Why aren't you as rich as McDonald if you can make hamburgers as good?

Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad has a good example. Kiyosaki gave a lecture to students. The conversation was about business.
- Have you been to McDonalds? Have you tried a hamburger?
- Tried it! - students vividly presented a bun with sesame, juicy cutlet and crispy lettuce.
- Can you do the same at home?
- We can !!! - there was a chorus of voices
“Then tell me,” Kiyosaki paused and lowered his voice, “why you don’t have as much money as McDonald’s?” The hall was quiet waiting for an answer ...



What Kiyosaki answered, you know. And for those who have not read - the answer at the end of this post. Today we are not talking about hamburgers. In continuation of the topic of small business and the law of critical mass , and now I want to tell another story that recently caught my eye. I would call it “hat business.
')
It all began in 1991, when Elena, the business pioneer, worked as an electronic engineer at the plant. Once a friend asked her to sew a cap for her husband, she sewed it, and her husband sold this cap on the very first day (he worked in the theater on Arbat and he had no money for lunch). She sewed another one, and he sold it when her friend's husband sold the third cap, Elena realized that this could be earned and the business went. I started to sew caps at night and sell them on Arbat. She quit her job because the money was not paid there for a long time. She herself stood with one cap in her hands, and her husband in the bushes with a bag of goods, so the police for the first time took them, as they say in the act as speculators. True, then they got out, sold (!) Three caps to the police themselves cheaply, and they were released (now they would just confiscate the goods and all the cases).

Then Elena decided to register as an entrepreneur and work legally. She began to take caps to stores and, in a few years, in 1996, met Olga, who then worked at the scientific research institute and loved to sew. She quit her job and also registered a PI. And they began to work for a couple. Themselves looking for furniture cheaper, they themselves went for a cloth and took the goods to the shops. Then they began to sew hats for women, which turned out to be more profitable and the business began to expand. in 1998 began to attract friends and acquaintances to work. But then there was a crisis, which pushed entrepreneurs to go to the felt hat. Manufacturing techniques of such hats differed dramatically, instead of sewing - hot forming felt on wooden forms


Exclusive hats made of felt (photo from the site your hat)


But Olga liked to mold her hats and she understood that this was her life’s work. In order to better hat out, she molded steamed felt with his bare hands, after one of the unsuccessful moldings her nails got off. The apartment was covered in wooden blanks with hats, and steam and felt dust hung in the air. It became impossible to work at home and they began to look for a room, one, the second, the third, finally they took 150 square meters where they could place all the workers. By 2003, Olga and Elena were producing so many hats that Moscow wholesalers were not ready to take. We bought a four and began to travel around the regions and offer their goods.

In 2003, entrepreneurs received a gold medal in the exhibition “Chapo” in the category of felt. It seems all is well, but there is another side to the coin. This business does not bring money. Everything that is earned goes back to business. The rent is increasing, workers do not stay long in difficult working conditions. After all, at the factory a similar hat molding is made with gloves, and here, in order to get the quality you need, you have to work with your bare hands. Shops do not buy products, and take on the implementation. And if the hat hung in the window for several months, then it becomes dusty and loses its presentation. Nobody will buy it. So it turns out that for ten years of joint business, Olga and Elena do their favorite work and make very good hats , but they did not get rich. Perhaps because their business is very similar to the LifeStyle business.

Interestingly, this story is very similar to dozens of others. I know a woman who, who makes papier-mâché mannequins by hand. Itself cooks glue, itself pastes over forms. She has a small apartment, rented, littered with mannequins and forms for them. Everything is done by hand, it brings little money, but it's scary to throw a business, where else can you go at a not too young age? We have to drag the business further.


Making dummies manually from papier-mâché is not an easy task.

Now back to the question that sounded at the beginning of the post. Why aren't you as rich as McDonald, if you can make hamburgers as good as that. And the answer is obvious: making a hamburger, even a very good one, is not a business. But to sell it at a profit is a business. But it’s not at all necessary to make this hamburger yourself. And as Kiosaki said, “so many talented people are poor because they focus on creating the best hamburger in the world and do not understand anything in the business system.”

Other articles read on my blog.
journal.caseclub.ru