Ownr Success Stories: AKP Solutions

Management consulting firm AKP Solutions has one goal in mind: help businesses succeed. In this interview with Ownr, founder Alexandra Kapelos-Peters illustrates how she measures success and shares her experienced advice to new entrepreneurs wanting to start their own business.

Introduce us to AKP Solutions.

Alexandra: AKP Solutions is a management consulting firm helping businesses plan, grow, adapt, and succeed through the effective use of people, processes, and technology. We’re passionate about helping entrepreneurs, startups, and small and mid-sized businesses grow, as well as working with larger, established teams and organizations to optimize their management and business operations.

Whether focused on IT, marketing, finance, HR, admin, operations, or PMO, we help businesses translate their vision, goals, and ideas into actionable plans. Our motto is “let’s get it done” because we are proud to inspire action and get results.

What inspired you to set up AKP Solutions?

Alexandra: Growing up, my mom was self-employed, also a management consultant. As a kid, I always struggled to understand and to explain what she did. I was dragged to meetings and conferences across the country and often complained about acting as Courier to deliver proposals, as Tech Support to troubleshoot computer problems, or as Scribe for interview notes. I developed a bitterness for self-employment: it seemed like a lot of hard, underappreciated work with unstable reward. I vowed to avoid these burdens and jumped at traditional, 9-to-5 corporate office employment as soon as it was offered to me. But alongside these “safe” corporate roles, I always took on side projects. 

As much as I had wanted to resist a life of self-employment, I realized that I’m more like my mom than I imagined and that I had a taste for entrepreneurship that couldn’t be avoided.

After ~15 years of working on a freelance basis along with full-time roles and contracts, I came to realize that the most exciting and interesting work came from variety. Rather than working for a single employer, with a single team, on a single product or project, through my own business I could work on a range of diverse projects, across brands, products, regions, and industries.

What do you love about being your own boss? What keeps you motivated?

Alexandra: Having a flexible schedule and being in control of my own time is certainly a huge benefit, but what I appreciate most is the ability to choose what work I’ll take on. This ensures variety; I’m never bored, and I’m always learning.

I usually like a challenge: something that I may not have done before that forces me to learn new skills or tackle new experiences. Although it’s sometimes nice to just do something well and enjoy the feeling of seeing one’s work put to use and appreciated.

What’s great about entrepreneurship is the sense of ownership and accountability. The maxims “work hard, play hard” and “you get what yo