Yesterday, I got the question “why do you blog?” of course I had around a million answers to respond with. Then I realized that the reason the person asked was not to find out why I blogged but to see if there was any reason to why he should blog.
This got me thinking about what [...]
Archive for November, 2009
How to give a spontaneous review that becomes valued
Posted By Annelie Näs on November 28th, 2009
I was recently at a small Christmas market arranged by the Swedish Church in Belgium. The market takes place in small house in the city, and they are creative when it comes to how to use the space. During the weekend, around 2000 people visit the market, which truly shows how Swedes like to celebrate Christmas time. They sell glögg, saffron bread and of course have a café where you can fika.
A few days after the event, one of the arrangers asked me what I thought about the event and the marketing of it. My spontaneous response was to mention that I liked that it was so Swedish and then I instantly went to suggesting improvements. The man who asked me was very happy for my suggestions as I presented them in a constructive way, and asked if I would be around to help contributing the planning of next year’s market.
But, even though I had a positive reaction to my suggestions, I really began thinking about the fact that even though I liked the market I had more to say about what could have been done better than what was actually good. As I’m usually a very positive person it took me by surprise that this was my spontaneous answer. Have years of university studies made me so “good” a giving constructive criticism that this now is how I encounter situations and questions like this? Or is it just human nature? Either way, can I change this behavior?
The reason why I am asking is that even though it is good to get constructive criticism, sometimes people really do not want it if they have not asked for it. So, is it actually good to start giving it away?
If you are new at a company you can get a head by sharing your ideas and show that you are creative, but if you do it too much people might begin to feel that you are not a team player since you do not fit in to the routine that the team have built for years. Could it be the same way with a review of an event etc, by focusing too much on different improvements, will the arranger just think that you where not the “target visitor” as the event in general did not appeal to you and therefore not consider you suggestions? I guess you won’t be as directly affected in the second scenario but maybe in the long run.
Let’s say that you attend an event and is later asked about your opinions. If you try first to complement the things, you liked about the event and then only make one or two constructive comments. There is a big change that the arranger will consider your suggestions and event ask you for more. Because the arranger will first consider you as a targeted visitor as you appealed to the event in general, and thus be open for a suggested improvement. He or she might even ask you for more of your opinions.
In the future, the event arranger might even remember your thoughtful suggestion and positive attitude, that he or she, might suggest you to share your ideas with someone else, and all of a sudden your opinion is valued. This would probably not have happened if you had shared all your ideas, even if they were presented in a good way.
Thus, my lesson from this is to try to stay positive when I leave the schoolbooks. There are far too many complaints in the world. What do you think? What is you spontaneous reaction in this scenario? Do you think it pays off to focus on the positive side of things?
Is one-way communication enough in the 21th century?
Posted By Annelie Näs on November 19th, 2009
Once I heard about a man who was considered an excellent communicator. He always returned letters and phone calls, and remembered to get in touch with people he had not talked to in a while. Quite impressive to accomplish that reputation without the techniques we have today. Most people did not know the keys behind his skills; discipline and continuity. Every Tuesday leaving work and spending a few hours with his family, he went to his study and did all his correspondence in one night. Sure, this might seem a bit strict and impersonal, but no one knew, they just admired him for always getting in touch.
How good are we really at communicating today? What do you do and how well do you do it? Could you become better at emailing old associates, contacting them more often? What opportunities did you lose because you did not follow-up?
We have social media, email, cell phones, instant messages, and the more traditional tools as well, but how much to we really use them. When your wall on Facebook is constantly filled with information about what your friends are up to, and will blogs you get the details as well, in other words one-way communication. So, do you really email them and call them to ask them another time what you already know or do you spare your conversations for the people you meet everyday instead? Does this mean that even though technique is making communication easier, we actually drift further away from our associates?
Time is money, but lost opportunity is also an expense. In the end, how many lost contact can you afford, or will people still consider you a contact just because you are connected on facebook?
