My name is Fredrik and I am working digitally full-time for eight years and mainly developing financial websites.
At this point, I dedicate most of my efforts toward building an excellent business financing service for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), startups and entrepreneurs operating in the Nordic area (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden). The underlying reason for this project is the many obstacles SMSs have to face before getting funded. In reality, many promising companies fail not because they are pursuing the wrong business idea, but instead, they lack sufficient capital to establish themselves on the market.
The primary purpose of my latest project Nordiska Firmalån (Firmalan.com) is to make business financing more accessible and make it easier for others to succeed in their business ventures.
What are some common challenges companies face looking for financing?
Truth is; sooner or later, most entrepreneurs end up in a situation where they need to bring in external investment capital or financing. As a small business, not only is it complicated to get an overview of available financial options, getting approved by a bank is often next to impossible.
There are quite a few financial alternatives for small business if the bank is letting you down. However, the market has done quite a lousy job getting the message out. Another problem is the lack of honest review and comparison sites. Fredrik thinks his new website really could make corporate financing both more accessible and transparent.
One of the main strengths of Nordiska Firmalån is that it covers many financial options whether it’s corporate banking, EU funding programmes, business loans or crowdfunding.
Who is the person behind these projects?
My name is Fredrik and I am a Swedish entrepreneur,
Overtime. The financial business has become my center of attention and since a couple of years back, I mainly work on creating user-friendly information-rich financial websites with honest comparison and reviews. The company Spexer AB developed one of the first multilingual Nordic loan comparison sites (Lanebank.com).
Why do you do what you do?
My journey as a small business owner, began just before I finished my university studies. By then, I had already built a couple of small websites and was making some “petty cash”, but I was very far from being able to live off the income generated online.
I finished my studies and became a teacher by degree,
but my heart was never in teaching so I desperately looked elsewhere for some
other job/ income opportunities. At the back on of
my mind, a nagging feeling was growing, the idea of scaling up the business was
haunting me and becoming increasingly attractive by the day. I decided to work
some extra hours as a teacher and then devote the rest of the time to grow my
small business.
I won’t lie, the first few years were a real struggle and I was about to give up more than once, but (luckily) kept on going. After lots of effort and some luck, I found myself in a position where I was fortunate enough to be able to work full time with my company. After about five years, my business was going well enough, with a steady income, I could enjoy some time off and do some travelling.
With economic stability, my entrepreneurial business focus has shifted; nowadays, my main motivation is realizing small business ideas by turning abstract concepts into reality. In my experience, money alone is a very shallow driving force and you are much better served with a higher purpose in life.