Business Ideas in Romania

Build Green CEE: history in the making!

With over 200 participants and an impressive display of interest and support for building greener buildings, the "Build Green CEE" conference was a great success. The two days of presentations and discussions brought specialists and practitioners in green building techniques, applications, financing and the regulatory environment. We have heard from Sonae ...

We’ll be back in business after Build Green CEE

Our team is busy preparing for next week's Build Green CEE Conference. It will be a large and exciting event - we have approx. 200 participants already lined up from all over the CEE region! We'll be back after the event. In the meantime, make sure you visit the conference website, ...

Never to young to be a teacher!

Opportunity : Cell phone classes for elderly users of the corporate world Sara has spotted in an earlier post the opportunity of coaching middle-aged and elderly people in the complicated internet world. Via Springwise I found out about Bellendoejezo, a Dutch company who took this idea one step forward. Bellendoejezo employs students ...

Trivia games for the Bac exam

Opportunity: Create online games that make it easy for kids to prepare for the Bac exams There is one website out there offering multiple-choice tests for kids to prepare for Bac and other exams - TesteGrila.ro -  and it is horrid. You actually have to download the test and then access ...

Let me get to my sandwich!

I got a sandwich at a Princess store this morning - and spent about 3 frustrated minutes trying to get the very thick plastic to tear, so I could actually eat my sandwich! Guess what? I'm not getting a sandwich there again. If it's convenience food, I shouldn't need scissors ...

Smoothies Paradise

Opportunity: Healthy Fast Food Restaurant We've been talking about food quite a lot... Anca , Sara, Alex approached in several posts the healthy food restaurants topic. And so I am. This time, it is about a fresh and healthy fast food - Juice Zone - that we have just discovered close to our office ...

Fast-Food Revolution

Opportunity: Healthy fast-food chain In these past few weeks it has been quite difficult to be a vegetarian, so I was really happy to read about a couple of meatless fast-food chains that are developing around the globe. They aim at revolutionizing the fast food world with natural, wholesome vegetarian foods ...

Build Green CEE: Energy Efficient and Ecological Design for the Region

Upcoming International Event Green buildings and energy efficiency have been some our our preferred topics on the blog. We've been telling you stories of green, recommending blogs and websites... and now.... We are pleased to announce you our upcoming event: Build Green CEE: Energy Effcient and Ecological Design for the Region! ...

Thriving on sandwiches and smoothies

Our team recently participated in the EcoBuild exhibition in London. On an earlier business trip there, I had enjoyed the sandwiches and smoothies widely available. Now, less than one year later, I was happy to see that, if anything, this is even more of a thriving business. In fact, within ...

How about a free version of everything?

Opportunity: Offering customers advertiser sponsored free services Browsing the web for new cool business ideas I found out, via Springwise, about Tadacopy - a Japanese company offering free photocopies for students. Well, they are not exactly free, as on the back of each copy paper they print ads that pay for ...

Green Buildings: Save Money and Save the Globe!

Opportunity: Green Building Services On an ever increasing scale nowadays, everybody is looking in wonder at the price of the world’s energy sources going up, dragging up with it a great many other prices. Why? Because everything we do on a daily basis from sleeping in our warm homes to eating, ...

We want food

Opportunity: deliver simple, healthy food from locations close to office buildings A few days ago, I decided to try out a new sandwich and salad place I had spotted some time ago near Victoriei square. The place looked great, the food simple, healthy and quite cheap. I happened to get there around ...

Will you build one of the first 50 000 green homes?

If you want to build or renovate your home to make it green, you'll find an active community of like-minded people at LiveGreen, LiveSmart. There you'll be able to read other people's experiences with trying to make their homes green. You might be excited to include your project in the ...

Stories of Green

Anca and Steve previously recommended some interesting blogs and websites with useful information on CO2 reduction, climate change global initiatives and clean technologies. While I was browsing the web the other day I came about an interesting list with the top niche social media sites which also included a social ...

Get a sponsor for your laundromat

Anca and Alex posted earlier about the need for laundromats in student dorms. Via Trendwatching, here's an interesting solution for doing this as a student: Continuing the tradition of using shipping containers to house all things pop-up, a spotting from the Netherlands caught our eye. At the Lowlands music festival, jeans brand ...

Rent-a-tree

Opportunity: Providing a solution for environmentally conscious Christmas celebrators Did you feel at least a bit of guilt about buying a Christmas tree this year? I believe many of us feel bad about cutting down a tree only to have it up for a couple of weeks and then throw the whole ...

How effective is your signup page?

Opportunity: Improve client registration by reevaluating your Web 2.0 sign up page The other day I came across an interesting and comprehensive post by Tim Bednar (via Guy Kawasaki) the art of the signup page. Come to think of it, it's a Web 2.0 aspect that cannot be neglected. The signup ...

Go Party!

Opportunity: “Spread the word” socializing parties One of my friends who just returned from a short vacation in Portugal was telling me with great delight about the bars in Barrio Alto. Nice and small, the bars in this old neighbourhood of Lisbon have only very few tables and chairs and can ...

Find a place for the cars first…

Eugen has a point in his post that there is money to be made in any solution to avoiding traffic and saving time. The taxi drivers, food delivery people, and other heavy drivers should be ready customers. At some point, however, a GPS in ...

Antidote against Traffic Jams

Opportunity: Traffic Information Services Sinziana wrote some time ago about traffic jams and recommended bikes as a potential solution. That is an ecologic and smart suggestion for Bucharest, but still... some time will pass until this idea will be put into practice. Are there any other possibilities to get ...

Riddles and games

Opportunity: make your menu a main attraction point While enjoying a quiet evening at Ceai la Cotroceni with some friends, we took some time to look over the menu and select among the couple dozen varieties of tea. When the waitress came to take our order, she also took the menus ...

Need a personal assistant? Ask Sunday…

Opportunity: Outsourcing solution for small businesses and individuals I found out about the Time magazine's top 10 websites via Manafu. What I considered really interesting was the no. 2 on their list, AskSunday.com, a subscription based website dedicated to simplifying their members' lives by providing 24/7 assistance with solving nearly ...

Warning! Your battery is low!

Opportunity: Battery recharging services Nowadays, the world is much more mobile than it was 20 years ago. The cell phone or laptop gives you the possibility of staying connected to the latest news or people no matter where you are. However, sometimes, when the laptop or mobile is needed most, the ...

Lattes & Koyaanisqatsi

Opportunity: Renting cafe rooms with high-quality home cinema systems As a big fan - and evangelist - of contemporary classical music, I would like to watch a couple DVDs with some friends. From the three documentaries with minimalist music by Philip Glass - Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi to a lovely meditation ...

Think outside the (gift)box

Opportunity: A tasty mix of Status Skills in the large pot of Hobby Economics with a pinch of Holiday Season herbs Last week, while making a list with gift ideas for friends and family it occurred to me that it would be much more fun and much more appreciated if, instead ...

What women want online… Reloaded

Preliminary research results I wrote some time ago about the market study exclusively addressed to women and their preferences and behavior while shopping online. I found out about the partial results from Madalin and E Invest Marketing and I'm willing to share them with you. The final results will be made ...

Do the Green Thing - do it good and do it now

Mainly social opportunity mingled with a little bit of business opportunity to act as a reasonable citizen and save the planet I am not the one responsible for identifying social opportunities on this blog but I just can't help myself. I discovered a GREAT website from a blog post on ...

Need a ride? Get a bike

Opportunity: bike renting system Just one glance on the streets of Bucharest at the beginning or end of a workday and anyone would easily understand that traffic is one of our biggest daily headaches. Working people in Bucharest nowadays spend anywhere from one and a half to three hours a ...

A mobile GPS

Opportunity: A search entertainment service on your mobile Have you ever experienced the situation of being out somewhere and not finding the nearest cash point, restaurant, club or cinema? You call your friends and ask them of a nice cafe nearby, but none of them know what to say, especially if ...

Please test my products!

Last week, Anca and I attended an EU forum on Environmental Technology Verification. The purpose was to discuss the best way to implement a European-wide verification system. If you are small business with a highly innovative environmental technology product, it is very likely that you will experience difficulties in proving the ...

The Blue Penguin’s story (so far)

The other week I wrote about "The Blue Penguin", a newly opened self-laundering service that I had found out about from a flyer. I was curious about the challenges the Blue Penguin's managers faced in the process but also about their future plans, so I contacted them and got a very ...

Women and shopping. Reloaded

Opportunity: Online stores for women I wrote some time ago about Ghelir redefining the online store in Romania, using a concept unique in our country... Well, unique until now, because Zazazoo has just been launched. It is an e-commerce project supported by Avantu Ecommerce and developed in collaboration with Ghelir. The concept ...

Unpackaged

As I was walking through a local supermarket, I just got this crave for sweets. I went to the stand that was selling them and I started picking several types of goodies. The lady at the counter started putting them in separate bags and placing price tags on them. I ...

Best customer services in Romania - confirmed

Not too long ago, I blogged about my very happy experience when I asked to add some down to my Nahanny sleeping bag and nominated them for the "best customer service in Romania" prize. I did not send them the link to the blog post, because I wanted to see ...

A Blue Penguin loose in Bucharest

Opportunity: offering self-laundering services My colleague Alex wrote about 10 months ago about how a self-laundering service would be a very profitable business idea, especially if it is located strategically, near an university campus. So, the other day I wasn't too surprised when a colleague at the university showed me this flyer. The ...

