A football coach at the age of 19 - Elgin City player and current Huntly loanee Fin Allen starts his own coaching business as he aims to work with Aberdeen, Caley Thistle and Moray youngsters in one-to-one and group sessions
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At the age of 19, most footballers are looking to shape and develop their own careers but Fin Allen is helping others too.
Currently on loan at Highland League Huntly on the road to recovery from a bizarre injury, the attacker has played almost 50 matches in Elgin City's first team.
In his early teens he was persuaded by City - who he has played for since the start of primary school - to do coaching sessions with local youngsters.
More recently he worked for the Elgin Sports Community Trust founded by his father Dave, further developing his own coaching skills.
It spawned an idea to begin his own coaching business and that will come to fruition this month, as the Fin Allen Football Academy starts up - he is already fully booked for his opening one-to-one sessions.
"I started coaching five or six years ago," he explained. "(Elgin City coaches) Tiger and Steve Porter mentioned about helping out with some of the community sessions so I did that for a couple of years at the holiday camps with Elgin City, and really enjoyed.
"Then I started working at Elgin Sports Community Trust and did some one-to-one coaching as well as group sessions and it was something I really enjoyed.
"I got the idea about a year ago of maybe trying to go off on my own.
"I put out a Facebook post to see if there would be any demand for it and I got a really good response with around 300 shares and loads of messages.
"I thought, this is something I enjoy doing so I'm going to go for it."
Allen will work with a wide range of clients including young players currently part of Aberdeen FC's youth development scheme, giving them some extra time to hone their skills.
But the teenage coach also believes coaching others will help his own game, as effectively he will be involved in football on a full-time basis.
He will compare notes with Elgin City assistant manager Stefan Laird, who runs his own coaching business in Aberdeen.
"It starts up in March and I've already got a few young Aberdeen players booked in," he added. "It would be good to chat to Stefan and learn from his experience.
"It definitely helps my own football. In the one-to-one sessions you are out there for four or five hours, I will be anyway. I’ll be working on the touch, passing the ball. It will be really good for myself, sharpening up on my own skills.
Allen had been working 25 hours a week with ESCT, based at Elgin's Gleaner Arena, but he has now finished his employment there to focus on his own venture.
He doesn't plan to restrict his sessions to Elgin, as he is already looking into providing similar stints in Buckie in the near future.
"I’ll be looking to do group sessions in the future as well, small group sessions perhaps with a group of four - perhaps young boys from Aberdeen.
"I want to be able to target my audience to the more advanced sessions with the likes of Aberdeen, Caley Thistle and Elgin players."
He isn't the only member of his family to go it alone in the world of sport, health and fitness.
His older brother Brodie, currently a team-mate of Fin's at Huntly, recently quit his job to kick-start his business as a personal trainer, and his venture is already proving to be a big success.
