IT distribution in Europe or how we started our business - Part 2
I continue my story about the adventures, successes and failures that have befallen us in the way of building a business from scratch. ( First part ).
After collecting all the data together and assessing the possibilities, it was decided to make the first trial purchases on the above portals. After almost a month of nervous waiting, the cherished boxes were in my hands. In order to share the risks, I decided not to interrupt communications with old customers, but I did not refuse to find ways to find new (local) ones. The decision came quickly enough - the portal aukro.cz is an analogue of the Russian molotok.ru , the only problem was that the sites strictly prohibit selling copies of any goods, but for some reason it didn’t bother me at the time. Men's accessories (watches, belts, wallets) were selected as target products, and especially for the Russian-speaking audience I ordered exact copies of mobile devices, copies of Vertu and Nokia 8800 phones , in various variations, were very popular.
')
By a happy coincidence, the arrival of the first batch fell on the pre-Christmas period and the goods began to fly away like “hot cakes”, the marginality was furious , but after a month of similar activities, I had to quickly turn off my shop, and the reasons for that were the most compelling , until the deportation, but first things first.
Unfortunately or fortunately, the Czech Republic is not Russia, and here any branded product for a price 2 times lower than the market is suspicious, as they say “I want it and it’s pricked” when it came to brand men's belts, the fact of a fake was rather difficult to prove, but anyway, every second asked whether the original was original or not, my answer was simple - “bought in China, the seller stated that the original”, in 99% of cases it was enough, because the product quality was really high, but there were more meticulous customers. So one, buying an Armani watch for the price of 100 euros instead of the 390 euros stated on the manufacturer’s website, went with them to the official salon and received a direct answer there that it was not the original. Then blackmail began and the threats that I resolved were very simple, asking to return the goods. Without thinking twice, after weighing all the pros and cons, the client decided to keep them for himself and never returned to this issue. It was the first "bell", but the opportunities above the profits did not give me rest, and I continued to sell.
Once I was called by local “brothers” and asked to sell a copy of the Nokia 8800 Gold Arte , I had such a model in my arms, and I agreed. The meeting was scheduled in the evening near the subway. After 15 minutes of waiting, a black “Kruzak” drove up, I was seated in the back seat and taken to “ride”. One of the buyers took the original phone and began to compare, not finding any visible differences and being satisfied with the quality, I was given 200 euros and, after landing on one of the streets, rushed off into the darkness. This was the second bell.
But the last straw was a letter that came from Nokia , stating that a Vertu phone was detained at customs, due to the fact that this product was not original and was delivered illegally, and that it would be destroyed. If this happens again, I was threatened with a fine of 20,000 euros + deportation from the country . Realizing that if after a month of sales I started having such problems, then continuing in the same vein is dangerous and simply irrational. For statistics I will write approximate pricing
Branded belts were purchased for $ 5-15 sold for $ 30-60
Copies of Nokia phones were purchased for $ 50-80 , sold for $ 160-200
Copies of Vertu - the most profitable segment, the purchase of $ 130-150 dollars, the sale started from $ 800
All the above listed items were 1: 1 copies without any second SIM cards or built-in TVs.
As a result, closing the store and giving away the remnants of the products, I realized that I had only money left in my hands for 2-3 months of my life and I needed to think something. The New Year was approaching, the holiday did not particularly please me, because once having felt the opportunity to earn good money, it is difficult to get rid of this thought, it’s like a disease, comparable to the gold rush. There were few prospects for the future, I had already begun to look through work announcements, imagining that I would again have to sit at the office clerk, but fate decreed otherwise. Many Russian businessmen say that the biggest cases are solved in a bath or at some feast. So it was with me. A happy occasion brought me to my future partner, right on the eve of the New Year.
Back in the period when my first business brought dividends, I realized that this could not last forever. For me it was too small and, in fact, people leading successful retail business are real heroes, because for the sake of one sale or earning $ 1-2 dollars you have to make titanic efforts , because every customer is worth its weight in gold, especially at the beginning of the journey ( As an example, you can read the blog of the company madrobots ). Along the way, sales constantly had to solve minor problems, starting with packaging and color mismatch, ending with drop-down ports and non-working cables (the experience of working with China in general deserves a separate story and somehow I will tell about it). The more I faced similar problems, the more I realized that I needed to switch to wholesale, look for new markets and opportunities for mass marketing. By that time I was able to get acquainted with people who are directly related to the largest Czech Internet retailer, that is, the concept of business and the market was almost in the “pocket”, it remained for the small - financing.
While sitting at the New Year's table I kept scrolling through my head in various variants of further development of events, having noticed an expression of thoughtfulness on my face, my friend asked me if he was eating me. Without hesitation, I laid out my idea. She was new and unusual. The standard type of immigrant activity in the Czech Republic is renting or selling apartments, travel business, work related to the extension of visas or insurance. I also did not miss the opportunity to complain that I still would not be able to find funding for the project, since most of these startups are bent in the first year of existence , and the competition in the field of IT distribution is so strong that competing corporations calmly “perezhat” you and spit not even choking. Another factor was my age. Have you met a lot of people who can entrust at least some tangible money to a 22 year old student? What was my surprise when a minute later, he raised his glass and said that he had some accumulated funds and he was ready to finance the project. It was the first little stone in the foundation of our common international distribution IT company . We had to “drag” more than one thousand rubble in order to build a solid support for our startup in the future, but I will tell you about it in the next part.