How many letters have you send this year? I often read in marketing books that sending a letter to a person is a great way to market because it is much unexpected today. I would love to get a letter from a company instead of an advertisement, but I do not have one yet. This goes for personal situations as well, I would love to get a letter once in a while instead of a mail. Because it feels like someone actually took the time to contact me. When I moved to D.C. a few relatives and I started sending letters and pictures to each other by mail instead of the more usual email, and every time I got one it made my day. That little action that show that someone thought a little bit extra on me means so much. So why are we not doing that more often?
Maybe letters are not the way you communicate. But the issue seem to be the same with email and text messages. People do not take the time to communicate as much nowadays, and the new excuses keep coming.
Will people stop caring about nurturing relationships because they will accept that no one has the time? Or can you become a real winner in the situation by actually making an effort to communicate? And is that even possible if the person you are trying to contact with has chosen the first?
Personally, I will continue to make an effort to communicate, and if it comes to it, I will put correspondence on the agenda.
What do you think?
It is time to change the Swedish definition of a Blogger
Posted By Annelie Näs on November 17th, 2009
In Sweden the most read and popular blogs are written by teenage girls or notorious celebrities. Most of the posts are about fashion, parties or their personal lives, or perhaps the personal lives of people around them. Because of this, most people relate blogs with teenage girls, fashion and parties.
When I told a new associate from Sweden that I had a blog, I could instantly see that he changed opinion of me and asked, “oh, and what do you write about?” While uttering the words, it was obvious that he thought that I had just another blog about clothes. So when I told him what I did write about I could see that he was surprised.
As I meet him in a very private setting at a friend’s birthday party, I have not followed up with him. Thus, I do not know if he ever visited my blog or not, but the situation is still interesting. Is stereotype of a blogger so associated with teenagers and fashion in Sweden, that we are actually surprised if someone writes about something else?
I recently read an article that could be the beginning of the process to redesign the Swedish stereotype. In the online newspaper E24 you could read about “The blog which could get you the dream job.” The article features Eleonore Nygård and Frida Berglund, women who have blogged their way to their dream job.
Nygård is originally an engineer in the field of nuclear power, but got a job as an editor for the new magazine Modette trough her Swedish blog “Ytligheter.” Thought the magazine did not last long, the position opened up even bigger opportunities and now she is responsible for the branding of the clothing label Monki.
Berglund on the other hand did not just happen to get a job from having a blog; she started her blog as a career move. Her blog Tendeser, gave her the internship she wanted at IKEA, which lead to another job as marketing coordinator at Cult Design.
These two women have big blog, but as they are not considered the biggest, which could be why people do not associate blogs with successful people using the blog to show that they can do. Either way, I hope that more Swedes will start associating blogs with people like these, and perhaps start their own blog for the same resons?
What do you associate with a blogger? How come? Is this different where you are from?
Posted in Annelie's Musings
A closer look on the synchronization of LinkedIn & Twitter
Posted By Annelie Näs on November 11th, 2009
The benefits of the cooperation
Two days ago, LinkedIn and Twitter announced their new cooperation; LinkedIn and Twitter go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Surely, I can see a lot of potential with this new cooperation. First, you remove the double work with posting the same information in both places. Second, while LinkedIn might be a more obvious place to announce work opportunities etc, the connection to twitter will send the request to more people.
The main thing about the cooperation I think lies in the party’s individual benefit from it. LinkedIn will most likely become more active from this cooperation and get significant increase in status updates. Twitter might get both more users from LinkedIn by people who just create an account to connect the two, since it now will not take any extra time to produce tweets. Since people tweet about all sort of things, Twitter might also increase the amount of tweets regarding business and professions. I cannot stop than wondering if an increased amount of tweets on these subjects would somehow be good for their financial growth.
