Successful experience creating a new business
On Habré there are many posts on the topic "how to start a business," "where to rent an office," "how much I spent on registration," etc. It is very sad that many of these articles end with the words of hope that in six months or a year I will describe what happened and what did not. After six months or a year, not so many users can finally describe what happened, because not many have succeeded, and we do not like to cover our mistakes.
For my part, I want to share the experience of organizing a business that has had time to start, and successfully start and bring good profits, and most importantly a lot of pleasure.
To begin with, I want to say that organizing your own business is very difficult, especially for a person who is used to doing everything according to the highest standard, and especially hard for a person who does not hope just for good luck or for anyone's financial injections. It happened to me.
I opened my first company in 2005 when I was tired of working “for an uncle”. The registration procedures, account opening, accounting management at Habré are present. It seems to me that the company was engaged in fairly standard solutions for the Internet market: logos, banners and websites. Later, the main focus of the company was the creation of online applications for working with databases (DB). The company grew slowly, with its own money, but grew. Small departments gradually formed, the key ones being the software development department and the design department, but it turned out that the software development department was always overloaded and the design department was underloaded.
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And then the thought was born: how, first, to load up the design department, secondly, to help the company get extra money, because it’s not a secret for anyone that there is not always money (someone underpaid, someone deferred payment and etc.), thirdly, take a break from sites and databases and fourthly use two of their higher education (electrical and architectural).
At first there was a bust of ideas, what could be done. The list was kilometer long, but it quickly declined due to high competition in a particular market. Someone will say that even in school they teach that the higher the competition, the easier it is to enter the market. I will answer, yes, it is, but it is just as difficult to hold onto it. Therefore, the key position was the rule "We must try to occupy the most unique niche with a potentially maximum income." And such a niche was found: Christmas decoration and lighting of country houses. Since we are talking about country houses, then the client must be with a good income.
Then there was the standard stage with full-time design department: the development of the style and the project site, with which the department successfully managed. With the placement of links for the initial promotion a little helped the department of software development. Itself at this time was engaged in search of potential suppliers (through search engines) and assembly crews (through acquaintances). On the basis of this search, price lists were compiled and competitor prices were analyzed, some prices were taken exactly from competitors.
The response was not long in coming: 1-2 calls per day, starting from the end of November. I perfectly understood that the company would not pull more than 3-4 orders, exactly 4 orders we took to work, the rest had to be refused. There were enough reasons for refusal: this is a lack of suppliers of jewelry and garlands for the new year and this is a drawback of the found installation teams.
Designers had to travel to objects, photograph them, and then draw decorations and lighting on photos.
The established principles of working with the client: payment for departure and photo processing immediately, the choice of decoration and lighting options, note of the option, some adjustment, 75-80% prepayment, work, 20-25% surcharge upon completion.
At first it was hard, especially psychologically. As it turned out later, no one believed in the project, which served as an additional pleasant personal assessment of the project.
I hope the material will help Habra people take the path of independence.
For my part, I want to share the experience of organizing a business that has had time to start, and successfully start and bring good profits, and most importantly a lot of pleasure.
To begin with, I want to say that organizing your own business is very difficult, especially for a person who is used to doing everything according to the highest standard, and especially hard for a person who does not hope just for good luck or for anyone's financial injections. It happened to me.
I opened my first company in 2005 when I was tired of working “for an uncle”. The registration procedures, account opening, accounting management at Habré are present. It seems to me that the company was engaged in fairly standard solutions for the Internet market: logos, banners and websites. Later, the main focus of the company was the creation of online applications for working with databases (DB). The company grew slowly, with its own money, but grew. Small departments gradually formed, the key ones being the software development department and the design department, but it turned out that the software development department was always overloaded and the design department was underloaded.
')
And then the thought was born: how, first, to load up the design department, secondly, to help the company get extra money, because it’s not a secret for anyone that there is not always money (someone underpaid, someone deferred payment and etc.), thirdly, take a break from sites and databases and fourthly use two of their higher education (electrical and architectural).
At first there was a bust of ideas, what could be done. The list was kilometer long, but it quickly declined due to high competition in a particular market. Someone will say that even in school they teach that the higher the competition, the easier it is to enter the market. I will answer, yes, it is, but it is just as difficult to hold onto it. Therefore, the key position was the rule "We must try to occupy the most unique niche with a potentially maximum income." And such a niche was found: Christmas decoration and lighting of country houses. Since we are talking about country houses, then the client must be with a good income.
Then there was the standard stage with full-time design department: the development of the style and the project site, with which the department successfully managed. With the placement of links for the initial promotion a little helped the department of software development. Itself at this time was engaged in search of potential suppliers (through search engines) and assembly crews (through acquaintances). On the basis of this search, price lists were compiled and competitor prices were analyzed, some prices were taken exactly from competitors.
The response was not long in coming: 1-2 calls per day, starting from the end of November. I perfectly understood that the company would not pull more than 3-4 orders, exactly 4 orders we took to work, the rest had to be refused. There were enough reasons for refusal: this is a lack of suppliers of jewelry and garlands for the new year and this is a drawback of the found installation teams.
Designers had to travel to objects, photograph them, and then draw decorations and lighting on photos.
The established principles of working with the client: payment for departure and photo processing immediately, the choice of decoration and lighting options, note of the option, some adjustment, 75-80% prepayment, work, 20-25% surcharge upon completion.
I'll try to summarize:
- Number of orders received: 4.
- Lead time: 2 weeks.
- Employment design department: complete.
- Turnover of the company: 800,000 rubles.
- Profit: 300 000 rubles.
At first it was hard, especially psychologically. As it turned out later, no one believed in the project, which served as an additional pleasant personal assessment of the project.
I hope the material will help Habra people take the path of independence.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/111174/
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