How to run a business: advice from experienced businessmen for beginners. How to start your own business from scratch: from A to Z, what a novice businessman needs to know! How to learn to start your own business

Today, you can study business in Russia in absolutely the same way
like other activities. Business is developing very actively these days,
therefore, to keep up with all the innovations, you definitely need to get
special education or take certain courses.

Today you can get a specially “business” education either in
special business school, or at the relevant university. Also
Today there are a huge number of different seminars,
webinars, courses and trainings.

Each center that teaches business has a variety of programs in
training. For example, it could be insurance, or finance, or maybe
trade? Entrepreneurial areas today it's just
a huge amount. You can find prices for training on any website
from similar schools.

A certain percentage of businessmen who have just begun to study this
field of activity, begin to mistakenly believe that business does not require
theoretical foundations in principle, and that business can be learned in
the process of its organization. So it is worth noting that business is not
limited to one purchase and sale, but this is all just guesswork
beginners, and they have nothing to do with reality. Still needed
take into account that business nowadays is a very complex field of activity,
now serious businessmen compete at a very high level
level. The leader will be the one who knows his business best.

One cannot but agree that there is simply a huge difference between a pro and a beginner.
The difference is that this applies primarily to business. Also you can
learn business not only through courses, you can also learn about it
thanks to the experience of leading businessmen, today all this is written down by them
themselves in their works and biographies, they can either be purchased in bookstores
stores or find it on the Internet. But this method is only suitable for
those people who have excellent analytical thinking, and
can not only read the information, but also apply it on his own
practice.

You need to read the information, analyze it, compare it with your
current opportunities, adjust to them, to the situation. Literature
also gives some skills that you can find practical
application. But a simple theory in business means absolutely nothing, it
just useless information, and especially in Russian business theory
very different from practice.

One of the best

ways to learn business

is to begin your participation in

real entrepreneurship. You can become a helper
an experienced businessman or an ordinary company employee. The most
the main thing is to get to the essence of what is happening in business.

The ideal option would be to ask a businessman friend for help, he
will teach in practice.

We all know that in a capitalist world it is impossible to live without money. More precisely, without a certain amount of them, which will be sufficient to satisfy at least the basic needs of a person for food, food and a roof over his head. For me, this is a very simple and rather cynical fact that should be taken for granted, since this is how the world works.
Let me introduce myself - Vitaly Larin, an active businessman, I want to tell my story of how to start my own business from scratch.
Realizing that I needed big earnings, I began to think about how and where I could get the amount of money that would allow me and my loved ones to live in abundance.
The first thing that came to my mind was that I needed to get some kind of job as an employee. In my opinion, this is the easiest way to make money and it’s quite good because it has a number of advantages:

1. Essentially speaking, it is not you who earn money, but your boss, therefore the main entrepreneurial burden falls on him;
2. The hired employee does not risk anything except his time, maximum salary for the last month of work;
3. If you don’t like your job, you can always quit and look for something better - there’s enough work for everyone.

As you can see, being an employee is really easy in terms of the obligations you take on. And one could say that this is simply a great way to earn money, if not for one huge drawback - the boss gives employees salaries and their amount is almost always insufficient. Which is quite normal - the higher the worker’s salary, the lower the employer’s profit.

What should a worker do if he is really not satisfied with the monthly salary or he just wants more? The answer is very simple - he must become the boss. Of course, this path is more difficult, but the benefits from this type of activity more than compensate for all the difficulties:

1. Firstly, you decide for yourself what, how and when to do.
2. Secondly, you will be financially independent.
3. Thirdly, opening your own business is an excellent incentive for self-development and self-realization.

And frankly speaking, everything will not be so difficult if you know in advance what and how to do. This is exactly what I will try to help you with, describing how I decided to start my business from scratch, what it took for me to do this, and what may be required of you if you decide to become an independent entrepreneur.

I want to be the boss!

Frankly speaking, I quickly abandoned the path of a simple worker and decided to become a boss, since I did not want to work 10-14 hours a day and receive a small salary for it.

In addition, I was always frightened by the thought that I would be deprived of bonuses or fined at the whim of my superiors, precisely at the moment when I urgently needed money. What has already happened to me.
Realizing this, I began a futile study of everything related to how to start a business with minimal start-up capital and with even less experience as an independent entrepreneur.

Here I was a little lucky, having a very extensive and deep knowledge of economics, I clearly understood that the generally accepted opinion that you need to engage in some kind of production in order to earn a lot is great stupidity. Money in modern capitalism is earned in two ways - through speculation and through the provision of services.

It should be mentioned here that I used my economic inclinations mainly to predict the exchange rates of the CIS countries. Thanks to this, he had a stable additional income by trading binary options.

This may seem like a difficult activity, which is partly true. However, if you look into this issue, even a beginner will quickly realize one thing - in the long term, the price of the dollar can only rise, since this is how the global financial system works.

Therefore, anyone who wants to make money on binary options must simply predict how much the dollar will rise in price in the near future. What is done through technical analysis, which is not difficult to learn if you are diligent and patient.

Advice from experienced people - 7 basic principles from those who started their business from scratch and achieved success!

1 . Henry Ford - founder of the Ford automobile brand: “Everything can always be done better than it has been done so far.”
In other words, you always have the opportunity to start your business from scratch in any field of activity.

2. Elon Musk - founder and head of SpaceX and Tesla Motors: “Study the sciences carefully—learn to reason by first principles, not by analogies.”
The discoverer of space as a market for commercial activity speaks of a simple law - you cannot copy the success of another person without understanding what caused it.

3. Steve Jobs - Founder and CEO of Apple: “There is no point in hiring smart employees and then telling and ordering them what to do. We hire smart, educated and experienced people to tell us what to do."
If you need to hire a person, then hire only smart people and do not stand over their souls, commanding them.

4. Grant Cardon - founder of What Ever It Takes Digital Network and best author describing sales methods and techniques according to the New York Times: “The best investment you can make is in yourself.”
This is what Grant’s grandmother said, and one eminent grandfather said something similar: “Study, study and study again.” And I completely agree with them - a businessman must develop by reading a lot, improving his skills and communicating with successful people.