The features of the synchronization
Anyway, even though there are benefits for both twitter and LinkedIn users. As well as for the two companies, still worry about what disadvantages that comes from this cooperation. Look at this for example:
As you can see, you can chose to share only some tweets or to share all of them. Setting that are made from the LinkedIn website but affects your status updates coming from twitter. While LinkedIn you have to check the square by the twitter logo to get your updates forwarded to Twitter.
It would be one thing if they only had the option to choose to connect the status updates on both networks for each post, like you can if you only share tweets with #in. However, as you can choice to have all tweets published on both networks I am worried that the increase number of updates on LinkedIn may be too much. People might become “spammed” on LinkedIn by others frequent twitter updates.
Changing the identity of the networks
From my point of view, the constant flow of twitter is what I expect from the network. The tweets I follow contain anything from links, to questions, to actions and of course answers of the questions “what are you doing right now?.” On LinkedIn, I do not expect this constant flow of updates, I expect people to update their statuses once or twice daily often less than that. The updates are more thought trough and gets to stay there status for a while. I have many contacts that overlap these networks and therefore expect my contact to use them differently. Thus depending on what I want to know about my contacts I chose which network to look up them on.
These identifying functions of networks it one of the reasons why I am on both of them, I have different expectations from them, and look for different things on them. If LinkedIn starts to become too much like twitter, why should I be on both networks?
Individual selection of the features
When people began synchronizing their twitter updates with their Facebook updates I found their updates to be more generic than the updates that they actually posted on Facebook. Thus, they changed the expectation of the Facebook update. Therefore, the possibility to hide particular updates solved this issue. Since, you no longer had to receive the synchronized posts, even though you might miss other updates then. A similar solution on LinkedIn would be very useful.
All in all, If LinkedIn gives us a possibility to hide the synchronized updates, I so far have nothing critical to say about the cooperation.
What do you think? Do you see more advantages? Or perhaps you have already seen threats? How has the cooperation affected you so far?
Posted in Social Media
How to make customers annoyed before the launch or how to aviod it.
Posted By Annelie Näs on November 9th, 2009
In a city where everything seems to be happening behind closed doors for special invited only. I was excited to find out that a new Music WebTV channel was launching to bloggers, or at least presenting what they are doing. Of course I signed up for the event, looking forward to see what this organization was all about.
However, when I got there earlier today, I did not only find out that the event had been cancelled, or actually postponed, a change that was not public until after I had paid them a visit. But they also told me that the event was not supposed to be public, I wonder where they will find bloggers that is not public?
When I left, my first thought was that I was quite embarrassed; I thought I must have misunderstood something. So after I came home I took another look at the invitation:
“Moodio.TV // Bloggers event // 09/11/09 – 18h30 – Brussels
Moodio.TV, the Belgian music webTV ! Invites you to their launching.
It will be held in our offices on Monday 9 November. During the evening, we will present our project and our new tools to promote artists. Our team will be at your disposal for any question and you will be able to visit our premises. We will conclude with an informal drink and snacks.”
However, after reading this, I think is the new TV channel that have some interesting things to figure out. First of all, do they know what bloggers is, as they invite bloggers but tell me that the event is not supposed to be public? Second, if they do change the date of the event. Why did they not send an email to the people who signed up?
Looking at their website I thought that this company has some interesting things going on, but if they want to get there they really need to start making a better first impression. I mean the man who meet me when I got there did not even introduce himself, and I left feeling embarrassed so clearly he was not keen on making an apologize. Sure maybe it was an honest mistake, but if it is, do not go in and change the date of the event right after I have left.
I am sure this is not the first time a launch gets postponed after the invitation have gone out. So for all of you who might get in this situation, here is are few tips:
- Make sure to inform all people about the change of date.
- If you have set up an event invite make sure to change that at the same time that you send out the emails about the change. Proofread so you have changed the date on all places in the invitation.
- Have someone present at the time and place for cancelled event to greet and explain for people who might not have got the message about the changes. Make sure that they leave wanting to come back.
