Adrian Nantchev's Blog, page 26

A Temporary Defeat is not a Permanent Failure - 30/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

This a rather profound lesson that I learnt in mid 2015.What this principle is that when you face defeat, it is because your original strategy, or plan, needs refining so your target audience are willing to buy from you.Soon after I first started Potato In The Post, I began to realise that the product was too new for the market and people did not know that they wanted to send a potato in the post. So I had to change strategy in order for them to realise that they do want to send a potato.I pursued to use words and terminology that got people thinking about the limitations that sending cards had. I also looked into Google My Business reviews, so Google presents my business in a better light when people search for me.When in pursuit of success: you face the entire market. As you face it you have to justify to people why they should buy from you. People do not care for reasons, they only care for their problem(s) to be solved.When you have something for sale or a business that has been set up, yet you are not seeing sales or any progress. You may need to go back to the drawing board in order to adjust your strategy, message or such like. Because when you are not seeing what you want to see, it is because of a mismatch between your actives and what your customers want.Figure out what you are missing, so you can then refine and improve your business. When you are in synch with your customers; then they'll swamp you.A temporary defeat, which is to say you not being in synch, is not a permanent failure. All you have to do is change and refine what you are doing, so you become synched.Customers are ruthless and it is your job to give them what they are willing to buy. You have to bend to their needs and desires. Unless you can persuade them that they need a new product, but that is another conversation because with that idea you are creating demand.When you have problems, go back to the drawing board and rework your strategy.Question of the day: what defeat are you trying to come back from?There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Create More Than You Consume - 29/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

I was at a real estate investing networking event in November 2016, it was shortly after I had finished my book and felt on top of the world.As I was talking to someone at the event I conceived this principle as I was discussing my strategy for my book, and it is a very interesting principle that you should base your marketing strategy on.I've come to extrapolate this principle to include your personal branding, your business and elsewhere.This principle is to create more than you consume. By creating more content for the world, they have more information and knowledge that came from you that they can attribute and associate with you.As a rule of thumb: for every blog you read, write two. For every YouTube video you watch: record two. It does not have to be this ratio, but the more you create, the more you are rewarded.It is reciprocity: by helping and teaching other people, you are getting more rewards. Whether more money, reputation or credibility, etc.What I'm going to do with this book is three fold:Write the book.Create blog posts on major topics/lessons.Each blog will have a YouTube video.This way I can create even more content from the same original idea and knowledge, but found elsewhere online and help more people.The more content you create for the world, the more momentum you create for yourself.And a good rule of thumb for creating content is to create more than you consume. Do your new found knowledge justice and share it with the world.You do not have to worry about not being an authority or having a degree in the first place, because over time people will just see, acknowledge and accept you as an authority by the sheer quantity and/or quality of your content.An being seen as an expert; opportunity comes to you and your name starts to appear in conversations. Both of which is priceless in this age of social media and the more content you have, the more likely people are to find you online.There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.Question of the day: what are you doing now to create more than you consume? What habits are your forming to enable yourself to create more?

Do NOT assume anything - 28/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

In business you want to minimise your risks. Taking risks can be expensive, time consuming or fatal.When I first started writing books like this I just started with the ones I thought up first, thinking that people will find them once I give them a smart title and topic. This has had some success, albeit it is too early in the game to know how right I am.But, after I did a little bit of thinking and research, I decided to change the order slightly.This book is a book that I think people would find interesting and be searching for. Certainly people that have only just started out their entrepreneurial journey would get a lot of value from it and find it useful.Because I decided to do a bit of research and thinking- I'm saving time and energy. I'm planning ahead.When it comes to business, especially business decisions, you have to verify the choices.You cannot just assume that something will work. Whether a book, blog, video, product, strategy etc.You have to do as much research as possible, so as to increase the chances of success. You don't know what you don't know and the more you can figure out and plan ahead, the more success you'll achieve.Let's look at the world 'assume' and break it down. 'Assume' makes an ' out of and '. When your strategy relies on guessing, then you need to stop and start planning.You have trust and verify that what you are doing will work, or is worthwhile. You cannot allow decisions to be based on assumptions.Gut feelings, especially experienced peoples' gut feeling does play a role and can work. But if you can verify the numbers, then you have much greater chance of success.Verify whatever you need to! Never just assume!There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

Embrace Bring Uncomfortable - 27/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

