Complete CV: Entrepreneur, Consultant, Author

Profile

I started my first company at 21 and have been building them, and occasionally burying them, ever since. Alongside running businesses, I kept studying: an MSc, an MBA, and now doctoral research on how small companies adopt AI. I wanted to understand which parts of the theory hold up in practice.

The theory and practice meet in consulting. As a management consultant, I put what I learned into other people’s businesses. I started with the academic frameworks, and through that work I developed my own. Whatever an engagement teaches me ends up in a book, a podcast or my newsletter.

Education

Two master's degrees in parallel, while working full time. What I was learning in the classroom, I could question and apply at work.

2023-present	Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), in progress · University American College Skopje
2011-2014	Executive MBA in Management, with Merit · University of Sheffield, International Faculty CITY College, Thessaloniki
2010-2013	MSc in Economic Sciences, Entrepreneurship · Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Economic Institute, Skopje
2005-2009	BSc in Economics, E-business · Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty of Economics, Skopje

Non-formal Education

Formal education gave me the theory and the structure, below is where I picked up the tools. A client gets both from me, the method from the degrees and the tool that fits the problem from the course.

Sep 2025-May 2026: Three 6-week AI academies and 54 webinars (AIatWork by Brainster, Online): the academies were Practical AI Implementation, AI for Business Leaders and Foundations of AI Literacy, and every webinar was on using AI in a business.
Jan 2026: REFA and MTM productivity training (REFA Group, Skopje, Macedonia): four days on REFA and MTM time studies, organised by Swisscontact: how to break a work process into steps, time it, rate the performance and set a standard time.
Nov 2024: Disinformation Analyst and Infoshield courses (Debunk.org, Online): two online programmes of Debunk.org, the disinformation analysis centre in Lithuania: a hands-on crash course on analysing disinformation in digital media, and Infoshield, a course on resilience to disinformation.
2022-2023: Mentor Academy and masterclasses (Early Warning Europe, Online): the mentor academy of Early Warning Europe, an EU initiative that helps companies in difficulty. In November 2022 I joined its peer-learning workshop for mentors, and in 2023 I finished its four-module online course, from problem analysis and managing change to readiness to mentor.
Nov 2022: Executive Entrepreneurial Leadership Workshop (American Councils for International Education, Yerevan, Armenia): an alumni workshop of the U.S. Department of State's Professional Fellows Program, run by American Councils: the entrepreneurial mindset, customer development, the business model canvas and doing business with Americans.
2020-2022: Tech Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fellowship (U.S. Department of State / WorldChicago, Chicago + Online): I was one of 12 fellows from five countries of Southeast Europe in the U.S. Department of State's Professional Fellows Program. Part of it was online and part in Chicago.

Jun and Jul 2025: AI Black Belt scholarship (Ignite Business Leadership, Online): a scholarship from Ignite Business Leadership in New Zealand to its AI Black Belt, a self-paced pathway of eight levels on building AI workflows. I took it up for Balkan Digital, a non-profit.
Oct 2020-Jul 2021: PowerUP SME and startup growth programme (Deloitte / World Bank / WB EDIF, Online): a growth programme for SMEs and startups in the Western Balkans, funded by the EU and run with the World Bank and Deloitte. I went through it with my company, BizzBee, and we reached the semi-finals.
Sep 2018; Jul and Oct 2019: Training of Trainers in Social Entrepreneurship (Interreg Balkan-Mediterranean, Cyprus, Durres, Skopje): the training of trainers of INNOVENTER, an Interreg Balkan-Mediterranean project in which seven partners from five countries, MCA-2000 among them, built a vocational curriculum in social entrepreneurship. I was trained to teach it.
Mar 2018; Apr-May 2019: Business Diagnostics and Change Management training (EBRD, Skopje): two courses from EBRD's Grow Your Consulting Business series. Business diagnostics, three days in 2018: how to pick the right diagnostic tools and find the root of a client's problem. Change management, four days in 2019: the models of change, resistance to change, and the consultant's role in it.
2019: One Funnel Away challenge (ClickFunnels, Online): ClickFunnels' 30-day online challenge on building one sales funnel from start to finish.
Jul and Sep 2018: PMP preparation training (PMstudy by VMEdu, Online): the preparation course for the Project Management Professional exam of the Project Management Institute (PMI): the ten knowledge areas of project management, from scope and schedule to risk and procurement. I finished it with 37 PDUs.
Jul 2017: Writing EU project proposals (ProEfekt, Skopje): ProEfekt's training on preparing projects for EU and US donors: the problem and objective trees, the logical framework, the budget and the application itself. I worked through it on my own project idea, getting young people to start a business.
Jul 2016: Scrum Fundamentals training and exam (SCRUMstudy, Online): SCRUMstudy's online training in Scrum, the way of running software teams in short cycles, which I finished by passing the exam.
Apr 2013: Executive coaching seminar (CITY College, Thessaloniki): a seminar on executive coaching that I took on top of the Executive MBA of the University of Sheffield and CITY College, its international faculty.
Mar 2013: Time management and team management (YES Incubator / Simbiotic, Skopje): a training on managing my own time and managing a team, at the YES Incubator, where AdvertSMS was incubated for two years.
Jul 2012: Negotiation Skills seminar (University of Sheffield, Sheffield): a seminar on negotiation skills that the University of Sheffield gave our Executive MBA cohort when we studied at the university.
Oct 2011: Financial planning and management of operational programmes (Ministry of Agriculture, Skopje): a course from the Ministry of Agriculture's project on adopting the EU's common agricultural policy, taught by a Belgian expert on EU fruit and vegetable markets: how producer groups plan the finances of their operational programmes. SNV, the Dutch development organisation, put me forward because I had written the business plans for its cooperatives.
Jul 2011: Business Support Center Managers Training Program (NBIA, Skopje): the programme of NBIA, the international association of business incubators (now InBIA), for managers of business support centres, hosted by the YES Foundation: how an incubator works and builds services for its companies, and how it markets itself and tracks its impact.
May 2011: Business incubation training (infoDev, Helsinki): three modules of the World Bank Group's infoDev training for incubator managers: managing an incubator, from choosing the companies that get in to the day they leave; monitoring and evaluation; and virtual incubation.
Jan and Feb 2011: Starting a Business v2.1 (Cisco Entrepreneurial Institute, YES Incubator, Skopje): the Cisco Entrepreneurial Institute's course on starting a business, built on material from Entrepreneurship@Cornell, Stanford's Technology Ventures Program and Cisco: one part of a new business per session, from the business plan and financing to accounting, cash flow and international trade.
Sep 2010: Sales Management module (COTRUGLI Business School, Belgrade): the Sales Management module of the Executive MBA at COTRUGLI, a business school accredited by the Association of MBAs, which I took on its own: the sales management framework, customer segmentation, consultative selling and key account management.
Jan-Mar 2009: Operational Management (USAID Hope Fellowship, Skopje): the operational management training of USAID's Hope Fellowship, taught at New York University Skopje: team work and team dynamics, the manager's roles and decision-making, and organisational design and culture.
Oct 2007: Training of Trainers (BWB / SNV, Skopje): a training of trainers on marketing, run by SNV, the Dutch development organisation, with Business Without Borders for the new members of its training team.
Jun and Jul 2007: How to start my own business (Business Start-Up Centre UKIM, Skopje): the start-your-own-business course of the Business Start-Up Centre at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, the year before I started AdvertSMS. My business idea was among the best 80.
Apr and Jun 2006: Business Planning and Advanced Business Planning (Business Without Borders, Skopje): the business planning workshops of Business Without Borders, part of a British Council programme for students: from the idea and the financial plan to presenting the full plan. I got in with one of the best business ideas.
Apr-May 2005: Learning through games (Life Foundation, Oradea, Romania + Online): Life Foundation in Romania took me into its course for youth trainers, first online, on non-formal and experiential learning, then at a seminar in Oradea on designing games that prevent violence.
2001-2005: Debate and diplomacy conferences and seminars (MMUN, Macedonia): more than 20 debating conferences and more than four seminars on debate and diplomacy with the Macedonian Model United Nations, where I went on to coordinate the Kavadarci group and train its students to debate.
Sep 2004: Entrepreneurship, Marketing and People in Organizations (Business Without Borders, Skopje): three workshops of Business Without Borders, the British Council programme earlier called Corridor 8: entrepreneurship, marketing and people in organisations.
Aug 2004: Project Management from idea to reality (MOBA Serbia, Struga): a project management course run by MOBA from Serbia, on taking a project from the idea to the finished result.

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Work Experience

More than twenty years of work experience, from three chairs: the owner's, the employee's and the consultant's. When I walk into a business, I know how it looks from each of them.

Brands I built

When I see a hard problem in the market, or a great opportunity, I build a brand around it. Most of the brands below came after 2023, when I appointed a CEO at BizzBee and finally had the time to go after what I saw.

