How I Use Linkedin To Grow My $18K/Month Outbound Growth Services Business
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
Hi, I'm Dancho Dimkov, the face and the brain behind BizzBee Solutions. A born and educated entrepreneur, dedicated businessman and consultant, and also a sworn supporter of building meaningful relationships with clients. In 2015, I founded my hive called BizzBee Solutions.
With a big dream and a small loan, I managed to gather the ultimate team – devoted ICP researchers, determined database builders, creative copywriters, and dedicated outreach experts. My hardworking bees have been of tremendous help in building my dream.
We started small, with only a couple of people and some rented desks and computers, but we grew big and strong, serving around 400 + clients now.
At first, we were the guys to hire. We served everyone, offering a long list of services. We were the go-to guys. But the numbers weren't what we hoped for.
Then I decided to change the game. Instead of being generalists, we started being specialists. We started offering our email and LinkedIn outreach to high-ticket service providers, agencies, software development companies, and consultants.
People believe in the illusion that being a freelancer is being free. But it's just the contrary. You are entirely dependent on your next gig.
BizzBee's employees, or as we call them 'the bees', are trained and have specialized in delivering warm leads to entrepreneurs and companies. Focused on SMEs, we believe in the consistency of hard work and the magic of pure effort. Our queen bee's formula and business model is designed to help CEOs and entrepreneurs to focus on the core of their business while we take care of filling up their sales funnels.
Geared towards offering exacting services, we understand how difficult running a company can be and how at times, it may seem exhausting to balance multiple tasks. This is one of the main reasons why we work and communicate with our clients, instead of just offering them solutions. Focused on building long-term partnerships, the success we have so far achieved is a testament to our commitment and passion.
We believe that when you have a dream and set a goal, there is nothing in this world that can stop you from achieving what you want.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
I wasn't born rich, nor as part of the business world. Everything I've built, I did it slowly, with my own two hands, ignited by my innovative ideas. It might sound like a cliché, but I've had that entrepreneurial spark since my early childhood. My first bargain was trading the candies that I bought on vacation for far more valuable school supplies. And my entrepreneurial adventures never ended since then—each one bolder than the previous.
But my first real company experience came at 21 when I was still at university. We founded the first marketing agency in Macedonia with a couple of friends that used the mobile device as a medium.
We even received the "Global Innovator for 2009" award.
Meanwhile, I started working full-time for some serious foreign companies. Starting their Macedonian offices and boosting them towards success. But that life wasn't for me.
So I fueled my thirst for new experiences by simultaneously freelancing.
I enjoyed the much-needed additional income, so I kept digging and looking for side gigs. I was doing market research reports, business plans, and other economic-related services.
But then, I realized something. My freelancing job was bringing me more money than my actual full-time job. 2015 was the year when I had my Aha moment! I quit my stable, high-income job and started working as a digital nomad. My wife (fiancé then) and I had a year of adventure – traveling around Europe and working from everywhere. But then I got sick. That was the eye-opener that I needed. This wasn't right. Not for the long run. Not for people who wanted to build a family. People believe in the illusion that being a freelancer is being free. But it's just the contrary. You are entirely dependent on your next gig.
This moment was the next game-changer for me. I quit roaming around and decided to start my own hive. That's when I founded BizzBee and started a family. Me and wife, I went all-in.
5 years later, we are an established consultancy with 20+ employees, serving 400+ clients globally.
We are LinkedIn and email outreach specialists, delivering seamless business and marketing solutions for software providers, high-ticket service providers, consultants, and agencies. We are the bees to partner with for building B2B lead generation and sales process.
Our approach is so much different from what you have seen so far. We aim for sparking contacts, building meaningful relationships, and see if we could help our clients finding the solution that they need.
Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.
Having a BA in e-business, you can guess that I've always had a thing about building business strategies and marketing. So my first big project was opening my own marketing agency along with a couple of friends. It was called AdvertSMS. We were students still, but we were thirsty for knowledge and eager to dive into the business waters. These were my beginnings, the place where I learned how to do market research.
This was my first project, my first product, my first baby.
In case you are wondering, I didn't stop there.
I continued my education and navigating the cursor of my business dream.
I enrolled at Sheffield University, where I acquired an MBA, which was of tremendous help in my business journey.
