How to open your own business and not burn out in the first year: tips and cases. Five best business ideas that brought in millions What kind of business to open so as not to burn out

There are hundreds of reasons to put off such an undertaking for another year or several years. Most of these excuses are related to financial problems, age, lack of time and other resources. However, the main question is far from the circumstances, but whether you really want to open your own business without investments or not.

If there is a job, it is better to try to keep it. A reliable source of income will allow you to save yourself from worrying about financial position for the period of promotion of business or in case of its failure. Of course, combining several types of activities in real life can be difficult and business development from this will not go as smoothly as we would like. But it's still much safer to leave behind a reliable rear than to throw everything on the line, chasing a dream that has not even materialized yet.

This first step is especially important for those who have already started a family. You can't jeopardize your family's future by giving up your main source of income to pursue your personal dream. Although it is difficult to balance your project with the main work and family life, it's much safer.

Business plan development. How will you make money from your idea? Until there is an answer to this question, it is better not to think about starting your own business. Any goal commercial organization is to make money. And this can only be done by having detailed plan actions. Here are some basic questions to ask yourself before you get started:

What is the cost of the service or product provided?
How much will it cost for the client?
What are the expected business turnover?
How will this business grow and expand?
How will the business outperform competitors?
What kind of people should be hired?

As you can see, a working business idea from scratch is not everything.

Conducting a thorough competitive analysis. Who are your competitors? What price range do they work in? Can you provide a product or service with a higher level of quality or at a lower cost? If yes, then it's great and the chances of success are very high.

Not all industries are equally easy to break into. research firm IBIS World recommends that small business owners strive to establish themselves in niches with low entry costs and high growth potential. The simplest examples are: personnel management, small street vendors, e-commerce, ethnic supermarkets, home breweries/distilleries, blogs and online information publications, and other similar areas.

Exploring and testing your ideas. Preparation and planning are no less important than the successful search for an idea without investment. Before starting work with any business venture, it is desirable to find an opportunity to perform a "test run". For example, if you plan to open a mobile shop with burgers and other fast food, you first need to try to treat a neighbor, an acquaintance, a seller from a shop opposite, or someone else from a random audience.

By conducting such an experiment, you can find out how good the food is, whether people like the level of service itself and whether they are willing to pay money for it.

A business plan, for all its value, is only a couple of pieces of paper (or a few kilobytes of information). If the results of practical research are contrary to expectations, you will have to modify your business plan or even rewrite it from scratch. It can be frustrating, but doing so is much smarter than risking the success of a business with an idea that won't fly.

Receipt necessary knowledge and skills. Starting a business without investment will be the end of it if you lack the skills or knowledge to keep and grow it. It is important for every entrepreneur to look for any opportunity to acquire practical know-how, and it is not so important from where - from specialized educational institutions or from friends, relatives and more experienced acquaintances.

Mobilization of all available resources. Starting a new business from nothing, you need to use all available resources to the maximum extent possible. For example, make a personal car the transport of your company; turn a garage into a workshop or manufacturing facility; convert your room into an online office and so on. Some of today's largest companies (of the most famous and) began their work in very modest conditions - in garages, basements and dormitories.

Decision personnel issue . Of course, paying employees is expensive, especially if you hire well-trained professionals. However, being a successful businessman does not mean being a universal soldier. The difference between a bad businessman and a good one lies precisely in the fact that the first one grabs everything himself, trying to reduce costs, and the second does only what he can do well, and he entrusts the work for which he has no talent to professionals.

For example, the US Small Business Administration (SBA) recommends spending approximately 50% of your profits on employee salaries.

Qualified personnel means not only safe and professional performance of work, but also freeing yourself from routine and fatigue. And this is important, because the saved forces and energy can be spent on the development of another business.

Getting support from friends and/or family. Trying to build a business from scratch can end up costing you a lot. In addition, the so-called force majeure can always happen. Therefore, it is desirable to have a support group that will help you survive moments of crisis.

Promotion. Best business in the world is doomed to failure if no one knows of its existence. Of course, with scarce starting investments it is difficult to provide a worthy promotion for your business. But you can get out of the situation. The lack of capital will have to be compensated by their own hard work.