2026-present	Co-Founder · Balkan DealFlow Driven by my own need for it, I co-founded the first marketplace for buying, selling and investing in businesses across the Western Balkans. Nobody was matching owners who want out with buyers who want in, at the size where most of the region's companies actually sit.
2026-present	Co-Founder · BusinessPulseOS I co-founded BusinessPulseOS, a management consulting business for SMEs, built as one operating system. It starts with a business diagnostic, a complete scan of the company. Then comes internal improvement: systems, processes and the KPIs to run them by. Only then do we work on growing the business, through new client acquisition on one side and AI and automation for efficiency on the other. It runs on the diagnostic practice I had been using since 2025, and it is where I find out whether a method still works when somebody other than me is holding it.
2025-present	Co-Founder · Talentino A children's education brand I co-founded in Skopje with three other families. We started by buying an existing education centre and an IQ UP! franchise, as an asset deal, so nothing hidden came with it. It taught me what it takes to buy a business instead of building one.
2025-present	Co-Founder · CESIL, VOX School of Business The company I co-founded in 2025 with a group of partners to open VOX, a private business college in Skopje. I wrote its five entrepreneurship syllabi, from family business and succession to digital sales. It is my foot in academia, the place where what I learned running companies becomes a course.
2024-present	Co-Founder and board member · Balkan Digital I co-founded Balkan Digital, a non-profit NGO, to connect a region that mostly works in isolation: eleven countries and 87 million people, with fragmented markets and thin institutional connectivity. We work across nine areas, from digital ecosystems and youth skills to AI and e-government, building the platforms and partnerships that let people collaborate across borders. I sit on the board.
2024-present	Co-Founder · Spire For Growth LLC A US consulting brand I co-founded for business owners and executives who have done well and feel stuck. We started with a book, Success Ceiling Breakthrough, and we've built coaching, training and speaking on top of it. The work taught me how differently the same advice has to be framed for a US audience.
2024-present	Founder · Balkan Academic Lounge A regional hub for 300+ professors across Balkan universities, where they find each other, jobs and fellowships, calls for papers and funding. Built through 2024 and 2025, open since June 2025, and the proof that the cross-border idea works when someone actually builds the thing.
2015-present	Co-Founder · BizzBee Solutions The company I ran full time for a decade. I co-founded BizzBee Solutions, a B2B sales agency, and we specialised into lead generation and appointment setting for over 600 companies worldwide. It is where I learned to turn a service into a system: the methods became trainings, books and podcasts, and by 2023 the business ran well enough that I could appoint a CEO and step back to co-founder.
2010-present	Founder · Dancho Dimkov, danchodimkov.com My own consulting brand, and a company of one: the work I deliver in person, for clients who want me rather than a firm. Coaching is clarity through conversation, the owner finds the answer while we talk. Consulting is me doing the analysis and handing over the answer. Fractional is me inside the company a few days a month, running the function until someone can take it over. I have worked under my own name since 2010; the website came in 2021 so that people could see how I think before they call. It taught me that the clients who pay the most are the ones who hire the person, and that my own time has to stay scarce.
2018-2019	Founder · ZZack A subscription lead service for web and mobile development companies, and my first attempt at turning a service into a product. Every morning each client received five open software projects, checked by hand, with the company and its decision makers. It made money, but not enough to take my focus off BizzBee, so I closed it. It taught me that a product needs someone whose only job it is.
2008-2012	Founder · AdvertSMS At 21 I started the first mobile marketing agency in the Balkans, on a business plan that took second place in a national competition. We ran campaigns for more than 100 companies and sent over 200,000 targeted messages, and in 2009 it took me to the World Bank's Global Forum as a Global Innovator. It taught me that a good idea still has to be sold, one client at a time.

Roles I was hired into

The years I worked under someone else's leadership: in the private sector, in a government office, and for ten years in NGOs. No two of them were led the same way.

2012-2015	Director of the Macedonian Representative Office; Head of R&D · Retell Ltd A UK call-recording company hired me to open its Macedonian office from nothing, from the legal setup to hiring ten developers plus QA. As product owner I moved the team from waterfall to Scrum. I was doing my MBA at the same time, and that switch became my dissertation.
2009-2011	Junior Advisor, Agricultural Sector Development · SNV Netherlands Development Organisation A Dutch development organisation of 2,500 staff hired me to advise the agriculture sector. I built the ABDC business model for farmers and agro companies and implemented it in Strumica, developed three cooperatives in early vegetables, apples and beekeeping through baseline reports and business plans, and supported the team's resource mobilisation. Where I learned donor work from the inside.
July 2007	Intern, EU Programmes and Instruments · Secretariat for European Affairs, Government of the Republic of Macedonia A few weeks inside government, on EU programmes and instruments, and the first time I saw how public money is structured long before it reaches a business.
2001-2010	Volunteer, from local coordinator to executive board member · European Youth Parliament (EYP), Business Without Borders (BWB), Blue Sky (British Council-supported) and Macedonian Model United Nations (MMUN) I joined the NGO sector at 15 and stayed for ten years, all of it unpaid. In Kavadarci I started and ran the local groups and trained students for national conferences. My role then grew to national level, on the executive boards of EYP and BWB, where I wrote and delivered business planning and marketing training. I also facilitated government seminars on European integration, organised by the British Council. It is where I learned to run projects and people before anyone paid me to.

Short-term consulting engagements

Everything above leads here. The degrees, my own companies and the jobs under other people's leadership are the kit I walk in with. Some problems get fixed in one conversation, others need months inside the company.