- Send a special invite to those who signed up for the first date, so that they feel more encouraged to make plans to attend again.
- Only change the event once, in this case third chances!
- Put on a great first event, you only got one chance to make a first impression, and if you have changed the date, this is really your second chance.
I hope that someone will learn from another one’s mistake, and good luck Moodio, I think that your company idea has potential.
Gen Y Use November Redefine The Stereotype
Posted By Annelie Näs on November 7th, 2009
Young adults to day or generation Y are often called selfish and ungrateful. Sharalyn Hartwell, Generation Y Examiner at the examiner.com, did not agree with the stereotype and decided let generation Y show their gratitude. On November 1st she published the origin as the stamp-off to a month of “Generation Y Gives Thanks.” Each day generations y:ers let the world know what they are thankful for.
One of my favorite thanks so far has been the one of Rachel Yeomans, who is grateful for the wake-up call the poor economy has provided. Her honest gratitude made me not only realize that I should be more thankful for this as well, but also gave me a reminder that there are many people struggling with the same problems, and we should not be afraid to tell others about them.
Here are a few lines of what she wrote:
“For me, the economy has resulted in fear and frustration. Fear that I may get laid off from my lucrative project management position and frustration that I would be completely stranded if that happened because of my own doings. I didn’t have a budget, I had credit card debt and there was absolutely no excuse for either scenario..” Continue reading..
Of course I wanted to contribute to the article series when Sharlalyn asked me, and yesterday Adam Pieniazek’s and my thanks to the previous generation’s work was published.
A quote from Pieniazek’s thanks: “For all the hard work multiple generations of Web workers put in to make my online existence possible, I am eternally grateful” Continue reading..
A quote from my thanks: “I’m thankful for everything previous generations have accomplished which has lead to a world with infinite possibilities.” Continue reading..
Clearly, Pieniazek and I have a lot to be thankful for and I really appreciate Sharalyn Hartwell’s initiative to let us speak up and show the rest of the world that we are not selfish and ungrateful. Show your support for her work and read follow it on examiner.com or twitter #GenerationYgivesThanks
Posted in Annelie's Musings
Listed: The pros and cons of online studies
Posted By Annelie Näs on November 5th, 2009
Studying online? Have you ever thought about doing it? Do you know how it works, what the pros and cons are? And most important is it something for you? Hopefully this review about online studies will help you get a better picture. I will not go in to details about everything, but mainly focus on the pros and cons and what the differences are between studying at the university vs. studying online.
If you have read the short bio to the left, you know that I am a business student who takes online classes. I have not only studied online, I have taken classes at the university too, and I have even done a study abroad program. Therefore, I hope to give you a wide picture about what is takes to study online and I will try my best to stay objective.
As the post ended up very long, I wrote a short list and a long list, choice the one that is good for you.
The short version:
Pros
- Freedom
- Place independence
- Better opportunities to combine work & study
- Everyone gets heard in an online discussion
- More individual contact with the teachers
- More time for discussions
- You learn self-discipline
- Convenient for researching
Cons
- No one in the seat to answer your questions
- Less contact with class-mates
- More difficult to get to know new people
- Might not be viewed as an advantage for future employers
- You cannot write in the margin on online material
The long version:
Pros
Freedom
One of the main benefits with online studies is the incredible freedom it gives you. You can study at home, in a coffee shop or in an airplane. It does matter what time you want to study or what time zone you are in classes and material are always available. You can combine your studies with your work or passions etc, without having to spend hours on making your schedules fit. In general how much freedom you want to have is up to you.
BUT: The only issue with this is that it can become too much freedom. Thus you end up getting nothing done, and fail classes because of bad planning.
Place independence
It goes a bit hand in hand with freedom, but I cannot point out enough. If you study online, you can live anywhere. Because you do not have to come to the classes, the classes come comes to you. Thus, if you live in one particular city you can apply of online classes all over the country or the world and just study where you live. While if you study were you live the amount of classes and opportunities are limited to the city you live in. Also, if you end up moving or travelling you do not have to cancel the classes, they come with you.