For example, you can print flyers at home on a printer and distribute them on weekends; advertise your business personally among the target audience; hang a noticeable banner right on your house. You can even order a promotional suit and walk around crowded places in it. Of course, this is a big test for your ego, but the initial marketing efforts are always the key to success.

In addition, today social networks have huge potential for promotion. Social media is an effective way to reach customers for small businesses. However, you need to understand that the conversion of the online public does not always live up to expectations. This is because the average internet user is constantly bombarded advertisements, so you can only hook it with something really interesting.

Development of entrepreneurial mindset. launch own business- always very hard work. But if you continue to devote yourself to this business, over time, the so-called entrepreneurial mindset begins to develop. Business becomes not a job, but a passion, and problems become a challenge and obstacles, overcoming which only brings pleasure. And when there is passion for what you do, it is easy to maintain determination in any situation and do everything possible and impossible.

6 steps to start your business

Step 1. Choosing a business idea (narrow specialization in the chosen niche)

Choosing a broad and generalized niche is usually not enough, you should also analyze the so-called "sub-niches" and narrow specializations. An entrepreneur needs to clearly understand what his business idea is, what he wants to trade or be useful. In addition, you can write on paper:

all possible options business in the chosen niche;
consider their disadvantages and advantages.

This approach allows you to determine exactly what you want in the selected market segment. For example, you have chosen a niche - rolls and Japanese cuisine. From here there are different branches, because you can:

only deliver food to your home;
open a full-fledged restaurant;
engage in the supply of products for other restaurants;
sell their products in supermarkets;
open a cooking YouTube channel or blog.

In other words, you may like some of this, but on the contrary, cause disgust. Based on this, you should choose a business idea, as well as your specialization.

Step 2. Analysis of competitors

The next most important step, without which it is simply impossible to create profitable project is a competitor analysis. As a rule, in any even the narrowest niches there are competitors who already have a profit, have established partnerships. What you should know:

how competitors are advancing (what advertising is used and where, how they warm up the audience with promotions, etc.);
product features, how they emphasize their benefits;
how long their business exists, the number of employees, the approximate cost and other nuances.

A thorough review of your competitors will help you map out a course of action, because in essence you only need to repeat their success and, if possible, do a little better to lure customers. This is the constant competitive struggle in business, when everyone tries to outdo each other or divides customers among themselves.

Step 3. Planning business processes

After these steps, it's time to start the actual planning. As part of the plan, it is worth considering such aspects as:

approximate price of one client (in money, time);
average check;
conversion;
cost price;
total revenues;
final profit.

Key questions for a business plan.

Additionally:

the amount of time and effort required to start the project;
if minimal investments are planned, then include them in the project;
potential payback period;
term of becoming a niche leader;
sources of advertising (traffic).

As the project develops, it will be necessary to add such items to the plan as: scaling the project, searching for additional investments, and much more. Of course, it will not be possible to immediately take into account all the nuances, so any business is a risky activity.

Step 4. Registration (if necessary)

It is no secret that many entrepreneurs start a business without official registration with the Federal Tax Service. Theoretically, everyone needs to register as an individual entrepreneur or LLC, as indicated in the law. However, practice shows that if you do not have an office and your business is accompanied by a small income (within 30,000 rubles per month), then you can try your hand at business without registration.

Important: when opening a business without investments or with minimal capital, it is best not to register. Otherwise, you simply do not have enough money to pay all the fees.

What will you need to pay if in the future you still register an IP on the simplified tax system:

Insurance contributions to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation - approximately 26,600 rubles, if the income did not exceed 300,000 rubles per year.
You do not need to pay taxes if you make an advance on contributions every quarter. Otherwise, you will need to pay 6% of all profits on the simplified tax system, or 15% with the simplified tax system “income minus expenses”.
Maintenance of a current bank account, if it is opened. Today there are many options for free account management.
If you sell goods, you will still have to register an online checkout. It can be bought with a one-time payment for an amount of about 20,000 rubles, or you can pay 1,000-1,500 rubles a month, depending on the chosen company.

