Hello, dear readers!
Today I want to tell you how I started my modest business. I’ll say right away that there is nothing wrong with this matter. I won’t tell you how to open an individual entrepreneur or LLC - you can easily find this information on the Internet. There are hundreds of articles on this topic. I will only note one thing - if you decide to start your own business, then it is better to open it yourself rather than pay someone.
It's better to start this quest yourself, so to speak. And you will gain connections with your first experience while you are launching. What could be better? I immediately met an accountant and a notary, with whom I still communicate a lot.
For example, if you decide to have children, will you take direct part in this event? Right? Or will you hire a company?
By the way, while I was writing this blog, I opened my own online store, which I wrote about in detail in a series of notes. I recommend reading it, there are a lot of practical points and tricks there :)
So - a little background:
At one time, he lost his job and was forced to return from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod, where he lived and worked for a long time. I was looking for a job in NN for a very long time, but there was a crisis and I couldn’t find anything. The experience was so extensive, and there were so many ambitions that they played a cruel joke on me.
In short, the issue became an issue just a year later :-) Something had to be done. That is, it was necessary to somehow earn money. And it doesn’t matter how, but within the law, of course: –) And the time has come to search for an IDEA for business. It’s not for nothing that I wrote so ironically in capital letters this word. I'll explain why:
Many people dig in already at this stage and get stuck in search of some super idea that will make them rich. Believe me, it’s better to start at least something, and then everything will go by itself. Start doing what you know and love.
For example, today I was very puzzled by finding a master who would make me a duplicate of a very tricky key. I found him, looked around his workshop and realized that the guy was living quite well. I even waited in a short line.
And so I searched and searched for my super idea and lived on all sorts of forums. But... in the end I started a completely trivial business - computer maintenance and repair. And things went well. And the secret is very simple. It’s not even a secret, but I adhere to well-known principles:
1. Maximum customer focus. Yes, I “kiss the gums” of clients, so to speak. They understand this and recommend me to all their friends. I always meet people halfway, make small concessions, etc. Maybe I’ll write more about this.
2. I started my business from scratch. Well, everything is very simple here. After a year of looking for work, I had no money. But I didn’t want to take out a loan. I advise everyone to start from scratch. This makes it easier to survive a possible collapse :-)
3. I don’t cheat clients out of extra money and always build long-term relationships. I always explain to people what and how I will do. Pros and cons of our work.
4. If I see that a client is “disposable,” then sometimes I will refuse. I'm more interested in long-term cooperation. Why waste time and effort on “one time”?
5. I don’t take on dubious orders or overly complex work if I understand that I can’t handle it. Or quality will suffer.
6. I have a clear understanding of who I work for. That is, who is my client and who is not.
7. I don’t strive to “know everything.” For example, I'm good at looking for clients, but I can't fix a monitor. But.. I have friends who will repair the monitor, but will never be able to find clients for these same monitors. Therefore, don’t kill yourself if you don’t know something. You probably know something that others can't. And I'm a complete idiot when it comes to servers. But I have friends who... :-)
Let's move on.
1. The main thing that frightened me at the first stage was the issue with accounting. There were many questions: How to prepare documents? Where should I put which squiggle? Where to go and who to call? : –) My head was spinning. But this also has its own drive and I got a great experience.
Just at this time, the online accounting service “My Business” was launched. Then it was still free and, of course, I immediately went to it and registered.
I was just lucky with this service at the first stage. The fact is that with its help you can completely easily do without a hired accountant. This is not an advertisement - just try this service. If I'm not mistaken, they give a 14 day free period. In short, I recommend it, I’ve been using it myself for 3 years. The first year was free - they tested it on me :-)
That is, the issue of accounting was closed for me literally in the first month. Now this service is worth it to me 3800 rub. in year. I only call my accountant when I doubt something.
2. I have an individual entrepreneur without employees. This is important, because if there are employees, then the complexity of accounting increases and everything becomes not so obvious. Therefore, try to do without employees.
I pay taxes once a quarter. Now I will pay 4302 rubles. 06 kop. for the 1st quarter on the PF and FFOMS. It turns out that in a year I will pay for social services in the amount of RUB 17,208 24 kopecks. Not so much.
3. I pay taxes in the amount of 6% of income quarterly. It's clear that here real numbers I won’t reveal it.
I can only say that you need to choose a favorable tax system
— 6% of income
- or 15% of the difference between income and expenses.
It’s more profitable for me to pay 6% of income and, of course, simplified taxation system.
4. Opened a bank account and pay 500 rubles. monthly for account maintenance.
5. Yes, I bought another number from MegaFon, with direct city. That is, I proudly leave a “city” number to my clients. This service costs me 150 rubles. per month.
