Be the person that customers choose with their heart, not just with their mind

Introduce yourself in a few sentences!

My name is Violeta Macheva-Raikolesku and I have 18 years of experience as an entrepreneur in the printing advertising industry.I am happily married to an entrepreneur with two wonderful daughters aged 17 and 7 years. I am an expert in the field of brand visual identity, printing, design, marketing, and advertising. I graduated from the American University in Bulgaria with a degree in Business Administration and International Relations. I also have an MBA in marketing from City University of Seattle.

In 2007, I founded my wide-format digital printing house Magic Outdoor (www.magic-outdoor.bg), which is a leader in branding commercial spaces and large format outdoor advertising printing. In 2020, I founded the brand Magic Indoor – an online store for easy and original home, office, and hotel decoration. 

What did you dream of becoming in your childhood?

I went through the profession of a teacher because my mother and father are teachers. After that, I wanted to become a lawyer like my grandmother and aunt. But I have always been drawn to the stage and the media. I gathered the whole family and read the news from the newspapers to them in a professional voice. I even tried to be a presenter on television, but I was not called for an interview. I was a news presenter on the student radio, I really enjoyed it and I was good at it. I have danced and been a model, I love being in the spotlight. Now I lead business meetings and events, and I think that this is my unrealized childhood dream.

At what age did you earn your first money? Tell us an interesting story?

I earned money for the first time at the age of 8. I sold flags at the SDS rallies in the 90s. The whole family made the flags at home and we sold them at a stall along with balloons and badges. On one May 24th, when I was 9 years old, my dad left us with my cousin to hand out balloons and stickers in front of the NDK. I also sold dry perfumes and sewing machine needles at the first stop of tram number 5 at the Court House when I was 8-10 years old.

My mother and father had a cosmetics store at the “Krasna Polyana” market and they took a second one. There was no one to sell, so at the age of 16, I started selling there. As a model at 18, I earned more in 3 days than my mother and father did in a month. When I entered the American University, I went to the USA in 2002 for a summer job and as a waitress, I returned with a net of 6000 dollars in 2 months. The dollar was over 2 leva, and then I bought a car for my parents. I started working in my third year at university for an IT company and earned so much money that I couldn't spend it and I saved. Entrepreneurship is in my blood, and it is no coincidence that I created my own business – the printing house Magic Outdoor.

What are the main factors and examples that shape us as individuals at an early age and form our interests? What is your recipe for curiosity, sources, and wells of information and inspiration at this stage of our human development?

In my opinion, the first factor and example is family. I was lucky to be born into an exceptionally close-knit, educated, intelligent, and supportive family. We lived 8 people in a 100 square meter apartment in the center of Sofia – grandmother, grandfather, mom, dad, my grandmother's sister, my great-grandmother, and my brother. On weekends, the other members of my family came – my cousins, uncle, aunts, and it became a big chaos. My grandmother and her sister come from an old Dobruja family of landowners, exceptionally well-read people with a rich general culture. Both studied law in Sofia and fought for their lives alone because their father died after the communists took all their lands, house, money, and goods. My grandmother was an extremely moral and principled person, a great fighter who was the center of our family and helped everyone. I resemble her.

My grandfather was a navigator in the Bulgarian Air Force and a pilot for “Balkan” airlines. He comes from an old revolutionary family from Panagyurishte and Kalofer. Iskryo Machev, a famous Bulgarian revivalist and teacher from Panagyurishte, born in 1844, is from our family. He participated in the preparation of the April Uprising and fought at Shipka, his name is on the monument. My grandfather taught me foreign languages – English, Russian, German, and musical instruments. He bought me an accordion, and I learned to play it. My great-grandmothers, mom, and dad were teachers, and from them, I learned to love acquiring new knowledge. To this day, I do not stop learning new things every day.

After family, the environment in which you grow up outside the home is important. I had a very good teacher at the sports school “Slavia” in Sofia from 1st to 3rd grade – Mrs. Todorova. After that, I moved to the 41st school in the center “Patriarch Evtimiy”. There I also had wonderful teachers and friends. I became an “Evtimiev student”, an award given to students with excellent academic results. Then in high school, I was in a very competitive class at the Professional High School of Ecology and Biotechnology “Prof. Dr. Asen Zlatarov”. I had an exceptional class teacher who constantly motivated us to be excellent students and good people – Mrs. Grancharova. When I entered the American University in Blagoevgrad, I realized that I was not the smartest student, a big shock for me. But that is why it is important when you realize that you are the smartest in the room, to go out and seek people who are smarter, better than you, with whom to communicate.

Today, I am also inspired by better, successful, and smarter people than me. I am very excited and inspired by the topic of leadership because after all, I have been leading 16 people in my printing house for 18 years and I am constantly improving as a leader. I graduated from a leadership academy under the Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria. A last year, I completed leadership training “Journey for Leaders”, led by Vladimir Borachev. This year, I also completed training for negotiations with Veselin Nikolov.

