How to Support Local Businesses

Since hundreds of years people in Smaland county in Southern Sweden have had to be very innovative and industrious since the farmland was not rich enough to support a farmer and his family. People learnt to be very innovative and independent, but to join forces and work together when there was a need for that

This is one of the reasons why Vaxjo is characterized by a large number of small innovative companies, many of them working in networks. With the great variety of small successful companies Vaxjo has about the lowest unemployment rate in Sweden.

The municipality actively supports the formation of networks and clusters. We offer creative meeting places; we invite companies, which we believe have common interests and encourage them to co-operate. We claim that our main activity to support growth is "to serve coffee". There are several strong clusters; the "Kingdom of Chrystal", InternetCity, the "Kingdom of Furniture", Bio-Energy, Aluminium, Heavy Vehicles, etc.

The basis for the acknowledged good business climate in Vaxjo was the creation of the one-stop-shop long before the word was defined. A company gets excellent service, but no financial support, when contacting the municipality.

Representatives from the Office of Business Services visit more than 100 companies per year and also recognise company achievements in various ways. The "Dynamic Vaxjo" project is also of major importance.

The municipality supports activities to promote entrepreneurship among high school students as well as university students, initiatives to increase general interest in technical matters for young and old or the co-operation between students and the local companies by offering inexpensive rental cars for doing project work.

The municipality owned Videum Science Park offers lower rent to new companies, started by students, in a very attractive environment. There are also several interesting privately owned environments for new innovative, fast growing companies. The most productive Business Services Office task is the support and recognition of the existing companies.

Finally, an entrepreneur can get support from national organisations when starting a company. When profitable his company can attract investors, but there is a gap between these two periods, the so-called Death Valley. Vaxjo has welcomed private initiatives to involve wealthy local entrepreneurs, which have lately resulted in two networks for the support of new innovative companies during their tough risky years.