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US woman starts up Swedish toy store online

For this week's My Swedish Career we meet Leigh Neil, who one day came to realize that there was a gap in the Swedish market for children's toys and decided to do something about it.

Published: 20 October 2014 12:12 CEST
Updated: 20 October 2014 14:19 CEST
US woman starts up Swedish toy store online
Leigh Neil and a llama hand puppet. Photo: Private
American Leigh Neil, who started online toy store ABC Leksaker in 2005, has been in Sweden for 15 years. The former consultant first noticed a gap in the children's toy market during a play session with her children. 
 
"I looked at all the toys scattered around the floor. Not one of them I'd bought in Sweden," she tells The Local.
 
"Then I went to look for the brands in Sweden and they weren't there. I was frustrated. All the things I wanted to buy for my children, I couldn't find."

The frustration, combined with the need to find an alternative job, led the mother-of-three to consider starting her own business. 

"How do you go back to work with three kids? It's hard to find a part-time job, especially somewhere you haven't worked before, so I started thinking that maybe I should do something on my own," she says. 

Convinced she wasn't the only one to suffer from the gap in the market for toys that were easily available in the US but lacking in Sweden, Neil started her own online toyshop in her basement in Stockholm’s suburb Danderyd.

But she didn't just want to bring in toys that weren't available on the Swedish market, Neil also wanted to expand what already existed.

"In 2005, there was the princess and the knight – and that's it. If a child didn't fit into these moulds, there are different things to be. If I took in a brand, I got the whole range: the magician, the veterinarian, the animal trainer, the ballerina… so people could find something that fit their child and not the mould."

Through her business, Neil wants to encourage play and allow children to be creative and develop their interests.

"Play is important for emotional development, education, language development… it’s important for everything. The playing age has stopped younger and younger, anything we can do to interest them in something that isn't the computer or the iPad is a necessity."

Leigh Neil in the storage room of ABC Leksaker
Photo: Private

ABC Leksaker has expanded beyond the walls of the basement and now features a wide range of over 2,500 toys and games. Customers can go online and search based on the type of toy they're after, the age of the child they're buying for, or other specific desires.

Payment is done in advance by credit card, PayPal, or Klarna. The packet will be sent out with the postal service the same day and in most cases arrive the next day. 

Neil does not only run the company, she's part of the entire process with the marketing, the packaging of the toys, and postage, and says it makes the day go by quickly as there's never a dull moment.  

Running a successful online toy shop for nearly a decade, Neil has accumulated some insight and words of wisdom for those looking to set up a business in Sweden. Apart from stressing the importance of learning the language, she suggests others shouldn't lose track of their progress. 

"You can't do everything at once – start with what you can do. Be satisfied with your efforts, regardless of how far you get. There's always so much time in the day, figure out your priorities and what you have time for, don’t be disappointed, think of it as an experience," she tells The Local.

"It's life. Take advice from where you can find it and be open to learn new things."

Mimmi Nilsson

For members

WORKING IN SWEDEN

‘Reassess your cultural background’: Key tips for foreign job hunters in Sweden

Many foreigners living in Sweden want to stay in the country but struggle to find a job, despite having relevant qualifications. The Local spoke to three experts for their advice.

Published: 7 May 2024 09:00 CEST
'Reassess your cultural background': Key tips for foreign job hunters in Sweden

One international worker who found it hard to land her first job in Sweden is Amanda Herzog, who eventually founded Intertalents in Sweden with the aim of helping other immigrants find work in the country.

Herzog originally came to Sweden to study at Jönköping University and decided to stay after graduating.

“I thought it would take three months, maybe six months to find a job, I was prepared for that,” she told The Local during a live recording of our Sweden in Focus podcast held as part of Talent Talks, an afternoon of discussions at the Stockholm Business Region offices on how to attract and retain foreign workers in Sweden.

“What happened was it took over 13 months and 800 applications to actually get a job in my industry, within marketing.”

During this time, Herzog was getting multiple interviews a month, but was not getting any further in the process, despite showing her CV to Swedish recruiters for feedback.

“They were baffled as well,” she said. “By the time I landed my dream job, I had to go outside of the typical advice and experiment, and figure out how I actually can get hired. By the time I got hired, I realised what actually works isn’t really being taught.”

‘Reassess your cultural background’

Often, those who come to Herzog for help have sent out hundreds of CVs and are unsure what their next steps should be.

“My first piece of advice is to stop for a second,” she said. “Reassess your cultural background and how it fits into Sweden.”

Herzog, for example, discovered she was interviewing in “the American way”.

In the US, when asked to tell an interviewer about yourself, you’d be expected to discuss your career history – how many people have you managed? Did sales improve while you were working there? – while Swedes are more likely to want to know about you as a person and why you want to work in a specific role for their company in particular.

“A lot of people don’t know this, so imagine all of the other cultural things that they’re doing differently that they learned in their country is normal,” Herzog adds.

“Just start with learning, because it could be that you don’t need to change very much, you are qualified, you just need to connect with the Swedish way of doing things.”

 
 
 
 
 
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Networking is important

“Don’t hesitate to reach out for help and guidance,” said Laureline Vallée, an environmental engineer from France who recently found a job in Sweden after moving here nine months ago with her partner, who got a job as a postdoc at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

“You tend to insulate yourself and consider yourself not capable, but you’re not less capable than you were in your home country, you just need to explain it to the employers.”

Another tip is to network as much as you can, Vallée said.

“Networking is really important here in Sweden, so just go for it, connect with people in the same field.”

This could be through networks like Stockholm Akademiska Forum’s Dual Career Network, which helps the accompanying partners or spouses of foreign workers find a job in Sweden, or through other connections, like neighbours, friends, or people you meet through hobbies, for example.

Make a clear profile for yourself

Another common issue is that applicants are not presenting themselves clearly to recruiters, Stockholm Akademiska Forum’s CEO, Maria Fogelström Kylberg, told The Local.

“If you’re sending 600 applications without an answer, something is wrong. We have seen many people looking for jobs working in a supermarket, and the next application is a managing director post,” she said. “You have to decide ‘who am I? What do I want to do?’, you have to profile yourself in a clear way.”

This could be editing down your CV so you’re not rejected for being overqualified, or just thinking more closely about how you present yourself to a prospective employer.

“Which of my skills are transferable? How can I be of use to this company? Not what they can do for me, but what problem can I solve with my competence?”

Job hunters should also not be afraid of applying for a job which lists Swedish as a requirement in the job description, Fogelström Kylberg said.

“Sometimes if I see an ad for a job and I have a perfect candidate in front of me, I call the company and say ‘I have a perfect candidate, but you need them to speak Swedish’, they then say ‘no, that’s not so important’. This is not so unusual at all so don’t be afraid of calling them to say ‘do I really need perfect Swedish?’”

Listen to the full interview with Maria Fogelström Kylberg, Amanda Herzog and Laureline Vallée in The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

Interview by Paul O’Mahony, article by Becky Waterton

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