6. I printed the business cards myself + ordered a stamp for importance. It cost about 600 rubles. Pennies, that is. An individual entrepreneur can work without a seal. But I did it because my customers are mostly legal entities, and they love all kinds of stamps.
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So, I'll tell you how I opened mine small business from scratch, without borrowing a penny. Working as a chief accountant in a small private company, I was completely freed from the problem of rational use of free time. It’s also worth noting that the question “where to spend the money” didn’t bother me either. My salary strictly corresponded to the average statistical earnings in our city and, despite all my heroic efforts, there were no upward deviations. I only came home to spend the night. My little son was left to his own devices and my psyche was considerably hardened in this ordeal.
But one case became the last straw, which has filled the cup of patience. Once, during the next reporting period, I came two days in a row so late and left so early that my son was either already asleep at that time or had not yet woken up. We communicated during the day only by phone. One morning, I woke him up with the words: “Son, let’s say hello, maybe we won’t see each other for a long time.” All this would be funny if it weren't so sad. At work, as well as on my days off and holidays, I endlessly searched for ways to make the impossible possible and solved problems like 2+2=3. If we also take into account a certain amount of risk, it turns out that at that time I had to not only drink champagne, but also bathe in it. However, I took the risk, and others drank champagne :).
Finally, I made a strong-willed decision to get out of this stupid circle that has no meaning or prospects. Since there was no line of employers with offers for me outside the door, it was logical to conclude that I myself needed to become an employer. This is where we get a problem with two unknowns. Receiving a very modest salary at my previous job, I, of course, did not save any money, i.e. I didn’t have any capital, not even start-up capital. So, we had to figure out where to get the money to open it. Borrow? But this requires some kind of guarantees, and at that time I had nothing but a bare idea: no collateral, no business plan with specific figures, and most importantly, the desire to borrow money. From my life experience, I know that hopeless situations do not exist unless we create them for ourselves, and at the same time, with enviable tenacity, we believe in their hopelessness. And I started to act.
After some thought, I chose the service sector for my activities. Why services, and not trade in any goods, which gives significantly more profit? I reasoned like this: well, firstly, the market is very saturated with all kinds of goods, it’s difficult to compete. Secondly, the goods must first be purchased so that there is something to sell. Of course, it was possible to find it for implementation, but this is already in the realm of: “God damn it, it’s not good for us.” The day before I received another diploma, an interior designer, I had already done several serious works and really wanted to do this creative work. Therefore, I chose interior design as the main direction of my activity. In addition, I could offer not only the development and creation of a design project in drawings and sketches. Using our own sketches to calculate all the required materials and their costs (estimates), all that remained was to bring this beautiful picture to life.
Why not offer the client a turnkey service? In this case, what is most important (!), I will not have to look for money to purchase construction and finishing materials for a specific private order. The customer either already has them, or he is ready to pay an advance for their purchase. Of course, if you have already decided for yourself that let the one who invented and drew it do it (more often than not, this happens). Well, if he has concluded an agreement with all the attributes of solidity: signature, seal, tax identification number, etc., he sleeps peacefully, feeling under the vigilant protection of the committee for the fight for consumer rights.
All I have to do is find a team of craftsmen (builders and finishers) who, also under an agreement with me, will carry out all the work in accordance with my sketches and I will have the opportunity, during the execution of the work, to monitor this very compliance. It is also important that I pay for their work, in accordance with the contract, only upon completion of the work and receipt of money from the customer. Of course, there are a lot of teams offering themselves, it’s hard not to fall for hacks, but I already knew the guys. I just had to strain a little and remember all my friends and those I encountered in my life, seemingly by chance. (Let me note that nothing in our lives happens by chance, but this is already from the field of esotericism, which I have also been interested in for a long time and sometimes very successfully apply this knowledge in practice. This is what I wish for everyone).
However, knowing the mentality and intellectual level the overwhelming majority of the population (of course, my city), I had no illusions about the huge demand for this type of service. Even in my wildest dreams, I did not see payment for this work similar to the prices not only in the civilized world, but at least in large cities, for example, Moscow. Therefore, I began to look for additional types (types) of services that could bring in money, albeit little by little, but steadily, not from time to time. While studying local media offering services to the population, I noticed that mostly private entrepreneurs providing household services to the population work alone, and each one blows his own trumpet, praising the service he provides. In addition, it was possible to see, without much difficulty, that the imagination of mass entertainers offering services for weddings and other celebrations does not extend beyond the accordion player and toastmaster. This meant that this niche in the local services market was free, and this market segment was not spoiled by attention. So I chose him as a cow that should give milk regularly, and not when she or the shepherd gets inspired. There was more than enough space for my imagination and field for activity. And I began to bring this project to life with great enthusiasm.
