Filippa Axelsson studies to be a textile engineer at the College of Borås.
Besides her studies, she runs a small business, but she aims to work with textile in a larger scale in the future.
− It feels easier to make a change if you have your own business where you can set up all the rules yourself. I want to work with sustainability issues. It´s a shame that a t-shirt has to be shipped at least half around the world, before it reaches the customer, Flippa says.
She went to Focus Business School in Borås in the spring of 2015.
− It was a very inspiring course.
It´s fun to get insight in som many different businesses and to hear about people that still have their christian values within the business. You can work in any field and lift your faith and good values, she says.
Matti Karhunen from Uppsala has run his own business for 11 years. He went to FBS together with his wife Carola, and today they run the business Mattis Bygg together.
− FBS gave me a different insight in how God looks at entrepeneurship. There is a biblical plan with this, says Matti Karhunen.
In 2005 he started as a oneman-buisness, since then, the company has grown and today there are 11 people employed in the construction company.
− We have learned more through FBS, that we have a responsibility to co-operate with the customer. They are our friends and not our antagonists. It is important to create relationships with people. Then you get the opportunity to stand for your christian faith, not always by words, but by actions, Matti says.
Stephen Balagadde from Stockholm dreams of changing society in a positive direction, through a business where the profit goes back into the business, so-called social companies.
− There are many types of business-forms, but a form that is not getting noticed today, are the non-profit enterprises, an ecconomic association, a cooperative, like for instance Myrorna(Second hand store in Sweden), Stephen says.
In the fall of 2015 he attended FBS in Stockholm. He is educated in care and administration, and he says that the course gave him increased understanding about entrepeneurship.
− More businesses are needed. It was fun to meet people in FBS that wants to start a business to serve God. It was new to me in the beginning, that christians can have and run a business, he says.
− The course taught me that it´s not impossible, even if it´s difficult to start and run a business. I dream of seeing more churches engage in social companies. I´m passionate about this and I think this is the way forward for our society, and for Sweden in general, he adds.
Viktor Bulle from Gothenburg is one of three partners in the company Västra Götalands Bygg och Tak AB, and he already worked as an entrepeneur, while he attended FBS.
− FBS became the turningpoint for my company. I was stuck and I didn´t know what to do. The course gave me new contacts and new inspiration, Viktor Bulle says.
Viktor can definitely recommend the course to others.
− Absolutley, people need knowledge and inspiration, Viktor says.
Raymon Laasbärg was one of the first people that attended FBS, when it just started in Stockholm.
The course meant a lot, you get inspired to start your own business and you get to share other entrepeneurs stories, Raymon says.
Even then he had started his business in a small scale. While he attended FBS, he developed the webbpage to his company Granitkungen. Today he has eight people employed, and five of them are working full-time.
I can definetley recommend others to attend FBS. Many people have ideas and the course gives contacts, practical advice and inspiration to make them real. It´s often tough in the beginning of a company, and that help is really needed, Raymond says.
Deborah Rosman, 30, is a certified informationsdesigner and she is running as much as three different companies. She runs an interiorcompany and two cafés. One of them is a café open during the summerholiday in the peninsula outside Nyköping. The first season the company had a revenue of two Mkr, in 41 days. When she started FBS, she was already running a company, and she had some experience in how to run your own company.
− For me, the most important thing has been to connect what I do in my worklife with my christian faith. My calling isn´t about being a pastor, it is to do what I´m good at. I became a link between the church and my area. To put what I do in a biblical perspective has been the most important thing for me, Deborah Rosman says.
She doesn´t hesitate for one second when it comes to recommend the cours to others.
– There were many in my class that didn´t have a company before, and the people who want to start a business get that help. But I can recommend FBS even more to people who already have a business and is a christian. You get to meet other christian entrepeneurs and you also get a deeper understanding about the purpose in what you do. That God has put us in this context we are in for a reason, she says.
