Today, Hanna Hulemba runs BatteryRepairPoltava, a service that professionally restores batteries for laptops, robotic vacuum cleaners, and other devices. Before that, she spent more than ten years working for the railway. With the start of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, she was forced to relocate to Poltava, where she continued her career through an internal transfer, progressing from centralization post operator to deputy station master at JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia.” The full-scale invasion set her on a new path: together with her husband, Hanna began repairing batteries. What started as informal help for family and friends grew, over several years, into a business with its own recognizable brand.

What prompted you to look for an alternative to a stable job at a state enterprise?

“Until 2021, working at a state enterprise, I wasn’t earning the income I wanted. While on childcare leave, I realized I needed work with flexible hours.

With the start of the full-scale invasion, the issue of energy independence and extending the autonomous operating time of electrical devices became relevant for both household consumers and businesses, and its relevance grew almost daily. My husband and I decided to try our hand at repairing batteries for various devices, something we could do at home without renting separate premises. At first, we repaired batteries for ordinary cordless screwdrivers for relatives, friends, and colleagues from my main job. These were one-off orders, maybe a few a month, and we bought consumables literally piece by piece to fulfill them.”

Helping acquaintances and colleagues gradually turned into genuine demand, and Hanna and her husband began looking for a way to put the business on a professional footing.

At what point did these one-off orders for acquaintances turn into a formal business?

“Demand kept growing. I searched for clients on platforms like OLX and Prom, and simply through search engines, while also handling procurement of consumables within Ukraine. My husband did the mechanical work. Gradually, as we studied the field, in 2024 we found reliable foreign suppliers of consumables (power cells) and a software developer in Ukraine for professional battery configuration and programming. That’s how we built up technical expertise and a deep understanding of power technologies, and our service center was born. After registering as a sole proprietor in June 2025, the number of orders began to grow rapidly: 30 orders in January 2025, and already 70 by July 2025. I started looking for free opportunities and programs in business management, financial planning, and expense/income accounting. We also found we needed to create social media pages to promote our services.”

It was in this search for free opportunities to grow the business that Hanna came across the TURBO programme, which offered not only practical knowledge but also English language training, essential for working with foreign suppliers.

Among many available offerings, you chose TURBO specifically. Why?

“I saw the TURBO programme’s registration form on social media. Besides the topics that were pressing for me, there was also English language training, which I needed to improve in order to communicate with foreign suppliers. So I filled out the form.”

What from the training were you able to apply in practice right away, without delay?

“During the training, I developed a vision for how to further grow our service across each customer segment. I learned to plan a marketing trategy based on SWOT analysis. And most importantly, I was able to calculate and forecast a sales budget and an expense budget, in other words, I came to understand the principle of cash flow in a business.”

This ability to plan a budget in advance and see the business systemically, rather than simply as a stream of orders, became the driver that allowed the business to move from spontaneous growth to managed growth.

How much has the business grown over the year, in numbers?

“Our greatest achievement has been increasing the number of services delivered by 3.5 times over the year. Our service, BatteryRepairPoltava, completed 70 orders in July 2025, and already 250 orders in July 2026.

Today I see how promising, in demand, scalable, and profitable this line of work is, and it has given me stable threefold profit growth over the year.”

What are BatteryRepairPoltava’s plans?

“We have unique expertise specifically in battery reprogramming, thanks to targeted training with a software developer in 2024, as well as the basic technical equipment for assembling and programming batteries, which we were able to acquire partly through grant funding.
By the end of September 2026, we plan to equip our production premises with a charging station to ensure an uninterrupted battery repair service process.

Our personal brand, BatteryRepairPoltava, is already recognizable and has effective channels for attracting clients in both the B2C and B2B segments through social media. Reputation, expertise, ease of placing an order, short turnaround times, and convenient communication — that’s what BatteryRepairPoltava is all about.”

What does the TURBO programme mean to you, in one sentence?

“The TURBO programme, run by Chernihiv Polytechnic National University, is a unique programme that gave me the opportunity to gain up-to-date knowledge in business and digital technologies, receive support from mentors and psychologists, and find a direction for developing my own business. Over a fairly short project period, one can acquire the basic practical skills needed to run a business from the ground up.”

Hanna Hulemba’s story is an example of how training can become exactly the push that’s missing for moving from a hobby to a systematic business: when the idea, the resources, and the persistence are already there, and only knowledge and structure are missing, TURBO helps fill that gap.

Today, BatteryRepairPoltava continues to grow, and Hanna is planning new investments in expanding production.

Follow BatteryRepairPoltava’s work on social media: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube.

The main aim of TURBO project “The Universities’ Reaction to Big Obstructions: Building resilient higher education to respond and manage societal crises” is to increase the resilience, preparedness and responsiveness of Ukrainian higher education institutions (HEIs) by building their capacities, improving competencies and sharing experiences.

This project has received funding from the European Union (ERASMUS-EDU-2023-CBHE) under grant agreement No 101129315.

This material reflects only the views of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official position of the European Union.