As a result, at the initial stage it is better not to register, but if your niche involves an office and the sale of goods from the shelves, then this will be necessary, otherwise you can fall under the criminal article on illegal business. The above information reflects the approximate costs associated with the registration and maintenance of IP.

Step 5. Organization of business processes

At this step, you need to complete the entire series of actions related to the material component of the business. This includes:

preparation of equipment for work;
opening a counter or office, if without it, then creating a group in social networks, website, landing page, etc., it can even be ads on Avito and other message boards;
search for partners, contractors, if necessary;
preparation of contracts and documentation, if required in the provision of services and the sale of goods.

In general, organizational measures depend on the niche, and you yourself should understand them, taking into account all the nuances of the future business. It is advisable to thoroughly study the entire process of providing services or selling goods, which is planned to be implemented.

Step 6. Business promotion

At this step, you may already have the first clients among your friends or those who have successfully visited your ads on the network, but this is not enough. It is necessary to expand the flow of people, for which promotional materials of various kinds are used. For example, it could be:

contextual advertising on the Internet;
advertising in social networks;
distribution of leaflets;
announcements in elevators, trams, etc.

There are a lot of advertising directions and it is impossible to list them all. The most important thing is to analyze how your competitors advertise, which we did in step #2. After that, you just need to use similar sources of advertising, gradually adding new ones that are not yet used.

As a result, after completing all six steps, you will know exactly how to start a business in a particular niche. You use all the necessary mechanisms for business with the maximum probability of success. Of course, it will be possible to judge concrete achievements only after certain time(1-2 years), but the first step will be taken.

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4 main stages of creating your own business: market research, selection of a business idea, development of a business plan and start.

How to open your own business and not burn out without experience and special knowledge? Unlike the 90s, when everyone started by trial, today there is a lot of information in the public domain. This facilitates the process, but does not always save the beginner from some common mistakes.

study the market, identify potential customers - even the best idea is doomed if the service, product or product is not needed;
purposefully select a business idea - it is better not one, but several close options: at subsequent stages, some of them will be eliminated;
draw up a business plan for the future enterprise - it will become obsolete quite quickly, but without it, nowhere: this is a guideline for oneself, a requirement of investors, banks;
start work, register the business officially - "experienced" entrepreneurs are advised to launch a "trial balloon" before paying taxes.

Let's take interesting statistics as a basis (Fig. 1) and consider each stage in detail. Why step on a rake that has already fallen under the feet of others?

Reason #1 leads by a wide margin. A simple conclusion follows from this: what is successful is what happens to be in the right place, in right time. When thinking about how to open your own business, where to start, it is important to realistically assess the environment. Business in a small town, metropolis, countryside is completely different, while successful examples are everywhere.

The pivot is the point at which the direction of a business changes abruptly. On financial exchanges - the moment of price reversal, and switching to the opposite strategy. Example. The entrepreneur runs a barbecue, things are going so-so. Noticed: customers are often interested - where does he get good meat? He sold the establishment, and organized a service for the delivery of fresh meat to the house. Less hassle, more income.

Stage 1. Finding a direction and a niche: where there are problems and what is missing

First of all, you need to look for future consumers of the service, buyers. How many of them, what are they willing to pay for? Find narrow local needs, market needs - identify the potential of the future sales network, clientele. The pros and cons of the location of the enterprise are assessed: geography, transport accessibility, income level of the population.

Trade, the service sector are saturated, high competition is manifested. When choosing this business, professional market research will not hurt. It is not enough to present a good product: you need it to be better, cheaper than others. Such options are directly related to the end consumer - beginners usually look in this direction.

But enterprises and organizations, both small and large, also have needs. The eternal problem of housing and communal services is the removal and disposal of garbage; construction firms- in constant search of building materials; schools and kindergartens need cheap furniture, and shops need packaging. Entrepreneurs need accounting and legal consulting, and giant enterprises willingly outsource some of their simple production processes to the SMP. The simplest search methods: observation, collecting information under the guise of a client, analyzing search queries, studying reviews, complaints and suggestions in the media and the Internet.

