My Söderberg - Grönokrati

We studied together a few years ago and always came up with ideas and solutions for problems that we came across, which awoke the idea of doing something together. The need for Grönokrati was discovered a year later, when we realised how easy it could be to create a better working environment to benefit companies and their employees well being by combining outdoor activity with increasing green spaces and team building.

Josefin: an organized entrepreneur involved in Fältbiologerna mm, now studying environmental engineering.

My: interested in environmental psychology and landscape architect to be. Worked with landscaping and now developing visualization and vegetation skills in Alnarp.

Both: Creative and driven people with different job- and travelling experiences. Love challenges, engaged in the well being of our earth and sustainable globalization and consumption.

As we are just starting up this company our plan is to survey the market and reassure that it is worth putting further effort and time into making this project a reality. Finding and creating the right tools to communicate our idea and our service will take up a big part of the summer, and making a pilot test to assure that our skills and abilities are sufficient is also important.

The goal is to get the company started and on the market. We will have found our first client and have been able to provide the whole service package desired. We will have a working website and hopefully an app to go with our service and product.

My Söderberg - Grönokrati #2

So far into the Leapfrogs project we have:

⁃ defined the “need” of our service and the business idea

⁃ improved pitch

⁃ joined another contest

⁃ sketched on the logotype and on the projects

⁃ held meetings with innovation offices, a CEO at a target company, company related health care etc

⁃ made cost calculations

⁃ searched the market for our potential customers

⁃ investigated laws and tax related issues

All the above mentioned activities has worked well for us. The emphasis has mainly been on defining the actual business idea, as this was not entirely clear when the Leapfrogs time started. Ideas about structuring the company as a franchise business are still under consideration. Further meetings and discussions will be carried on.

Since the plan has been to make a plan and work with its shape, it is a hard one to answer. But yes, it has been very interesting to work with the innovation part of the project. Equally this has been a hard and frustrating task since it sometimes feels like one just want to take action and sell and install a project. The process of idea research still seems, and has been, very valuable. An unexpected experience has probably been the idea of franchising, that the shape of the business could perhaps be a totally different kind than what we had envisioned.

We will focus on the following steps during the remaining time of the project:

Finish cost calculations
Make design suggestions for pilotprojects
Produce templates for employee surveys
Install a pilotproject (or two)
Create presentation material out of the pilot project(s)

To our content we have been able to follow our original plan surprisingly well, and are hoping that the last part of the Leapfrogs time will continue to do so. Our ambition for the last few weeks seem reasonable and we are excited to see where we land and what our next leap will be!

My Söderberg - Grönokrati # 3

The project has been fun and we, actually, have not had a boring moment. The time has passed really fast and has been very valuable. Without giving this our full attention over the summer we would not have had time to develop our project. We have been distributing our time working with deadlines which has kept the pace changing and given us well needed breaks sometimes and energy to race in between. It has been a lot of fun to see the product take form and to se that things can be done in different ways. As long as we kept going, so did the project.

It has been wonderful to be creative together, throwing ideas around looking for the best way of making the project real. The idea has changed a lot from when we first started and the process to get to where we are now has given us the confidence we were lacking a bit in the beginning. Realising that our concept is good has been the most enjoyable and definitely also the absolute hardest. Initially a real hard thing was to dispose the time and know when to do what. When to contact potential customers? When to spend more time working on the structure or the idea? Compromising and taking different paths has led to the project go forward, almost by itself when one thing has led to the next.

We started this project very open minded without concrete expectations on the results. What we had was a lot of hope of the development of the idea and ambition to take this opportunity to actually try it out . We set goals in the beginning of the Leapfrogs project time and essentially these goals have been fulfilled. The most recent step in our process was a pilot project at a company in Borås. Once we have collected feedback from the users and evaluated it, we will know more about how the future of Grönokrati will develop, but our spontaneous feeling is that it went really well. In other words, we are feeling very excited for the future of our business.

There are two parts to this question, one side of it regards the process of the business, and the other part the personal process in relation to the project. For everything to work out in the best way possible, these two sides, and everyone included in the work, need to be well synced and it will not always be that way. Therefore a process will have ups and downs in efficiency and an important lesson is to accept this fact. The project will keep moving forward anyways as long as you do and one of the most important parts is to take responsibility for yourself (be patient) and let everything else take the time it requires. The beginning of a new process demands more time than you expect, but it is ok because once you are past it, everything has a tendency of speeding back up.

Tips for new entrepreneurs:

- Take breaks! It is very easy to want to keep working always, and very hard to take breaks when you are stressed about, or in the middle of something. It is also, very often, all you need to calm down, widen your perspective and re-energize for the rest of the day! If you feel stuck and want to give up, a longer inspirational break or a small weekend trip can be invaluable!

- Use available resources! Innovation centres/networks and mentors can be of great help! Several times when we talked to people we got pushed forward even though we did not realise we needed a push. Ask people who has "done it before" for advise and help. Contact companies that have similar experience and ask for a meeting, someone might be interested.

- HAVE FUN! Let yourself play, and do not be judgemental towards yourself before trying!