Interview with Made in Greece: “One afternoon I decided I could do it alone at 26”

In the interview I gave to MadeinGreece.news, I shared my journey with its difficulties and successes, as well as my future plans.

Αποκλ. – Made in Greece η Manifest & ο Διονύσης Αμμολοχίτης: «Ένα απόγευμα αποφάσισα ότι μπορώ μόνος μου στα 26» – Σήμερα 600 εργαζόμενοι & 10 εκατ. τζίρος

A story full of dreams, ambitions, passion and audacity, but also countless difficulties. The route of Dionysis Ammolochiti to entrepreneurship and success far was walking. He started with zero capital , having quit his job at a cleaning company as a salesman and asking his mother to quit her job as well. His story from now on was one way. There was no room for error or repentance.

At the age of 26, he already ran his own company , which goes by the name Manifest and today has more than 600 employees and a presence in more than 8 countries . The secret of success, according to Mr. Ammolochitis, is the well-organized plan, the passion that is necessary for the young entrepreneur and the people who will make up the company’s development team.

Manifest is active in the field of facility management and offers services such as security, cleaning, technical work and catering.

Even before closing a year of operation, Dionysis Ammolochitis knew where he wanted to lead the Manifest in the future and this vision has expanded today and will not stop “burning” inside him until it reaches 2,500 employees and a turnover of € 40,000,000. What does he have from then on? Even higher expectations!

Having erased an important course in the business world and with the supply of important experiences gained throughout this journey, Mr. Ammolochitis writes today in his blog ( http://ammolochitis.gr/el/blog ) on issues of self-improvement and business action.

MadeinGreece.news spoke with Mr. Dionysis Ammolochitis, who shared with us his own path with its difficulties and successes, as well as his future plans.

The main points of the interview:

• From a young age I was destined to take on my father’s job
• My father left us and my mother – my sister was married – suddenly we had to survive alone
• One afternoon I decided I could do it alone ! I wanted to create my own company and thus complete my project
• I had too much passion and audacity , two elements which whenever I left them since then lead to a dead end and with meager results
• We serve over 1,100 buildings in Greece , while 75% of our customers are multinational companies
• what makes the Manifest special are its people
• There is no greater satisfaction for me than overcoming the obstacles and problems they put in front of me, continuing to thrive and leading to the achievement of my goals.
• My main goal, as an entrepreneur, is to see the percentage of great people employed in my business grow
• The environment in Greece may not be conducive to business development, however we experience 15 years of continuous growth
• I envision a Manifest which will provide employment to 2,500 people, will have a turnover of € 40,000,000 and will be a model company for the whole of Europe

What is the story surrounding the creation of the Manifest? When and how did it all start? What are the stages, the inspiration, the reason?

From a young age I was destined to take on the job of my father , who had a small craft of industrial products; and my mother devoted her life to raising me and my sister (14 months younger) and at times worked, more like hobby, not having technical knowledge for something more systematic.

At the age of 20, many of the above ceased to apply. My father left me and my mother – my sister was married – suddenly we had to survive on our own, without secured work and income, without the issues of our survival solved, not knowing what to do. Somehow our calm and confident life came to an end.

The truth is that this whole scene, the details of which are not at all attractive, created a lot of negative emotions for me and I can say that I was experiencing a constant anger. I considered everything we were living unfair and I felt very hurt seeing the concern for our future in my mother’s eyes.

At that time I found a way out in self-improvement books, which I bought and “sucked” in dozens. Somehow the flame of success and faith in myself was rekindled in me. So I sat down and made plans, wrote down my goals and began to discipline my plans.
It is worth mentioning that my main plan was to set up a cleaning company.

At 26, I was still living with my mother, who by the way was then 42 years old, and we were somewhat comfortable. I had been working for a cleaning company for six months as a salesman (I had given up my career as a photocopier seller in which I made three times as much money). And then something law-abiding happened. One afternoon I decided I could do it alone ! I wanted to create my own company and thus complete my project. So the first thing I did was quit my job and ask my mother to quit hers too and come with me to help me with the Manifest (I had already made a name for myself when I asked her). My mother accepted at once and the Manifest was just beginning.

How was the beginning? What obstacles did y