May 2025-present	Business diagnostic consultant · Swisscontact, Swiss-funded SME programme A business diagnostic finds what is really holding a company back, before anyone proposes a fix. I have done six so far for SMEs selected into Swisscontact's Swiss-funded programme, three to six months inside each: desk research, interviews, a strategy workshop with the owner, and a report presented to the owners. With most of them the work did not stop at the report, and I stayed on to help execute the findings. BusinessPulseOS grew out of this work. Echo DOOEL, mobile app development, Skopje: a studio where most of the revenue comes from a few international clients, often through intermediaries, so one lost account moves the whole year. The work: spreading that risk, a sales process of its own, and a founder who no longer sits in every decision. Target Grup, the company behind BiznisMreza.mk, a business information platform: a platform lives on subscriptions, and a competitor's free tier eats them. The work: how to sell the data digitally, an AI chatbot as a paid service, and a team that talks to each other. Jakomo Tehnocentar, a family-owned lighting distributor: in distribution the money sits on the shelf, and in a family company every decision has two layers. The work: stock that does not move, departments that do not talk, and selling to businesses and consumers at once. SmartClick, a digital marketing agency in Strumica: an agency selling SEO to international clients from a small town, where the owners are also the delivery team. The work: an offer with structure, margins with a forecast behind them, and what AI does to an agency that sells SEO. Janplast, a PVC and aluminium window maker in Kavadarci: in manufacturing the question is whether the next machine pays for itself. The work: the business case for a new glass machine, the sales funnel that has to feed it, and moving the founder out of daily operations. Fat Kitchen, a group of Skopje food businesses: high turnover, thin margins, sold over the counter and through delivery platforms at once. The work: one view of the money across the brands, what the platforms really cost, and the numbers the partners could not see.
2011-present	Market research · For clients in more than 25 countries Below are fellow entrepreneurs and business owners who saw an opportunity and asked me to find out if it is worth going after, before they put money behind it. Market research here is the outside view: the market, the industry and the competition, and what each of them does to the idea the client has in mind. Feb-Sep 2026: Rojal Kids House (Macedonia), children's education: a franchise analysis. The centre wanted to franchise its programme, so I mapped 18 franchises, found none for children's centres in Macedonia, and built the ten-document framework I now reuse. May 2021 - Jan 2023: Respiray (Estonia), wearable air purifiers: market research. The mask and filter market first, then the allergy wearable market. Jan 2015 - Oct 2019: Douglas McEncroe Group (Australia), leadership consulting: company research. Australia's largest companies across four contracts, then the Sydney and Melbourne outreach design that became my CMC case study. Feb 2019: Credissimo (Bulgaria), consumer lending: a market entry assessment. Poland and Colombia, down to each country's non-banking financial sector. Apr 2016 - Nov 2018: LinkedIn (California), company registries: a data availability map. The departments that register companies in 50 countries and every US state, and which of them publish machine-readable data. May and Jul 2011: World Bank infoDev, agribusiness incubation: a skills-gap analysis. Incubator managers, from the questionnaire to the recommendations, piloted in Helsinki. Mar 2016 - Mar 2023: Maas-Intersales (Netherlands), food retail: a buyer screen. I identified 260 supermarkets and procurement companies across the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Norway. Jan-Mar 2022: Z Transportation (Macedonia), commercial real estate: a demand study. For a shopping mall planned for Kavadarci I researched the retail and residential demand behind it, from the catchment population to the unit layouts it would rent. Jul-Aug 2022: A private client, Toronto, the startup ecosystem: a market map. I built the picture of the startup industry from several sources, Clutch among them, cross-checked each against the others and extended the coverage into Dubai. Aug 2022 - Mar 2024: Data Kraken (Oxford), business intelligence consulting: competitor research. Deep dives on six shortlisted rivals and a quote comparison by mystery shopping. Jan 2021: Freedom (Australia), furniture and homeware retail: a market study. The Australian retail market across 21 sub-segments, the competing retailers in each and the buyer demographics behind them. Feb 2021: The Merrier (Australia), organic food: a pricing study. I mapped where wholesale and distributor pricing for Australian organic food can be found, across national, wholesaler, processor and farmer sources. Mar 2021: Hilfy (Ukraine), home services platforms: a market entry comparison. Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland as expansion markets for a handyman platform already serving Austria and Germany. Apr-Jun 2021: A consultant, Riyadh, market research agencies: a methods guidebook. For an agency being set up, benchmarking the top five agencies and their survey and interview practice. May 2021 - Sep 2022: Infinite Water (Sydney), water treatment: market research around a patented technology. US industrial laundries, and filtered water vending machines in Indonesia, Vietnam and India. May-Jun 2021: A patent holder, Atlanta, fire safety: a market sizing. Heat detectors inside the fire alarm market, by industrial, commercial and residential use, with the value chain traced. Jul 2020: Accolade Consultants (Georgia, USA), healthcare outsourcing: a feasibility check. Whether a healthcare outsourcing company in the Philippines would work for a veteran evaluation and file review provider already outsourcing there. Jul 2020: iOud (Saudi Arabia), intelligent incense: industry, market and competition research. Across the GCC for the start-up's 2020 growth decision, then the cosmetics and perfumes market. Jan 2018 - May 2020: EXUS (UK), debt collection software: competitor analysis. For a London enterprise software company, after the first rounds of prospect research. Dec 2018 - Oct 2020: A private client (USA), HR software: a partner search. 56 hospitality and retail employee scheduling platforms as potential partners, then the top ten applicant tracking systems. Jan 2020: Co.ing (Israel), community platforms: a competitor template. 27 competitors across 35 data fields each. Mar 2020: A private entrepreneur, ski and surf apparel: market and competitor research. For an online shop planning a quality brand at medium to high prices. Feb-Mar 2020: Aethyr Solutions (Canada), data analytics: an ideal customer profile. The small and mid-sized Canadian firms that work with heavy data. Mar-Jul 2020: LiveTracking (Canada), manufacturing technology: a market sizing. The North American manufacturing industry around Toronto, its food and beverage segment, its technology trends and the competition. Jun-Jul 2020: A private client (USA), online food retail: market research. Online dried fruit sales in the United States, the competitors' pricing and keywords, the customers, and what buyers will pay. Feb 2020: A restaurant owner, Italy, food e-commerce: a location and competitor study. European countries compared on tax burden to place the warehouse for an online shop selling high-quality Italian products, with its competitors and product range. Oct 2020 - Sep 2021: Subcontracted by xGrowth (Australia), B2B technology marketing: account research. The Australian target-account lists behind the agency's account-based marketing campaigns. Dec 2020 - Mar 2021: Hyprcubd (Missouri), IoT platforms: an ecosystem map. The time-series database ecosystem, continued as research after the first outreach work. Jan-Mar 2020: A grant writing firm (Texas), agricultural grants: an application review. 15 applications to the US Value-Added Producer Grant programme scored against the programme's own instructions. before 2019: A Brazilian polymer maker, through an Australian agency, plastics: an import and export study. The Australian market for masterbatches and thermoplastic compounds, the trade flows and every manufacturer that uses them. 2019: IntelliCAD Manufacturing Solutions (USA), CAD software: market, industry and competition research. For both of its products, before any EU reseller outreach. 2019: Pixyle.ai (Štip), retail AI: a decision-maker search. About 200 EU retailers matching its criteria, then the email and LinkedIn campaign to them. Jan-May 2019: 360 Writer (Czech Republic), transcription software: industry, market and competition research. For a move into B2B, with the ideal customer profile and four target countries named. Mar 2019: Tarya (Israel), peer-to-peer lending: a worldwide competitor screen. Features and modules compared, and the competitive positioning matrix built. Apr-Jun 2019: Codesealer (Denmark), browser security: a competitor and partner map. Value propositions and pricing, and a review of the cloud providers. Jun-Oct 2019: Sherpany (Switzerland), board meeting software: market positioning. Against its direct competitors, down to their landing pages. Jul-Aug 2019: WeFix (Israel), home services platforms: a worldwide competitor profile. The handyman platforms on their services, markets, business models, valuations and funding raised, before the client went global. Jul-Aug 2019: Zemmz (Kuwait), event software: a market sizing. The worldwide market for event management software, with profiles of the small event companies and corporate marketing departments that buy it. Aug-Oct 2019: Changing World Imports (UK), tourism: a source-market study. Where tourists to Myanmar come from, and 17 travel agency websites analysed, for a start-up tour operator there. Oct 2019: JMATEK (Hong Kong), consumer appliances: a product benchmark. 20 best-selling air cooling products on Amazon across five segments, compared on features, specifications and customer reviews. Feb 2018: A bus travel operator (Australia), tourism: a market study. Camping tours from Brisbane to Sydney, with the industry outlook, a generational segmentation of travellers and the competition. Mar 2018: Karma Pillow (Australia), bedding retail: a market sizing. The global and Australian pillow markets and the company's direct and indirect competitors, closing with an executive summary. Sep 2017 - Nov 2018: Subcontracted by Retail Doctor Group (Australia), shopping centres: a market and tourism study. The Gold Coast first, later the Adelaide market. Dec 2017 - Apr 2018: MAX (USA), telehealth: a competitive landscape. 12 players identified, six profiled on strategy and features. Dec 2017 - Jan 2018: TeCar (USA), automotive electronics: a supplier search. European manufacturers of in-car infotainment head units against the client's quality criteria, with the report on the search. Jan 2018: Rock Tamers (USA), vehicle accessories: a market selection. The market with the most potential in the recreational vehicle industry for a mud flap manufacturer, then the competitors there. Jan 2018: A private entrepreneur (USA), agricultural trade: an industry study. The Australian beef industry and its export to the United States, from cattle numbers and prices to the trade rules. Jan 2018: Venus Enterprises (India), fitness footwear: industry and market research. 