5.Mary Kay Ash - founder and director of Mary Kay Cosmetics: “If you think you can do what you set out to do, you can. However, if you doubt and are not sure, you will not be able to.”
The most successful businesswoman of the 20th century talks about confidence, without it you will be confused at the first difficulties.

6 . Bill Gates - Microsoft co-founder: “Your worst clients are your richest source of knowledge.”
In business, not only the experience of success is important, but also the experience of failure. By realizing this and analyzing your mistakes, you will understand what not to do and where you can do much better.

7. Many many bankrupt entrepreneurs : “You shouldn’t take out a loan if you’re planning to start a business from scratch. Also, do not use funds that were intended for children's education, medical treatment or mortgage payments.
You must be aware of all the risks and understand that there is always a possibility of failure. Therefore, you should not go all-in.

Dream! Go for it! Rejoice!

So, I decided to become an entrepreneur. But can I, do I have the makings of a businessman?
Looking for an answer to this question: “how to start a business from scratch,” I read a lot of literature and several autobiographies of successful businessmen. And this is what I understood:

1. Firstly, you need to thoroughly approach the issue of choosing the field of your activity.
2. Secondly, you can’t do without strong motivation and a willingness to overcome difficulties.
3. And thirdly, you always need to set clear goals - the common good and a happy life are not the goals of business, its main task is to make a profit from its activities.

Motivation is 95% of success!

First, I decided to figure out my motivation. To do this, I asked myself the following questions:

1. What do I want from life in material terms?
My answer: an apartment, a car, many, many books and wealth for my loved ones.

2. Can I get what I want through business?
Answer: yes.

3. Are there easier or faster ways to achieve your goals, other than personal business?
Answer: I can try to win the lottery, but I’m unlikely to be lucky.

4. Am I able to make difficult decisions on my own, or have I in the past delegated these decisions to others?
Answer: yes, I got used to it from early childhood.

5. How quickly do I make decisions?
Answer: with a slight delay, I like to think everything over, but I do it quickly enough.

6. Do I have enough strength to overcome possible difficulties?
Answer: I'm not 100% sure, but I definitely don't like giving up.

To me, these are the answers of the average person, except that I want to have a large collection of books with the works of philosophers and key scientific figures.

You should also ask yourself these questions and think carefully about the answers. Remembering that there is no need to lie or embellish - you are doing it for yourself, and no one will know about it.
Because at this stage, you, like me, should find out what motivates you.

This could be the desire to buy a car that you have dreamed of since childhood, an apartment for your family, the opportunity to travel, or a strong desire to prove to yourself and everyone around you that you are capable of more than vegetating at work from 8 to 18:00 all your life.

Essentially speaking, the reason for your “I want!!!” not significant. The main thing is that it is a desire with three exclamation marks - the strength of motivation and its consistency are important.

My main “I want!!!” - these are books, each time overcoming difficulties, I thought about a new rare edition or a whole series of books. What gave me the incentive to continue after the first difficulties with suppliers appeared and when I was simply tired of daily small troubles.
By the way, I spent my first serious profit on the “Philosophical Heritage” series from the Mysl publishing house. As far as I remember, it cost me two or two and a half thousand dollars.

What will you buy with the money from your first earnings?

What brings profit - Business ideas!

Having realized that I had enough incentives to start my business from scratch, I moved on to the next stage - a business idea. With my resources and capabilities (no experience, no connections, almost no money), I selected the following options.

1.Training and consultations.
This is a good way to earn money if you are good at something and can teach it to other people. Plus, it doesn't require a lot of money. Let me explain with two examples how people make money in this field.

Example No. 1. You are a professional plumber, mechanic, welder of the highest level, working in the Housing Office and you are not satisfied with your salary. If I were you, I would buy a good video camera and make some instructional videos of you repairing or doing something.

Next, I would create my own channel on YouTube and post the video I filmed there. Afterwards, via social media. networks and specialized forums began to advertise their training. If you do this systematically and do it well, then over time you will have a sufficient number of subscribers and your YouTube channel will begin to make a profit.

Later, having gained considerable popularity (from 20 thousand subscribers), you can engage in hidden advertising, using or mentioning certain tools, brands or store names in the video.
You may think that no one needs this, but you are wrong! I myself recently changed the fittings in the drain tank, following the video instructions. In addition, by doing such a business, you do not need to leave your main job.

Example №2 . I have a friend named Evgenia, the proud owner of a diploma with honors as a psychiatrist from one of the famous universities, specializing in human archetypes and family psychology.

So, two years ago, when the 2014 economic crisis hit, she lost most of her clients as people began to save on everything and on her services in particular. And she has two small children in her arms and a husband who has a high chance of losing his job.

Realizing the deplorable nature of her situation, she decided to take matters into her own hands by opening her own small business conducting seminars. To do this, she called her colleagues and classmates, found among them those who were also experiencing financial difficulties, and invited them to her home for a cup of tea.

At the meeting, Evgenia told about her situation and suggested that they unite to create a company to train and advise people through seminars. But she did it wisely, having found out in advance:

• How much do such teachers earn?
• How many competitors will they have?
• How much does it cost to rent a room with an open area for lectures;
• How to formalize such activities from a legal point of view;
• What is in demand among the local population, what are their problems.

In other words, Evgenia did not propose an idea, but a normal business project with sufficient justification. Several of her colleagues decided to give it a try and after a couple of weeks of preparation, they held the first seminar on the topic “How to survive a crisis.”

I will omit the details of how they prepared for the seminar, since these things are of an individual nature. Let me just say that a year later their small “troupe” began to be invited to other cities. And this says a lot.

2.Trade on the Internet.
This is probably the easiest way to make money. Since this is the usual purchase and sale of goods (speculation), only in this case customers do not come to your store, but to your website.
Therefore, for such an activity you need:

1. Analyze possible options regarding what you will trade;
2. Establish a legal entity face;
3. Create your own website or social page. networks where you will offer your product to visitors;
4. Find suppliers and make first purchases;
5. Advertise your store and product by all available means;
6. Make the first deal and continue in the same spirit, increasing the pace.

