Is this the first company that you have started, and what drove you towards it?

AdvertSMS was my first experience in the field of private business.

During the first year of secondary school I was enrolled at the NGO MMUN (Macedonian Model United Nation), where I had learned a lot about presentation and debating skills. During the second year I became the regional coordinator of MMUN and enrolled at Blue Skye (a British Council supported NGO) where I had the opportunity to work with small-scale projects. In third year at high school I  enrolled at the NGO EYP (European Youth Parliament) where I had the opportunity to learn a lot about the European Union. At University, during the second year, I was an intern at the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, where I learned a lot about how the government and bureaucracy are functioning. Then I realized that I had a lot of experience in the Non-Governmental and the Governmental sector, but none in the private sector. So I joined BWB (Business Without Borders) where I became a trainer in Strategic Planning, Business Planning and Marketing. All these previous experiences and networking helped me a lot when I entered the private sector.

At the University I did some paperwork on the topic “Mobile Marketing”. While I was making research for the project I have realized that this idea could function in the world but is still non-existent in Macedonia. I had a whole year just for planning and making researches and defining the business processes. After everything was planned, only one thing was left: Enough courage to actually start the company.

How did you finance your start-up operations and how long did it take for the company to reach breakeven?

The process of planning by itself was one year. During that year I came to the result that it would take 5-6.000 Euros just to start. In fact, with many maneuvers I have managed to start the company with only 3.000 Euros. My previous experience and networking helped me (for example, the lawyer was a friend of mine, the accountant as well, and instead of paying 1.000 Euros just for the software, together with my friends I have managed to decrease this cost item to 200 Euros). I am definitely sure that if I would not have had this network at the beginning, the whole start-up process would have been much harder.

Fundraising and financing was planned in advance as well. I had a loan of 1.500 Euros from my bank. Also, I had my own savings of 1.000 Euros. Finally, when I  announced that I would open the company and explained the idea to my family, my brother gave me additional 500 Euros as a flexible loan.

We became financially self-sustainable after the period of entering Yes Incubator. I had enough income to pay all operational costs such as the rent, administrative costs, and purchase of credits for SMS. Every month, I was able to return piece by piece of my depts. We reached breakeven by the end of the first year of operations.

What are your major products and services and how are they unique? What is your competition?

AdvertSMS is a Mobile Marketing Agency that has two major services that are offered to the clients:

Our first service is SMS advertising based on our database of mobile phone numbers. In order to receive an advertising SMS from AdvertSMS, the receiver has to sign a written agreement, which is in line with the Direction For Protection of Private Data of our country, enabling us to send commercial SMS. Through that agreement we are able to gather additional information about the advertising receivers, such as gender, age, location, education, profession and specific interests. We use these information for offering our client companies the highly targeted AdvertSMS advertising services.

One example of SMS advertising is our database of students. The following advertising message can be sent a couple of days before the beginning of the exam sessions: “You have only a few days left before the exam starts, and you still haven’t started studying? Need a miracle? XXX Energy drink is here. Increasing energy and concentration!”

Our second service is SMS advertising using the databases of our clients. If a company has its own database of mobile phone subscribers and wants to increase the efficiency and save costs, instead of using traditional communication channels such as letters, telephone calls etc. it can use SMS. This is effective in particular for sending time-sensitive information and for improving Customer Relationship Management (greetings, birthday SMS, notification). We can even offer smartSMS.

AdvertSMS is the first company in our country that offers Mobile Marketing, so there is no direct competition. We consider other communication channels competing with SMS as competitors, though.

How do you measure the success of the company?

There are many types of measurements of success for AdvertSMS.

First, from user’s side – our database has more than 10.000 subscribers and it is still growing. This is great number since all subscribers have to sign a written agreement.

Second, from client’s side – until today we have 20 companies using our services. 8 of them even signed full year contracts.

Third, awareness – AdvertSMS has won a business plan competition in Macedonia, has been published and quoted in magazines and newspapers, and has also got a short video presentation on TV. AdvertSMS was also recognized as one of infoDev's Global Innovator 2009.

What was the biggest challenge in starting an innovative business in your country and how did you overcome that?

My first challenge was a personal one. Am I capable of founding, managing and growing a company? I knew that I had big previous experience, but the private sector was a whole new field for my. I was 21 years when I started the company. With that age, will companies see me as a kid only, or recognize me as a serious business that really has something to offer?

Another challenge was success and failure. What if my idea fails? This was an inspiring challenge because I had realized that if I would fail to develop the company I would have to work for one to two years to pay back my debts. With 23 years I would be free again to try with another new company, by not losing the experience of the previous. That was my motivation.

My home country was the third major challenge. Macedonia is a small country with a lot of unemployed people. It is yet an undeveloped country and everyone said that it would be very hard to succeed with your own business.

Who are the shareholders in your company?

AdvertSMS is 100% in my ownership.

How have you benefited from business incubation?

Before we have entered Yes Incubator, we had just tried on our own. Without an office and no one to suppport you, we were lost in the business sphere. We were calling from public phone-boxes and sending e-mail offers from Internet cafés. After we entered the business incubator, we have made a milestone for the following 6 months.

What we got from the business incubator was a place where we could work. We now could do professional phone calls, send e-mails and do administrative jobs at one place. That was the first benefit.

Another benefit was the consultations and trainings that were held by the incubator. We were given the opportunity through training and direct mentoring to learn more about business and how things are done in that sphere. That really helped us in order to understand how to position our company in front of potential clients.

Yet the biggest benefit we received from the incubator was networking. There were 17 incubatees in the incubator, which gave us the opportunity to learn from each other, to share contacts and experiences, and even to partner with some of the companies. That was an irreplaceable benefit.

Do you have some specific lessons that you know now and wish you would have known when you started your business, and which you would like to share with fellow entrepreneurs?

If you work for what you want, you will have internal motivation that will give you strength to keep up the 18 hours per day working, and at the end of the day you will still be disappointed that you have left one task undone. I have learned that whatever you do, if you are motivated and if you are totally committed to it, there is no chance of not succeeding. It is only a matter of time. Another big insight is that you need to plan a lot. If you don’t know where you are going, how do you think that you will ever get there? With a lot of planning and evaluation of the planned vs the achieved, you can have real time information that will be crucial for the next decision that needs to be made.

Please visit the AdvertSMS website here: http://www.advertsms.com.mk/