DZI Entrepreneurship (Bulgaria) common mistakes
DZI Entrepreneurship (Bulgaria) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
When asked to distinguish an entrepreneur from a small-business owner or manager, the candidate lists personal traits such as risk-taking and creativity without linking them to the economic function of combining resources and bearing residual uncertainty.
Textbook trait lists are easier to memorise than the economic-function argument, so candidates reproduce adjectives and never address what the entrepreneur actually does in the economy.
What to do instead
Before answering, write one sentence naming the function (coordinating scarce resources, bearing uncertainty, capturing residual profit or loss) and one sentence naming the trait, then show how the trait enables the function. Practise with three contrasting cases: a shopkeeper, a salaried manager, and a founder scaling a new product.
The candidate treats idea generation and opportunity assessment as the same step, so a question asking how to screen an idea is answered with brainstorming techniques.
Creativity tools are vivid and easy to recall, while screening criteria feel abstract, so candidates default to the part they know.
What to do instead
Separate the two phases explicitly in every answer: first the divergence method, then the evaluation criteria (problem severity, willingness to pay, market size, founder capability, competitive response). Build a one-page checklist and force yourself to apply at least three criteria to any idea you mention.
The business plan is written as a document description (what sections it contains) instead of an argument showing how the sections support a decision by an investor or lender.
Candidates memorise the table of contents from templates and mistake structure for purpose.
What to do instead
Answer with the reader in mind: state who reads the plan, what decision they make, and which section supplies the evidence for that decision. Rehearse a 60-second pitch of a plan you invent, then map each claim back to the section that proves it.
Revenue streams, cost structure, and value proposition are listed as separate items with no explanation of how they reinforce each other.
Business model canvas blocks are taught as a checklist, so candidates fill boxes rather than describe a logic.
What to do instead
Practise writing a one-sentence causal chain: who the customer is, what job is done for them, why they pay, and which costs are unavoidable to deliver it. If any block cannot be connected to the chain, either justify it or remove it.
In market-sizing questions the candidate gives a single large number with no derivation, or confuses total market with the obtainable segment.
Top-down statistics are easy to quote, and candidates fear that showing assumptions will expose errors.
What to do instead
Always show a two-step calculation (top-down total, then bottom-up reachable share with stated assumptions), label the assumptions, and give a range rather than a point estimate. State explicitly which segment the venture can serve in the first two years.
Marketing answers describe promotion tools only, omitting segmentation, targeting, positioning, price, and channel, even when the question asks how to reach a defined customer group.
Advertising is the most visible part of marketing and the easiest to describe, so the rest of the mix is skipped.
What to do instead
Answer using a fixed sequence: segment, choose target, position, then the four mix elements. For each element state one decision and its justification. Rehearse with a low-budget local service business where advertising is clearly not the main lever.
Cash-flow questions are answered with a profit calculation, or the candidate forgets working capital, VAT timing, and the founder's own salary.
Profit is the familiar accounting concept and cash timing requires a period-by-period schedule that takes effort to build.
What to do instead
Build a simple monthly cash schedule with opening balance, inflows, outflows, and closing balance, and keep profit as a separate line. Include a line for VAT settlement and owner remuneration. Practise identifying the month in which the minimum balance turns negative.
Funding sources are recommended without matching them to the venture's stage, asset base, and cash profile, for example proposing bank debt for a pre-revenue idea with no collateral.
Candidates list every source they know and hope one is right, instead of reasoning about fit.
What to do instead
Create a two-column table of sources and their requirements (collateral, revenue history, dilution, reporting). Before recommending a source, state the venture's stage and which requirement it meets or fails, then justify the choice.
Bulgarian legal-form questions are answered with generic descriptions of sole trader and limited company, missing registration steps, minimum capital, liability limits, and the governing registers.
Candidates learn the concepts in a general business course and do not refresh the country-specific procedural detail.
What to do instead
Build a comparison table for the main forms with columns for registration authority and steps, minimum capital, liability, taxation, and management bodies, and verify each cell against current Bulgarian commercial and registration rules. Where you are unsure of a figure, say so rather than guessing.
Team and risk questions are answered with generic virtues (good communication, hard work) or a list of risks with no likelihood, impact, owner, or mitigation.
These topics invite opinion, and candidates do not convert them into structured analysis.
What to do instead
For team questions, name the role, the required competence, and the decision right. For risk questions, use a short register: risk, likelihood, impact, mitigation, responsible person, review trigger. Add one ethical or social-responsibility consideration where the question touches stakeholders.