Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Tino Vrbanović, CEO, Brandiac Agency
When you ask yourself, still as a young person “What do I want to do with my life? Build my own company from scratch, or join the labour market?” you will almost always find your environment doing everything they can to answer that question for you. At that, you will easily find people who will outright advise you to drop the idea of embarking into the entrepreneurial water.
We care most for the opinions of those close to us, but even those persons, out of concern or lack of understanding, can cause us pain.
The questions we encounter most commonly are: “How are you going to cope in the business world so young?”, “Is it worth opening a company in Croatia in times like this?”, “I was an entrepreneur as well, but it takes great sacrifice, you’re not up to that challenge!”, “With what resources will you do it?”, “The market is huge, how are you going to push your idea through?” and many more which directly discourage you from entering the world of entrepreneurship.
Of course, in the world of entrepreneurship there are many risks, investments and sacrifices. No real success comes overnight. It’s a process that lasts.
All of these questions perhaps point us to the answers: “It’s not worth it, it’s really a difficult situation in Croatia.” You should be understanding of others, without anger. A large number of people around us do not understand what the business world is. They have never tried or found themselves in the situation to create on their own. Fear is the most common reason why people don’t realize their ideas.
In some cases, it may be better to start working for someone else and “hone” your craft, or at least until you reach the level of self-discipline that is necessary for independent work. Disciplining yourself is the toughest task, everything else comes along the way.
When deciding on venturing into independent work, it is good to look at the benefits of such a business, and focus your attention towards people who recognize our quality, accept our ideas, creativity and knowledge. Then, the negative advice become absolutely irrelevant. This can be one or more people.
This will be the person who will dispel any negative questioning of yourself, and who will nurture positivity and even greater desire for success in you. Freedom of creation is a great advantage.
You have to face yourself, do market research, be prepared to devote time to quality work, and at some stage even do volunteer work.
I write all this from my own personal experience, because I faced the same situation. I started working in high school.
Already then I started actively thinking about what I wanted in life, I wanted to give something back to society, and I didn’t know where to go and where to start. I didn’t think much. Along with the studies, I worked two or three jobs per day, partly out of financial need, and partly as an investment in future success.
I learned and analysed in detail all that interested me for my future world of entrepreneurship. I also joined various volunteering projects, which gave me opportunity to grow as a person.
My point is that working for the community in your free time is something that make you a better person and a better business leader. After some time, the desire in me to open my own agency grew stronger. In the earlier phase I worked with my best childhood friend and designer Ante Starčević, and we came to a conclusion that we are a competent duo, ready for the world of entrepreneurship.
We decided to open an agency, but already at the beginning we went through a very painful experience, and the mentioned advice from others to give up on opening it. Of course, we didn’t give up. Perseverance, great courage and the aspiration to give this country something more were decisive factors. I personally declined very good business deals and safe wages. I plotted my own course, and I didn’t want to feel as a door stop that gets paid, and again I faced all sorts of advice and predictions, but we did not give up.
Ante and I started from scratch, exclusively with our own knowledge and goals. We have invested all our free time in ideas and creating a successful business story. It took a lot of time and meetings until people recognized our ideas and until we started to be hired by serious brands. Sometimes we even slept in the office. And our effort from early morning till late in the evening started to pay off. A large number of students go through our company, but we also actively work on all our projects ourselves as well.
The project “Walking Ads” was created at the end of 2016. The whole story took off when we Ante Starčević and I decided to take the world of advertising to a higher level.
Today, thanks to advertisers who have recognized our efforts, as well as quality and price-sensitive medium, we constantly improve our service and product. With constant investment and developing new ideas, we are doing everything to create new and more positive standards in the advertising industry.
It’s nice to remember some stories from our beginnings, when we contacted brands, many refused us. I sat on the phone for days without success, and then I told Ante this was not satisfying me at all, so we decided to send our visual suggestions on which we worked days and nights. Immediately afterwards, the clients recognized it and we got inside.
I would like to thank my fiancée Martina first of all for her understanding and patience, my business partner and best friend, Ante Starčević, and mentor Danijel Koletić, who oversaw our project from the early stage and offered professional advice along the way.
In the end, I would just like to conclude that success lies in all of us. It’s important to have a clear plan and vision, dedication, but also courage to bring something good to this world.