January 2016 I tried to join a business incubator in Birmingham. They promised us that they'd give us support, mentor ship and accountability. And that we had to become "comfortable being uncomfortable". Meaning, that you, as an entrepreneur, need to be always be expanding your comfort zone and get used to being uncomfortableWhen I started my first business and I realised I needed to put some games with a sale discount: this immediately expanded my comfort zone, because I had no idea nor did I intend to put games on sale at a discount.I've come to realise that I expand my comfort zone 1-3 times day. This allows me to be always increasing my tenacity thus allowing me to achieve more. Because when you expand your comfort zone you can dare to do more.Seek to always expand your comfort zone. As I mentioned earlier it is better for a small business, because this allows you to make small, inexpensive mistakes.Over time as you expand your comfort zone you can then begin to tackle bigger and bigger problems.When I started my first business I had no idea how to send traffic to my website in order to buy things from me. Now, as I begin my third one, I'm overflowing with ideas on how to get traffic.You must embrace being uncomfortable, because if you are not then you are not becoming a better entrepreneur, and over time others will overtake you.You cannot let fear control your actions. Fear exists to be conquered. Tackle the problems that makes you uncomfortable.There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

How to Overcome Your Fear of Failure

Failure happens to us all. The first thing to do is recognise that it will happen to you.As I was starting my first business, I was worried whether I'd actually make any sales and if the business would actually grow. Yet, I did not let my fear (which stemmed from my inexperience and self belief) from stopping me from trying. I must have made around £20-30 with that business, which inadvertently proved to myself that I could create a profitable business.Whenever the business was not working, I justified it to myself by saying things like "it is ok, I am not allowed to have a profit anyway..." or things like "I am cursed and now able to make money". It was my self dialogue that was holding me back and stopping me from realising success.But success came in my second business. This business destroyed my doubt and enhanced my confidence. It was through persistence to start a new business, having awareness so as to realise what it is that I am missing or not understanding, and the ability to keep learning. These, combined with a good product, enabled my success.When success comes to you; you will never be the same again. When you are facing failure, then it is a sign that you need to do something different. It is like a log being trapped in a river- the river is still flowing, but there is something clogging it. You need to remove what is stopping you, so you can realise more success. There is often always something that is preventing you from achieving success, and more often than not it is something small... When you are facing defeat, you need to change your strategy. Einstein put it best when he said "you cannot solve a problem with the same mindset that created it". Failure can be temporary when you decide to face it and take it head on.Over the past few years I have made so many mistakes and failures, yet I have persisted and learnt from them. This is what you need to do too, otherwise you will be defeated the moment you step out of your comfort zone and never try again. The world is a scary place, it just means that you need to be even scarier.When you start small and with time and money you can afford to lose, then the loss is less painful. Do this over and over again until you have a success.Learn more about this topic in one of my books: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/home

The Benefits of Having Someone that Supports you and is Willing to Join You - 26/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

While my first girlfriend was very negative and rather uninterested in business and entrepreneurship. My second one had more potential.She was interested in self development and business, but, ultimately she was unwilling to take the leap and become an entrepreneur herself.She had been working in a certain industry since around 2011 and I encouraged her to write a few books based on her knowledge and then begin sharing them those lessons online. This way she could begin to generate passive income from the book sales and/or charge a higher hourly rate because she's an author and is sharing her advice online, so the people she can work with will see her as an authority and an expert in her field. Furthermore, she could have been a very good mother, as she had a very gentle and caring character.The lesson I learnt from being with her is that you need to find someone that have similar priorities and standards to you.It also helps if they understand and view business and money positively.As well as they are thinking long term, rather than short term. As she was very much about short term pleasure rather than long term gain. I was thinking about business, setting up systems and creating books, but she was more interested in learning how to skate and joining a choir. Nothing wrong with these, but our priorities were not in synch. I knew that by having a smart online business, we could take a 6 month holiday twice a year.Do not be with someone for the sake of being with them, they'll ultimately become a distraction and distract you from success and thus you'll lose focus.There are another 100 mistakes that I made here.

How to make money from thin air

There are people out there in the world right now that will pay a lot of money to know the things that you already know. It is possible to make £100,000/year being the professional and go-to person for making the perfect pancake. It is possible to take your knowledge about childcare and being seen as an expert on the subject.Package your knowledge and share it with the world, both for free and for a price. Build an online presence and monetise your knowledge.There are 4 kinds of products you need to have online that can help you create money from thin air:Free. Create free videos, blogs, podcasts, etc, that you can share online which will help to build your reputation and help people be introduced to you. Through repeated exposure they are more willing to trust you and buy from you.Cheap products, which are high volume but low value. These could be things like books, small information products, etc. These are the things that you sell to help establish a level of trust, generate sales and to then introduce people to your next, more expensive, products. It is perhaps best if this is delivered automatically to your customers, as you don't want to physically fulfil these orders.Expensive products. These are low in volume (sold once a week) but they are high value, as they have a big profit margin and helps your customers big time. These could be things like speaking engagements, consulting, etc. There is money to be made in information, but there is even more money to be made in implementation- where you can charge people to learn your secrets, but you can make even more money by doing it for them. You can make money telling people how to make the perfect pancake, but you can make even more money by doing it for them.Subscription. This is where they pay you a monthly subscription for something, perhaps it is access to your, the ability to ring you at any time or such. This provides a healthy balance sheet for your business and a predictable budget.You don't need money to make money, you just need to package your knowledge and share it with the world.Learn more about this topic in one of my books: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/home

