This is a very relevant question. The word business is often associated with the word finance. Words like numbers, accounting, mathematical formulas to calculate a perfect budget, financial statements and declaration, some of us are motivated by these terms while others lose it, or even think that you will never be able to run your own business if you do not have a candidate in economics. This is of course completely wrong! Entrepreneurship is about so much more than finances and formulas! Today, there is also a lot of support and help available, both within the company support system, but also from auditors at professional agencies.

With that said, there are things that you need to know, as you as an entrepreneur are responsible for the finances and that it is managed correctly. You do not have to feel that you should know everything by heart, but you should be open to learning more about finance and, for example, learning the basics of how accounting works. By being open-minded, you will gain a greater understanding in the long run about how your company feels, be able to see trends, and make analyzes. That “AHA!” Feeling when you connect accounting with reality, and that through it you can improve your business, that’s when it’s fun!

None of us want to be punished, and as we went through in question 1, there are things in business that can be challenging. Being in charge of finances and the legal system can be scary. You have to bear in mind that no one is born to be an entrepreneur, it is something you learn, which means that no one knows everything from the beginning. The judiciary does not hunt down small business owners who have just started and happen to make mistakes, they look for those who systematically make mistakes, and are criminals.

The key is, organization. All receipts and documentation need to be organized and that it is important to keep track of the laws within what you do with your company. authorities have good information on their pages for traders. If you do not find what you are looking for, call the authority that controls your area, for example the Swedish Board of Agriculture or the National Food Administration. In some cases, it may even be wise to get legal advice from a licensed lawyer, who may look into your particular case!

You know when you’re driving a car at night, it is dark and the clouds are dense, only the car’s lights and light rays generate a light tunnel forward at about 300 meters. You see part of the way, but not all future curves, obstacles, and turns! This is also how you usually describe the business trip! You can plan and plan, but you will never be able to see the whole way or what you need to learn over time! You take a few steps forward every week, develop and change. Drivhuset and UIC are two players in the business support system who help at an early stage. We have tools and coaches who are happy to support you on your journey. Drivhuset often supports early ideas that do not always have the height of innovation, while UIC is an incubator that helps ideas with innovation and scalability.

Whatever idea you have, you should know that there is help available, and no one knows everything from the beginning! That is also the excitement of entrepreneurship, you never really know for sure where you will end up, but one thing is 110% certain, if you do not start you will end up nowhere!

Being an entrepreneur means keeping track of many different parts, the customer, sales, marketing, design and brand, innovation, prototype, websites, social media, investments, programming .. ETC ..! It is impossible to have everything perfect from the beginning! Just for you to let go of the perfectionist thinking, we want you to google “Apple first logo” .. A company that we think today is at the forefront of design and innovation. Something that their first logo might not really represent, right? They changed the logo very quickly, and there we have it, it is always possible to change along the way, especially in the beginning before things have become a matter of course for their customers. Steve Blank, another entrepreneurial profile, has a famous quote “No Business Plan Survives First Contact with Customers”. This means that you can sit in your room and plan, but you don’t really know what the idea will look like after you have tested it with reality! So it is important to do so at the beginning of their journey.

In summary, out and test, develop, learn, redo and change your idea, talk to your customers and people! Perfection comes with time, but you should also know that you never get really done.

We all have 24 hours in a day. However, we have different things that we need to do or spend our time on. Work, family, children and partners. It is easy to say that it is a matter of priority. But if you have a dream of one day starting a business, you need to start building on the dream step by step, a little every day or any day of the week. You can maybe find 1 hour, maybe 30 minutes at lunch?

As we talked about in question 4. It doesn’t have to be perfect but the key is to get the ball rolling! Get support via one of the actors in the support system on how to produce a road map that you can work with step by step! One day, the steps have become a complete company, and you can now work on your dream!

It is good that you think about how you should be sustainable as a person in your business. Community is important to many, especially when we do something that is long-term and also demanding, such as developing a business idea.

Therefore, there are also many possible communities you can take part in when you do this! Other people need you as much as you need them. These groups are linked to the business support system such as Drivhuset, co-working places such as Base10, Facebook groups for entrepreneurs, etc.

Directly contacting people who are engaged in similar activities as you is also a way to cultivate valuable contacts. With them, you can both ball professional issues and also personal challenges with entrepreneurship. They have been through similar things that you will be through, and they will probably just be happy to increase their network of like-minded people.

You can always minimize the risks of starting and developing your business. You can go much further than many people think completely for free or at a low cost in your business development. Learning quickly, easily and cheaply are good keywords when developing your business idea and company!

Some things that can minimize risk are a clear business plan, market research, budget and clear customer analysis! This is also something that the business support system can help with. There are also good templates on Verksamt.se and Almi.se.

If you develop your business idea and company organically based on knowledge of your target group (not just your assumptions about them), it does not have to involve any greater risk than you understand well and are willing to take.

This can be a major obstacle for many, especially us who are perfectionists. The social risk of losing face in front of loved ones, stakeholders and sometimes even strangers is palpable to many. Here it is important to let deeper values than that take place instead of your worries.

For every idea you dare to test, your courage and your insights about what works and what does not grow. To “fail” is nothing but a perfect opportunity to learn something. In addition, your feeling grows that it is not so dangerous to fail.

No one succeeds at once, it is a natural part of the process, to fall and then get up again! Besides, we want to surround ourselves with people who support us no matter how it goes, right?

Luckily there are networks and organizations where you can find investors!
Connect Sweden, Almi Invest and UIC are three examples of players that have networks for investors. If you are also a researcher or student at SLU or UU, you can contact SLU Holding and Uppsala University innovation offices, which can support your innovative idea!

You can also read and contact them to start understanding how investing works. Another tip is to get in touch with people who have founded companies and made investments in similar fields that you want to work with, and ask how they have succeeded in doing so. Many are happy to share their journey!

Maybe your idea requires programmers in the future, but in the beginning there is probably a lot more you can work with to confirm your idea. When you have a clearer picture, there are digital tools that are free or cheap, such as “Figma”. With this tool, you can develop visual prototypes that you can test against your target audience to gather feedback.

There are many examples of people completely ignorant in programming who, when they have found something they really want to test, managed to learn what is needed to create a first version themselves. Then there may be opportunities to contact programming students at different levels who want real cases, such as your business idea, to work with. Or fully trained programmers who are open to working as part of your team towards a share in the future company. In addition, there are many consulting companies that rent out their services, to realize your digital idea!

It can feel like your cruel ideas are being stolen from you, sniffing under your nose, because you have not been “careful enough” when you take it out into the world for others to see. However, it is often worse for your idea to be stuck inside you and never get to breathe fresh air! It is only in “reality” that it can really grow into something real and valuable for both you and others!

Developing an idea is not something that is done in the blink of an eye, but it requires long-term work and humility before it will probably change a lot as you learn about your target group. In the beginning, it is often much more important to start communicating with individuals from your target group to learn about them, which is even better done if you do not tell about your idea and instead ask open-ended questions within the context of your idea.

Everyone in the business support system treats their meetings confidentially, so you can talk to a professional and experienced in business development in peace and quiet.

That an idea already lives and thrives out there is just proof that it is in demand, which should rather strengthen your motivation, because you did not know that before! Now it’s important for you to understand how they work, what target group they work towards, what their customers think of them – so that you can try something that is different in some way or simply better.

For example, you can target the same idea to another audience. Let’s say your competitor is targeting older single couples, could you focus on families with young children instead? Or use another channel where you reach your target audience? For example, a more digital solution than your competitors’. Or to make your idea something more exclusive and luxurious instead of what is available today. Only creativity sets limits here!