How to gain courage and open a store

I did not find an article from the sandbox in Habré, through which I received an invite, so I decided to add it to my personal blog.



How many can remember, was obsessed with computers. And programming has become so firmly established in my life that for a few years I couldn’t think about making anything other than coding. It seemed that if I dropped the programming, the money would run out.

The last five years, I kodil. Codil nights, codil around the clock. I'm tired. Hope to rest was not at all. Each new day began with what I imagined: what to do, what should I do. Blowing came unexpectedly and came at the moment when I still managed to get away on vacation.

I sat in the gazebo in one of the villages near Dzhubga and suffered from insomnia. Mountains were closing overhead, fatigue wandered in my head. That night, I fully felt that it was impossible to continue living like this, that my love was traveling.

And it was precisely that night that the insight suddenly came: you need to open an online store.

But how to open a store when there is not a penny for your soul?



I will briefly describe the situation in which I found myself at that time. Not so long ago, I graduated from the institute and received a specialty “engineer-mathematician,” for some time I taught this very mathematics at the institute. But it did not bring money. Knowledge of the business did not possess. He went to work at an advertising agency. The organization of affairs in the agency was lame.

In spite of the opportunity to work at home, which I had bargained for, I was interrupted by teaching at the institute, when I wanted to work, it was not so easy. My schedule, the deadlines requested for development were constantly disrupted by the fact that their superiors constantly forgot them and gave them tasks like “it’s necessary to be done before tomorrow”.

I quit teaching, moved to another agency - the situation has improved, but only slightly.

My long-awaited vacation took away my last money. The desire of parents to exchange apartments led to the fact that I moved beyond the Moscow Ring Road and felt that such a large debt.

I found myself without money, with a round sum in the red and I earned an aversion to programming.

Yes, I was appreciated. Yes, I was allowed a lot at work. But I “worked for my uncle” and I was sick of code. Moreover, I felt: if I had gone to a large company, I would have received much more - three times. But a big company is a dress code, it is a discipline, it is a team. And all this is a decline in the quality of my work.

And I have a principle - either to do well, or not to do at all.

"Break out of the vicious circle!" - I said to myself, sitting in the gazebo under the arch of mountains.

I did not expect help from anywhere. But I plucked up courage and decided.



Product List

First of all, I began to compile a list of goods, based on the concept “Everyone can travel, travel is easy.” The list of categories took two pages. At that time, my eyes were burning, I went through everything in my mind that might be useful to the traveler.

But the list of goods in the end was not useful. Of course, he was sedimented in consciousness, and now I am picking up goods, proceeding from it. But it turned out that traveling as I do, is not enough. There is no middle ground among buyers. There are either couch potatoes who never thought about going to nature with comfort or walking 1000 kilometers by car, or real tourists who will take only professional products that have been proven over the years and have good reviews. Therefore, part of the list went into oblivion, and the thought was firmly established in my head: “We must sell high-quality professional things, but so that their quality is easily understood by the townsfolk.”

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Suppliers

There was no money. There was no money to buy goods in batches. I read already on Habré that there are suppliers who are ready to give the goods "for sale". But how to find them? I used this phrase for days. "How to find them, how to find them ..." - I repeated to myself. For me, it was incomprehensible to pick up the phone and start dialing through the list. I imagined failure, and that was my mistake.

To failures should be treated easily. Denied one place - call another.

Having come to this, I took the phone and it started. It turned out that those who refused to me forgot about me right there. They did not have in their memory a single gram of plaque, which would have caused my conscience. And it's easy - get rejected.

I phoned three dozen suppliers per day. I wrote out the addresses and phone numbers of five. I made an appointment with the two right there.

And one woman went to meet me. She immediately agreed to work with me. We signed a contract. And a month later I began to carry goods from her warehouse. Many thanks to her.



PI

I was already registered as an entrepreneur, but the accounting department helped me, terms, where and with which to go, I was also told. I opened the PI, to take orders for manufacturing sites. And I made websites, had a bank account, but knew nothing about what awaits me with the store.