This is how a medium or large online store is created. But there is another option for speculation on the Internet - trading on avito or Olkh. These are web portals where people post advertisements about what they want to sell or want to buy.
To trade this way you only need to do four things:

1. Understand what you will be trading;
2. Register on avito.ru and/or another similar site;
3. Post an ad about what you are selling;
4. Wait for the buyer and complete the transaction.

As you can see, it is not difficult and accessible to everyone. The only difficulty is understanding what you will be trading. But given the audience of such sites, which amounts to tens of millions of people, it is best to choose what you are knowledgeable about. And do business precisely on this.

3. I do what I can, but without management!
This section includes all types of business activities providing a wide variety of services. For example, if you are a gas equipment repairman and work for an intermediary company, then you can eliminate the extra link and communicate directly with your customers.

Let me give you an example from my personal life. I have an acquaintance, Victor, who used to work as an auto mechanic for a large automatic telephone exchange; he earned relatively good money, but he didn’t have enough to buy his own car. And after another conversation with the boss about increasing the salary, he got angry and quit.
When the anger passed, he was slightly frightened and even thought about a humiliating return to the telephone exchange from which he quit with all the pathos of an offended employee.

But one might say he was lucky. One of the managers of a construction company, which often repaired its equipment at the mentioned automatic telephone exchange, was surprised that Victor was not there. Remembering the professionalism of my friend, he found him and offered him to repair several cars at their service station. This is how another private entrepreneur appeared.
I was probably wrong. Victor was unlucky - it was entirely his fault.

5. A banal, but very simple way to make money on the Internet is advertising!
Surely you all already understand what I will write about in the title. Yes - it’s banal, yes - everyone does it, yes - you’re sick of this advertising. But it brings in a lot of money. Therefore, this method of earning money fits into the category of how to start your own business from scratch.
So what does a budding advertiser need?

1. First, you need to create a place where advertising will be placed - a page on social media. networks, blog or your website.
2. Secondly, you need to attract as many people as possible who will regularly visit your website or page - create interesting and constantly updated content.
3. Thirdly, then you need to find advertisers and make them appropriate offers to advertise their goods and services on your portal.

You can do the last point yourself, or you can use special advertising banners from Internet search engines. By placing them on your page, you will make a profit without making any effort to find an advertiser.
This is one of the easiest ways to make money, but it has one significant drawback - a lot of competition. What is natural is that the easier it is to enter the market, the more people want to enter it.

6.How can you make money if you have a lot of money?
The options listed above worked for me and may work for you if you have little experience and virtually no money. However, if your resources are not as limited as mine, then you may want to consider other, more costly options.

1. Startups– this is, roughly speaking, making money on other people’s business ideas. There are two types: the first is the search for people with ideas and the implementation of their ideas; the second is to act as an intermediary between people with ideas and investors.
2. Classic production- This is the creation of a product by processing any raw material. For example, creating clothes, cast iron frying pans or children's toys.
3. Agriculture- apart from growing mushrooms in the basement, this is a difficult and very expensive business, requiring very specific knowledge of what you will be growing.
4. Production is the removal of fossil resources from the bowels of the Earth. Difficult, expensive, requires connections.

What kind of entrepreneur am I? Which one of you?

So, we determined that we had a reason and motivation to start our business from scratch, and we looked at possible options on how we could make money.
Our next step is to identify among the types of entrepreneurial activity the most suitable for us.
To do this, I used a method borrowed from psychologists. It consists of the following actions:

1. We take a piece of paper and divide it vertically into three parts: my pros, cons, and what excites me. Regarding the latter, this is something you can do for a long time, and it does not cause you negative emotions. We fill in all the fields.
2. Afterwards, in a similar way, we divide the A4 page in MS Word and send it to all our relatives, friends, classmates, colleagues, and clients. At the same time, we politely ask you to take a little time and fill out the document with all seriousness and honesty. Justify the request by the fact that you are deciding your fate or, alternatively, this is necessary to participate in a professional development seminar.
3. After receiving the answers, analyze them, highlighting those that are repeated. Compare the result with your answers.

This simple method will help you understand how you see yourself and how others perceive you. Among the answers, we are most interested in people's observations about what you are interested in and what makes you enthusiastic. Once you find this, you will understand what is worth doing.

Considering the answers I received, my skills and education, I came to the following conclusion:

1. The only services I can provide are teaching philosophy or consulting with an economist.
2. But making money from buying and selling is nothing new to me. I worked for several years in a construction company, doing wholesale trade. And judging by the reviews of my colleagues and former clients, I did it well.

I decided to become a speculator. Of course, in the best sense of the word.
After reading many success stories of entrepreneurs and tips on how to start a business from scratch, I chose for myself the simplest and at the same time the most budget-friendly option for starting a business - an online store selling clothes and shoes.

And here's why:

1. Firstly, the costs of opening such a store are very small. It is enough to buy office equipment, open an individual entrepreneur and make a small supply of goods.
2. Secondly, ease of entry into the market combined with ease of management. Of course, there is competition in this segment, but it does not satisfy all existing demand. And management comes down to technical solutions, which only need to be understood once.
3. Thirdly, shoes and clothing are in stable and steady demand. I decided to sell those clothes that are considered branded in our country, although in fact they are not. That is, this is something that here costs from 50 dollars, and in Europe from 5 euros.

Using the scientific method to build a business from scratch.

You probably already realized that I have a technical background and I love philosophy. Therefore, you are unlikely to be surprised by my approach to the process of creating your own business.

To achieve my mercantile goals, I applied the Scientific Method of cognition to solve the assigned problems. Which proved its effectiveness 2 thousand years ago and is successfully used to this day.

It consists of 5 steps:
1. Definition of a task, goal or problem.
2. Observation.
3. Proposing hypotheses regarding how to complete a given task or solve an existing problem.
4. Conducting the experiment, that is, putting the hypothesis into practice.
5. Summing up: if the goal is achieved, then this leads to the end of the process; if not, we move on to the first point and begin a new cycle.

Next, I will tell you how to adapt the Scientific Method to start a business. But first, I would suggest you read a book by Robert Pirsig called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. This is a bestseller, the best-selling book of American literature of the last century, which, according to many people and publications like The New York Times, is among the 100 best books of world literature.
In this case, it will be useful to you for two reasons:

1. It says a lot about how to apply the Scientific Method of knowledge in everyday life;
2. There is also a whole chapter in the book about smarts.

