Self-employed is not a business. Here is the difference.
The invoice arrives either way. What changes is whether the company can run for a week without you in it.
Coming soon
Sales floors in Bulgaria · Business owner in Denmark
Intelligence is surviving failure. Wisdom is skipping it entirely.
No one scales a successful business by guessing in the dark. Borrow the blueprints that actually work, bypass years of frustration, and hit your next milestone faster.
ABOUT
I have been the employee. I am now the owner. I know both sides.
My education in business began on the phone. In Bulgaria I learned directly from the masters of sales, and I was part of the team that built the outbound department of a successful telemarketing company. That is where I learned what it actually takes to drive revenue and to communicate value to someone who did not ask to hear from you.
Today I own and run a cleaning company in Denmark, managing a team of more than ten cleaning assistants. Invoices, rotas, compliance, difficult conversations, quiet months: I deal with the daily reality of a service business, not the version of it written in books.
I did not decide to become a consultant. It happened in ordinary conversations: people I talked to went off and opened their own companies, brought me their problems, asked me about staff, and I pointed them to the right accountant, the right lawyer, the right structure for what they were building. Enough of those conversations, and it was clear what I was good at.
The hardest part of the journey was not the paperwork. It was the mindset shift from employee to businessman — and having lived both sides, I know exactly where that shift breaks people, and how to get them through it.
WHO I WORK WITH
Three kinds of people sit across from me
Different starting points, the same working method.
01
Employees who want to start
You are good at your work and you suspect you are meant to run it yourself. You need someone to tell you what the first steps really are, and what changes in your head when you stop having a boss.
02
Small businesses with problems
The company exists, but something is not working. Usually one of four things, and often several at once:
- Taxes and VAT you do not fully understand
- No sales approach at all
- A business concept that was never finished
- Staff problems that eat the week
03
Small businesses going middle-size
It works, and now it has to grow. That means structure, hiring, delegation and a sales engine that does not depend on you being in every conversation.
SERVICES
What I actually help with
Four things clients come to me for. Most arrive with one and discover they needed two.
01 — FROM 9–17 TO A BUSINESS
Leave the payroll with a plan
You already know how to do the work. What stops most people is not talent, it is not knowing the first five practical steps. I give you those, in order, and the difference nobody explains: being self-employed is not the same as running a working business.
- Finding the skill worth building on
- Registration and the first practical steps
- Self-employed versus a working business
- VAT, compliance and institutional rules in everyday language
02 — SALES TRAINING
Fill the calendar, not just the inbox
Most small businesses have no sales approach at all — they wait for the phone to ring. I train you and your staff in the method I learned from the masters of sales in Bulgaria and used to build an outbound department from nothing.
- Outbound: calls, pitch, follow-up
- Handling objections without pressure
- Communicating value, not price
- Training your own people to sell
03 — LEADERSHIP
Stop losing your week to staff problems
A business is nothing without its people, and the wrong approach to one person can cost you a month. I teach you to read the characters on your team and adapt to each one, so the work gets done and you stop firefighting.
- Reading personality types on your team
- Adapting your approach person by person
- Hiring, onboarding and daily management
- Sales communication that carries value
04 — MONTHLY COACHING
Keep the momentum after month three
Momentum is where most new owners lose. A standing monthly session keeps you accountable to your own plan, gives you somewhere to bring the decisions you are unsure about, and keeps the business moving once the excitement has worn off.
- A standing monthly session
- Accountability against your own targets
- Decisions worked through, not guessed at
- Ongoing mentorship as the business grows
START HERE — FIRST CONSULTATION
You do not have to pick the right service on your own.
Start with one hour. We take the idea, or the business you already have, and work out what is actually standing in the way — then which of the four above you genuinely need, and what it will take. You leave with a plan rather than a feeling.
01
Tell me where you are
A short form below — name, phone, and the idea in a few words.
02
One hour, live
We diagnose the real constraint, not the one that is easiest to talk about.
03
You leave with next steps
Written plainly, in the order they should happen.
APPROACH
From employee to business owner
The step looks bigger from the outside than it is from within. This is the route I take people through, and the one I walked myself.
01
An honest conversation
We talk about where you are now, what you are good at, and what is actually holding you back. Nothing to prepare, nothing to be embarrassed about.
02
What you are good at
Most people underestimate the skill they already have. We find the one worth building a business on, and test whether it can carry one.
03
The basics, in plain language
Registration, VAT, obligations, and the difference between self-employed and a working business — explained the way I would explain it to a friend.
04
Then we keep going
Monthly coaching after the start, so the plan survives contact with reality and you have somewhere to bring the next decision.
THE ROAD
Nobody arrives at the top step first
My own road, told honestly — including the two points where it went backwards.
Sales agent
Bulgaria — learning from the masters
Top sales trainer
Built the outbound department
Cleaner
Denmark — starting again at the bottom
Self-employed
Own clients, not yet a business
Ups and downs
Mistakes paid for in full
Business owner
A cleaning company, a team of ten
Several projects
More than one venture, in partnerships
Sales agent
Bulgaria — learning from the masters
Top sales trainer
Built the outbound department
Cleaner
Denmark — starting again at the bottom
Self-employed
Own clients, not yet a business
Ups and downs
Mistakes paid for in full
Business owner
A cleaning company, a team of ten
Several projects
More than one venture, in partnerships
YOUR ROAD
01EmployeeGood at the work, unsure about the step.
02First clientsSelf-employed: income, but no structure yet.
03A working businessRegistered, priced, compliant, running without improvisation.
04A teamPeople hired, understood and led — not just instructed.
05Middle-sizeGrowth that no longer depends on you being in every conversation.
I went through the ups and downs with my own company. That is why I can tell you which ones are survivable and which ones are not.
Sometimes, to become more successful in what you do, you need to help other people become successful at what they do.
Radoslav Nikolov
BUSINESS · LEADERSHIP · CONSULTING
INSIGHTS
Ask me a question
Writing from the work
Short pieces on the questions I get asked most. New ones added as I write them.
VAT explained the way I explain it to a friend
No paragraphs of law. What you owe, when you owe it, and which mistakes actually cost money.
Coming soonThe employee you find difficult is usually a type you have not learned yet
Four characters you will meet in a small team, and how to change your own approach for each.
Coming soon
CONTACT
Take your next big step.
If you have been thinking about starting something of your own, or you already have and the people, the taxes or the sales side are harder than the work itself, write to me. Tell me where you are and what is in the way, and I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person for it.
contact@radoslavbussines.com
radoslavbussines.com
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