Blog
On the path to digitalization – Entrepreneur’s experiences with the digital pilot
At EntreFox’s Digital Pilots, we have supported +55-year-old entrepreneurs in digital literacy and lifelong learning by developing the company’s digitalization. Digital pilots have included the......
Sustainable working life for all – the swAge model from a small business perspective
Human age is easily a sensitive and often overlooked topic of conversation. There are many stereotypes and negative connotations associated with old age. Many young people (under the age of 25) feel......
Finding your own group: Longing for the cohesion of solo entrepreneurs
The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health launched training and peer groups for entrepreneurs as a part of the EntreFox project three years ago. The main reasons for starting the activity were the......
Into a rocking chair or Slush? – Stereotypes and structures as a barrier to entrepreneurship for women over 55
Entrepreneurship can provide a way to stay in work beyond retirement age and earn extra income if needed. However, entrepreneurship can also meet other needs, such as increasing social interaction, a......
Entrepreneurs at the extremes of resilience
Entrepreneurship brings with it the requirement to deal with uncertainty and, at best, turn uncertainty and failure into new insights and successes. The COVID era brought to the fore, to an......
Entrepreneur in the jungle of social media
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has been heavily featured in February, with a plunge removing $230 billion of the company’s worth in a day. Mirrored in the U.S. stock market history, this is also......
The Entrepreneur’s competence mapping is almost done!
As a part of the EntreFox +55 Entrepreneurs and Working Life project, we have come up with a project team to design, produce and develop a new website: The Entrepreneur Development Path. In April and......
Happiness can be found nearby – Healthy Entrepreneur
It is said that happiness is found in everyday life.When writing this blog, the sun is shining, and the frost has made the landscape picturesque. Frost covers the ground. The beautiful landscape calms......
University collaboration for SMEs
In our EntreFox project business workshop, the topic of university collaboration rose to the surface when we held a well-being workshop. Participating entrepreneurs asked if there would be......
When an entrepreneur should know everything
During the EntreFox project, we have first organized entrepreneurial training and peer groups in Meilahti, Helsinki, and finally in Zoom, where we have been discussing key issues for entrepreneurs......
Make your entrepreneurship competence visible
Competence is everyone’s unique combination of abilities, knowledge, skills and attributes that can be learned and developed. Competence is accumulated in many environments: working life, everyday......
Prow towards the future
It’s nice to return to work in August when the batteries have been charged over the summer and the thoughts are back in the coming fall. For an entrepreneur, a relaxed mind during the summer......
Three things to learn from the Entrepreneur’s development discussion testing event
We have been creating the “Entrepreneur’s development discussion” for about a year now and have been collecting feedback and development suggestions in our own entrepreneur groups and workshops.......
Where to find support for my business?
The financial losses caused by the coronavirus have been significant for many Finnish entrepreneurs. Researchers and artists in particular have on several occasions challenged society to take......
Economic hardship and distancing – LGBTI entrepreneurs in COVID-crisis
“I do a lot of concerts and performances. For a long time, they could not be done at all because of the pandemic. On top of that, the clients I could otherwise work for can’t afford to pay......
Age does not discourage experts and age management helps you cope longer
Age management as part of the strategy will help improve productivity and well-being at work and increase the transfer of tacit knowledge. The career model and age management are ways to take into......
Clarifying business ideas in autumn's EntreFox workshops
Creativity and innovation have been the theme of EntreFox's English language workshops this autumn. The workshops have been attended by entrepreneurs with a foreign background, who act as consultants......
Promoting well-being and productivity at work
A healthy entrepreneur is the heart of the company. Well-being at work is of great importance to a company's competitiveness, financial performance, and reputation. Well-designed investments in......
“The courage to be yourself, even if silly”, and other experiences of the benefits of aging in entrepreneurship
I will soon turn forty. How is my own aging reflected in everyday life and work? Physical pains increase if I don’t pay attention to recovery. On the other hand, I am experiencing increased......
Entrepreneurship education for the elderly – does experience replace education?
What is entrepreneurship education and to whom should it be directed at? Does work and life experience replace the need for entrepreneurship education for older entrepreneurs?The 13th Entrepreneurship......
Quick fixes and big questions - small businesses’ digital challenges
In December 2020 the University of Helsinki team of EntreFox organised a webinar called Digital Clinic. The idea was to answer questions from small businesses and self-employed people. In this blog......
Up-to-date digital skills for entrepreneurs
Even though the need and significance of digitalisation in business differ greatly between companies, no one can avoid updating their digital skills. During the coronavirus pandemic sales and......
Power your business with service design
The premise of service design is user-driven design of the service experience or product, so that they correlate as comprehensively as possible with the needs of the user. For the entrepreneur......
Towards the unknown – Entrepreneur's experiences of remote work
The changes in everyday life caused by the coronavirus pandemic have now lasted for more than a year, and the word "remote" has been on everyone's lips for a long time. Concerts, meetings, fairs,......