Regarding the latter, this is an old word that combines three concepts: will, desire and enthusiasm. The book describes how to work with ingenuity so that it does not disappear, and you are always motivated to do what you need to do.

Step one is understanding the problem.

Where can I get money to start my own business? This is exactly the problem that 95% of new entrepreneurs face! In the article, we revealed the most relevant ways to obtain start-up capital for an entrepreneur. We also recommend that you carefully study the results of our experiment in exchange earnings:

Once you and I have decided what kind of business is best to open, we must take the next step - set clear and very specific goals. Both intermediate and final.
In my case, this is a monthly stable income of 2 thousand US dollars, buying an apartment, creating a collection of books.

Moreover, I should receive such a profit within a year after opening the business, I planned to buy an apartment in a maximum of five years, and the collection of books should be replenished monthly.
As you can see, according to the scientific method, goals should not only be identified, it is also necessary to set a time frame for achieving them. Without doing this, you will always find a reason to put off something important for later.
Regarding the ultimate goal, for me it is the prosperity and well-being of my family. You may have something similar or something more specific. For example, earn $222 million and retire. You may also want to become a leader in your market segment.

Step two – observation (market analysis)

After setting a goal, it is necessary to understand the environment in which we will act, identifying in it subjects and objects, cause and effect. Which in our case will be marketing market analysis.
In other words, you need to conduct research on your own or contact a marketing campaign. During which we must understand the following:

1. Who is our consumer and what are his needs;
2. What about competition;
3. What we will sell - specific names of goods or services.
4. Where will we get the goods from if we trade;
5. What are the advantages of our product and what are the advantages in my organization compared to competitors;
6. How to attract customers and how to stimulate sales by increasing the average check;
7. How to increase the number of regular customers;
8. In what legal framework will we act?
9. Who is the most successful among my competitors and why.
10. What is the stability of the market, and what are the risks in this area of ​​activity.

In my case the answers would be:

1. Women from 15 to 45 years of average income, men from 20-35 years of average income, parents and guardians of children from 15 to 18 years of average income. Their need, which I focus on, is the purchase of branded, high-quality clothing at low prices.

2. My competitors are divided into two types: stores and private sellers selling online, as well as regular boutiques. I decided to select clients in the latter.

3. Sports shoes and clothing from famous sports brands, budget category. And outerwear is mostly for women from well-known brands. I don’t remember the exact names, it was a year and a half ago, and fashion, as you know, is highly variable.

4. We bought goods almost directly from manufacturers and transported them ourselves; we also bought goods with big discounts on Aliexpress and similar portals.

5. Our main advantage is price. We also offered many discounts for customers and did generous drawings of coupons for free purchases in our store.

6. It was decided to attract clients through the Internet and friends. In addition, in front of several boutiques, we bought banners and on them showed a couple of products that are sold in boutiques nearby and here. Comparing prices. Very effective, but there may be problems with boutique owners.

7. We attracted regular customers with the quality of service and its speed, as well as with promotions and discounts.

8. To open a business, it was necessary to establish an individual entrepreneur and hire a contractor to provide accounting services. In general, nothing complicated.

9. The most successful competitors are boutiques in crowded places (we cannot repeat their success) and several online stores that have been operating for a long time. The latter were successful thanks to excellent (I would say expensive) advertising. They also had a huge selection and big seasonal discounts. From this, at first we adopted only seasonal discounts and some positions of their Top Sales.

10. Considering that our segment is budget clothing and shoes, we can say that the market is very stable and there is always demand. But there are also risks, for example: closing the border for trucks, changes in legislation in terms of duties and customs clearance rules. I bet you will come up with something similar in many respects. And like any beginning entrepreneur, you will make money on the market by offering the same thing, but: cheaper, faster and better. Just like Gerald Ford said.

Step three is prediction and hypotheses. Business planning!

Having understood what our environment is like, we can begin to lay the foundation - creating a business plan. This is a fundamental document for any enterprise. Because it prescribes what, how and why to do in a given situation. In other words, these are instructions that you will follow when opening your own business. Typically, a business plan consists of the following sections:

1. Description of goals, objectives, environment, current state.
2. Description of what you will do, what services or products your company will offer to customers.
3. Marketing part. How you will sell, to whom you will sell and in what ways, including advertising and other marketing tools
4. Where you will get the product from or how you will create the services to sell.
5. Organizational part. Everything about the personnel and technical aspects of your activity is described here.
6. Budget. More precisely, its planning for several years in advance.
7. Methods of control and methods for summing up the final results.
8. Description of critical situations, such as bankruptcy or the occurrence of force majeure.
9. In what ways, if necessary, will the organizational and legal form of your business be changed.
It is necessary to draw up a business plan in such a way that it describes the most likely development options, as well as extreme options. With the addition of instructions for action to each of these options.
It is important to note that a business plan is very often a document for internal (secret) use. You understand that you should not disclose your action plan to potential or current competitors.

Step four – practice!

I will not describe this step much, since a scientific experiment in our case means the implementation of a business plan in practice. And everyone at this stage will have their own personal and unique experience. I will describe only the basic details.

I didn’t want to get involved with legal issues, so I used the services of a company that specializes in this. Their employees opened an individual entrepreneur and took over my accounting.

This was more than a year and a half ago. There were no problems with the tax service and other government agencies, so I have no desire to refuse this cooperation and hire a full-time accountant. After creating an individual entrepreneur, I bought the necessary office equipment and set up an office at home. I also hired an assistant. By luring him away from a successful competitor, offering a partnership if the store begins to make a profit.

By the way, this helped me a lot, both with creating a client base and with finding suppliers. And frankly speaking, in the beginning I was a subordinate, and my future junior partner was the boss. Which probably saved me a lot of growing pains.

In parallel with solving legal and technical issues, I also started a small advertising company. Which mainly consisted of distributing advertising postcards on the Internet.

On one side they showed celebrities in casual clothes, and on the other - photos with an assortment of boutiques. At the same time, price tags were drawn on the image, showing how much it cost celebrities to buy clothes and how much they cost in boutiques. And at the bottom of the picture there are small slogans like “feel the difference” or “not everything is gold that costs a lot.”

