EVER wondered how certain people are able to become their own boss and set up their own company?
It always astonishes me when I see courageous, young people in particular ‘go it alone’ and take risks to succeed through sheer determination and hard work.
Meet Matylda
One such person is Matylda Setlak, who set up Setlak PR, a public relations company specialising in Polish consumers and products, in late 2006. Matylda had only been in England for nine months, yet she spotted a gap in the PR market and sought to fill it.
Matylda was only 27-years-old at the time and she researched all she needed to know about running a company, here in the UK. The Polish graduate in - history, journalism and communications, advertising and public relations - from the renowned Jagiellonian University in Krakow, lacked managerial experience, having at most worked as a press officer in the Polish NHS.
Time for change
In addition, Matylda worked as a freelance journalist for a number of local Krakow titles, writing about student life and social issues. This was all after graduating in 2005. Matylda says: “I was not 100% happy with my career, neither was my then boyfriend, now husband Michal. He was a psychology graduate but struggled to find a job which met his expectations, that is why we decided to move to the UK, two years after Poland joined the EU.”
However, lack of substantial experience was not going to get in the way of this ambitious young lady and she describes the moment which changed her life, when she decided to be her own boss: “After coming to the UK in 2006, I was doing a couple of odd jobs like data entry in the back office of a major UK bank and later working as a waitress on a first-class train travelling between Birmingham and London.
Someone else
“I was serving coffee and tea to wealthy businessmen travelling with their Dell laptops and ‘The Da Vinci Code’ novel in their hands. Many times, when I was serving full English breakfast, I was feeling as if it was not me, just somebody else.
“I had that strange feeling of inadequacy. I was wearing an ugly red uniform which I really hated and thought that I should not be there, that this was not my place. Then a couple of months later, I flew to Poland for my final university exams and I met up with my university peers.
“That is when I decided to quit, take a risk and set up a PR consultancy, specialising in communicating with the Polish community in the UK. The number of Poles were growing at the time.
Risk
“A few months earlier, I had met somebody who shared this business idea but I just needed the courage to do it. Going back to Poland and talking to my university friends, I found the strength to do it. I took the risk.”
While still at school Matylda loved reading books and she always loved to write. In addition she studied English diligently. And who knew that years later, she would really needed those language skills.
Lots to learn
Although her English was good, she still needed to improve. In addition Matylda had to learn and research British business culture and how to set up a business from scratch, this involved building her media and business contacts.
This was not always straight forward, Matylda explains: “At the beginning there was nobody who could support me or give me advice. I had to learn the hard way, from my own mistakes. It was painful sometimes. I started to read books on business and attend workshops and found a business mentor and this helped me alot.”
Success at last
However the highs definitely outweigh the lows because three years on, Setlak PR has won countless business deals including the Scottish Tides-Polish Spring account in 2008. This big-budget project lasted half a year and was a major success for Matylda’s company.
In addition Setlak PR has promoted several, top Polish artists with their gigs over here, as well as Polish comedians, Polish political parties and played a major role in a National Minimum Wage (NMW) campaign, informing Eastern Europeans in particular about the NMW and holiday entitlements.