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For an international entrepreneur, Finland offers a great ecosystem with variety of support services to start one’s business. However, coming from another culture can encompass challenges on the way. Santeri and his guest Muntaser Al Hamad from Startup Refugees are discussing the topic of starting and developing a company in Finland from a foreigner’s perspective. Muntaser provides helpful tips on being entrepreneur in Finland and navigating in the Finnish entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Muntaser Al Hamad, also an entrepreneur himself, is working as a business program manager at Startup Refugees. He has extensive experience helping new entrepreneurs to starting and developing their businesses.
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Al Hamad [00:00:01]: Actually, the funniest thing in Finland is when you are coming from outside, with mentality of stress and working hard, working very fast, you will find out that everywhere, you need to make appointments. You need to have two weeks to three weeks before you meet somebody. And maybe you do not meet somebody. The other things here... When I started my journey as an entrepreneur, with my own company, when I was meeting the people, the stakeholders, everybody said to me, "Okay, we will meet after three weeks or two weeks". It was a shock for me. In my own company, you go to the person at the same hour, you discuss, you will make the decisions. So, within the next day, third day, you can meet somebody. But here, you need two to three weeks at least to meet somebody face-to-face. At the end, I found out that it is like this in the whole Finland, even though... If you want to go to the municipality, you need to put in your mind that maybe you cannot meet somebody at the same time; you need to make an appointment before you go. So, this is one thing that was abnormal for me here in Finland.
Halonen [00:01:24]: Welcome to my studio podcast! My name is Santeri Halonen, and I am working as a doctoral researcher at the Kerttu Saalasti Institute at the University of Oulu. Today, I have a special guest from an organisation called Startup Refugees, Muntaser Mazen Al Hamad. He is working as a business programme manager. Warmly welcome to the podcast!
Al Hamad [00:01:50]: Thank you so much! It is a pleasure to be here with you and your channel. Thank you so much!
Halonen [00:01:57]: Before we go to the actual discussion, could you just share a little bit about your background? What do you do? What has your journey been in Finland, and also the entrepreneurial journey?
Al Hamad [00:02:12]: Actually, I was born and raised in the United Arab Emirates. I met my wife there, and we got married in 2012. Then I studied for my master's degree at Abu Dhabi University. After that, I worked with Jyväskylä University. We were establishing new schools. And from the Jyväskylä University, I was working with one company called EduCluster Finland as a regional advisor in the Middle East. But now, after COVID, we relocated here, to the north of Finland. I started my own company, educational expert, and I started working with the Startup Refugees as a business programme manager. So, I am happy and glad to work with international people, especially in Oulu and Kokkola, Pohjois-Pohjanmaa, and Keski-Pohjanmaa, to help them and support them. Also, I studied entrepreneurship, a master's degree, at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences and graduated in 2020.
Halonen [00:03:43]: Sounds excellent! So, what is Startup Refugees?
Al Hamad [00:03:48]: We are helping people without any fees, like a non-profitable organisation. But we have the main two programmes: employment programme and business programme. I am working there as a business programme manager, helping people, and starting their own dreams here in Finland. So, the international people who come here, they come to us, and we give them business advice, we give them workshops. Also, we give them webinars. And the main service that we are providing for them is an entrepreneurship course, which we provided around ten weeks in different kind of languages: in Russian, Ukrainian. We have many courses, and we have long courses. In Arabic and Finnish. So, over the year, we are providing this course, and they will get opportunities, these people who are joining us in the course, to get a mentor or coach. After that, they will also have pop-up or market validation, where they can present their business idea, products, or services for the people, real people, testing their products or business. After that, they will decide if they want to register a company or not. Our aim as a business programme is to let people have a sustainable business. Not to register it now and then close it after one year or two years but to have sustainable business: to start to understand how to run your business, the law, regulations, and the most important — how to reach your customers here in Finland as an international person or international entrepreneur. If you want me to explain a little bit about the employment programme, we have an employment programme where my colleagues help international people to get hired here in Finland by searching vacancies for them. We have a platform named match.startuprefugees.com, where you can upload your name, your skills, your certificates. And then, at the end, you will get a very nice CV as a PDF and apply to the company. Also, we have a skills development programme that coaches them how to speak with HRs, send emails to HRs, doing workshops about the working contracts to understand more about working life in Finland. So, the environment, the safety issues, how you can deal with your employers in Finland. Basically, our services are in Finland, nationwide. So, if you are living anywhere in Finland, you can contact us. We will answer you through the phone or WhatsApp, or by email or Google Meet, for example. With these things, we could help you.