Theoretically, everyone imagines how to open their own business, a workshop - however, it shows the same repeated mistakes:

focus on oneself, and not on the consumer: choosing a business based on one's knowledge, skills, connections is excellent when the interests of the parties are mutual;
refusal of a promising business because you have little understanding of the topic: there are professionals who are willing to work with a skillful organization;
a bet on an empty niche: the complete absence of competitors does not mean that you are ahead of everyone - maybe there is simply no money in this place;
choice according to the principle: a neighbor (matchmaker, brother, acquaintance) is engaged, they live well - no one will tell about the real problems of their business;
underestimation of competitors - if there are a lot of them, effective detuning will be required,

niche narrowing: not just "repair of foreign cars", but "repair of VIP-class cars".

Stage 2. Choosing a business idea: relevance over novelty

Having chosen a certain direction, it is logical to look for ideas related to existing experience or knowledge. Of course, in the ideal case, everything coincides, and in addition - there is an original concept. But don't count on it. More often than not, money is earned not on new products, but on what others are already doing - it is important to do better by attracting new business model.

Even a large investor is not always willing to finance new projects. For example, the sales format "all at the same price" and Russian market offered one company "Best Price". With the onset of the crisis, Magnit, Pyaterochka moved in this direction - but their own large chains difficult to rebuild. Newcomers quickly got their bearings: the ZaOdno network appeared, there will be others. Google and Facebook also used original ideas and radically improved the existing ones.

Absolutely new, creative developments require large investments at the start. Even if they have a perspective - it takes a long time to wait for returns, they can get ahead of others. In the time it takes to create an original product, you can implement a few simple projects and get financial benefits tomorrow. There are exceptions to the rule, but rarely.

From the graph above, it can be seen that 20-30% of entrepreneurs quit because they ran out of money, had a poor team choice, or were competitors faster. This suggests that when choosing an idea, three things must be taken into account. important moments.

What will the business be built on? material resources that you can buy, or the main thing in it is people. It is much more difficult to motivate them to work with high returns, it costs more.
Do you need to calculate well, will there be enough resources to implement all the tasks on time? When an idea is really promising, it is visible not only to you, but also to others.
From the very beginning, you need to think about what kind of people you can hire and where to find them. It is not necessary to delve into all the intricacies of the business yourself. But at least one of the key employees must understand it thoroughly.

Competitive advantages should be clearly expressed, conscious. Take, for example, the IT industry. If a company offers an inexpensive product, a personalized service, it will gather customers from small businesses. A complex program with access control, information protection - will be of interest large companies. The direction is the same - different niches, ideas, buyers.

Let's add optimism: in spite of everything, the number of small and medium-sized enterprises is growing, and their place is in all sectors of the economy (Fig. 2).

Stage 3. Business plan helps to stay in touch with reality

Planning takes away the illusions. When everything is decomposed into plus and minus, it becomes clear what is realistic and what is not. By itself, a business plan as a document becomes outdated quickly and needs to be adjusted. But those who have it always win, no matter how often they break it.

The typical option includes:

detailed analysis of the market, competitors;
description of the essence of the project, its "zest";
marketing activities, planned return;
technical, production plan (if necessary);
financial alignment for a 3-5-year period;
profitability calculation, risk assessment.

First of all, the entrepreneur himself needs it, a template document with abstract figures does not make sense. Without it, it will not be possible to take a loan from a bank or attract an investor.

unwanted miscalculations.

Attention is focused on profitability, while for small enterprises it is more important cash flow. Profit is calculated with a delay, according to the results of the period. Free money is always needed: for salaries, for goods, for returns. You can have zero on your account - with a positive financial result on the paper.
They ask the investor for money - and provide a deficit-free project, or even more interesting - include investments in the income item. No one will lend you money to buy real estate or cover losses from another business.
If a negative cash is expected before reaching the payback, for example, a shortage of 30%, this amount must be included in the loan calculation. A "financial pillow" is needed - but consider what share of the business you will have to pay for it.

Cash (Cash flow) - cash flow, that is, free funds on hand, liquid assets, on hand. The same term refers to the cash flow statement. Investors and banks are favorable to positive values. How to start a business from scratch, and the next day - expect high profits. “He who wants to see the results of his labor immediately should become a shoemaker,” Einstein said on a different occasion, but this is a universal principle. Launching several projects in the hope that at least one of them will “shoot” is a losing option. In each direction there are competitors who put all their efforts into it - the result is predictable.

