We fell in love while doing business together: Svetoslav & Eliana, TEIS Apartments

Eli: “TEIS Apartments’ story is very interesting and somehow connected to us falling in love with each other. 3 years ago my father invested in some real estate. He offered me to start my own business renting out apartments. I accepted since the idea of working for someone else seemed unacceptable at that time. I had no experience in that business field but I embraced the challenge. At that time I already knew Svetlio. We were business partners in another undertaking so we spent a lot of time together.”

Svetlio: “We both had feeling for each other but didn’t own up to them because we were afraid that would harm our business. But at a certain point I realized that hiding my feeling for her would only harm me. That was the girl that made my heart get all excited and I had to do something about it.

At that time she was very active in her other business preparing the apartments. I couldn’t just leave her do all that work by herself so I decided to help her in the process. Every day I would go there to help with cleaning, moving, tiding up – everything that needed to be done. That went on for 3 months. At the end of that period we were a couple and a year later we got married.

So basically my engagement in the business started off as helping out and gradually I would get more and more involved. Shortly after that I left my old job and now we’re building the business together. This is our family project.”

Eli: “We learn on the fly and at times it’s really hard. But the fact that we don’t follow an established patter gives us the opportunity to get creative. Most of all we want to learn how to understand our customers – what they like, what they’re looking for and provide the best service we possibly can.”

“What piece of advice would you give to other young people who want to start their own business?”

Svetlio: “Don’t be afraid to try. Even if it leads to failure! Your life is in your own hands and if you don’t put the work in no one will do it for you.”

Eli: “I would tell them to be very patient. Whatever business you start, you’ll need to be very patient, very determined and invest a lot of effort. You also need to be ready to fail! To achieve something big, you will inevitable loose something along the way but the fact that you’ve lost one battle doesn’t mean you’ve lost the war. So ditch laziness and motivate yourself daily.”