5 things an experienced entrepreneur wishes someone had told him when he started

Bogdan Stevanovic is an experienced consultant and entrepreneur. An early starter, he bootstrapped several businesses and realised very quickly that the internet was the way forward.

Today, this experienced entrepreneur runs several successful companies including Aquare, a digital agency which partners with PR agencies so that they can provide their clients with full-service digital marketing.

Bogdan, before we get started, tell us a bit about what drives you

Quite simply, I want to make a positive impact. Very few people working in digital marketing have seen as much of the industry as I have, and I want to share that knowledge, in a way that is transparent and open. That’s the core ethos of my consulting business – addressing things like the talent gap, poor agency practice and the rapid pace of change of online marketing. My goal is to see, over time, the point of entry for digital marketing professionals raised to a standard which represents real tangible and trusted return on investment for the businesses who are paying for it.

So what are your 5 tips for becoming a successful and experienced entrepreneur?

1. Choose your business partners wisely. A business partnership is quite similar to a romantic relationship, if you don’t share the same values with your business partner, it’s doomed to fail, and it will likely not end well. This has happened to me more than once.
2. Don’t give up too early. In the past I let a couple of my ventures fail simply because I gave up too soon. Looking back, I realise how close I was to making them a success – if only I’d known then what I know now.
3. Don’t cut corners. The best long term strategy is to do things properly, from the very first step until the last, it will always pay in the end. That’s a lesson I learnt very early on.
4. Stay healthy because “health is wealth”. I myself, like many other entrepreneurs, have allowed my health to suffer because I’ve become so absorbed with the daily grind. You can’t grind while you’re sick.
5. Focus on providing, first and foremost, value for your clients. A business motivated solely by financial reasons isn’t rewarding for the soul, and this will affect everything else. Once you start putting all your time and resources into planning how to add value for your clients, how to provide a better product and service, the profits will automatically follow.

Are there any people who have inspired you during your own journey?

There are plenty of people who have influenced me. But amongst those I particularly admire, I would say that James Clear has been one of my mentors. He has two great books: Transform Your Habits and Mastering Creativity which I highly recommend. He has dedicated a large part of his life to helping people build better habits and master the routines that shape their life and work.

Also Charles Ngo is someone I’ve learnt a huge amount from. I don’t think anyone in the world knows as much about affiliate marketing as Charles, and his story of how he got there is inspiring. He’s a living example of how, if you put your mind to it, and you really, really want it, you can achieve your dreams (if you want to know more, read this post, and I guarantee you won’t stop reading).

Finally Lewis Mocker teaches people how to lead an inspiring, empowering and fulfilling career. His online course, Infinite Prosperity has over 5000 students from all around the world and claims to “build success from the inside out”. I’ve learnt so much from Lewis and a lot of what he teaches has filtered through to the way I’ve built my business and how I’ve helped others build theirs. If you’re sitting at home or living with mum and dad, or not sure about what college courses to do, you must connect with Lewis.

Tell us a bit about what your company does which is unique and making a difference in the industry

A huge part of what makes us stand out is our proprietary platform, Omniboard. It’s a completely hands-off solution for companies doing digital marketing, or wanting to offer digital marketing to their clients, who don’t have any previous experience whatsoever. Beyond super-easy campaign and client management, live reporting data and a dashboard front end, Omniboard allows you to manage multiple clients and campaigns with great ease. If you’re an agency, it even include sales and client on-boarding training as part of the relationship, so you know exactly what to say to a client in any situation. We’ve seen businesses add as much as 30-60% mark-up on top of our reseller rates and still stay ahead of their competitors because they offer so much more value. A reseller business must consider parcels 5kgs and below to be courier, while anything over 5kgs would be cargo.