BUT: It is still not perfect way to take advantage of this opportunity, at least not worldwide because there is not any place where you can search for all online classes yet. Thus, you have to do a lot of searching to find the best classes.
Better opportunities to combine work & study
As a student you usually want an extra income, that extra job that lets you worry a little less about money than you normally do. Money is an issue for people who study online as well, as we still spend a lot of time in the books. However, since you do not have a school schedule to plan work around you have a lot more possibilities to find extra jobs. Most of which can offer you more hours and thus more money.
BUT: It is easy to start prioritizing a day job above school, since it is from the job you get your income. Thus, you have to be careful with taking on too many hours so that the job becomes the main priority.
Everyone is heard in an online discussion
In the normal classroom, there is often little time left for discussions. But the main is not that it is not enough time for discussions, but that there are usually only a few people who participates in the discussion, leaving no room for those who are less forwards. In an online class everyone gets heard trough forum discussions. Many discussions are obligatory and even though a few people usually gets heard more even in these discussion, everyone gets to say what is on their mind, which makes online discussions so much richer.
BUT: As the practice is only done online, people might not become better at being heard in offline discussions.
More individual contact with the teachers
While studying at the university I found that the times spent talking to a teacher was 10 minutes before, after class, or via email, because they have so many lectures and seminars to take care of. When studying online on the other hand I have felt that I get better and personal answers, they do not only answer my question, but have time to explain why, and if possible how I got it wrong. I guess this is because they have less time to perform lectures and more time for individual support, even though there are more students per teacher.
BUT: As you never actually meet your teacher when you study online, it is sometimes difficult to show and explain what you are having trouble with.
More time for discussions
+ As I mentioned before I think the timed spared for discussions at the university are a bit to sparse. Therefore online study forums provide the added benefit of being available 24-hours a day and for the whole course. That really gives time for discussions.
BUT: When you have all the time in the world people seem to lose the ability keep it short, and the discussions might become too long.
You learn self-discipline
If you did not have a lot of self-discipline when you began studying online, you definitely will after you have done it for a while. Since there is no classmates or teachers to push you to turn in a paper or sometimes even a reading schedule it is sometimes difficult to stay disciplined. But if you do not it is only your loss, so eventually you will have to learn.
BUT: Sometimes it takes a failed exam or even a failed course to learn, it is up to you if you can afford that.
Convenient for researching
University studies always mean that you need to do research, for papers, for explanations and even for words. When you study online you practically have your classroom in your computer or on the course website, therefore it is usually easier do combine your research with your other works, as half of it is not in print.
BUT: Many use copy and paste when they research which can be dangerous because you can forget where you took it and therefore copy past stuff that you have not written, and you do not want to do that!
Cons
No one in the seat to answer your questions
If you have trouble understanding something in a offline lecture or seminar you can always lean over and ask the person next to you, or raise your hand and ask the professor. When you study online to can always email a teacher or another student to ask a question, but since you two are not in the moment and instantly know what the other person is talking about, it might not be obvious what you are wondering about. Thus, it can sometimes be difficult to get your real confusion answered.
BUT: As there is no one there, to instantly answer your question, which mean that most of the time you have to figure out all the answers yourself. The benefit though it that this usually means that you learn more.
Less contact with classmates
Contact with your classmates it usually necessary to understand and discuss class work. When you study online this is sometimes a big problem. Sure, there are many forums and everyone have each other’s emails. However, there are rarely non-obligatory discussions about subjects that we write papers about etc. If the classes had been offline this discussion would have happened between classes, at breaks and in the lunchroom, know there are no natural times for discussions, which usually mean that they do not take place at all.
BUT: This is all up to you, if you want to have a discussion you can always be the one to bring up the subject and most likely people will write a few words with their opinions. It might not be as helpful as an offline discussion but it is always something.