We also placed such pictures on banners at boutiques. Which had a double effect. We had more clients, but the owners of these boutiques “noticed” us and decided to “help.” Sending the tax and fire departments to visit us for a cup of coffee was fun.

Step five - preliminary results and changes to the primary action plan.

This step, according to the Scientific Campaign, is carried out to monitor the effectiveness of completing assigned tasks and draw conclusions about the success of hypotheses.
In business activities, this is the preparation of quarterly, semi-annual and annual reports. What is necessary to understand the general situation and control the level of sales, profitability, availability of goods in warehouses, etc.

Having compiled a report, it must be compared with the forecasts described earlier in the business plan. If there is such a scenario, then you need to continue to do everything as stated in the instructions. However, if the results achieved and the state of affairs go beyond what was predicted, adjustments need to be made to the planned action plan.

At the same time, you need to once again compare the assigned tasks and your resources, since sometimes everything changes so much that you will not be able to make a profit even with the optimal development of events. In addition, sometimes there are risks that outweigh the possible benefits - this means that you need to close your business and start from scratch in another market segment.

In my case, everything was very successful. Having organized everything and purchased the goods, my store began work.
My first clients were my friends and acquaintances, who knew that I would not deceive them. Then acquaintances of acquaintances came, and then their acquaintances, and in this simple way my store acquired the backbone of its customer base. Which gradually grew over time, thanks to advertising and satisfied customers.

A year and a half later, my online store was no longer just mine - I had two partners. Which made it possible to increase turnover, and more importantly, it freed up a lot of time that I can spend on what I like.
I haven’t changed my online store development plan, it still works.

The big problem is where to get money for start-up capital?

As you can see, my example turned out to be very simple and easy to repeat. The only thing you may have difficulty with is the formation of start-up capital.

Frankly, money to start a business is the main obstacle for most new ventures. For this reason, I missed this point in describing my experience as a new entrepreneur.

However, I did this not in order to bypass this detail, but in order to pay more attention to it, devoting a whole section to it.

Where can I get the required amount?

First, let's look at all the possible options from where, at least theoretically, you can get money for start-up capital.

1.First option – take a loan from a bank or lend money to relatives, friends or private lenders. I will write about this in more detail a little further down the text.

2. Second option – use of personal funds and savings. In my opinion, this is the best option if you have free money or savings without a specific purpose for using it.

3. Third option – search for an investor. That is, you need to find someone who will give you money to implement your business plan. Not a bad option, but, as a rule, this way you will lose some control over your business even before it opens.

If you want to find an investor, you can contact special structures that deal with startups or submit your business plan to one of the crowdfunding sites.

Crowdfunding is the group funding of something on a voluntary basis.

In the CIS, these are platforms such as Kickstarter and Boomstarter. By the way, by posting your idea on one of these sites, you can understand how feasible it is and how much investors believe in it. Big and small.

4. Fourth option – earn money. It’s difficult to add anything here, just work and accumulate funds until there is as much as you need to open a business.

5. Fifth option – sell what you don't need property, but one that you can do without. For example, a house in the village, a dacha, a car or an unnecessary decoration. In this case, carefully weigh everything and think about whether it’s worth risking what you already have.

6. The sixth option - few people know, but there are many international funds that finance free of charge various kinds of undertakings. As a rule, this is everything related to the environment, the fight against poverty, social development and the like.

If your business project directly or indirectly affects these goals, then you can receive a grant to start your business.

How to start your business from scratch without loans?

Remember the advice from those who created their own business from scratch? Among them there is one who says that you should not take out a loan to form start-up capital. Beginners really shouldn’t do this and here’s why:

1. Firstly, without experience as a novice entrepreneur, the risk of ruin is very high. By taking out a loan, you are taking on a financial commitment that will remain even if you go broke.
2. Secondly, loan payments will eat up the lion's share of your income, which will hinder your development or completely deprive you of income.
3. Thirdly, when you take out money on credit, you largely become controlled by the lender.
4. Fourthly, the need to pay money to the creditor every month almost always has a detrimental effect on your emotional state. Because of this, the quality of decisions made decreases.

Where did I get the money?

Having calculated in the business plan how much money I need at the initial stage: about 10 thousand dollars to solve technical problems, about 5-10 thousand dollars for promotion and another 3-5 thousand dollars in order to live while the store is closed will begin to make a profit. I realized that I was missing half of this amount - 10-15 thousand dollars.
I didn’t want to take out a loan - it’s unlikely that they’ll give it to me without collateral, and if they do, the interest rate will eat up all the profit.

There was another option with loans to relatives, but as smart men on television say, “modern economic realities did not allow this idea to be realized, and therefore we need to look for other options that would allow us to achieve the optimal development of this situation.” Therefore, I decided to follow the proven path - I began to trade binary options more actively.

For those who don’t know what it is, I’ll explain. Binary options are a unique tool for trading contracts for the purchase of goods with a predetermined execution time at a price predetermined in the contract. With such trading, the trader makes a profit if he correctly determines the movement of the value of the product.

In other words, if you bought an option on Rosneft shares for $100 with an upward forecast, and before the contract is executed, the price of these shares increased by 40%, then you will make a profit of $40. If the stock price falls, you will lose $100 entirely, or most of it, depending on where and under what conditions you trade.

As you can see, making money on binary options comes down to predicting the movement of the value of a product. And it's actually not that difficult. In addition, trading can be entrusted to a third party, in which the percentage of successful binary options transactions is quite high - 85-95%. And just make a profit, like with investments, but faster.

Examples of successful stories from newbie entrepreneurs who built their business from scratch!

I probably won’t sum up my story with beautiful words and praise itself. Let me tell you two more stories of successfully starting a business from scratch, which can serve as a clear example for you and perhaps you will repeat them.

Masha, who could!

I have an excellent friend Masha, who received a diploma in historian-ethnologist a couple of years ago. When asked why she needed it and how she would earn money, Masha always answered - I like it, but I’ll get the money somehow.

