My First project
My first own project was my long-time dream; to establish a pop-up trick-scooter shop. I found a group of four people who got excited with me, and the feeling was awesome.
The group is amazing, they have so many ideas and I felt like what is even my part in this team since everyone was so skilled.
I have very experienced people from marketing, person who knows everything about technicalities, person who is so outgoing and well-spoken and all of these even have huge networks. Better than I could ever wish for. The project team took this as their own and embraced my idea.

What is trick scootering?
Also known as freestyle or stunt scootering is a sport which includes various tricks and maneuvers on a scooter. Tricks can be aerials, jumps, aerial flips or grinds. To the tricks there is obstacles, for example rails and ramps. Scooters are specially designed to the tricks; scooters are more flexible than typical scooters which are made only for moving from one place to another. There are own competitions and a dedicated community of riders. To Finland trick scootering arrived in the late 90´s. It can be done in the skateparks, and scooter riders and skateboarders often use similar obstacles.

Why this scooter shop is so important for me?
I have a son who scoots. Scootering is part of his identity, and a big part of his life. He does it with his friends, they learn new skills, interaction, support each other and do sports! They learn the important abilities for life. They also learn to film, because filming the tricks is part of the scooter culture. Scooters form their own community and being part of the community is for the benefit of the kids. Children and young people are a very needed group of people, there is the future in them. That is why I find it important to support their sports, living and hobbies. Sports and being part of some community supports mental health and overall well-being.
We had a clear vision for the shop, how it would feel and look like, what we would sell in there and how often it would be open. We still have the same vision.

Let´s get started
We started to have a weekly-meetings and contacted a trick-scooter shop owners in Helsinki. They were very generous with advising and helping us in many ways, and we decided that we would order the stock from them. That would be safe, easy and fast. Now we need marketing plan, building for the store, decorations, influencers, event plannings etc…
We made an excel sheet and added all the important information in it and everyone got their own tasks. I was excited to be the leader for the first time and wanted to succeed.

Reality kicks in
Soon we realized that this would require more money than our team will have this spring. I had a meeting with a third-year student, and he encouraged me a lot, he believed in me and my project and told me to apply for a loan from another team enterprise. I didn´t even know it is possible! I was determined that yes, now this will happen.

Again, the reality was in front of my face. We didn´t have money, place nor time. We felt that we were way too late with the marketing an everything and rush was not part of my establishment plans.
We had to make the hard decision to postpone this project to next summer. I felt I have betrayed myself, my team and my dream. But my project team still was there for me. We made new plans, we will start this project anyways during the summer when we can take all our marketing materials, do milking projects during the year and get the money required for the stock and rent. Sometimes it´s better to wait than hurry and I had to admit that aswell. We will do good. This will be good. Year will go by faster than expected.

We have not given up, we are just taking a short break and come back with even greater attitude!