After collecting all the data together and assessing the possibilities, it was decided to make the first trial purchases on the above portals. After almost a month of nervous waiting, the cherished boxes were in my hands. In order to share the risks, I decided not to interrupt communications with old customers, but I did not refuse to find ways to find new (local) ones. The decision came quickly enough - the portal aukro.cz is an analogue of the Russian molotok.ru , the only problem was that the sites strictly prohibit selling copies of any goods, but for some reason it didn’t bother me at the time. Men's accessories (watches, belts, wallets) were selected as target products, and especially for the Russian-speaking audience I ordered exact copies of mobile devices, copies of Vertu and Nokia 8800 phones , in various variations, were very popular.
')
By a happy coincidence, the arrival of the first batch fell on the pre-Christmas period and the goods began to fly away like “hot cakes”, the marginality was furious , but after a month of similar activities, I had to quickly turn off my shop, and the reasons for that were the most compelling , until the deportation, but first things first.
Unfortunately or fortunately, the Czech Republic is not Russia, and here any branded product for a price 2 times lower than the market is suspicious, as they say “I want it and it’s pricked” when it came to brand men's belts, the fact of a fake was rather difficult to prove, but anyway, every second asked whether the original was original or not, my answer was simple - “bought in China, the seller stated that the original”, in 99% of cases it was enough, because the product quality was really high, but there were more meticulous customers. So one, buying an Armani watch for the price of 100 euros instead of the 390 euros stated on the manufacturer’s website, went with them to the official salon and received a direct answer there that it was not the original. Then blackmail began and the threats that I resolved were very simple, asking to return the goods. Without thinking twice, after weighing all the pros and cons, the client decided to keep them for himself and never returned to this issue. It was the first "bell", but the opportunities above the profits did not give me rest, and I continued to sell.
Once I was called by local “brothers” and asked to sell a copy of the Nokia 8800 Gold Arte , I had such a model in my arms, and I agreed. The meeting was scheduled in the evening near the subway. After 15 minutes of waiting, a black “Kruzak” drove up, I was seated in the back seat and taken to “ride”. One of the buyers took the original phone and began to compare, not finding any visible differences and being satisfied with the quality, I was given 200 euros and, after landing on one of the streets, rushed off into the darkness. This was the second bell.
But the last straw was a letter that came from Nokia , stating that a Vertu phone was detained at customs, due to the fact that this product was not original and was delivered illegally, and that it would be destroyed. If this happens again, I was threatened with a fine of 20,000 euros + deportation from the country . Realizing that if after a month of sales I started having such problems, then continuing in the same vein is dangerous and simply irrational. For statistics I will write approximate pricing
Branded belts were purchased for $ 5-15 sold for $ 30-60
Copies of Nokia phones were purchased for $ 50-80 , sold for $ 160-200
Copies of Vertu - the most profitable segment, the purchase of $ 130-150 dollars, the sale started from $ 800
All the above listed items were 1: 1 copies without any second SIM cards or built-in TVs.
As a result, closing the store and giving away the remnants of the products, I realized that I had only money left in my hands for 2-3 months of my life and I needed to think something. The New Year was approaching, the holiday did not particularly please me, because once having felt the opportunity to earn good money, it is difficult to get rid of this thought, it’s like a disease, comparable to the gold rush. There were few prospects for the future, I had already begun to look through work announcements, imagining that I would again have to sit at the office clerk, but fate decreed otherwise. Many Russian businessmen say that the biggest cases are solved in a bath or at some feast. So it was with me. A happy occasion brought me to my future partner, right on the eve of the New Year.
Back in the period when my first business brought dividends, I realized that this could not last forever. For me it was too small and, in fact, people leading successful retail business are real heroes, because for the sake of one sale or earning $ 1-2 dollars you have to make titanic efforts , because every customer is worth its weight in gold, especially at the beginning of the journey ( As an example, you can read the blog of the company madrobots ). Along the way, sales constantly had to solve minor problems, starting with packaging and color mismatch, ending with drop-down ports and non-working cables (the experience of working with China in general deserves a separate story and somehow I will tell about it). The more I faced similar problems, the more I realized that I needed to switch to wholesale, look for new markets and opportunities for mass marketing. By that time I was able to get acquainted with people who are directly related to the largest Czech Internet retailer, that is, the concept of business and the market was almost in the “pocket”, it remained for the small - financing.
While sitting at the New Year's table I kept scrolling through my head in various variants of further development of events, having noticed an expression of thoughtfulness on my face, my friend asked me if he was eating me. Without hesitation, I laid out my idea. She was new and unusual. The standard type of immigrant activity in the Czech Republic is renting or selling apartments, travel business, work related to the extension of visas or insurance. I also did not miss the opportunity to complain that I still would not be able to find funding for the project, since most of these startups are bent in the first year of existence , and the competition in the field of IT distribution is so strong that competing corporations calmly “perezhat” you and spit not even choking. Another factor was my age. Have you met a lot of people who can entrust at least some tangible money to a 22 year old student? What was my surprise when a minute later, he raised his glass and said that he had some accumulated funds and he was ready to finance the project. It was the first little stone in the foundation of our common international distribution IT company . We had to “drag” more than one thousand rubble in order to build a solid support for our startup in the future, but I will tell you about it in the next part.
In continuation:
- Search for employees or how we almost went bankrupt in the first half of the year.
- Search products or how we sold electronics in minus
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/246629/
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