Starting a business today is almost the only way to improve your well-being. It's no secret that the majority of Russians do not receive enough resources for a decent life in their consumer basket. Only one's own business can correct such a situation - a very difficult, and often dangerous event. So how to start your business in such a way that it can not only withstand the difficulties of any undertaking, but also begin to bring real and decent profit?

Knowing your abilities is the key to success

The first thing a novice businessman should do is to analyze his resources, means, and skills.

It's no secret that starting any business requires some cash injections. If there is a certain amount of savings, then this is already a good start. But don't get hung up on money. If you do not have them, then someone else will definitely have the right amount. It remains only to find a way to get these funds at your disposal. Below are a few effective ways getting the right Money. Now let's focus on other resources.

Among the resources, in addition to money, are buildings, factories, land, buildings, equipment. But don't give up just because you don't have oil rig. To start a business, sometimes even an ordinary broom is enough. There are cases in the world when people started with a shovel in their hands, digging holes and trenches, and ended up as millionaires, owners of large regional firms. Therefore, all objects of labor can serve you well if you go into business.

It is necessary to rank as resources, among other things, and intellectual abilities. If you have a degree in law, economics, sociology, physics, whatever, there is already a certain direction and the opportunity to do something.

Don't forget your connections. You need to analyze who you mainly communicate with. Perhaps among these people there are those who can be combined into one team. With the help of such a bundle, one can develop one of the lines of business, acting as an intermediary between different specialists or owners of certain opportunities.

Thus, having analyzed the presence or absence of resources that it is desirable to put in writing on one large sheet of paper, you can proceed to the next stage of work to find a suitable occupation.

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Finding the right activity

We already have a certain range of opportunities based on the availability of our own resources. This work was not done in vain. With its help, we were able to weed out some of the areas of activity that require the most effort in areas unusual for us.

To simplify the further presentation of the material, we will take one of the business ideas into service and use its example to describe the movement of the entire complex of work necessary for a successful undertaking. Let us assume that the reader does not have huge fixed assets, such as factories or special equipment. He is a common citizen Russian Federation, has a VAZ car in his garage, which his grandfather gave him long ago, lives in a country house, where there is a small garden of 8-10 acres.

With such a set of resources, the direction of activity is clear. What can such a person do? Let's try to make a list:

With the help of a car, you can do transportation.
In the garden, you can equip a large greenhouse and grow vegetables and fruits.
Growing food products, as well as their transportation to regions where their sale is more profitable.

The third point is a seasonal type of earnings. This means that you need to find another occupation for your business during a period unsuitable for growing food.

All these ideas lie on the surface. But for some reason everyone does not use them. Accordingly, it is necessary to understand the reasons why people do not start their own business.

First, growing food is quite hard work. Because of this, most do not want to go into such a business. In addition, it requires investments from a person who decides to engage in this type of activity. But this does not mean that investments will return, because no one has canceled crop failures. This indicates the existence of risks. But this is not the biggest problem that people face when growing vegetables or transporting. The main difficulty is finding clients.

This detail would be especially sharply visible in the occupation of transportation. Opening such a business will not bring benefits to its owner if he starts it without worrying about a sufficient number of customers. Let's take a closer look at this moment of creating your own business.

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Customer base: how to create?

Any type of doing business involves interacting with certain circles of people who need your services or products. The more such consumers, the higher the earnings of a businessman. It is not clear what service or product is needed by enough people in need to be able to start a profitable business.

This problem is solved very simply actually. But you can't be a closed person. Although this is resolved. The main thing is to have a great desire to open your own business.

All it takes is to know what services people need. How to do it? In the most natural way. You need to open the doors of your house and ask people the appropriate question. This is where all your communication skills will come in handy. To simplify this work, it is better to approach it comprehensively.

You need to create a questionnaire. To do this, you need to open a leaflet and write everything that can give answers to the question of what people need from what you can do. Next, you need to define target audience. To do this, you need to create a passport of the resulting questionnaire, which should include data on the age, gender characteristics, status of the person being interviewed. Thus, in the future it will be possible to weed out some of the people who, by definition, do not need the services you provide.

