Ollivier Christien is Bouncing Back His Business with a Big Help in France

The Business Planet team finds out how to make bread with baker Ollivier Christien© Euronews

Ollivier Christien is a baker in Saint Coulomb, France

Ollivier Christien’s way of bouncing back

Ollivier Christien’s story is proof that it is always possible to bounce back into the business. The baker runs a successful boulangerie with his wife in the village of Saint Coulomb just outside the historic French city of Saint-Malo.

In 2016, Ollivier was forced to shut his bakery in Paris after a dispute with a business partner. To close the company and start again he contacted Second Souffle (Second Wind), a nationwide association that helps entrepreneurs in difficulty bounce back.

“It was down to a combination of circumstances, I had a company that was in difficulty in Paris and the local council advised me to contact Second Souffle, to re-establish healthier communication, especially with banks, tax authorities, and the state, in order to make things less stressful when your company is not doing very well.”

So many good companies, through no fault of their own, are struggling to survive because of the pandemic. Ollivier says the support he received from Second Souffle to rebuild was crucial.

“It was very important. I was at a point where I absolutely had to close my company before doing anything else. I had lost contact with my first accountant, so Second Souffle advised me about other accountancy firms to help solve this problem so that I could bounce back and set up another company,” he said.

“Second Souffle is an association whose mission is to support all entrepreneurs attempting to bounce back or that are in difficulty, whether they have a company or not. There is no criteria or time limit to this. Each entrepreneur in difficulty has a mentor to guide them during this process to bounce back, following our 1-2-3 method: welcome, support, and bounce back,” the General Secretary of the association Philippe Le Meur said.

Bouncing back after business failure

“The services offered by Second Souffle to support entrepreneurs in difficulty are first of all to welcome, listen and understand the personal and professional difficulties that each entrepreneur is encountering. The idea and the aim are to enable the entrepreneur in difficulty to be able to create a new entrepreneurial project or job,” Philippe said.

The General Secretary of Second Souffle also shared how people can contact the association for business help. “To contact the Second Souffle association, you can do so by going to www.secondsouffle.org,” he said.

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