I’m Anna, a mix of a consultant and an entrepreneur. I work with Nordic companies, mainly startups and investors, with their communications, marketing and PR. It’s sometimes difficult to explain concisely what I do for a living. In reality, my work entails everything from media campaigns to organizing photoshoots to creating illustrations and writing articles. Lots of emails, lots of calls, lots of Slack.
Everyone in my family has been an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember. My dad was in the construction business, and my mom still is working as a serial entrepreneur. Their parents were entrepreneurs as well. I think that I saw already as a kid what entrepreneurship really is. I saw the good, the bad and the really ugly sides of it. But, even with the interesting experience of growing up in an entrepreneurial family, I’ve always known that I will end up as one at some point in my life. It just felt like a natural development in my life.
Being stuck in one place for too long makes me bored, which is a challenging personality trait, to be honest.
Before setting up my own business, I worked in the startup ecosystem here in Finland; at Slush, Finnish Venture Capital Association, Junction and Hive Helsinki to mention a few places. After my year at Slush, I sort of fell into full-time entrepreneurship. I had already started working with different startups and investors when I was employed full-time, and those clients wanted to continue with me. I think I also felt the need to do more. Being stuck in one place for too long makes me bored, which is a challenging personality trait, to be honest. I don’t know if it’s curiosity or what, but it definitely keeps things interesting for me.
It honestly felt relatively easy to jump into entrepreneurship. I had already booked long-term clients for my first months. It’s something I didn’t take and still don’t take for granted at all. Working in a project-based environment can be stressful because you never know what’s happening next month. That’s why I’m always more than thankful when I get a new client or a new project to work on.
For me, entrepreneurship means more than running a company. It’s a super corny saying, so bare with me, but I really believe being an entrepreneur is a way of living – or at least it has been that for me. I can’t emphasize enough how much I enjoy and appreciate the fact that I can create my own work and often also schedules. Every day I get to learn something new and work with a bunch of different people. I personally love working with startup founders: their ambition is contagious, and you cannot not be excited about what they are trying to accomplish.
I can’t emphasize enough how much I enjoy and appreciate the fact that I can create my own work and often also schedules.
For me, this sort of weird mix of consulting and being somewhat of hands-on help for companies is a dream job come true. The diversity of my clients and tasks keep my workdays exciting and fast-paced, to say the least. During one workday, I’m able to dive into many things, anything from searching the latest trends in the automotive industry to writing an in-depth press release about an upcoming funding round. My Google calendar is my best friend, honestly. Couldn’t live (or work) without it.
You don’t need to be perfect to start something; you just need to start. Entrepreneurship is nothing more than learning on the fly and constantly finding new, better ways to make things happen. Stay curious and remain open to new ideas – good things will come.
Learn more about Anna and her work at annabrchisky.com.
