Prague, May 5, 2015

Jan’s young face is the only thing that betrays his 22 years old. But at the precise moment when he starts talking, perplexity invades you. When he was just 19 years old, he embarked on a giant boat: creating his own digital agency together with Marek Kříž, a close friend of him. Now, they lead their own business, an important and growing digital agency located in Prague. The dream they worked on to turn it real was named FIREMEDIA, which sounds like independence and freedom to them.

What’s your actual role in FIREMEDIA?

Currently, I work as Project and Account Manager. My job consists in ensuring that the project reaches its result and also to take care about our clients and try to make them feel pleased and satisfied during the whole process.

How was the way to succeed in creating your own agency?

Creating our own agency was really hard because we started literally from nothing. We were just 19 years old and we didn’t know anything about creating our own business. At first, we had to work like 16 hours a day, and it was kind of exhausting but still enjoyable. We didn’t know exactly what we were facing but we took the risk as an adventure. We were motivated by the fact that we are going to build our own business and that meant independence. We were excited because it was our agency, and we could do everything in our own way.

A year later, our work showed off and we started having important clients as Czech Republic Finance Ministry. Today we work in projects for TCCM, Rebelbean and Tutor for example. Now we are focused on two main areas: ecommerce and creative campaigns. I’m convinced that 2015 will be our “ecommerce year” because we have developed new extraordinary platforms for online businesses.

What are the most positive aspects of having your own business? And what are the most challenging ones?

It’s funny because the most positive aspect is also the most challenging one. The best thing of all is that every decision is up to me and my partner, so everything depends on us. But this is also the most challenging part: freedom implies more responsibility. You have to create and respect your own rules and achieve your own goals, without waiting for someone to tell you what to do. Each day you have to make the proper decisions and push your project forwards. Luckily, I count with Marek to discuss and make decisions together; we support each other in this challenging road we’ve been on since 2013.

What country or city excites you the most in terms of digital designing?

I find that every city has its own personal imprint and is interesting to discover this. I was very impressed by London and Bordeaux, which I find out very artistic, and Prague is a daily source of inspiration for me. But, in terms of digital designing, globalization has homogenized differences between cities and now there’s not a city that excites me in a particular way. I guess it depends on what you are interested on.

Which changes would you predict in digital communication?

I believe visual communication will be even more developed than now, and I think that’s the future because this is the kind of communication people are looking for. We can see amazing growth of services like Snapchat, Taptalk and everyone is using emoticons. Communication tends to be easier each year and even more when is visual.

I’m excited to see all devices connected together. Is practical having just one device that lets you turn on your car, the lights, and even make yourself a cup of coffee. This is something that already exists, but is not widespread. I’m looking forward to see this around, everywhere.

What advice would you give to someone that wants to open his own business?

Undoubtedly, I would tell him or her that the most important thing is to have courage, because you need to have enough audacity and bravery to push forward the obstacles that appear on your way.

Thank you, Jan.

To learn more about FIREMEDIA

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