After sitting for a while with a pencil in my hands, I made a list of all the services that I could offer both new Russians and ordinary employees. In addition to the gentleman's set: makeup artist, cosmetologist, photographer, videography, car (from Zhiguli to foreign cars and a bus), I, not without pleasure, added what no one in the city offered at that time: banquets in restaurants, canteens, cafes, bases recreation, celebrations on a boat with a banquet or buffet, professional fireworks, Troika of horses with a phaeton, show ballet (any genre), live music of all generations, phytodesign (from wedding bouquet before registration festive table and hall), the legal conclusion of a marriage contract with a ceremonial presentation during the ceremony, as well as the decoration of the banquet hall with such rare things at that time as glowing and flashing garlands, arches and all kinds of decorative structures made of balloons (no worse than in a concert hall) and many other little things (invitations with photographs of the newlyweds, champagne with a label on which the name is similar to the surname of the groom or hero of the day + photos, badges with funny inscriptions and pictures, etc. etc.) In general, the list of my services looked impressive.
Agree with the performers ( advertising agency, hippodrome, river port, cafes, restaurants, etc.) was also not difficult. Almost everyone was glad that I gave them a ready-made order, and they, as is customary everywhere, paid me a certain percentage of the total amount of the order. It turned out to be even easier to come to an agreement with those performers who worked alone, and some did not even have an entrepreneur’s certificate. The amounts were negotiated individually in each specific case. Most of the time was spent finding performers for original types of services and concert performances. But again, you just had to start, tell your friends and acquaintances, load everyone with information, and little by little everyone began to remember acquaintances from their circle, circle of acquaintances, and off it went...
However, this is all certainly wonderful, I thought. But the beauty of my enterprise is that the client does not need to jump on different phones, performers, negotiate with each one separately, worry about each one separately, and if the order fails, it is also not easy to find someone to blame (if the whole agreement comes down to only verbal agreement). I offered potential clients 100% service. They come to the office, look at the entire list of services, prices, ask questions, and immediately find out all the points of interest. They choose services according to their wishes and the significance of the event, financial capabilities, immediately formalize a contract for the execution of the order, paying an advance payment of only 15% of the total cost, receive a receipt and then indulge in the joyful expectations of the celebration. That's it, the client's worries end there. If the client suddenly wants to change something, he can always call or stop by at a time convenient for himself, if the changes require written revision and signature.
Exactly. Call and come by at a convenient time. Where can I invite you to visit? Not to your own apartment. It was necessary to decide with the office. Renting an office is not a problem. You could even choose by location, rental cost, telephone availability, etc. But how can you rent an office without money? And while claiming an exclusive package of services, it doesn’t seem very serious to invite clients to the outskirts of the city, where they will have to go, and get there “by way of transport”. This means that the office had to be rented in the city center, preferably in a prestigious location. Then I remembered that, in addition to everything else, I offer interior design. Well, what kind of person will believe in my creative abilities and capabilities if I sit with paper wallpaper in small flowers and fresh whitewash on the ceiling? Think or don’t think, there is no money, no materials for European-quality renovation, so we need to look for a ready-made option. I decided not to waste time on trifles and went straight to the most famous “patch” in the city. There is nowhere more central :).
I came to the landlord, outlined all my thoughts about what kind of premises I needed, reviewed several options and chose a quite decent one, “for European-quality renovation,” with the necessary and very modern furniture, even blinds were present on the windows! The truth was that it was a little confusing, but I quickly convinced myself that I didn’t need more, since I wasn’t going to organize banquets in the office. When it came to concluding a rental agreement and paying (in advance, of course), I calmly reported my financial difficulties, my abilities and the fundamental financial analysis of a commercial project that was simply doomed to success. She also did not forget to note the qualities of her interlocutor, which she had heard a lot about, and one of which was the ability to distinguish and separate the wheat from the chaff. She immediately offered her payment plan.
Since the rental conditions were very strict, late payment threatened to accrue a penalty of 2% per day), without agreeing on all the nuances, I was at great risk of simply getting bogged down in debt. But, I was able to convince the landlord that I only (!) needed to be given a deferment (with respect to strict deadlines) for two months. That is, over the course of two months I pay in installments, the amount of which depends on the money I earned in the new office. Penalties are not applied to me for two months, but after this period, I must pay the rent for the two months that have elapsed in full. Then I pay on a general basis, like all tenants. That's what we agreed on. So it's done. All that remained was to collect stationery at home, fortunately there was a sufficient amount of it, find a telephone set (there was no money to buy a new one) and ride “on a white horse” to your new, almost white, office.
