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.