I began to study the law, I called one of my customers - to the online store "Sakura-shop", asked them a number of questions. They were happy to help with advice.

Despite the fact that I opened the IP before I started shopping, I will briefly tell you how it was. I used the services of the registration agency.

I was engaged in some boy younger than me. He apparently knew well what to carry, but in the end, I also had to shook and I had to find out what “OKVED codes” are and what codes I personally need. Subsequently, I learned that the whole registration process could have been carried out by myself as well.

For Muscovites there is the 46th tax. We take the documents, we go there. The whole process is described in detail on the Internet at special forums. It is enough to fill out a special piece of paper, make a seal for yourself, open an account in a bank and roam a little at notaries and tax.



Tax

Like most government agencies are located tax not in the most accessible places. In front of the majestic buildings of the 46th tax there is no place to park at all. Visitor parking is not available as a view. The street is busy, it is always a traffic jam. From the subway it is far. And the visitors themselves - millions per day. Yes, they introduced such systems as ticket queues, scoreboard calls to the windows, but otherwise did not think or did not want to think. Therefore, each trip to the tax - anguish.



Bank

I could not understand why I am obliged to open a bank account. Why I am obliged to contact a non-governmental organization, to pay them money for the fact that I want to receive money. In the insurance company, when I was butting for an accident, I was able to insist that I get a cash refund in my hands. The argument just served: "No one can make me pay money and open a bank account so that I can get the amount owed to me by law." In the insurance this was an argument, but in the case of the IP - not. Unfortunately, according to the same law, the only alternative to an account is a cash register. And the cash register is an additional trouble and additional payments annually.

I was in two banks. In the first one it was very inconvenient: I had to fill checks standing at the counter, I was often mistaken in filling out checks. I swore and eventually left this bank. In the second bank, I immediately looked at how the process was organized. It was not crowded, you could sit down at a table, quietly write out and sign everything, then reassure the check and get the money. I stayed in this bank. And now the trip for money in the bank is not such a trouble. And I really enjoy it when a tight bundle appears in my pocket.

The main thing - do not forget when opening and closing a bank account to notify the tax. Fortunately, now it can be done not in the 46th, but in its district tax. But if you forgot - fine.



Cash machine

Buy a cash register is an obligation for a retail store. Each buyer must issue a receipt and expenditure invoice.

I bought one of the cheapest portable devices - Mercury. I registered it in tax and never regretted my choice. The registration process did not cause any problems either - the registration took place in one day in one hour at the district tax office.

I was very amused that the registration note reads: “It is necessary to provide attachments: 1. Such and such a document, 2. Another document, 3. Another document, 4. Mechanics of the service center”.

Another thing - the accounting of checks. It is necessary to daily tamp down the so-called z-report. Need to keep a special journal. It is necessary to report to the tax.

If the process for yourself to paint and keep a calendar of reminders - it does not cause problems. To the buyer I leave with the device. When buying - before I receive the money - I knock out a check, I issue it along with the pre-filled invoice.

Returns check has not yet been. But I am loyal to the refund process - to do this, you need to make a corresponding entry in the journal, attach a check and fill in the tax return statement in the tax office.

The funny thing is that every year it is necessary to acquire the so-called EKLZ - a device where sales data is stored. At the same time, the cost of EKLZ for Mercury is almost equal to the cost of Mercury itself. Here they are the annual cost of the device.



Prices

Prices for the goods are usually set by the supplier. They have a recommended retail price, below which it should not fall. But at some point I decided “I am a seller - and that means you have to bargain”. And on the site I bargain. I have prescribed everywhere that it is possible not only to buy, but also to bargain.

I started a special mailbox, where I meet clients, where I negotiate prices, where I learn about the wishes of each person who applies and give advice on his needs.

With the flow of customers - 5 people per day - it does not cause much time, but as a result - pleasant sales and satisfied customers. Everyone feels an individual appeal, care. Customers even share after buying photos of goods in the "combat conditions". These photos I post on the site,

thus increasing the loyalty and interest of new customers.

I'm also thinking about making a separate web form with a mail notification for the trading process. But there is no time for it yet.



Product

Often in online stores - and my customers constantly complain about this - insufficient information is given on products, there are no tests, photos and parameters of goods are confused. So, for example, the tent of Tramp Colibri Plus for some reason often has a photo from a simple Colibri - and it is not written anywhere, how do they differ from one another. I went on tight, but, in my opinion, the right way. I did not begin to lay out the goods in a crowd, I “punch” every product through search engines, looking for reviews, making descriptions based on them, often photographing goods myself, and I myself check some of them in practice.

When I sell a product, I am ready either to tell everything about it right away - from minuses to pluses, or I negotiate with a client, which I will definitely find out by tomorrow.

I do not sell the cat in the bag. I upload to the store only what has been in my hands, that has good reviews, which is not a shame to sell.

Yes, it does not bring good money yet. But every customer is satisfied, advises me to friends and provides me with advertising on the same forums.

And good has the ability to accumulate.



Delivery

Delivery by mail, delivery in Moscow - everything seems to be normal. But! I live in Izmailovo district. The warehouse is located there. Izmailovo has a very convenient system of streets (on the map it looks like a sheet of notebook in the box). Therefore, delivery to Izmailovo is free. I have no difficulty in taking the goods from the warehouse, poking around in a couple of places next door. Customers are very pleased. And even they themselves offer money for delivery despite being free.



Advertising

Yes, I plan to invest in SEO in the future. But now a little money. And I'm spinning on my own. And your strength is work on the forums, which, by the way, is very interesting and helps not only to sell, but also to find out the demand, to learn more about the product.

Then - a sticker on the rear window of the car, carved with your own hands from a color adhesive film.

These are small catalogs that are printed on newsprint, and therefore inexpensive. I scatter these catalogs wherever I go: at the post office, at the tax offices, at the notaries, at the hairdressers - wherever there are racks and there are tables with magazines, where there is a line, where people have nothing to do. Sometimes I am asked to remove the owners catalog — I immediately follow their advice and apologize.

It's not scary. I repeat once again: refusals should be treated easily.



Online store

Yes, I am a programmer. As we say, "I can online store." I did a store in two weeks, sitting in the evenings. There is still much to be completed, much more inconvenient and not taken into account, but it is already working.

The difficulty was with the design. I am not just not a designer - I am also hard on the perception of beauty. I do not know how to make beauty. I always wanted the store to be beautiful. I wanted my eyes to be happy. But - alas!

Two weeks I was thinking. I asked a friend designer to give me time. I looked at a bunch of sample templates. In the end, I got angry, hung up some kind of cap of a given subject and while I live with it. It turned out that even the simplest design without design works - the main thing is that the person is well informed about the product, and beauty is nice, but not very necessary. For reference, very many forums where I talk about the store and just talk, generally look miserable, but this does not prevent them from having 1000 visitors per day.



Title

The name of the store was chosen long and painfully. My wife and I went through hundreds of options. The notebook with words and phrases written out is still preserved. As a result, the wife came up with the name "On the paths."

“Imagine,” she told me, “what will one client say to another! He will say: I bought it on the paths. Or ... I left you pictures of the holidays on the paths. "

The fact that the name of the site will be able to enter into the jargon of the buyer, and was the decisive factor. Yes, there are many shops called SportTrade, SmartFish, buy-fush, etc. At the same time they are selling well. But the name that my wife thought up for me turned out to be much better than all the other names. The main thing - it is remembered. Already the clients come to me with the words “When will sleeping bags appear on the paths?”



Phew It seems to be all. I told how I gained courage, how I braced myself, how I prepared for every step and how everything turned out to be much easier than I imagined.

Thank you all in advance for your interest, corrections and advice.