Adrian Nantchev a serial entrepreneur from UK working towards legalization of Industrial hemp
Although it was only introduced in the U.S. in the 17th century, hemp has been a popular crop in other countries for thousands of years. The oldest records of hemp farming date back 5,000 years ago in China. It has been suggested, though, that it was being farmed even before that in ancient Egypt. Hemp was demonized at the same time as marijuana. Both come from Cannabis plants. It would be easy to grow marijuana in a hemp field and make it impossible for authorities to notice. Since Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, cultivation of hemp in the United States requires special permits. That law also states that imported hemp products must test as free from THC, the main psychoactive chemical in cannabis plants. In practice, the Drug Enforcement Agency makes both cultivation and importation essentially impossible. Therefore, since 1970 there has been effectively no U.S. market for hemp. The elimination of hemp in the U.S. also meant that any products targeted for a global market had to be hemp-free. And the U.S. used its influence to get many other countries to pass drug control laws, many of which also wound up effectively making hemp illegal. Hemp seed is most remarkable for being a rich source of poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), as well as being an unusually complete plant protein source. Specifically, you’re probably referring to a breed of hemp called Cannibus Sativa, which is the hemp typically used for commercial food. The oil found in hempseeds is high in both linoleic acid (omega-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3), and typically contains them in a 3:1 ratio, which is considered ideal for human health. Adequate intake of both of these PUFA’s has shown to have a variety of health benefits including the reduction of inflammatory markers, degeneration of tumor and cancer cells, and the prevention of several neuro-degenerative conditions. Today we are presenting Adrian Nantchev who is from United Kingdom and is working towards the legalization of Industrial Hemp. Adrian is serial entrepreneur and is working on several projects all together. Lets meet Adrian and see, what is he doing all the way to bring his venture into the market and understand his future plans.
1.What is the Name of Your Venture? Any specific reason for this name?
We Want Hemp. Because when people are talking they are more likely to mention the name of the business when they are gossiping and talking.
I am also working on my personal brand, because I know a lot about entrepreneurship, business and marketing. So, I want to do that knowledge justice and share it with the world.
So, I am trying to build a personal brand around myself and then starting a new business that involves hemp.
2.Who is your target Audience/clients?
Mainly people that are conscious about the kind of clothing they have. People that want to legalise industrial hemp. The libertarian/anarcho-capitalist communities.
Whereas for the personal brand it is people that want to be an entrepreneur and those that have already started.
3.Where is your venture based (city, state, country) & What are your geographical target areas?
Wolverhampton, United Kingdom.
4.What problems does your venture resolve? What are your products or services?
My vision is to champion hemp’s use and bring hemp into the mainstream conscious.
5.Share the idea or story behind the venture. How did it came to an existence? What motivated you to start your own venture?
It was in 2015 when I first heard about hemp and I thought that there is something that I could do with that and that there is some
6.Who are your biggest competitors and how do you differentiate yourself from them?
There are some hemp stores in America and in South Africa, but the main way that I am differentiating myself from them is how I am defining my business and venture. I define myself with health, disruption and opportunity. Meaning that I am acting with these goals and strategies in mind that are within the context and realms of my mission: championing Hemp’s use and bringing it into the mainstream conscious.
7.How did you identify your co-founder? Tell us some thing about your co-founder/s
I do not have any co-founders, but what I look for (when I need others) is integrity, knowledge and humility.
8.How did you hired your first team members? What skills Do you want in your employees/team?
Integrity, knowledge and humility. I’d need people that are willing to learn, that have enough knowledge in certain subjects that either compliment or complete my knowledge. As well as someone that is humble enough to know when they are wrong, as well as someone that will stand up to me when they know that I am wrong.
9.What expansion plans are you looking for the next 2 years, next 5 years?
Currently, at the time of writing this, I am working on my personal brand, where I am building an online presence and brand. I am taking my knowledge and monetising it. I am being known, liked and trusted online. I struggled to work on hemp whilst building my brand. When people know who you are, then you can start different businesses and people will follow you over into it and therefore you have an existing community to tap into.
But, as I start working on We Want Hemp full time:
2 years: have a team with Hemp, selling products online mainly to the USA. Having already started a podcast for the brand. Moving into procurement and selling foodstuff and other household goods to the USA, UK and other markets.
Being known in the entrepreneur circles and communities by writing books, having created 1000’s of videos and interviewed 100’s of people for my podcast.
5 years: Be known internationally about entrepreneurship and helping 1,000,000 entrepreneurs become remarkable. And, championing hemp’s use and bringing it into the mainstream conscious.
10.Where do you want to see yourself in next 10 years?
I want to have this hemp business… procurement…
Have a strong personal brand…
I want to write 100 books in my lifetime, mainly fictional works…
11.What are your goals over the next 1, 3, 6 and 12 months?
1: Focusing on personal brand to get that off the ground so as to build momentum, in terms of subscribers, followers, book sales, podcast episodes, speaking engagements and consulting.
3: As the personal brand is very much running itself, or with plenty of backlog of content ready to be released on a daily basis; then focus on hemp. Getting into the habit, acquiring the knowledge and confidence to talk about it.
