Andra Baciu
Project Manager | Systems & Process Improvement | Operations
Ready for work
Andra is ready for their next project!
Children's Summer School
Project Manager · 6 months — 3 building it, 3 running it
Overview
A summer education programme for children, built from concept and then delivered. Three months designing the programme and the systems behind it, three months running it live.
My Role
I ran the project end to end: the operating system for the business, the curriculum, the scheduling of around 20 teachers, the training of a young team, communication with parents, and the programme's social media.
The Challenge
Two things made this hard. First, around 20 different teachers had to be scheduled across groups and weeks — each with their own availability, subjects and constraints, and every change rippling through the rest of the timetable.
Second, most of the staff were new and young. They needed the basics before they could work inside a system at all. There was no point handing them a process document — the process had to be taught in layers, starting with the fundamentals of the job itself.
My Approach
I built the operating and management system for the programme: the shape of the day, roles and responsibilities, safety procedures, group management, and how information moved between people. The goal was something simple enough that a new team could actually run it, rather than something complete that nobody would use.
I designed the curriculum and activity structure, adapted by age group, and built the scheduling system for the teaching staff.
The training I did in stages: basics first, then the routines, then the system as a whole. That's slower at the start, but it's what made the team autonomous by the time the programme was running.
I also handled communication with parents throughout and managed the programme's social media — content, promotion and engagement with the parent community. Alongside coordinating, I facilitated workshops and activities with the children myself.
Outcome
Designed and launched the programme in three months, then ran it for three.
Coordinated the schedules of around 20 teachers across the full programme.
Trained a team of new, mostly junior staff to the point where they could run the day themselves.
Left the business with a working management system — daily structure, roles, procedures and scheduling — reusable for future editions.
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Wellness Retreat Business
Marketing → Project Management · 6 months
Overview
A wellness retreat business running yoga, movement, health and nutrition retreats in Romania and Bali. I was brought in for marketing, web and design — and ended up running the operations.
My Role
I started with the website, campaigns and graphic design. Within weeks it was clear the marketing wasn't the real problem, so my role shifted: process design, internal organisation, strategy and coordination of the freelance team.
The Challenge
The business was disorganised in a specific way: nothing was clear enough to communicate. Not the message, not the target audience, not the objective. That made marketing almost impossible — you can't write good copy for an offer nobody has defined. Everything lived in conversations between the two founders, and each retreat was improvised from scratch.
My Approach
I went back to the questions nobody had answered: who is this for, what are they buying, and what are we trying to achieve. Once those were settled, the marketing wrote itself.
Then I built the repeatable process — a clear flow from creating a retreat, to launching it, to marketing it, to communicating with participants, to confirming bookings. I set up a communication system for after the retreat as well, so returning guests weren't left to chance.
I coordinated the freelance team — designers and photographers — briefing them, tracking deliverables and keeping the work aligned with the strategy.
Outcome
First three retreats sold out to full capacity.
40% of participants returned for a later retreat.
Left the business with a documented end-to-end process — creation, launch, marketing, participant communication and follow-up — that could be reused for every future retreat.
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25
General Manager in a Restaurant
Overview
I founded and ran my own vegan restaurant for five years — operations, team, kitchen, suppliers and customers.
My Role
Owner and general manager. Every decision was mine, and so was every problem that came up on any given day. When it's your own business, there is no one to escalate to.
The Challenge
A restaurant is a business where a broken process shows up the same day — an order missed, a shift uncovered, a guest waiting. Everything is interconnected: a menu decision is also a supplier decision and a staffing decision. And it all has to work while service is running, not in a planning meeting afterwards.
My Approach
I built the working structure of the place: kitchen workflow, task allocation across the day, and how the team moved through peak hours. I hired, trained and managed the staff, and wrote the procedures they worked to.
I handled supplier relationships and ordering, and owned the customer side — including complaints, which I treated as information rather than incidents. Recurring feedback usually points at a process, not a person, so I used it to adjust the menu and the workflow.
Alongside the restaurant I designed and ran vegan and raw vegan cooking workshops for adults and children — concept, curriculum, logistics, promotion and facilitation — and later added catering to the business.
Outcome
Ran the business for five years and grew it to include a catering service.
Hired and trained 15 people over that time; 10 stayed longer than three years.
Ran cooking workshops for groups of up to 20, for adults and children.
Left behind a working system — standardised recipes, documented procedures and a kitchen organisation that outlasted my involvement.
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25
Bistro & Café Launch
Overview
Launching a bistro-café from an empty space to an operating business in three months — contractors, equipment, systems, team and menu, all running in parallel.
My Role
I managed every area of the launch except finance and legal. That meant holding the whole picture: what depended on what, what had to happen first, and what would break if it slipped.
The Challenge
A launch is the hardest kind of project because nothing exists yet. There's no process to improve, no team to ask, no precedent for how things should work — and a fixed opening date that everything has to converge on. Three months is a tight window for that, with multiple contractors and suppliers each working to their own timeline and none of them seeing the others.
My Approach
I mapped the full sequence first — what had to be finished before the next thing could start — then worked backwards from the opening date.
I coordinated the contractors finishing the space and managed all equipment orders for the kitchen, bar and dining area. I sourced service providers, set up the contracts and managed the ongoing orders. I created the menu and recipes, costed and priced them, and trained the kitchen staff. I hired the service team, trained them, and wrote the protocols they worked to. I installed and customised the ordering software, learned it, and trained everyone on it.
I also documented the opening, closing, stock and kitchen procedures before we opened. That wasn't in the original brief — but everything was living in conversations and in my head, which works for a week and then falls apart the first time someone's away.
Outcome
Delivered the launch in three months and opened on the planned date.
Built and trained a team of 8 for a 60-seat venue.
Kitchen, bar and floor could all operate without me from opening day — which was the whole point of the procedures and internal processes I created.
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