Start Your Own Business in Eight Days
Citibank Europe plc,
Organizational Unit
March 16, 2011
Start Your Own Business in eight days
The second half of March will see the start of the third year of Erudia’s subsidized training courses “Start Your Own Business!” The courses are intended for individuals actively interested in entrepreneurship but who do not have sufficient practical knowledge for starting their own business.
PRAGUE – This year’s courses, provided by the Prosperita non-profit organization with support from the Citi Foundation, will offer management training in six Czech towns.
“Over eight days of instruction, participants of ‘Start Your own Business!’ will learn about financial planning, project management, business law, creating a commercial strategy, and marketing and management principles for small businesses, and will also hear practical advice from the experienced managers who lead the course. Under the instructor’s supervision, the participants will create and defend their own business plan, which they can use during presentations to business partners, sponsors, or banks that will decide on whether to finance their business venture,” explains Prosperita’s Petr Kloboučník.
The course is based on an individual approach to the participants. After the end of instruction, all participants can consult their plans in person with the instructor. The low course fee is made possible by support from the Citi Foundation. “Citibank is highly pleased with the success of the Start Your Own Business! project, which has already been completed by 400 individuals, many of whom have already turned their business plans into reality,” says Branislav Cehlárik, public affairs officer at Citibank for the Czech and Slovak Republics. The program conforms to the Citi Foundation’s worldwide strategy for promoting financial and economic education. In addition to funding, the Czech offices of Citibank recently also supported the program by providing volunteers. “Five Citibank employees shared their experiences and knowledge from various business sectors during filming of educational films that are used during training,” explains Cehlárik.
Individuals interested in the “Start Your Own Business!” course can register online at the Prosperita website ( or can reserve their place in the course by sending an e-mail to or calling 242 480 242. The website also contains detailed information about the courses and about the dates of the individual topics.
-----
Citi Foundation
The Citi Foundation focuses on strengthening the financial proficiency of individuals and their families, in particular people in need, in the communities in which we do business, so that they may improve their standard of living. Worldwide, the Citi Foundation focuses on the following strategic areas: microfinance and micro-enterprises, small and growing companies, training, and financial education. More information is available at
Citi training programs in the area of finance
Because we believe that education is the best asset, Citi’s financial training program worldwide is focused on identifying, promoting, and realizing projects that help to strengthen the financial proficiency of individuals, their families, and communities, so that they will be capable of making the right decisions in the area of finances. Over the course of 10 years, Citi has invested USD 200 million into the training of individuals, small business owners, and institutions. For more information on Citi’s training program in the area of finance, please visit http:/financialeducation.citigroup.com.
Prosperita, o.p.s.
Prosperita is a non-profit non-governmental organization that designs and holds courses for middle management and for individuals interested in starting their own business. In addition to organizing training courses, Prosperita’s main activities include: collecting ideas, know-how, and experience that are of key importance to company and project management; creating tools for teaching entrepreneurship at schools; producing documents about successful entrepreneurs; and filming interviews with interesting individuals. The organization’s multimedia output is available at In its six years of existence, Prosperita has directly helped more than 3,500 clients and filmed more than 500 case study videos about business and 20 short films about Czech entrepreneurs. For more information, please visit or
Media contacts:
Branislav Cehlárik
Public Affairs Officer for Czech and Slovak Republics
Bucharova 2641/14, 158 02 Prague 5, Czech Republic
Mob.: + 420 775 864 444; + 421 905 894 845
Tel.: + 420 233 061 661; + 421 2 58230 472
Petr Kloboučník
Prosperita, o.p.s.
Project manager
Mobile: +420 731 440 312
E-mail: