Running a Business in Sweden: Remote Advice on Cash and Growth

• Engineering and industrial exports

  The municipality of Sandviken, home to a major tool and materials maker, says engineering is a large part of Swedish exports, with machinery, electronics and motor vehicles the main categories. Small machine shops and repair firms in such towns commonly serve one or two big local employers.

• Forest industry

  The Swedish Forest Industries Federation says its members run sawmills, pulp mills, paper mills and board mills across the country. It adds that Sweden is among the world's large exporters of pulp, paper and sawnwood. Haulers, machine operators and timber merchants around those mills work to the mills' schedules.

• Mining in the north

  The Geological Survey of Sweden lists the mines now in production, all of them metal mines, spread over Norrbotten, Västerbotten, Dalarna and Örebro counties. Iron is mined at Kiruna, Gällivare and Pajala. Contractors, workshops and transport firms in those towns depend heavily on the mining companies.

• Technology and start-ups in Stockholm

  Business Sweden describes Stockholm as having one of the fastest-growing tech start-up scenes, and Sweden's digital sector as strong in fintech and gaming. Smaller software, design and service firms form a supporting layer, often selling to only a handful of clients.

• 01Machine shops and repair firms in single-employer towns commonly rely on one large customer, so a cut in that customer's spending can reach every supplier at once.
• 02Contractors and haulers serving mills and mines often work to someone else's schedule, and payment terms set by a large buyer can stretch their cash.
• 03Firms in towns built around one industry commonly find that a downturn there leaves little other work to fall back on.
• 04Young software and service firms commonly grow fast on a few clients, then find that processes, pricing and hiring have not kept pace.

Winter UTC+1, summer UTC+2. Stockholm has summer time and India has none, so the gap moves. India is 4 hours 30 minutes ahead in the dark months and 3 hours 30 minutes ahead in the light ones.

We book the first call once the scope of the problem is clear, so the conversation starts from your business and not from a calendar.

• Manufacturing
• Technology
• Logistics
• Professional services

Trades to start from

• Industrial equipment manufacturers
• Metal fabrication and laser cutting units
• CNC machining companies
• Mining and quarrying companies
• Industrial repair and maintenance companies
• Fleet operators
• Freight and transport companies
• Software development companies

Worked examples on these pages use rupees and Indian business practice. The method carries over, and your first sheet is built from your own books in your own currency.

• Business Process

  Mapping how a machine shop or repair firm schedules jobs, orders parts and invoices its one or two large customers.

• Business Audit

  Following cash at a contractor to a mine or mill, from work done to payment received, before terms strain it.

• Business Growth

  Planning how a supplier in a single-employer town adds customers outside it so one budget does not decide the year.

• Business Strategy

  Setting a clear direction for a small software or design firm that has grown fast on a few clients.

1. First call by phone or video, to hear how your business runs and what is stuck.
2. A written scope that says what we will look at, what you will receive and what we need from you, with the fee written in your currency.
3. Your first sheet: the one page of numbers or decisions that the work starts from.
4. A review rhythm agreed with you, so the work is checked against what actually happened.

Tax, employment, immigration, licensing and regulatory questions stay with local professionals and the authority in Sweden. Our advice stays on how the business is run.