Having the theory and the practice, I could have shot for the stars.
Afterward, I started working for Retell Ltd, a Dutch software development company, as head of their R&D department.
Though this job gave me the income that I needed, it was way too corporate for me, so I decided to pursue my freelancing thing, doing market research, business consulting, serving many companies and people around the globe.
Though fruitful, freelancing wasn't an option for the long run. I needed stability.
So, 2015 was the year when I gathered a small team of interns, rented an office and a couple of desks and computers. It was how 'BizzBee Solutions' was born.
At BizzBee I had the responsibility to teach interns how to do market research the right way. It was the first thing that we offered as a service, along with many others that came later before we specialized in LinkedIn and email outreach.
Describe the process of launching the business.
Launching a business is never easy. It comes along with high levels of stress and anxiety.
And not to mention loans. That's why it is important to find the right strategy.
Though it may sound dreamy at the beginning, having your own company, reality quickly comes barging in.
In the beginning, I depended entirely on freelancing platforms. And that was okay when I had only 3 interns working for me. But then a big project came out of nowhere, so I had to hire a few more people.
Having 10 employees meant that I couldn't rely solely on the freelancing platforms anymore.
That only meant one thing. If I wanted to have my company up and running, I had to start looking for some serious work. But knowing that nothing great comes without risk, I put my ego and fears on the side and started to reach out to people.
At first, I was doing it the wrong way. I was desperate to sell my services, to show the world what is BizzBee all about, and, of course, I failed.
That's how I learned not to make decisions out of despair. Being salesy and pushy got me nowhere.
So when I changed my approach, when I started reaching out to people with the sole intention of starting a conversation and building a relationship, the numbers changed, too.
Within 12 months, I and the bees grew the company from zero to 20 employees, supporting more than 100 companies worldwide across different industries.
Long story short, we've recently celebrated BizzBee's 5th birthday. In just half a decade, we've helped 400 companies and grown and trained our hive.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
As a start-up, I can proudly say that we had achieved even more than I initially expected when we first launched BizzBee.
This is not just a catchy marketing story, it's the truth.
Our growth isn't imaginary. Nor due to funding. BizzBee is completely bootstrapped.
But of course, that didn't happen overnight. It took a lot of hard work, a lot of sleepless nights, and of course, a lot of mistakes.
Sometimes people, when they wanna show themselves in the best light possible, do exactly the opposite. They try too much, and it ends up in disaster.
At first, I tried the traditional way. I used paid ads. I hoped and prayed that they would bring me the warm leads that I wanted. It wasn't long before I realized that that was a huge mistake. I wasn't selling clothes or accessories to expect that people will see my service and impulsively swipe their credit cards.
After all, I was a high-ticket service provider, and I couldn't expect to make it to the top just by using paid ads.
That's when I started reaching out to people through LinkedIn and email. There's no shame in being the one who reaches out to prospects, especially if you connect with them with sincere intentions of helping them out and listening to them.
I realized that when you reach out to people, ready to listen and to show that you care, they tend to open up. They open up about their problems, engage in a conversation with you, so the CTA is just the next logical step.
Also, another thing that I found really helpful is having great content and post it daily. The business world doesn't ever sleep, so you'll always have burning topics to write about.
We, at BizzBee, do it every day. We post on LinkedIn and Facebook religiously.
Also, we have our weekly newsletter or, as we call it, a beesletter, where we inform our readers what the bees have been up to this week and what the latest news in the consultants and marketing world are.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
Previously I said that we rose from zero to hero.
And that's the biggest of truths. We started doing market research only through freelance platforms like Upwork, and we grew to the point of working with 400+ clients currently.
We no longer depend on freelancing platforms since we have LinkedIn, and that's the front that we put all our troops on. And it has worked splendidly so far.
I don't say that we haven't had rough patches. We all have them, of course.
The pandemic hit us as well as everybody else.
Don't take the business advice you hear as gospel to be followed word-for-word. Rather, use it as a tool to inform your big decisions and major strategic moves within your own business.
But it has also taught us a valuable lesson. It was when the pandemic started when we decided to specialize. So instead of serving all industries, we've found our niche, continuously improving our outreach services.
