I’ve had the opportunity to talk with Michael Wolf, Swedbanks CEO, a couple of times. He is very passionate about his job and the mission to create more jobs for young people which is great. I asked him what he thought about business plans and the fact that many new and small companies focus on wrong things. If you have a company that needs a big investment I understand why you need to focus on the business plan to convince your investors and banks. But if you have a company that sells software or other services you should focus on selling them before chasing for new capital.

If you can show of some positive results it’s hundred times easier to get investments and loans from the bank sector. This conclusion may sound basic but many companies focus on their business plan instead of focus on the sales.  I’ve talk to many people who have made just this bad mistake.

So if you need an investment. Start by showing that your product/services are attractive and easy to sell.

Last year Sverige-Norge.se started to work together with Jönkping university and the two talent students Berhane Yemane and Mikael Karlsson. The project was to improve our new searchengine and build a uniqe way to filter and sort out people in our existing database. The project is soon finnished and we gave Berhane and Mikael a gift to show our satisfaction.

Yesterday the Peace & Love festival in Borlänge, Sweden, was ended by a mindblowing performance by Jay-Z. An incredible show with a message to the audience that our generation, the young generation, can and will change the world!

Besides Jay-Z I had the opportunity to see Kent, Europe, John Fogerty, Mando Diao, Robyn, Mika, The Ark, Hoffmaestro & Chraa, Daniel Lemma, Johnossi, Melissa Horn and Therese Andersson.

Now it’s time to make some noice at Visby and Almedalsveckan.

Tomorrow I will attend and try to contribute to a conference called Business & Pleasure in Borlänge. An initiative by Niklas Wass which connect the busniess world, culture and sport which point is to start discussions around how they more efficient can collaborate with each others in a new way.

I think more cities should try to make this kind of arrangement because the synergies that emerge are extraordinary.

People hire people like themselves.
People buy from people like themselves.
People date people like themselves.
People lend money to people like themselves.
And so on-ad infinitum.

I will give you a simple little trick when you want to promote your webpage into social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Just a few days ago LinkedIn copied the thumbnail function in the newsfeed from Facebook. When you post a link both Facebook and LinkedIn will bring one of the images (if there are any) from the webpage you linked to. If you think about this when you build your webpage and make a picture that is optimized for this purpose it will be much more attractive to both share and click the link. You can se what I mean below. The thumbnail will also come up in the newsfeed when anyone likes your link which makes this method even more worth full.

I was invited to a breakfast meeting by Nordea to listen to the forner currency exchange broker Villhelm Jensen. He told us that if we spend 5 minutes using Nordea e-Markets every week we could minimize the currency risks quite a lot. I’ve been using e-Markets now for a couple of years and I’m very pleased with it, but I guess I’m only using a fragment of the potential in the program. I will sheduele some more time to learn more but I strongly recommend it for those who trade foreign money frequently.

Villhelm told us e-Market is a great way for small companies to start doing advance currency business without having a personal currency exchange broker.

Villhelm Jensen

A couple weeks ago I was attending a discussion about the subject: How can we take care of the potential in the new generation.

The conlusion was to teach young students in a new way, try to implement entrepreneurship in an early stage. The debate was one of many actions from the initiative Släpp in framtiden.

Magnus Andersson, Viktor Nord, Mai-Li Hammargren, Carsten Greiff

First out was a two side article about 17 of may (national day in Norway) and Sverige-Norge.se. It was printed in the newspaper but you can read a copy of the article on Sverige-Norge.se website.

Then the online magazine, DI.se, did another interview about the differences between Norway and Sweden concerning salaries.

First out was Entreprenörsskapsjakten, by Gustaf Josefsson, where I together with KVD.se (Kvarndammen) was judging a section when the competitors tried to come up with creative solutions to use social media for attracting new customers. The results were in great variety but overall very good and creative! The winners were Entreprenörspartiet with Lisa Lindgren, Ludwig Jonsson & Adrian Swartz.

Later at the night it was time for celebration with Idéfestivalen and Idégalan.

The day after I was spontaneously invited by my friend Johannes Hansen to attend and coach competitors in Hjärna, Hjärta, Cash, a competition that last for 48 hours and was about creating social entrepreneurship. The ideas were great and I’m looking forward to follow them to real business ideas.

After that it was time for Stockholm and SM in Ung Företagsamhet. A two day long event with incredible ideas and energy that refreshed your whole body. One of the days was meant for a national board meeting which I was attending. The winner was Bolsa UF.

One of the speakers for the opening ceremony was the Swedish prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, which I, Viktor Nord, offcourse had to say a few words to.

Young Entrepreneurs of Sweden was represented by former UF-students Joakim Bank, Emma Knaggård Wendt, Erik Fjellborg and Per Anderberg Almhorn. Unfortunately I, Viktor Nord, am not a former UF student.

After that I went to Örebro to my friends Mikael Blix and Johan Berglund at Sportion to attend their yearly office party with a lot of familiar faces.

Then it was time for the 17 of may celebration in Oslo which last for a couple of days. I envy the Norwegian passion for the national day!

Here is my partner and better half Christian Josefsson and me Viktor Nord in the middle of Oslo. Take care so long!