After that, the rest of the problems seemed like children's toys to me. I called the editorial offices of local media, found out the prices, and with great dignity asked if they could send their agent to the office because... It’s not a royal thing for a company director to wander around editorial offices. And finally, as usual, as if by the way, she clarified: is it possible to buy advertising space with a deferred payment for one month. To objections like: “we provide this benefit to our regular clients, etc.”, I reasonably noted that I probably would not become their client at all. There are many advertising publishers in the city, and there are more kind ones. I just knew that there was a lot of competition between them, and on top of everything else, summer season There are significantly fewer orders. This was evident from the newspapers because in them, in the form of patches, the editors sculpted all sorts of nonsense in order to occupy space. Sometimes I also added that this is not the amount for which an entrepreneur can get into trouble, and I don’t understand their concerns in general, and in particular, because I'm not from the street, etc. and so on. So I managed to immediately release quite a substantial advertisement in several publications with deferred payment.
In addition, I spoke with the director of the registry office (I knew him because I was doing a design project), and with her kind permission, my advertising leaflets lay in a pile on the very table at which the newlyweds drew up the documents. The format of my advertisements strictly corresponded to the format of passport covers, which contributed to their safe movement from the table inside such an important document, and therefore they were almost never lost by my future clients. Well, my last step: I unobtrusively invited my single competitors to mutually beneficial cooperation. Thus, from competitors they turned into my performers. Clients came, and with them my first earnings.
In the first month there was only enough money to pay for advertising and employees, and partially pay off the rent. The second month there was also no money left for myself. Covered all remaining debts. And only after the third month there was something left over for “eating”. After two years, I was terribly tired of this mess. Prices for rent and advertising are growing endlessly, taxes are not decreasing, employees want to receive more and more, and I could not raise prices for my services at the same speed because... risked being left without clients. My main contingent, unfortunately, was of average income, there’s nothing you can do about it. As a rule, they ordered the most necessary things. Having compared all the pros and cons, I realized that I was “dragging a suitcase with a torn off handle.” It’s hard to carry, but it’s a shame to leave. Perhaps I felt that it was “not mine.”
At that time, I had already become acquainted with the Internet and fell in love with Internet technologies. I never ceased to be amazed by the opportunities that the Internet provided for business, also taking into account their cheapness compared to real life. Virtual office, advertising, online store, publications - please. I realized that this love is for the rest of my life.
And don't be afraid of change. Definitely. Therefore, just as I came beautifully, I left. Without debts, without conflicts and with Best wishes. Of course, she didn’t go into the void, or into the kitchen with her saucepans, but that’s another story. As you can see, I didn’t have any special secrets.
Instead of talking about reality, possibility and other similar things, sitting on the couch, I got up and went to do it. Maybe also because I couldn’t find the answer to my question: “Why should I blindly believe the reasoning and opinions of people who have never done anything like this? How can they know what is possible and what is not?”
Many millionaires started their journey from scratch, hopelessness, lack of money and despair, but everyone had a small spark of hope and faith in a bright future, and many even distinguished themselves in history.
Businessman Guy Laliberte and his business
Consider a success story famous businessman Guy Laliberte - President of Cirque du Soleil. At one time, Guy started from scratch. He played the accordion in the streets, then walked on stilts and became interested in swallowing fire. While begging for his show, he found others like himself and created a troupe, traveling to the Los Angeles Arts Festival. They were noticed and began to be invited to other cities. Having earned enough money, Guy officially registered his circus troupe, and after a couple of years it turned into a company with huge revenues of $2.5 million.
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History of the online store "Utinet"
It is possible to live without a penny not only abroad, but also in our country. One of famous companies"Utinet" appeared precisely in our country and on this moment achieved great success.
The stories of successful companies are not easy, but when you create your own business, no one promises you a “freebie” or quick, wild success.
The founders of the Utinet online store were Mikhail Ukolov and Oleg Rybalov, who were ordinary students and started their business from scratch.
Mikhail Ukolov and Oleg Rybalov were students of the Moscow state university economics, statistics and computer science. Graduated in 2004. In this institution, Mikhail received his education as a programmer, and Oleg received his education in organization management.
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About how it all began
Mikhail carried out small orders to create websites for online stores for customers. While working on one of the projects, Mikhail noticed a problem in which logisticians could not cope with the large amount of order processing. Then he created a new algorithm for processing orders, which one person could handle instead of 10. The essence of the algorithm was this: the dispatcher could track the location of the goods at any time. Later, to improve this program, Mikhail also developed the same version, only for clients.
In 2003, Mikhail and Oleg decided to try themselves on the other side of the river - to open their own online store selling equipment and achieve success. The first product was laptops, because the guys were well versed in this type of technology.
Also, the goods were light in weight, which made it possible to deliver it personally using public transport, because you did not yet have your own car. The income from the sale of one laptop was about 8% of the cost and was a very decent income. The presence of more than 500 competitors selling such equipment did not frighten novice businessmen. They decided to get around them in this way: directly from the manufacturing plant to deliver goods to customers’ apartments. Having the proper education, Mikhail created a program that analyzed all prices for laptops in Moscow and displayed the lowest and most attractive price for the consumer.
