Adrian Nantchev's Blog, page 23

What Made you Money in 2017 will not Necessarily Work in 2027 - 57/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

Because the world is changing all the time, the methods and strategies that worked for your business in 2017 may not work in 2027.The world moves, markets change, trends move, tastes change and technology changes the world.Technology, trends, tastes, etc, will change. You've got to keep up and be on the lookout for changes.New technologies will come along and change the playing field. When Amazon was starting to be established, it threaten Walmart. Amazon has around 150,000 employees whilst Walmart has around 2,000,000. But it is the opportunity that arises through Amazon that can really change your business. Keep an eye out for these new technologies, businesses and software's that can revolutionize business. Just how Facebook and YouTube has changed how we do business when they came along.Do you want to be riding the wave of change or being flattened underneath it?Look at some of the biggest businesses: Microsoft, Apple and General Electric. They know that their products being sold 2007 will not sell today.The market has moved on, people want different things, the world is more complex; so faster and better technology is demanded and expected.You have got to change with the times, otherwise your business will struggle and falter.You have go to adapt to a new world, or risk being left behind.When you are playing the long term game, you've got to recognize that changes happen and you've got to change with them. And the long game, to me, is the only game worth playing.There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Understand Capitalism - 55/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

The following is a condensed version of one of the topics I detailed above: the invisible hand theory.This is something I learnt near the very beginning of my journey, it is as I believe, to be the foundation of capitalism and I'm surprised that more people don't know about it in general. It underpins and justify capitalism in its very nature.A baker wants to get rich. He can do so either justly or unjustly. If he tries to get rich unjustly, people will catch him out and figure out his scam. Soon, people will not buy from him and thus he will not have an income.If he were to do it justly, he has a few choices as a baker:He can provide more bread for his customers.Make the bread cheaper.Or, create different variations of bread and new bread flavors.By doing any and all of these, he is enriching his customers' lives and thus, inadvertently, raising their standard of living.He solves their problem of a lack of bread, and thus he is rewarded by selling them his bread through a voluntary transaction.By pursuing his own interests- which is to be rich, he solves his customers' problem of hunger and not having enough bread.Through the baker's efforts to solve their problems, he is raising their standard of living and subsequently he's raising civilization too. It is as though a hand is lifting up society. It has nothing to do with divine intervention and religion, but an analogy of society moving upwards into a better world through the profit motive, self interest and voluntary transactions.The bigger the problem you solve in your business, the more you are rewarded and the higher you raise up society and civilization.There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Reinvent your business every 2 years - 56/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

This is something I must have learnt in April 2016.Silicon Valley has invested billions into making technology cheap and easily available thus the barrier to entry is incredibly low. You can write a book manuscript and get it onto the world's biggest ecommerce site within a week. You can record  video on your phone and put it onto the world's largest video hosting website and the world's second largest search engine.Because of technology, everything is becoming easier and easier. It's easier to start a business, have sales and sell products around the world.There is so much opportunity in this world, and it is only going to get bigger, more complex and will reveal more opportunities.Concerning the internet's impact on the world: you haven't seen anything yet...The world is changing all the time. Disruptive technology will always emerge and change the status quo.And because the world is constantly changing, you need to reinvent your business, your business strategy and techniques as often as every 2 years. Because what worked 2 years ago may not work as efficiently today. More about this in the next lesson.Because of technology, you've got to reinvent your business as often as every 2 years. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and others came almost out of nowhere and changed the strategies and opportunities. If you do not change your business with the changing of technology, you'll be left behind.Technology is making it easier to do business and marketing. There was once a time when the yellow page was supreme, now it is on the internet too. Because had they not have changed their business model, they'd would have gone out of business.Question of the day: How are you going to reinvent your business and make it future proof?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Learn About Economics - 54/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

