Purpose - Identify the most frequent challenges of growth perceived by micro firms.

Design/methodology/approach - The data was collected through 30 qualitative interviews, conducted in April and May of 2011. In addition, the data was analyzed in accordance of the different characteristics of the participating firms to identify patterns of the most frequent challenges of growth perceived by micro firms.

Findings - The findings from this research implicates that challenges to grow in micro firms differs from different sectors, if the firms is enrolled within a business incubator or not, and according to the age of the firm.

Research limitations/implications - This study may not be global since the research was fulfilled in Sweden. As the institutions and regulations might differ from other countries there are some common nominators that Sweden shares with other nations and regions for instance the financial system.

Practical implications - Evidence from this research has shown that time is the most frequent perceived challenge to grow in micro firms, and that time is the foundation of many other perceived challenges.

Originality/value - Researchers have stated that empirical findings on what affect micro firms growth has been neglected, the previous studies have been focusing on SMEs rather than micro enterprises.