T-Mobile Takeoffs to help businesses for the third time

• Eighty-four regional winners and one national winner will receive prizes worth nearly CZK 9 million, financial support for their business and priceless consultations 
• This year’s edition newly features a special student category
• Hundreds of people are already doing business with Takeoffs; we continue to monitor the winning businesses   

Prague, 25 March – T-Mobile has announced the third edition of the Takeoffs project to support start-up businesses. All those who plan to embark on this journey and register their business projects in the competition via www.rozjezdyroku.cz will receive support from experienced employees of the mobile operator; other partners include Česká spořitelna, Samsung, Jobs.cz , KnowHowKlub and Zalozfirmu.cz. The expert partner of the project is the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic. This year’s edition newly features a student category.      

A total of 84 winners will receive a financial contribution and free voice and data services from T-Mobile. Samsung will provide them with the technical equipment they need: smart PCs, tablets and popular Samsung Galaxy SIII mini mobile phones. Finally, Česká spořitelna will grant the winners free operation of a business account for five years. Altogether, these prizes are worth CZK 9 million. 

“Takeoffs has given rise to an active community. We meet on our Facebook page, on the Jazyk na vestě blog, as well as in person – for example at markets and fairs. A number of participants have also formed business relationships. It also shows that Takeoffs is able to help in unpleasant situations. At the beginning of the year there were changes in the legislation concerning transport of patients, the field of business of last year’s winner, Romana Tvarůžková. The change could have had a negative effect on her business. Fortunately, with the aid of lawyers and others, everything has been successfully adjusted in such a way that Novodobá sanitka (Modern Ambulance) can continue its work. We are pleased to be helping,” says Petra Pavičová, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at T-Mobile. 

As investments are necessary when starting a business, Česká spořitelna has also joined in to support Takeoffs this year. At workshops, the bank will advise participants on planning of business financing and to regional winners it will provide a free business account for five years. The national winner will be able to use the services of Česká spořitelna within the business account free of charge for up to ten years. “We are looking forward to being able to meet promising emerging entrepreneurs and to help them with setting up their business plans. We will be glad to share our experience in business financing and to provide business accounts, which are a must for their businesses. These will enable them to benefit from, for example, favourable cash withdrawals from the most extensive ATM network in the Czech Republic and from that of the Erste group abroad, payments for goods and services at retailers by payment cards, credit transfers with single payment orders within the Czech Republic and abroad, and standing payment orders and direct debits,“ says Jiří Kubát, Micro and Small Enterprises Segment Manager of Česká spořitelna.    

“These days no business can do without communication devices. Therefore, we have prepared for the winners state-of-the-art Samsung devices, including mobile phones, tablets and SMART PCs, which will substantially help them to save time and costs, and increase the efficiency of their business,” says Martin Kubelík, Key Account Manager at Samsung’s TN Division. 

This year’s edition of Takeoffs is again being organised in partnership with the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic (UTM), whose knowledge of local circumstances is indispensable particularly in the regional part of the competition. UTM representatives will serve as members of regional juries. “I appreciate that the project focuses on small start-up businesses, as small businesses are a significant part of economy. Therefore, not only in the regions that are facing high unemployment rates, cities focus on providing suitable conditions for small and mid-sized businesses. Being open to businesses and supporting their takeoffs returns to the cities in the form of growth of new jobs in the region,” says Dan Jiránek, President of the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic.  

Course of the competition
Registration of projects in the competition is open from 25 March to 5 May. Anyone who started a business in the past 12 months or is planning to start a business is welcome. Competing projects will be examined and evaluated by regional juries composed of representatives of T-Mobile and partners of the project. Roughly half of the members of each jury come from the respective region: these include successful participants of the previous edition of Takeoffs, businesspeople from the respective regions, and representatives of universities and of the Union of Towns and Municipalities. The regional perspective is indispensable for Takeoffs, as juries will not focus only on the viability of projects but also on their benefit for the local community.  

During May and June, the Takeoffs team will visit nine regional cities, holding workshops with lectures on dealing with the authorities, marketing, business plans, etc. The workshops attracted nearly seven hundred participants in the past two years. These seminars are free of charge and are open to the general public. It is only necessary to register in advance at www.rozjezdyroku.cz.

The workshops will also be occasions on which the juries meet, hear the originators of the most promising applications and select the winning projects. All winners will also have an opportunity to consult their everyday problems with experts in marketing, business and sales skills and business strategy. Such consultancy would otherwise cost them thousands of crowns per hour.   

The part that a number of contestants value the most is participation in the public finals, in which only the winners of the regional rounds can participate. Last year, nearly eight thousand people voted, which shows that online voting brings widespread publicity and thus more prospective customers.   

Seven hundred businesses and projects have participated in Takeoffs  
Seven hundred ideas and companies competed in the first two editions. The project can advise participants on establishing a business, business plans, marketing, use of the internet, and dealing with authorities. It has backed the launch of a skateboard manufacturing business, sportswear manufacturing business, preschools and remedial education centres.    

The winning project of the first edition was Dvojkola.cz, a bicycle rental shop in České Budějovice run by Marie Žvaková that has blossomed into a successful company. However, it is not the only one. All winners of the first edition are still in business; two of them had to give up their original projects, but they have found other fields of business. Preschools are facing heavy competition, while the Autoškola Beetle driving school complains about lack of quality staff and a price war. And there are also a lot of successes: Fraise sportswear has its first employee. Nanozicky.cz from Smržovka, originally an e-shop selling baby shoes, now exclusively sells its own Dadoos brand, which it also exports, and is extending its product portfolio with the addition of children’s clothing. Restartskateboards, the first winner of the Jury Prize, no longer focuses only on manufacturing, but also on recycling skateboard decks. The students from Vysočina who founded PKV Projekt have even come up with their own product, energy pass, and have come to dominate 15% of the real estate market.   

Takeoffs 2012 saw 360 competing projects. Several of them, such as the Prague-based Baby Office co-working space are just now taking off, but others are already thriving, such as Adaptia (a maker of clothing for wheelchair users), Alesio (a seller of coffee and coffee machines for offices and restaurants), MagsBags is swamped with sewing more and more lunch bags, and Veselá razítka (Funny Stamps) is planning to hire new employees. 

All finalists of the previous editions can be viewed here.   

About the Takeoffs project ¨
The project registration form and detailed information about Takeoffs, including the competition criteria and detailed rules, are available at www.rozjezdyroku.cz. The competition has two rounds: an expert jury will pick 14 winners in both categories in the regional rounds. The public will then vote for the most appealing project at www.rozjezdyroku.cz. The top project will receive an additional CZK 100,000 to help its originator start his or her business. Another prize will also be awarded by an expert jury.  

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.