If you want to become an entrepreneur

From Curiosity and Ideas to Real-World Change

You do not need to have a fully developed business idea or know that you want to start a company. At HKR, you can explore a challenge step by step, develop an idea and get support to test whether it can create real value. Your idea may lead to a business, but it could just as easily result in a new service, product, method or improvement in society.

1. DISCOVER – Practise Thinking Differently

Your journey can begin as part of your studies, for example through Imagine, a CoLab, a Hackathon, or a project with an external organisation as part of your course or study programme. On the CoHub, you can find information about CoLabs and other activities planned across the COLOURS Alliance.

In this phase you will work with real-world challenges and practise how to:

• understand the needs of people and organisations,
• view problems and opportunities from new perspectives,
• develop ideas together with others,
• use creative innovation methods,
• present solutions and receive feedback.

Entrepreneurial Competences – Valuable Whatever Path You Choose

The entrepreneurial journey is not only about starting a business. Through activities such as Imagine, CoLabs, Hackathons and SEC workshops at the Spaces, students can develop entrepreneurial competences that are valuable in both working life and society. These activities can be linked to the EU's eight key competences for lifelong learning, with entrepreneurial competence playing a particularly important role. Through practical, real-world activities, students have the opportunity to develop skills such as:

• Identifying opportunities – recognising needs, problems and opportunities for change.
  
  
• Taking initiative – moving from thought to action and having the courage to test new ideas.
  
  
• Creativity and problem-solving – developing new perspectives and finding solutions to real-world challenges.
  
  
• Collaboration and communication – working with others and being able to present and develop ideas.
  
  
• Critical thinking – examining assumptions, needs and conditions before moving forward.
  
  
• Self-leadership and perseverance – managing uncertainty, learning from mistakes and continuing to develop.
  
  
• Planning and implementation – turning ideas into concrete activities and testing them in practice.
  
  
• Responsibility and sustainability – reflecting on the value an idea can create and its potential consequences for people, organisations and society.

In this way, entrepreneurship becomes part of the student's skills development, regardless of whether the journey leads to starting a business, developing an innovation within an organisation, creating a societal initiative or entering employment. 

The steps below describe one possible pathway for students who want to develop their entrepreneurial skills and turn an idea into action. You do not need to have your own idea to get started.

2. FROM EXPERIENCE TO OPPORTUNITY
You have gained experience of innovation and may have discovered an idea or challenge that you would like to explore further.

3. EXPLORE – Is the Idea Worth Developing?
Have you found something you would like to continue working on?

If so, Spaces and the Student Entrepreneurship Center (SEC) can be your next step. You can bring a very early-stage idea and get support in exploring questions such as:

What problem are we solving?

Who will benefit from the solution?

Is there a genuine need?

Who do we need to collaborate with?

What do we need to find out before moving forward?

You can also use the Spaces as a place to work on your project and meet companies, public-sector organisations, associations and other students. At this stage, you have moved from an initial idea towards a clearer understanding of the problem, the target group and a potential solution.

4. DEVELOP – Turn the Idea into Something Concrete
Now it is time to start putting your idea into action. Depending on your idea, you can receive support from SEC, HKR, Krinova, Drivhuset at Spaces and other collaboration partners.

For example, you can work on:

• developing a concept or hypothesis,
• defining your target group – who experiences the need?
• engaging in iterative dialogue with your target group and designing questions to gather valuable information,
• creating and testing a prototype based on the insights and feedback you receive,
• exploring users' needs further,
• developing a business or operational model,
  finding the right expertise and collaboration partners,
• exploring funding opportunities, such as the Leapfrogs scholarship.

Possible Ways to Fund the Development of Your Idea

If your idea originates from a COLOURS CoLab or Hackathon, you may also be eligible to apply for support to continue developing it as a Student Enterprise project (SE project).

Through the Student Entrepreneurship Center, you can connect with people who can help you move forward. You do not need to know or do everything yourself. There are people around you who can help you take the next step. Depending on your project, this could be a mentor, researcher, doctoral student, entrepreneur or other expert.

A mentor can, for example, provide expertise in:

business development • industry knowledge • law • technology • funding • sustainability • communication • research

Ideas that develop towards starting a business can also access innovation and incubation support through Krinova.

Within COLOURS, Student Enterprise projects developed during a CoLab can receive up to EUR 3,000 in support to develop and test the idea.

Apply for Further Support

There may also be opportunities to progress to accelerator programmes, innovation funding or initiatives such as Leapfrogs (leapfrogs.se).