30 brands founded in the previous four years picked out, then the market itself. Mar 2018: A family agricultural business (Brazil), poultry export: a demand check. Hen meat in China and the largest distribution centres there, for an egg producer looking to export. Apr-May 2018: Shield Bearer (USA), water purification: a market analysis. Segments, target groups and trends, before the client invested in an iodine-based purification system. Jul-Aug 2018: Hydromer (New Jersey), biotechnology coatings: a market study and SWOT. The global hydrophilic coating market and its segments. Sep 2015 - Apr 2017: Centa Solutions (Finland), fintech and childcare: industry research. Robo-advisors in Sweden, Denmark, the UK, South Korea and the Baltics, and the UK childcare market, for a mobile solutions company. Apr-May 2017: Henosis Trading Limited (Hong Kong), fashion e-commerce: a feasibility study. The women's fashion industry across the ASEAN countries, to test whether their social fashion portal would work. Jun-Oct 2017: S&B Solutions (USA), medical cushions: a product scan with competitive and SWOT analysis. The pressure-relief and offloading cushions on the world market, data collected on each, for a new product. Jul 2017: LonVille (Switzerland), watches: a market sizing. By segment, by the top 20 countries and by brand, for a client building a business plan in the industry. Nov 2017: A private entrepreneur, Egypt, software outsourcing: a feasibility study. The global market, the Egyptian target market and the competition. Jan 2017: A private entrepreneur (Canada), luxury accessories: a market sizing. The high-end backpack market for a formal-wear product, with luxury trends and both the direct and the indirect competitors. Mar 2017: A private client (USA), HR software: an idea test. A draft employee management software tested against its target market, then the business need it had to meet written up. Apr-Jun 2017: A private entrepreneur (Australia), power engineering: a supplier map. Over 50 gas turbine inlet cooling companies worldwide with their technologies, then a screen of the technical literature on the field. May 2017: Analog Devices (USA), industrial IoT: a competitor map. The predictive maintenance market mapped and segmented for the American semiconductor company. Jun-Jul 2017: Biogena Naturprodukte (Austria), nutraceuticals: a five-market study. Europe, North America, Australia, China and Japan for a new osteoporosis product, with the micronutrients market analysed in each. Jun-Jul 2017: Axxis.io (USA), diagnostics: a market picture. The global blood testing niche, its trends, spending and forecasts, and the value propositions its competitors were using. Jul 2017: A private client (Switzerland), data centres: a location study. Electricity prices compared country by country and where the big operators put their data centres, for a 10,000-server venture. Aug-Nov 2017: PresenTense (Israel), event software: a productisation test. Whether an in-house event management CRM could be sold as a product, with the global market sized and the competition analysed. Aug-Sep 2017: A private entrepreneur (Italy), specialty food e-commerce: customer and competitor research. The Italian vegan, gluten-free and organic food market, for an e-commerce launch. Dec 2017: A private entrepreneur (Russia), enterprise software: a market report. The global application lifecycle management market, its trends, size and forecast, its biggest players and the government's part in it. Apr 2016: A private entrepreneur, Colorado, legal cannabis: an industry study. Colorado's legal retail and medical marijuana industry, its trends, market size, demand, business survival rate and cannabis policy. Apr 2016: Wordlynx Wireless (Canada), mobile apps: an app market scan. The Android and iOS market searched for applications using face or mood recognition, the 25 that matched delivered. Mar 2016: Pickatale (Norway), children's publishing: a market entry study. The Norwegian children's book market, its publishers, booksellers, associations and institutions, for a digital storybook platform. Mar 2016: Capital Consulting (Switzerland), employment services: a provider map. Global employment outsourcing providers, their websites, locations and selling points, and the decision makers inside them. Mar 2016: CSM Group (Michigan), construction services: client reviews. Two-page executive reviews of ten potential clients, covering locations, ownership, headcount and history, for the board. Feb-Jul 2016: Rigstone Capital UG (Germany), startup investment: an ecosystem map. The incubators, accelerators and startup centres in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt and London, and through them 1,600 startups and their founders. Feb 2016: AdSpace (California), entrepreneurship education: a provider map. The providers in the United States, the content they teach and the prices they charge. Feb-Apr 2016: A private entrepreneur (Ukraine), concierge services: an industry study. 33 pages on the worldwide industry, its direct and indirect competitors and the top 30 Android apps. Jan-Mar 2016: A private entrepreneur (USA), poultry trade: a trade study. The chicken feet trade in Asia and Africa, covering Chinese and African import and export capacity, the major Brazilian producers and consumption. Jan-Mar 2016: Tulla Group (UK), SME retreats: a research scope. The scope of the research into the industry for an investment group, then the initial analysis as a sample. Dec 2015 - Jan 2016: Verb Inc. (Texas), eye care: an expert search. Eye care organisations and subject matter experts in developing countries, 50 that matched the client's criteria. Oct 2015 - Jan 2016: A private client (UK), philanthropy: an ecosystem map. 329 philanthropists worldwide profiled, each with the amount donated and two sources confirming the finding. Jun 2016: A private client (USA), mobile telecoms: a plan comparison. Every mobile virtual network operator in the United States identified, and 95 of them compared across 1,081 call and data plans. Jul-Dec 2016: Western Circle (UK), consumer lending: an industry report. Over 150 UK payday loan providers with their ownership and regulatory status. Oct-Dec 2016: Subcontracted by AS Consulting (Australia), packaging and advertising: industry analyses. Plastic packaging manufacturing in Australia with Porter's five forces, and point-of-purchase advertising in the United States. 2016: Subcontracted by a consulting company (Nigeria), creative industries: a baseline report. 100+ pages on the country's creative industries, with recommendations benchmarked against a developed country, which they presented to the government. 2015: Difference Coffee Company (UK), specialty coffee: market research and sourcing. The research moved the founder to a luxury Nespresso-compatible coffee; then the sourcing of the coffee, the roasters and the packaging. May-Oct 2015: S-Home (Ghana), home automation: an opportunity test. The home automation and security industry, with the findings carried into a business plan with a financial model. Oct-Nov 2015: Better World Books (UK), second-hand books: an industry and competitor analysis. Pricing compared across online platforms on a sample of five titles. Oct-Nov 2015: A private client (Sweden), online education: an audience segmentation. Four groups for a social skills website: women in their thirties, introverted men, parents of teenagers and students. Aug-Sep 2015: Sun Investment Group (Lithuania), solar energy: a prospect screen. UK companies holding at least 16,000 square metres of roof space. Jan-Mar 2012: Marketing Bump (Australia), advertising agencies: an industry study. 42 pages on the Australian advertising agency industry from statistical and academic sources, covering ten years and the outlook ahead. Show more (82 more)Show less
2011-present	Business plans · Written for founders who had to convince someone I write a business plan for every brand I start, before I put money into it. The owners below had a business idea and needed clarity around it. I did the work behind that clarity: the market research, the external and internal analysis, the SWOT, the business model, and a financial model with the projections. Some of them took the finished plan to a bank or an investor. Apr-Jun 2020: Startup Macedonia (Macedonia), startup ecosystems: a plan and monetisation strategy. For its startup-ecosystem platform, on a USAID-funded contract. Apr-Sep 2020: NEO Group Industry (Romania), modular construction: a plan for the bank and for government funding. The business plan the company took to both. Mar 2016 - 2017: The New Savvy (Singapore), financial media: a plan grown from research. My 100+ page study of six Asian markets became the business plan, with a financial model. Oct 2015 - Sep 2016: A private entrepreneur (United Arab Emirates), procurement services: an idea test and a plan. The procurement agency for SMEs tested on real prospects first, then the business plan with a three-year forecast. Feb-Mar 2016: A deep-learning startup (California), artificial intelligence: a plan for an accelerator application. The business plan behind their Y Combinator application. Nov 2014: InFarm (Germany), vertical farming: a financial model repaired. The broken model rebuilt, and the one-page summary the founders pitched with. Oct 2017 - Mar 2021: An educational games startup (UK), education technology: a plan for a platform launch. I researched the UK education and gaming market, then wrote the business plan, the executive summary and the financial model. Jan 2017 - Jan 2018: A private entrepreneur, Kuwait, hydroponic farming: a plan to raise funding. The business plan and financial model for a hydroponic lettuce farm, after the external and internal analysis. Sep 2017 - Feb 2018: Smart Home Services (North Carolina), smart home retail: a plan for an online shop. NEST products with installation as the value-added service, from the market analysis to the financial model. Nov 2017 - Jan 2018: A private entrepreneur, Saudi Arabia, packaging manufacturing: a plan for government funding. The business plan for a cup forming and packaging company. Dec 2017 - Mar 2018: OrderDirectly (UK), food delivery: a plan for investors. The business plan, the pitch deck and the one-page executive summary an online takeaway ordering service took to them. Dec 2017 - Feb 2018: Lazy Chipmunk (USA), cannabis e-commerce: a plan for investors. The business plan and the pitch deck for an online shop selling cannabis equipment, with a SWOT and a financial model. Jan-Feb 2018: MacX Charging (UK), electric vehicle charging: a product plan. The business plan for a variable-output charging box, with the external and internal analysis and the financial model. Jan-Feb 2018: A marketplace founder, Kuwait, furniture marketplaces: a platform plan. A furniture design platform where the customer picks a design and a local producer sets the price and the timeframe. Nov 2017 - Apr 2018: ArtBox Modular (USA), green housing: a plan and pitch deck. Turn-key alternative housing built from green materials, starting from the prefabricated market. Jan-Feb 2018: Winerack (Texas), wine import: a plan for distribution. Importing Spanish wine into Texan retail and grocery chains, from the industry and distribution analysis to the numbers. Mar 2018: Cropland (UK), agritech: a market entry plan. What the startup needed to judge the Indian agrotechnology market, from the external review to its own position and strengths. Apr 2018: Life Skills LOL (Connecticut), children's education: a plan for a new centre. Life skills for children from six weeks to eighteen years old, with the financial model. Jul-Oct 2018: Gold Atlantic Airways (Ghana), aviation: a plan for a new airline. At Accra airport, from the global industry overview to the marketing plan and the financial projections. Nov-Dec 2018: Urban denCITY (New York), furniture design: a plan and pitch deck. Multipurpose furniture that stacks, folds and collapses, with PEST and Porter analyses for New York. Mar-May 2017: A franchise buyer, USA, home care franchising: a plan for a loan. The business plan and financial model for taking on an Interim HealthCare franchise. May-Jul 2017: Subcontracted by Gok Immigration Service (UK), immigration business plans: the external analysis. The North London tiling market, paper bags and perfumes, for plans they prepared for their clients. Jun-Jul 2017: Premier Aerial Imagery (Pennsylvania), drone photography: a plan for a new company. The current market, its trends, the industry expectations and the competitors. Sep-Oct 2017: A private entrepreneur, Brunei, restaurants: a plan for bank funding. An Asian