Key card electricity control

While participating in the Office 2. 0 conference, this fall, I stayed at the Orchard Garden, a hotel that recently obtained a certification for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" - LEED, awarded by the USGBC. I wanted to extend my stay, but the hotel was already fully booked - ...

The best customer service in Romania

Almost three years ago, as I started doing more serious backpacking, I decided to purchase a down sleeping bag. In one of the backpacking equipment shops in Bucharest, I saw a couple of bags made by Nahanny, a small Romanian firm based in Timisoara (site in English or Romanian). I ...

For the artist in you

Opportunity: Investments on the leisure market I dedicated one of my first posts to the way Romanians spend their spare time and the great potential of investments on the leisure market. I have recently read an article about Center Stage - a "school" dedicated to teaching arts to kids, teenagers and ...

Smoke a tea?

Opportunity: create places for non-smokers Smoke-free areas are one of the things Bucharest lacks. The rooms for non-smokers are a must for every public place, yet many times they are the hidden rooms in the back, small enclosures similar to public restrooms, or simply rooms where the smoke creeps in from ...

Smarter Search and Greener Markets

At SOPOLEC we just announced a partnership formed with The Recognos Group of San Francisco and Cluj. They are a very smart software development firm with a consistent pipeline of successful technologies. This partnership will start with the creation of an electronic marketplace with Web ...

Photos from Blogoree Workshop

Just a quick update: from the Blogoree workshop at our office last week (liveblogged earlier), here are our photos. See you next time!

Does anybody know where could I shop for a tree?

(Social) Opportunity: Start printing two sided, recycle, and buy a few trees for Bucharest Pelf was asking us in one of her comments on Clarisa's post if we have environment related experience and if we want to share them. I promised that we will write about this. It's a bit late, ...

Fast Digital Photos

Opportunity: Real-time Online Digital Photo Printing Services The other week I found out that it’s really difficult to prepare a simple anniversary surprise. I wanted to print some digital photos, choose one that looked best and frame it as a gift. As I only had a day left, I wanted ...

Liveblogging from Blogoree Workshop

Bogdan Manolea does a Q&A type of presentation, so I'll blog in the same structure from tonight's Blogoree Workshop. Q: What law is applicable on the internet? A: All laws are applicable on the internet as well. Special laws - 365 / 2002 - under the name of "Servicii ale societatii ...

What women want… online

Invitation to support Romanian e-commerce A year ago, I wrote about the necessity of opening online stores for women's clothing. However, little has happened in the area until now. Fortunately, Madalin Matica and E Invest Marketing took the lead and started a market study exclusively addressed to ...

The Bloggers are back again!

In case you were wondering what we are up to in terms of interesting events, I am pleased to announce that a sliver of the Romanian Blogosphere will be visiting us soon at our office. SOPOLEC is hosting the third Blogoree Workshop tomorrow afternoon starting with 7 o'clock ( the doors ...

Liveblogging from RetailPro

I'm spending the morning at the RetailPro conference. New sales formats (ex. online) creates particular challenges. Interesting example - PickPick.de. Loyalty cards have become just a hassle for customers. We have cobranded cards here, but not yet multibranded cards. Cutting costs through outsourcing, closing less profitable locations, self scanning, IT systems. Cotiso ...

Liveblogging from ‘Online Communication’

I'm sitting in the auditorium at the Toolbox Online Communication conference. Have not yet been able to login to a wireless network, so will be blogging from my iPhone (of course, my laptop's battery wouldn't last, anyway. From the first panel, moderated by Cristi Manafu, our gracious host. Victor Ciutacu ...

eToolbox - Online Communication

Tomorrow I'll be participating in the eToolbox "Online Communication" conference. If the WiFi is good enough (and it rarely is for this kind of conferences!), I'll liveblog here. I look forward to talking to some of the people who'll be participating. Thoughts: We'll have panel discussions. That is quite new for local ...

Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day and the theme as Clarisa noted in her post is The Environment. I thought we could do our part by discussing the opportunities in aligning environmental protection with future profits. We have posted on this many business opportunities already including: Metering and Pre-Paid services Energy Audit Services ...

micro-payments = big money

Ali Hassan Memon a business and technology analyst with SOPOLEC (who will be joining us in Romania at the beginning of the year) found this comic strip while researching opportunities with Micropayments.  The point can be expanded to a variety of industries, beyond music, where new thinking in how artists/inventors/writers/etc ...

The Web 2.0 Show - Thursday p.m.

IT&C Show, The Money Channel TV If you're interested in the Web 2.0 phenomenon, you are invited to watch an interesting edition of the IT&C Show this Thursday, starting from 6:15 pm, on The Money Channel. Our colleague, Sara, will be Sorin Barariu's invitee in a discussion related to Web 2.0 ...

Change The World For One Day

Blog Action Day is an international initiative of bloggers, launched by Collis Ta'eed, an Australian blogger, whose aim is to make millions of bloggers around the world speak about one issue for just one day in a year! In 2007, the star will be The Environment. Every signing blogger will post ...

lunch break

Opportunity: Ready-made homelike food for office areas It is already 12.00-12.30 and you are at work. After a busy morning, the only thing on your mind is: what shall I eat today? The times when lunch packages were carefully put together in the morning for a long-day’s work seem mostly a thing ...

Targeting an older market

Servicing an Aging Demographic As populations age, their needs change. Understanding the new trends can open up profitable business areas. I think this is a tremendous area of growth for Romania as "quality of life" for elderly citizens is gaining importance. The ease of finding information from other ...

Managing Children? C’est imposibile.

Opportunity: Selling management charts for toddlers. More and more career women do not have time for their family. They manage multinational management teams and are often unable to manage their children at home, therefore outsourcing this to babysitters. However, most mothers do not have the time and energy to search for ...

Customer-oriented shopping services for women

Following up from Laura's blog and recalling the adage "as incomes rise, time decreases," it struck me that one of Laura's wishes was simply for a pleasant and personal shopping experience, free from the hassle and unpleasant experience of going from store to store only to find nothing in particular ...

I would like a popcorn party

Opportunity: Rental of specialized equipment and personnel for various events How difficult is it to organize a kids' party without hiring a specialized events organizer to take care of all the details? Well, while balloons, candles, confetti and thematic decorations are reasonably easy to find for a regular party, what do ...

Will you take Grandma to her appointment, dear?

Opportunity: Non-emergency medical transportation At a previous job with a medical services company, I was astounded to see how many elderly people forgot the basics of medical care because the transportation is too difficult to arrange. An ambulance is much too sophisticated for their non-emergency needs, but a regular taxi will ...

a new blog for clean tech….

For those interested in Green Technology (aka Clean Tech) here is an interesting blog...very cutting edge and business focused: http://earth2tech.com/ Some of it is not applicable to Romania right now but... it is an interesting indicator of emerging trends and issues to come.

First pre-paid phones, now pre-paid water?

Opportunity: Prepaid meters and cards for rented spaces and beyond Rented places often produce some misunderstandings regarding the consumption of energy, water and gas. The landlord and the tenant often argue about how much was consumed and how much should be paid. Prepaid meters offer both the tenant and the landlord the ...

Give a little more than expected

Opportunity: improve your image and services through customer care A few days ago we hosted a Green Cafe as I had wrote here. It was very interesting to see people discussing passionately for fifteen minutes, and then having to change subjects as each session ended. One of the things that captured ...

Followup from the Green Cafe

Following up from Clarisa's post on the recent Green Cafe on ETAP, and from Anca's post on the previous event, many interesting points are coming out of our Green Cafes, and perhaps one of the most interesting aspects is just the simple networking and interface of representatives from many viewpoints. ...

Wine anyone?

Opportunity: Niche alcohol bar The way I got this idea is plain and simple: I like wine and I wanted to go to a wine bar. I found out there's only one such a place in Bucharest called eXperience. It's a nice place that promises to have a WiFi hotspot in ...

Office 2.0 in San Francisco

Sara is in San Francisco for "Office 2.0", a conference where she was invited to speak on Culture and Technology. Apparently, she got started early as it seems she led a impromptu discussion on Office 2.0 in Emerging Markets at the "unconference" the preceded the official event. We're looking forward ...

IT mentoring: a win-win situation

Opportunity: Bundle Hardware and Knowledge. Sara wrote earlier a post regarding IT coaching for seniors and I would like to take that idea a bit further. Besides training seniors, I believe there are more types of people that could take advantage of this ...

Business idea: Energy Audit Services for renovation projects

The point of this particular post is not necessarily to present a brand-new idea..... but instead to point out a differentiating business-idea that will become more and more in demand as Romania races toward energy efficiency in all economic sectors. Picking up from Steve's blogpost on changes in demand for energy ...

Environmental Technologies

Since our last Green Café was a success, we are preparing another one for next Tuesday with the help of Viitor Plus. The topic will be Romania’s Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP), specifically, the measures concerning the "greening" of the construction industry. The idea of this working session is to capture ...

Learning for exams made cheap and easy

Opportunity: Books at your doorstep. I recently had to study for my driver's license examination and I found a new problem. The 3 books for the exam are quite expensive at around 30 RON each and they are of no use once the exam is finished. I tried, therefore, to borrow the ...

Quit smoking?…not “just an idea”

Opportunity: "Social opportunity" to act reasonable and become a healthy, cool human being I don't know how difficult is to quit smoking because I never smoked. However, I imagine that like all the other things that are addictive, smoking is difficult to "break-up with". They say that the most important ...

OK, take another cab; I can’t stop smoking.