Years ago, around October 2014 I added onto my CV (Résumé) that economics and finances was one of my hobbies. Someone relatively close to me told me to remove that, as I had to study it at university in order to understand even the basics of it.As a side note, their attitude and response is a rather disempowering, because they failed to realize that anyone can learn anything when they put their mind to it. Picking up a book on economics would make them smarter than up to 99% of the UK population when it comes to economics and how it works. But I digress a little.Because we live in a capitalist world, it is best for us to understand how economics works. How the banking system, money, currency and stock indices, etc, works.Firstly, it only makes sense, because that's the world we are born into. If we were born in 1517 then we'd have to worry about getting more harvest from the land, why the Lord is going to war again, how to survive the winter and hoping this cut on you knee does not kill you.Secondly, when you understand economics, you can begin to understand the world and its complexities. And as you understand it, you can make much more informed decisions. People talk about being open minded, but they are not open minded enough to learn something new things.If you go into Amazon, YouTube and Google, you can discover a lot about the world when you know what to search for.Here's a list of some things worth researching about. Furthermore, while you are researching, if an interesting phrase or word is mentioned, then research about that too:Inflation, hyperinflation, Weimar Republic.Fiat currency, money velocity, Keynesian Economics.Interest rates, supply and demand curve, fractional reserve lending.Means of productivity, price elasticity, gold standard, invisible hand theory, Austrian School of Economics.Furthermore, search additional phrases like: who, what, where, when, why and how. For instances: "How do banks make money from credit cards?"You don't know what you don't know, and the more you understand about economics the better.Question of the day:There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Be Competent Talking About Money - 50/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

Understand the vocabulary of money, so when you are talking to your broker, your investors, your accountant, etc, then you need to understand the same jargon that they are using when it comes to high finance. And this way, you know what they are talking about and what it means for you.Expanding your vocabulary, is what I discovered near the very beginning of my journey, is the first thing you need to focus on. Because when you can talk about more complex subjects; not only do you become more competent in life, but people will recognize you are smarter too.Understand terms like these:Revenue, Net profit, Cost to revenue, Customer acquisition cost, Profit and loss statements.Return on investment, Return on time invested.Alpha and Beta investing, Risk reward ratio, P/E ratio, Earnings.Inflation, Difference between money and currency.FTSE 100, FTSE 250, S&P 500, Dow Jones, NASDAQ.When you can talk the language of money, which few people can do, then you have a distinct advantage in business. Also, understanding these helps you to understand how the world works.When it comes to self development as an entrepreneur, you need to first work on your vocabulary, whether financial, or general English. Afterwards you then need to focus on your energy on learning about your profession.As mentioned earlier: one of the best ways to learn about these topics, and many more, is to go wild with Google, Amazon and YouTube. There is a site called Investopedia, which explains a lot of these phrases and terminologies.To addto a point in lessons 25, about being in a relationship that is disempowering: I was in a book store with my girlfriend and we picked up the book by John Lanchaster. And she said "I know all of this", I doubted her and thought to myself: "yet you are not applying that knowledge..." It also shows that knowledge is nothing with the confidence to act upon it.Question of the day: what don't you know about investing?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Research, Research, Research! - 49/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

This is an important principle I figured out in February 2016: you have to delve deep into learning a subject. Do not just drink a little bit of knowledge, but drink it all.Once again: you don't know what you don't know, and the best way to figure this out is to learn.I've come to realize that for every 1 hour you spend researching, you avoid making 5 hours of mistakes. And this is very powerful and can save you a lot of time, money and energy.For every 1 hour you spend researching about marketing, you can save 5 hours of making marketing mistakes. The same goes for finance, product development, idea generation, etc. The more time you spend learning about a subject, the more time you can save.Once I've finished with my goals in April 2017, I'm going to have to spend 1-4 weeks delving deep into the subject of Hemp. Learning everything I can about it: watching documentaries, reading books, watching interviews and, hopefully, going to visit some Hemp farms in the UK.All in the attempt learn as much as I can about it, so I can then talk about it very competently in the media I will create: books, blogs, videos, infographics and more, I need to be very competent with the subject of Hemp if I want to start advocating it. And the best way is to know everything about it and to be able to argue against Hemp usage better than my opposition can argue against it.Furthermore, if you were to research about certain topics, then its best to research from the people already doing it, have done it and have achieved success. Do not listen to the theories, but instead the actionable knowledge.If you want to know about electric energy and going to Mars, then listen to Elon Musk. If you want to know about product design and aerodynamics, then listen to James Dyson. If you want to learn about writing fiction, listen to J.K Rowling and Stephen King.Keep researching until you feel confident enough to act, or you begin to feel guilty you've spent enough time researching, planning and imagining that you now know what to do.Question of the day:There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Set Deadlines - 48/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

