Lucie Sotáková - Obchod Bez obalu

Tell us something about yourself: In what field do you do business and how did you get into it? 

I got to my current business by a big detour and a bit by accident. 

I studied computer science at Masaryk University and worked in IT for some time afterwards. My (then-future) husband and I traveled through a large part of Southeast Asia, where we saw first-hand how vast tracts of primary forest were cut down for oil palm cultivation. It was a crazy spectacle, the oil palm plantations stretched for hundreds of kilometers, and nothing lived there. It left a deep mark on us. After returning home, we stopped buying palm oil products, and later started a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness about palm oil. My husband and our friend programmed a mobile application that could scan the barcode of the product and provide the result of whether the product contained palm oil or not, which made shopping much easier. We became more and more interested in the environment and ecological products, so we also started shopping in a packaging-free store. 

At a certain moment, the owner of a packaging-free store in Frýdek-Místek was moving to Brno, and was looking for someone to hand over the shop to. Since it seemed to us that it fit the profile of our non-profit, we took over the store. Our son was then a year and a half old, so the beginnings were quite challenging for us. From the beginning, we ran the store with a friend, with the great support of my husband, and also my mother-in-law, who looked after my children. Since I had no experience with running a store, I learned everything on the go. We first hired part-time workers, then a full-time saleswoman. Managing people was something completely new for me, and I must say it is still a challenge for me as an introvert.🙂

Over time, the friend disconnected from the shop and devoted herself to her activities. In the meantime, my third child was born, but fortunately I already had well-trained saleswomen and we managed this situation as well. Last spring, we took over the store in Ostrava, which the previous owners wanted to close. Unfortunately, we are not doing very well now either, the fame of packaging-free stores is apparently dying out. I would like an assortment of shops led in the direction of healthy and high-quality food, as much local goods as possible, and especially sustainability. I would like to start focusing on marketing and promoting our e-shop more so that we can continue to function.

What advantages does entrepreneurship bring to your life compared to a job?

I can plan and enjoy my time better. For example, picking up children from school and kindergarten, driving them to clubs. I can partially work from home, or from wherever I need. If I prepare sufficiently in advance, I can also go on a longer vacation, or several shorter ones - I am not limited by the number of vacation days from the employer.