Women in business: Yoana Ivanova

For Yoana Ivanova, eyewear has always been about more than selling a frame.

At the time of our conversation, she was marketing manager at Opticlasa, a brand with 35 shops in Bulgaria and more than 150 international brands in its portfolio. Her career began ten years earlier on the shop floor at Paradise Center. From face-to-face service to developing the online shop through Covid, then shaping a national brand, she has worked through the business from the inside. She knows that behind every pair of glasses there is a relationship of trust.

You started ten years ago as a sales adviser in one of the busiest shops. What did that experience teach you that no university could?

A real understanding of the customer. The pace, quick decisions and constant contact with different people develop your intuition and confidence. Choosing glasses is often difficult and emotional. People hesitate. My role is to guide them and help them feel comfortable and secure. When we find the right pair together and I see their satisfaction, that is priceless.

You did not train as an optician. When did you realise that glasses were part of a service built on trust?

Right at the beginning. I saw it in small, sincere gestures: customers bringing a cake to say thank you, or coming specifically to see an optician they trusted. I realised that people were entrusting us with something as important as their sight.

You spent six years developing the online shop, including through Covid. How did that change your understanding of digital service and customer care?

Covid showed me that personal attention and a quick response matter just as much online. People contacted us feeling worried and uncertain, especially about their eyesight. Behind every online order was a real human problem. I will never forget a mother calling because her child had broken their glasses and could not study. We repaired them in the car park outside our office. Digital service is, above all, about care and human contact.

How do you keep a consistent identity across 35 shops when every city has its own character?

By maintaining the same standards where it matters most: service. Cities have different rhythms, but professionalism and the care we take in choosing our doctors and opticians remain the same.

As a woman in a fast-moving business, what helps most: discipline, intuition or the courage to take a risk?

I would put discipline first. It underpins everything, helping you remain responsible, consistent and resilient, however fast the environment changes.

What would you tell young women entering business and still learning to stand their ground?

Not everything is worth any price. Do not measure yourself against men. A woman’s strength lies in her different perspective and approach. And do not forget to be a woman.

If your career were a pair of glasses, what would they look like now? Through what lens do you see business after ten years?

Somewhere between classic and bold: a clean line with a daring detail. I look through the lens of perspective, seeing not only clearly, but further ahead.

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