Halonen [00:07:40]: That sounds really great because from the employing side or getting employed, when you are an international and you come to Finland, there are definitely challenges. And being able to just help them sounds great. From the entrepreneur side, I was wondering, do people often have previous experiences working as an entrepreneur or is it just enough if you have an idea and passion for something, and you just coach them throughout the ten weeks?
Al Hamad [00:08:08]: There are people who already have, for example, shops, or they have their own companies, own services in their own country. Other people are coming with just an idea. They bring it from their country. They have just an idea. They discovered that there is a problem. Maybe they can have an idea here to solve this problem, and they could sell this idea as a business. So, it is diverse. We have a lot of different backgrounds from our participants.
Halonen [00:08:52]: That is also great, because the sense I have is that a lot of people, even if they are full-time employed, have these ideas and passions for being a part-time entrepreneur. So, being able to actually help them with a small idea and start from scratch is really great. How about after the ten weeks? Do you have a percentage of how many people actually carry on with the idea and all the things that they have been doing during the course?
Al Hamad [00:09:26]: Actually, not everybody opened a business after ten weeks. But we have, for example, data of 10%. This is the data that we receive after... Because we have been around five to seven years, and we do not know the people who got this course with us three or four years before. So, we know the people who have recently graduated and have just opened the company. They tell us, "Hey, I registered my own company". So, we have at least 10%, but I think the number is more than that. And we have very successful people who really opened businesses, like big restaurants in Oulu, in Helsinki, or they have different kinds of big businesses. And our course participants, some of them are PhD students, some of them are ammatti people. So, we are not concentrating on one kind of business. The course itself is tailored in a practical way, to teach in a practical way, not an academic way. So, how to register your own company, what kind of tools you need as an entrepreneur in Finland. Even though if you are an entrepreneur outside Finland... As we stated today, the situation here in Finland, the environment, the eco-environment is totally different from outside Finland. I mean, outside the EU.
Halonen [00:11:09]: Exactly. That is actually a really good point because that brings me to the topic I am really into talking about and discussing with you. Because we both know... I have been to several countries as a foreigner, as an international. And you yourself must have really strong experience, coming from the other side of the world to Finland, which in many senses is special and very challenging for a person coming from outside. But how do you feel as an entrepreneur? When you are coming from somewhere else, what are the challenges in this business environment? Or what was your experience when you came to Finland?
Al Hamad [00:11:51]: There are challenges, and there are opportunities everywhere. One challenge, and I think it is the most difficult thing for us international people, is to reach or to know your customers. This is one of the biggest challenges. So, this is like... regardless of the fund, because a lot of people have a business idea, but sometimes they do not have the money. This is one thing. But the most... International people need to find out how to reach the Finnish customers. Because if I as an Arab come to Finland, I am targeting Arabic people. Statistically, there are around 50,000 Arabs who are living in Finland, around Finland. So, maybe there are 30,000 people in Helsinki, 1,000 in Oulu, 500 in Kokkola. So, it is not good if you are thinking only about your target or your group. Then you forget the main group, which is 4.5 million people here — Finnish citizens. So, the most difficult thing is how to reach these people. We are teaching them in our course, and we try to elaborate the things for them, navigate the things, the tools that could support them in reaching, marketing their own business for Finnish citizens.
Halonen [00:13:35]: What are the key findings or tools to actually reach out and get Finnish customers? Because a lot of times, I think, Finnish people have to take their time in order to trust somebody. That takes time, and we are like "Is that a good thing? That is foreign, maybe that is not for me. I like what has been before". What are some of the keys to actually reach them?
Al Hamad [00:14:05]: By the way, in your question, there was the answer, the key. The trust.
Halonen [00:14:15]: So that is trust, right?
