Adrian Nantchev's Blog, page 25

Prepare to be a Different Person - 37/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

In summer 2011, I had loads of friends and was rather social. We would go our drinking often. I had just turn 18 and I wanted to do crazy stuff.The people I hung around with were ambitious, in their own way, but not entrepreneurial in the slightest and not interested in the things I'm interested in now.After university I began to be more of an entrepreneur, and began to distance myself from a lot of people that I knew before. I tried being normal, and it got me nowhere.I was doing these online courses whilst I was learning about entrepreneurship and I realized I came to a cross roads in my life. I could either continue this path as an employee and work for someone else for the next 40 years and retire on a state pension. Or, I could go my own way and forge my own destiny.I decided that I would forge my own destiny, become the master of money and do extraordinary things in life.The changes in attitude, priorities and focus will make you a different aznd better person.I learnt about, what is called, a . Where you need to project yourself 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100 years into the future and asking yourself whether what you are doing you'll have regret done.I could see myself at age 60 regretting not becoming an entrepreneur and doing things my way. I now know that one of the regrets of people on their death bed is that they did not live their life by their own rules. They were not adventurous enough.Along your journey as an entrepreneur, you'll lose old friends, because you are no longer what they want you to be. But you'll gain new friends, and you'll become the average of the 5 people you associate with.Your standards will rise and you will change as a person. You'll not be the same person when you start a business. You'll be a different and better person than when you started out.You are doing the work that people will not do, so you can soon live a life that people cannot live.Entrepreneurs start underpaid, and employees start off overpaid, but over time entrepreneurs become overpaid and employees are underpaid.Question of the day: what kind of person are you becoming?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Do the work once and get paid forever - 36/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

Since I figured this principle out in Summer 2016, I've come to realize this is the most important principle to follow in business.I figured this one out whilst working for my real estate mentor, I realized that he was benefiting from buying a house once and setting it up for rent once. He was doing the work once (buying the house) and getting paid for ever (rental income).You can be happy and competent with your business, but end up working every day making it profitable and generating an income. This is the problem I had with my Potato business, and this is the problem I'm trying to address in my Hemp business.  Looking at the principles in the previous lesson, I'm seeking to create the content once (books, blogs etc) for the Hemp business, that send people to my website (which was built once), thus creating an ecosystem where people find my content and then go to the website to buy from me. Especially as I don't hold any physical stock, it frees up my time to create more content, add more products and expand my business.Thus, I have done the work once in my Hemp business, and I'm getting paid forever.Remember: you need automation built in as much as possible from the very beginning.Do the work once and get paid forever means that you need to set up a system once and allow it to pay you forever.I've written this book once and then it is on Amazon, leveraging their website domain, systems, robots, logistics and people, so they are doing the payment processing, printing, handling, shipping and then they pay me my royalty. All I did was write the book once.Of course you need to manage your book and property, the thing you've built once. Because the world naturally decays and falls apart, even the biggest companies are susceptible to rot, decay and mistakes. So it is fine to prop up, update or renovate your stuff. This takes little time compared to having a job or working in your business every day.Someone asked me once, what if your book becomes obsolete in 10 years? You can either spend a few weeks to create a second edition, or write up a new book. Doing either of these is much more profitable than working for another entrepreneur's business.Question of the day: what can you do once so as to profit from it again and again?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

How reading a book can change your life

Question of the day: what book(s) are you currently reading?Learn about other mistakes I made here: 101 Mistakes

Don't Start a Business Selling Just One Product - 35/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

In October 2016, I was at a business conference in London, and they revealed to us a business model that I always try to use now.The business model that I was using for my Potato business is what is called a J curve model. Where there is one product for sale, and it has an initial start up cost, followed by an investment lag and then a return on investment. What they called a Only One Product for Sale: OOPS.They taught us a much better business model, which I 'm using in my Hemp business. The model is divided into different stages where the customer can find you and begin to built a relationship with you and then buy from you.1) Information. You've got to educate the general audience about your products, the problems they solve, their industry, etc. You've got to create content (books, blogs, videos etc) to educate the your target audience. Knowledge is a commodity and because of the internet, it is free and inexpensive. When people begin to read about you and your product: you start to become an authority, credibility and it builds rapport with your audience.2) With that credibility people are more willing to buy from you. This is the point where strangers become customers, and they buy something that is of high value. It could be worth £1,000 or a series of smaller products with a high profit margin. It has got to be something that people will want and are willing to pay for it. You've got to make them happy and ensure their experience exceeds their expectations, because, I'd prefer an unhappy customer turned into a brand advocate and telling others how cool we are, than to prove him wrong and keep a £100. It is better to under promise and over deliver. You can sell any number of products, but they've got to be of a high value to your customers.3) With the established trust you have gained a select few loyal customers, you can then turn them into clients. These clients subscribe to a monthly subscription, this could be access to something, membership to a group of similar people or access to your mentorship. The point is you want a monthly subscription to provide you with predictable cash flow.Don't just sell one product, make your product(s) part of an ecosystem of discovery, trust building, value delivering and encourage a monthly subscription.Question of the day: what kind of products are you going to create?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Find Faster Ways to Do Things - 34/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