Naturally, interviewing everyone is very long, costly and troublesome. Therefore, a selection must be made. A sample is a quantitative characteristic that determines the required number of respondents for the corresponding number of the entire population living in a certain territory. It takes into account such characteristics as the status, gender and age of the respondents.

Approximately for a more or less accurate survey, you can focus on the figure of 2 people of the same age, or gender, or status per thousand people of the population. Accordingly, if 10,000 people live in your village, then you will need to interview 20 people aged 18 to 25 (youth), 20 - aged 26 to 50 ( average age) and 20 people over 51 years old (elderly people). You will also need to interview 20 people with low, medium and high status. Most often, status is determined by education and position. The number of all respondents should be divided equally by gender.

The total number of people to be interviewed will be 100 people. After the survey, there is a period of summing up and analyzing the collected data. If people, as it turns out, will need some kind of service or product, then it is clear that you need to open just such a business. A sufficient number can be considered a figure of 20-30 people. After all, every 2 people express the opinion of about a thousand residents of the village. And this is a significant figure for doing business, even if there were errors in the survey. But we must remember that the choice of who to interview and who not should be random. You can not interrogate acquaintances, friends, relatives.

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The law is strong, but it's law

The well-known Latin expression for centuries proves its correctness for those who want to discover something of their own. After all, ignorance of the laws can become a real threat not only to your business, but also to personal freedom. Moreover, we have a presumption: ignorance of the Law does not exempt from liability for its violation.

This does not mean that you should be afraid to start a new business. All you need is to take advantage of the latest developments in the field high technology. To date, all relevant legislation is available in electronic form and is regularly published by the responsible authorities. The only thing you need to know is where to look for the information you need.

In the field of federal legislation, the defining regulations are the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Civil Code, the Economic Code, the federal law“On Entrepreneurship”, Federal Law “On Advertising”, Federal Law “On Licensing Certain Types of entrepreneurial activity”, other legislative acts regulating issues in the field of entrepreneurial activity.

The study of this legislation is simply necessary in order not to make a fatal mistake, and also to find an opportunity in full compliance with the current legislation of the Russian Federation. Naturally, the best way out would be to contact a qualified lawyer for appropriate advice.

There are many business ideas small town. But not all of them can be regarded as worthy of consideration, and even more so - a real implementation. Studying such materials is unlikely to bring you closer to your dream. It is quite another matter if a novice businessman in a small town himself studies cultural and economic features its small homeland, and on their basis offers its own version of a working and successful business.

The idea of such a business in a small town will be valued by this person much more than read anywhere, because he put his own efforts and cognitive abilities to develop it. Ideas become the brainchild of man, and he tends to go out of his way to take care of translating them into reality.

The idea does not have to stand out with an unusual or fresh look at familiar things, the main requirement for it should be the practicality of translating into reality, it is this quality that will allow you not only to do business in a small town, but also earn money at the same time. Therefore, when thinking about how to open a profitable small business, remember that it must, first of all, bring you a guaranteed income, and only after that be original or innovative.

You should not be afraid to open a business based on pale or boring ideas, most of the working business cannot boast of the beauty of the action or the interestingness of the process. Not at all, usually a business enterprise is opened in order to perform ordinary, banal, routine work, and to do it profitably. It may very well be that the conceived idea is popular and is listed on the main lists of business ideas in a small town, but it’s better when a person comes to it himself, it becomes his own, regardless of who was its discoverer.

Do not neglect the origin of the plan for the future business in a small town. The origin of the business plan is of great importance, because people show a significant tendency to implement their own ideas, which they believe are true. Therefore, your search for an idea for a business in a small town can be considered the first necessary step to achieve success.

Types of own business that you can open in a small town

The small town provides a wide range of opportunities to start your own business. Any occupation in a small town can be of two types:

a craft operating exclusively in a small town.
a matter open to the whole wide world around you.

An excellent example of the first group of enterprises is a hairdressing salon. It provides services at the place of consumption, so it is completely tied to the place where it is located. Clients will not be able to discover the professionalism of its masters if they are in another city. All communications of this enterprise with the outside world are limited to serving visiting customers and purchasing equipment and consumables.