Al Hamad [00:14:16]: In your question it was. Like one person I met yesterday. He was a guest speaker in my course. I am now doing an Arabic course in the evening. He told me, "Muntaser, I started with coming to Finland as an immigrant, unemployed, but then I got just a small support, which is..." We will talk more about this. He got small support, more like a push, from one person. And she just wrote in a Facebook group, "I know this person, he is having a cleaning company. He cleans very well, trustworthy". And now, he told me, he is cleaning offices, houses of people working for the Yle newspaper, working in the parliament, in very high positions, in the middle of Finland, in Kamppi, in the centre. So, he got trust. The most important is trust, how you get this trust. It is not easy. You need to work on that one. With trust, you need to understand more the Finnish people's thinking about sustainability. For example, if you want to deal with them about the marketing, about the language, when you are writing in Finnish, it should be accurate. The thinking of Finnish people is they do not just buy the things, like take it from the shelf and put it in the basket. They want to learn about the product. So, it is also important to write what you have inside the product. And it is important to tell it to people, to engage with them, especially when you are starting your own business. Like, you have a story from where you bring your products, how you make them. So, you are educating them about your product or service. This is important. And of course, as entrepreneurs, you need to learn everything. You need to try everything. Entrepreneur is a trier. So, you need to try everything. There is nothing wrong or right. As long as you are following the laws, you need to try the things and to challenge yourself. This is the mindset of an entrepreneur.
Halonen [00:16:50]: So, find ways to build trust and try everything you can think of. You also mentioned about the opportunities you have in Finland. What do you think are the special or unique opportunities when we are talking about the Finnish business environment for a person who comes from outside, for an international person? What are the opportunities from your perspective?
Al Hamad [00:17:16]: The ecosystem in Finland is great. You have the government, you have the communities, you have the private companies, NGO companies which help you, support you as an international person in the English language or in your own. For example, I speak Arabic. My colleague speaks French. So, you will get support in your own language. And there are a lot of, for example, hackathons. You can participate in them. And a lot of people who participate in hackathons then get prizes. Then they continue, they build their own businesses. And then, in each city, there is one place where you can get your service for free. You can get a business consultant for free, which is Uusyrityskeskus. It is almost in each city in Finland. In the university, if you are a student, there are a lot of clubs and societies for entrepreneurs. In each university, you will have these clubs. If you are born here in Finland, you will be luckier because you will 'drink' it, you will 'eat' it every year. Here, I am wondering... Almost in all schools, they have, at the end of school, tori. They sell. They teach the students how to sell things. Then they calculate the profits, and then they go for a trip, for example. So, this is how they teach them when they are just children. Also, the government here in Finland... For example, tax office. You do not need to be scared of taxes. If you have any problem, you can meet the advisor from them, and you get your service for free. And they are very polite. I have been calling them two to three times. They stay with me for one hour, one hour and a half, explaining everything to me in detail. Plus, if you want, there is Yrittäjät, a lot of community organisations which you can get the support from, helping you as international person here in Finland. But the people here... I hope international people will go out, participate, network. This is the most important — to know these things. But if you come, especially most of the students come in September, in October, it is really cold, nobody is working. The weather is not encouraging you to go outside. But you need to attend networking events, webinars. Attend this one. All universities do it at the beginning of the year. So, it will be a good time for you to get some information, to network, to know more about the organisation where you will get the help and support if you need it in the future.
Halonen [00:20:28]: Exactly. And that is something we often get commented on, that we have a really good, like you mentioned, ecosystem and the support services. But I think we as Finnish people might take that a little bit for granted. So, it is really good to hear and get confirmation from somebody coming from outside that that is really the case. You mentioned the need for an entrepreneur to get connected and network, that staying alone will be a really bad thing in the long run. What would be a good place to start for somebody who comes to Finland and needs to network to start a company? What is a good place to start networking and getting to know people?