So, after graduating from college, she got a job as a waitress, which is why many people made fun of her. And why lie - I often did this too. And at least give her some credit, she was always cheerful and self-confident. Which we chalked up to her friendly nature. But after some time we realized how wrong we were all. It turned out that all this time a grandiose plan was hidden in her pretty head, which she gradually implemented in secret from all of us.

The essence of her idea was simple - to find those who make authentic things of the 16th-19th centuries and find those who need them. You will say that it is simple and everyone can do it! However, by doing this, you only show that you do not know what you are talking about.
Yes, there are many copies and surrogates of antiques, but there are very, very few truly genuine, authentic antiquities. It's like the Katana trade - there are genuine swords from masters of their craft, which take months and sometimes years to make. And there are simple stamped copies in souvenir shops.

Let's continue the story. It took Masha a little more than one year to carry out her plan. During this time, she traveled through the darkness of cockroach towns and villages, where she looked for blacksmiths and needlewomen doing everything the old fashioned way. When a sufficient number of them had gathered, Masha organized an exhibition of these products, inviting representatives of the press and owners of companies involved in organizing various kinds of special events. In addition, there were many fans of historical reconstructions.

At the exhibition, our heroine invited everyone to try everything on and with extraordinary generosity handed out her business cards “Representative of the best masters of needlework and blacksmithing.” In the end, the idea was a success. Six months later, she put this business, as they say, “on stream.” And now he makes fun of us, sometimes.

From photoshopper to art studio manager.

The second story will be about a simple guy named Dima. He did not stand out in any way and lived a quiet, calm life, working in a photo studio, receiving quite normal money for it. Dima, as they say, was a professional “Photoshopper”. But as often happens, he was unlucky - he met my friend Alla. I really love her, but frankly speaking, I still need to look for such a “saw”. And her requests are not small.

And when everything became serious between them, she began to eat his brain out with conversations about the future, about children and the fact that he needed to strive for more, which means earning more. Dima, like a true man, of course, resisted for a long time. For about a week, but in the end he unconditionally capitulated.

At first, he began to earn extra money as a freelancer, fulfilling orders that he received on specialized exchanges. And very quickly his money began to increase. After just two months of working as a free mercenary, his salary increased two to three times.
During this time, Dima acquired regular clients and began collaborating with several freelancers like him, only they were engaged in programming and copywriting. Together, from time to time they made websites for one customer.

Surely you already understand where this is going. Yes - Alla achieved her goal and Dima opened an Art Studio.
I won’t talk about what happened next; as they say, it’s a completely different fairy tale, but with a “happy ending.”

Epilogue.

I'll probably end my story with one of my favorite quotes: “In baseball, as in business, there are three types of people: those who make things happen; those who look at what is happening and those who are surprised that this is happening at all.” This was said by famous basketball coach Tommy Lasorda.
Of course, he was talking about his own thing—baseball. But, in my opinion, this is the best parting word for a beginning entrepreneur. You have learned how to start your own business from scratch, now take action!
Be the one who surprises, not the one who is surprised!

When I started at the institute, we had a subject called “Business Fundamentals”. In essence, they had to explain to us what entrepreneurship is. However, in practice, we were just getting a little acquainted with Russian legislation. We were told that entrepreneurship is work at your own peril and risk. They also told us about such things as what a partnership is, what an individual entrepreneur is and what an LLC is. However, our knowledge of business was very superficial. Not to mention the fact that we weren’t told exactly how to launch a business, or where to start. I have a hypothesis that the auntie who taught us the basics of business has never been involved in entrepreneurship herself.

I am convinced that entrepreneurship can only be learned through practice. No matter how many books you read, until you lose your first money and until you learn how to make a profit, nothing will fit into your head.

WHAT IS BUSINESS AND HOW TO LEARN IT

Business from the English word Business is literally translated as “business”. First of all, business is not about money or resources. This is your "business". The case may be different. This could be anything - from making souvenirs, selling shawarma and ending with your own bank or shopping center. Accordingly, depending on what business you want to do, you will need to gain knowledge in this field of activity. Relatively speaking, in order to learn how to produce control and measurement products for the oil sector, you need to have a huge amount of practical, engineering, and marketing knowledge. It is practically very difficult to carry out such a production on a bare field without an appropriate team of specialists.

So the first step should be to determine what exactly you want to do. The second is obtaining the necessary knowledge in a particular field of work. If you want to open a very small business, then I advise you to buy my book ““ - here I talk about how to open a tiny business with a turnover of up to 1 million rubles a year.

Then a business plan is built and its implementation begins. This may require some money, a considerable amount of time, effort and patience. And within a period of six months to three to five years (depending on the planning horizon), it will be possible to draw some conclusions regarding how successful the business is.

The criteria for business success are simple: profitability (when expenses are noticeably less than income), the number of satisfied customers, repeat sales, brand awareness, reputation, and so on.

So go ahead and try it! In any case, even if you fail to launch your business, you will be able to shake your hand for at least making an attempt. You will know for yourself that “at least I tried.”

Hello dear friend! Alexander Berezhnov, entrepreneur and one of the founders of the business magazine HiterBober.ru, is in touch.

Today we will talk about how to start your business from scratch. Is it really possible to do it at all? I answer unequivocally - YES!

After studying this article, you will find answers to the most common questions:

• How to start your business from scratch if you have no money and experience?
• Where can I find a working business idea to start a project?
• What (what business) should you do to get your first profit tomorrow?

Here I will describe a step-by-step technology for starting a business, and will give examples from my own business practice, as well as talk about the experience of my entrepreneurial friends who started their own business without money or other material assets in the form of premises, equipment or goods.

All you have to do is study this material and apply the knowledge gained in life.

Content

1. Why is it better for beginners to start a business from scratch?
2. Where to start your business so as not to burn out - 10 iron rules!
3. How to start your own business from scratch - 7 simple steps using the example of a fictional aspiring entrepreneur Vasya Pupkin
4. My own experience of starting a business from scratch in the service sector
5. The real story of how my friend Misha worked as a security guard and became a businessman

1. Why is it better for beginners to open a business FROM ZERO?

Dear readers, this section of the article is very important! I sincerely advise you to study it carefully. I guarantee you won't regret it.

Here the key points on starting a business for beginners will be explained from the point of view of the psychology of entrepreneurship.

Before starting a new project, be sure to think about what determines your desire.

Understand yourself and your motivation to open a business, and my small test, compiled in the form of two blocks of different beliefs, will help you with this.

Belief block No. 1.

What thoughts SHOULD NOT open your own business with:

• How can you quickly earn a lot to pay off your debts?
• The idea I have in my head will definitely work, but I need money to make it happen;
• Am I worse than others? My neighbor is engaged in business and everything will work out for me;
• I'm tired of these idiot bosses, I'm quitting tomorrow and starting my own business!

Yes, friends, business is more psychology than technology. I'll explain why a little later.

Belief block No. 2.

On the contrary, you are READY to start a business if you think like this:

• I am very good at doing something that is in demand in the “market” and based on it I want to open my own business;
• I realize that at the beginning, large investments in business are very risky, and I can only invest free money in the business, but I will not borrow it, since the risk of losing money without business experience is very high;
• My own business takes a lot of time, and in order to develop it I must have a cash reserve or source of income until my project generates tangible income;
• Having started my own business, I will no longer have bosses and supervisors who guided me in my work and I need to now become a sufficiently organized person to act independently and achieve success in entrepreneurship.

If you have dominant beliefs from block No. 1, do not rush to get into a fight. After all, most likely, such judgments indicate the emotionality of your decisions and underestimation of the risks that arise when starting your own business.

The beliefs prevailing in your head from block No. 2 indicate that you are fully aware of what business is and are going to take a responsible approach to its start and further development.

I already wrote above that business is mainly psychology and only then technology.

It's time to explain why this is so.

The thing is that our internal “cockroaches” and delusions prevent us from starting our project.

Here are just some of the myths that hinder the start of successful projects:

1. You can’t open a business without money and connections;
2. Taxes will eat up all profits;
3. Bandits will take my business;
4. I don't have a commercial streak.

Surely you are familiar with all these fears of beginners. In fact, if you overcome them, or rather just score and don’t think about all this nonsense, then your chances of success will increase MANY TIMES!

2. Where to start your business so as not to burn out - 10 iron rules!

I had to open a business myself more than once. I opened my first business at the age of 19 and registered myself as an individual entrepreneur. If you are interested in how to register an individual entrepreneur, then I explained in detail all the subtleties of this procedure using my own example in the article “How to open an individual entrepreneur in 3 hours.”

Then I bought 2 terminals for accepting payments. You yourself have probably used the services of such terminals more than once when paying for a mobile phone. But this business cannot be called open from scratch, since at that time (2006) I invested about 250,000 rubles in it.

So, friends, perhaps you know both successful examples of business projects and examples where entrepreneurs with their “brainchild” failed.

By the way, basically everyone hears stories of great successes, but it seems that it is not customary for us to talk about failures and is even embarrassing.

Like, I’m a fool, a loser, I’m broke, I lost money, I got into debt. What to do now? And now there is nothing left to do, all that remains is to live on and step by step get out of the current situation.

So that you don’t find yourself in the place of this poor fellow, here are the simplest rules that will help you start a business with minimal risks and great chances for the success of the enterprise.

How to start your business from scratch and not go broke - 10 iron rules:

1. Never take out loans to start a business if you do not have experience;
2. Before starting a business, take off your rose-colored glasses and ask yourself the question: “What will I lose if I fail”?;
3. Be prepared for different scenarios, consider both optimistic and pessimistic scenarios;
4. Under no circumstances should you open a business with money intended for other strategic goals in your life (children’s education, loan payments, treatment, etc.);
5. Carefully study the market and your capabilities, that is, the resources you have to start your own business;
6. Do not get involved with obscure or “super profitable” projects that require serious investments;
7. If possible, talk to experienced entrepreneurs who are successful in business and take note of their advice;
8. Start a business in a field you are familiar with;
9. Plan your upcoming actions in writing and clearly formulate each stage that you have to go through to achieve your goal;
10. Be optimistic and don't stop at the first difficulties!

3. How to start your own business from scratch - 7 simple steps using the example of a fictional aspiring entrepreneur Vasya Pupkin

For clarity, I propose to go through all 7 steps of technology for organizing your business using the example of a fictitious entrepreneur, let his name be Vasily.

This is the hero of our story, who decided to open a business from scratch.

Step 1. Determine your value

Look, friends, I think you will agree that business can be called the exchange of money for some value that you can give to your clients, that is, solve their problem for money.

Let's say you're good at driving a car, or you can make beautiful designs on a computer, or perhaps you have a talent for creating DIY crafts - in all these cases, you have value that people are willing to pay for.

Let's get straight to the point and do a practical exercise that will help you get your business off the ground:

Take a piece of paper and a pen, then write a list of 10 things that you feel are better than others.

Once you have this list ready, think about what you are good at that you really enjoy doing. Maybe you are currently doing this as a hobby.

The fact is that a person cannot do something for a long time that he does not like, and business is a great creative process that requires your versatility, willpower and dedication.

For example, as a result of this exercise, you came to the conclusion that you like to teach something, explain things, communicate with people and work with information, and most importantly, that you are good at it.

Then, by combining your abilities, you can become a private tutor, consultant, or succeed in the network marketing industry.

This is a general principle.

So, once upon a time there lived Vasya...

Vasily decided to open a business and approached this task responsibly.

Vasya made a list of his favorite activities and compared it with what he does best.

Based on the results of the exercise, our hero decided that he would engage in computer design, since he had been working for several years in the company “DesignStroyProekt” LLC in Chelyabinsk, which develops interior design and then finishes the room according to the 3D project.

Vasily assessed his strength and decided that he would become a private interior designer; he already had a number of completed projects, positive customer reviews and an impressive portfolio.

Vasya loved his work and sometimes even took it home, since the company had a lot of orders.

Even then, our hero realized that, in fact, he was engaged in entrepreneurial activity, only his services were bought by a company at a low price, and clients paid the company much more for design development.

Here Vasily realized that if he could find clients on his own, then he would not have to go to the office at all, and his initial investment in the business would be minimal. After all, his design skills themselves are essentially a business.

This is how our newly minted entrepreneur came up with the idea to start a business.