Halfway through my cab ride, the driver took out a cigarette and prepared to light it. I warned that I would get out of the cab if he starts smoking. His response: "OK, take another cab. I can't stop smoking. I get sick if I don't smoke." While I understand that ...

Easier done than said…

"C" posted some comments on Thursday's post where I suggested there is an opportunity beyond local tourists to sell "local" items... today's comment: "Your examples come from the us. Great but normal. How many local craft stuff did you order from let´s say Lithuania, Mongolia or Soweto? Just for fun?" and... " turn to ...

Virtual Tourists

A recent comment from "C" on a post from last month regarding a high-quality handicraft store in Sibiu that would also sell on line: "Without direct foreign tourists coming to the shop it doesn´t work. How many suvenirs from everywhere in this world did you order via internet? Locals have enough, ...

Retail design services for Romania

Opportunity: Providing specialized design services to the Romanian market One of the fastest growing markets in Romania, now and forecasted for the next 5-10 years to come, is the retail market. This suggests that design services for retail stores will be in demand for the immediate future, and for ...

Treating water like fine wine?

Opportunity: Delivering the consumer clean drinking water, at a cheaper price In theory, a city's water supply should be safe to drink and taste good. In reality, due to aging infrastructure, poor processing, or other reasons...that quality is either unfit to drink or questionable at best. Even when it is ...

Long live the sun!…and the technologies that come with it

Opportunity: Growing market for the renewable energy solutions The solutions for obtaining energy out of renewable sources were in the Romanian Science Fiction Area a couple of years ago. They were perceived as very expensive and inefficient solutions and three years ago it was easier to sell a Rainbow vacuum cleaner ...

Snack Attack vs. Kingwich?

After writing about Kingwich offering pre-packaged sandwiches in some supermarkets in Bucharest, I noticed that Snack Attack, a healthy food chain with locations throughout Bucharest, is selling sandwiches in supermarkets like G'Market and in some gas stations. Hopefully we'll have more options soon!

The Perfect Gift

Opportunity: An online newly weds gift database Getting a present for somebody is never easy, specially when your friend is getting married. If they have been living together for some time, they usually have their place with the furniture they need; if they are moving together for the first time, ...

Beat the heat……inexpensive exterior bamboo shading devices

Business idea: provide and install inexpensive and modern exterior bamboo shading devices. One of the ways of reducing heat in apartments (especially apartments facing east, west, or south) is by eliminating the direct sunlight (rays of the sun) on glass. In other words, by shading the glass. Double thermopane windows typically ...

Who knows of a good electrician? OK, OK, just an electrician?

Opportunity: "Own" Google searches for emergency services The electrical system in my apartment is failing miserably - likely due to the increased load of the air conditioning system. I needed an electrician - so I asked Google to find a "electrician bun Bucuresti" (good electrician in Bucharest). Front page results were ...

Taximetre.ro

Opportunity: Fresh info from the users themselves As Sara wrote in her blog post , it is very difficult to find information about companies in general, and that's a bigger problem in Romania than we actually realize. If the company is not well-known and you are interested in using their services ...

Regain discontent customers

Opportunity: Make it easy for customers to give you feedback The other day, we called for a cab from Taxi 2000. The driver came earlier than he had announced, waited for just a few minutes... and, just as he saw us nearing the car, left in a very rude manner, shouting ...

Where do we eat tonight?

Opportunity: Online portal with all restaurants' menus I have always found it difficult to select a new restaurant simply because I did not know what to expect from it. Why should I select one restaurant and not another, although they both serve "Traditional Romanian dishes"? How are they priced? What is ...

All included…web site

Opportunity: An EVENTS SITE fully equipped Yesterday I tried to find some information on this month's conferences (of course, by using the usual google search). The result: at least 12 web sites that offered different information on the same issue. I started wondering why it had to take so much time and ...

a transportation service example…

To add to Raul's post on a van service to get you to and from the airport... Check out SuperShuttle as an example of this. They service the Los Angeles area which is an ideal area for this business. "L.A." can be considered to  be more like a vast collection ...

home…..home again

Business Opportunity: Affordable transportation services from the airport Arriving from the airport and confronting all those taxi drivers may be scary; specially if you do not know the different transport alternatives that are being offered. The way taxi drivers operate is perfectly legal, but some times that may be different ...

Seeing the world better

Let the windows look after themselves This weekend, as I was cleaning around the house, I thought of a new opportunity for window manufacturers. Cleaning big windows can be a burden, especially since they are becoming more and more fashionable. How can this be made easier? Cleaning has always been a messy, ...

New policies and standards? ….piece of cake… do you want some? - Part II - UK flavour

I was writing a couple of weeks ago about the opportunity to process comprehensive information regarding existing legislation and sell it back to interested companies. I accidentally found the web-site of a UK Agency - NetRegs that delivers guidance for small and medium sized enterprises regarding environmental legislation. The web-site ...

Kingwich!

Three months ago, I wrote about the opportunity to deliver ready-made sandwiches through supermarkets in Bucharest, based on models in the UK and elsewhere. Yesterday,I noticed that Fonzi, a burgeoning supermarket chain in Bucharest, started offering a promising selection of sandwiches from Kingwich. The selection even includes two different options for ...

Restaurant, Bar and Theater: More Refined than Sour Patch Kids

Business Opportunity: Low cost movies bring in the crowds then...sell, sell, sell In my college days in the U.S. a favorite hangout was the Baghdad Cafe. The Baghdad charged $1 US for admittance to movies (it's now $3 US) and made the bulk of their money by selling pizza, popcorn and and ...

Laundry yes…but open all day and night

Opportunity: providing service to those with non-conventional schedules and urgent needs In Peter's post on laundry services, I think he had a really good idea. As an expat here, I would find it a real benefit to have a good laundry service here. A lot of people here may ...

And that one is from Sibiu

We had posted earlier about the opportunity in offering high-quality souvenirs for tourists. Alexandra, one of my students at ASE wrote a summary of her business plan in this area and decided to share it with us. While it will take a lot of work for her to define ...

More recycling services for consumers

Opportunity: Making it easy to be good Building on Laura's post discussing paper recycling... Yesterday, in Office Max - an office supply store in California that sells electronic equipment - I saw a service where an outside company provides the retailer with a medium-sized box to put in your store where ...

The Paper Tree project

Opportunity for all of us: Keep forests alive by recycling paper and cardboard! If you've ever wondered where to recycle paper and cardboard in Bucharest, here's a great initiative: Copacul de Hartie ("The Paper Tree") project. The process is very simple and recycling is made easier for busy people. After you ...

Medical Tourism: Dental work in Dracula’s hometown?

Romania is well established as a destination for spa and "wellness" travel but opportunity exists to expand on this to become a destination for low cost, high quality medical services. With the success of private medical clinics such as CMU (Unirea Medical Centers) in the domestic market, there could be ...

Green Cafe

Yesterday the SOPOLEC team organized the second Green Meeting. This was actually a "Green Cafe" because we applied the "World Cafe" method for discussion, debating and analyzing ideas about "What can be done to encourage green construction in Romania?". The event was a really good experience from (at ...

The ideas are there, but not the ink……

Opportunity: Office supplies delivery Office supplies usually represent a headache for the people that manage them. It doesn’t matter the number of employees in the company or the portfolio of supplies, you never want to overstock or run out of them. In case something is missing, somebody needs to go out ...

Going to California

A few of us went to the Robert Plant concert in Bucharest (pictured on Sunday- Part of Al Gore's "Live Earth" series of concerts to raise awareness of Climate Change. We all agreed it was a great show. His voice was absolutely excellent and the Strange Sensation accompanying him...awesome. I'll ...

Laundry for the Domestically Impaired

A few months ago my colleagues wrote about the potential opportunity in self serve laundramats (see what Alex wrote and Steve's response) complete with wireless access and bar service. Indeed, in my month in Bucharest I've noticed a dearth of dry cleaners and laudramats. It appears standard to either (1) ...

Sleep-in demo house

Opportunity: Build demo houses for customers to try before ordering Sonnenplatz built a small village in Austria with 5-6 houses with different designs of low-energy usage / highly insulated / passive houses. Now they offer hotel services for families that intend to commission a house. People can rent a house for ...

Cowbins……..recycling in Romania

Business Opportunity: Selling innovative recycle bins to municipalities Everybody needs a little fun in their life. At the same time, everybody needs a little recycling in their life. At the same time, there are just too many places around town that could use a little "color". Enter.... Cowbins. Whoever said recycling has to ...

in the right direction…

There has been a considerable amount of press recently about Romanian's giving up on their Black Sea coast; opting for vacations in Bulgaria and other now easier-to-get-to (cheaper flights, less border controls) seasides with better value and service for the money... I will spare going into a list ...

All inclusive…office

Opportunity: All inclusive services for companies that are testing the market Peter was highlighting in his recent blog the lack of centralized services for foreigners that came for only a short period of time to live in Bucharest. I was thinking of similar types of services but for companies and business ...

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth… in Real Estate???

Opportunity: User generated content for the Romanian real estate market Steve and Magda have already approached in some previous posts a real issue on the real estate market in our country: the deficit of reliable information. We don't know the real price of properties and how many people looking for apartments ...

Not just an apartment, not quite a hotel…

Opportunity: Distributed Flexotel As a recent arrival in Bucharest I  had the pleasure this past week of bouncing around a bit between hotels and short term apartments offering varying levels of service and amenities. While the concept of short term apartment rental as a cost effective alternative to a hotel is ...

