The summer entrepreneurship counselling service offered low-threshold advice and support for starting up an activity, developing a business idea and running the activity during the summer. A summer entrepreneurship counsellor had been hired for the task. In addition, those participating in the service had the opportunity to receive financial support for the initial costs of entrepreneurship from a summer entrepreneurship voucher created for summer entrepreneurs in the municipality.
Entrepreneurship was practiced in practice
The aim of the service was to strengthen young people's working life skills, self-confidence and initiative, and to open up new paths to employment and inclusion. The service was free of charge and the aim was particularly to encourage young people who had no previous experience of entrepreneurship. Employment and home services see entrepreneurship as a resource that brings new ideas and factors to society – that is why they wanted to include young people who are precisely the potential entrepreneurs of the future.
In the spring, the service was marketed and interested parties were sought, utilizing the communication channels of the municipality and schools in the area. In the end, the summer entrepreneurship project offered 22 young people the opportunity to try their wings as entrepreneurs. Each summer entrepreneur attended the municipality's own summer entrepreneur workshop, the purpose of which was to teach the young person the basics of entrepreneurship and provide them with the skills to implement their own summer entrepreneurship idea in practice. The training taught the basics of skills important to entrepreneurs, such as marketing, accounting and pricing.
Entrepreneurs operating all over Hollola
Entrepreneurs were active in café operations, for example, in Herrala and in Konttikhavila on the Tiilijärvi beach, where a total of 8 young people were responsible for the kiosk's operations in two-week cycles in June and July. In addition, summer businesses were established, for example, in services offered to local residents (pet and child care, cleaning, yard and garden work, collecting spruce branches, painting and small construction work). Some entrepreneurs organized events (e.g. escape games and music festivals) and some sold crafts or pastries.
The summer entrepreneurial advice experiment was a success beyond expectations.
The young summer entrepreneurs who participated made over €12,000 in sales during the summer season and their summer businesses received visibility in several local newspapers. Several young people have continued their business after the summer season and are also interested in continuing their summer entrepreneurship the following summer.
Not everything that has been achieved can be measured in money, so all summer entrepreneurs were also asked about their experiences and feedback from the period. Each participant received a certificate of their summer entrepreneurship, and in the feedback surveys, the young people said that they had experienced personal successes. The young people had found the summer entrepreneurship to be, among other things, inspiring and educational – the guardians, in turn, praised the young people's responsibility and service attitude.
The future of summer entrepreneurship counseling
Ideas for developing summer entrepreneurship have already been presented and negotiations are currently underway to continue the summer entrepreneurship service for next summer – more information will be announced later in the year. However, we know that there are young people in Hollola who have the enthusiasm and ability to act as entrepreneurs.
It's good to continue this!
Read more about summer entrepreneurship advice here: https://hollola.fi/tyo-ja-yrittaminen/tyonhakijapalvelut/nuorten-tyot/kesayrittajyysneuvonta-ja-tuki/