A few months after  started Potato In The Post, I began to realize the short comings of the business. I was physically walking to and fro the post office every day, often I had to go to the super market to get more potatoes when I was low on stock and I had to physically write on the potatoes.All of which was losing me time and a distraction. Time which I could have been spending on expanding the business, marketing things, writing more books, or even doing research.It is time I could have been spending on increasing my income, rather than running the day to day activates of my business.Because I started to realize that you don't want to be messing around running your business and working in it, but you want to work on your business and be building it from afar.You need to automate as much as you can form the beginning, as mentioned earlier, so you can work on bigger things.If you are happy working in your business, as I've known some people to be, then there is nothing wrong with that.I was taught that you need to outsource before you are ready to. When you begin to outsource, you begin to be more efficient with your time.Leverage other people and have them do the day to day running of your business.Here are some key areas you'd need automated:Payment acceptance and transfer to your bank account.Product handling and shipping.Customer service (helpdesk and returns).Either you can have people or systems. This book leverages Amazon's systems to deliver it to you. I created the book, and they do everything else.By automating your business and having others do the work for you, it frees up your time to learn new things which you can then use to grow your business, and thus income.Question of the day: what systems are you leveraging to accomplish more with less?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Keep Learning - 33/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

November 2014, I listened to The Hobbit audio book, because I wanted to read the book again before seeing the third instalment of The Hobbit trilogy. Doing this got me into reading and I now seek to read 1 book a week, or the equivalent of.Over the years I've come to realise how important knowledge is, not only concerning the convergence rate, not just to put more particles of knowledge inside your brain, but simply to get ahead.When you can understand and talk about economics, finance or psychology and how they affect our world, or talk about that topic in great lengths with other people. Then people start to recognize you.People look up to those they see as knowledgeable. People respect those whom are smart.Furthermore, by understanding topics such as those mentioned above, you can understand how they affect the world.Knowing what not to do in life is just as valuable as knowing what to do.You can begin to understand how inflation affects prices, which is the expansion of the money supply. You can begin to understand the Kantian fairness, and how you can make every decision that the customer makes about being 'fair'. Or you can understand why private enterprise and voluntary transactions are better than government force.Simply put: You don't know what you don't know, and the best way to know is to go out and discover it.When you want to know something, then delve deep into learning it. I spent around two weeks learning about Inbound Marketing in November 2016. 100s of blogs, dozens of eBooks and dozens of videos.Let's say you wanted to learn about marketing: search every possible search phrase suggestion in Google, Amazon and YouTube. Learning everything.Add 100s of videos to your YouTube watch later, find books on Amazon, read as many blogs as you can. Also, check out a website called Coursera, where you can learn free stuff at a university level, or very inexpensive. Remember, to take some of it with a pinch of salt.Question of the day: what new tool are you learning about to help you?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Be Open to New Ideas - 32/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

I'm not sure when I learnt this principle, but it is something I try to practice daily.I find that everyone has got unique experiences and angles on life, so it's worth listening to them and taking in their experiences. Not only, as I mentioned earlier, with regards to the convergence rate. Where it takes someone 10 years to learn a lesson and they tell you the lesson in a sentence, but also being around people can spur your imagination and generate ideas.When you are open to new ideas, you are letting new information and opportunity into your mind.You've got to be open minded to listening to people, because they may know something you don't and that could change your life.The way I see it is the more knowledge you have inside your brain, the more particles of knowledge you have so when an external input comes along: a comment or an image from somewhere else.The more knowledge you have got to bounce it around by. And the more bounces it makes, the more energy it generates and thus the more ideas and opportunity you can create from a single piece of input.I was at a shopping centre recently, and I saw a air freshener in someone else's car, which instantly gave me a series of ideas for books. So because of that image, I will soon be creating those books and thus creating opportunity from nowhere.Listen to 99% of the people in the world, but remember that most people do not know what they are talking about. So take what they say with a pinch of salt. Take what they say and compare it to other knowledge you have, as a way to filter it's worthiness.You'll realise the 1% of people that are worth listening to every word they say, because of what they say, think and what their goals are.Listen to the 99% of people in the world, but remember that most people do not know what they are talking about. So take it with a pinch of salt!Question of the day: who have you spoken to today that you would not normally talk to/not spoken to in a while?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Any Old Rope - 31/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

