A driving force for change

Ania Kulaga has lived in Italy for nearly twenty years. For the past decade she has worked in the beauty industry as a salon employee. However, in 2021, having saved some money, and with additional financing from PerMicro, she launched her own beauty salon on the outskirts of Turin.  

Sourcing the right support

Ania knew she needed some professional support to help her start her business. She happened to encounter PerMicro, a microfinance institution and CEB borrower, through the Ricomincio da QUI, ‘I’m starting over from here’, project in which her partner, Cristian, had been participating. The project supports people who are serving non-custodial sentences and therefore face big social and economic challenges. Ania attended some of the sessions as moral support for Cristian.  

Cristian has a dream of setting up his own car repair business, which Ricomincio da QUI has been helping him to implement. Ania was intrigued and enthused by the quality and professionalism of the support he was receiving and also decided to request mentoring from MicroLab Association, a non-profit organisation that works with PerMicro to deliver the Ricomincio da QUI project.  

Soon Alberto, a MicroLab mentor, was supporting Ania every step of the way in the creation of her own salon – from budgeting and layout to even helping on-site during the refurbishment. Through her sheer determination to see her dream realised, Ania only needed to work with Alberto for a month. Fulvio, the Head of PerMicro in Turin, also supported her to create a business plan so she could submit a loan application to PerMicro. Ania needed additional business liquidity as all her savings had been used in the salon refurbishment.  

Ania says, “Alberto and Fulvio were fantastic in following me on my journey. They were always present and helped me along the way. They checked if I was proceeding on time, and if the expenses were the correct ones. 

Thanks to them I was able to make my dream come true.”  

On the way to success

PerMicro is the first Italian microcredit provider operating across the country; 44% of its business clients are women, and 24% are migrants. As a determined woman of migrant origin, and with a clear business idea, Ania is a typical PerMicro client. Her financing was approved in June 2021 and, since then, Ania has been constantly busy in the salon. In fact, she’s now considering hiring an assistant. She says, “I have my business but I can’t satisfy all the requests from my customers!”  

Ania’s rented premises on Via Dora, 1, in San Mauro Torinese, include separate cubicles for beauty treatments, as well as changing rooms and storage space. The salon, K Nails & Beauty, offers manicures, pedicures, facials and eyelash and eyebrow treatments as well as semi-permanent make-up and dermo-pigmentation services.  

Ania’s determination has impressed everyone she has met during the process of setting up her business. Cristian has even put his business plans on hold while the beauty business becomes established.  

And now, despite the time and energy involved in running her salon single-handedly, Ania is determined to support her fellow Ukrainians. In response to Russia’s invasion of her home country, she has made her salon a collection point for local people’s donations to Ukrainian refugees reaching Romanian support centres. Ania’s customers and local community are answering with great generosity to the emergency in her homeland.  

Giulia Boioli, Head of Communication and Social Projects at PerMicro, says: “Both in English and Italian we use the expression to ‘unlock the potential’: when entrepreneurial talent is unlocked, benefits don’t only go to the individual but reach out to the whole community.  

Ania’s story is a true success because it springs out of a social project such as Ricomincio da QUI, which PerMicro was able to deliver thanks to the support of CEB. 

We believe it can inspire many other stories which are out there waiting to be unlocked.”  

The CEB and PerMicro

The CEB and PerMicro have been working together on projects with high social impact for nearly ten years. The latest loan approved by the Bank was in January 2021 and totalled €3.6 million. It targets the financial and social inclusion of low-income and vulnerable people and focuses on employment for women and female entrepreneurs like Ania by providing financing to small businesses and families.