Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Akseli Äijälä. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Akseli , thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Hi, my name is Akseli and this is my story how I managed to create 4 -figure monthly income at 16 years old.

My story as an entrepreneur started at summer 2022. I’ve just finished my first year in secondary upper school and I know that I needed to make money at summer. My friend did not have any job at all and it was too late to apply for anything. I thought that maybye we should try something different. Maybye we should start our own company. That is how I started my first ever company. It was a landscaping company that me and my friend started. Quickly it growed to employ not both us, but even some of our friends. After the summer I knew that I needed something stable to maintain the income I made at summer.

One day I was scrolling through youtube video where I saw Iman Gadzhis video “best business to start at 2022”. As anyone at my age interested of money would have done I clicked on the video. After that I knew what would be the business model I would start. Marketing agency.

First months where super exhausting and I was not forwarding at all. Because I had only a little amount of money left I needed to learn everything from places that are complitely free. From this day I have spent 0€ on educating myself about business. What kickstarted my agency was when I met another agency entrepreneur in early october 2022. He invited me to his house to have a chat and after that we drove his porsche. That was the dream coming true. I knew it was possible. I realised that I could do it. Week after that I signed my first client.

After that I launched my own ageny advertisements on Meta same way we do for our clients and that way we managed to sign over 10 new clients and we’re still going. Currently my agency manages over 15 clients in total and we make 4 -figures each month and we’re growing fast.

But now let’s dig into the details that were accually behind the recent success and what it took from me to do it. First of all when you are dedicated to something at such a young age you will use lots of time to build it. I’m was still in school so this meant that I would come home and immidiately start sending emails and calling local businesses. Everything is made to seem simple on the internet, but it does not matter what it is, if you’ve never done it – it is hard. The way I learned thing is that I made a lot of mistakes on the way. I did not have any sales experinece, I wasn’t good at making advertisements.

Once everything was setted up I started the outreach process. I quickly learned that people reject you more often than you think. It was hard and difficult, but I managed to get 2 clients from those things. After I got the clients I needed to provide results for them. That’s when I met a man named Josep Cid. Josep teached me how to make ads and how to run profitable ad campaigns for free. Still today we’re partners and work closely together. There was a one man that taught me the mindset and another to tell me the technical side.

Overall the biggest turningpoint was when I made my first ever sale. I had probably called 150 calls and sent 2000 emails before accually booking my first ever appointment and finally closing the client. It gave me the confidence to keep going. It was worth it. We’re still in really early stages of the business and there is so much more to learn and do.

One advice I would give everyone that is thinking starting a business is do it or regret it for life.You will always regret the things that you do not do not the ones you did :)

Mentally it is really hard to keep pushing forward and grind every single day. You don’t have that much time to focus on your love-life or friends. I like it, but sometimes I feel that I should be more “like other young people”. Being now 17 year old business owner can sometimes be hard, but it is worth it at the end.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Akseli Äijälä, I’m 17 years old Entrepreneur. I’m the Founder of marketing agency called Tenester. Tenester provides paid advertising and automation solutions to businesses that want to grow.

MY journey to this point was nothing but easy. Being in school at the same time putted a pressure on me with the schedule and with the work. Most of us think that school is hard. Well try to run a business at the same time. You need to have certain type of an mindset and discipline. It is a mentally hard to handle that much pressure. I did not have a mentor at the start and I still dont have a that type of an person that would consult me on every single choise. I’m a self learner and almost everything I’ve learned I taught to myself.

I’m very gratefull to all the people that helped me to scale my business to this point.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I have gotten the word “no” said to me propably more than 1000 times. Relating to business, but also outside of it. That has taught me a valuable lesson. Be patient and persistent.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met Josep Cid at Facebook. First it was just chatting, but after a while I accually took flight to Spain and went to see him. It was a crazy experience travelling to Spaind being only 16. We had amazing time and I will go meet him irl again this year.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tenester.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aijalaakseli/

Image Credits
Alexey Kukka