In English
Skrevet af Femi og Michael
Pelle Braendgaard has on his blog Stakes Ventures just made a blog post about Danish Entrepreneurship and some of the challenges the Scandinavian mindset poses to us Scandinavians.
“The entrepreneurial tradition thing is a sad thing. In 1988 when various business associations in Denmark needed young Danish entrepreneurs to send to various EU conferences, I was the only person they could find. Yes I knew several others, but it really was not a common thing to be an entrepreneur in the 80s in Denmark. I can see people of my generation are really scared of the idea of entrepreneurship.
However as I mentioned at the talk, I think computers, games, mobiles and the Internet has had a big impact of the generations coming after mine. Dane’s in the 20s are a lot more open to the idea of setting up shop than my generation. I can only assume this trend will grow. From the Copenhagen.rb meetings I can see that there is a definite change in the mindset of people.”
- Stakes Ventures: Silicon Vikings talk on Danish Entrepreneurship
I think Pelle is right that Danes in our generation (people in their 20s) are more willing to try for themselves as opposed to solely being an employee. When Femi came to Denmark from UK he said he was surprised to see that there was a lot of my friends and people in general who at some point had their own small company. We do however still have a lot to learn from the Americans on being bold and thinking bigger.
Where Pelle mentions some of the constraints of setting up and operating a company in Denmark as a stumbling block – I would emphasis the flexibility of the Danish system as a contributing factor to why I created astartup instead of becoming an employee.
- I could get unemployment benefits straight out of university while I was growing my company. (The paperwork is a hassle, but at least I got some money for rent)
- Starting a personal partnership (I/S) is super easy. One (1) paper form and you are in business. The disadvantage is that you are fully liable for the company but starting a software company does not involve any big investments so the risk is not big in my case.
- The economy is strong and there is a shortage of people in IT. Even though this might change for now it has been an assurance for me that if everything fails in my business it is easy to go out and get a job.
- There are a number of governmental institutions and non-profit networks emerging focused on startups and entrepreneurship.
To me the threshold to get started in Denmark is very low. It is when the company is starting to mature and money is starting to roll in that the problems occur. Changing to a limited company and the huge taxation that follows will then be a major issue. My perspective on this mater is further enhanced from Femi’s experience in the UK, where his perception is that the threshold of starting a small company requires significantly more work, whereas the benefits outshine those of the danish equivalent once established and money begins to flow.
2. juli 2007 kl. 10:00
Skrevet af Femi og Michael
Today I was talking a lot with a new client of ours about how to go about doing a business plan for the company he is about to start. And then I realized that I hadn’t seen our plan since we made it.
I still believe that it is a good idea to write a business plan because the most valuable aspect is the proces you go think and talk about before you start. The best advice we were given back then was:
Make your business plan, go through the process and file it
That was also my advice today. Because we might have had some hopes, expectations and ideas of were would be a year from we started but we have ended up in a very different place and with very different clients. Not to say that it is not good to plan – we have a lot of plans – but the business plan is staying in the files.
On the same note I just watched a very inspiring panel talk called No Plan, No Capital, No Model… No Problem moderated by Guy Kawasaki. Here are five different people from businesses that started out from scratch, didn’t get external funding and ended up being successful. A key in all these companies is that they stay like micro-companies for a long time and only at a very late stage start to grow their teams.
26. juni 2007 kl. 22:05
Skrevet af Femi og Michael
If a high school kid asked me for an advice today for how to get through university, it would be to start a company while studying.
While Danish universities provide some hands on experience and real-life collaboration there is a lot of things that can’t be taught in school.
During my studies in computer science and communication I think about 10-20% of my year started their own company (mostly as sole proprietors). It was easy to start and pretty easy to find costumers who wanted something done with IT. I started two companies while studying one by myself and another one with 4 of my friends. None of the companies were a huge success but I learned how to do the books and the experience I gained made me confident that starting a company for a living would be doable.
Most of the people who started companies shut them down when they graduated and got ‘real jobs’ but as far as I know there are now four people living the life as entrepreneurs from my year.
My years in university have taught me a lot and I don’t regret it. But you shouldn’t go to college just to get a degree. Mike Glanz wrote a post about how all he learned in college was how to ‘work the system’.
“If I had taken Guy’s advice and learned how to make money instead of being an employee. If I had just found Seth’s blog when he started it… I’m not saying all college is a total waste. I am saying that my university was a total waste for me.
