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Thank you to the 1,400 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 questions!
I hope reading

7 Questions with Nikola Minkov

helps you in your leadership.

 

Cheers,

Jonno White

7 Questions with Nikola Minkov

Name: Nikola Minkov


Current title: CEO


Current organisation: Serpact


I am founder and CEO of Serpact - a Bulgarian digital agency focused on SERP optimization (or known also as SEO). For a short time he managed to gather a team of over 20 experts in the sphere and today Serpact is one of the leading SEO agencies in Bulgaria, Europe and worldwide. For now Serpact is the only one Bulgarian SEO agency with the following prizes:
- ESA {Europeаn Search Awards};
- GSA {Global Search Awards};

Тhe agency is accredited by the worldwide agencies and is the only Bulgarian agency with a presentation in official Google event (Google Dance in Zurich).


Personally, Happy married, father with two daughters. I am Chairman of the Public Council of Ivan Vazov Primary School in Svilengrad, as well as President of the Rotary Club Svilengrad. I am also an IT officer in District 2482 Rotary Bulgaria. I try to distribute my time fairly according to my worldview, family and I try to create and help people around me.

7 Questions with Nikola Minkov

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1. What have you found most challenging as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise?

The challenges are a lot. One of the most challenging is to coordinate multiple projects in order to be delivered on time and with high quality.


2. How did you become a CEO or executive of a large enterprise? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I started my career as a footballer but it was definitely unsuccessful to train football for 15 years and I recorded one match at the highest level in Bulgarian professional football which I have to be honest is not high at all.
Then I started looking for different ways. I made a garden with cherries and peaches and I hoped through European Programs to be able to register this business model but I still failed. I didn't have time for many mistakes because I already have my first daughter and I had to step on the ground and go to be honest in Greece as 5 km from Svilengrad. in 2012 I started as a web site administrator where my colleague to date and Serpact partner Borislav Arapchev offered her a job. The magic came later.
It all started in 2014, when I worked for 2 years for the SEO services company. Then, through advice, my friend Borislav Arapchev realized that it is important to be a man when he has reached his limits to find his way. This is what I did and I created an agency that deals with advertising in three countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Greece and Turkey, because in the city where he lives during this period and on the border of the three countries.
However, I somehow felt that this was not my thing. Until one day you showed up and told me Make me a website. Svilengrad has no one to do this site for so soon I was the only choice. For about a year I had to understand that this is not easy and there are still no places but at the same time I did not stop reading to practice and practice, although not at a high level of SEO.

in 2016 I created a SEO agency Serpact. Not long after I realized that in sports, in order to be the best, you have to attract Messi and / or Ronaldo and the others. And that's what happened - Borislav Arapchev (my teacher) joined our team and later one of the best SEO experts in Bulgaria came to the team.


3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?


My day is planned quite early. My day starts early in the morning around 5-6 a.m. with a snack, coffee, a little gymnastics or stretching, reading a book or a convenient reading list in chrome. After this I usually plan my daily meetings to be in the afternoon , So in the morning when I feel fresh I deal with specific tasks.
I'm trying to get home before seven in the evening, because for me it is important to pay attention and time for my daughters. For me my family comes first in life. In the evening we all have dinner together, then we play with the children and the dog and go to bed.


4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?

I have learned many lessons, obviously showing that I have failed many times. It is important not to give up, not to take anything too seriously and to realize that a business can go bankrupt, it can be sold, and it can work successfully and there is nothing fatal in each of the scenarios. But it's also important to think about the team. What would happen if one of the unfavorable scenarios happened? That's why I always try to have a plan B.


5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

In fact, I don't think a book can affect your life so badly that you realize something so invisible until now. I am often asked this question and I almost always answer that the best book is the Book of Life - what we have experienced. We know there is no one to take it from us. This is very valuable. On the other hand someone can take our wife or our husband, our house, our car and all the money but no one can take our knowledge and experience.


6. How do you build leadership capacity in a large enterprise?

With expertise, with good communication, with humanity that is so often forgotten. Above all, we must be humans to each other regardless of gender, race, skin color, political views, sexual orientation or other differences. We are all human beings and in this aspect we are all equal. The fact that someone is currently in a higher position than another in a company does not mean that it will always remain so and does not always mean that it is natural.


7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise so far?

The situation with COVID-19. All indicators showed that we had to reduce part of our team. But I suggested that we distribute the loss among all instead of laying off staff. Fortunately, this was not necessary, because our sector was simply under stress at first, but it grew. But then I realized that we are all one big family!

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