HS Espoo | Irene Matinpalo helps budding entrepreneurs – Sometimes she says straight out that it’s not worth it

The best a business advisor’s job is to see the client succeed. Business advisor from Espoo Irene Matinpalo meets hundreds of budding entrepreneurs a year and has seen many dreams come true.

“The best moments are when I walk in, for example, Iso Omena, Sello or Jumbo and I see that the company I nurtured there is still thriving even after many years,” says Matinpalo.

It also feels great when a customer calls to say that they have just been able to take their first proper vacation.

“It shows that a profitable business has been established.”

Mat fire has been providing free business advice for more than eight years at Yritys Espoo, i.e. the new business center of the Espoo region. It is mainly a service for budding entrepreneurs financed by cities and municipalities. Similar ones can be found all over Finland as part of the new business center’s network.

Over the years, Matinpalo has had more than a thousand customers.

However, new companies have not been born at exactly the same pace. Not all business ideas are necessarily profitable.

“The end result of good business advice can also be that the client doesn’t start a business at all. I’ve received a lot of praise from customers for having said frankly that it’s not worth starting a company,” says Matinpalo.

Entrepreneurship it’s not always a bed of roses. One of the most important tasks in Matinpalo’s work is to go through with the client whether the client has sufficient resources – both mental and financial – to become an entrepreneur.

“One thing I keep running into is the lack of capital. If there are no savings in the background, it is really difficult to start a company. Few companies start rolling right away. There are quite a few industries where the cash flow starts immediately,” he says.

Another common pitfall is that the business idea has only been discussed with friends and relatives.

“Often we just encourage them that ‘of course you should start a company, you’re really good at what you do’. You haven’t necessarily gotten an objective picture of your own entrepreneurial base.”

According to Matinpalo, working as a sole proprietor in particular requires a lot mentally. Anyone who dreams of becoming an entrepreneur must consider whether they are certainly ready to operate in an uncertain market situation. The last three years in particular have been a real roller coaster for many entrepreneurs.

Customers are very different from each other. Immigrants are one of the largest groups – they make up almost half of the customers – but many others can also be included. Young people born in the 21st century, who create their own summer job through entrepreneurship, for example, come in increasing numbers in the spring.

“One big trend in the last couple of years has also been people leaving the health care industry and starting companies. Escape from that field can be seen in this work,” he says.

Although the customers are different, many new entrepreneurs face similar challenges. For example, the beginning of entrepreneurship is often perceived as bureaucratic. However, Matinpalo does not sign this himself.

“It’s hard for me to talk about bureaucracy, because from my point of view we don’t have bureaucracy in Finland. With digitization, so many things have become easier, and for example, almost all registration and permit matters have moved online.”

On the other hand the fact that everything is easily handled online also offers potential pitfalls. When things are done quickly and easily, there can be many nuances that are not fully understood.

“It can cause the customer to not understand what they are committing to. That’s where the bureaucracy starts, when you run into a mine.”

Taxation, different forms of entrepreneurship and entrepreneur’s pension insurance, i.e. YEL, are issues about which there is also a lot of incorrect or outdated information.

Customers with an immigrant background may also experience culture-related surprises.

“A business idea that has worked in their home country may not work here. And if you come from a country with 48 million inhabitants, it can be difficult to understand how small a market we have in Finland. When there really are only five million of us.”

For years along the way, Matinpalo’s customers have created a huge number of companies in various industries. There are beauty care and construction companies, restaurants, health and wellness companies. As a result, over the course of eight years, Matinpalo has become an actual knowledge bank of various experts.

“Nowadays, I often get calls from my own circle of friends asking where I can find a good tailor or carpenter, for example. It’s a good thing in this job that you get to learn from experts in different fields. And of course, I really like to puff my own customers.”