Let me break that down.
I went to college to get a degree. My parents told me a degree was “something to fall back on”, it was “security”, and it would “prepare me for the real world”. In reality it took away my preparedness. I’m a surviving kinda guy. I needed to pass college so I did it the best way possible: find out what the teachers wanted and gave it to them. Within a year I wasn’t trying… I graduated top 10 in my class because I was the best at giving the teachers what they wanted… not because I paid attention to anything they said.”
17. maj 2007 kl. 14:50
Skrevet af Femi og Michael
The picture below is taken at Menlo Innovations – the place where Femi and I worked when we met.
The poster on the wall right above the clock, is one of the biggest posters in the office. The year I worked at Menlo taught me a lot but one of the key phrases I’ve taken with me. It’s based on that ideology of Make mistakes faster – so you can make it right quicker. When you are not afraid to make mistakes and owning up to them it’s a lot easier to spot them early on, deal with them, learn a lesson and then move on.
Alexander Kjerulf recently wrote about how forgiveness is good for business. And Seth Gordin also states that failing is a thing to embrace and not to fear:
“There’s never been an entrepreneur with a crystal ball. Thereʼs no way to know for sure
whether your business is going to work, whether your targeted customers will buy, whether
your choice of technology is a good one. Youʼre going to be wrong. Get used to it!
In the face of this uncertainty, it seems to me that the very worst thing you can do is fail to try.”
-The Bootstrapper’s Bible
This is our last week in Copenhagen and in three weeks we are flying to Prague. When we are in Prague we are going to allocate most our time to a promising project of our own. Will it sink or swim? We don’t know – but we have to try.
9. maj 2007 kl. 13:54
Skrevet af Femi og Michael
I just came across a very useful post on the Common Mistakes to Avoid When Freelancing. Same rules apply for micro companies and I would also add to that short list, a comment I came across from another blog post covering the same topic – you should always be aggressive when dealing with any clients’ breaking of the contract, just because you don’t have a legal department it doesn’t mean that you must accept any situation.
[tags]tips, mcro-company, freelancing[/tags]
22. april 2007 kl. 14:39
Skrevet af Femi og Michael
Here is a followup post on Femi’s previous post with some links about location of your microbusiness and home.
Web Worker Daily has a post about the connection between your commute and your happiness.
“Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, proposes that you should minimize your work commute (and the distance from your house to your favorite market) for maximum happiness”
In today’s world many companies just need an internet connection and a phone and they are in business. San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting article of the nomadic lifestyle in the Bay Area.
“San Francisco’s modern-day bedouins are typically armed with laptops and cell phones, paying for their office space and Internet access by buying coffee and muffins.”
The author and Chief Happiness Officer, Alexander Kjerulff discovered by accident that having a small, low-rent apartment made him happier and gave him more leeway to do what he wanted.
“In the startup I’ve been running the past three years I’ve been able to take some chances and focus more on building a happy, sustainable business than on bringing home a big pay-check every month. It has allowed the business to grow organically which has paid off immensely now that the business is up and running.”
The Danish tech-writer, consultant etc. Steven Snedker moved 90 km away from Copenhagen and bought a huge house (in Danish) for what a smaller apartment would cost in Copenhagen.
“Some people love the office and the office routines. The chats with coworkers. The cakes and the gossip. These people shouldn’t do telecommuting. Telecommuting is the equivalent of locking your office door and – apart from one day a week – only communicate with people via phone and email.
Telecommuting has the big advantage that you don’t have to look like you’re working on days were you don’t want to work. You can just take the day off.” – (My translation)
The possibilities today for were and how to work is great. So you don’t have to sit at a desk in a office space if you don’t want.
19. april 2007 kl. 12:14
Skrevet af Femi og Michael
Location is widely regarded as one of the most important decisions for entrepreneurs and businesses. Companies pay astronomical amounts to make sure they get prime locations and buildings in the hottest areas. However for the micro company and others within the new communications era, location is becoming less of a restriction. I say this because we have just taken the decision to move our company to Prague from the 1st of June this year for a period of 6 months. In-keeping with our ‘act first, ask question later’ mantra, we made the decision based on immediate circumstances and couldn’t then find any compelling reasons not to go through with it.
