Entreprenören Björn Söderberg: ”Vi har aldrig tjänat så mycket pengar på någoting”

På söndagkvällen träffade Lina och jag Tirtha Rasaili som driver Child Watabarans center i Nepal och den svenska entreprenören Björn Söderberg som driver företag i Nepal.

Björn och Tirtha grundade Child Watabaran ihop, med stöd från det svenska konsultföretaget Xdin, för åtta år sedan.

Björn driver idag tre företag, varav ett är en avknoppning från Child Watabaran. Företagen gör allt från outsourcing av IT-tjänster till julkort av återvunnet papper. Just nu är han i Sverige och föreläser, han blev utsedd till årets talare förra året.

Vi satt alla fyra runt köksbordet och spånade kring olika projekt om hur man kan få till en hållbar utveckling. För min del tycker jag det är otroligt stimulerande att sitta med tre så drivna och kreativa personer som Björn, Tirtha, och Lina och diskutera, vrida på argument, utveckla idéer och ständigt försöka komma på sätt att göra saker bättre.

De kan utan tvekan mer om Nepal, så på det området lär vi oss mycket av dem. Men när det gäller t.ex. sociala medier kan vi ge dem många bra tips. Det känns skönt med ett prestigelöst utbyte av idéer och kreativa infall.

Lina passade på att intervjua både Björn och Tirta och i det här inlägget kommer intervjun med Björn, Tirtha får ni vänta på.

När vi sätter på kameran går Björn in i sitt talar-mode och det är lätt att förstå varför han blev utsedd till årets talare.

Björn berättar bland annat om den åtgärd han utfört som gett bäst pay back under sina åtta år som entreprenör i Nepal. 600kr kostade det och 75% av alla missförstånd försvann.

Björn ger även sin syn på socialt entreprenörskap, Nepal och han ger sitt bästa tips till den som funderar på att starta ett socialt ansvarstagande företag. Dessutom bjöd han på tortillas, men det är inte med i filmen.

Igår stod Lina på en mässa här i Göteborg och hon gjorde stor succé med våra manschettknappar av återvunna kretskort. Jag gillar dem, men jag är positivt överraskad av kundernas mottagande. Fast det är klart, det är en tacksam julklapp.

Jag har blivit fotograferad av en fotograf från tidningen Ingenjören. 1,5h tog det att få till en bra bild, tydligen är jag inte så fotogenisk... Jag och den gravida fotografen klättrade upp på taket här där jag bor för att ta bilder på mig med skjortor fladdrande i vinden. Tur att hon inte ramlade ner... Du får dock vänta till i februari med att läsa artikeln och se bilderna.

Sebastian Stjern
THE FAIR TAILOR
- Dress responsibly
Skräddarsydda skjortor, rättvist producerade, via internet

Konsten att hantera motgångar

Det blir aldrig som man tänkt sig.
Det tror jag är en bra beskrivning av livet i allmänhet och livet som entreprenör i synnerhet. Det som avgör hur bra man lyckas, både i livet och som entreprenör, tror jag till stor del handlar om hur man hanterar de gånger när de inte blir som förväntat.

Jag trivs otroligt bra med det jag arbetar med nu, men ibland kommer ögonblick när jag bara vill gå hem och aldrig komma tillbaka.
Vid såna tillfällen är jag glad över att både jag och Lina har förmågan att först bryta ihop en stund, men sen kan ta oss samman och börja fundera på hur vi ska vända det här till något bra. Hon kanske blir arg på mig för att jag berättar det här. En gång blev Lina så arg på en leverantör att hon gick hemma och skällde ut dem högt för sig själv i en halvtimme. Sen kunde hon åka in till kontoret och ha ett lugnt möte med dem. Ofta är det bra att få ur sig saker, men det gäller att göra det på ett kreativt sätt. Och det tycker jag hon gjorde där.

Vi får ofta frågan om hur det fungerar att driva företag ihop med personen man är gift med. Jag vet inte hur det är för andra, men för oss fungerar det fantastiskt. Summan av våra samlade ansträngningar är större än delarna var för sig. Men vi har bestämt att vi inte får prata om budgetar och ekonomi efter att vi gått och lagt oss.

