Iruña Ekintzaile – Pamplona Emprende offers free, personalized mentoring to support the city’s businesses and strengthen the retail sector

The Iruña Ekintzaile – Pamplona Emprende program, promoted by the Pamplona City Council and the public entity European Center for Business and Innovation of Navarre (CEIN), has launched a new line of individualized mentoring sessions aimed at active business owners, entrepreneurs, and projects interested in entering the retail sector. This initiative aims to provide practical support tailored to the reality of each business, thereby strengthening the competitiveness, sustainability, and adaptability of local commerce.

The mentoring sessions, now open for applications via the CEIN website, will offer personalized and specialized guidance to help each participant address the specific needs of their business. Unlike more general-purpose formats, these sessions are based on the specific situation of each business. Participants can raise a need, a question, or a decision they need to address and, from there, work alongside the mentoring team to identify priorities, define actions, and implement solutions tailored to their specific situation.

The support covers areas as diverse as defining the business concept, the value proposition, business visibility, customer loyalty, price and margin management, cost and sales control, the use of digital tools, and the application of artificial intelligence to retail. The sessions also allow for a comprehensive analysis of the business model to identify factors that may be affecting its development and growth.

To facilitate participation by businesses, mentoring sessions can take place at the business’s own location and be adapted to its opening hours, promoting work directly linked to the day-to-day operations of each business and facilitating the practical implementation of the identified improvements.

Second phase of the Iruña Ekintzaile – Pamplona Emprende program
Mentoring sessions are one of the main pillars of the program’s second phase, which began in April with a flexible training program that ran through June. During this first phase, brief, practical sessions were offered on optimizing retail spaces, sales and marketing, financial management, retail and tourism, and business succession and continuity.

Now, in this second phase, the program focuses on offering individualized mentoring to both established businesses and new ventures. These mentoring sessions complement the series of practical workshops that will begin in September. These workshops will cover topics such as digital visibility, tools like Google Business Profile, WhatsApp Business, social media, and artificial intelligence, as well as other important business topics such as financial management, pricing, and profit margins. In addition, during the last quarter of the year, there will also be specific sessions for people interested in opening a new business or considering taking over an existing one.

This personalized support program is part of the ongoing development of the Iruña Ekintzaile – Pamplona Emprende initiative, which in recent years has supported both established businesses and new entrepreneurial ventures and business succession projects. The current edition continues to aim to provide useful tools and practical solutions tailored to the realities of business owners and entrepreneurs, combining hands-on training with individualized support.

The program is sponsored by the Pamplona City Council and CEIN, with the collaboration of all the city’s merchant associations: the Pamplona Old Town Merchants Association, the Iturrama Merchants Association, the Martín Azpilcueta Area Merchants Association, the San Juan, Ermitagaña, and Mendebaldea Merchants Association, the Sanduzelai Merchants Association, the Navarra Merchants’ Association (Nafarroako Merkatari Elkartea); the Association of Business Owners in Retail, Hospitality, and Services for the Ensanche, Lezkairu, and Ripagaina Districts of Pamplona; the Txantrea Merchants’ Association (Txantreako Merkatari Elkartea); and the La Rotxa Retail and Hospitality Association.

Those interested can now apply for mentoring and indicate the workshops they are interested in via the CEIN website or at the following link. The program is funded by the Pamplona City Council, so there is no cost for those who apply to participate.