Al Hamad [00:21:15]: Where you are living, this is the most important. If you are living, for example, in Kokkola or in Helsinki, it will be asked... For example, let us talk about Nivala. In Nivala, we have NIHAK. There is one organisation where you can get help and support. They have different kinds of international-minded people. They will help you, support you to contact the other. Uusyrityskeskus, for example, is a good place where you can connect. If we are talking about... I am not sure, but if you are young, maybe there is an organisation, 4H, that helps you if you are a teenager and you have a business idea. So, maybe you can go and join them. They have workshops. In summer especially, they have a lot of activities. Facebook is important. LinkedIn. This is one of the best channels where you can contact the professional people, here in Finland especially. So, contact him and ask, "Hi, how are you?" Just a small message. "It will be great to have you in my network." And maybe you will meet him if he is in your city. Then it will be already... As Finns, they will read your profile. They will understand more who you are, from where you are coming, so it will be easy for you to meet them in the future if you need, or to contact them in the future. So, LinkedIn, through the social media professionals, network, maybe from social media, events, webinars, workshops. And it depends on whether you are a student from a university. If you are not a student, you can go to this municipality itself. Uusyrityskeskus make workshops or events. Yrittäjät make networking events every month, almost. Startup Refugees, we are making a lot of networking events in Oulu, in Rovaniemi, and around Finland. In Nivala, you will see us, in Vaasa. So, welcome. You need to go out. It is coming from your own. These things are coming from you. Nobody will take you out of your home. You need to go out. Or you need to register yourself for these events if they are online. So, you need to start by yourself.
Halonen [00:23:58]: Exactly. And taking the initiative and being courageous, and just connecting, contacting people and seeing what takes place. The next question would be, what about the person who has just recently arrived in Finland, and he or she has an idea, they want to start a business, they have a perfect business idea which they want to launch and go forward? What would be the next steps? What would be your advice for a person like that? What needs to be done?
Al Hamad [00:24:36]: To study the market. Okay, you have a business idea? Did you do any research? Then, this is important: do you have a statistical number? If you have this decided, that is great. Do you have the statistics number for who you would like to sell it to? Who are your customers? Give me the details. Not everybody is your customer. In which area and through which channels will you reach them? The business plan should be written in detail. After that, do you have the competence itself or you will hire people to do this? After that, if he is coming to me, I will let him meet a mentor or coach. I will organise for him somebody who is from the same sector. After that, I will advise him to meet... In each city, as I said before, there is an office to help and support entrepreneurs, the Uusyrityskeskus. I would advise him to meet with them because they are locals. For example, Nivala. I do not really know what is happening in Nivala, where he can rent the offices, and where the best places are if he needs to rent a place. Or maybe they have more connections in Nivala or Haapajärvi. Let us talk about it, this is a small city here in Finland, Haapajärvi. So, we advise them to contact them, and they also get more knowledge, more advice from them before they start their own business. Starting a business is not an issue in Finland. Within 20 minutes, you can start your own business. The most important is to test your business. And here in Finland... This is one thing that is different from our country and Finland. In our country, you cannot talk about business before you register your company, rent a space, and make a website, plus, plus, plus. Here, you do not need to do these things. Maybe you can have your products. You sell them in a pop-up, market validation of the service, testing your business. After that, if it is working well, you can register your own business. So, there is no need to register your own business or start and test your business idea before you start your own business. This is one thing — opportunities for international people here. They can really test, saving money, before they register their own companies.
Halonen [00:27:20]: That is exactly right. And they have lowered the barriers to start. They have light entrepreneurship. With minimal steps, you can actually start selling your things and testing what works and what does not work. And they have really tried to make it easier for the first steps to actually get as easy as possible.
Al Hamad [00:27:47]: Imagine if somebody... Let us say, if somebody wants to open a cafe... I visit, for example, Raahe. Or Haapajärvi. By the way...
Halonen [00:27:58]: That is a good example.
Al Hamad [00:28:00]: Haapajärvi, okay. Cafe. If you want to open a cafe, it is a good business. Cafe in Haapajärvi or in Raahe, for example. But I ask them, "Okay, how many cafes do you have here?" Let us talk about Haapajärvi. They say, "One", which is something like that called... One coffee shop. And they also have an ABC gas station. It is okay. One is closed. "Five." I will be like "Do you think there is a need? Did you do the research?" Then I ask people randomly. They said, "No, we do not go to a cafe to drink coffee in a coffee shop. We drink at work or at home". So, these are the habits, the different habits. But if you go to Vaasa... I just visited Vaasa a couple of times. When I went there for the coffee shops, inside the malls, they were crowded. So, the mentality is maybe just... One city is not far from another city, 100 km, but totally different. So, it is good to know more about your customers, about where you are living, actually. It is important to understand the environment there, the people, the customers' behaviour more deeply. This is important for you as an entrepreneur. This information will affect your business.
