This is an old saying, but it suits greatly to a very young Romanian entrepreneur- Alexander Stoica-Marcu, He is a living proof that nothing can stand in the way of an ambitious person. All you need is: to learn from others and your own mistakes, see the opportunities and never give up.
This 18 years old young entrepreneur from Constanţa is already developing his third business after two years from a tough beginning.
He started to be interested in entrepreneurial opportunities around 13-14 years old, but he faced the three obstacles of all young start-ups:
- lack of clients;
- lack of capital;
- lack of trust for somebody that young.
But, in his opinion, everything has a solution. Here is how he managed to overcome these obstacles:
- He managed to find clients through an aggressive marketing strategy.
- The capital for the beginning came from his parents, who borrowed him 500 euros, which he returned with interest after some months.
- He learnt to convince people that his age is very much an asset.
He began by reading books on sales and improving his skills, especially presentation and negotiation ones. He lost his first client, making a mistake, but he says he leant form his mistake, as any businessman does.
Thus, at 16, he started his first business, called “Insignus”, with personalised badges. With the 500 euros from his parents, he bought the specialised machinery for making badges and raw material. After 2-3 months, the first clients appeared and now he is leader on this mini-market. He has two helpers, who receive a sales commission. This business goes very well during the wedding season, when these products are in demand.
Based on this business, he diversified on another related segment- event organising. Thus, he established a new enterprise- Mixture Events- which intermediates the finding of photographers, videographers and other things needed for a big event. He has revenue from the commissions.
But he is not satisfied with this, he is very much aware that the faith of any business is: to be created, grown and then sold. He wants now to focus on studies; he is in his final high-school year and wants to go to an Economics school in the capital or abroad.
He is always open to learn about the business world. He learns from strong models like:Warren Buffett (American businessman and philanthropist, known for his modest life despite his large fortune) and Jordan Belfort (known motivational speaker, former stockbroker),Donald Trump and Bill Gates.
He says that the chase for success motivates him, and that success comes to the ones who enjoy what they are doing. He advices young entrepreneurs: to start when they feel it’s the right time, to find a dream and never give up on it, doing everything for it. The first step is to think positively, renouncing at excuses like: “I can’t”, I don’t want” and “I don’t have money”.[1]
Lately, he is developing another venture based on a need he has noticed in the local tourism industry (Constanţa, his home town, is a large tourist city at the seaside). The large problems he has noticed are: a linguistic barrier for foreign tourist, delay of orders, failure to confirm orders and lack of information on the facilities offered to tourists by the tourism units.
As a response to this need, he developed “Serve Hotel“, a software application dedicated to improving the service quality of Romanian tourism units. This allows tourists to take advantage of all the facilities of the tourist units, through any device connected to the Internet. Through this, they can book a place at the: spa, restaurant or beach. They can establish the details of any reservation (date, time, number of people); they can visualize the online menu ( prices, quantities, ingredients); they can see information on the services of the hotel (schedule, availabilities, history), and can send suggestions and complaints.
Alexander invested only 5,000 euros in this project, gathered from this family. A couple of thousands euros were invested by an investor from Bucharest, and thus the application “Serve Hotel“ has become ready to launch.
Alexander developed this project, together with his 19 year-old brother, within his company Mixture Industries SRL-D, which allowed him to take advantage of a governmental programme which focuses on SRL-D companies (SRL – Debutant). It is meant to stimulate young people to enter the business field and to this purpose this programme offers certain facilities:tax exemption for the salaries of 2 to 4 employees and exemption from the fees for setting up the company.It is on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone platform and it also has a web version. (http://www.serve-hotel.com/#home).
The two young people are mentored by Ruxandra Ogrendil, managing partner Pathfinder Management&Consulting and manager of IMC Integral Management Consultancy International for the Central and Eastern region.
What makes this application great, according to Alexander, is that it can be used by foreign tourists, who can access the platform in English or their native language, depending on the foreign languages the hotel opts for. He plans to introduce it to the European and Asian market. He has already received an offer of 100, 000 dollars from Nippon Venture Capitalist Co. Ltd. from Tokyo to establish the application on the Japanese market.[2]
So, despite his young age, this ambitious entrepreneur has reached a very high level in a very short time, starting from almost nothing. As can be seen from this article, this young entrepreneur is more than willing to share his recipe for success and to encourage other young people to start businesses.
[1]http://ruxandraogrendil.ro/?s=Alexander+Stoica-Marcu