Enjoy washing glasses?………the fun is over

Opportunity: optimizing bar operations It is always fun to go to a bar. People get immersed in a nice atmosphere with good friends. A complete infrastructure must be in place for this to happen, from fridges and icemakers to good service. Some tools and resources have been developed to optimize the supply ...

New policies and standards?…..piece of cake…do you want some?

Opportunity: Processing comprehensive information and selling it back to interested companies Greenfacts is an NGO based in Brussels whose main role is to translate the latest policies and directives adopted at the level of EU in the areas of Health and Environment for the general public. They analyze the directives or ...

Business blogging event - BETA

Our Wednesday meetup on Business Blogging was a very lively, interesting discussion. People from diverse industries - social marketing, PR, scholar programs, business to business services, mobile and wireless providers - came with very interesting ideas and questions. Bobby Voicu led the discussion as we struggled to find an answer to the challenges ...

Leveraging your Corporate Training

Opportunity: Corporate and Training Video Production Employee training is essential in all companies, from the initial training at orientation to continued development. Sometimes training is provided also to clients (in the case of consulting companies, for instance), partners or employees in different locations. As a complement for printed training manuals, a ...

Web form not activated? So why are you advertising it?

Opportunity: Make sure you can deliver on what you're advertising! Some of you asked if Sprint Taxi's online ordering form worked out.  I was very excited when I found it; however, when I tried to order a taxi, nothing happened. Nothing whatsoever. So I called the receptionist today and chatted with her ...

Green facades

While Anca and I were in Bruxelles for the Green Week these past few days, we met some interesting companies that we will be featuring over the next couple of days. For example - Lico Art, a Hungarian company that was proposing a technology that allows ivy coverings to extend ...

Our Wednesday Meetups: Corporate Blogging

Wednesday, June 20th, SOPOLEC office, starting from 5:30 pm. Feel free to join an informal discussion on how companies can use blogs to test market for their products and services, create "evangelists" who will lead others to the company, give a company a "human face" and… learn how to avoid the ...

Better Real Estate information for Romania?

Mark wrote in a comment to an earlier post on Real Estate shopping woes in Romania... "I also have access to the same data sources as the romanian real estate agents to search for properties and comparable sales. (I subscribe to 3 different specialized resources) All these systems are a joke, ...

More ideas from more places…

We will have a few more viewpoints shortly as Anca and Sara are in Brussels for a EU Commission conference on "Eco-Innovation".  Also....Peter Robinson - an MBA student from Yale with a background in finance, economics, start-ups, technology, and...a strong interest in working in Romania joins us here in Bucharest ...

Could you wire me some sarmale?

Opportunity: Specialised on-line retail - part II I was reading Sara's post about an on-line store with specialties for expats and I realised that we already have a store for expats, but not one for Romanians. You can buy Romanian specialties like zacusca, piftie, special gems, pork specialties etc. from the ...

Sprint taxi - calling a cab online

Just found out today that Sprint Taxi offers an online form for calling a taxicab. We had written earlier about technology-enabled taxis, and it's very exciting to see this begin to be implemented. We look forward to trying their online form and reporting on the results!

Missing Marmite?

Opportunity: Specialized online retail While in the *cough* restroom of the newly-opened Amigos Mexican restaurant in Bucharest, I noticed a poster advertising ExpatShop.ro - a very simple concept that delivers products that UK expats might miss while living in Romania. Focusing on a very clear, well-defined need. The advantage of word-of-mouth advertising, as ...

Another excuse for a party…

Bobby Voicu will lead another Blogoree Workshop at SOPOLEC's office next Wednesday. You'll have to check his blog to see if there is space but... even if it is filled up... feel free to stop by around 9pm for the "after party". Just send a note to info@businessideas.ro to ...

Would you like a theater ticket with your pasta?

Opportunity: Winning new clients by combining services I'm not a very big fan of pasta (I eat them only now and then...mostly then rather than now) but I like a lot to go to theater. In Bucharest, however, you have to buy tickets well in advance to be sure that you ...

Easier said than done…

To yesterday's post, Andrei Rosca commented: "Another good reason is that here, in Romania, the main problem isn’t having an idea but doing something about it. Business ideas value zero if there aren’t any people to apply them. And that’s exactly the case in Romania." This reminds me of a time I was ...

You’ve got questions…we’ve got answers…

A question I was asked while telling someone about this blog… “Why would you give away business ideas?” My answers: 1) There are so many possibilities in Romania…we couldn’t possibly do all of them 2) The idea is, of course, just part of the process… making it happen is where to real ...

Redefining e-shops

Opportunity: New approach for online stores in Romania Well... We are quite far from being overwhelmed with the number of online shopping websites in Romania, but someone has already thought to redefine the online store in our country. As the Ghelir founders confess, the idea is not original (see Woot) but ...

What about an e-shop?

Opportunity: opening an e-shop with photo articles The success of an e-shop is highly influenced by the products you choose and sell and also by the marketing strategy and the available resources. The advantages of an e-shop are plenty. The flexibility is incredible: customers are able to buy 24 hours a ...

More frufru love

This morning, a delivery boy came and delivered this out of the blue:               This is frufru thanking me for my post from last week - by sending a personalized smoothie! I'm really speechless.

A better life for our children

Opportunity: Offering a safe, learning and socialising environment for kids To add to Crisiti's post on Sports Center for Kids - I think the services of this center can be expanded to create an activity center for children, adding some of the following: apart from sports, children can also enjoy piano lessons, ...

I’ll have a coffee while I wait for those photocopies!

Opportunity: Cafe + photocopy center near student campuses I've been listening to 20 business plans per hour for the past week. I led a class in Business Communication at ASE, and the final requirement is for my students to create and pitch a business plan and to obtain my *fictitious* financing. ...

Adsense and pizza

We have finally managed to finish the leftover pizza from the Blogoree Workshop last week! Covered in depth by others: Buddha Adrian Cristea ciops Pyuric Mihnea

We love frufru!

Opportunity: Create a seamless first impression! I saw a frufru.ro motorcycle delivering fresh pasta close to our office. This was a surprise, since I thought they didn't deliver in our area (I remember checking back in March, when Manafu wrote about them). So for lunch I ordered penne pomodoro and a ...

What about a Meetup?

The First Blogoree Workshop is coming to town... And you're invited... Wednesday, May 16th, starting with 7 pm, at our office. It's the first meetup of the Blogoree Workshop series conducted by Bobby Voicu. We will be hosting the event, while Bobby will discuss Google's Adsense/Adwords system, case studies, reviewing websites, and ...

It’s my birthday and I can cry if I want to….but not because I did not receive a gift

Opportunity: On-line store with gifts for special occasions The on-line market in Romania is continuously growing. Statistics show that for the last year, the market grew with 17.9% and people are more familiar with the idea of shopping on-line. There are now some well-known online stores that are doing quite well. On-line ...

Save my laptop

Opportunity: Exceed expectations Just a few hours after reading SOJ's frustration when his Mac laptop charger got fried.... the same thing happened to my Macbook. I didn't even notice the power surge, just that my charger quietly stopped working. Of course, I promptly panicked - this was during the weekend, and ...

There is no place to hide…

Last year I gave a talk to the Volunteer In Projects (VIP) group at Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest about the convergence of ethics and strategy. In short… that as you view your business with a longer time horizon… the incentives for ethical behavior grow. ...

Credit for the Students’ American Dream

Opportunity: Solutions for Financing Work & Travel Programs BRD put this opportunity into practice when they released the Work&Travel USA Card. They are providing financing solutions to the participants in the Work&Travel USA programs through one of their 9 BRD partner agencies. I call it a smart move as the number ...

How to drive customers away and alienate people…

Opportunity: doing the opposite of these guys… and make it easy for customers to give their money to you in return for real value. Just to reinforce the importance of free internet in your café or other customer-centric areas (see Cristi's post)…I will give you a quick story about our experience ...

“Losing my virginity” with British Airways

Opportunity: Personalized stickers for identifying suitcases The trip we had in London was incredible. We met lot of interesting people, we visited the most interesting sites in London, did a bit of shopping. The weather was incredible and everything was perfect....except for the fact that British Airways lost my luggage when ...

For all your lunchtime needs

Opportunity: Distributing ready-to-eat goods through supermarkets As Steve explained earlier, some of our team have spent the past week in London. It was very interesting to note how different the contents of supermarket shelves were - every supermarket had an entire shelf of ready-to-eat sandwiches, wraps, pasta salads, fruit salads and ...

Looking for adventure? - Adventures4All

Opportunity: Team Building in the wilderness As I promised in a previous post, here I am with some more information on companies providing outdoor team building activities and adventures. This time, I talked to Adventures4All who shared with me their story. As a growing business, the company who started in 2000 ...

Tech meetup in London and Bucharest…

Sara, Anca and I attended Minibar in London - a technology meetup where a few companies gave 10 minute presentations of their latest software to the large tech crowd in attendance. The evening started off strong with entrepreneurial innovator, astronaut(!), and “Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life” of Ubuntu - Mark Shuttleworth, ...

There are signs everywhere

Opportunity: Contracts to implement better signage We are in London....beautiful London. We have a lot of meetings during the day and we have to go from one place to another. The city is very big, with a lot of means of transport that can be combined. You could easily get lost. ...

Greetings from London!

Sara, Anca, and my wife and I arrived in London for a week of business.  We have already seen lots of interesting business ideas and will be posting them shortly. Steve

There is a need, but no supply

Opportunity: Facility Management It started with research in January 2007, when Sara launched an idea: Opportunity: Property and Facility Management Services... After investigating more you get to one conclusion: the Romanian Companies that have the resources for getting the job done don't even think about it.Some of them like MT&T ...

