Stories about Czech entrepreneurs

I´m going to participate in the project MuzesPodnikat.cz for our company (the first summarized article was published in spring on ihned.cz), which takes place in different high schools and at the universities in the Czech republic. It´s organized by volunteer entrepreneurs, who aren´t there just for recognitions from the students for what they achieved and what they didn´t, but more for the purpose of talking about everyday things in life and plans of those young folks. I like this project and that´s why I immediately said ok on this matter. I got a little intimidated by the though of being in the same team with mister Dědek from Jablotron or mister Petr Novotný from the glass factory Ajeto, because in comparison with what they achieved is my little company in east Germany very small. On the other hand, the differences are easily erased, when you stand before 60 students who have absolutely no idea why you are even there and what are you going to talk about for two whole hours.   

I got the periphery Liberec and after my first presentation which took place in Jablonec nad Nisou I had the chance to feel how it´s realy like before I could get used to it. Right after my entrance into the classroom I heard someone whispering the first question: "Holy shit, what does he have in those bags?" this question was answered right back with: "He has got it crammed with cash". Mister Novotný arrived that day later, that´s why I had to talk alone before 59 boys and one girl. Most of them sat in the back rows. You can probably imagine it lively. In the first few minutes I was asking myself what I´m even blabbering about, that´s why I had to identify myslef with them which required to travel back in time a couple of years, so that at least someone will listen to me, I then grew gradually to the conclusion that it´s kinda fun (I hope it´s not just one sided:) and now I was already on my fifth school. I was even assigned to the very grammer school where I was failing four years in a row before I went over to technical school. The presentation was fortunately anonymous thus nobody from my previous teachers knew about it. The professor who used to get me detention is still teaching there :) It was a really odd feeling coming back to this school after 15 years when you knew in that time, that in fact everything you had ever wanted to accomplish is diverging from the opinions of all adults.     

Long time ago I thought about making some kind of internet shipping system and one person told me that I can do it. That same person contacted me after nine years and told me that he is organizing this project (muzespodnikat.cz) and if I´m interested in participating in it too. I was with this idea of shipping system, which you probably also use if you are our client, in the USA in 2006 where I had the chance to to see how young people are supported in every aspect outside of the bounds of posibbilities or in this case of the intergrated education system at schools. I was sitting there among thousands of people with the same enthusiastic feelings and same age as me and I was repeating the same sentece of my class teacher to myself, and that is if he would get arrested for signing all those papers which were needed for my departure. I then realized that we were brought up in an evironment with strong demotivating spirit which stood against our development and that time it got me really bad (the more cause I didn´t win the scholarship in Stanford:) But with the years passing by I can say that the Czech republic is better now than before and an entrepreneur already does not only represent something between a cuss word and an exploiter. I think that we are moving, even if it´s slow but still it´s in the right direction.

How we began our cooperation with UPS

Someone probably noticed the previous article, where I wrote about my "incapabelity" to come to an agreement with one of the carriers. I did not mention his name, but I canceled our contract twice and by the second cancellation I was so furious, that I told the sales representative directly, that I´m not interested in their all so great offers anymore. It was quite uncomfortable, but when someone makes me angry, then either I say nothing or I tell him everything which bothers me (this is after I get repeatedly furious about the same thing). But even so, I stood up for the thing which I had to deal with the carrier that time. The cooperation wasn´t in the least understood. I dealt with it another way. 

After about a year there was the same man waiting for hours for me before our warehouse. At first I thought he must be kidding me, but it never happend to me, that someone would wait for me like this - it was mostly the other way around. The management of their company prepared another supply. When someone comes to me even after knowing the awkward situation between us, then I seriously have to ask myself if I am or they are nuts. I was the one who gave up, I read through the offer and asked him if he has got the contract with him. When he pulled the contract out of the folder put it down on the table and passed me the pen, then I had to laugh and then I signed it. The previous negotiations were forgotten and now I just have to shake my head up on our functioning cooperation.   

Contacts and phone numbers of carriers in Germany

DHL-Customerservice: +491805 / 345 22 55, or +49800/1888444

Deutsche Post Hotline: +49180 2 3333

DPD-Hotline: +491805 373 200

GLS-Hotlines +49180 - 507 1111

UPS-Hotline: +491805 882 663

Hermes-Hotline: +491806-311211

TNT-Hotline: +491805 900 900

Sending the reader Amazon Kindle as a gift

In the previous article about the reader´s parameters I wrote a recommendation for those, which want to give Kindle as a present to someone else, they should recieve it at their own adress first. If you want to save up some money on the postage or to speed up the whole process with your personal message included and without the invoice attached to it and also your registration (Amazon can automatically load it into your Kindle when you send it), here is the instruction manual:

You can can label your Kindle before buying it as Geschenk (gift) and Amazon will know, that the reader is meant to be sent in a umarked box and without the invoice. There is no extra charge for this kind of service, when you won´t demand it to be wrapped up in a gift pape. The pictures are attached below: 

Assisted purchase are always done this way because of the deregistration of the Amazon-Kindle account (you will register at it, after you recieve your reader).

Where to buy books in Germany

I tried out some different portals for buying books and Amazon.de has always proved to be the right one for me. A few times before I also tried to order some books on AbeBooks.de, where the books are often the cheapest in the whole EU (one can get a 5% cashback discount thanks to the registration at iGraal),  I just wouldn´t recomend you to order books which are meant as a gift or purchase them for resale. Because the books are wrapped in a bubble envelope and sometimes are the cornes scraped due to the transportation and also the delivery time is around 10 days. Amazone packes the books thoughtfully, they have them in stock and the delivery time is around 1 - 3 working days (you have to make sure that your seller is really Amazone). Books meant for resale and already packed in a box without logo (so you don´t have to buy another wrapping or box etc.) can be bought on Buecher.de. But you have to make sure, that they have the book in stock, in other case is the delivery time relatively long. Books are the most frequent article, which I purchase in Germany...

If you need to find out, which book is the cheapest in the world (new or old), then I recomend you this website, where you can compare them: JustBooks.de.

The manual for making your own, almost for free, book cover is shown here: http://frederick41.de/buchverp.html. The best way to break the cardboard is to break it in the right direction (if possible, not perpendicular to the lateral offsets board) and cut it by a steel ruler with a snap-off knife.

How does Amazon send off deliveries from Leipzig

We receive deliveries from Amazon everyday, which are often perfectly wrapped up (with exceptions) and I was quite curious how does the production of those deliveries in their "factory" work. E.g. this is the center in Leipzig, where they send off deliveries for their regular dealers, who are selling on Amazon.

Websites for tracking deliveries

You can see some links below, which allows you to keep track of your delivery, that you are expecting to come. It is necessary to know the tracking number (often marked as Paketscheinnr., Referenznr., Sendungsnr., Trackingnr., Kontrollnr., Tracking ID, Sendungsverfolgung, etc.)

• DHL Deutsche Post
• Hermes
• DPD
• GLS
• UPS
• TNT
• Česká pošta

Recorded delivery mail (RR) can´t be tracked, Recorded package (BA) yes.

This is how the received delivery from 3. 6. 2011 from Hermes looks like: