Small Business Stories - Shop in Voronezh

Unfolding of the panorama of the store with a cafe

Hello!
The story about our store in Vladimir caused suspicious interest, and I promised to tell you about a couple more points. Today, the history of Voronezh, useful not only and not so much exactly the retail part, as two stories at once - a cafe at a store and the organization of a large festival with advertising throughout the region for very, very earthly money.

Zhenya Gurzhey is one of our first franchisee partners, it opened in October 2010, when we had just learned how to open stores in Moscow. He managed to earn money at the outlet, open a second store, open another business, exit the franchise (for 2 weeks), close the second store and close another business.
')
In general, a man of adventure with a burden of engineering thinking. There are already real legends about his warehouse above the counterfeit shop.

Zhenya and his wife Elena opened the first point together, even when Zhenya had a permanent job in the auto distributor. More precisely, here, rather, it is appropriate to say that the work had it, and it was necessary to break out and do something different. Organizational skills, being not a seller of machines, but a marketing specialist, who calculated the opening of new branches, he received excellent. Especially after looking for a place in Latin America for the branch.

Perhaps that is why, with the choice of the first room, I acted exactly as it should, and exactly according to our methodology (although then we conveyed it with words and waving our hands, and not just in the form of mechanics). In general, having shown enviable patience and not sickly talent, he found a point of 12 square meters directly opposite the city administration and the Nikitin Library. The house was historic, so there is no large sign. The doors to which the room was closed for the night were turned into a kind of billboards that turned inside the room for the night.

Such a point is almost a jackpot for the first year and the first store in the city, where the board was not sold. Low rent guarantees virtually no risk, a huge sign plus a stream - everything plays on what people will buy, even if they are not specifically advertised. Actually, Zhenya was not advertised systematically, except for various experiments with radio, local media and outdoor advertising. For two and a half years (two and a half, Karl!), He worked and earned only by choosing a comfortable room. Well, the word of mouth went up about him: he chose the sellers very well and correctly, always competently counted the goods, and supported some standards of service even more than in Moscow.

For example, if a person came to him with the return of the game with a torn box (“did not enter”), then for the first time he taught the sellers to score on the standards and still accept. I must say, I met a real misunderstanding, but I achieved it after a couple of months, the same people began to return and make big checks. “They returned the supplement for 500 rubles, sat, played, and bought three and a half thousand. And still come. With dopkoy what? I don’t remember, but I’m sure or with a 30% discount I sold it or put it in a game store. ”

Two and a half years later, the market became saturated. At that time, Zhenya had not worked with cars for a long time, stopped standing with his wife in the store (on the first new year, she worked as a seller 5 days a week, and he stayed on weekends and came again in the evenings in November and December, slept little). Two sellers, a turnover allowed to provide for the family even in the off-summer season (and made it very, very good to make money for the new year and sexual holidays), a stable business. But he did not grow higher. And the area was still pressing - yet 12 square meters (this is half the usual living room, cut along) is not enough. First of all, it was not possible to show all the goods well, that is, the conversion suffered. Zhenya had already equipped the warehouse upstairs for a long time - there were 4 meter ceilings there, and he made a shelf system there. In the summer, a buyer asking for a specific position could observe how a beautiful saleswoman takes a stepladder, opens a hatch in the ceiling and, standing by it in his waist, takes out a box. Charming, of course, but weird. I was even a little surprised that he hadn’t taken the cashier during this time - but it turned out that there was no error with the cash discipline, and the drawer was always correctly locked.

In general, ales, ceiling, turnover fixed at a stable level. This happens at a time when the store's natural coverage and the fullness of the range reaches a peak. The options further were quite interesting:

1. Do still urban advertising and attract more people to this "point of issue."
2. Open a large store where you can touch the goods with your hands and all that.
3. Open another small store in another part of the city (Voronezh is divided, by convention, into three clusters - there is a river and a separate residential area away from the main business).
4. Open another business.
5. Engage in fairs, that is, the so-called pop-up shops (for example, on New Year's Eve in Moscow, in addition to 24 regular stores, open at 15 shopping centers and fairs, and close in January-March).

In general, without further ado, he chose all five points. But it turned out peculiar.

The first thing he did was launch urban advertising. More precisely, he opened the instructions and began to read what needs to be done. And there are game shops, which he considered a waste of time. In general, I decided to give it a try, began to conduct, and - at this point my feyspalm follows - lo and behold! Earned! It was Zhenya who uttered the phrase at the branch meeting at the end of the year: “Colleagues, do not neglect the game stores, it’s not for nothing that Moscow has been strongly recommending them to us for three years.” Aaaaaaa. Yandex.Direct was immediately needed (Voronezh is well-represented on the Internet, and even calls from the site go regularly).

Then, in 2013, they opened a point in the Northern district - this is the other end of the city, the wildest traffic in the place where the main stop and the people begin to spread out into “streams”. At that time, none of us knew numerically that in our residential areas only shopping centers operate for our model. Zhenya found a place right next to the stream, however, in the basement (and deep, to the floor, down the stairs) and opened. The store worked with a small profit - 10-20 thousand per month, and hemorrhoids brought a terrible amount. Here and management of sellers, and accounting. Logistics was not particularly pleased - the jump from one store to two is complex, and in complexity it is about the same as from two to ten. In general, Eugene looked, looked at him, saw that he didn’t grow much and still works around zero - he took about 200 additional thousand for December, finished it until the end of the sexual holidays and did not wait for the summer - he closed the point. I wanted to open in a shopping center in the center of the city, but there was already drawn another point with gifts and tabletops with prices one and a half times higher. He would love to, in fact, trade there at high retail prices, and take it - but we have a strict policy of the same price in each store. Plus, there were rumors that in this shopping center they control revenue and purchases of stores, and if the business is good, then suddenly the same department opens at the place of the former department, just the other. It is not known how much truth in this, but I think he did not want to risk.

Around this period, we just switched from the procurement model from our warehouse to the free procurement model (this is the chapter from the book with all the pain of the situation), and Zhenya left the franchise. We shrugged, but remained friends. He returned exactly in two weeks - even the lawyers did not have time to process the documents. As if he did not leave. It’s also easy for us - if we opened our store in the shopping center opposite to it, it would be a little embarrassing.

Eugene's next passion is the board games festival. Zhenya once again sat at home, did nothing and looked at how everything seemed to work - but he was not satisfied with stability and calmness. I wanted the propulsion, and, in general, at that time there was already a “airbag”, that is, an amount that could be safely risked. When this happens, we tell journalists about a competent strategy, and when not, about, in fact, a payment for our business education. So Zhenya coldly thought that he could afford to buy a little training on his own skin. More precisely, he decided that anyway he would risk them, he would not stand it until he knew whether it would work or not. And he began to look for an opportunity with enviable patience.

“We were tormented by water in a mortar, it was necessary a qualitative change. Scale, with good support. To catch a new audience, everyone is here. I decided that I needed a festival. I reached the radio station, I was counted on the budget for two weeks of rotation, I looked at the amount - *****! That’s the end of the conversation . ” In general, media support was unexpectedly expensive. Zhenya lived with the idea for almost a year. And then one of his former animators became a DJ on a local radio station. And brought him to a couple of people on the spot. Zhenya made a presentation, got ready for the meeting and began to seriously count on a 30% discount - then with a creak, but it would fit. If I had persuaded to 40% - it would have been a fierce victory.

And then a serious uncle said a phrase that changed everything:
- Well, you make us the organizer, as well as the Mosigra, and we twist you for two weeks.

This meant - a logo in front of our booklet and constantly say that this is a festival of Europe-Plus and Mosigra, and not Mosigra with an information sponsor.

Feel the difference? Me not. Marrying too.

And then the wings opened right. Then Zhenya went to all the others who had at least something to do with intellectual games or city life and explained that there would be a festival, that they would play it on the radio, this was a big city event. And the people began to fit in, the insanely cool Iskra (developing camps with robots and physics), the Looking Glass, and the Center for Gaming Technologies came up. At a meeting with the local television station, Zhenya hoped to bargain, and competently played the information sponsor's card - paying with another logo, but not with money. Then Eugene sent presentations to all manufacturers of board games in Russia and was so happy with the positive answers that he even asked us touching boxes. We could not refuse, of course. This is how the prizes for tournaments and boxes were secured, which for them would otherwise have to be removed from sale and opened. Prizes turned out about 50 thousand in purchase prices.

Like a real Indian, Zhenya mixed up the prizes - and presented at the tournament for the first places is not what the players played. So they bought the game they liked, yes. By the way, manufacturers did not lose - the Evolution tournament ensured an increase in sales of 18% for it in the coming month.


Part of the second festival team

Without taking into account discounts and free nishtyakov received, the festival was estimated at half a million rubles. But the place was given by the city (playground in the library), they managed to throw a lot on advertising, plus Zhenya called a bunch of other shops to the fair on the spot and took a small fee from each one. If he went further along the path of St. Petersburg, he would also have earned on it (for example, as on restaurant days or on handmade markets). But here he just lowered the budget almost five times. And this is without taking into account the fact that those two weeks while he was playing on the radio, he received non-sickly bonuses for sales in the store.

The same two weeks he posted on the blog as he prepared. And even talked about it on the radio live.

The festival was a resounding success. People went to play with families, student groups, classes and just like that, to get acquainted. 27 animators (6 Eugene, the rest from Iskra and other stores) were simply torn apart by the crowd. Librarians went to their hearths in superstitious horror. 300 seats hall was not enough. People played on the stairs, on the windowsills, just standing. There were no larger sites in the city (more precisely, it would have cost really big money).


Photos from the second festival

Then the crisis began, and with unexpected luck. At the corner of the quarter, where the store stood, a large hairdresser moved out. Right in the same house from Eugene. A big room for gasping for 12 squares is happiness. Immediately, of course, it was impossible to take it - but now the place is lured, and everyone knows everything about the desktop. It was scary that the room was exactly twice as large as I would like for the store, and Zhenya feverishly calculated what else to do there. Moreover, the contract with the first premise was for another six months, and I had to leave something in the store (or lose a couple of months of deposit).

At first there was a plan with antikafe, but a survey of the owners and calculations quickly persuaded him. Let me remind you, I also played with this format , but refused. As a result, together with Elena (the wife), they decided to make a coffee shop, hoping that hungry students would drop by for coffee, sandwiches, a socket and Wi-Fi. And they were not mistaken. What is nice - Zhenya worked on the current business, and Lena ruled the process of opening a cafe, and this was her project.

Here it is necessary to retreat a little and tell you about Natasha. Natasha was the first seller of Mosigra in Voronezh (after Eugene and his wife, of course). With her lucky wildest. Very responsible and absolutely honest. In general, the mythical character. But she worked, unlike all the others, not for money (Zhenya pays a little higher than the market), but simply because she was wildly perl and pleased everything that happens. For a year and a half she played jazz with the team, and then Zhenya logically suggested that she become a control point. The salary is more, but it is no longer sales to people, but numbers. Natasha realized that the fan was over, and the business began exactly as a business instead of emotions. And left. There was a beautiful Polina (4 years in the team), many other sellers changed, Dasha unexpectedly went on maternity leave ... And Natasha learned a conductor, traveled for a couple of weeks, quit, stayed in Moscow, worked, and then went back to the city and went to tea. Zhenya asked if she would return if they ever open a cafe. Because again there will be fan and drive. And Natasha promised to agree.

It was supposed that it was 3-4 months, but then a hairdresser came out, and Zhenya called with the words:

- Open the cafe the day after tomorrow!
Natasha, expecting to rest, was horrified:
- Ahhh, why did I promise you!