6:Get the personal brand up and running smoothly. Then turning my attention towards hemp; so as to produce content on a daily basis easily (just as easily as my personal brand), which will then bring traffic and sales to the website. Then it is a case of scaling up.
12: Both the personal brand and hemp are running smoothly, with a few virtual assistants that are helping me and doing the day to day operations. At which point I want to scale up Hemp so as to have a team in an office and begin doing new and other cool things with the business.
12.Have you raised any funding? Or have any plans for the funding?
I have not, but once I have a small team, I would seek funding, whether investors or crowdfunding.
13.What were the problems you faced during the starting days and how did you resolve them?
The main problem I had is that I struggled to focus on two separate things at the same time.
I am using a strategy of inbound marketing, where I am creating content for people so they come to the website, and with a call to action; buy something. I could very easily create content for the personal brand, but not so with hemp, and this is something that was haunting me from the start. Therefore, I was unable to purely focus on one or the other- so one of them had to be put on the shelf temporarily.
The problem with hemp is that I had the products to sell, but little habit, confidence and knowledge in the subject to create content on mass. Where as the problem with the personal brand is that I had the content, ideas and knowledge, but no clearly defined ways to monetise it- and this is the easier problem to have and solve. Because I can continue to get the attention and traffic, and then figure out what product to sell.
It was difficult to focus on them both, so one of them had to be successful, so I could then hire a virtual assistant to help with some of the day to day operations. Then, by outsourcing and delegating, I could start to scale up the businesses.
14.What was the most challenging part of your journey till now? How did you overcome those challenges?
Hemp is a new industry to me and I had to learn about it- so this limited how much content I could create.
Adrian NantchevAs well as the balancing: I needed to focus on one of them at a time in order to see success in both of them.
15.Are you married, single or in a relationship?
Single.
16.What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
I want to write a lot of books, so on the occasion, I will read a fictional book whilst listening to the audio book.
I read Terry Pratchett’s 4th book recently Mort, and I am trying to read them in order of publication, but I do not have his 5th book Sourcery. So I may read along to the audio book of the first Game of Thrones book, my main reservation is that it is 21 hours long, and that is a lot of time regardless.
17.Whats your favorite food & holiday destination?
I’ve come to realise that pizza is my favourite food- because it is simple and straightforward.
18.Whom do you consider your idol or biggest motivator?
No one, in particular, but there are some people that I look up to as a pinnacle of certain characteristics, such as Steve Jobs for his ingenuity, creativity and vision. As well as Donald Trump, for his tenacity, persistence and strength of character.
19.What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
Entrepreneurs start off underpaid, where as employees are overpaid.
Over time, entrepreneurs learn from their mistakes, take in new knowledge and experiment with different prices, strategies, etc. And they fine tune their business, performance and income.
Employees are overjoyed to be employed, but soon, they are ground down by the workload, perhaps they are under appreciated or feel overqualified for the job. Subsequently, they feel underpaid for what they are doing.
20.If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
One of the main things that I often want to tell my younger self is not to worry as much. I’ve come to realise that the things you are worrying about often do not come true, and instead, the opposite happens.
21.How has being an entrepreneur affected your family & Social life?
I find myself working a lot, as I am very future focused. I see it as doing all the work now, so in the future, I have more free time. More time for social life and pleasure. As an entrepreneur, I am doing the things that people will not do today, so in the future, I can live the life others cannot.
22.Anything, you would like to say to our readers or upcoming entrepreneurs?
It is a long, hard road- but worth it.
It is simple, but not easy.
23.Tell us something about your education & family background.
I have never studied business, marketing or psychology- everything I know about business I have learnt myself, from experience, mentors etc.
I was at university from 2011-2014, but 2/3 through it I started to realise that I was more of a leader and pioneer, as opposed to being a follower. Therefore, this thought process eventually lead me to start my first business in late 2014.
My father is a retired major and my mother passed away from secondary breast and lung, as well as bone cancer.
24.What is your USP which makes it unique & different from other start-ups in similar domains.
My mains USP is myself. I am confident and want the attention, so, leveraging my character and showmanship is what gives WeWantHemp and my personal brand its edge.
25. What do you think is the biggest threat to the success of small businesses & Start-ups today?
Not understanding the game of business and underestimating what you need to do, create and how to scale.
26. Do you consider yourself successful and by what means do you measure success?
Successful, but not in the ways that I’d like to measure it.
I am looking for a certain amount of subscribers on youtube, certain traffic to my website, consistent sales and consistent sales on WeWantHemp- of which I have not yet achieved.
However, in my previous business, I have achieved consistent sales, but I want to move away from it and towards things that are much more leveraged, scalable and smarter business models- such as my personal brand and WeWantHemp.
27.Please share complete name, address, phone number, email id & website of Your Business & Contact Person
Adrian Nantchev
https://www.nantchev.com/ – To learn more about me
https://www.nantchev.com/gifts – Some gifts for you; the reader.
https://www.wewanthemp.com/ – The focal point of my hemp business
https://www.youtube.com/Nantchev – Where I share my knowledge, ideas and advice.
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01MXLMDZX – All of my books on Amazon.
