Olena Romanova left behind a profitable facial therapeutic massage salon business when she fled Ukraine for Poland after Russia invaded in February final yr.
Together with three business companions, the 52-year-old is now providing the identical service in Poland – one in every of round 30,000 companies which have been opened by Ukrainian refugees in Poland since then.
“We realized we needed to develop to not go crazy,” stated Romanova, who left the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with one in every of her daughters on the primary day of the struggle and needed to depart her husband behind.
Romanova is one in every of round 1,000,000 Ukrainians at the moment dwelling in Poland.
One in 10 new companies being opened within the nation is owned by a Ukrainian.
“It was very challenging when we started working here in Poland, because you don’t know the language, the laws. You don’t know the industry, the labor market, the products and services,” she stated.
In the start, she stated she and her co-owners “pulled each other up.”
“I’m not sure if I would have been able to do it if I was here alone, based on my psychological state,” she stated.
‘More chaos’ in Ukraine
A fifth of the Ukrainian companies which are sprouting up regardless of Poland’s sluggish economic system are in building.
A big quantity are in tech and the remaining are in companies like hairdressing.
Karina Synevych, a 36-year-old from Kyiv, works for the favored Ukrainian Chernomorka fish restaurant chain which has now opened two branches in Warsaw.
She stated that beginning and operating a business in Poland was extra organized and clear than in Ukraine.
“In Poland, it takes longer. In Ukraine, you can open everything faster, but there is more chaos,” she stated.
When the primary Chernomorka opened in Warsaw in December, the primary clients had been all Ukrainians who left opinions concerning the pleasure of the house cooking and talking their native language.
“We just cried when we read them,” she stated.
Gradually, Ukrainians started to carry their Polish buddies and now many of the clients are Polish.
‘A special life’
Ukraine’s greatest postal service, Nova Poshta, can also be now servicing the big Ukrainian neighborhood in Poland.
It opened its first outlet in Poland in October beneath the identify Nova Post, which permits clients to shortly ship and obtain parcels to and from Ukraine.
“Currently, there are seven branches in Warsaw, and we have 34 branches in the whole of Poland,” stated the corporate’s head of the Polish department, 34-year-old Yevgen Tafiychuk.
Maryna Ivanova, a health coach who got here to the submit workplace in Warsaw to select up a parcel, makes use of the service recurrently.
“For example, today I ordered Ukrainian embroidered shirts. Somehow, I wanted to support a Ukrainian manufacturer,” the 30-year-old stated.
“I also send a lot of things to the army through Nova Poshta. My friends receive them in Odesa and hand them over to the guys. It’s very fast and convenient.”
For many Ukrainians, even those that have opened profitable companies in Poland, any long-term planning is tough.
“I live in the moment,” stated Romanova, including that she additionally finds she is shopping for fewer issues for herself now as a result of she simply wants “my loved ones to be alive.”
Speaking about her new life, Synevych stated she couldn’t say if it was “worse or better, it’s just different, a different life.”
“I try not to plan anything at all. At most, I plan a month ahead. What will happen in six months? It’s hard to say. The main thing is that it ends.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com