Halonen [00:29:37]: Exactly. Getting to know your potential customer and getting to know what are the needs and the problems you can solve is really at the core. In your work, you meet a lot of entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs. Do you have some inspirational or otherwise encouraging stories for people who are thinking if they should start their company? Even one example for somebody who came to Finland and started a business, and it was successful.
Al Hamad [00:30:13]: There is a lot, actually. We have a person who was opening a restaurant. He took this Arabic course in 2020 or 2021, Arabic course in the summer. After one year... He is in Helsinki. When I saw the menu, his food... It is fine dining, very good food. He sells meat with berries, very tasty food. Then he opened a second branch. So, like that. Also, this year, we had one lady from Ukraine come to Oulu, and she does pastry, cakes. She has been testing her own products, biscuits, in our pop-up market validation. And she sold very well, more than 2000, maybe. In two days. Then she opened her toiminimi, and she is making cakes from her own home. These are just some who came to my mind, but there are a lot of stories, a lot. As I said, at least 10% of our course participants open their own businesses. And one good thing about our course: they can network with each other. I saw in last hackathons, which happened in Oulu two months before, two participants from the course: one from Honduras and another one from Nepal. They were in one team in hackathons. Their business idea was about almost the same applications, IT. They were in one team. So, also from this course, you will get to know other people. If you are missing some competence, maybe you can get another partners, gather people, and start your own company. So, these good things happen in our course.
Halonen [00:32:29]: So encouraging! So, what are your key tips for such a person who wants to start a business? We have covered those during the podcast, but what would be your three tips for a person like that?
Al Hamad [00:32:46]: First of all, write your goals. Write your opportunities, your challenges. Writing. Start by writing. Do not talk. Do not just talk. Write. Write your plans. Write it on paper. Write it on your own computer. Open documents. Make it professional. Make a small presentation. Just start writing. Muntaser will give you information. I will give you the information. Take it and write it. Search it. This is another thing. After you write your plans, take the information from their source. For example, about the taxation issue. Do not ask anybody. Call the tax office. About the registration office, call PRH. They have these contact numbers, and you can call them. Take the information from the resources. This is important. Do not say, "I asked my friend". This is more important. And the third tip: meet people, professional people. Meet them, network with them. This is my advice for any newcomer here in Finland.
Halonen [00:34:16]: That is excellent. So, just get started and get it on paper, and actually start executing and get the networks together. Excellent. Lastly, with Startup Refugees, just to close the whole discussion, a person who comes to Finland, can he just give a call? As long as he is an international person, he can contact you and get help, is that correct?
Al Hamad [00:34:45]: Yes, we will have our website, startuprefugees.com. You will have a contact person. You will see very clearly their employment programme, skills development, vacancies, the managers, the team leaders — everything. You just click 'contact him'. If he does not answer, my colleague, for example, will answer you. My colleague in Helsinki. If she does not answer, we have another colleague. So, keep going, call, send emails. We will answer you for sure. And our service, sometimes you will get it... Our people or my team, we have different languages. Maybe you can get the service in your own language. If you are speaking Dari, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, French. We have Persian, Swedish, Finnish, German.
Halonen [00:35:47]: Name the language!
Al Hamad [00:35:48]: More than 24 people work in this organisation. And more than, I think, 50% are international people. So, you will probably get some advice in your own language. That is really helpful for newcomers.
Halonen [00:36:08]: That is really important, and the variety is just huge. Muntaser, thank you so much for making the time and being the guest on this podcast! I really appreciate you taking the busy time from your schedule and coming to be a guest. It has been a great discussion. I am sure our listeners are getting some practical, useful, and valuable ideas from this discussion as well. So, thank you so much for making it!
Al Hamad [00:36:35]: Thank you, Santeri! It is my pleasure. Thank you so much!
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