I Nepal har vi nu äntligen fått fram de ekologiska tygerna. Det har tagit lång tid, men med tanke på att leverantören i Indien var tvungen att färga den ekologiska bomullen med växtfärger och sen låta det torka utomhus innan det kunde skickas till Nepal får vi vara nöjda. Nu har vi 500m ekologiska tyger som väntar på att bli skjortor.

Idag har vi släppt en light-version av vår site. Vi har fått så mycket frågor om man t.ex. kan köpa presentkort innan jul så vi har beslutat att lägga upp en sida där man kan se alla produkter förutom skjortorna. Det ska bli spännande att se hur det utvecklar sig.

Vår facebookgrupp fortsätter att överraska oss. I snitt ökar den med över 20% i storlek varje dag. Helt otroligt! Den responsen är utan tvekan något som gör det här jobbet så fantastiskt.

På söndag ska jag träffa både Tirtha, som är VD för Child Watabaran och Björn Söderberg, den svenska entreprenören i Nepal som blev årets talare förra året. Förhoppningsvis ska jag få till en intervju med dem som jag kan lägga upp på YouTube.

Sebastian Stjern
THE FAIR TAILOR
- Dress responsibly
Skräddarsydda skjortor, rättvist producerade, via internet

Who brings a granade launcher to the opening of a childrens home?

Yesterday was the day for the big inauguration of Child Watabaran center's new childrens home. We were 300 guests.

I went there with the Child Watabaran minibus together with people from Leaseplan, who has funded the new childrens home, from Net4Kids, a Dutch NGO, Magnus from Xdin and some of the Child Watabaran staff.
After we had passed a point on the road, the miltary started shutting the road down, since the president was comming to the inauguration. 300 guests attended and there were 1200 military/police guarding the event.
The Maoists are threathening the president, hence the big security detail.
I can understand why they could find use for M16s and sniper rifles,
but I can not really understand why they brought granade launchers to the event.
Did they plan to shoot granades at the childrens home if something would happen there?

Anyway, in the last minute the president canceled his visit due to security reasons.
Despite the fact that the president didn't show up it was a nice ceremony and it is amazing to see the result
of all the hard work put into this project.

For The Fair Tailor things are going really well.
We have finished the 20 sample tailor made dress shirts that I set out to get with me back to Sweden when I fly out tomorrow.
Govinda is doing a great job and we are soo lucky to have found him.
I have had some troubles with YouTube this morning, so I can not add any video right now.
But stay tuned, it will come soon.

There have been something wrong with this post. It looks a bit strange and some of the words are missing. I have tried to fix it, but I may make it look even more strange.

Sebastian Stjern

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly

Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

An amazing new program that can change mobile health care as we know it

Today I spent a few hours with Björn Söderberg, the guy who is to blame for The Fair Tailor deciding to put the production of our Fair Trade fine dress shirts in Nepal in the first place.

First Björn showed me an amazing new project that his company WebSearch is working on together with Tirtha at Watabaran. It is system to handle medical journals via cell phones. Child Watabaran has a mobile health service, where they drive around to find street children who are injured or sick and give them medical treatment. One problem they have noticed is that it is very difficult to keep track on the kids, if the medical team changes it is no way to know if someone for example is allergic to antibiotics of if she/he has HIV. With the system developed by WebSearch they can use their cell phones to take a picture of the patient and to keep an journal with a medical history. The next time one of the kids is sick or injured they are able to find him/her in the database and can know their medical history.

I am not sure that I'm able to really describe in words how amazing I think this project is. It has such a huge potential world wide.

Here is by the way a video of Björn talking about WebSearch in general.

Sebastian Stjern

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly

Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

We have organic fabrics!

We have found organic cotton fabrics! I have today received samples of organic cotton fabrics from a supplier in India. The cotton is basically as clean as it gets. It is grown without pesticides, it is dyed with organic natural dye from plants and it is produced under fair conditions. And I am impressed by the quality.

