We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Valeria Stoyanova a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Valeria , appreciate you joining us today. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

Just like most business it all started from an idea, then the first client, then more… As the business was scaling the work become too much for one person to handle…
I knew it was time to hire help, I truly believe delegating time will bring more growth into the business, being able to multiply myself will not only scale the business but bring impact into more people’s lives.

I had a bigger mission and an opportunity to help talented women from specific part of the world that’s close to my heart.
I wanted to hire women from my country – Bulgaria, knowing most of them speak English on exceptional level, knowing how talented and smart they are, yet there weren’t many opportunities for them to work online, to be able to build a profitable career doing what they love, exploring their creativity and work in a thriving environment.

And just like that, I posted a job offer, went through an efficient interview process and hired my first ever employee. She’s with me up to this day and grew into being a Creative Director of the company, her name is Eda Sofronova. The business wouldn’t be where it’s at today without her.
As we were signing in more clients our team grew, all women from Bulgaria, and they are all rock stars.
We’ve created such a strong culture within the company and I’m very proud of that.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Hi! My name is Valeria Stoyanova

The Founder & Director Of Operations of Splash Marketing.
A marketing agency that thrives on creativity.
Innovation & Energy lays in our core values.

I started the company after seeing the high demand for social media exposure and branding. I turned my talents and passion into a service to help overwhelmed entrepreneurs who understand the importance of social media yet they don’t have the time or being creative is not their “thing”

We help business owners, especially women entrepreneurs with Social Media Management, Brand Strategy, and Content Creation

Splash Marketing focuses on getting our clients to achieve maximum results with their social media packages.

Entrepreneurs who work with our team rave about the increase in inquiries, getting brand exposure, and growth in sales.

We take pride in being reliable and provide an exceptional customer support. Our team is extremely talented and knowledgable, the ultimate goal is to exceed our client’s expectations.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

It’s simple yet it takes so much time and full dedication plus doing some uncomfortable things..

1. Having a basic strategy to follow and implement
2. Showing up consistently on social media, talking about the service, providing free tips and educational content, sharing testimonials and wins
3. Making connections and partnerships with fellow entrepreneurs
4. Going to networking events – which is the hardest thing to do for me, I get so nervous and I would say I am a bit of a introvert. It’s very uncomfortable but I understand the importance of it, as long as I get a few follows- I know I can turn that into a monthly paying client.
5. Providing exceptional service and maintaining a good relationship with current clients. Your happy clients are your best sales people, I get a lot of referrals because I make sure our clients get a five star service.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Growing up in Bulgaria, we were though that you have to work so hard physically, or have to graduate college to be successful, we were thought that money don’t come easy… that you can’t have it all

This is the mindset I’m constantly learning to unlearn.

I used to get so stressed out and get scared if I would be able to be successful from doing what a love, doing something that’s feels so natural to me..

I’ve been working on shifting the mindset into believing that you don’t have to work hard but smart, that you CAN have it all, the body, the business, the family … It’s all achievable.

I went from ” how they did it, this isn’t possible for me” to ” if they did it, I can too ”

Turn the fear into fuel for inspiration.

Image Credits
Valeria Kuzmina & Daniel Lopera