Bye-bye multipasking – it is possible to revitalize the brain's ability to concentrate
Today, our brains are constantly in the midst of an information flood. Especially in knowledge work, everyday life is filled with constant interruptions. The phone rings and a colleague wants to talk......
How I am doing as an entrepreneur and as a person?
I was talking to a familiar sole entrepreneur who lives alone. When he gave blood in June last corona year, he had woken up to the fact that this was his first physical contact with another person in......
"Kill sisu!" - Self-compassion for corona anxiety
At the Light in the Darkest Hour webinar organized by EntreFox in November 2020, we heard experts from different fields talking about entrepreneurs' well-being. Psychologist Juho Mertanen from Mieli......
Don't try alone – support from well-being peer group
When we started the well-being workshops in the Entrefox project in autumn 2019, no one had any idea what kind of struggles entrepreneurs would face. The purpose of well-being workshops is to promote......
Pride in one's own work grows in the peer group of entrepreneurs
Last autumn, we met a group of entrepreneurs over the age of 55 in a coaching and peer group organised by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. The group has had six joint meetings and......
Use service design to exceed the customer's expectations
Almost all companies compete for customer’s money. In most cases, the customer can afford to choose from many different options or not buy at all. A variety of things happen around the product or......
Medicine, gadgets, or birdsong – there are many solutions to sleep problems
The bracelet on my wrist beeps to indicate that now is the optimal time to go to sleep. I'm going to check that there's still battery left on the recovery-measuring ring and put the weighted blanket......
There is plenty of time
The Finnish proverb says: “There's nothing more than time in the world". Yet we often hear people say “interesting, I only wish there was enough time” or “I’d say yes, but I have no time......
Entrepreneur: have a development discussion with yourself
Entrepreneur’s work is immensely hard, and especially in small companies, the entrepreneur's job spectrum can vary widely from CEO to marketing manager to cleaner. Extensive tasks require versatile......
Self-realization and the significance of work
Self-realization is about doing things that you feel are important to you. These things give you fulfilment, joy, and enthusiasm. Self-realization is a crucial part of a meaningful (work)life. In......
Foreign-born entrepreneurs hit particularly hard by the global pandemic
In the Entrefox –project, we organise workshops for entrepreneurs with a foreign background to support their business. The COVID- 19 pandemic, which began in the spring, set the content of the......
A map of well-being and traffic lights – tools for identifying factors of well-being
Well-being is a very broad concept and is understood by different people in a different way. Factors affecting well-being include nutrition, sleep, social relationships, exercise, rest and relaxation,......
Headless child on the swing and other thoughts on calming the mind
He looks out the window and sees himself in the yard as a little kid. The child sits on a swing, swings fast back and forth. The child has no head at all. The vision doesn't terrify him. It's a calm......
Age and experience as resources for entrepreneurship
In public, entrepreneurship is often associated with assumptions about youth, which may lead others to consider whether age is a potential barrier to becoming a successful entrepreneur. The start-up......
Taking over social media: social media posts
To be, or not to be, that is the question. Many companies are starting to use social media channels, but after the initial hype, the number of updates decreases. When the last update wishes Merry......
Doing good and the importance of work
During this spring many have thought of own work importance and have compared own work to that of so-called critical areas. Definitions of areas critical to society are an external signal of the......
Taking over social media: developing a strategy
Where once a company’s existence was based on a phone book, today most companies have to appear on social media to exist, so to speak. Many companies have commendably included various social media......
Technology for promoting health and well-being - experiences from entrepreneurs' workshop
There are a lot of technological solutions available to promote health and well-being. For instance, there are mobile apps that will help you to create exercise programs, follow-up your sleep, keep a......
An entrepreneur working from home – how to take care of yourself during an exceptional time
Due to the prevailing pandemic, the piece of mind of both entrepreneurs and employees has been put to the test. The coronavirus has increased the importance of healthcare and economy to a whole new......
How did it go, and how does it feel? Experiences from entrepreneurial group
The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health is responsible for organizing coaching and peer groups for entrepreneurs over 55 years old in EntreFox project. The activities of the first group took......
COVID-19 changes distance working skills and habits
The vast majority of companies have shifted to distance work, whenever it is possible. This has brought new kinds of challenges to phone and network traffic. The news from the Tekniikka & Talous......
Future work challenges for people over 55 - solutions from the Sustainable Working Life project
The EntreFox project is involved in the Sustainable Working Life project coordinated by the Baltic Sea Labor Forum (BSLF). The Sustainable Working Life project aims to promote the sustainable......
Ars longa, vita brevis – lifelong and lifewide learning
Last autumn, together with a group of entrepreneurs over the age of 55, we discussed their existing expertise and the next steps in developing this expertise. When it comes to development work on......
