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

Ilgın Simay, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

I started my journey when I was 13 by selling soaps. One night while I was scrollling on TikTok I saw a video about making cold process soaps that look like cakes. I was amazed by the idea and three months after that I had collected the money I needed to start my small business. Later on, I could not maintain that business and I gave up. That was my first attempt on this journey. Yes, that did not turned into a successful business but it taught me a really important lesson: Not to give up. After that, I learned not to give up after the first small inconvenience. Now, I just turned 16 yesterday and I already have my own business and incomes. Well, didn’t I encounter any diffuculties while creating ILGNSIMAY? Absolutely not. But this time I know that success is not a linear line and i should not be giving up as soon as it starts to fall. It has been approximately 4 months since I have started my business and I am so lucky to start a business this early. But I am telling you it is never too late. It is never too late to do anything. If i am doing this at 16 you can do this at 45, too. In 4 months, I have achieved so many things and I am so proud of myself. I will never stop working towards my dreams. And In short, yes it is so much better to start a business early, but it is never too late too.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started watching Formula 1 last summer. And now I have a business about it. I sell sweatshirts and phone cases inspired by the drivers and radio highlights. I watch interviews, the races and ideas come up to me, and I turn them into sweatshirts. I caught a open sea in market and I immediately turned my biggest hobbie into a business. Benefit the things you love, make the system work for you because you will be always motivated to do things you love. Hello, I am Ilgin SImay Kocali and am 16 years old. I am from Turkey and I am going to Koc Highschool. I am an entrepreneur and I have my own small business called ILGNSIMAY. I want the world to know my name so I named my business liked this. My favorite hobby is obviously watching Formula 1 races. But the funny fact is I hated the sport 2 years ago, look at me now. I have an Etsy shop and I sell my products there, I think the thing that puts my Etsy shop ahead of other shops on etsy is the marketing. I am a typical teenager, and I spend literally quarter of my day on social media, but I do not regret it a single bit cause it is what makes me this good in marketing. I know all the trends on TikTok and I come up with different viral video ideas every single day. Just because of this, recently I started a partnership with an app and earning income from there, too. Doing the things you like the most is really important because you will eventually find a way to level up.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I use Etsy for my sales. The only con I would tell would be the high fees, but other than that it is really easy to use for begginers since building a website would be really hard for a person who does not have a spesific knowledge in computer science. I started with etsy and right now, I am in the process of building my own website ilgnsimay.com on my own. It is been a quite hard process but when you are determined to do anything, you can do it no matter what. In short, I recommend you to start with marketplaces like Etsy then you can proceed to creating your own website and you can even have it made by real proffesionals.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

My funding story is quite funny and inspirational I believe. I started my business with only $100. Yes, it is not very believable but it is possible. At first, I put what I earned back into the business. And the interesting part is I took that $100 from my grandmother and yesterday I bought her a big present with the money I earned. Overall, it might seem hard in the begging, it really starts to get easier in ecommerce after the first 3 months. So believe me, if you are passionate enough, it is really possible to start a business on your own.

Contact Info:

• Website: ilgnsimay,com
• Instagram: @ilgnsimay
• Other: Tiktok- @ilgnsimay