Loviisa in search for a strategy

Loviisa is a small town in the southeastern par of Finland. The picturesque city is located at an one hours drive from Helsinki.

We’ve been in the city since 1998.  The most important industry is in the field of energy production.

Loviisa has two nuclear power plants. The rest of the city is sleepy and looking for a future that isn’t very clear by any means.

Nevertheless, it’s a lovely city with less than 20 000 inhabitants from the beginning of 2010 after a fusion of three smaller municipalities to something we at the local level call the “new Loviisa”.

iPhone in Loviisa 11032009

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Originally uploaded by Wirby

We could call this a mega trend. iPhone is NOW available in this small Southeastern town, Loviisa, Finland.

The local Swedish language newspaper had a full front page iPhone 3G advertising.

The picture the right was taken with Nokia's E71.

Loviisa is located 90 km east of Helsinki. We've about 8 000 inhabitants. Rural communities will merge and next year we've greater Loviisa area with about 18 000 inhabitants.

Loviisa is known for its nuclear power plants and time will show if we get more of them in the future.

Small Biz Survival: A tour of Small Biz Survival

I like to comment from a small town. Loviisa is located in Southeastern Finland, one hours drive from the capital Helsinki towards the Russian border.

Small Biz Survival: A tour of Small Biz Survival: "Welcome to Small Biz Survival.com, bringing promising technologies to the regular everyday small business people of the rural world. I'm glad you stopped in! You can read more about us, if you'd like. Let me give you a tour around the place.

Internet, Social Media, Twitter and Microblogs are making the world smaller. We're not trapped into the hyperlocality but can take advantage of the smallness and at the same time network with people on a global scale.

What can you expect to read here? Articles by and for small business people in rural areas and small towns.

The special challenges of small town small business include:

* Pressure from competitors in bigger cities,
* Pressure from competitors online, world wide,
* Scarce, or variable quality, resources to assist you locally,
* Tight labor supply, and a graying workforce,
* Lack of skills in your workforce,
* Isolation from your industry peers.

But for each challenge, there is also opportunity.

* The online market opens the world to you.
* Involvement in your community is your way to fight against decline.
* Land is usually cheap, compared to growing areas.
* Regulatory burdens tend to be lower than in well-developed regions.
* A little payroll usually goes a long way.
* Work ethic is usually high.

Easy to agree with most of the points. I'd like to add that Finland is a small economy, we only have 5 million inhabitants and the language we speak isn't making it easy for people to keep in touch.