My story begins when I was 16. I've always considered myself an ambitious person, always wanting to do things differently and be financially self-sufficient. At that time, I lived with my parents. I was still studying and the weekly money that my parents gave me was not enough to cover my weekend expenses.
So, I decided to think of something that would give me some more money and let me have some independence. For months, I thought about what was new and how I could change or better things. Since I loved music and had studied music at school since I was a child, I decided to make an instrument out of pipes and cardboard to create a drum set that would be, in my opinion, the revolution. But the production of the instrument was neither going to be fast nor easy.
With the money my parents gave me, 15 euros a week, I decided to start saving and think about my plan. With that money, I started to buy different pieces at ‘Leroy Merlin Warehouse’. My parents asked me what I was going to do with it, and they recommended that I should enjoy my youth and go out with my friends, go to the beach, to the movies, etc. But I told them to wait and see what I was going to do.
Two months later, my drum set was ready. I remember it was summer, the month of July. I'm from a coastal city in Spain so I thought it would be best to take my drum kit and go to the beach to play drums to see what was going on. My parents didn't give me much support at that time. The first day was one of the best days of my life. The instrument that I had made and something that I had dedicated so much effort was working. Not only that, but people loved it.
The days went by and more people were interested in the drum set, the construction and the sound. I earned 200 euros in tips every day and not only that, many people asked me at the end of the day to please help them so that their children could do the same as me. My parents could not believe it.
By the end of the summer, I had earned more than 12,000 euros in just two months, more than a person could earn working for a whole year. From here, I realised that, working for others is easy, but if you work for yourself the satisfaction is much greater.
During the following years, I kept thinking about new projects to embark on, more long-term projects. I loved having new challenges, but my parents asked me again to focus on my studies. I had a few months left to take my college entrance exam, and of course, I had to pass it if I wanted to. The next year it was time to choose what to do and what to study. The mentality in Spain is to work for someone and if you can work for your whole life in the same company, then that was good enough.
I didn't know what to study until finally, to please my parents, I started studying architecture. This way, I was studying a career and my parents would be happy. I was studying architecture for five years and finished when I was 24. I worked for one of the biggest and most recognized architecture firms in Spain. I worked in the architecture office for 1 year and it was not a very enriching experience. The salary was good, the work environment was excellent, but I felt that I was wasting my time, that I was not motivated and that I was going to work without motivation or purpose.
At this time, I was living in Madrid and I decided to return to Valencia to live with my parents. This decision affected my parents a lot. I made the decision to return home and start from scratch. I started to think about new professional projects, I was hungry for new projects. For months I was thinking about new projects focused on what I really liked, technology. I started to create a prototype of sunglasses that incorporated music. At that time, this type of glasses did not exist and could be a real success.
I started looking for companies that would trust me and my project. I searched the internet, but I had to invest more than 15,000 euros in a project that I did not know if it would come to fruition. I tried to save money, but it was almost impossible. Unfortunately, my project remained on paper and it did not move forward. In 2014, without a job and wanting to change my personal and professional situation, I decided to go with my partner to live in Australia.
When we told our respective families that we were going to Sydney, Australia there were opposing thoughts. We knew that living in Australia was not going to be easy, but we knew that with hard work and desire, we would achieve everything we set out to do.
During the first year in Australia, I was working as an architect and my partner started giving Spanish classes privately. She is a qualified Spanish teacher by profession. For a while we sent information to different Spanish schools, universities, websites, etc. She started to work for some Spanish schools in Sydney with a lot of recognition until one day, I proposed her to create our own Spanish school where people could Learn Spanish in a different way.
We had it all, I was still eager to have a company to dedicate myself to 100%. A job that motivated me more than ever. That's when I started to create a website and became even more interested in SEO, Google Awards, online marketing and our competitors. Those were years of hard work until we finally created Spanish Blackboard Academy in 2017. In less than a year, we had groups, three teachers, an office of our own and a great desire to keep on expanding.
Finally, I have been able to be an entrepreneur and dedicate myself to what I really like, to think and be creative. Today, we are still part of Spanish Blackboard Academy, although with more projects in sight. In the coming months we will open new offices around Australia. In June, Spanish Blackboard Academy will open its doors in Melbourne and Brisbane to continue helping thousands of people who want to learn Spanish with the best native and qualified teachers in Australia.
However, the story does not end there. As I was searching and learning a lot of new SEO and Google AdWords tips, and the most important, as I was able to test everything with our Spanish Academy website and proved that they work, I decided to open a SEO and marketing company to help other people with their own projects. That’s how I ended becoming the CEO of marketiWeb and helping other projects to develop their businesses online.
So, if you are thinking of starting up, don't hesitate. There are many opportunities out there. Think about what makes you happy. Trust yourself and don't listen to others. If you follow your instinct and work hard, one day, like me, you will do what you want most, to be an entrepreneur and most importantly be HAPPY.