However, by and large, the hairdresser is able to function perfectly without all the world surrounding your city. The reason for this is that the services provided by this enterprise can only be consumed at the place of their provision, the same applies to most other products of the service sector. That's why business people who work in the service sector, as a rule, are not interested in what is happening outside their city, and do not want to open the world for yourself and your business.

Open businesses

An open-source enterprise operates on a completely different principle. Its leader needs to be well versed in the situation in the country and know the main trends of the time. As a rule, your own business, closely connected with the outside world, can work in two directions:

It can bring goods into the city and sell them in it.
Create goods or services in your city and sell them outside, and, of course, inside the city, too, if there is an appropriate demand.

As you can see, the principles of operation of these enterprises are fundamentally different, despite the fact that both types are open to the outside world.

The first method comes down to banal trading, usually retail goods for end users. Opening a store or other retail outlet is quite easy. But that's exactly what's causing the problem for you. Surely, someone in your city has already opened outlets for all types of goods, which means that no matter what area you choose, you will have competitors from the very beginning, while their experience in trading will be higher than what you had accumulate. In such conditions, it is easy to decide to open a new outlet only with a steadily growing demand, and this happens only in times of rapid economic growth. Unfortunately, in Russia these times have already passed, and their return is not expected in the near future.

If you feel that retail- this is your calling, you can try to find a niche that has not yet been occupied. It is quite difficult, but still real, because gradually the tastes of the population are changing, constantly evolving. Consequently, the buyer begins to pay attention to goods and services that have not been popular until recently.

Once you've found your niche, you need to evaluate whether the demand your town generates is enough to allow your store to generate enough turnover to be successful. If the answer is yes, and at the same time the consumption of this type of product promises to continue to grow, you should try your luck. But in no case should you open a store at random in the hope of luck, usually such actions end in the ruin of those who like to jump into the abyss without insurance.

Tells what to look for when starting your own business, and explains why in no case should this be done with the last money.

When starting a new business, it is very important to remember that your product or service is unique. It is unique not because there is no such product, but because each business and its founder has unique conditions. And every business has different goals.

For example, someone wants to open their own business, bring it to a certain level and sell it in the next few years. Someone wants to create a brand and is preparing for long-term development and network building. Similar strategic goals require different tactical decisions. But whatever the finish line, it is important that business is always a risk. There is no one guaranteed business model in which you can invest money and make a profit.

It is important to conduct competent planning and take into account the greatest number of factors that affect this business. Planning is like manual control that allows you to correct mistakes and helps you see where you went wrong.

Building

It all starts with building a business model, in which you should always prescribe three scenarios for the development of events at once: optimistic, pessimistic and realistic. Why is it important to understand the pessimistic model? When you contemplate new project, then you need to honestly outline for yourself the minimum, because of which this business, in principle, can be interesting.

And the optimistic model is your goal, which you will focus on.

You must know that your ideal result is not a dream, but a reality in tandem with calculation. It is also a matter of diligence and painstaking analysis of all the necessary tools and resources that will be required to achieve it.

I will give an example when we planned a project with a completely new and innovation system for the market. Now it is called True Cost and (a payment system with an entrance ticket to a restaurant for a certain price, where food and drinks are offered at cost price). There was nothing like it on the market, so there were no empirical data and opportunities for comparison either.

Especially for this project, we wrote 40 business models with different variables. I had 40 files with Excel tables for the same concept, and when we realized that most of them were profitable, we decided to open a restaurant. The project has successfully started, the network is developing, franchises are being sold in Russia and other countries. This is to the question of how differently it is possible to plan innovative and risky business and understand your chances of success.

Study competitors

An assessment of the competitive market, an assessment of market trends in relation to a particular product, is an obligatory thing at the planning stage. For example, you want to launch a Pan-Asian restaurant in a democratic price segment. You need to study what basically happens to the segment. Some companies have been public for a long time, and it is quite easy to find open data about them on the Internet.

