Summer entrepreneurship advice and support

By starting a business, you learn new skills, self-confidence, creativity, problem-solving skills and social skills. At the same time, you gain knowledge about topics related to entrepreneurship (for example, taxation, pricing, materials and different industries). A person's self-confidence often increases when they are allowed to do things themselves.

Lahti 4H Association to be Summer Entrepreneurship 2026 Partner

An agreement was made in early February 2026 in the Employment and Integration Services, which will enable the organization of summer entrepreneurship and allotment farming services in the summer of 2026. The new agreement covers the coordination of summer entrepreneurship, business courses and guidance for schoolchildren and students from Hollola aged 13-29. In addition, Lahti 4H aims to offer a summer café container and the running of allotment plots for young people from Hollola. The association guides young entrepreneurs in these activities.

The municipality supports young people by issuing a summer business voucher worth 400 euros per young person. A maximum of 20 vouchers are distributed and are administered through the Lahti 4H Association.

The goal of summer entrepreneurship is to provide opportunities for young people to do things.

You learn to be an entrepreneur by trying. The aim of the summer entrepreneurship service is to create a foundation for a model that will produce new entrepreneurs in the region in the future and increase the vitality of the region.At the same time, a platform is offered for local young people to learn new skills, get acquainted with a growing working model in the future, and try entrepreneurship in a safe environment with support.

The municipality of Hollola wanted to encourage young people to explore entrepreneurship as an alternative to ready-made summer jobs. The summer entrepreneurship counselling has offered advice and concrete support for starting a company and starting operations. The aim is to raise young people's awareness of the possibilities of entrepreneurship and support them in developing their business ideas into practice.

The aim of the summer entrepreneurship service is to ensure that no attempt at entrepreneurship is made due to a lack of support or initial investment.

Summer entrepreneurship results from summer 2025

Summer entrepreneur advice was produced as a separate service in the employment and integration services of the municipality of Hollola in the summer of 2025. The summer entrepreneurship instructor taught the young people the basics of entrepreneurship and offered support for practicing entrepreneurship during the summer and brainstorming an initial business idea. Support for the summer entrepreneur's initial investment was available in the form of Youth Leader funding and a summer entrepreneurship voucher offered by the municipality.

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 entrepreneurial idea in practice. The training taught the basics of skills important to entrepreneurs, such as marketing, accounting and pricing. Entrepreneurs worked in café operations, for example: in café operations, in services offered to residents (pet and child care, cleaning, yard and garden work, collecting spruce branches, painting and small construction work), in the sale of products (crafts, pastries) and in the sale of services and events (e.g. escape games and music festivals).

The participating young summer entrepreneurs made over €12,000 in sales during the summer season, and the summer entrepreneurs gained visibility in several local newspapers. Several young people have continued their business after the summer season and there is also interest in continuing summer entrepreneurship the following summer. 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 summer entrepreneurship to be, among other things, inspiring and educational – the guardians, in turn, praised the young people's responsibility and service attitude.