Hello and welcome to our section - Meet the successful partners at MindHub! In it, we will regularly meet with passionate entrepreneurs from all over the world, who will share their experience and good practices about being owners of the first innovative school for programming for kids.

Today we meet Mariana Slavova, who is a passionate teacher and also the owner of MindHub Borovo in Sofia, Bulgaria! 

1. Introduce yourself with a few words?

My name is Mariana Slavova and I am 30. I like to set high goals and acquire new knowledge and skills. Personal development and contributing value to society are my top priorities.

2. How did you find out about the MindHub franchise program?

From the website - https://franchising.bg/bg 

3. What motivated you to apply for a franchise and join the MindHub network of innovative coding? 

Firstly, I am motivated by constantly growing and further developing myself, which inevitably comes with the responsibility of running your own educational center.

I was extremely impressed by MindHub's mission to enrich children's digital culture and prepare them earlyon for the professions of the future. I have always supported the integration of technology in education, but I have never shown much interest in programming. However, the moment I saw with my own eyes how creative and fun it could be to study programming at MindHub, I realized that I wanted to do just that and dedicate all of my time to it.

4. Which of your professional skills help you grow and develop locally as a successful programming school for children and adolescents?

I think that the key to success here is mostly in communication. Even if we have a wonderful product, there is no way people can trust us and like it without properly presenting their real value with them. We give not only an academic advantage to children with the knowledge and skills they acquire with us, but also something more important: in the process of learning, children develop a love for programming. For them programming becomes an area of real interest and so the child will not only be prepared for the most sought after professions on the market, but will also have a conscious choice for them - a choice of passion and sincere enthusiasm for this type of work!

5. What are the biggest challenges you face as the owner of an innovative programming academy?

The biggest challenges come from a marketing point of view. Reaching customers who realize the value of our mission is not difficult, as they take the initiative and seek our services themselves. The greater difficulty is to reach the rest of the parents who still do not consider it necessary to prioritize this type of activities or still consider programming to be something that is not necessary for everyone. However, the truth is that knowing programming languages ​​is now as important as knowing a foreign language.

6.How can you describe working with children through the prism of MindHub?

My work is exciting, challenging and above all stimulating to my creativity as a teacher. I myself have a lot of fun with children- when we complete different projects and program robots. It's an amazing feeling to know that maybe you're educating future creators of a whole new world in the age of digitalization!

7. How do you want to further develop your current MindHub center and where do you see it in the next few years?

I would like my center to be full of children and to spread our mission even further! Every child deserves to be nurtured with a love for technology and to learn to use it in a constructive and creative way! We live in a time when our children inevitably use technology. In most cases, just as consumers. I want more children to have a peek at the other side of things - where technology gives birth to new ideas and changes our way of life.

In the next few years, I believe that our mission will touch many more people! The biggest achievement for me would be for most of them to come to us through the recommendation of others, and not through advertisements on the Internet. This is the strongest indicator that we are on the right track; that people like and appreciate us, and that they are happy to share with their friends and acquaintances about us.