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Financial side of business
To understand financial side business, Oleg got a job as an accountant in one of the online stores selling household appliances. The goal was achieved, he learned all the moves and loopholes of electronic business and its reporting.
After raising some money, about $4,000, they finally registered the company. We bought the first essential things, such as cash machine, the first product to order, and, of course, we rented an apartment. The first item sold was Fujitsu-Siemens, which was finally SOLD OUT three weeks after opening.
At first, the guys did everything themselves: Rybalov was involved in the financial side of the business - compiling and maintaining reports, contracts and settlements with manufacturers; Ukolov delivered orders and managed the technical side of the site - processing orders and carrying them out.
At that time, sites had a limited filter based on product selection criteria. For ease of searching, Ukolov has developed a product filter based on dozens of criteria: price, screen diagonal, number of ports, hard drive capacity, color, manufacturer, volume random access memory etc. This difference from other sites attracted customers, and it began to gain popularity among consumers.
Already in 2004, the site received annual revenue of 500 thousand dollars, and the fortunes of young people went up rapidly: in 2005 - 2 million dollars, in 2006 - 5 million dollars, in 2007 - 11 million dollars. Over the course of several years, with their hard work, perseverance and intelligence, students turned into successful businessmen. In just 4 years, the site took 10% of the laptop sales market.
But the world also did not stand still, and online stores also developed. In addition, large chain stores like Eldorado made competition increasingly fierce, and profit per laptop began to decrease from 8% to 5%. At average cost laptop costing 2 thousand dollars, the profit was 150 dollars, and in this situation it fell to 100 dollars, which significantly affected the annual income of Utinet.
During the global crisis, the demand for equipment fell sharply. By that time, the Utinet company had opened an offer to receive a trade loan for a period of 12 days. It was not possible to return the trade credit of our clients through new orders. We had to resort to a forced measure - to reduce the staff, which by that time already existed, and ask for a deferred payment on loans from banking institutions. In order to somehow increase revenue, they lowered prices - demand increased, but the business went into a loss.
In this situation, only an investor could help. But during the crisis, finding an investor was almost impossible. After conducting a forecast analysis, investor economists came to the conclusion that the Utinet company was 70% bankrupt and there was no profitability of investing in it.
To help his company, Ukolov, “shaking up the old ways,” began writing custom programs, only this time he took on exclusively large orders.
Meetings of aspiring entrepreneurs began to take place in Moscow under the leadership of Ulvi Kasimov, the founder of the IQ Group company, investing in Internet projects. Ukolov and Rybalov presented their ideas about creating a website that sold orders for the supply of goods to other stores, which does not carry credit risks and in return allows you to receive good money. Kasimov was interested in this, and he bought 51% of the Utinet company.
After Ukolov built a platform based on Utinet, clients began to see prices for laptops and other household and electronic equipment from other companies. For placing and receiving this order, partners paid Utinet a commission ranging from 1-3% of the price of the laptop and up to 50% for accessories. The company did not have to spend a lot of time searching for companies - they found them themselves. Thus, double savings were obtained.
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How the company "Holodilnik.ru" was founded
Utinet were not the pioneers in this field of activity; Wikimart became the pioneer. Wikimart is the largest Russian hypermarket. But he did not take Utinet seriously, thinking that it was an ordinary hardware store that rented out space. As a result, after launching the platform in test mode, the company Kholodilnik.ru decided to switch from Wikimart to Utinet.
The problem in the former monopoly company was an oversupply of offers from different suppliers.
The founder of Kholodilnik.ru, Valery Kovalev, found in Ukolov and Rybalov a solution to all the problems that he had when working with the Wikimart company. With Utinet, Kovalev received 400 orders per month for 150 thousand dollars, and according to forecast analysis, by the end of the year the amount will increase to 1 million dollars.
By large household appliances"Utinet" only works with "Holodilnik.ru". Utinet is gradually building its business on the basis of the Kholodilnik.ru company, but Kovalev’s plans are to set out on his own in 2-3 years.
At the moment, Utinet is collaborating with 10 online stores, and by the end of the year their number is planned to increase to 40. The site is being translated into English and spanish languages to attract foreign partners.
This is how a business from scratch was able to achieve such success, and it was started by promising students who are now business sharks.
According to Ukolov, the profit from the new project “Utinet” has been at 3% of revenue for 2 years. Profit is not so easy to increase, since online stores spend:
- 20% for the maintenance of call centers;
- 30% for attracting clients;
- 2/3 of the profit from each product comes from the purchasing process from customer orders to delivery;
- commission for third party orders.
But still, according to financial forecasts, the development of the platform will lead them to a profit of 30% and make their work easier. And also, with an increase in the number of partners, the situation will noticeably begin to improve in a positive direction.
Many people want to open their own business, but the fear of failure prevents them from realizing their dream: little money, no premises, no money to buy equipment, corruption... The stories of those who have achieved success show that even in difficult times you can make a profit. Their secret is in development interesting ideas, hard work, development orientation, cost reduction and building strong relationships with clients and partners.
Anna is the owner of the “My Carrot” Magic Workshop, which not only produces unique souvenirs for a small shop, but also organizes master classes for everyone.
Friends gave her the idea to turn a hobby into a business, and Alena registered an individual entrepreneur with a ready-made project, and won a grant from the Government of the Nizhny Novgorod Region for 300 thousand rubles, which became the starting capital for the purchase of a sewing machine, other equipment, fabrics and accessories.
What is the secret of success?
- The service is in demand - people want to escape from difficulties, and a creative atmosphere contributes to this
- In a flexible pricing policy: during the crisis, Anna lowered prices for master classes and her products
- Using the program to support entrepreneurs: winning a grant and providing premises on preferential terms in a business incubator allowed us to start a business from scratch
- In a varied selection of creative activities: in Anna’s “Workshop” you can master watercolor painting, decoupage, knitting, doll sewing, etc. The craftswoman herself studies a new direction every month and shares it with her students.
- In the absence of advertising costs: the most effective channel for promoting her business is word of mouth, a group on social networks and business cards in the store
- IN competitive advantage- visiting master classes in schools and kindergartens
In 2013, Anna Ustinova won the “Entrepreneur of the Year” competition and received a grant from the Orthodox Initiative organization. Now her plans are to develop a store and studio.
Story 5. “Adventurers’ Harbor” for children’s talents
In Nizhny Novgorod there is the Adventurers' Pier, an unusual children's development center of Anna Movshevich and Dmitry Zotikov. As part of the project, there is a unique school of carpenters, in which boys are taught how to use tools and create wood products.
The initial investment is 400 thousand rubles (mainly for renting premises and paying teachers).
Payback period - 5 months.
What is the secret of success?
- In the absence of competitors, not a single development center offers training in working professions
- The audience is interested in the areas presented in “Adventurers’ Landing”: creative workshops, intellectual quests, carpenter’s school, etc.
- To help parents: a psychologist is present in classes, observes the children, then talks with parents about how the children behave, what fears and complexes they have identified, and gives recommendations on education
- At affordable prices: at a carpentry school the cost of 1 hour of classes is 350 rubles
Now the center has approximately 60 regular students and the same number of visitors to quests and other events. The planned profitability assumes 100-200 families willing to pay for their children to attend classes. The founder of the enterprise, D. Zotikov, says that the center has great potential. There are immediate plans to create a franchise.
Story 6. Second-hand bookstore
Contrary to the belief that during a crisis people save on books, they can be used to organize profitable business, an example is the second-hand bookstore “Khodasevich” in Nizhny Novgorod. Its owner S. Gaivoronsky considers his project very successful.
Initial investment: 190 thousand rubles (and this is a lot, as the businessman admits, it could have been done with less).
What is the secret of success?
- In a successful location of the store in the most “passable” place Nizhny Novgorod- Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, which provided access to the target audience: schoolchildren, students, connoisseurs of rare publications
- Low prices for the most popular works of school classics, books from small publishers (from 20 rubles)
- In the absence of high initial costs for the store's assortment: “Several years ago, because of the good life, the population began to throw books in the trash. I couldn’t tolerate this and collected books from trash cans” (S. Gaivoronsky)
- Selling the rarest and most valuable books through an online store
- Using booksharing (free exchange of books) to attract new potential buyers
Our immediate plans include the launch of an affiliate program with more lenient conditions than for a franchise for the opening of Khodasevich bookstores in other cities.
Conclusion
In a crisis, you can create a business from scratch, without the help of your “uncle.” All successful projects are united by the bold ideas of their creators, vision of prospects, understanding of the target audience, choice of directions that do not require significant initial investments, and focus on further development. This helps you avoid problems that become obstacles for indecisive people and become stronger than your competitors.
Today I want to tell you the stories of some of the richest people of our planet, who were able to earn more than a billion dollars thanks to their brilliant ideas, hard work and desire to get rich. What’s most interesting is that all these people did not inherit a huge fortune or win the lottery; they all started their business practically from scratch. Very interesting, read on.
Li Ka-shing – $26.5 billion
Li Ka-shing was born and lived in China until he left the country in 1940 and moved to Hong Kong. Due to the death of his father, he had to leave school at the age of 14 and go to earn money. His first job was in a company selling plastic products and he had to spend 16 hours there.
The first ten years, plus frugality, led to the opportunity to open my own business, Cheung Kong Industries. Like Ka-shing's previous place of work, it was engaged in plastics, but over time, it turned into the largest investment corporation in Hong Kong. Li Ka-shing himself is considered one of the richest Chinese.