If the location has already been selected, then you need to make a map trading territory and first of all, calculate how many people come to your competitors. Data for analysis is always open, such as pedestrian traffic. The more data there is at the very beginning, the more likely it is that the numbers that we put into the business model will be close to objective reality.

There is always the factor of insider information. In any branch business, people communicate quite well. We never call competitors those people who play with us on the same field. Constant interaction and joint projects help to assess the situation on the market.

In addition, you can always involve employees of the "front line". Any manager knows that these employees see things that the management does not know or does not see. They always know where there are unobvious difficulties, where resources are lost. Interact with people in person or through a simple survey and find out what they think are the biggest challenges in the company and where they see the biggest opportunities. Ask them if they could change something in the company, what exactly? You will be surprised by some of the answers and will be able to improve your business plan.

Last money

If you are a beginner entrepreneur and just entering a business, then there is an absolutely obvious point, which, unfortunately, is not obvious for 90% of start-up businesses - you should never open something with your last money.

I'll give you an example. An entrepreneur wants to open a restaurant. He calculated the estimate, took a loan or partner's money. Then the following picture occurs, the most disastrous for business, because of which many promising projects die - everything does not go according to plan.

The restaurateur gave himself a month or two to build up, but this time was not enough, the money ran out and the business finds itself in a very difficult situation: on the one hand, you need to spend extra money to improve the concept, and on the other hand, there are no funds to meet basic local needs.

There is nothing to pay the salary right away, hence the demotivated staff, there is nothing to buy products with, one clings to the other. As a result, it turns out that the business begins to choke, devouring itself. Even the best one with different business models may not save you from a situation where everything does not go according to plan. It is always necessary to have an additional safety cushion and the understanding that there is always an opportunity to make the project work, live and make a profit. This may require additional funds.

Experimental spending approach

No matter how successful your business starts to develop, it is very important not to stop looking for what can be improved, and not to be content with a comfortable position. The equilibrium position is dangerous for business. It seems to you that you have stable performance and there is no need to look for resources to increase turnover, but the market is developing very rapidly and if you stand in one place, you will quickly start losing money.

It is important to ask yourself what did you do better today than yesterday? A 1% change in revenue can make all the difference in your business. Each month, set yourself one experiential goal.

You can experimentally approach fixed and variable items of expenditure and do what no one else has tried to do. For example, we had a very cool case with utility bills.

Case 1. Every day we took readings of water meters, electricity and everything else, and then compared the resulting figures with revenue, and they did not match. If you do the same, then in 90% it turns out that the data is not always correlated. Electricity on one day can be spent 2 times more than on another, and the revenue is the same. The question is why?

It turned out that the cook did not turn off the stove until there was a peak load, and it worked all day. Cleaning ladies clean up the hall at night, all the lights are on, and 30% should be on, that's enough. We saved some serious money (30% off total costs), which simply went out of the owner's pocket every month.

Case 2. Quite often, managers in a certain position are not ready to cut costs within the department entrusted to them, thinking that it works well and further cost optimization can significantly affect quality. We faced such a situation when we decided to reduce the fund wages bartenders.

We have a large holding, we have the opportunity to analyze the numbers. We look and understand that the salary fund is objectively high. We call the bar manager and say that it needs to be reduced and, of course, they prepare an answer for us that the employees are sewn up, that people are fleeing from our restaurant, that we pay little and so on.

It is absolutely normal to fight for your employee and try to create comfortable working conditions for him. But we put the bar manager in front of the fact that this is a non-debatable issue. We decided to see if we reduce the salary fund or remove one person, will everyone else quit, say that they cannot work in such conditions? Specifically, this is an experimental approach. In the end, no one quit.

We identified why employees spent a lot of time, for example, went out for a smoke together, and optimized the work.

And last but not least, rent. It would seem that this is an indispensable item of expenditure. But you can also look at it from the other side. The relationship with the landlord is built in a certain way and there is always the possibility of dialogue. If you come and say that for your part you have made a quality product, show all the numbers with profit and loss statements and demonstrate to him that the business is not making money, since the high rent is very high, and this greatly reduces our interest in the location. The landlord is also interested in a good tenant who pays money on an ongoing basis, so he can make concessions. You should always strive to get out of the system and see the obvious and the non-obvious.