Stories of small business in Krasnodar: insane team of freelancers and a lot of courage

I continue the stories of points that have caused you suspicious interest. Our Krasnodar team is just a dump head. Lech came from Kazakhstan, on the way, officials lost his middle name and a bank card. Vika from Belarus met Lyokha, married and moved to him in Voronezh. Ira from Michurinsk worked in Mosigre in Voronezh, from where Zhenya dismissed her with a bang, and she decided to prove that she could open her point. Stas ... Stas is just as calm as a boa, owns a web studio, co-working and loves to travel.

It began with the fact that all these people decided to move from Voronezh to Rostov in a week and open a shop there. But hit in Krasnodar. And they opened a store there. The first premises were rented earlier than they chose where to live - and the apartment was rented only from the taxi driver who took them to the hotel after examining the future point.
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Although no, it all started earlier when the four of us began to spend evenings at the desk. Then Ira got a job in our shop, and a few months later she was fired for systematic delays. The opening and closing schedule is one of those things that we fight to the bone.

On the same day, when Ira was left without work, the three other friends decided to quit, too, and start their own business.

More precisely, how. Ira and Stas decided to open their store, but they realized that they would not pull together - and they called Lyokha and Vika to the team. Business plan considered Stas.


Process of moving

Book House

So, disposition: imagine that you are four people from different cities of our country, one of whom just lost his job, the other three decided to quit and go to Rostov. Over the past month, you have learned that you need to have time to open a store of board games for the new year, because this is the moment that makes sales like 3-4 normal months. By the time you earn money in wages, a place is already taken in Rostov. What are you doing?

In general, our heroes threw everything and went to Krasnodar, where they received the right to franchise. I won’t find right now what our new team told the franchisee manager, but if we knew the whole story, they would probably consider the application a dangerous idiocy, and would not approve. But! Most importantly, Ira had experience in our store in Voronezh, and the rest had one or another experience in business in general. A crazy freelance team is capable of anything - because for several years now everyone has become accustomed to be responsible for himself and has become a real adult.

The store opened on December 10, 2014. The next stage of maturity has begun - taking responsibility for their mistakes. The fact is that a week before the girls arrived in the city, Lyokha and Stas had to choose a room for the store and find a two-room apartment where everyone will live the first time. Naturally, due to inexperience, the room was not chosen the best (although from our point of view it looked normal) - the nuances opened a little later, and without viewing on the spot it would be difficult to catch them. Actually, probably, there was no error, it was just possible to spend a little more time and find a better option for the same money. But there was no time. After a couple of such cases, we have a heuristic in the Frenchbook - if you spent less than a month searching for the first room, do not take it.

The key moment when opening in December is to convince the new owner of the point that a million in the product is not too much, especially considering that the nearest delivery will be on January 15th. A week after the opening, the turnover reached 60 thousand a day, and the goods began to run out - the team did not have money for a large purchase, and the market threatened not to forgive this mistake. As a result, everything went to the fact that 3-5 January the store will remain generally naked, and then have to wait two weeks before delivery. As a result, Zhenya saved the situation from Voronezh - in search of help, Ira knocked to him, and he shipped the goods from her vast stocks. Oh yes, it was the experience that affected him - his reserves were very big moments - he not only made a New Year purchase, but also scored a “pillow”. Of course, he earned a little on the operation (Eugene is still a cunning type), but he saved the situation.

Ira:

“I was late a couple of times, once seriously, for about 15-20 minutes, and Zhenya, tapping on the shoulder in a friendly manner, said something like: we have to leave. He promised an awesome discount on games, free rent and just come to visit (it was just a great dismissal). "

By the way, yes, they have a good relationship. Zhenya always helped with advice and deed, for which he thanks a lot. I did not know that Ira spoke to him before the opening. And she just called and said:
- Zhenya, I want to open the Mosigra here, let's sit in a cafe.

Zhenya was very lightly because he might have thought that she wanted to open right in Voronezh. But when “Krasnodar” sounded, everything was relieved at once, and he showed her the numbers, told him about the pitfalls and in general revealed everything that she could not see, being a seller. Well, and told about the features of working with us, that is, from the head.

I must say that Ira and Vika turned out to be very capable female students. They are one of the few who have read our Frenchbook from cover to cover (sometimes I included a paragraph like “Well, if you’ve read this far before January 1, 2015, then we’ll give you 10 thousand in purchase”) . It is a pity that Krasnodar would not have this item - they would have taken the first one. By the way, after I told this easter egg, I’ll have to invent something else to control reading the documentation.