Sheldon Adelson – $26 billion
Sheldon Adelson, the son of a taxi driver from Boston, began his entrepreneurial journey at age 12 by selling newspapers. After that, he was a court reporter, mortgage broker, investment advisor and financial consultant. There was a period when he tried to sell toiletries and charter tours.
But the organization of the computer exhibition COMDEX in 1979 was a serious success. In the next 2 decades, it was the leading exhibition in the computer field in the USA.
And in 1988, he and his partners acquired a casino and hotel in Las Vegas (Sands Hotel & Casino), after which he quickly began to get rich.
Sergey Brin – $24.9 billion
This is a new wave of billionaires who began to earn money in the age of computerization and the Internet. Sergey Brin, the 40-year-old owner of Google and a former Russian, was born in Moscow, and then moved to the USA with a family of mathematicians. He started working on search engines (that's the correct name for Google.com itself) at Stanford together with his classmate Larry Page. The system was tested at the university, and then they began to look for investors. The name Google is a mispronunciation of gugol, a word said during one of the project's presentations.
Brin and Page entered the list of billionaires in 2004, when they were 30 years old. Today, Brin is mainly involved in the development of new projects and areas, such as augmented reality glasses and an unmanned vehicle.
Larry Page – $24.9 billion
The co-founder and co-owner of Google has been leading the company itself since 2011 and is actually responsible for its strategic development. In addition to Google, he is actively involved in the development of the clean energy sector, in particular, together with Brin, he invested in Tesla Motors, which produces electric cars. high level(this is a normal machine that is powered by batteries).
Roman Abramovich – $23.5 billion
A widely known personality in narrow circles, Roman Abramovich, a billionaire, is an orphan who was raised by his grandparents. I went into business while still a student, creating a cooperative for the production of toys and various polymers. After this there were many other companies and cooperatives, both in production and trade.
But, as some sharp tongues say, Abramovich’s main talent is that he knows how to be in the right place at the right time - thus, he was able to gain control of Sibneft, which allowed him to become a billionaire.
Amancio Ortega – $20.2 billion
Until I read who it was, the name meant absolutely nothing to me - Amancio Ortega. If we say that this is the founder and owner of Zara, then a lot will fall into place.
He started sewing his first suits in his living room with the help of 25 dollars and his wife. He opened his first clothing store in 1975, and after a while became the owner of the popular clothing chain Zara. In addition to the Zara chain, he has chains of clothing stores for children, for young girls, lingerie stores, etc. In total, Ortega has more than 3 thousand stores in 64 countries.
Mark Zuckerberg – $19 billion
29-year-old Mark Zuckerberg is an icon modern world. Young, lazy, creative and rich. Creator of the largest social Facebook networks, who created a system for his university - Harvard - but in the end was unable to graduate, because... there was no time left. Helped in the creation of Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskowitz, plus Eduardo Saverin. The first major investment came from Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal.
Now Facebook is a public company, which at first lost a lot in value, and then (in 2013) began to rise in price. Zuckerberg now has a 17% stake, making him the youngest billionaire in history.
Kirk Kerkorian – $16 billion
Now an elderly man aged 96 years old, he dropped out of school in the 8th grade for the sake of boxing. At that time, he achieved great success and even became the welterweight champion in the Pacific Non-Professional Boxing Championship. After the Second World War, he retired from the ring to the airfield and began flying airplanes, but in 1944 he ended up in Las Vegas, where he was stuck for 3 years. Having squandered a lot of money, he finally said goodbye to gambling and bought the air transportation company Trans International Airlines for 60 thousand dollars. After some time, he was able to sell it for $104 million to Transamerica.
And since 1968, he went into Hollywood - he made money at MGM, United Artists, Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox.
Elon Musk – $6.7 billion
Elon Musk is one of those new rich people who are capturing the market with their brains, hands and business acumen. My first big deal was at the age of 12 - I wrote a program that I sold for $500 (at that age I only spent my pocket money on ice cream and buns). At the age of 25, together with his brother, he created a company dealing software for news companies, and after 4 years he was able to sell it at a price of 307 million. He invested this money in the creation of PayPal, which, in turn, sold to eBay for $1.5 billion.
Today he is studying space program Space X and has contracts from NASA. The aforementioned Tesla Motors is also involved.
Dustin Moskowitz – $5.2 billion
About this young man You could also say that he was in the right place at the right time. Dustin Moskowitz is Mark Zuckerberg's roommate and helped him create Facebook. At the moment he owns 5% of the shares and this is the basis of his fortune. Facebook is not his main project now - he is currently working on the Asana project. This is a web application for effective collaboration on projects. Among the interesting things - he rides a bicycle to work and participates in the Giving Pledge project (a philanthropic project from Bill Gates and Warren Buffett). The essence of the project is that half of the members’ wealth goes to charity.