Looking for adventure?

Opportunity: Tourism and team building activities in the wilderness Two weeks ago I went to the Tourism Fair, quite curious to see how attractive the offers for the Romanian mountains and seaside are compared to those for Bulgaria, or Tunis, or Greece, or Turkey, or Spain, or... you get the idea. What ...

Long live Google Video… our conference in Bucharest

Remember the conference we organised couple of weeks ago? Well, it was nice, interesting we met a lot of nice people...but now we want to go beyond and spread the news around. Those of you who are interested to see the presentations can now watch three of them on Google Video. *Note - If ...

One more reason…

Alex and I posted on opportunities for building parking garages in Bucharest and Romania given the huge shortages of spots needed to satisfy demand. The success of our ideas required action on the part of those with the power to enforce parking laws. Here is another reason for ...

Table Tennis Gear

Opportunity: Delivering High Standard Table Tennis Equipment In line with other ideas to pursue a niche that...while small... still presents a great opportunity for an entrepreneur to dominate that niche..... After purchasing a tennis table for amateurs I became interested in this sport, for myself because I'm too old for performance ...

Happy holidays!

Enjoy your time with your family, friends, or favorite hobby! Va dorim sa va bucurati de timp cu familia, prietenii sau hobby-ul preferat! Sarbatori fericite!    

Renewable energy - Ethanol

Opportunity: alternative energy resource Clarisa had posted something on Romania's involvement in renewable energy projects and The Economist has a recent article on ethanol, a resource that can be easily produced in Romania. Ethanol is one of the most valued "green resource" and it can be produced using either sugar cane, maize ...

Gregory’s does add-on selling!

In an earlier post, Laura gave suggestions for retailers to train employees how to perform add-on selling; she gave the example of Gregory's, where she had never been asked if she wanted a drink with her sandwitch. After reading her post, I kept observing the staff at the Gregory's I sometimes ...

More international perspective to come…

We will be joined shortly by some colleagues from Pakistan, China, and three more from the U.S. We are looking forward to their arrivals in the next month or so and hearing their business ideas on what they think will succeed in Romania and....what from Romania will succeed ...

Thanks. It’s a rental!

Opportunity: providing tuxedos for special occasions In modern day Romania social events are increasing in numbers and also in importance. Thus the need to look sharp increases. That’s why a company that provides tuxedos for renting will be a successful company, not only because of the increasing need but also because of ...

So close and yet so far…

I thought I had finally found a good example of a restaurant that really takes you back in history as I had wished for in an earlier post. This one was called Camelot in Timisoara. Their waiters were dressed in period clothing. The atmosphere was definitely historic with big wood ...

Give me a makeup artist

Opportunity: Create a great customer experience in your shop Purchasing makeup in Romanian shops is quite a bewildering experience... The salespeople hardly know their products, and you are left to find your own way through the maze. It is true, Romanian women love makeup and are probably determined enough to find ...

Update on “Collaborative Tools”

As Anca previously announced, we've just organized an international conference in Bucharest - "Collaborative Tools: Solutions for Improved Efficiency", that is. First impression? Well, I have to confess that it was great success (and I'm not only saying that because I was the conference manager) - everybody agreed with this - ...

Parking places revisited…

To add to Alex's post on building new parking garages... This is really one example where the relationship between government action and private business is very important. While this idea of "Public Private Partnership" is spoken frequently by government officials, what it really means now and in the future is ...

Parking places go… up!

Opportunity: building multi-level parking places Romania definitely lacks parking spaces in all major cities, but we can identify a trend beginning to develop that tries to solve the problem: parking buildings. Things start to shape up in this area as between 2008 and 2010 will be built 14000 parking places in Bucharest ...

Radacini Motors - Repair Service

Opportunity: Turning Cost centers into Profit centers As Sara posted earlier on Apple's repair service, I'd like to point out Radacini Motors. They are car dealers for the brands Chevrolet and Opel. Leaving aside the fact that my family bought an Opel New Astra from them last summer and the service ...

A very brief contest…

First of all... sorry for the lack of postings.... All of us have been busy preparing for our conference. The good news is that we have one free registration for our blog readers...  Please look at the conference website at www.sopolec.com/collaborativetools, write one sentence on what you would hope to learn at ...

No statistics for vegetarians in Romania

A first vegetarian restaurant in Bucharest In an effort to answer an earlier question - what is the estimated percentage of vegetarians in Romania? - I called the local vegetarian association ("Societatea Vegetarienilor din Romania"). They were very friendly and helpful; however, there are no reliable sources for this information. There ...

Sports center for kids.

Opportunity: Offering integrated sport services for small children. I posted an article on Sport center for kids a while ago. Later, while checking up on this, I came across a few sports centers for kids in California. I wrote messages to contacts that I could find asking them these questions: -how ...

Conference on “Collaborative Tools”

There will be a new conference in town.....among many other new things that will happen in the near future. This conference I'm telling you about is special for two reasons: 1. It will discuss the best business practices for using the latest IT solutions for persons to collaborate better at work; 2. ...

Auto insurance cynicism

Opportunity: Stripped-down, bullet-proof services The most common business model is "pile-on-more-features-until-the-customer-is-overwhelmed". In this framework, you take an inventory of the 'features' that your competitors offer, and then add something. This 'added value' is heavily marketed via mass-media, sales efforts, etc. It's difficult to argue against this approach - however, customers ...

Petite?… Then you’re in big trouble…

Opportunity: Clothes stores for petites I went this weekend on a long journey in search of suit. A business suit, to be more specific. I was pretty optmistic as the offer seemed reasonable. But to my surprise, there was nothing wearable for me. It's not that there weren't too many models, ...

Traditional Restaurants - follow up.

Opportunity: Offering unique customer experience in restaurants. Following up on my post about Opening up a Traditional Restaurant I made a few phone calls and talked with some people from within the industry. I also visited one new restaurant. The questions this time were: What is the specific cuisine of this restaurant?...'Romanian ...

Bring me into your store for a repair!

Opportunity: Transforming repair service into a profit center Yesterday I took my white Macbook for a simple repair - a replacement of the discolored palmrest. This is a known issue, and the staff quickly solved it. Now my Macbook looks wonderful again. This was the most pleasant experience I had with any ...

Food delivery… a serious opportunity for those willing to improve

Opportunity: Increase customer satisfaction through better delivery services We've celebrated women's day with some Indian food delivered at the office. Given the reputation of the restaurant and the quality of the food, the home delivery service was surprisingly far from meeting our very basic expectations: on time delivery and appropriate ...

Lady’s cab

Opportunity: offering cab services for women Springwise spotted an idea that do very well on the Romanian market. It's about cab companies for women, with cars driven by women. We're looking at a potential market of 11.1 million women (according to the National Institute of Statistics). One may argue that Romania is ...

Caminul de Batrani Orhideea - ideas for “taking off”

I think they should start promoting it here, because the "clients" that they adress are Romanian, right? Opening this type of business in the most developed regions ( Timisoara, Bucharest) has it's advantages and disadvantages. It has an advantage because the incomes are higher here than in other region of the country, ...

Looking for two more customers…

Interview: Caminul de Batrani Orhideea As promised earlier, I called the people who run two private nursing homes to ask them the questions you (and I) wanted to know: Batraneti Linistite and Orhideea. At Batraneti Linistite, the lady who answered the phone told me that she would have someone contact me ...

and one last RoBlogFest picture…

Anca and her friend Oana.

Wireless everywhere. - Part 2

I wrote a post on 8th of February regarding the importance of wireless internet access in coffee shops and tea houses. I talked with managers from within a few coffee shop chains that offered that service and asked them a few questions. The main idea from the discussions I had with ...

RoBlogFest 2007

Anca, her friend Oana, my wife Laura, and my friend Erik attended last night's RoBlogFest 2007 at the Spice Club in Bucharest. We had a great time...which explains why my "morning" post is published after 1pm. While our blog did not win a prize, it was very ...

Bon profit!

Opportunity: Fruit and vegetables kiosks I have just returned from a trip to Barcelona and I must say I was impressed with the importance the Spanish people give to their health: from healthy food to daily exercise (people jogging and riding their bikes at any time, mornings and evenings). Speaking of healthy ...

On-line Romania - go sightseeing

Opportunity: offering online touristic information about Romania “Romania has a huge potential for attracting tourists” – this is a statement that you will hear everywhere – in conferences, in TV shows, in debates, in the newspapers. Tourism is one area that has huge development capability and is considered an advantage when ...

“Batraneti linistite” and “Orhideea”

In November, I was writing about the potential for creating private nursing homes. Well, today I saw a large banner in Piata Romana (you can see it on the building at the corner between Str. Eminescu and Dacia Blvd.) advertising a private nursing home - "Batraneti Linistite", which could mean "Quiet ...

Eating “green”

Opportunity: Offering vegetarian food The vast majority of the Romanian people eat meat, but there is still a significant percentage (constantly increasing) that are vegetarians. There are no restaurants in Bucharest that sell just vegetarian ...

Take my treadmill, give me a bicycle instead

Opportunity: Exercise equipment buyback programs Recent news announced plans for major sports equipment retailers, such as Decathlon, to enter the Romanian market. This will introduce stiff competition for local retailers that have 'owned' the market up to now. Romanian retailers face dire prospects of being pushed out of the market ...

Vote for us!