restaurant in London, with a SWOT, a risk assessment and three-year projections. Dec 2017: XR Cross Realities (USA), esports and VR: a plan to raise capital. An esports bar with a scalable VR arcade, from the competitive landscape to the financial model. Mar-Apr 2016: On behalf of a business consulting company, Bermuda, leisure and printing: two plans. One for paint-and-wine classes, one for a printing company, each with a SWOT, a risk analysis and the financials. Mar-Sep 2016: A private entrepreneur, Laveen, Arizona, food trucks: a plan in ten days. A healthy food truck, with the external and internal analysis, a financial model and a recommended truck. Dec 2015 - Jun 2016: Second Sex (Hong Kong), corporate franchising: a business model and plan. A women's emancipation brand it wanted to franchise to corporations, with a three-year financial model. Sep 2015 - Jan 2016: A first-time founder (USA), web services for preschools: a plan from consultations. After several sessions to fine-tune the idea, the business plan and financial model in LivePlan. Aug-Oct 2016: A private entrepreneur, Virginia, mobile apps: a plan from market research. The app market and its competitors researched, then the business plan for a nightlife app listing parties, prices and user feedback. Aug-Sep 2015: IT Elevated (USA), IT services: a plan for an SBA loan. The business plan and financial documentation rebuilt on a short deadline, with a quote found for every item in the procurement plan. Nov 2014 - Jan 2015: Afric Marketing (UK), agricultural marketing: a plan repaired. The part-built business plan reviewed, its inconsistencies fixed, and the financial model built to complete it. Apr 2015: A student client (UK), cleaning services: a plan for a school assignment. Dormitory cleaning, with a PEST analysis, an industry and competition review and the financials. Nov-Dec 2014: Ateliers Laporte-Vovan (Montreal), renovation and contracting: a plan with an action plan. The home improvement, renovation and general contracting industry and its competitors researched first. Jul 2011: Freedom Migration (Australia), migration services: strategy and a plan. The strategic orientation set over a run of meetings, then the business plan. Show more (29 more)Show less
2015-present	Business coach and mentor · Owners, founders and fellow consultants, one to one Sometimes an owner does not need research or a plan, just someone to talk to: to bounce an idea off, to second-guess a decision, to clear up their own thinking. Most consultants work on the business (marketing, sales, HR, finance); here I work on the person running it, and how they see their own company decides every choice that follows. Over a series of meetings I ask the questions, and they leave each one knowing what to do next. 2026-present: Built Logic (UK), AI consulting for construction: from selling as they go to a sales strategy. I work with the co-founder on how they sell today and where it leaks, and together we turned it into a 30/60/90-day plan he runs. 2026-present: FYLED (UK), fintech: from replacing accounting software to a layer on top of it. I work with the founder on his pricing and on where accounting firms fit in his distribution, and the questions led him to the pivot himself. May-Sep 2026: DAVLEO Konsalting (Macedonia): I mentored another consultancy through a full business diagnostic for its client, from the first sessions to the report. Jan 2024-Jul 2026: MCA-2000 (Macedonia): I mentored two CMC candidates through their case studies and sat on the 2026 panel, for the body that certified me. Feb 2026: A Swiss jewellery brand (Switzerland), jewellery: from waiting for the end customer to going through the studios. I helped the owner see hair and nail studios as her channel, and she left with a go-to-market plan that starts with a five-studio pilot. 2025: Simbiotika (Macedonia), HR and organisational development: from everything on the two founders to founder freedom. In person with the two people running the institute, I helped them see which of the work only they can do, and start the move from the operational wheel to the strategic one. 2025: launchyourservicebusiness.com (Algeria), done-for-you funnels for coaches and consultants: from one offer for everyone to tiers for the buyers worth having. I helped the founder see that his buyers differ by what they charge, and from that came his price tiers and channels beyond Upwork. 2024: DASP OE (Greece), paid advertising: from freelancer to agency. I helped her see that one service, priced as three packages, is an agency, and gave her the answer to "why an agency and not a freelancer". 2024: Axis Nova (USA), IT advisory: from a career to an offer. I helped a former VP of IT turn "the bridge between business and tech" into an offer for mid-sized financial companies, and showed him how the US market shrinks to 80 companies once the buyer is clear. 2024: Plan889 (UK), construction planning: from newly freelance to a market of three kinds of contractor. I helped him see his buyers by what each would pay for, and his LinkedIn opener became a question instead of a pitch. 2024: Codesealer (Denmark), cybersecurity: from everyone to the first buyer. I coached the team on who to sell to first, from golf clubs to application-security buyers at the OWASP conference in Lisbon. 2024: A nicotine-pouch startup (Lithuania), consumer goods: from our product to the distributor's margin. I coached the two founders to pitch European distributors on what the distributor earns, starting from their own cost per unit. 2024: Vista Point (Macedonia), software development: from "we develop software" to three offers. I helped the owner of a three-person company see his work as three Adobe offers, each with its own buyer and a free first step, with the unit economics and the capacity behind them. 2024: Authentic Learning (USA), education: from a conviction to a method with a price. I helped the founder name his view of how children should learn as a method with three pillars, and from there build a seven-step sales process and an offer for ed-tech companies. 2024: HGI Solutions (USA), IT field services: from one website for everyone to a page per buyer. I helped the owner of a New York company see his buyers one at a time, and showed him a way into large companies through public tenders and their supplier diversity managers. 2024: Intellect Consulting (Sri Lanka), SAP consulting: from "digital transformation" to three industries. I helped the partners narrow their pitch to three industries and a partner programme, and showed them how open SAP jobs on LinkedIn reveal the buyers. 2024: MPG Solutions (Macedonia), marketing and software: from an agency with software to a software seller. I helped the director of the Skopje agency decide which product goes to Europe first, its agency ERP sold to other marketing agencies, with the segments, the website flow and a growth plan behind it. 2024: LIBERTY TECH (France), mobile app development: from selling hours to a ladder. I helped the founder see his services as steps, from a paid prototype to the full app, and settle the brand story and the buyers and partners to go after first. 2023-2024: i2systems, software development: from freelancer to agency. I coached a developer who runs a small agency on positioning himself as one, on fixed-price packages, and on the website and LinkedIn his buyers read before they decide. 2023-2024: Launchr / Polifinity (Germany), AI tools for product managers: from a tool to a promise. I worked with the founder on what the tool really is and how to position it; it became a one-month backlog audit with a promise: a clean product roadmap, or you don't pay. 2022-2024: Data Kraken (UK), data analytics for mobile operators: from tailored work to a product. I coached the founder on turning his reporting work into a packaged offer, and on using a conference talk to find the first buyers. 2023: ECHO DOOEL (Macedonia), mobile app development: from documents about us to documents for one buyer. I coached the Skopje company on its sales one-pagers, asking of each whether it talks to one buyer or to many, and whether it reads junior or senior. 2023: MVP Masters (Macedonia), app development: from a general agency to a packaged MVP service. I helped the founder see the move and get started on Upwork. He later built lancer.app. 2023: Golden Earth (Canada), Mendix development: from any client to two kinds of buyer. I helped the founder see who his ideal customer is, and from that the lead-generation criteria followed: new MVP builders, and companies already running Mendix. Mar 2022: Healty.Me (Macedonia), online fitness and wellbeing: from a platform to a business with a plan. I met the founders in person and helped them map their business and their platform, and from that map they set their growth plan. 2019-2020: Erin McClarty PLLC (USA), consulting for social-impact organisations: from any non-profit to 980 in Texas. I helped her define her ideal client before the lead-generation campaign, and the campaign narrowed to that list. Apr-Sep 2015: Philosophy Design Studio (USA), design: from a studio to a business. Strategic planning, operations, segmentation, targeting, positioning and financial planning; I asked the questions, the client did the work. Show more (22 more)Show less
2007-present	Trainer · Programmes I wrote and delivered Consulting works on one business at a time, coaching on the one person running it. Training puts the same lessons in front of a room, and most programmes come with mentoring after the room: theory that has already been tested on a real business. That is how I give back what I learned. 2022-present: Prospecting Hive, my own online academy, B2B founders and sales teams: recorded courses. I planned and recorded six courses around my ZZ Framework, then built the platform they run on with Claude Code. Oct 2025-Apr 2026: Strategic Development Consulting, CARE Balkans EWI programme (Macedonia), women entrepreneurs: training and mentoring. I trained and mentored 70 women entrepreneurs and ranked 39 of their business plans, and mentored two social enterprises, FRLZ "Zaedno" (Štip) and ZLCPDP "Garden Glow" (Veles). Dec 2020-May 2021: AGORA, Centre for Promoting Civic Values (Macedonia), 50 young people: training and mentoring. A US Embassy-supported entrepreneurship programme where I ran the workshops and mentored 25 of them through their business plans. May and Nov 2011; May 2012: MATA / USAID, creative-industry entrepreneurs: the finance module of a business-plan training. Nov 2011 was rated 9.56 out of 10, and the material became the Manual for Start-up Businesses, which I co-authored. Jul-Dec 2011: SyncPartners Academy (UK), first-time founders: a curriculum. I developed the action-learning curriculum for the 'Start your own Enterprise' course, to ILM accreditation. Jun-Dec 2007: Business Without Borders (Macedonia), self-employed women farmers around Kriva Palanka: training, then the project itself. I built the business planning and marketing training, then ran the project. Sep-Dec 2025: Brainster CBC Collective, GEN-E, young entrepreneurs: a recorded module. I wrote and recorded the financial literacy module. Oct 2022-Dec 2023: Rockstart AgriFood, agrifood startups: a workshop, then mentoring. A two-hour workshop on prospecting and outreach for the 2022 cohort, then core mentor to Complex Earth, one of the 2023 startups, through the finals in Copenhagen on 7 December 2023. Dec 2021-Mar 2022: Impact Foundation, Helvetas RECONOMY programme, future freelancers: a curriculum and group sessions. I wrote the mentorship curriculum and ran ten group sessions preparing them for digital labour platforms. 4 and 11 Mar 2022: ARNO (Association for Social Innovation), Green Ideas competition (Skopje), competition applicants: two workshops. Business Model Canvas, and the financial sustainability of the business. before 2019: Youth Education Forum, young people: training. Competitive analysis, running a business, and finance for non-finance people. Mar and Apr 2010: YES Incubator, entrepreneurs in Štip and Strumica: business-plan training. Show more (6 more)Show less