It is of course not quite as good as the top quality cotton fabrics that we have, but they are better than I had expected.

I am currently conducting the interviews for the position as quality inspector and I have met some really good candidates. Hopefully we will know more soon.

Every morning at 6am an orchestra across the yard from my hostel starts practicing:

I changed hostels to get away from a huge cockroach, but it looks like he found me after all. It took him three days to travel 1km. I hope some of his little friends will stay behind at the old place... One is OK, 10 is not.

The work here at Child Watabaran is really crazy right now, there are so much to do for all of us.

I made a video of what it's like in the office. Tirtha and Poonam are busy with the inauguration and I have my hands full with the start of The Fair Tailor production.

Who would have known it would be so difficult to make Fair Trade tailor made shirts =)

Sebastian Stjern

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly

Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

A meeting with Björn Söderberg

After yesterdays tour of the fabric markets to look for fabrics for our fair trade tailor made shirts this has been a much calmer day. Saturday is the day of in Nepal so I thought it would be more quiet today. Little did I know that the neighbours have an orchestra and the orchestra had practice time a 6am today. I am glad that I can sleep fairly well despite of the noice.

Me using public transportation on the way to the fabric dealers

If the video doesn't work, use this link.

Today I have met with Björn Söderberg, a Swedish entrepreneur that is the reason that we have decided to put our production in Nepal. We had originally thought of having the production in Cambodja, but we started talking and here I am, 8 months later, in Kathmandu, Nepal.

We talked for hours about what can be done here in Nepal and why some things can not be done. It was interesting to get his insight to the situation in Nepal. He also had some really exciting projects planned for the future, but I can reveal here what he has planned. Today we discussed entrepreneurship, our business and Nepal. On Friday we are going out to see the Watabaran paper production facilities.

I have uploaded nine videos on YouTube now, you can find them if you search for The Fair Tailor.

Sebastian Stjern

THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly

Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet

We are hiring! Please let people know

We are planning to hire a quality controller in Kathmandu, Nepal and an ad will be posted in some local newspapers.

Please forward this ad to anyone you know who might know someone who might know someone in Nepal. Use Twitter, Facecbook, your blog, Reddit, Linkedin and any other way you can find to promote this.

Wanted a Quality Controller (QC) for textiles product based company

About The Company
The Fair Tailor is a company located in Gothenburg in Sweden. We sell Fair Trade and organic tailor made shirts and other textiles such as towels and pillowcases. We work together with the organisation Child Watabaran in Nepal, which gives all profit from its production house to social projects. Child Watabaran runs a school for street children, a child home and medical services for street children. We are convinced that it's possible to combine a successful business enterprise with social responsibility.

About the work
We are looking for someone who can work for us at the production house of Child Watabaran. You will be the link between The Fair Tailor and Child Watabaran. You will be in charge of quality inspections and you make sure that everything is up to our quality standard. You will also help us keep track on stock levels and shipping statuses.

Desired Qualities of Quality Controller
Honesty is an absolute requirement for us and besides, you have:

· At least 5 years of experience working as Quality Controller in exclusive tailoring and export based garment and a knowledge and understanding of the quality expected by our European customers.

· Knowledge of quality related to fabric types, accessories, production process and process of quality check

· Excellent command of both written and spoken English and Nepali.
Computer proficiency in several Windows-based applications, such as Word Processing, Internet browser as well as experience of using a digital camera.Excellent knowledge of using internet and computer savvy people gets priority.

· The ability to work independently and as part of a team and that you can perform under pressure.

Women and candidates from underprivileged castes and ethnic groups are highly encouraged to apply. Interested candidates are solicited to send their complete application with CV, two referees and a recent passport size photograph.

Only short-listed candidates will be called for interview.

Apply before August 29 2009 with CV, name and address of two referees, recent photo and expected salary.
Send your application to info@thefairtailor.com and tirtha@watabaran.com

Sebastian Stjern
THE FAIR TAILOR
-Dress Responsibly

Tailor made Fair Trade and ecological fine dress shirts via Internet