A guide to freelancing in Finland • Hacker News Board

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#31

Post by sam_hosseini » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 4:42 PM UTC

ryanlol wrote: post #29

mongol wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the challenge with going freelancer will be with the things that are required of you as a corporate entity. Such as, reading up on legislation, accounting rules, dialog with tax office etc.

You can do all of those in English without any issues.

Not everything is in English. Prime example of that is establishing a limited liability online. Nothing impossible to tackle, but just that if things were in English and smooth, maybe I wouldn't have bothered with writing the guide :) It is troubling at times, which is why I wanted to smoothen it out as much as possible.

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#32

Post by hopia » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 4:44 PM UTC

shaneprrlt wrote: post #25

It's incredible that Finland gives you a monthly grant to become an entrepreneur. Definitely wish something like that existed in the US, even if only possible at the state level.

It's not automatically granted, it depends on whether your local office has any budget left, and on your business plan and such. It's a somewhat bureaucratic process.

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#33

Post by hopia » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

sam_hosseini wrote: post #30

versale wrote: post #22

Awesome! I wish there were a similar guide on how to establish a cooperative of freelancers in Finland.

Would you like to open an issue on Github and start discussing it?

I'd be interested too, it's actually a good idea.

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#34

Post by khnov » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 4:46 PM UTC

Very nice and detailed ! I wished for a french version of this that could be very helpful to me. keep up!

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#35

Post by hopia » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 4:48 PM UTC

stevekemp wrote: post #11

krageon wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finnish is an absolutely atrocious language to learn for most people (unless you are already familiar with learning a language with a completely different root, and even then). That part will be hard. I can't comment on the practicality of surviving with only English (or even Swedish, which most of them speak due to historical factors that I will politely gloss over), because I haven't tried.

It is possible to survive in Helsinki with only minimal Finnish, and work in the IT-industry. In smaller places it might be more difficult, but certainly people here are willing and able to converse in English. Of course I would like to learn more Finnish, but daily life and childcare interferes with regular lessons. (Of course being able to work in English also means that speaking Finnish at work is also difficult.)…

I know British IT consultants living and working in cities with ~100,000 inhabitants in Finland, working in high profile IT consultant agencies. Knowing no Finnish whatsoever. It seems definitely doable.

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#36

Post by climate_realist » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 4:48 PM UTC

I think people here who look at Finland and Europe in general and see these social programs to help you get ahead are rather blinded by the reality that they only exist for Europeans. As a US citizen who lived in Europe for 5 years, I can assure you that it's a 100% closed game. If you are not from the EU, you can only work for a European. It makes no difference if you have a great idea, or even your own funding, you won't get the legal permission to found a business in Europe unless you basically got a European to found it for you and then you can be their employee. This is basically why the tech scene in Europe is more smoke than heat, it only allows the local talent to be successful, which we all know leads to subpar results. It is also why you really don't see any actual innovation come out of Europe.

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#37

Post by cromulent » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 5:01 PM UTC

climate_realist wrote: post #36

I think people here who look at Finland and Europe in general and see these social programs to help you get ahead are rather blinded by the reality that they only exist for Europeans. As a US citizen who lived in Europe for 5 years, I can assure you that it's a 100% closed game. If you are not from the EU, you can only work for a European. It makes no difference if you have a great idea, or even your own funding, you…

It's not super hard to do in Finland actually, especially if you engage a local to help you. If you want to, you can become an e-resident and run a business in Estonia completely online.

https://e-resident.gov.ee

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#38

Post by e4325f » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 5:04 PM UTC

climate_realist wrote: post #36

I think people here who look at Finland and Europe in general and see these social programs to help you get ahead are rather blinded by the reality that they only exist for Europeans. As a US citizen who lived in Europe for 5 years, I can assure you that it's a 100% closed game. If you are not from the EU, you can only work for a European. It makes no difference if you have a great idea, or even your own funding, you…

Fintech in the UK looks pretty innovative to me, banking in the US is embarrassing.

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#39

Post by davnicwil » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 5:04 PM UTC

climate_realist wrote: post #36

I think people here who look at Finland and Europe in general and see these social programs to help you get ahead are rather blinded by the reality that they only exist for Europeans. As a US citizen who lived in Europe for 5 years, I can assure you that it's a 100% closed game. If you are not from the EU, you can only work for a European. It makes no difference if you have a great idea, or even your own funding, you…

Just as a couple of counter examples, in case you weren't aware of them

- Spain has an entrepeneurship visa, that any founder from anywhere can apply for. To apply I think you need to produce a credible business plan which shows it'll employ a certain number of citizens (I don't know if EU or Spanish specifically) eventually.

- France similarly has an entrepeneurship visa for founders from anywhere. I believe one of the requirements is to raise a certain amount of seed from specifically French accredited investors.

But, while I think it's better than you're implying, I definitely agree with your general thrust that visas need to adapt to embrace the growing popularity of people moving country not necessarily for employment, but to create new companies, jobs and growth.

It's unnecessarily cumbersome to do that basically everywhere (particularly in strong economies) right now, not just the EU, and that's a net loss for the citizens of the respective countries.

Re: A guide to freelancing in Finland

#40

Post by opportune » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 5:19 PM UTC

climate_realist wrote: post #36

I think people here who look at Finland and Europe in general and see these social programs to help you get ahead are rather blinded by the reality that they only exist for Europeans. As a US citizen who lived in Europe for 5 years, I can assure you that it's a 100% closed game. If you are not from the EU, you can only work for a European. It makes no difference if you have a great idea, or even your own funding, you…

I’m pretty sure a lot of EU countries make it easy to get temporary resident status if you start a business though? And some require For the ones I looked into becoming a permanent resident after X years was also not that challenging and IIRC (might be wrong) that gives you basically full work permissions for all EU countries