At the start of 2017 I decided to set myself a tight deadline for March, April and June. I decided to set some deadlines, and then I moved them forward a few weeks and increased the things I wanted to achieve- thus putting pressure on myself. So as to push myself to achieve more in a shorter space of time and forcing me to focus on a few things and focus on the tasks of hitting my deadlines.Leveraging Parkinson's law to get things done in a certain space of time. As stated before: your brain will complete the tasks in the allotted time. So if you gave yourself a year to write a book, it'd be done slowly over the course of that year. But if you gave yourself 1 month, you'd complete it a lot faster and efficiently.Leonard Bernstein, the American composure said: “to achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.”I have goals and deadlines printed out on pieces of A4 paper and they are stuck to my studio wall, above my computer, so I can see them all the time and this way I am constantly reminded about them.Create a list of 25 things you want to achieve in a year, and then circle 5 of the most important ones and then only focus on them for the year.Those 5 things becomes you top priority tasks to work on this year and that is your to-do list. The other 20 things are your not to-do list. You should not work on these, because they'd be distraction from your top 5.By setting goals and deadlines, you can achieve more in 1 year than what most people achieve in 10 years or even, sometimes, in their life. Such is the power of focus with knowledgeable action.The word Focus, is an anocrym for Follow One Course Until Success. Which is often hard to live by, but an important one.You can use the deadlines for different things in your life. Set different goals you want to achieve, whether in health, wealth and happiness.Question of the day: What kind of deadlines are you setting yourself? What are you doing about them?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Your Past Mistakes Helped you Become who You are Today - 53/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

I've change a lot over the time I've been an entrepreneur. I remember a time in summer 2013 where I said once that starting a business "was not for me", and yet I've done a complete reversal on that kind of thinking.The choices from our past makes us who we are today. You can learn the lesson from a mistake, as it is better late than never, but the point is you must keep going. As the more you develop and grow, the better you'll become.Your past actions and mistakes helps you become who you are today. Do not cast your choices away, we've all had times which were embarrassing, painful or joyous. How you react to them and the experiences you had helps to mold the person you are today.One of the regrets of the people on their death bed is that they did not let themselves do more, become more and be more adventurous. Most of life's regrets come from inaction.I do not want to be 120 years old and regret parts of my life. I want to do and become a lot, and make a dent in the world before I pass on.We are constantly learning and changing. The person you are today may not be the same person a year from now.Your successes and mistakes molds you. One day you can look back at them and laugh cheerfully, you can look back at them and pin point the time in your life which was a turning point.Your pasts makes you who you are. Never forget that.Realize that it is better late than never. You can be successful at any age. You can make a dent at any age and it's never too late.Question of the day: Who are you? What do you stand for?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Network, You do not Know who you are Going to Meet - 52/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

Networking is a very useful way to meet new people.I try to go to networking events as often as I can, but it is a little difficult at times because I'm rather busy and do not wish to travel every day. There's traffic and I don't want to mess around with traffic jams. Once every few days is fine.But, when you begin to network you may meet new and interesting people and you never know what may happen.In March 2015, I met a potential business partner. We talked and disused, but our cooperation never amounted to anything. I offered us to start some businesses together, but they went nowhere.In December 2015 I met a good business partner of mine. We meet up once a week to discuss new ideas and research, we are also planning on starting some companies in the future. Once we have sorted our own things out.The more people you meet, the more likely you are to do business with them. Each person has their own strengths and weaknesses and you may be able to work with them.I met a businessman from another country in mid January 2017, and he was talking about how he has some land abroad. And he wants to build a rock crushing plant there, because the land has a lot of rocks that can be turned into cement. He was going to invest around 10% of his income in buying equipment, but I asked him why doesn't he use crowd funding. He liked the idea and asked to meet up and talk about working together, which sounded exciting. Long story short, he offered to meet up and never actually turned him. Either he has changed focus and lost interest in this idea, or he has figured out a way to do crowd funding on his own or some other reason that I don't know about.So, the moral of the story is that not every is as genuine as you are. We all have our own problems, ideas and as humans we are fickle. So be cautious of people wasting your time...Question of the day: what are you doing now to network?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Know Your Numbers - 51/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

To continue my discussion about money: you've got to know your numbers. This is principle I must have picked up mid 2016.You've got to know how much money there is in the bank, how much you are making, what's the cost of everything, what is costing you what, and such. The more you can see and understand about your business, the more control you have over it.Understanding your businesses' finances is very important.Keep your business' finances on a short lease, all the time. You don't want you be losing money for no apparent reason.Review your balance sheet and bank account as often as you can. The more active your business, the more frequent you need to view your finances.If there are any places where money is being spent or wasted, then you need to figure it out and stop it.Finances and money keeps your business alive. The more you control it, the safer the business is.When you can understand how much everything costs and how much you are making, then you can make better business decisions.This is the same with your personal finances: you've got to know how much money is coming in and going out. The moment you stop looking, is the moment it may start to go out of control.You only need to get rich once, after that: you need to protect it.Question of the day: do you know your numbers?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.