We are a team of Romanian students from ASE studying for MBA's or other subjects plus a management consultant from California living in Bucharest. We all have one thing in common: we love business ideas. Over the past few months we have gathered over 100 business ideas from ...

stand and deliver…part III

As mentioned, here is an answer to a questions I received from the audience at a presentation on entrepreneurism in Romania at the Academy of Economic Studies (described in my previous post): One of the participants asked... “Are Romanian employees harder to manage than others?" Whether it is due to the ...

stand and deliver…part II

Irina asked in her comment to my post: “I am curious what is your opinion regarding Romanian students compared with the ones in US?” In general, the technical skills –Math, Programming, etc. are much higher among the Romanian students. The Romanian school system relies, however, too much on ...

A pool of experts…

Opportunity: implementing a portal with Romanian specialists All the publications (and there are many) that are analyzing the impact of EU Integration on Romania’s social, political and business environment are projecting...in the near future Romania will suffer a severe lack of experts in different areas such as IT, financing, marketing, ...

Stand and deliver…

Last night I went to the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest as I was asked to give a presentation on Entrepreneurism to a student group based on my experiences of starting a business in Romania. The group was from AIESEC- those high-achieving students looking to develop ...

The handy carpenter

Oportunity: delivering furniture easy to assemble There is a do-it-yourself fever in Romania nowadays, with flourishing retailers in the branch that target the habit, the mind frame of Romanians to do things around the house by themselves. I found this idea on springwise and I had a flashback on how I assembled ...

Need a change of scenery?

Opportunity: Art rental service for homes and offices One of our readers - Mr. Francois Lasalle, the Commercial Counsellor at the Canadian Embassy in Romania - told us about an excellent idea that found considerable success in Montreal and would be a great fit for Romania: art rental services. Companies entering ...

Hold on, Grandpa’s buzzing me on Yahoo!

Opportunity: Senior internet coaching I was recently talking to one executive in the IT&C sector, who told us about his efforts to introduce his elderly parents to computing and internet usage. The solution they came up with was to have the teenage grand-daughter visit her grandparents and coach them for one ...

I’m craving… spicy food

Opportunity: offering specialized cuisine in Romania I was writting in one of my previous posts about small specialized stores trying to identify the segment markets where you could really compete with the supermarkets.I was discussing there about bread specialties, giving as an example french bakeries (by the way I've seen a ...

Sit back, relax, and leave your worries to us…

Opportunity: introducing all-inclusive services to Romania In an earlier post I was underlining the fact that Romanian tourism is missing the service called all-inclusive. About those all-inclusive hotels, I remembered my trip in 5th grade in an all-inclusive resort: Club Aldiana Siam. It's part of an exclusive chain of sea-resorts. Everything is ...

Wireless everywhere.

Opportunity: introducing wide range wireless hotspots Laptop sales rose at least 30% every year for a few years now; this opens an opportunity for coffee shops and others to step up. As an extension to our discussion on improving services... Wireless Internet Access should be provided by every coffee shop and tea ...

And it’s rollin’, rollin’, rollin’….

Opportunity: Investments on the leisure market - Bowling Club I wanted to go bowling this weekend... But no luck for me, as all the places I checked were full and required prior reservation... Reservation! It seems that the demand is so great that the offer cannot satisfy it! I googled the ...

A coffee bar with a gimmick

Opportunity: Differentiate yourself from the usual coffee house Most of the coffee houses in Romania are very similar. Modern or ultra-modern design… Sleek, uncomfortable furniture… Italian espresso machines… same menu…. There is room on the market for someone to differentiate themselves with the “look and the feel” of their place ...

Romanian real estate market … an anomaly of a business model

I don’t even know where to start talking about this. The real estate market in Romania post EU accession looks pretty bad. That means it languishes. Nobody sells, nobody buys. If you talk to developers the prices escalated by about 20 % in January. If you ask real estate agents, ...

Help me get a research grant!

Opportunity: FP7 proposal preparation for academics A recent call for offers has been published under the Framework Programme 7, the EU's financing instrument for academic research. Recent changes in academic evaluation criteria put Romanian academics under a lot of pressure to successfully participate in research projects winning EU money. However, there ...

Green-Works

Clarisa was writing earlier about business opportunities in second-hand office furniture. A Lime TV show recently featured Green-Works, a social enterprise in the UK that collects, sorts and repairs used office furniture, selling it at a low cost. The main target is NGOs and non-profits, but many other groups can benefit ...

Tea at the…church

Opportunity:  opening a tea spot in Bucharest I read Sara’s post from earlier this month on "Ceai la Cotroceni" and I thought that indeed she’s right, there are not that many tea houses in Bucharest. Let alone smoke free ones. For more on tea houses I found this interesting blog post ...

Audio books for business people blocked in traffic or in metro

Opportunity: offering a viable way to use "dead times" Anca came up with this idea and I remembered, like from another life, that I used to listen to business books when I was driving in California. Granted, I was spending much more time in traffic then here. But it was very ...

Clean and sober? Well…at least the clean part.

Opportunity:  offering self-laundering services My colleague Alex wrote recently about the good prospects for a Laundromat in Romania. A few additions to this idea – already proven successful elsewhere – would make this even more successful. In university towns and hip urban areas across the United States, Laundromats have often ...

Where else could I advertise?

Opportunity: broadcasting commercials to a captive audience… We had some previous post on new places where companies could advertise like gyms and garbage cans. With so many entertainment options available from internet to satellite and cable TV with hundreds of channels, advertisers are finding it more and more difficult ...

Mobile Notary Publics?

Opportunity: An entreprenuerial notary public or an entreprenuer teaming with one... In Romania, there are countless times when a notarized signature is required. Currently, the process involves heading out to a Notary Public’s office where you are bound to wait. The service, in my experience, has been poor ...

Let the games begin!

Opportunity: Investments on the leisure market - Miniature golf Given the splendid weather in Bucharest in the past week, I thought of one of my hobbies: miniature golf. I like mini golf, but in Bucharest I can only think of 2 miniature golf courses - one in Herastrau Park and one ...

Wash me!

Opportunity: offering self-laundering services I have to admit that the washing machine market in Romania is very well developed, and that a lot of people have them in their home. That still leaves a margin of people who don't own such machines and can't afford to go to the dry cleaners. Here ...

Storing space reloaded…

Opportunity: offering general storage space Following-up on my last post focusing on storage solutions for students... it is important to note that there is no viable storage solution for the greater Romanian market. Romanians tend to gather a lot of things "in case they need them". In time, these things ...

Advertising in Gyms.

Opportunity : new place to advertise My colleague Clarisa was talking in an earlier post about advertising on trash cans and pointed out the new spaces that advertising undertakes and I thought about advertising in gyms. Putting ads in gyms on LCD screens can help reduce costs and they are fun ...

Organic canned products - part 2

Opportunity: introducing professional organic canned food to Romania On a previous post I was talking about organic canned products and pointed out the recipe for watermelon jam. Recently my family had a family of close friends join us for dinner, and they really enjoyed my mothers "sweet" pickles, also known as ...

“Ceai la Cotroceni”

Opportunity: Specialty restaurant / boutique outlet After spending a wonderful evening in one of very few tea houses in Bucharest - "Ceai la Cotroceni" - I keep thinking about what assures the success of this business. It is located on a very quiet street, and would be impossible to identify if ...

Moving out:make it easy

Opportunity: comprehensive professional services for private persons that are moving out There are a lot of articles in Romanian press analyzing the real-estate market and making different assumptions and forecasts. I don’t know how right they are in predicting the trends, but one thing is for sure: even if the prices ...

Sibiu and beyond!

Opportunity: taking profit from Sibiu's privileged position in 2007 Having been named one of Europe’s “Cultural Capitals” for 2007, it is Sibiu’s (and Romania's) time to shine. Many curious travelers– including those of German descent looking for "Hermannstadt", retired Roman soldiers, and elderly Dacians – will visit the renovated city to ...

Comedy cafes… It’s time to stand up!

Opportunity: Investments on the cafes market As I was mentioning in a previous post, the Romanian leisure market follows a positive trend. And no doubt, the investment opportunities are plenty. Investments in cafes, for instance. I cannot but think of the success Cafe Deko has, being the only cafe in ...

Casa Ardeleneasca

Opporunity: open region-specific restaurants On New Year's day, I spent some time in Cluj with some friends - mostly looking for a restaurant that was open on January 1! When we finally found "Casa Ardeleneasca" - the "Transylvania Home" - we were pleasantly surprised to see that it was a ...

Take it away while I’m gone

Opportunity: offering summer storing space for students I've been having a problem for 3 summers now. Every time I go home after the college year ends, I'm having trouble with the transport of my things. As you can imagine, I'm not carrying just a backpack... I found a solution on springwise. It's ...

All-inclusive

Opportunity: bringing all-inclusive services to Romania My colleague Magda was writing in one of the first posts about Romanian tourism, its future development and a comparison to Bulgarian tourism. It's a fact that Bulgarian sea resorts are currently the best choice. Why? Because they deliver three important things: low prices, high-quality ...

And that one is from Romania…

Opportunity: Romanian specific souvenirs for tourists I have traveled a lot in my life, all around the world, for business and pleasure. My house is filled with souvenirs I bought from each place, something that would be representative for my experience there or for the place itself. Let alone all the ...

EU money for software acquisitions

Opportunity: acquire EU funds for software purchase Starting with 2007, Romanian SME's will be able to apply for funds for software acquisitions. Romanian public authorities have decided to support e-economy; therefore, encouraging SME's access to different types of software is one measure meant to reach the objective. The projects developed should ...

