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Doing Business in Sweden: 9 Helpful Resources

Although Sweden offers an open business environment relatively free of bureaucratic red tape, doing business in Sweden can still be confusing if you don’t know where to turn for assistance.

This article will help by introducing you to 9 great resources that can get you started on the right path.

1. Sweden.se

Sweden’s official promotional website, Sweden.se provides a reliable resource for facts about Sweden. The information on this website is broken down into 6 main categories: society, culture, traditions, nature, business, and quick facts.

2. Europages.co.uk/companies/Sweden/Sweden.html

Europages is a portal for and directory of European companies intended to encourage business-to-business interactions. The link above provides a list of Swedish businesses; looking through it could be your first step to finding a local partner.

3. Startupoverseas.co.uk

Startup Overseas is a resource intended to help you launch or expand a business outside of the United Kingdom. There, you can find information about starting a business in or expanding a business to Sweden, buying a business or franchise in Sweden, and importing or exporting to Sweden, along with a list of experts ready to answer your questions about doing business in Sweden.

4. Business-Sweden.se

Jointly owned by the government of Sweden and Swedish private industry, respectively represented by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish Foreign Trade Association, Business Sweden facilitates foreign investment in Swedish organizations and international growth for Swedish companies. Business Sweden can provide strategic investment advice, matchmaking and introductions to public and private Swedish companies and organizations, meeting arrangements in Sweden, and much more.

5. Swedish Chamber of Commerce for the United Kingdom

The Swedish Chamber of Commerce for the United Kingdom is a non-profit organization that promotes the exchange of ideas and experiences, along with networking and trade, between Sweden and the U.K. This organization can help you with various aspects of doing business in Sweden, including setting up introductions, references, company visits, and study visits, along with providing event management services.

6. Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce

SACC-USA is grassroots nonprofit organization that facilitates and supports trade, commerce, and investment between the U.S. and Sweden. This organization’s offerings include the Business Accelerator Program, the Swedish-American Membership Directory, the Entrepreneurial Days trade and networking event, and a Trainee Program designed to provide U.S. companies with qualified trainees from Sweden.

7. Stockholm International Fairs and Congress Centre

The Stockholm International Fairs and Congress Centre, known in Sweden as Stockholmsmässan, but colloquially called Älvsjömässan, arranges trade fairs in Sweden’s capital city, Stockholm. Stockholmsmässan’s website is a great place to find information about upcoming exhibitions and events, as well as learn how to run your own.

8. Fairlink

A subsidiary of Scandinavian Survey Group, Fairlink strives to be a center of excellence serving the conference and exhibition industry. This organization provides extensive information about and training for Swedish trade fair organizers and presenters.

9. Svensk Handel

The Swedish Trade Federation, is an organization for Swedish employers that serves the entire commerce and trade sector. This organization offers commercial development and establishment advisory services within the retail trade sector.

Of course, I also hope that I can be a helpful resource to you as you begin the process of doing business in Sweden, both through the information provided on this blog and through my professional English to Swedish translation and localization services.

I wish you the best of luck!

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Plain Language and Translation – Expert Guest Post

I have had the fortune of getting to know a plain language expert in Sweden, who is bilingual and also works with translation. I actually met her through Twitter, so never underestimate social media. Ingrid Herbert has a BA in Swedish Language Consultancy and works for Språkkonsulterna as a language consultant and translator. Her work there includes plain language, writing for the web, social media strategies, teaching, editing and proofreading. She is also on the Board of Ess (the Association of Swedish Language Consultants). Ingrid grew up in both the UK and in Sweden. Here is her post.

No two days are ever the same for me. One day I could be editing an English business proposition written by a Swede, the next I’ll be preparing a lesson in plain language for the web, and the third I’ll be writing language guidelines for a Swedish agency. In the middle of this I could suddenly be sent a text for urgent translation, and would have to find a way to fit it into my schedule.

I work for the largest plain language company in Sweden

I have been working as a plain Swedish consultant for two years. I found the Swedish language consultant university course by chance and was thrilled – it involved a bit of journalism, a bit of teaching and a bit of translating, but mainly language “nerdery” in general. Just the course for me! After graduating I freelanced for a few months before I was employed by Språkkonsulterna, a private plain language company in Stockholm. Språkkonsulterna is the largest plain language company in Sweden, and I feel privileged to work with some of the most experienced plain Swedish practitioners. If I ever get stuck or need a second opinion, there’s always someone to ask for advice. At the same time, the company only has six employees, meaning that we all have a large chunk of responsibility to develop the business. All of us also get to write for the company’s monthly newsletter and blog.

Plain language and translation is a great combination

Translation isn’t a huge part of my job, but when I do get the chance to translate my plain language training is of great help. I have been trained to spot inconsistent language usage and can instantly decide which form to use in the translation. I will also add humble comments on certain choices I have made, and I always understand that my finished translation may not be final. As I have solid grammatical knowledge I can always use grammar to explain why something is incorrect or corresponds. True, this is rarely necessary, but knowing that I am able to gives me confidence.

…but I can get frustrated with unclear original documents when translating

However, plain language work is a bit too similar to translating. In fact, I often explain it as translating officialise into Swedish. This means that I occasionally, but not often, take my translations too far. I can edit out fuzzy wordings and redundant information on the fly. It is frustrating to stay completely true to the original when it is obvious how much better the translation will be if I tidy it up a bit! But I am aware that this is (usually) not a part of translating, so I always tell myself to avoid going too plain when my client has not asked for it.

Variation is the spice of life

I am happy I am able to do both translation and plain language work. I love the variation and it would be a bit boring to come to work and do only editing or only translations every day. Both areas are creative and have similarities as well as differences, so I always have a fresh challenge to look forward to.

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