Qualifications

Everything above is my own account. Below is the profession's: the CMC that sets how a management consultant works, held since 2020 and renewed in 2023, and the management diploma behind the theory I keep testing on clients.

May 2026	ISO 20700 for management consultants · MCA-2000 / ICMCI
June 2025	Angel Investing 101 · Zephyr Angels / Swiss EP
January 2020	Certified Management Consultant (CMC) · ICMCI via MCA-2000
March 2019	Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership · Chartered Management Institute

Membership within professional bodies

The bodies above certify the work; the rooms below are where the same people meet. Consulting is lonely work, done inside other people's companies, so here I compare notes with consultants, founders and fellow graduates, and one of these rooms I ended up leading.

2018-present	Member, former President MCA-2000 On the supervisory and managing boards 2018-2023, President 2021-2023, an active member since.	2021-present	Member ICMCI A member through MCA-2000; on the Marketing Committee 2022-2023.
2021-present	Board member YES Incubator Foundation	2009-present	Member Macedonian Chamber of Commerce
2021-present	Member Macedonian American Alumni Association (MAAA)	2019	Registered consultant European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
2021-2022	Member CEED Macedonia Gold Club	2018-2019	Member Project Management Institute
2018-2019	Member Chartered Management Institute	2015-present	Member Association of MBAs

Investments

Everything above I did inside other people's companies, for a fee. Below, the same eye with my own money behind it, in companies I believe will grow steeply. I pick them the way I diagnose a client; the difference is that this time I stay.

2025-present	NU Koledz / Brainster · Investor NU runs six-month academies in Skopje where high-school students train for the professions that pay well.
2025-present	PathKeeper Surgical · Investor PathKeeper Surgical builds a navigation system for spine surgery. It uses 3D optical cameras and AI, so the surgeon needs no radiation during the operation.
2025-present	Feather Global · Investor, cash and consulting Feather Global is an Australian company that makes a digital menu for restaurants. I invested partly in cash and partly in consulting.
2025-present	Gulli · Investor, cash and consulting Gulli makes souvenir magnets with an NFC and QR tag. One tap on the magnet opens the place's app, its offer or its booking page. I invested partly in cash and partly in consulting.
2024-present	barKoder · Investor barKoder makes a barcode scanner that developers build into their own iOS, Android and web apps, made for the barcodes that are hard to read.
2024-present	Hylosense (formerly EarthCare) · Investor Hylosense trains AI weather models for one site at a time, tuned to its microclimate, and sells the forecasts to utilities. When I invested it was EarthCare, a climate-data company.

Academic Contributions

A framework written in a week is a claim. Mine take the long way: they start in what others have already published, keep the pieces that hold, and go into companies to be tested before I put my name on them. The traffic runs both ways: what I see in the field becomes a paper, the paper sends me back through the literature, and I return to clients with a sharper instrument. The lecturing is the giving back: students get the theory and how it is applied in a real business, in the same hour.

28 Sep 2026: Where is the Croatian Higher Education in 2025? (International Research in Education): First author. The question a diagnostic asks of a company, asked of a country's higher education: where does the output really come from? Croatia produces 41 percent of the region's citations, and five of its 31 institutions produce 95 percent of that. Read the paper
4 Sep 2026: Montenegrin Higher Education System from a Regional Perspective (International Research in Education): A small system read against its larger neighbours: one university carries almost all of Montenegro's research output, and still produces more per professor than flagship universities with several times its staff. Read the paper
4 Sep 2026: Mapping Higher Education Excellence in the Region: Serbia in Comparative Perspective (International Research in Education): Sixteen Serbian institutions measured against 151 Balkan universities, field by field: the second-largest research output in the Balkans, and a third of its top researchers' citations belong to one person. Read the paper
Jun 2026: From Planning to Decision-Making: How Diagnostic-Led Strategy Serves SMEs in Volatile Markets (ICMCI): Chapter 5.6 in the ICMCI white paper Navigating the Storm: Developing and Implementing Strategies in an Uncertain World (p. 226-240). The client method written up for the profession's own body: diagnose first, then decide, because a plan written in a calm year does not survive a volatile one. Behind it, four anonymised client cases and the review of thirty maturity frameworks from my doctoral research. Read the chapter
8 Apr 2026: Building structure of AIMS (UACS Doctoral Mini Conference): Presented my doctoral research to the faculty: a framework for AI adoption in service SMEs, assembled from what thirty digital and AI maturity frameworks already measure, so the version tested in companies starts from the literature and not from a hunch.
Feb 2025-Jan 2026: Professor of Management Practice (University American College Skopje): Selected by the faculty's commission as a distinguished expert from practice, to teach Entrepreneurship at the Faculty of Business Economics and Organizational Sciences. A year of teaching the course the way a founder would run it, with the cases from my own companies. In March 2025 I sat on the jury of the course's Business Plan Contest and judged the plans of 11 student groups.
Dec 2025: Author of five business syllabi (VOX / CESIL): Entrepreneurship, Family Business and Succession, Digital Entrepreneurship, Digital Sales and Entrepreneurial Finance, each written from what the subject looks like inside a company, not only in the textbook.
15 Nov 2024: Guest lecturer on AI, leadership and firm strategy (University of Rome Tor Vergata): A talk with the workforce about to start, students from eight countries: where AI is headed, how leadership is handling it, and what to expect from it in the jobs they are studying for.
Apr 2022: Guest lecturer, Building the Entrepreneurial Mindset (University of Rome Tor Vergata): What changes in how you think when the company is yours: the decisions, the risk, the money, told from the inside.
Feb 2021: UACS guest lecture, Skopje: the BizzBee founder journey: Four days of guest lectures. I shared my own journey with students who may become founders themselves, and pointed at the mistakes I made along the way, so they do not have to repeat them.

Books Published

Every couple of years I stop and write down what the work taught me. Four books before the age of forty, each one written while running the business it describes.

Sweet Leads (2021)

Author

Publisher: Rethink Press · United Kingdom

See it on Amazon

8 Qualities for Great Leadership (2023)

Contributing author

Publisher: Yeukai Publishing · United Kingdom

See it on Amazon

A Journey to Financial Freedom (2024)

Author

Publisher: Independently published · North Macedonia

See it on Amazon

Success Ceiling Breakthrough (2026)

Co-author

Publisher: Authority Publishing · United States

See it on Amazon

Shows and Publications

The same documenting habit in other formats. My own entrepreneurial journey, recorded as it happened. Conversations with fellow entrepreneurs and business owners about how they sell and grow. And what consulting teaches, from my own diagnostics and from other consultants on how they work.

Sweet Buzz

My own podcast on entrepreneurship and B2B growth, recorded while I was living it.

Sweet Leads

With my co-host, B2B prospecting from the first list to the signed client.

B2B Sales Automation Series

Founders of sales tools, on what their tools do for B2B outreach.

One Lesson at a Time

B2B service owners, one practical lesson each.

Anatomy of Consulting

A weekly newsletter that dissects one consulting framework per edition, from diagnostics to AI in the practice.

Prospecting and Outreach Summit

A virtual summit I organised for the people who do B2B prospecting; I also spoke and moderated.

Interview With a Management Consultant

Fellow management consultants on how they actually work.

Speaking

The shows above are my own stage. From here on the stage belongs to someone else: an organiser who curates an event decides that my thought is worth their community's time. That started in 2009 in Brazil, where I told the story of my first startup in front of 800 people from 70 countries, and runs to keynotes and conference panels.