Can you recommend a good hotel - for cheap?

Opportunity: Hotel chain at a moderate price level A recent discussion on the Yahoo Group "Romania Economics" addresses the problem of tourism-related services in Romania. "The Romanian tourist industry better raise the bar of service-standards. The general tourist has certain expectations even in the modestly-priced hotels. Electrical sockets that work, lamps that ...

Administration for new apartments

Opportunity: Property and Facility Management Services All of Bucharest and large portions of Romania are now a giant construction site. Buildings - especially residential buildings - will be delivered almost continuously for the next years. This provides an immense opportunity for professional property and facility management services. Traditionally, Romanian apartment blocs have ...

Alert! Baby in the house!

Opportunity: Baby proofing services It's close to my birthday and I remember the stories my mom told me about my behaviour as a baby. She told me she had a hard time keeping me safe in the house because I always fell off the bed and started walking on my hands ...

Furnish me!

Opportunity: Furniture for rent This autumn, a cousin moved to Bucharest from another city of Romania. She bought an apartment in September but, until November, she couldn't live there because she did not yet have any furniture. In order to furnish her apartment, she needed to search in many furniture shops ...

Earth, wind, water, fire, heart! Go, Planet!

Opportunity: Private sector renewable energy projects Energy is an important sector that is to be financed out of the long-awaited E.U. Structural Funds; in particular, the sector that involves production of energy from renewable sources. It is important to note that Romanian authorities have developed a strategy that includes private ...

Are you going backpacking?

Opportunity: Backpacking equipment for rent As an avid backpacker, I very much enjoy introducing my friends to this activity as well. However, the challenge is always that it is difficult for a first-time backpacker to obtain the proper equipment. A newcomer is unsure if she will enjoy the activity, and is ...

Any drink to go with that sandwich, Sir?

Opportunity: Increasing sales through better employee sales training Whether we like it or not, the quality of service in Romania, although improved substantially in the past years, still needs improvement: there still are clothing stores, restaurants, etc where you are welcomed with a grumpy hello or where you are not ...

Braiding, etching, origami…

Opportunity: Crafts and hobbies shop For a number of years, I volunteered time as a staff member in an organization similar to the "Boy Scouts" - Pathfinders. We organized large, fun 'Camporees' - events where children would learn new crafts or improve their performance in a favorite hobby. As we organized these ...

Shrink and Grow

Opportunity:offering innovative clothes for children CoolBusinessIdeas wrote a post that I found very interesting about resizeable clothes for children. I think parents would save a lot of time, money and energy if someone could provide their children with clothes that can be adjusted as the little ones grow. There are a few ...

Advertising on trash

Opportunity: promote products in an original way In Romania advertising is gaining more and more spaces. There are a few advertising companies making a great job, like Oops Media (advertising in restrooms) and Elevate ( in elevators). Recently, while reading the Urban Furniture blog, I saw something that is still very ...

Mom and kid are going out

Opportunity: Sports program for moms and kids Cristian was discussing a few days ago about creating a sports center for kids. The idea is good, but I was thinking of something else to complete the portfolio of services that the center may offer: What do you think about fitness activities ...

Outsourced X-rays

Opportunity: Outsourcing medical information processing Medical residents in Romania are notoriously underpaid and face a daunting fight if they want to obtain a position in a hospital in a major city. Many of them are highly motivated and have studied hard, although they may not be readily familiar with the latest ...

The almighty web …

Opportunity: online stores for ... I was browsing the web the other day and found a really promising online business model, Segreto Impex - importer and distributor of uniforms through its online store. An online store for uniforms dedicated to different industries (hotels, restaurants, bars, casinos, hospitals, transportation, etc), FAQs, advice ...

Show me the money…

Opportunity: invoice payments for friends and family Paying invoices in Romania is a nerve-wrecking experience. For example, this morning my parents went to the bank to pay the telephone bill; it took them 45 minutes to process the payment. They had to send an envelope by postal service, which took a ...

Online banking?

Opportunity - more flexible banking tools Banking capabilities in Romania are still a challenge for me. Lately I was in the strange situation to not be able to use my own money immediately. I opened a personal and a corporate account in Constanta. At the time I did not think that ...

Green financing from the EU

Opportunity: Technologies for Environmental Protection Raising the competitiveness of Romanian companies on the common European market is one important objective of the financial support allocated by EU to Romania through Structural Funds. Among other things, there is financing for private and public companies to acquire technologies for environmental protection. This ...

Pilates

Opportunity: Introduce new fitness activities Cities in Romania are experiencing a rapid growth in the number of fitness centers; their quality is increasing, also. There is still plenty of room, but the first to take a position as outstandingly fun and innovative will have a definite advantage as competition increases. In Bucharest, ...

Ice, Ice … cream

Opportunity: Ice cream parlours in Bucharest As an icecream lover, I must say I am a bit disappointed with what Bucharest offers: from (dessert) restaurant to (dessert) restaurant, very little differs in terms of creative combinations and variety; only at the malls and in Carrefour Orhideea there's a small "gelato" bar ...

My wallet was shivering

Last weekend, I visited the Luxury Show at RomExpo with low expectations, or rather… too-high-for-my-budget expectations. Normally I go to these trade show/events as it is a good way to see what is available or arriving soon in Romania. This time, I was curious to ...

Mom’s health

Opportunity: Delivering food for pregnant women Healthy food is obviously a trend in any economy these days. Wouldn't it be interesting to have a shop that sells food destined for pregnant women. It is a known fact pregnant women have to eat special food that exists on the market, but not ...

Focused retailing, Santa Claus, and the Gingerbread people

Opportunity: Focus and dominate your niche One of my first observations upon first arriving in Central and Eastern Europe in 1994 was how the offerings of the retail stores were so unfocused. With the release of the free market, everyone just put product out on tables and hoped ...

Innovative Workplaces

In reference to Clarisa's post about a week ago about Workplace Assesments and Ergonomic Design services... I thought I would pass along a video of our conference organized by SOPOLEC, the firm of the businessideas.ro team: It is about making a business case for creating an “Innovative Workplace” that includes good ...

Holiday greetings -1$ apiece

Opportunity: Quality greeting cards Shopping for holiday greeting cards can be a chore - but at least it is manageable. However, finding the right greeting card in Romanian shops is outright frustration. Most supermarkets and all bookstores feature a greeting card section, but they all carry the same cards. The offer ...

Sports center for kids

Opportunity: offering services for kids After a talk with some colleagues and relatives who have small children I came to the idea that in Bucharest we're missing a sports center for kids. And I don't mean that sports clubs don't accept children of 5 years or above, it's just that when ...

S.O.S. - plumber needed

Business opportunity: Plumbing services The people at Metropotam made an interesting point today....It's very difficult to find a professional plumber if none of your relatives/colleagues/friends recommend someone to you. The options are pretty limited - mesterul online (one of their recommendations) is a start, but still not very convincing, as ...

My kid is cooking lunch today…

Opportunity: teach kids how to cook Oldschool Romanian parents are gone. Nowadays their working time is gradually increasing and they have less and less time for their children. They send them from an early age to do sports, dancing, take art classes and so on…but…what do kids really need to learn? ...

Christmas decorations

Opportunity: offer Christmas decoration and team-building solution at the same time We decided to have a Christmas party at the office. What does a Christmas party need? Trees, globes, wreaths, lights, cards, gifts and much more little and cute related stuff. I found something related to Christmas decorating in Romania (trees, lights, ...

All Romanian - Gift Shop

Opportunity: gift shop with only traditional Romanian products Why such a gift shop? Well, traditional objects are the favourite gift for most of the Romanians going abroad, either on a business trip or to visit friends/family, and for the foreigners visiting Romania. A store that gathers all kinds of authentic products, ...

Cell! No cell!?….Eureka!

Opportunity: Mobile phone anti-theft system Springwise recently posted about a system that can get the lost/stolen mobile phone back to its owner and works as following: you register your cellphone on a site; when you report it lost, some information is sent to the phone so the finder can return ...

An apple a day… keeps the dietitian busy

Opportunity: Professional dietitian services A recent conversation with a physician and director of a preventive medicine center revealed that there is a great need for professional dietitians. Hospitals, especially, are required to have their menus approved by qualified nutritionists. At this time, hospital 'dietitians' are mostly general practice nurses who were ...

Workplace risk assessment and ergonomic design

Opportunity: deliver ergonomic solutions for the workplace I found out about a good business opportunity at a conference we recently organized about the "workplace of the future". A new law to regulate health and security at workplace is in operation from October 1st, 2006. With more legal requirements, employers will have ...

Amusement parks in old buildings

Opportunity: reusing old buildings create new business I recently read a post on an innovative urban amusement park in Boston and one idea came into my mind on how to beam it up to Romania...and I have also identified the right "infrastructure". Romania is full of old factories, the former "stars" ...

Smoking cessation - anything related…

Opportunity: offering health care services or products Quick idea... Products and Services to reduce/quit smoking Given better health education, stricter company and building policies regarding smoking, and...most importantly...a recent tax increase... Romanians will be seeking help to quit smoking. Plausible programs with demonstrable results, effective products, and other ideas will be ...

Traditional restaurant.

Opportunity: opening a restaurant that creates an atmosphere specific to a Romanian region In Romania and in Bucharest in general there is a rapidly growing demand of restaurants since people work more and more, earn more money and have less time to prepare their food by themselves thus adopting the ...

