Andris has been an entrepreneur for more than 17 years and has established 17 companies. This vast experience allows him to say that the most important things to learn while managing a business are the ability to effectively communicate, the ability to understand, to plan and to organize and to keep the quality of the offered product or service high. He also finds value in keeping his word and therefore maintaining his reputation is a high priority. He recommends saving some extra money in case of an unexpected obstacle.

When he was only 18 years old and still studying, he got a job in a woodworking company. Thanks to his hard work and ambition he rapidly climbed up the career ladder. He always kept his word and continuously transformed the existing system into a more efficient one so employees began to trust him more. Andris became the manager of the woodworking company when he was only 20 years old.

After that, he founded his own construction company despite the fact that he didn’t have any significant knowledge in this field. However, he knew people that were experts in construction, and, due to his ability to effectively communicate, he was able to persuade them to work with him. Under his supervision, this company got the “Gazele” award in 2006 for being the fastest-growing company in Latvia.

Andris always kept on learning and exploring the best ways to improve everything. He found out that efficiency is significantly increased, and a lot of time is saved if documents were organized in a specific way. This led him to a decision to start another company, this one specialized in accounting - yet another field that Andris did not know a lot about. However, he understood what needed to be done and was able to put himself in the shoes of his peers and subordinates. Thus, he was able to quickly get to the root of the problem and gained even more respect. Eventually, he started to operate in other fields that he was not an expert in. For example, he established an electric installation company, a firewood and pellet distribution company and successfully operated as an owner of a dining facility.

He was able to do all of this by constantly challenging himself to do more. Andris believes that any problem can be solved if people are willing to work. However, he knows that a proper delegation of tasks allows him to have his free time as well, so he mastered this skill. Thus, despite having a lot of work to do, he always had enough time for his loved ones and family.

Due to his rich experience, Andris' knowledge in business management is astonishing. Over the years, he has experienced many ups and downs in his companies and has learned how to deal with every obstacle in the best possible way.

Andris understood that the key to success lies in finding and matching the right people for the job. It is crucial for them to have a common goal and to have the ability to understand one another on a personal level, as well as to communicate efficiently.

This discovery made him more interested in psychology and human behaviour in general. Therefore, he studied the new subjects of his interest and also took a course in personality analysis by date of birth. He believes that people can successfully work with one another if they are mutually compatible. Some people are born to be good leaders, some are born with an excellent ability to plan, etc. He is good at matching these people to form a strong, hard-working team with a common goal.

Over the years, Andris has consulted with many companies and helped them to find the right people and the right paths. He states that the only people he cannot help are the ones without ambition and goals. If people are not willing to change something or cannot define exactly what they seek, they put barriers in their own way.

He offers consultations in personnel recruitment and business optimization, but crisis management is his speciality. Andris is aware of the best solutions for business-related obstacles as he has experienced many of them himself. He does not speculate about possible outcomes - he already knows what's going to happen after every decision made before, during or after a crisis in your company.  

All his life Andris has unintentionally mentored others and has always been a great listener. He first started to professionally offer his mentorship services around 2009.

His first mentees were a group of children with concerning behavioural problems. They refused to listen and it seemed like nothing could be done for them. Miraculously, under Andris’ mentorship their behaviour started to change. They started to attend school and, eventually, learned to respect others more.

Now, he specializes in mentoring adults as they are more willing to embrace some change and listen. He does not have a specific topic that he mentors in – if asked, he likes to give advice on various matters, such as life, family and the aforementioned business.

Eventually, in 2014, he joined JCI Latvia and started to give public speeches, to carry out seminars on topical matters and to support young talented leaders in order to develop their potential, so they could achieve their dreams. Due to his success and good reputation, he didn’t have to ask for people to come – they came because of the good recommendations by others.

When he joined JCI in 2014, he continued to spread his knowledge to others, thus inspiring them to achieve more and helping them to act more efficiently.

In 2015, he became the vice president of the Development department. Despite his homeland being quite small, Andris worked hard to spread Latvia’s name all around the world by carrying out outstanding events and projects. He wanted to increase Latvia’s economic growth and to stimulate the development in general by organizing different activities.

Baltic Conference 2015 and National Congress 2015 were some of his first large and rewarding projects. The largest one ever was the JCI European Conference 2018 in which he took the position of a director. It was quite challenging, as he was also the president of the largest JCI department in Latvia - JCI Riga GO!. He needed to plan his time in the most efficient way possible in order to organize this incredible conference while also managing a whole department.

When he got the offer to be the director, he did not hesitate even though he knew that his English language skills were not sufficient enough. He believed that everything would turn out fine and it did, despite the lack of trust and the discouraging attitude that he received after accepting the offer.

During the conference Andris danced on the stage and even performed a speech in English in front of more than a thousand people, thus gaining massive respect from the audience. He was aware of his possible pronunciation and grammar mistakes, but he maintained a positive attitude. After his performance, people from various countries came up to him to thank him personally for his contribution and courage.

He has taken a part in many other successful projects, such as “Uzraviens”,

“Radam Novadam”, “Your Future”, “Midsummer Festival”, “Lampa”, “TOYP”, etc.

Andris has also been the president of Lions Club Riga. Lions Club International has more than a million members all across the globe and it raises money for charity by carrying out various international projects.

Right now, Andris is the founder of Urban Professional - a global platform and community for business and life development. UP gathers active and goal-oriented people, who are willing to fulfil their potential to live in wellbeing and freedom. It is a platform for like-minded people to share their dreams and challenges, and to support and inspire one another for success. Andris encourages this community to dream big and to be brave in order to achieve more. Anything is possible if people are willing to take the first step towards their goal.