I am Matilde Pelkonen, entrepreneur, creative director and co-founder of the influencer marketing agency Monochrome. My education is a mix of business and other passions; I have a Masters in marketing and soon also in educational psychology. Even after the two degrees, I’m still interested in learning more – continuous learning is one of my passions in life.
Freedom is an important value to me, which goes hand in hand with my career as an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, you can make your life look the way you want it to. The difficult part comes when you need to choose between all the possible interests. It’s still hard for me to focus on my own interests and manage my time well. Sometimes I am able to break things down, but there is still room to develop. I would love to hear time management tips from the better!
In the end, the most rewarding thing in entrepreneurship is when you work and see things getting to the finish line. Nothing rewards as much as a happy customer and an accepted offer! That’s when you know you’ve done things – and your work – well.
As an entrepreneur, you can make your life look the way you want it to.
Entrepreneurship itself is continuous learning and your company in a sense is never finished, even if it’s doing well. I was terribly stressed at the beginning of having to get things moving at a quick and sometimes quite unrealistic pace. Sure, stress and pressure most often act as a catalyst to do, but living without constant stress makes a lot more sense in the long run.
My biggest learning so far has been that sales experience trumps everything. It’s something that I would have loved to learn before starting Monochrome. Sales meetings are probably the most effective way to develop your company’s service or product. Without selling, the company will not be profitable. Without selling you also don’t know if anyone is interested in your product. It’s a whole different thing to promise to buy than to make the concrete purchase decision.
My biggest learning so far has been that sales experience trumps everything.
In the startup world, I think there is a myth that the goal of trying is to make an exit and create a unicorn; a company worth a billion euros. In other words, according to the myth, if a business idea is not worth a billion, it is not worth coveting. I myself represent more traditional entrepreneurship, where a profitable result is made immediately and a business with a turnover of one million euros is valuable entrepreneurship.
Start a business with someone you can trust 100%. Know in advance how your partner will work. It is a different matter to know how to act than just to talk.
More about Monochrome: monochrome.fi.
Follow Matilde and Monochrome on Instagram @matildepelkonen and @monochrome.fi.
Photo: Sanni Siira
