Digital nomad who built multimillion-pound business in 20s while travelling world says ‘you are in charge of your life’

A digital nomad who created a multimillion-pound online business in her 20s while exploring 40 countries across the world says “you really are in charge of your life if you want to be”.

Desislava Dobreva, 34, who currently lives in a “luxury” riverside flat in London, was born in Bulgaria to a working-class family, where she said the norm was being “raised to settle” and many did not have the “opportunities” to travel.

The business consultant and branding expert said her parents, Teodora Stefanova Payakova-Kacheva, 56 and Lachezar Kachev, 58, “basically went bankrupt” while supporting her as she studied for a masters degree in brand management in Denmark, where she went to study abroad with her boyfriend, who did not wish to be named.

Desislava, who owns a global education company which operates under her name and helps others to build successful brands, stayed in hostels and worked for about 18 hours a day to get her online company off the ground after she launched it in 2016.

She said it became “successful so quickly” as she built it into a six-figure business within the first eight months, before it “exploded” into a multimillion-pound enterprise during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Throughout her 20s she became a digital nomad – someone who travels freely while working remotely using the internet – building her business while exploring about 40 countries such as Thailand, Colorado, Guatemala, Italy, Romania and Spain, with a standard day spent in a cafe working on her laptop or phone and planning her next trip.

Desislava now works between two to four hours a day and has found a base in London, saying she feels a “weird connection” to the UK capital, but she is not quite ready to settle down and hopes to travel to Africa.

On the advantages of working remotely as a digital nomad, Desislava told PA Real Life: “My biggest value is freedom and connection.

“It makes you remember that you really are in charge of your life if you want to be and you can live in any way that you want.

“I think a lot of people who do what I do struggle to grow the business because you’re moving all the time and you’re planning all these trips – for me, it just really motivated me.

“I’ve always been really ambitious and I know that where I come from, you don’t get these opportunities. In Bulgaria it’s not a thing and I grew up poor, so to me, it was just such a privilege.

“I put a lot of effort into doing whatever I could to grow the business and I really pushed quite hard in the first five or six years to get it to where it is now.”

At the age of 22, Desislava left Bulgaria with her boyfriend after he wanted to study abroad, saying he was the “catalyst” for her journey.

“My parents basically went bankrupt to put me through my masters and allow me to be able to pursue it in Denmark,” she said.

“That’s really what allowed me to realise I don’t actually have to be here (in Denmark).

“I wanted to explore the world, and I never really thought about being a digital nomad.”

Desislava studied brand management at the University of Southern Denmark for two-and-a-half years and started her online business shortly after she graduated.

“Prior to that, I just really needed to make ends meet,” she said, adding she took on a job as a dish-washer, worked part-time as a social media manager and started freelancing.

“At the time, I had really low self-esteem, so I didn’t really think I could have a business,” she continued.

“But people started hiring me for branding consultation, social media management and I was charging eight dollars an hour.”

Desislava recalled the moment she started to take her business seriously when she was on a skiing trip with a group of friends in Switzerland to celebrate New Year’s Eve and had “no money”.

She remembered having lunch at a fine dining restaurant, saying she looked at the prices and thought “whatever I do next, I have to just ensure that never, ever again will I even have to look at prices on the menu, let alone think how can I even go back home, I can’t afford my flight”.

“That trip and that moment got me to take the business seriously and go all in,” she said.

“I was working 17, 18 hours a day to get the business up and running because I had no idea what I was doing, it was quite intense.”

Desislava said she was still living in Denmark when she started her company, which creates resources to help businesses through the process of starting and growing a brand.

She said it became “successful so quickly” she could build it into a “six-figure business within the first eight months”.

“When I studied branding, I realised that your brand is your most valuable lifelong asset,” she said.

“I think the majority of the world doesn’t understand how powerful their own personal brand is and I really wanted to change that.”

Desislava left Denmark in 2017 and stayed in Spain for three months, before going to Malta for another six months.

She returned home to Bulgaria to live in the capital, Sofia, before going to Thailand for almost a year.

While abroad, Desislava said a standard day involved finding cafes with internet to work on her laptop or phone for a few hours, adding that she would “usually plan (her) next trip as well”.

In 2019, she moved to Scotland for nearly a year, saying “Edinburgh was beautiful”, but she felt the city “just wasn’t the place” to grow her business further.

“That’s when I came and explored London,” she said, adding her company then “exploded into a multimillion-pound business”.

The company now consists of five other team members based around the world, with Desislava saying: “Now I have a team in place, I work maybe two to four hours a day – some days I don’t work, I don’t work weekends.

“It’s a very different story from the 18 hours in the beginning.”

Her parents have since said she is the “best investment they have ever made”.

“They’re not used to seeing success stories like that from where we come from and we’re kind of raised to settle, so it took them a while to understand what I was doing,” she said.

“Them being proud of me is what makes me proud of myself.”

Desislava said she “wasn’t bothered” by her lack of base and stability at the beginning of her time as a digital nomad, but said it started to get to her as she approached her 30s.

“Right around the time I went to Thailand, I was really feeling it. I was living on two suitcases and, as I started approaching 30, I just wanted to build some sort of life around me and have a base,” she said.

“That’s why I ended up coming to the UK.

“I have a really weird connection with (London), I came here and I just fell in love.”

Of her plans for the future, Desislava said she will remain in London for the time being but has dreams to visit Africa.

“Now I’m in my 30s, I still love travelling and I really want to go to Africa, I want to see Kenya – that’s one of my goals,” she said.

“I want to see everything.”