Let's go back to 2014 in Krasnodar. The guys shook hands in the “House of the book” at the point with the following location:


First store

It is close to the center, a very good passable place, but, alas, the morning flow is here (in the evening it behaves a little differently, and we need an evening one in Krasnodar). The difficulty is that the “House of the Book” is, let's say, a very Soviet place. And they do not go there for gifts, but for nostalgia. We are bright, noisy, funny - and there the whole atmosphere of the room just kills the mood. What is much worse, there was no signboard for a very long time (it was impossible to hang it, because it was an architectural monument), and then they only agreed on a 1x1 meter banner on the wall. In the spring, they rented a side on pilar (this is a column with advertising, - by the way, one of the most stupid urban structures for security, because blind phone-goers regularly beat their heads and old telephone booths because of their thin legs). Pilar worked, and Lyokha decided to purchase the second side, too, saying the sacramental phrase “Well, you already have a model.” Naturally, no one thought for him, and the same exact layout was rolled on side B as on side A. That is, the arrow began to point in another direction, which brought a piquant hint of panic into the situation.

Yes, about the situation. The fact is that at about this moment, the real owner came to the apartment where the team lived, and asked who all these people were. He left, and left the keys to his brother, so that he lived. The brother gave them to his friend, and he passed the apartment and began to earn. Gone from such a chain, the owner said that the hut is sold. And sold it along with the "passengers" to a girl from Sochi. She decided that this deal is very profitable - the "serfs" are already settled, and the apartment brings money. Drive did not. But while with all this figured out - the nerves, of course, frayed pretty.

Before the appearance of a sign on the street, leaflets were distributed about the store. In general, every time when we order a mockup of leaflets in the central office, I strain myself - this means that somewhere, someone has something to continue. In normal retail, leaflets are needed only for fairly rare stocks.


"Zakutok" in the House of Books

We started collecting game stores and writing about the opening of Vkontakte (we went around all the city free groups). We held two tournaments - Manchkin and Imaginarium. I was just passing by, and as Lyokha said later, “he gave the hat for Munchkin”. I saw the situation a little differently - I asked to calculate the profitability of each of the tournaments. It seems like he himself understood that the point is to make games more popular, and not to hang out the same people. Next tournaments were fun simple games that do not require special skills - such as Crocodile, “Answer me in 5 seconds”, Twister, Genga, less often - all sorts of easy-to-learn strategies like Hive. Very quickly they invented the all-around format, when in one tournament a few simple games from quiz to something for agility.

Very quickly scored Vkontakte group. Around this time, our former franchisee partner came to the point (he decided to leave the network and become a wholesaler). He asked how things were going, clarified when they would close, and whether it would be possible later to buy goods on the cheap. Ira's eyes lit up very badly - thanks to the peasant, he helped out in a difficult situation. To reduce the pace after this was simply impossible.

We made a few draws on the radio - the radio workers simply asked for boxes, we gave them. For this - “the sponsor of the drawing shop Mosigra in the House of the book. Come to them to buy gifts. " Once got into the morning show with a story about business and nastolki. Then the next day we drove in a taxi, the driver told them about such a curiosity - a nastolk store in the city.

After that, a wave of games ’games started at the city’s cafés - they played in KFC, Starbucks, Subway, in the new hefty Galerie shopping center in the food court. And in general, wherever it was fun - from the city park to the beautiful "Nabokov". Yes, who does not know - you can just go to Krasnodar. There is insanely tasty, and a lot of institutions that specialize in Russian cuisine, the one that is delicate and tasty, and not too fat and salty. Plus, there are formats of delicious affordable fast food like “Parsley”, where for all indicators of saving there is an “adult” restaurant service. Very cool, I learned a lot from the last trip.

So, looking ahead for a year, the cafe tour ended with the Gallery offering to host the festival. Places steeper "Gallery" downstream in the city simply do not have - this shopping center is like a fighting ship of sectoids, who sat in the middle of the city and began to load the population for a flight to Cydonia. At least from the outside it looks like it. The spectacle for a person from retail is very fascinating.

Second point

After the first sexual holidays, it became clear that the room should be changed.

Then there was the epic with the move to Stavropol Street - they found the premises, paid a deposit of 15 thousand rubles, and then they conferred and decided that it was not necessary. Yes, next to a state university, yes, a cool place - but then again the wrong side of the stream, 40 square meters and 60 thousand a month without a communal flat in incomprehensible conditions. Plus, a difficult entrance - there are steps like in Vladimir.

There was a room right in front of the book house, next to Starbucks and Burgerking. It is generally insanely steep - and the flow, and there is no atmosphere of the house of the book, and the move is painless (just across the street from the last place, you don’t even need to warn anyone), and the sign ... But - 80 thousand for 15 square meters, no toilet, no repair - everything needs to be done from scratch. Remove it then did not work, like, the owner wanted to make repairs in the end.

As a result, in November 2015, we moved before the holidays. And they did not just move, but opened in front of the very Gallery, right next to McDonald's (at the intersection of the two most vibrant streets of Krasnodar). Places in the city are simply no sweeter. Naturally, a much higher rent, of course, is not the best place (30 square meters in a tunnel-intestine deep into the house), naturally, it is significantly more expensive than the previous point. But the sign and the flow. For the store, 17 square meters were separated, the rest was technical room, where it was something like this at the time of arrival:





Krasnodar artist Goose painted a wall - this is in the picture above.