More difficult to get to know new people and expand your network
When you study online you have the tendency to not get to know your classmates very well. Even though you might, do group work it does not necessarily mean that people take the time to get to know you. Many meet a lot of future colleges and business partners at the university and use does contacts when they graduate. People who study online seem to forget about part of studying and thus do not take the time to get to know one another.
BUT: Even though you do not expand your network through your schoolwork that does not mean that you will not meet new people. You can become better at networking in other parts of your life and thus continue to expand your network.
Might not be viewed as an advantage for future employers
If this is true or not, I do not know, but some people tend to see an online course as less difficult than an offline course. Why I do not know, but if future employers believe so an online student might have problems to compete in the recruitment process. I surely hope this is not the case, because online studies open up so many possibilities. However, as a prospective student you should consider this, what can you do that will make you more competitive in a fight for a job, in case you have a disadvantage because of your choice of studies?
BUT: Many of those who study online also have good jobs on the side. Hopefully, a future employer will see that the online student has more work experience compared the offline student and consider those when deciding on whom to hire.
You cannot write in the margin on online material
When you study you always have lots to read and never the time to read it more than once. Therefore, I always mark the important things and write small reminders in the margins so I will remember I only have to focus on the important things when it is time to study for a test or choice material for a report. When you study online a lot of the material is digital and even thought there are possibilities to make marks and notes in digital material the schools do not seem to know about these yet.
BUT: As always, there are solutions, even though they might not be what you are used to. For example, you can begin to write a summary of all the important things from each chapter you read or write down page and line of the important things to get back to later. I am sure you can find a solution that works for you.
To study online or not?
There they are, all my pros and cons and the “buts.” I guess this list can become a lot longer and that there are more factors to take into consideration. When I began writing this post, I asked on twitter for thoughts on the subject and a teacher for online classes said this: It requires special engagement. Anyone can choice to study or not study online, but if you do not have the special engagement to do it, it might not be for you.
Thank you @eamcc and @pcambron for your thoughts on twitter.
Please share your comments and experiences on the subject.
Scandinavians have a lot to learn from the Russians – Day 4 in St. Petersburg
Posted By Annelie Näs on November 3rd, 2009
Day four of my trip to St Petersburg had arrived, and it was only a matter of hours until we had to jump in the car and head to the airport. The night before was spent with some of the people we had met during our stay at a restaurant. Celebrating new friendship, perspectives and future possibilities, might sound like a cliché but in that atmosphere nothing could be. These people were just filled with such amazing spirits that even I who is usually very positive felt a bit knocked over.
Anyway I think at breakfast this morning that we all felt a bit sad to leave and of course that made us a bit late for the daily schedule. The first and only planned stop today was the Hermitage. However, we insisted on making another stop to the Kazan Cathedral An amazing building that we had passed numerous times but never had time to take a closer look at. Fortunately for us the cathedral was in walking distance from the Hermitage, so that was put on the daily schedule as well.
The Hermitage and the Kazan Cathedral
As I told you we were a bit late leaving the hotel as we had to pack our bags and get ready, since we were not coming back before we left for the airport. This almost caused us our visit to the hermitage since we were on quite a tight schedule and the hermitage sometimes have insanely long lines. But once again we had our luck with us as there were no lines at all. We later found out that this was because the summer was over, in the summers the lines can take hours and they spread all over the square in front of the building, and I will tell you, that is not a small square.
When in the museum I was almost more amazed by the incredible architecture than by the art itself. Although I was a bit surprised to find out that almost the whole museum burnt down during the war and everything were reconstructed after it was over. Though I could see that the internal architecture was in very good shape they fooled me. I had no idea that they could capture what used to be in such a real way, but since I am not an expert, others may disagree.
We walked around the hermitage main building and I got to see a few amazing paintings from Pablo Picasso and others. After spending some time viewing the older pieces as well as the more modern art we felt that enough was enough. Satisfied with our visit we continued to the fabulous Kazan Cathedral.