We have built a number of professional relationships during our 7 months in Copenhagen and we intend to continue those relationships, continue to work with clients based in Denmark and most likely return once our stay in Prague is over. However we have already engaged in work for clients in USA and are soon to start on another from the United Kingdom. The growing interest from companies, outside of Denmark, in collaborating with us is one of the reasons we believe location may not be crucial at this stage of our company. The advance in technology has meant that communication in the modern era is not only cheap but also very effective. We utilize a number of online tools which centralize around remote collaboration (further reading Danish – English). We also heavily utilize free software tools for communication such as Skype – free calls (with video) to any Skype member all over the world and cheap fees to traditional landlines and mobile phones. We use Skype and MSN Messenger for instant messaging and TightVNC for remote desktop connections (View and control someone else’s computer).
So with all that said this move should give us as entrepreneurs an opportunity to travel and explore a new city, meet new interesting people and clients, temporarily reduce operation costs due to the lower cost of living in comparison to Copenhagen and hopefully continue our education in this industry. I’d also encourage everyone to read The world is flat by Thomas Friedman, it’s a great book focusing on a number of the topics talked about above.
[tags]location,entrepreneurship,entrepreneurs,prague,bootstrapping,communication[/tags]
18. april 2007 kl. 10:26
Skrevet af Femi og Michael
After recently speaking to another two man partnership company based in Copenhagen, I was (and still am) very intrigued by their business model, because unlike a micro company like us, they have solicited financial backing funding from Angels, Venture Capitalists and Sponsors. They pointed me to a video documentary they had used as a source of inspiration, which I finally acquired and settled down to watch in the early hours of last night.
Startup.com is an exciting and frank document about the “rise and fall of the American dream”. It chronicles the tribulations of an Internet startup company in era of the dot com bubble, when a lot of money was being shelved out by various source to companies, with the lure of making big money in return on the virtually untapped Internet market. Having writhed, winced and wriggled through the 1 hour 43 min documentary, I must say it confirmed my worst nightmares with regard business ventures of that scale and solidifies my belief in the benefits of the micro company model. However, I have the utmost respect for the entreupenuers that have the ability and desire to take on responsibilies and pressure of that magnitude.
I would encourage anyone who hasnt already seen this documentary to dig it out.
29. marts 2007 kl. 07:24
Skrevet af Femi og Michael
People often ask why I decided to move to Denmark for my first venture as an entrepreneur, at the tender age of 23. My response is always different but the one constant is that the decision itself was based purely on momentary inspiration.
Individuals as well as companies large and small often suffer from over-complicating decisions. I have come to find that a lot of the time it is better to subconsciously commit to a decision first and then attempt to justify to yourself why it’s the best decision for your situation.
In my case, we decided to start Arb Design late on a Friday night in Michigan (Inspired by a few alcoholic beverages). The justification of my decision fell on the opportunity to further my development in the computing industry as my own boss, experience a brand new country with the security of working closely with a good friend, the possibility of learning a new language (not yet, but maybe someday) and the clincher is that no matter what happens with our company, the whole experience will do wonders for me personally and professionally.
How do you make your own decisions?
[tags]decisions, inspiration, strategies[/tags]
15. marts 2007 kl. 10:02
Skrevet af Abelone Glahn
(Lilla) Mikrovirksomheder 1 – 9 ansatte
(mørkeblå) Små virksomheder 10 to 49 ansatte
(lyseblå) Mellemstore virksomheder 50 to 250 ansatte
(gul) Store virksomheder over 250 ansatte
EU-opgørelse fra 2006
Undersøgelsen viser, at mikrovirksomheder ikke nødvendigvis er bange for at vokse, ej heller i traditionel forstand:
more than 10% of one-person enterprises would recruit, if they were burdened by less red tape. As these enterprises make up more than half of all businesses in the EU this could translate into 1.5 million new jobs!
Think Small firstsiger EUs program for små og mellemstore virksomheder
We know very well ,that a small business is not managed like a big one,
that a micro enterprise is not managed like a medium-sized firm,
and that family business are seldom multinationals.
Even beyond the fact, that they have very different levels of resources,
all businesses have different characteristics.
It is important, therefore, to identify the different stakeholders and to make sure that all of them can make their opinions heard.”
Françoise Le Bail, SME Envoy and Deputy Director-General for DG Enterprise and Industry.
12. marts 2007 kl. 13:19
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