Stas came up with the idea that we need to hand over this place, because all the same, all the goods in the store are in the drives, and the warehouse is not needed. We started to donate: first I wanted to call in the repair of cellular, but decided not to subscribe. The flow would be strange. As a result, a vapeshop stood up next (these are those who earn from banning smoking, selling inhalers to hipsters, forgive me for the last ones). A month later, they attached their signboard, and, alas, it was also red — it tensed me pretty much about ours. But we haven’t done anything yet - it seems to me that soon the fashion for exhaled steam will pass, and we will have something like a yarn shop or a small play zone in general. They counted both the mini-coffee shop, as in Voronezh, and the playing area, as in Vladimir, but decided so far.


Entry group


Making a new point

The old point in the house of the book worked in parallel with the new couple of weeks, then it was abandoned.

Festival "Playday" August 27

The birth trauma affected in 2016 in the experience of Zhenya and Lena from Voronezh began to prepare a big festival. It works great for him, so ours decided to repeat it. It turned out, of course, not at all. If Zhenya gnawed at the site and worked mainly with radio advertising, then the site and advertising already, in fact, were - it was necessary to find participants and generally the content of a large festival. And the money, because all this was far from free. Full implementation took on Vick.





After all the adventures and negotiations managed to agree with a bunch of cool people. The local TV channels Kuban 24 and Krasnodar 24 came to the festival to shoot the plot (and they are competitors, and when they saw each other, they came up with the idea that they should shoot not about the festival, but about themselves on the stage with the boards). Vika agreed with Rostelecom on sponsorship. We gave prizes, plus the publishing houses Kosmodrom (this is Imaginarium), Banda Umnimkov (children's educational stuff), Ekivoki (respectively, Ekivoki) and Hasbro (Monopoly) joined. The local comic shop entered the festival, found a lead and a DJ, Kvestoria arranged atmospheric themed quests, and the City Adventure company quests in the shopping center, Geometry made a discount on the photographer, came mufklub, Go players club (yes, in Krasnodar it is very cool ), there was a self-made photozone from cardboard, Claustrophobia stood with certificates for trying to leave the rooms.



All did themselves Lech and Vick. They assembled, assembled, dragged, drove, pushed ... In general, the classics of the romance of small business.

They trained 10 volunteers to be animators, they all went to the festival themselves. A little more than 500 people came, everyone played and was wildly glad. This resulted in near-zero sales at the site (slightly less than 7 thousand rubles in turnover) - and a big surge in the store afterwards. We also know this - you can not sell on the game store, it makes it difficult to try the game. It's one thing when you just play and you know that you can buy such things there, and another thing when you have a salesman somewhere near. The whole event is in doubt, but do not they give you that. Exception - festivals like "Invasion" and other distant trips, of course.

Of the losses, 55 thousand rubles went to minus without taking into account their work (and this is a good indicator, all the good paid off by increasing the awareness and popularization of the desk in the city) —and by one of the stolen Swintus. Let me remind you that in our country the casualties of one glamorous party with millionaires somehow amounted to dozens of games in an hour, and at the “folk” festivals they usually spend one or two or three. One more time two maidens in bathing suits asked Twister for a city day in Moscow and left with him just like that, apparently, having hypnotized the animator with his appearance ... but something I digress.

After the game companies began to emerge sustainable companies. For example, one of 8 people not only played together, but at some point began to travel, too, together. The game kits crawled around the city - many took the games and played themselves. The best result possible. By the opening of a new point, the game stores moved to a cafe right next door.

As a result, now for the new year Krasnodar has worked well. I looked for a new point for the trip and quickly ran through the main points. From the important - there are a couple of jambs, plus, judging by the feedback from Habr, we need to work a little more with the training of sellers. Of the important thing - they lost the mechanics of issuing business cards with a 3% discount on each package “This is for your friends” (works very well), made a hanging sign on the door “Open - Break” (this is the thing that turns the store into a trap), do not sell packaging . The logic is that the packaging takes the time of the seller, and the seller is one shift, and at the peak will not be able to pack. The solution is gift bags or self-assembly boxes for peaks and an ordinary table with packaging for quiet periods. Packing anywhere with gifts is important - it is very marginal, although it is demanding on the time and skills of the seller.


The seller is Kristina, then Ira Kuznetsova, Victoria Matuznaya, Alexey Matuzny, and Stas Neprokin hid.

The impression is very positive both from the city as a whole and from the point. In my opinion, the city has become much more comfortable than a couple of years ago. And tastier, of course. The team is now unlikely to do something bright and crazy because of some interesting situation, but after 4-5 years I’m betting that we will learn more about their adventures in different countries, if not cities, then for sure.