Ken Griffin – $4.4 billion
It's not just computers that make billions. Ken Griffin is the owner of Citadel hedge funds. He had his first positive experience of playing on the stock exchange at the age of 18 and has not stopped working since then. He became one of the most famous specialists in his field. After 2008, the funds lost half their value, but are now gradually recovering.
John Arnold – $2.8 billion
Another successful stock market player, John Arnold, got his start at the now-deceased Enron. At age 27, he earned $1 billion for the company and received his $8 million bonus. It was this money that I used to invest for myself and leave the boring company.
In 2012, he surprised the whole world by announcing that he was leaving trading after 17 years of successful experience. Now he and his wife charitable foundation with a budget of $1.4 billion, and is also part of the Giving Pledge project, which we mentioned above.
Oprah Winfrey – $2.5 billion
Oprah Winfrey is a whole layer of American culture. This is the Cinderella of our days, who did not drop her shoe on the stairs, but plowed like a horse and used every opportunity. The beginning of life is harsh, you can’t say anything: a strict mother, she was first abused at the age of 9, at 14 she gave birth to a child who died in infancy. But when I was in school, I first got to work at a radio station. At the age of 19, she already hosted local news, then daytime talk shows. The next serious achievement is to promote a completely unpopular show so as to become a celebrity, and then, with experience and a name, create your own production company.
At 32, Oprah became a millionaire, and her show is a national treasure. Since 1994, it has become so popular that the check for the year exceeded 9-figure amounts. Oprah Winfrey became the first African-American woman to appear on the Forbes list.
Today, if you get on air with Oprah, you can become a celebrity in 1 day. For example, they did this to Robert Kiyosaki in 1997 (of course, we will not belittle the achievements of Robert himself).
Mikey Jagtiani – $2.5 billion
Mikey Jagtiani, a representative of the Middle East on our list of billionaires, was going to become an accountant, but his studies didn’t work out because... living in London turned out to be too expensive, plus exams were also not going smoothly. To survive, I had to work as a taxi driver and cleaner.
At the age of 21, Mikey Jagtiane ends up in Bahrain alone with 6 thousand dollars (that’s all the family had) and opens a children’s goods store with this money. And today it is a retail chain on the list of the most profitable in the Middle East.
A corporation called Landmark includes 280 stores throughout the Middle East and brings Mike Jagtiani up to 650 million in profit per year.
Michael Rubin – $2.3 billion
Another representative of modern billionaires, Michael Rubin, CEO Kynetic. He began his journey as an entrepreneur as a child and sold seeds to neighbors. At the age of 10, he already hired 5 guys to remove snow from neighbors’ lawns for money. At the age of 14, this future billionaire had already opened his first store, persuading his father to sign a lease agreement. At 23, he was already a director in a company with sales of $50 million.
But he saw his destiny in e-commerce, which was just beginning to develop. He invested about 80 million in his online store, but, despite increasing sales, he could not make this business sustainable. However, eBay came to the rescue and bought the company from Rubin for 2.4 billion. The price is much higher than the actual cost of this project, but eBay was behind in the race with Amazon, so they shelled out the money.
Today Rubin is involved in Fanatics clothing stores and websites of various types, in which he has already invested 500 million.
Eduardo Saverin – $2.2 billion
Another person who made a fortune on Facebook. Saverin was Zuckenberg's first investor and was the commercial director of the young project. But while Saverin was in New York practicing, Zuckerberg attracted new investors and artificially lowered his stake from 34% to 0.03%. Eduardo sued and regained his share to 5%.
This 5% allowed him to get on the list of billionaires. In addition, the man turned out to be reasonable and, before Facebook filed for an IPO, renounced his US citizenship and became a citizen of Brazil, which allowed him not to pay American taxes. And although his passport is Brazilian, he lives in Singapore and invests in online projects: an application that scans the barcode of a product and offers it at the lowest price on the Internet or online payments with a credit card using a webcam.
Sean Parker – $2 billion
Another co-owner of Facebook, Sean Parker, started out as a talented programmer and hacker. Already at the age of 16, he was arrested for hacking the websites of companies that were on the Forbes list. He also had a hand in creating the Internet resource Napster, through which one could exchange music. It was a breakthrough of sorts, although closed due to “some” friction with the law. At 24, he meets Zuckerberg and is the president of Facebook. True, then he is removed, which, however, does not prevent him from retaining 3% of the shares and becoming a billionaire.
Today he is engaged in his own startups.
Richard Desmond – $2 billion
Richard Desmond's life was also not pampering at first: his parents divorced, they lived together in a small apartment, he dropped out of school at the age of 14 to play the drums and help his mother earn money.
His first real job was at Thomson Newspaper, but by the age of 21 he was the owner of two record stores. But the media experience also continued - in 1974, Desmond became the publisher of the International Musician and Recording World magazine.
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