But it came out and began to steer the process. For a month and a half, they made repairs, completely transferred the store to a new location, set up a coffee shop, recruited people and opened an “Everything for the holiday” store with packages and a standard gift set at the old outlet. Here he is:





And here is a new place (scanning it to kata):


Pay attention to the light: it is very important for the calculation (the goods must be lighter than the surrounding space, and the store is lighter than the apartment), and here the barber shop has a very good system.


A store with a cafe immediately gives a plus to the mood, since it is much easier to build the right music and the right smell of freshly brewed coffee. And these two factors are very, very much affect the probability of sale. If suddenly in your store is quiet, put a classic or jazz, it will be much better.





Stabilized. We learned how to tune the car, started making the right coffee. Now in the morning many hungry students come (Zhenya complains that there are no places, and the region is not accustomed to take coffee to take away the region). At lunch, the students of the three buildings next to a couple skip here couples, and schoolchildren run at the big break to have a snack with a sweet donut. His donuts are really hefty and very tasty (purchased, of course). By evening, tables are booked by people who want to rest after work. Here is the recent schedule:



From Friday to Saturday and from Saturday to Sunday, sometimes there were nights of board games with tournaments. First we checked whether the conversations below were heard by the neighbors (this is still a residential building), the neighbors gave the go-ahead - not heard. And away we go. First they made it to 3, then they started to 6, people asked to close later, in order to catch the morning bus, not on foot. The same igronochki gave a lot of new animators - people who competently organized the tables, just then invited to stay for another night, but for the money. Students happily agreed.

The seats (six tables) were critically inadequate, so Zhenya set a limit - a check of 100 rubles, and only then can you play as much as you like. This increased the cafe's profits, but still there is no place at all, and the people go to their neighbors - the anti-cafe “Rhino” with the price of 2 rubles a minute 50 kopecks, where our desktops also stand.

During the crisis, Eugene’s turnover fell by an average of 8%. He asked all his acquaintances, and it turned out that they had an average drop of 30%, so the disappointment gradually changed to some satisfaction. In the store with gifts (the old room) things went near zero, Zhenya was waiting for the holidays. But the contract ended on December 15, the next one should also be a year minus a day. Zhenya knew that in December he would earn a lot, but January would be absolutely dead - and decided to close the point, because the costs would block all earnings. Brenda is not there, it does not make sense to develop, the story is unemotional and not the most profitable. He will simply drag the goods to our store on a separate rack and gradually sell them. In general, mathematics taxis.

I arrived on the very day of the second festival, this Saturday. Zhenya found a point far outside the city, in the local analogue of Mega (only instead of Ikei here is Leroy). It is 15 kilometers from the center, but there were simply no more sites with 1000 seats. 1000 is with a reserve, counted on 500 places of constant employment, about 400 places were actually occupied. Eugene was absolutely killed - worried, decided some shoals. The day before the events, an order for 50,000 dissolved in his store (he coordinated with the neighboring cities a joint purchase of Monopoly to break through the low wholesale price, and did not send one of the parcels) - it turned out that she was taken for delivery and “smeared” around the store , and immediately sold part. This paste was difficult to drive back into the tube. When finished, it turned out that the chairs that had to be placed in the shopping center, had previously been to an event at the beach, and they had nothing to do - wipe them from the sand. Together with Lena, they took it up there. And the tables were also transported together. And midnight megajugu collected. And in the morning it began - 55 animators, a point of sales, points of other stores, a point with experiences, quests in the room, a club ... In general, I didn’t understand how he was conscious.



On the new year, of course, he will earn again, and quite a lot. And I am extremely interested in what he will come up with on March 10, when he becomes bored again, and he will drink tea and think. We, in the whole network, are following his experience with a cafe, because we suspect that this may become a new model of a street shop. We have a similar picture on China Town (free play zone, experimented with coffee), there is a store in the same room with a coffee shop, in Kazan and Vladimir the play zones are combined with the store, but there are no drinks there. In parallel, we work out our fast food (this is the story of another business in general) and we think whether it is possible to connect two directions. In general, the fate of this store with a cafe is interesting to all. And Zhenya - Zhenya is cool. We are very lucky to work with such awesome people in many cities.