This is an old saying that I came across while working for my real estate mentor in Summer 2016.So, thus the saying "any only rope" came about because people would buy anything, and the merchants knew it.This was exemplified in my second business: Potato In The Post, where I am selling hand written messages on potatoes for as high at £16. The potatoes cost around £0.20, the packaging is around the same price but the cheapest postage is £2.85, which eats into my profit margins. But, the facts is that people are willing to buy messages written on potatoes.It shows that if my crazy products can sell, then people really will buy anything.I remember seeing a video about people buying a £30 brick from a high end fashion store, which even now is laughable. But, through the power of marketing, people will buy anything- they will any old rope.I hope that this gives you hope, because if I can sell a potato, which costs £0.20 for as high as £16, then any business can work and any product can be sold.There is a customer out there for every product. Don't worry...Question of the day: what ridiculous thing to you regret buying in hindsight?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

How to keep going as a Entrepreneur

[image error]Every now and then we get dismayed with our progress as an entrepreneur- as of the time of writing this, I am in the middle of starting a YouTube channel, both about entrepreneurship and another one about hemp.But how do we keep going? What can help us to stay the course? Here are a few questions to think about that can help keep you going.Remember your goals: what is it you initially set out to achieve? What do want to see? What difference in the world do you want to make?Remember your alternatives: do you really want them to happen to you? What would be the consequences if they did happen? What would help bring them about faster?Remember your purpose: what do you stand for? What would happen if your cause was extinguished?You need to stand for something, otherwise, you will fall for anything - Winston Churchill.Question of the day: why did you become an entrepreneur in the first place?Learn more about this topic in one of my books: 19 Principles to Achieve the Entrepreneur Mindset

The Secret to Business Success... according to Economics!

A lot of people want to know the secret to success- in truth it is a mix of everything: action, goals, knowledge, etc. Because without one of them, you'd not get success, furthermore, if it is not important then it would not be mentioned or listed when people discuss the secrets of success.However, I feel that I have quantified with with the phrase: Engage in my voluntarily transactions in a free market.What does this mean? When we break down this sentence we get something interesting..."Engage in" - which means that you need to create a product or service that people will pay for, you need to create enough excuses for people to give you money. When I say "excuses", I mean: you need to solve more problems for people and help more people."voluntarily transactions" - every transaction in the world (apart from with government) is voluntarily. The difference between Apple and US government, is that Apple has to persuade you to give them your money through valuable goods and services. Where as the US government forces you to give them money, with penalty of a fine or imprisonment if you don't comply- and this compounded by the fact that private enterprises can fulfil certain roles of government; such as policing and garbage collection. Every transaction is voluntarily- meaning that you need to give people an excuse and a reason to give you money, whether you are solving a problem for them, providing a service or reassuring and enlightening them. You need to give people an excuse to hand over cash to you."free market" - we are not living in North Korea, where the totalitarian government is stopping you from doing most things, we live in the west, and that means freedom. We have the freedom to start a business, run a marathon, go fishing or, if we do so desire, to gain 150kg (330lb) and do nothing with our life. The same freedom that allows people in society to excel and better themselves, allows others to waste their life. If the freedom is not there for the worst of society, then it is not there for anyone. In a free market, it is down to you and your abilities to perform, sell and grow a business. In a free market: everything about your business is down to you- you are ultimately responsible for your success and failures, and there is nothing physically stopping you from starting a business. In a free market: your success is your responsibility- no one is holding you back, apart from yourself, and no one else is going to help you without proper compensation.Give people more excuses to give you money. Create more solutions for people and they will pay you. Everything else; sales, marketing, advertising, etc, stems from you being able to give more to your customers and do to more for them.Question of the day: what else can you do for your customers? What other problems do they need solving that only you can solve?Learn more about this topic in one of my books: 19 Entrepreneur Success Principles.