The cathedral turned out to be even more astonishing up close. The Russian architecture is truly massive, but everything seems to be under reconstruction and so was this building. But since you where allowed to go inside and thus see both the internal and external work of art the reconstruction did not bother me too much. Instead I am just happy to have seen yet another building in close up before it was time to leave.
After walking out of the cathedral we took a few more pictures, enjoyed our last Russian two course meal and sad our goodbyes to Katja before we headed off the airport. There it was time to say goodbye to Tuukka for now as he was flying to Finland, while the rest of us caught the flight to Stockholm. There we all split Bodil flew to Oslo, Janis took the train to Örebro and I continued my journey to Uppsala. I really hope to see them all very soon. I hope we will all attend next year’s Emax event in Denmark as volunteers.
A few last words about the trip
Before the trip I did not have a lot of time to read about the city and what you could see there, and when it came to my views of the culture, people and standards I think that my knowledge got stuck in the history classes in school. I believed that Russia was gray and cold and that the people were poor and had little charisma. Now I cannot understand how I could think that, I guess it was because I never really read or learned anything about the country after graduating high school, and all we learn there is about the wars, the problems and the poverty. Sure Russia has it problems still, but nothing is like I thought it would be.
Ok, I admit that Russia is cold, but St. Petersburg is a beautiful city with so much culture. The people who live there are very educated and proud of their city and they can tell you anything you want to know. Can you do that about your city? And when it comes to the poverty it might still be in their wallets but in their hearts they are such a rich group of people. I feel a lot more comfortable in a group of Russians than I would in most groups of Scandinavians; they are open, warm and pleasant to be around. While Scandinavians, at least young people, in comparison is so much more judgmental and uninviting, sad but true. I love Scandinavia and the people, but we are sometimes a hard group to get to know.
The programs that the Russian government and organization offers for prospective entrepreneurs are a lot more generous and promising that the ones that we have in Scandinavia. In Sweden you cannot get financial help to start a business unless you are unemployed. While in Russia the grant I have been talking about is offered to anyone. Adding to that the money you receive from the grant programs is not a loan; you get to keep that as long as you use the money according to the business plan. In Sweden all the money you can get is from a loan and that is not very encouraging for someone who wants to take a chance for something new? We might have prospective entrepreneurs in the country that wants to create something that could be ground breaking and great for the country, but where is the real support?
Sweden and I believe the other Nordic countries as well have a lot to learn from the programs and possibilities the Russian offers their Entrepreneurs. Start to study it now.
Posted in Annelie's Musings
How much inspiration can a person receive in only three days? – Day 3 in St Petersburg
Posted By Annelie Näs on November 2nd, 2009
Thursday morning there were four tired Scandinavians who came down to breakfast, obviously affected by the intensity of the journey so far. Today we had a two hour bus ride to Vyborg to look forward to and I think all of us wanted to catch some useful sleep on the way over. Though our plans did not turn out quite the way we had wanted them to, as Russians apparently never sleep, and we did not dare to miss anything interesting they might have to share with us. So even though I did not participate in the conversation on the bus over much, I sure kept an ear open in order to not miss anything.
A visit to the medieval city Vyborg
When we arrived to Vyborg we only had time to jump off the bus, stretch our legs and grab a cup of coffee before the organizers of today’s meeting started talking. This meeting was the first time the language barrier became a problem as we not only had a very fast Russian woman that was translated, but she also used slides, which never seemed to be connected with what she said. Thus, I will try my best to describe this organization without mistakes but I cannot promise you anything.
The first woman that we listened to was a representative for the non-commercial partnership woman’s resource center “Kristina” of Vyborg. This organization works with both men and women; even though the title makes it sound like it is only for women. The organization has many different programs for their member such as training courses, organization for business men, writing of business plans and a program called successful businessmen. As you might here from these names the organization does mostly consulted for entrepreneurs. What I found most interesting is that most of their participants are under 30 years old.