How to get traffic to your eCommerce website

When you are selling something online it is worth remembering that people like to buy stuff, but don't like to be sold to.We love to spend the day in a shopping mall, but don't like receiving sales letters or seeing adverts for things.Furthermore, you'd need two forms of traffic to your website:Active. Which are your adverts, whether on Facebook or elsewhere. These are active because you are split testing them and measuring them on different metrics.Passive. This is where you are creating content that people can consume from your, in doing so they begin to know, like and trust you. When they trust you, they are more willing to actually buy from you. Trust is an important commodity these days, and when you have trust, you have loyal customers.With this in mind, one of the ways I generate traffic to my eCommerce stores, WeWantHemp is by creating content that answers, reassures and helps to pass the 'so what?' test that my potential customers may have towards my website, product and cause. When you are selling weed killer to your customers, don't talk about the ingredients inside your weed killer, but talk about their crabgrass- join the conversation that is already happening inside their head. Create content that is perfect to the kind of people you want to attract to your website(s). We buy with emotion, and then afterwards, we justify with logic.Take your knowledge and the knowledge about your product(s) and break it down so as to find ways for your customers to give as shit about what it is you are selling. When they give a shit, then they will consume & engage with your content, buy from you and come back for more.Everything you know about your business can be broken down into different ways that can be shared online. For instances, I have knowledge about hemp that can be turned into videos, lists, info graphics, quotes and more. Each of these can be shared on different online social medias and platforms. As a side note, this is how you dominate social media: by creating endless amount of content so as to achieve total spectrum exposure.Blogs, videos, infographics, books, etc. Take everything you know and break it down into different segments so as to attract and educate your potential customers. When you have gained their trust, they are more likely to engage with your content, share it and buy from you again. This is how you become trusted: repeated exposure, consistency and doing what you claim that you will do.Consistently create content that people love with a link or a call to action to go to your website, then they my buy something. This is passive because all you need to focus on is creating more content and refining it so as to make it more efficient.Learn more about this topic in one of my books: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/home

The Penalties of Having a Disempowering Partner - 25/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

January 28th 2015, I met my first real girlfriend for coffee in Birmingham. We were together until July of that year.She was not entirely encouraging with my business pursuits, as she would now and then talk about how evil and greedy businesses are.She once had a wine bottle opener, and she complained that the product cost was 99p and was made of a weak material. She blamed greedy businesses for extorting people. But, it was a case of shrinkflation, where the price of something (in absolute terms) stays the same, but the product shrinks or is made of lower quality material. A good example of this is cereal boxes being priced the same, but weigh less. This is a topic for another time. But the point is that she was very negative.She always saw herself as a victim, as she explained why she never passed her driving license test. And how her baby step sister would be treated better by her mother than she was treated by her.She also said that one of her (loser) friends had tried to go onto my website of my first business and ended up getting viruses. Which was untrue and unfounded.You are the average of the 5 people you associate with, and she associated with some real losers. Trust me...I encouraged her to read books like Rich Dad Poor Dad and Think and Grow Rich, but she always refused and one time near the end of our relationship she said that I tried to "dupe" into her reading the books. Which is a terrible way to look at it.I did not see how bad and undesirable she would be when I first met her.Firstly, not everyone wants to be a better person. As some people are beyond help.Secondly, find someone that shares the same priorities as you. I remember hearing Robert Kiyosaki once saying that your partner has to have the same mindset and approach to money and business as you do, otherwise you'll struggle to be compatible. This was a series case of us being incompatible and I wasted time and energy being with her.There are another 100 mistakes that I madehere.

Why Climb the Corporate Ladder When You Can Own it - 24/101 Entrepreneur Mistakes & Lessons

Like the previous lesson, this is something I learnt near the very beginning of my time as an entrepreneur. In fact I learnt these are the same time.Why climb the corporate ladder when you can own it? It means: why work for another company, which is ultimately another entrepreneur's dream and vision, when you can start and work on your company and build your own vision.When you work for another business, and there is nothing inherently wrong with that, it is just not the smartest move. When you work for the other business you are someone else's leverage and you are working to build someone else's dream.Rather than scrabbling your way to the top of a business: start your own business and define your own rules, products to sell and times you work. This way, you are also automatically right at the top of the business.That way, all the rewards and results are yours.Have the tenacity (thus increase your comfort zone) to start your own business and then you are at the top automatically.And when you come to float the company on the stock exchange, you sell your stock and can make more money than spending years working your way to the top. But this is a another topic.The point is: why climb another companies' ladder, spending years working for someone else, when if you had the tenacity to start your own business, then you are at the top automatically. And all the rewards and opportunities are yours by default. People will look up to you and you can decide on what your companies does, rather than someone else deciding for you.Why work for another company when you can start your own?There are another 100 mistakes that I madehere.