I love to read books, literature on business and politics, to stay constantly updated. I have also gone through quite a few trainings on building a personal and corporate brand, and I have trained over 100 people on this topic myself.

Has there been any significant change in your perceptions in a more mature age about what motivates you to do or not do something?

In this world, there are two types of people – creators and destroyers. I am a born creator, I have always been guided by the power of good, by helping, creating friendships, communities, working and being diligent. I have an innate sense of responsibility and justice. I was raised to have high moral values, and this has always guided me in the choice to do or not do something. I have a very funny story from high school. Since my mother and father were physical education teachers at my high school, my class could hardly escape from class. We had only one escape in 5 years, and after that, I had to write an excuse letter that we had escaped from class.

I would say that I have preserved my moral values since childhood. Now as an adult, I have the opportunity to do even more good as I participate in many charitable initiatives. I support women's entrepreneurship as part of the board of the association of women in business in Bulgaria “Selena”. I support the “Stoyan Kambarev” Foundation, which encourages young Bulgarian talents and the “Dream for a Child” Foundation, which helps Bulgarian families, who have reproductive problems and the “Hope for the Little Ones” foundation.

What is the most difficult moment in your career or business and how did you manage to overcome it?

In my professional path as an entrepreneur, the first most difficult moment was when in 2008-2009 I had to balance between the baby at home and my work in the printing house, which was seriously affected by the global economic crisis. At the same time, I had started another business, a representation of Hallmark stores in Bulgaria. We had opened several stores that started to struggle because people had no money and were not at all interested in cards and gifts. The saying “a lot of melons under one arm” absolutely applied to me because one melon with the stores directly fell to the ground and we lost a lot of money. I barely saved the printing house thanks to the fact that I managed to attract a chain of gas stations and a large Bulgarian paint manufacturer as clients, which we branded on a national scale. They saved us from bankruptcy.

The next difficult moment was the date 13.03.2020, Friday. My printing house is the best in branding malls and commercial sites, and that is mainly what we did before COVID. We had a lot of work because we serve malls across Bulgaria with advertising. When COVID came, our work dropped to zero. As I was sitting at home watching television, I saw a report about taxi drivers trying to continue working without the risk of getting infected with COVID. At that time, I called one of my colleagues and told him to immediately take measurements for a barrier that would separate the driver from the passengers made of transparent material. I called a few contacts I had, and one of the contacts turned out to be a representative of an international company that offers software solutions for taxis. They really liked the idea of transparent barriers in taxis, and we started to develop and produce models according to the needs of different international markets. We produced over 45,000 barriers for taxis in Europe, the United States, Japan and Australia. We did not produce a single barrier for the Bulgarian market, and this was evident from the poor quality of the available ones in our taxis. 

What is your biggest lesson as an entrepreneur and as a woman leader?

The first lesson I learned and would pass on to future entrepreneurs is to invest wisely in the business they want to engage in. They should carefully make a business plan and budget for the necessary initial investment.

The second lesson I learned is that there are now many women's business organizations, from which one can draw experience from already successful women entrepreneurs. There is no need to learn from our own mistakes when we can learn from others'.

Another lesson I learned is to be focused. From my personal experience, I know that the path of an entrepreneur is thorny and requires a lot of perseverance and patience. It took me 10 years to organize the business, family, and myself. Nothing happens that quickly.

One of the most difficult but useful lessons I learned is to be careful with whom you enter into partnerships, especially with friends. Hire people smarter than you, people who complement your qualities and skills. Hire people with your value system. Avoid hiring relatives, 90% of the time it is not healthy and personal relationships suffer. Do not hire someone you cannot fire immediately for not performing their job.

The most valuable lesson I learned is that I can only control myself. I learned that I cannot control other people, but I can control how I react to their words and actions. I stopped getting angry because that only harmed me. I started counting to 10 before I said something, and now very rarely can someone throw me off balance, which has made me much calmer and clearer thinking. 

How does a lady entrepreneur feel when the Day of Women Entrepreneurs arrives? What does this day mean to you personally and professionally?

The Day of Women Entrepreneurs is a personal holiday for me because I have been an entrepreneur for 18 years. I have supported the Day of Women Entrepreneurs for the 5th year now, and I am happy to be part of this extremely useful and valuable event. This day brings me together with many like-minded ladies with whom I can exchange experience and knowledge. I can also present my business with a promotional stand and tell visitors about it or from the stage of the event, as I will do this year, because I will be the host of the Leadership Forum, part of the Day of Women Entrepreneurs.

What makes you feel truly successful – personal satisfaction, achievements, influence on others, or something else?

Today, young people want to achieve success very quickly and I think they are not willing to work as hard as we did before them. My generation grew up with the maxim: “Work/study in vain, don’t stand still in vain.” I think that now things are the opposite and most young people skillfully save their efforts and work. The future will show which strategy was more successful.