Supply chain for fresh produce

Opportunity: Centralization and distribution of the fresh fruits and vegetables offer It’s been a while now since we keep on talking in the office about how difficult it is to find fresh/organic produce on the Romanian market. Supermarkets carry them, but they don’t always have them. Restaurants sometimes have sometimes don’t ...

Tryvertising

Opportunity: “try before you buy” - marketing services Tryvertising is the alternative for spending your marketing budget on message-based advertising, commercials and other imagery that invades the consumer instead of leaving him to choose to use your product. The products that could have a tryvertising campaign belong to extremely large categories: shoe ...

Lifestyle, Leisure and Profitable Trends

Opportunity: Investments on the leisure market Increasing growth and refinement, positive trends and optimistic figures describe the Romanian leisure market: an average of 3 hours of spare time/day, 21 days of holiday per year (plus National Day, Christmas, New Year and Easter), and expenses of 3.3 billion of euros/year (estimations by ...

Organic Canned Products

Opportunity: Canned Watermelon Rind Jam This is a product that’s easy to obtain, the recipe is very simple and in the summer watermelons are extremely cheap, almost sold for nothing. Many Romanians still undertake massive canning projects throughout summer and autumn to ensure a winter supply of food they can trust. But ...

All-Romanian

Opportunity: Specialty Romanian products store The upcoming EU integration brings the fear that many Romanian businesses will be decimated. With custom taxes out of the way, imported products will be able to further capture the market. Some Romanians fear this will drive into the grave products they have known and enjoyed for a long time. ...

A business opportunity for accountants

Opportunity: Professional accounting services **Note - This post relates to a number of opportunities to “professionalize” the services industry. While this post will be relevant mostly to accountants, the same concepts can be applied to almost any service industry. I will post more examples later…** When I first set ...

Bread specialties

Opportunity: Network of neighborhood bakeries The “hypermarket” fever has conquered Romania a couple of years ago and Romanians seem addicted to the large warehouse where you can go once a week (preferably in weekends) to get supplies for at least couple of days. Small specialized stores have suffered a lot once ...

Archery Club

Opportunity -a specialized or "niche" Sports and Entertainment club Though not a necessity, this is a form of entertainment that would definitely work: an archery club in Romania. To be successful, the club must provide integrated services. You should, for example, be able to practice there, buy or rent a bow ...

New design for new apartments

Opportunity: Interior design services New apartments are being quickly built in Bucharest and other major cities in Romania. For the people who will move into them, this is probably the most important change in their living environment, and comes with high hopes. They will want to decorate their apartments to ...

Providing alternative energy services

Opportunity: Highly professional alternative energy services Romania has become a formal partner of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) on October 27, 2006. This international public-private partnership promotes policies and regulations in support of renewable energy and energy efficiency. By joining forces with REEEP, Romania intends to contribute to ...

Aggressive introduction of new products

Opportunity: introducing Ziploc bags to the Romanian market There are products that have a high level of value for customers, yet have not been introduced to Romania. Distribution systems are already in place and demand could grow very quickly with a proper marketing strategy. Fast-moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) would be the ...

Babysitter agency

Opportunity: offering baby-sitting services In Romania there is a great deficit of babysitters. Most people don't trust their children with strangers, but I believe that a professional agency of placing babysitters could eliminate this fear. Some families are able to leave their children in the care of grandparents. This brings financial benefits ...

Career clothing for women - going online

Opportunity: Online shopping for business clothes On a previous post, I tried to give you an insight on the market for women's business clothing in Bucharest. Given the fact that these career women don't have the time to spend entire afternoons going shopping without having any guarantee that they would ...

Plant decoration services

Opportunity: Plant decoration services for offices and homes In today's Romania, people are more and more preoccupied with the environment in which they work or live. A rise in average income as well as the construction of many office and residential complexes have led to increasing demand of professional interior design ...

Clothes dryers

Opportunity: exploit a neglected market niche In Romania the vast majority of the households do not have a clothes dryer and the retailers seem to have neglected this segment of appliances (I have researched Altex, Domo, Flanco, Mediagalaxy on their online stores and found 1 model on Altex and 1 on ...

Second hand office furniture

Opportunity: online furniture marketplace Many Romanian companies are changing their headquarters (there are plenty of new A-class offices buildings) and they do not know what to do with their old furniture. Most used office furniture pieces have only been used for a few years and have minimal wear and ...

Financial and banking markets in post-EU integration

Opportunity: New modern financial tools are needed on the fast developing Romanian market - Credits I lived for the last 10 years of my life in the US and I have become fairly anchored in the banking/credit system as a way to build what Americans call the "credit history". I had ...

A desperately needed and lucrative service - better senior care

Opportunity: Private nursing homes Like most European states, Romania's population is aging rapidly. This trend is exacerbated by the widespread emigration of the younger population - 2-3 million Romanians are estimated to work abroad. In many towns, only elderly people remain. For young people working abroad to earn higher incomes, this ...

Authentic Taste and Romanian Traditions – memories or opportunities?

Opportunity: Traditionally prepared organic food In a world that is moving fast-food, where traditional recipes are industrialized, Romania seems eager to keep pace with this trend, and forget about its authentic gastronomic heritage.The first step made at a global level to prevent the loss of the gastronomic patrimony, was made by ...

Instant music download

Opportunity: offering hi-tech download solutions A lot of people in Romania listen to the radio through their mobile phone. The challenge is up to someone who could build a service that will enable customers to buy the songs on the radio as they are played. To get more technical, a platform ...

Fruit kiosks - for healthy people on the run

Opportunity: Kiosks selling washed ad ready-to-eat fruit The reason why I consider this an opportunity is that there are more and more health-conscious people in Romania's big cities. These people would rather eat a healthy snack on their way to a meeting or in a station, than the usual donuts/muffins found ...

Mailboxes

Opportunity: replacing mailboxes in apartment buildings Most mailboxes in apartment blocs in Romania look like a haunted house: dingy, minuscule boxes with locks that no longer work and doors that swing open. If you're subscribed to a magazine or newspaper, you must rush to rescue each twisted issue before the neighborhood ...

Office delivery salads

Opportunity: healthy food - catering for offices There is a growing health consciousness among young professionals in large cities in Romania. These are high-income eco-conscious consumers who spend long days at the office. A monthly subscription service can offer these peoples the choice of a different salad each day. Having a healthy ...

Finding a business suit – a smooth journey? Well, not for the moment…

Opportunity: career clothing for women - retailers and tailors take heed In an ideal world you can find a nice business suit or evening dress that fits you perfectly just when you need it. But that is an ideal world. And the offer on the Bucharest market is far from ...

Taxi roll-up

Opportunity: offering services for taxi companies An earlier post detailed opportunities for using technology in order to provide a more reliable taxi service. Of course, this would have to be supported by other basic features, such as driver training and testing, reliable driving (taxi drivers are notorious for giving unsuspecting passengers ...

New opportunities with microfinance in Romania

Opportunity: new consumers entering the market with micro-finance. With this year’s awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Bengali economist and banker Dr. Muhammad Yunus, all eyes have turned to microfinancing and what it can do in the developing world. Already very popular in South-East Asia and Latin America, the ...

A surge in demand for energy efficiency

Opportunity: All things energy efficient Many Romanians have been insulating their apartments and buying new, more efficient refrigerators and other appliances. Some recent developments, however, will vastly expand the need for a variety of products and services related to energy efficiency. With European Union accession just over two months away… ...

Taxi-by-SMS for Bucharest

Opportunity: Technology-enabled taxi service Most of these days, trying to obtain a taxi in Bucharest is a grueling task. You call one taxi company, get on hold for a couple of minutes; a grim-voiced operator picks up, and you listen to the two-way radio chatter for a few minutes until you ...

Caveat Emptor? What about a refund instead?

Opportunity: An enormous “first mover advantage” in obtaining customer loyalty for retailers in Romania Few retailers in Romania offer anything close to a formal policy of being able to return items in exchange for your money back. Some of my friends and colleagues here in Bucharest suggest that ...

Marketing organic products on the Romanian market

Opportunity: Organic food Canned food products that will offer organic versions for health-conscious consumers will be able to build a market in Romania as well as export to countries within the region and beyond. Many Romanians still undertake massive canning projects throughout summer and autumn to ensure a winter supply of ...

The overlooked Romanian market for organic produce

Opportunity: Organic food Romanians living abroad long for the flavourful tomatoes back home - but when they come back, they often find that the produce on the market now is not as tasty as they remember. Imported and greenhouse vegetables have swamped supermarket shelves and even farmer's market stands. While people ...

Prospects for the “category killer”

Opportunity: Specialty Retailing Romania has certainly already seen the successful arrival of the hypermarkets, such as Carrefour and Cora, "Cash & Carry" stores including Metro and Selgros and the do-it-yourselfs such as Brico Store and Practiker (Americans…think of Home Depot). Rising incomes, the fast beginnings ...

Taking service to a higher level in Romanian tourism…

Opportunity: High quality/price offerings for tourism in Romania Hotel chains or boutiques and restaurants at all price levels who can implement consistent service standards stand to gain a loyal repeat clientele. Both locals and tour groups are willing and able to pay a premium for quality. Romanian tourists now have higher ...

Here we are!

We are a group of business consultants all working in Bucharest, Romania. We are a blend of Romanian and U.S. citizens with both extensive experience advising multinational companies and a desire to help form a responsible and successful business community. This country is changing fast - faster than many businesses ...