PBlink will provide useful content (much of it in Polish) with links to useful websites with information about business start-up, paying taxes, finding finance for business growth, employment and property law, advice about growing businesses, marketing to British firms, consumers and the public sector. The site will also feature inspiring case-studies from successful Polish entrepreneurs in the UK.
The idea is the brainchild of the Polish entrepreneur and marketer, Bartek Kowalczyk, and is backed by the British Polish Chamber of Commerce (BPCC), whose CEO, Michael Dembinski is enthusiastic about the potential of PBlink. He says, “Many of my parents’ generation who settled in the UK after WWII were successful entrepreneurs: for example, Henryk Strzelecki who founding the clothing firm Henri Lloyd. And yet they never formed a network or association. There were many Polish professional associations representing engineers, doctors, teachers, scientists – actors even – but not entrepreneurs.
“The BPCC hopes that such a network of entrepreneurs from the latest wave of immigrants from Poland will form around the community of PBlink users. For entrepreneurs who also happen to be relative newcomers to the UK, it is important to have a place where they can easily find information to help overcome such internal barriers to growth, such as confining one’s marketing activities only to Polish customers.”
Together with PBlink creator, Bartek Kowalczyk, the BPCC has run numerous networking events to tackle these issues for Polish entrepreneurs in Scotland and the north of England.
Bartek Kowalczyk, founder of PickleMedia says, “Since I’ve been here I’ve witnessed the unexpected side-effect of Britain opening its labour market to Poles in May 2004. Tens of thousands of entrepreneurs from Poland have set up business in the UK. Most are still micro-businesses, though the more dynamic ones are expanding and taking on new employees. Typically, these firms are run by people are taking responsibility for their own livelihoods rather than seeking work from an employer, and are busy creating new wealth for themselves and for the UK economy.
“The scale of this boom in Polish businesses is evident across the UK. Spalding in Lincolnshire for example has four Polish-owned hairdressing salons. There are many hundreds of Polish grocery shops around the country, plus thousands of Polish-run construction companies, painting and decorating businesses, tax and legal consultancies, IT and media firms, plus active Polish entrepreneurs in many other business sectors.
“While there are now many newspapers, magazines and websites aimed at Polish consumers in the UK, until now, there’s not been a business-to-business (B2B) media outlet with purely business content and advertising aimed at Polish entrepreneurs. PBlink aims to fill that gap. PBlink is designed to both stimulate Polish entrepreneurship within the UK, but also open doors to UK companies seeking Polish partners to aid expansion into Central European markets.”