This organization had a similar grant program as the one at the Moskovsky district which I thought was interesting to learn more in detail about.
The project is called successful start and works like this:
The first step is to write a business plan and attend different entrepreneur courses. The courses for the entrepreneurs included consulting, learning about the rules and laws that entrepreneurs faces, and they also get to write their business plan with a mentor from the organization. The organization also offers the new entrepreneurs a great opportunity to meet businesses through the organization network. When they have completed the training and finished the business plan they get to present their ideas for a special government committee. This committee will decide if the entrepreneur is offered the grant or not, and the different tactics to convince them has apparently been very interesting she told us with a smile on her face. If you are approved for the grant they will transfer the money right to your account and you do not have to payback. The total grant can be up to 300.000 Ruble but can only cover 80 % of the total investment, the other 20 % you have to come up with yourself.
After we learned about the organization they had a surprise for us. We got to see Tuukka and a few other dressed up in medieval clothing and served bread from that time. After that we talked a bit about who we were and what we did until it was finally time to meet a few of the participant of the grant program.
Meeting the young entrepreneurs
For those of you who want to learn a bit about what the Vyborg entrepreneurs is working with here is a presentation of three of them.
First we met Jana, one of the participants in the grant program. She recently started a children’s club for children between 1 to 9 years old. The idea is that it gives children who do not attend a daily kindergarten to get prepared for it when it is time to start. They have lessons for small children and their parents. She also tells us that they have many ideas that are still not implemented as they just started. We later got to go and visit her children’s club, more of that soon.
Next up to speak was a young farmer, who is the son of a very famous farmer in the region. Listening to him you can hear that he is very thankful and proud of his father who began teaching him about farming when he was only six years old. A while back though he decided to start his own business and rented ground to be able to begin. He produces flowers and fruit among other things; he also combines farmer activities with design. His current specialty collie flowers, apparently he grows a special kind of them, as the Dutch collie flowers cannot grow in the region. He has the best natural growth of ecological collie flowers. His next goal is to get a credit for a green house.
The last speaker that I will tell you about here was a man who received the grant a few years back. He owns a company that provides legal and financial services for businesses and entrepreneurs. The idea behind the company was to help entrepreneur s who makes mistakes when they start up their businesses and help them to avoid them. Thus they have a special offer that is affordable for startups. When he got the grant the business plan was already made they mostly needed the financial help for expansion. There are 4000 entrepreneurs in the area that needs help but they do have competition. Currently they have about 40 companies that use their services constantly.
As you can see the entrepreneurs in Vyborg work in very different areas, we even got to hear about a woman who has started a free cultural news paper for young people financed by advertising. So even though Vyborg can seem quite old and torn from the outside, the city seem to be bubbling of entrepreneurial spirit.
Touring the city
After spending a few hours in the organization’s headquarters, an old building that did not seem to have any central heating. We were happy to get into the minibus that took us to a restaurant for yet another Russian meal. It is insane how much food you eat at every meal. It was always two courses and dessert on top of that.
The lunch was followed by a tour around the city, included visits at two of the entrepreneurs businesses. As I told you we visited the children’s club owned by Jana, which had some very interesting equipment used to stimulate the children’s development. Colors and building blocks seemed to be very popular, and so did the club which started to fill up which small kids just as we were about to leave.
We also visited a very young entrepreneur who owned a stable where she trained and sold horses. There she also held riding classes even though the property where the stable was limited the possibilities for big riding classes. Never the less, this girl was really inspiring as she had about eight horses that she owned and she could not have been a day above 25.
Quite tired after the days visit in Vyborg we sat on the bus for the two hour ride home. Personally I was too filled with expressions to manage to fall asleep, so instead I sat listening to even more interesting stores. How much inspiration can you take-in during three days?
Posted in Annelie's Musings
