The last two years have not been easy, as business owner I am by no means the finished article, nor have I ever claimed to be. I’ve already made plenty of mistakes along the way.
We are all human. I’m glad I’ve learnt from mine.
The first couple of years working for myself have been where the ‘real’ world education has truly started. I’ve learnt more in two and bit years than I did throughout my whole business degree, high school education and professional working years combined.
Not only that but I’ve learnt lots of things about myself on a personal level.
I believe it is very important that we encourage young people with ambition to start a business early in their lives. No matter how successful they may be with it, good or bad, they will all learn an exceptional amount of life skills from the experience. These skills will serve them in good stead throughout the rest of their lives.
As I alluded to earlier, I didn’t embark on this journey without prior hindsight knowing that there would be some difficulties to face along the way. Next year I’m going back to the core reason I started this company and the sole reason I believe I was put on this planet to do; educate people about technology and show them how it can really help their business.
Knowledge is power and I’m keen to share mine with my clients.
Having grown up with the rise of social media, the rapid development of computers and the growth of the Internet I’ve never known a world without the impact of technology. It is all very natural to me. Since the age of 6 when I got my first very computer, an Apple Acorn, I knew working with computers was what I wanted to do.
I built my very first website called ‘Illz World’ in Microsoft Word at the age of 11, since then I’ve gone on to build many, many more.
People talk about a calling in life and following your passions, I have a passion for technology and that is why I am here. It’s why I got into digital marketing and it is why I decided to pack in my salary paid job to realise my dream of sharing my knowledge and teaching other business owners about the benefits of the Internet.
In my professional career I’ve seen so much bad advice given to clients by cowboys, snake oil SEO salesmen, wannabe digital gurus, bad agencies and other so called marketing companies.
At what price has this advice cost?
There is no running away from it, we are in a recession, the media kindly remind us of that fact every day. Can any business afford to waste money flushing it down the toilet?
The answer would be no.
I don’t claim to have all the answers and most importantly I’m not here to point any fingers either. I just want to make sure businesses have someone to turn to if they want a friendly, honest and impartial second opinion on the advice they may be already receiving about their website or digital marketing.
No buzz words, no marketing lingo, no bull.
I look forward to sharing my infectious enthusiasm and love for digital marketing with many more businesses this coming year. ROLL ON 2013!
If you interested in my help then I’d love to hear from you. To all my true friends, colleagues and the lovely people who I’ve had the pleasure of working with this year. Good luck in 2013 and best wishes.
Visual Sounds & Shapes
You are also going to be seeing and hearing me a lot more next year. I’m not a big writer and actually I don’t enjoy writing that much (surprising as it may be to some of you) it is very difficult for me to get my thoughts down by keyboard so I’m introducing two new things to the blog.
- Monthly Podcast where I’ll probably bring colleagues of mine in the industry to talk about digital marketing topics with.
- Much more video with me on camera! Scary stuff I know! I’m hoping people will enjoy my discussions and content.
Have a good one!
Illiya Vjestica – Founder & MD of Smartdog digital
Feature Image Credit: By Ross Catrow