Oct 2026: International CMC Conference 2026 (ICMCI, Bucharest, Romania): Speaker at the annual conference of the world's certified management consultants.
21-22 Nov 2025: WITCON 2025, Women in Tech Conference (Women in Tech Macedonia, Skopje): Keynote speaker on the AI-isation of SMEs, to over 450 women in tech.
Oct 2024: ICMCI International CMC Conference "Digital Horizons" (ICMCI, Yerevan, Armenia): Panellist on "Transforming Industries with AI", in front of certified consultants from around the world.
Mar 2024: WorldChicago ProFellows Alumni Summit (WorldChicago, Zagreb, Croatia): Workshop lead for fellow alumni: two book-themed workshops in one session, "Write a Book" and "A Journey to Financial Freedom".
2 Nov 2022: AllWeb International Conference (AllWeb, Tirana, Albania): Keynote speaker to the region's digital marketers: "Digital Outreach Fever", building digital relationships over spamming people.
30 May-3 Jun 2011: 4th infoDev Global Forum on Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship (World Bank infoDev, Helsinki, Finland): Speaker in the session on sustainable businesses in the knowledge economy, and co-ran the forum's pilot training session.
26-30 Oct 2009: 3rd infoDev Global Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (World Bank infoDev, Florianópolis, Brazil): Speaker in the Mobile Enabled Solutions plenary, telling the AdvertSMS story to over 800 participants from 70 countries.

5 May 2026: Business Talks Vinica (Swisscontact): Panellist on two panels for the town's business owners: finance and market entry, then people and technology.
Dec 2025: Women Entrepreneurs Conference 2025 (Kasia Events, Skopje): Speaker to a room of women entrepreneurs on the AI-ization of SMEs: where automation gives a small firm its edge.
28 Nov 2025: FuckUp Nights Skopje (StartupRevolution.ai Summit): Speaker, telling the AdvertSMS failure story to the startup crowd of the StartupRevolution.ai Summit.
Nov 2025: Global Entrepreneurship Week 2025 (Skopje): Organiser and speaker, presenting the 7-Step Business Diagnostic Framework with my co-founder to the week's founders.
30 Oct 2025: AI Collective Skopje Launch Summit (AI Collective Skopje): Co-speaker with Joe Kapp on Entrepreneurship & AI, at the launch of the city's AI community.
30 May 2025: MCA-2000 25th Anniversary Roundtable "Management Consulting: Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow." (MCA-2000, Skopje): Panellist among the country's consultants on where the profession goes next: digital, AI and outcome-based models.
27-29 May 2025: Regional Balkan Alumni Summit (Macedonian American Alumni Association, Skopje): Facilitator of a session on AI solutions for youth start-ups, for alumni of US exchange programmes from across the Balkans.
Mar-May 2025: "I Have an Idea 2" (Имам Идеја 2) (StartUp Club Skopje, Skopje): Lecturer and panellist for a cohort of first-time founders: evening lectures through the programme, then a seat on the Demo Day and Investors Day panel.
27 Feb 2025: Digital Outreach Mastery Webinar #2: Mastering Database Building with Automation and AI (BizzBee Solutions, Online): Speaker (webinar), with Natasha Razmoska, for B2B sales teams: building a prospect database with automation and AI.
30 Jan 2025: BizzBee Solutions live webinar (BizzBee Solutions, Online): Speaker (webinar), with Natasha Razmoska: the AI prompts we use in outreach, shown live.
2 Dec 2024: Balkan Digital panel "Competitiveness through Digital Transformation" (Balkan Digital, Skopje): Panellist with Tijana Sekulić on what digital transformation does for a company's competitiveness.
22 Nov 2024: Global Entrepreneurship Week panel "Digital Sales: Achieving Results with a Limited Budget" (StartUp Club Skopje, Skopje): Panellist with Vasko Karangeleski and Natasha Razmoska, for founders selling on a small budget.
18 Nov 2024: Webinar "Кој е твојот идеал клиент?" (Who is your ideal client?) (Online): Speaker with Vasko Karangeleski on how a company defines the client it should be chasing.
29 Apr 2024: 2nd Freelance Conference (Impact Foundation, Skopje): Panellist on "Mastering the Freelance Toolkit", for the country's freelancers.
Dec 2023: Digital Nomad Summit 2023 (Online): Speaker to remote workers on the road from freelancing through consulting and agency to a powerhouse.
16 Nov 2023: Global Entrepreneurship Week 2023 (Startup Macedonia, Skopje): Moderator and speaker of a session on sales for the week's entrepreneurs.
15 Nov 2023: Prospecting & Outreach Summit 2023 (BizzBee Solutions, Online): Moderator of BizzBee's own summit for the people who do B2B prospecting.
Sep 2023: Group Experience Sharing (CEED Macedonia): Guest speaker for CEED's members on leadership and the questions an entrepreneur needs to know the answer to.
28-29 Apr 2023: Leadership Summit (Online): Speaker on "Designing Your B2B Growth Strategy", the subject of my chapter in 8 Qualities for Great Leadership, at the summit that launched the book.
12 Apr 2023: Freelancing Workshop "Enrich Your Experience by Working Online on U.S. Projects" (Macedonian American Alumni Association, Kavadarci): Co-presenter to 110 people in Kavadarci on working online for US clients.
27 Mar 2023: Invento Summit 2023 (Invento Capital Partners, Zagreb, Croatia): Panellist among investors and founders on entrepreneurship, scaling and investment.
18 Nov 2022: Global Entrepreneurship Week: "From Entrepreneur to Consultant" (MCA-2000, Skopje): Moderator of a session for entrepreneurs weighing the move from running a business to consulting.
15 Nov 2022: Prospecting & Outreach Summit 2022 (BizzBee Solutions, Online): Keynote speaker and moderator: "Digital Outreach Fever", a 20-minute keynote with Q&A inside a four-part programme.
14 Nov 2022: Global Entrepreneurship Week: "Podcasting as a sales and marketing channel" (Startup Macedonia, Skopje): Speaker with Darko Buldioski, for founders considering a podcast as a channel.
26 May 2022: Business Café Macedonia (Skopje): Speaker at the networking event for the city's business owners.
Nov 2021: Global Entrepreneurship Week: "A Chat with Successful Freelancers" (Impact Foundation / RECONOMY, Skopje): Speaker in a session with working freelancers, for people about to become one.
14 Jun 2021: CMC panel "Certified Management Consultant: advantages and challenges" (MCA-2000, Online): Panellist for consultants weighing the Certified Management Consultant route.
20 May 2021: Skopje Marketing Summit "Reframing the Future" (Online): Speaker to the marketing community: "Your Ideal Client is on LinkedIn. Find Him!"
17 May 2021: Creative Business Cup North Macedonia 2021 (SmartUp Social Innovation Lab): Speaker at the national round, days before sitting on its final jury.
14 Apr 2021: CEED Macedonia Gold Club (CEED Macedonia, Skopje): Guest speaker for CEED's Gold Club members on exporting knowledge.
Oct 2020: Decoding the Economics: Regional Short/Long Term Potential (Business Consultants Council / ACN / MCA-2000, Online): Speaker to the region's consultants: "From General Consulting to Specialized Growth Services".
22 Apr 2019: Finance for Non-finance (Youth Educational Forum, Public Room, Skopje): Trainer, a free evening lecture in Macedonian for young people who never studied finance, organised by the Youth Educational Forum with the Institute for European Policy.
Oct 2010: Agriculture Community of Practice (World Bank infoDev, Hyderabad, India): Speaker to the World Bank's agro-incubator network on agro-incubators and SME empowerment.
20 Feb 2010: Business plan training (YES Incubator, Štip): Guest speaker at the incubator's business-plan training, my first paid teaching engagement.
Nov 2009: Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009, East East regional conference (YES Incubator, Skopje): Speaker on entrepreneurship at the regional conference, as a first-time founder.
2009: Regional Business Incubator Workshop (Foundation Open Society Institute - Macedonia and YES Incubator, Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina): Speaker, a ten-minute company presentation to the region's incubators.

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Media Appearances

Speaking reaches a room. Below, the thought left the room: an editor or a host decided it was worth their whole audience, and has kept deciding so since 2010. It is how my insights travel further than I can: the startup journey and what it cost, and the B2B lessons from running the agency.

Aug 2026: Chubu Keizai Shimbun (Nagoya, Japan): Author of three newspaper columns on North Macedonia for the paper's readers in Nagoya, on 3, 10 and 17 August 2026.
20 Apr 2026: inovativnost.mk: Subject of the case study: the diagnostic method, as applied at Echo, written up for the portal's readers.
20-21 Dec 2025: Ekonomija i Biznis magazine: Interviewee, a feature interview on export strategy for the business magazine's readers.
18 Dec 2025: Telma TV: Interviewee on national television, on scaling a startup.
25 Nov 2025: Bloomberg Adria, "Not So Small Talk": Panellist in three appearances on SME financial management and market entry.

