Glas Poduzetnika (Voice of Entrepreneurs) Association Founded, Structure & Aims Explained

Zagreb, April 4, 2020 – At the request of GLAS PODUZETNIKA Initiative members, the Association GLAS PODUZETNIKA has been founded today. It will as the formal representative of its members – entrepreneurs, artisans, self-employed and private sector employees – continue the active fight not only for the rights of its members but for a better and more modern Croatia.

GLAS PODUZETNIKA Initiative was started spontaneously a little over 2 weeks ago by citizens, all small entrepreneurs after the Government announced its first economic measure package. It was deemed inadequate by the Initiative founders. The initiative has, in less than 15 days, gathered over 100,000 entrepreneurs, artisans, self-employed and employees in the private sector, and has drawn huge media attention with its uncompromising demands and actions. Many consider the GLAS PODUZETNIKA Initiative has had a considerable impact on the announced second package of economic measures.

Big activity and engagement in the ground have brought about a big number of suggestions and questions about the next step that the Initiative plans to take. Some have also stated that the Initiative is not a formal organization and that it does not have any legal representative. The next step proposed by the community is to found GLAS PODUZETNIKA as a real association so that the Initiative can legally represent its members. In the poll carried out by the Initiative, 96% of participants stated they would join the formal GLAS PODUZETNIKA Association.

Considering also the public opinion and opinion of its members, Initiative founders and a greater circle of volunteers who were included in the activities of the Initiative basically from the start have founded the Association GLAS PODUZETNIKA today. All documents necessary for the founding were given to the legal bodies for the registration.

At the founding Assembly official bodies of the association were named for a two-year mandate. The president of the Association is Hrvoje Bujas, the executive director is Dražen Oreščanin, two of them are also legal representatives of the Association. The executive board consists of 7 members, Andrej Šooš Maceljski, Berislav Marszalek, Bojan Bajgorić Šantić, Bruno Samarđić, Ivana Matić, Vedran Jakominić i Vuk Vuković. The Supervisory board has 3 members, Aco Momčilović, Gordana Fabijanić and Valerija Knežević. All founders and bodies of GLAS PODUZETNIKA Association are micro, small and medium business owners and they are a representative sample of its future members.

“After a lot of work that was done in the last two weeks, and after imposing ourselves as a relevant player and cooperator in this economic crisis, the formalization of our Initiative was needed.” Regarding the founding of the Association, Hrvoje Bujas stated “We have insisted from the start that politics doesn’t interest us. We are only interested in the wellbeing of not only all of GLAS PODUZETNIKA members but also the Croatian economy and society as a whole. GLAS PODUZETNIKA is not just the voice of the entrepreneurs, but also our employees, with whom we have shared both good and bad for years, as we are doing so in this crisis as well by insisting on enforcing the measures that would help us save their jobs.”

“This is only the beginning of our common fight, a lot of work is still ahead of us. We need to ensure the fast, efficient and unrestricted execution of the measures. There are still a lot of open questions that need answers. We need to ensure that all local jurisdictions give appropriate support to local entrepreneurs by writing off utility charges and rent for offices and public spaces. The Government still has a huge task of agreeing with the banks and leasing houses to freeze the loans and leasings for 12 months, so that the economy can breathe a little when all of this starts rolling again.” Dražen Oreščanin added.

The Association starts with its work right now, and the members can be all legal – businesses, associations and artisans, and all physical persons, firstly entrepreneurs and employees in small and medium businesses. All current members of the Initiative and all sympathizers can apply for the Association starting today through the application form available on:

Association’s website https://glaspoduzetnika.hr/
Facebook grouphttps://www.facebook.com/groups/glaspoduzetnika/

At the founding Assembly was decided that the membership in the Association GLAS PODUZETNIKA will be free, and all its activities the Association will finance through donations. A decision was also made to open an additional account for donations intended for medical workers and for medical and sanitary equipment needed to fight coronavirus.

Structure and wishes of GLAS PODUZETNIKA Initiative members

Considering the neverending growth of GLAS PODUZETNIKA Initiative, that at the moment of writing this text numbers more than 43,000 members in its Facebook group and over 5,600 businesses with over 55,000 employees and permanent associates, a question was raised about giving more structure to the Initiative’s membership system. We consider that a piece of important information for the public considering the perception of entrepreneurs in some segments of our society. We raised a question, which category do our members belong to. The gathered results show that the biggest part of the Initiative’s members belongs to the group of micro-entrepreneurs (less than 10 employees) – 46% to be precise. The next category, numbering over 31%, are artisans. Small entrepreneurs (up to 50 employees) comprise little over 9% of the Initiative, and the next 5% are self-employed. It doesn’t surprise us that more than 4% of members are actually sympathizers of the Initiative or employees in the private sector. There are about 1% of entrepreneurs that employ more than 250 people.

The numbers show that over 83% of them are individuals or very small (micro) businesses, that think they don’t have anyone to systematically fight for their interests.

Big activity and engagement in the group have brought about a great number of proposals and questions about the next steps that the GLAS PODUZETNIKA Initiative has planned. The next step proposed by the community is to found GLAS PODUZETNIKA as a real association, that way the Initiative would get a legal form and the ability to represent its members. To ensure the wishes of the Initiative members, we asked them if they are planning to join the Association GLAS PODUZETNIKA, if and when it is founded. We got an almost unanimous response – over 96% of the Initiative members say they would join the Association, less than 1% think that the association isn’t necessary. 1% goes to those who don’t know yet or they wouldn’t join at all, respectively. From those results, it is obvious that there is a need for this kind of association in Croatia. We think that this would help tens of thousands of people in the private sector, to ease the way they conduct business and to save a huge number of jobs in the ensuing crisis. It would also help micro and small entrepreneurs in the future.