Heli Handmade - From a Hobby to a Successful Fashion Brand

The story of the Šumadija brand Heli Handmade starts from the mother`s desire to colour her child's world with beauty and joy. Snežana Kocanović, a former health worker and today the proud owner of the Heli Handmade brand, started creating a unique wardrobe and accessories for her baby as a hobby that by chance grew into a successful fashion business. Thanks to the European Union donation extended through the EU PRO programme, Snežana has advanced her production and is now living her dream today, being a successful entrepreneur with grand plans for the future.

The story starts on a difficult note as, after maternity leave, Snežana lost her job. "At the time I was actively looking for a job, but with no avail. Instead of despair I decided to look at the situation from a different perspective - I had all this free time that I could dedicate to my newborn baby", Snežana Kocanović starts her story. Like every new mother, I was looking for beautiful and unique baby clothes, but I couldn't find anything I liked. And so I came up with the idea to try to sew something myself. That's how my first baby beany was made. "

Snežana couldn't even imagine that this moment would determine her further professional path.

"After the first beany, I started sewing other things for my baby. Soon, my neighbours and friends, who were delighted with my creations, asked me to start sewing for their children as well", continues Snežana and adds it was her husband who helped her get a bank loan to buy the first two machines that enabled her to expand her range of products and get other companies to take notice. 

However, without experience in the world of entrepreneurship, Snežana soon realized that without additional training and support she would not be able to survive on the market. Thus, she started looking for various opportunities for the business development offered through assistance to small and medium enterprises.

"The demand was growing, and I was still working in a backroom in my home and had no idea how to get additional funds for business development”, says Snežana. 

Then, at the end of 2019, she found out about the EU PRO public call and decided to apply for the European Union grant. “I didn't have high hopes that I would succeed, but it didn't cost me anything to try, so when I found out that I was selected for funding  I was thrilled. Finally my small business got the opportunity to grow into a serious production ", Snežana happily retells. "Thanks to the EU donation, my hobby was about to grow into a real small business and eventually became the brand that Heli Handmade is today”. 

With the new equipment the business started to expand intensively and soon Snežana hired her first worker. The company is about to expand their product range once again to introduce towels and bathrobes for babies. 

As part of the projects implemented through EU PRO entrepreneurs have to engage in the corporate social responsibility activities and Heli Handmade donated branded towels to the kindergarten "Poletarac" in Kragujevac. "My wish was to improve the conditions in the kindergarten for our children," Snežana concludes her story.

Heli Handmade plans to improve its online sales in the future by creating a catalogue of products that will be marketed to companies which will turn raise demand and result into employment of new workers and further brand development.

The European Union, in cooperation with the Ministry of European Integration, supported over 200 micro and small enterprises and entrepreneurs with more than 4.3 million Euros through the EU PRO programme. Out of that, as many as 68 companies are owned by women. The EU grants were used for the purchase of new equipment that helped the companies improve production and competitiveness, and so far they have created more than 480 new jobs, among which 215 are occupied by women.

Through the activities of the EU PRO programme, the European Union contributes to the more balanced socio-economic development of Serbia with a total of 25 million Euros. The programme aims to contribute to increasing the competitiveness of micro and small enterprises, improving the business environment and strengthening social cohesion in 99 local self-government units, in two regions: the Region of Šumadija and Western Serbia and the Region of Southern and Eastern Serbia. The activities in the field are implemented by UNOPS.