23.12.2021 Zhivko Todorov: Create a company of your desired size and sell from home

BUSINESS BOOSTER is the latest platform to help entrepreneurs. It has been developed by the Bulgarian Development Bank to help SMEs and start-ups. It offers consulting and financial services, as well as an academy with tips for the implementation of the production, says Zhivko Todorov, initiator of the digital project and Executive Officer of the bank

Mr. Todorov, what is the path from the idea of starting a new business to turning it into a successful small company? According to your observations, when does a young person get the courage to take the first step to register a company, hire the first employee, and make the first sale? 

They say faith makes the first step, and that's partly true. However, I will tell you from experience that there are three options for a person to start their own business. The first is to be young and full of ideas and energy. The second is to have accumulated enough mileage and be willing to separate yourself by going on alone. And the third, to have been forced to do it. Not a few successful businesses have started as a result of crisis or upheaval. No matter which of the three hypotheses a person is in to start their own business, the belief that they can succeed lays behind.

Mindset is extremely important in this case. I would add that if one is prepared that it will not be easy, that there will be difficulties, ups and downs, but is still willing to commit 100%, then half the job is done. 

Despite all contingencies, what is the average amount of money required to start a new business by someone with little or no experience in 2022? For that matter, how will the bank weigh risk versus opportunity when deciding how much and how to finance a project? 

It depends on what kind of funds a start-up needs. Is it a loan or equity? If we are talking about a micro loan, it is usually between BGN 35,000 and 50,000. Considering that the entrepreneur needs to put in at least another 20% of his own money, I think it is realistic for a person to start with between BGN 50,000 and 70,000. However, when looking for complementary capital in larger amounts – usually IT companies are like this – it is always better to look for non-bank solutions, such as venture funds or crowdfunding platforms. At Business Booster, we have dedicated an entire topic to this.

How was the idea of BUSINESS BOOSTER born?

Back when I joined the BDB as part of its management team, I realized how difficult it could be for the bank to reach its customers as it did not have a branch or agent network. Business in Bulgaria is not just in the capital city and we had to find an adequate way to "open it up" to companies across the country. In the 21^st century, there is no more natural solution than to make access to the bank digital. And this should cover the full cycle from application to loan disbursement and drawdown. You understand that for the sake of transaction security, we had to build an entirely new platform that would allow electronic identification of every single company. Apart from the digital loan process itself, the platform also provides a lot of knowledge. It is important for an entrepreneur to know that there is a "pool" where they can quickly look up information on how to register a company and how to market their product. And most importantly, this platform will improve and evolve over time, adapting to new developments and to the needs of the business. Soon its application for mobile phones will be ready as well.

The Business Booster digital platform includes several main components: a business academy, an online loan application and an e-marketplace.

The Business Academy offers various guides with clear and specific information on the topics that most often worry entrepreneurs, i.e. "How to register a company", "Social Security", "How to finance your business", etc. We have prepared several interesting video tutorials, the main character of which is our chat-bot Vicky. We've also published a financial glossary and a digital library of the statements and documents businesses need. But perhaps one of the most useful things in this section is our Business Plan Wizard, since drawing up a business plan is often difficult for entrepreneurs. It easily and conveniently generates a perfectly structured business plan that can be used to apply for funding at various institutions.

In the Financing section, users can browse the different tools we offer, contact a credit expert if needed and most importantly, the functionality for lending fully online is currently being developed.

Our great desire is to digitalize the bank's services as much as possible. And instead of opening new offices, we are investing in online functionalities to make us more flexible and efficient.

Online store description

Our ambition was to shorten the path between businesses and consumers and offer entrepreneurs a place where they can set up an online store easily, quickly and completely free of charge. All it requires is registration on the platform and signing a contract form to make sure that the creator of the store is the real owner of the business.

The creation and management of the E-marketplace itself is extremely easy, does not require any additional technical skills, and offers all the necessary functionalities. The design is modern and adaptable to any mobile device, allowing customization to the needs of the specific business. There is a built-in invoicing module, an option to track orders and generate reports according to the NRA requirements.  

The chatbot

The platform guide is our chatbot Vicky (Virtual-Informational-Cyber-Icon), around which there has been a lot of emotion and controversy. We settled on a 3D animated image not only because these are the current trends, but also because we wanted it to be as user friendly as possible and to create a pleasant environment for learning and business development. Of course, just having a nice look and feel is not enough. In order to be useful to entrepreneurs, Vicky is in a constant learning process, increasing the number of questions she can answer every day.