Nov 2025: Alsat-M: Interviewee with my co-founder on national television, on moving from startup to scale-up.
29 Apr 2024: The Voice of MAAA: Guest, alongside Monika Rizovska Tanevska, on entrepreneurship and what Macedonia offers a young entrepreneur.
19 Apr 2024: ShareGoblin: Subject of an editorial review of A Journey to Financial Freedom.
5 Apr 2024: MJ Wolfe, Author Spotlight: Interviewee in the Author Spotlight series on YouTube, on A Journey to Financial Freedom.
Apr 2024: Inovativnost.mk, Marketing365, Pari.com.mk, Najdobro.mk and Antoris: Subject: five Macedonian portals covered the launch of A Journey to Financial Freedom.
29 Nov 2023: CEO Wisdom: Guest of Charles Cormier on lead generation, agencies, consulting and podcasting.
24 Aug 2023: Starter Story: Interviewee: why I stepped down as CEO of our $300K-a-year outreach firm.
10 Jul 2023: The Fabulous Fempreneurship: Guest of Elaine Slatter on designing a B2B growth strategy.
13 Sep 2022: Kvantum Prima: Interviewee in a video with four lessons for young people, from entrepreneurs of Kavadarci.
27 Jul 2022: What's the Point?: Guest of Andrew Miller on the joy of purpose.
4 Jul 2022: The Tingle Zone: Guest of Andrew Miller on a company that works without you.
3 Mar 2022: Tomorrow's Leader: Guest of John Laurito on a steady flow of B2B leads.
27 Jan 2022: Onest Conversations: Guest of Olga Nesterova on converting leads into B2B sales.
22 Jan 2022: RECONOMY: Speaker in a video snippet on freelancing and what it takes to become a freelancer.
23 Dec 2021: Impact Foundation: Interviewee on guiding people through the beginnings of freelancing.
18-29 Nov 2021: The Leadership Stack: Guest of Sean Si across four episodes (#297, #299, #301, #303).
23 Nov 2021: Café & Networking: Guest of Tom Reaoch, introduced as CEO of BizzBee Solutions, Skopje.
12 Nov 2021: Global Entrepreneurship Week 2021: Speaker in the session on how freelancing builds the entrepreneurship ecosystem, by Impact Foundation and Startup Macedonia.
3 Nov 2021: CEED Global: Interviewee in the CEED Macedonia Entrepreneur Spotlight.
2 Nov 2021: Invest In Yourself: Guest of Phil Better on finding sweet leads.
1 Sep 2021: The Courage to Lead: Guest of Harlan Hammack, episode #67, on the courage to inspire growth.
24 Aug 2021: SCRUM Macedonia: Speaker in an online talk for the Scrum community on running a marketing agency on Scrum.
3 Aug 2021: Failory: Interviewee on growing a B2B lead generation agency to $18k a month.
23 Jul 2021: Creative Hub: Interviewee, in Macedonian, on informal education and internship programmes.
14 Jul 2021: Beer and Business Podcast: Guest of Jake Mullins and Darrin Flanagan, episode 118, on prospecting with LinkedIn.
18 Jun 2021: The XL Podcast, 10 Minute Leaders: Guest of Graham Brown in the 10 Minute Leaders series.
17 Jun 2021: Starter Story: Interviewee on how I use LinkedIn to grow an $18K-a-month business.
15 Jun 2021: TITAN Business Builders: Guest of Stefaan De Vreese on riding the entrepreneurial rollercoaster.
7 Jun 2021: Talking with the Experts: Guest of Rose Davidson, episode #154, on gaining clients on LinkedIn.
26 May 2021: Yeukai Business Show: Guest on episode 322, on LinkedIn and email outreach.
24 May 2021: Positive on a Success Test: Guest of Sanja Arizanov in the podcast's first episode.
4 May 2021: The Thomas Green Podcast: Guest of Thomas Green, episode #80, an ask-me-anything on Sales Navigator.
29 Mar 2021: Slobodna TV: Interviewee on Sloboden Pecat TV: why companies look for consulting to survive.
24 Mar 2021: designthinking.mk: Interviewee, an interview for the portal's readers.
16 Mar 2021: Coaches & Mentors Unwrapped: Guest of Michael and Roslyn Adonteng on six critical tasks when starting a business.
7 Mar 2021: Evil Crazy Genius: Guest of Alisa Czar on B2B outreach and LinkedIn "dates".
Mar 2021: I AM CEO: Guest of Gresham Harkless, episode IAM946, as a growth enthusiast.
22 Feb 2021: Billion Success: Interviewee as CEO and founder of BizzBee Solutions.
12 Feb 2021: #комкаст: Guest of Darko Buldioski, episode #97, on B2B and LinkedIn, in Macedonian.
11 Feb 2021: ValiantCEO: Interviewee, a founder interview for the magazine's readers.
11 Feb 2021: Tekrati: Interviewee, a founder interview.
11 Feb 2021: AskDproS Business Show: Guest of Kesiena Aaron-Efe, episode 25.
18 Jan 2021: Thrive Global: Interviewee on value over profitability.
Jan 2021: The Thoughtful Entrepreneur: Guest of Josh Elledge, episode #497, on B2B sales solutions.
22 Dec 2020: The Wise Business Podcast: Guest of Carmine Mastropierro.
21 Dec 2020: The Seed: Guest of Rick Liu.
18 Dec 2020: The Entrepreneur Speaks: Guest of Kofi Asare Anyemedu, telling the BizzBee Solutions story.
30 Nov 2020: Authority Magazine (Medium): Interviewee in the series on how to take your company from good to great.
22 Nov 2020: inovativnost.mk: Interviewee: "we have helped more than 350 companies", on what BizzBee does for them.
1 Sep 2020: IdeaMensch: Interviewee as founder of BizzBee Solutions, on how the business runs.
21 Aug 2020: GoodFirms: Contributor, quoted on the impact of COVID-19 on customer acquisition and retention in the IT industry.
31 Jul 2020: Smart Entrepreneur Blog: Contributor, one of 46 experts on how they use LinkedIn to generate leads since the lockdown.
Sep 2019: EU Delegation Skopje, "Canvas for Innovation": Interviewee/participant in the EU Delegation's video on strengthening the national innovation ecosystem.
23 Apr 2016: Change Creator Magazine: Author of an article on self-development.
Feb 2010: AdvertSMS success story (iDISC, infoDev Global Network of Business Incubators): Subject: infoDev's incubator network published AdvertSMS as a success story.

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Awards & Recognition

At every stage of this road someone outside it stopped to say it was worth something: the student with a business plan, the founder, the entrepreneur, and now the consultant. None of it was done for a prize, which is why each one meant so much, and I am grateful for every one. They run from awards for my own startups to the honour of being invited to judge other people's.

20 Nov 2025: EWA Agrifood Innovation Pitching Day (EIT Food, Skopje): Judge of the Demo Day for women founders in agrifood.
2025: Startup accelerator and reality show (The Founder Games, Skopje): Judge in season one of The Founder Games.
2020-2022: Professional Fellows Program (U.S. Department of State / WorldChicago): Selected for the Tech Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fellowship of the U.S. Department of State.
2020: 40 Under 40, Europe 2020 (Business Elite Awards): Named on the Europe 2020 list of Business Elite Awards, a nomination-based platform.
2011: Boris Trajkovski MBA Scholarship (Ministry of Education and Science, Macedonia): The state scholarship that funded my MBA at Sheffield.
May 2009: Global Forum Innovator (World Bank infoDev): Selected by the World Bank's infoDev, through AdvertSMS, for its Global Forum Innovator programme.

2021, 2022 and 2026: Green Ideas competition jury (ARNO, Association for Social Innovation, Skopje): Judge in 2021, 2022 and 2026, scoring green business concepts against ARNO's five criteria.
Dec 2025: NU High School Academy competition (NU Academy by Brainster, Skopje): Investor panel member, deciding with a small panel whether to put money behind the winning student team.
Nov 2025: "I Have an Idea" cohort selection, StartupRevolution.ai Summit (Startup Club Skopje, Skopje): Judge of the cohort selection: 30 ideas pitched, 15 teams taken into incubation.
2022: Business plan competition (United States): Judge of a business plan competition on my 2022 trip to the U.S.
Jun 2021: PowerUP programme semi-finalist (Deloitte / World Bank / WB EDIF): Semi-finalist in the Western Balkans growth programme run by Deloitte with the World Bank.
21 May 2021: Creative Business Cup North Macedonia, national final jury (SmartUp Social Innovation Lab, Online): Judge on the national final jury.
29 Nov-1 Dec 2019: Techstars Startup Weekend Skopje: Judge of the startup teams built over the weekend.
Nov 2009: Plaque of appreciation (USAID Competitiveness Project): From the USAID Competitiveness Project, for support to its internship programme.
Nov 2008: Second place in a national business-plan competition (U.S. Embassy and Junior Achievement, Macedonia): For AdvertSMS, in the competition run by the U.S. Embassy and Junior Achievement.

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Dancho Dimkov

Profile

Education

Non-formal Education

Work Experience

Brands I built

Roles I was hired into

Short-term consulting engagements

Qualifications

Membership within professional bodies

Investments

Academic Contributions

Books Published

Shows and Publications

Speaking

Media Appearances

Awards & Recognition