Doing outreach is our main focus, and it has shown to be very fruitful so far.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Sure, I have. By working with more than 400 clients, we've had the opportunity to test what works and what doesn't thus apply the best practices.
I learned that every client is unique. You cannot (and I cannot stress this enough) approach two different targets the same way. You need to carefully craft each message so that it resonates with that particular client and their industry.
You cannot approach a software developer and an education professional the same way. Their brains are wired differently, and they will notice the stiffness and the robotic-like tone of your voice. Responses vary per target, which is the reason why we optimize the messages per target, measure KPIs and optimize accordingly.
Our messages are structured and designed for approaching cold leads – their purpose is to create rapport, build up a relationship, and bring the leads toward a meeting. Burdening the prospect with too much information at an early stage, or pushing directly with sales messages without getting any initial feedback, doesn't work.
So what I am saying basically is that I've learned that I have to treat every client differently, but with equal care and attention as each of them shows a willingness to help and listen, instead of just trying to sell my services.
Spamming or pushing people will only lead you downhills, and trying to rise from there would be a hard, hard job.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
Mostly, we use LinkedIn. It the best social platform out there for building valuable connections.
LinkedIn is the main business network. We use it religiously. It's the place where we primarily look for our contacts. We're also using LinkedIn messages to approach them.
To get even better results, we also use email as one of the best tools for approaching people.
We also use some automation tools to help us in the outreach. I could go about these for hours. My fascination with this type of tool went so far that I even started my own video interview series. If you're into outbound marketing and sales automation tools, do check it out.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
My all-time favorite is the Marketing Secrets podcast by Russel Brunson. This show is for entrepreneurs and business owners who want to learn how to market in a way that lets us get our message, our products, and our services out to the world… and yet remain profitable.
If by any chance you haven't heard of him, Russell Brunson is the world-famous internet marketer and a co-founder of the largest funnel creation software ClickFunnels. Inside each episode, Russell shares his biggest "a-ha moments" and marketing secrets with complete transparency. From tough lessons learned to mindset and pure marketing strategy, Russell pulls you into his world and shares his personal journey and growth secrets.
And, my favorite book. That would have to be 'Predictable Revenue' by Aaron Ross. It's probably the book that got me into prospecting and outreach. In recent times, this is one of the most influential books on the topic, which provides a step-by-step process to achieve repeatable and scalable lead generation through outbound – without the traditional cold calling. So no wonder it's been called "The Sales Bible of Silicon Valley".
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting?
As an entrepreneur, I've painstakingly learned the importance of heeding the best business advice I've received from many of the world's top entrepreneurs. The bottom line: It takes a lot to start a business and grow it to profitability. Funny enough, the most impactful lessons have come from my biggest failures, though.
All in all, despite receiving great business advice and success tips back during my college days, I've gone on to learn more about how not to start a business through my experiences. Still, my early failures haven't stopped me from learning from my mistakes and moving on to become gainfully self-employed.
The truth is, every entrepreneur has their own unique journey to building a successful business. We're all different. Some come from backgrounds of wealth and influential connections—while others have built empires starting truly from nothing.
Don't take the business advice you hear as gospel to be followed word-for-word. Rather, use it as a tool to inform your big decisions and major strategic moves within your own business.
The reason you should care about the business advice other successful entrepreneurs have to share with you… is that their experiences and words of wisdom may just come in handy one day. I worked hard to bring advice from a diverse sampling of the world's most successful and respected entrepreneurs, so you'll be prepared to start a business in today's climate.
From Richard Branson to Arianna Huffington, Tim Ferriss, Mark Cuban, Sophia Amoruso, and many more, the business advice from this group of entrepreneurs is collectively worth an incalculable amount of time and money.
So, I'll be plain and simple: Go ahead and take the risk. Start with fear and hands shaking, with baby steps or even crawling if you have to, but just start!
Believe in yourself, don't ever be afraid to reach out to people.
And always be passionate about your business.
That way, the long hours that will certainly come will be worth it.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
No, not currently, at least. But we are always on the lookout for fresh, new interns who would like to learn more about the prospecting and outreach world and grow as professionals.
Where can we go to learn more?
You can find more about BizzBee at our website, our LinkedIn page, or at our Facebook page.
Also, feel free to follow me on LinkedIn or Facebook.
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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