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Young entrepreneur capitalized on high school business via Seminole Voice.
Things started off smoothly for Alex Tchekmeian and the business he began as a young teen, but as the man himself will say, success is about hard work, and the decision that would shape Tchekmeian’s life was waiting for him.
Tchekmeian, a new resident to Winter Park and self-made entrepreneur at 23, has some bragging rights. His company, AKT Enterprises, dealing in designs for the music industry, has more than 6,000 clients and 250,000 customers, and Tchekmeian himself was named a top 5 entrepreneur under the age of 25 by Business Week. He is also doubling his efforts as a motivational speaker and author of a selection in the new “Chicken Soup for the Teen’s Soul,” all during the Christmas rush.
“I think it’s just about going out there and working hard,” Tchekmeian said of his approach to business both then and now.
At the age of 14, Tchekmeian joined a band in his hometown of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. The band flourished, going on tour and signing a record. Yet even pulling in crowds of 500-600 people, the band’s promoter was still paying them their standard 50-cents-per-head rate.
Tchekmeian decided it would be best for the band and their promoter to part ways, then he stepped into the role himself. He began booking small venues and creating promotional materials. When he couldn’t find reliable designers who could turn around a concept quickly, Tchekmeian started his own design business.
“I really enjoyed business and music and took it from there, I started my business,” he said.
Even after the band ended, and members began going to college, the business stayed. Tchekmeian began promoting other bands with merchandise from his company.
It was a good time to be young and in business, Tchekmeian said. Even though there was risk of the company going bankrupt, he was in high school and still lived at home. Without any investors, all the risk fell on him; if the company went bust, no one else would be hurt.
That all changed in 2005, when Tchekmeian went off to the University of Central Florida to study business. Tchekmeian soon realized that his studies were taking too much time away from his business, which was just starting to move forward. He came to the conclusion that he could not do both and be successful and went to his parents.
“I told them, ‘I may never in my life have an opportunity like this. I need to 100-percent focus on this because it’s about to break big.’”
The result was not optimistic.
“They said, if I do this, they’re cutting me off,” Tchekmeian recalled. They didn’t want to see their son throw his career away for his high-school business. The decision had come, and it would be all or nothing.
“I told them, I don’t need your money. I’m doing this,” he said.
With business partner Jared Mendelewicz, Tchekmeian grew his business with just a few employees and a lot of aspirations. He has seen his business through early hurdles and the current economic recession and is limbering up for this holiday season.
“Business is just problem-solving,” he said. “It challenges you more, and challenge is healthy, competition is healthy.”
Tchekmeian now travels and shares his story with young dreamers, proving that with hard work, anything is possible. He hopes to one day return to college to finish his degree, and promotes advanced education in his talks. But more than anything, he exudes a passion for what he does every day.
“You look at it like a hobby almost more than your career or your personal life, but now it’s my life,” he said.