My present shows that I feel fulfilled, satisfied, and happy with an ellipsis, because a person should not stop building themselves as the best masterpiece. I measure success primarily by the happiness of my closest people and then by the happiness of my team.

Family is the fundamental building block of society and it is threatened nowadays. To create and maintain a family, you must be ready to give, to yield, to change. On November 4th, my husband and I celebrate 18 years of our wedding, and we have been together for 23 years. He is my best friend, the love of my life, my support, and inspiration. From him, I receive many valuable life and business advice. I feel successful also because of my wonderful girls. Raya recently defended her C1 level in English for applying to a university outside Bulgaria. She is aiming for a business specialty, which is not a coincidence, because both her father and I are entrepreneurs. She is taking acting classes and has appearances as a model. Our little doll Rumi is now in first grade and is doing very well with the study material. She is very artistic, dances very well, and speaks English excellently. 

The easiest way to measure business success is with numbers. I am satisfied with what I have achieved with my printing house Magic Outdoor, but there is still much more to do to turn it into an even more successful international business. This year we expect new printing machines, we are introducing a new management system for business processes, and we continue to work towards the digitalization of the business. For me, the most important thing, and perhaps what defines me as a successful person, is that I sleep peacefully. This is due to the fact that both in personal and professional terms I have built a value system and morals that I do not betray. For me, my good name is the most important. At the cost of much hard work and perseverance, I have built what I am at the moment.

How do you maintain your curiosity and inspiration – what are your sources of energy, knowledge, and new ideas?

I do not stop learning. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I am a child of teachers and I grew up among teachers. The next education I would like to acquire is a doctoral degree in entrepreneurship and leadership. I recommend the book by Vladimir Borachev “Journey for Leaders” and the book by Nikolay Dimitrov “The 1% Rule in Negotiations and Business”.

I also completed an extremely useful academy for me as a woman on style, elegance, and beauty "The Magnificent Woman", created by my mentor and friend Yordanka Dimitrova. I am truly grateful to "Business Lady Club", of which I am a member and lead training for the ladies in it, for introducing me to Yordanka at a business photoshoot. I fell in love with this woman. Thanks to the academy and the training I went through there, I managed to restore my feminine essence in 2020 and become the lady, the woman with a capital "W", that I am now.

I am also a member of a very successful business club BNI Bulgaria and in my company BNI Pro, I am currently the Education Coordinator and every Wednesday morning I conduct business training for my colleagues within 5 minutes.

I read many books, which I no longer have space for, and my dream is to create a library in an entire room. I am currently finishing the series of books by Viktoria Beshliyska – “Heart”, “Clay” and “Thread”. I also really like the books by Jeffrey Archer and John Grisham. One weaves history and thriller very skillfully, while I like the other because when I was finishing high school, I was fascinated by the idea of becoming a lawyer. When I was little, I read Agatha Christie’s crime novels, now I have switched to the Norwegian Jo Nesbø. I love biographical and historical books. I was impressed by the biography of Coco Chanel, the creator of Nike – Philip Knight, and Churchill. I have also taken the biography of Andre Agassi, which is waiting for its turn. I also really like Georgi Gospodinov and Maria Laleva, and now I am reading “Thread” and “Wound” by Zahari Karabashliev, which I took precisely because of my Dobruja roots, because it tells about the Dobruja front in 1916.

For everyone who wants to learn how to skillfully manage their finances and invest wisely, I recommend the books by Robert Kiyosaki. Don’t think that I only read serious books. I also unwind with light chick lit, which I read in one breath – Mariam Keys, Louise Bagshawe, Lindsey Kelk, Lauren Weisberger – the author of “The Devil Wears Prada”.

But my husband Rumen is besides my best friend and the love of my life, he is my support and inspiration. From him, I receive many valuable life and business advice.

They say that the personal brand is everything that people say about you when you are not in the same room with them. What would you like to hear today?

This is a quote from Jeff Bezos, that your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room. I can say that I also sat for a long time in the shadow of my corporate brand Magic Outdoor, but during the COVID crisis I decided that it was time to change this strategy of mine. When I started to create a connection between my personal and corporate  brand, the results showed that this strategy is profitable.  In fact, each of us has their own personal brand, which I call reputation.

Andthe truth is that people create business with people, whom they know and trust. My advice is to be the face that represents inyour business. This way you will create trust with more people who can become your clients.

Today I would like to hear that I am a professional in my field of printing, design, and advertising, whom one can trust. That I am a responsible person with high values and morals, who keeps their word. And yet my advice to everyone is, that one day no one will say how much this woman works, but will say how good and devoted a mother, wife, friend, and daughter she was! I live in such a way that when I am no longer on this earth, they won’t ask “Who was she?”, but will say “We miss her, she left a mark in our hearts” not with her work, but with her kindness!