While working in the company, Vasya even received a small percentage of completed projects, which means he could influence the level of his income.

Fortunately, he lived in a large city, where he had quite a lot of potential clients.

Step 2. Analyze the market and choose a niche for a future project

In order to understand whether your business will be successful, you need to conduct an appropriate analysis of the market in which you will sell your goods or services.

So, Vasya decided not to rush and carefully prepared for the new stage of life, which was called “free swimming in the world of business.”

Over the few years that our designer worked for the company, he learned that there were about 10 similar companies in the market in his city, and they all provided similar services.

He asked his friend Pasha, under the guise of a client, to go to these companies and identify their strengths and weaknesses in order to further develop competitive advantages by working for himself.

After commercial intelligence, Pasha identified a number of strengths and weaknesses of these companies. Pasha put these sides into a table so that Vasya could conveniently compare them.

Strengths of Vasya's competing companies:

• The interior designer of these companies inspects and measures the property for free;
• all companies provide a discount on subsequent finishing of the apartment;
• 7 out of 10 companies give the client a gift certificate for a 30% discount when re-ordering a design project from them;
• Managers of 9 out of 10 companies carefully talk with the client, competently finding out his needs.

Weaknesses of Vasya’s competing companies:

• 8 out of 10 companies try to be too intrusive to sell a large number of additional products and services at the first meeting with the client. This causes his negative reaction;
• the interior designer in all 10 companies, during the first conversation with a potential client, conducts a dialogue in complex professional language using a large number of special terms;
• 7 out of 10 companies charge an additional fee for making changes to a computer design project.

Taking into account all the above-described pros and cons of competitors, our hero Vasily decided to engage in interior design of houses and apartments in his city at a lower price. Similar companies on the market provide these services more expensively, since they spent a lot of money on maintaining the workplace and paying taxes for the employee.

The cost of our designer’s services was now one and a half times lower with the proper quality of execution of design projects.

This completed the second step of building his business from scratch with Vasily Pupkin.

Step 3. Decide on the positioning of your business and draw up a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

In order for your customers to understand exactly what you offer them and what makes you unique, you will need to decide on your positioning. In other words, in what light will you present yourself to your client.

Let's return to our fictional hero Vasily, who wanted to open his own business and was at the stage of developing a proposal for the customer.

Vasya already had a good portfolio and a number of reviews from satisfied clients, but how to show all this to your potential customers?

Then Vasya said to himself: “I’m a designer!”, and decided to create his own website on the Internet.

Here he posted his portfolio, reviews, information about himself and his experience, as well as his contacts so that a potential client could conveniently contact him.

Vasily also formulated his Unique Selling Proposition (USP)*, which sounded as follows: “Creating the interior design of your dreams for a reasonable price. Creative. Bright. Practical."

So Vasya began to position himself as a professional designer who, at an adequate cost, develops a good quality product for people of average income.

Step 4. Draw up an action plan (business plan)

In order to launch your business and avoid many problems, you need to be prudent and try to present your idea and action plan on paper in as much detail as possible.

You can briefly write down the main stages that you will have to go through to organize and launch your project. Draw diagrams and drawings and provide explanations for them.

Correctly, this stage of starting your business from scratch is called business planning. These are your instructions, following which your chances of success increase significantly.

In one of the previous articles I already wrote how to write a business plan, be sure to read it.

Now we return to our hero Vasily, who decided to become an entrepreneur and quit his job. Vasily had long wanted to open a business without investments, because he did not want to risk money. He understood that without proper experience, such an experiment could end badly and lead to loss of money.

As a result, Vasya decided that his actions would consist of 3 simple steps with subtasks and would look like this:

1. Create your own website with a portfolio, reviews and contacts;
2. Post your portfolio online on sites for remote workers;
3. Inform your immediate circle about your new project (friends, acquaintances and relatives).

Stage 2. Receiving first orders

1. Sign contracts and receive advance payments from clients;
2. Fulfill orders;
3. Get feedback and recommendations from the customer, add work to your portfolio.

Stage 3. Quitting your job

1. Write resignation letters;
2. Work the required 2 weeks, complete work projects and transfer tasks;
3. Agree to supply clients with contractors for repair and finishing work.

Now he was completely ready to take the first practical steps to transform himself from an employee into an individual entrepreneur.

Step 5. Advertise your project and find your first clients

In order to find your first clients when you already have an offer for your services, you must first notify your acquaintances, friends and relatives. Tell them that from now on you are engaged in such and such activity, and also try to conclude the first contracts with them.

If your services are not relevant to them at the moment, ask them for contacts of people to whom they could recommend you.

It's no secret that in order to reach a large audience and automatic self-presentation, you will simply need to create a website for yourself.

To do this, you can use the services of website creation companies or, if you have the necessary knowledge, create a website yourself. By the way, about how my friend Vitaly and I earned about 1,000,000 rubles by creating websites, read our article about making money by creating custom websites.

Meanwhile, the hero of our business story, Vasily, did not sit idle and developed a personal website for himself, created groups on social networks, notified those around him about the services he provided and sent out commercial offers to his potential clients.

A properly written commercial proposal is the key to success in your business. Read all the features and nuances of the technology in my article on how to make a commercial proposal.

The first orders have arrived...

Step 6. Launch a business, earn your first money and build a brand

Having completed all the previous steps, you are gradually approaching the most interesting stage - the first orders, and therefore the first profits.

• Isn’t this what we strived for when becoming entrepreneurs!?
• “How to make money starting your business from scratch?” - Isn’t this the question we asked ourselves?

If you show the proper perseverance and follow my recommendations, then success will certainly await you. Just believe in yourself and don’t give up ahead of time, be prepared for difficulties, because they will come, I’m telling you that for sure.

So, our Vasily received and completed the first orders. As usual, he did this with his usual professionalism. The designer understood that simply making money was not enough, because he already knew how to do this in his office job in the company.

Possessing a strategic vision, Vasily decided that in order to develop his business and increase the cost of his services, he needed to build a name for himself, or, as they say more correctly in business circles, a reputation.

Earn yourself a name that will help you earn everything else!

Folk wisdom

To do this, Vasya did not just sit at home and watch TV, but methodically engaged in self-education, attended thematic exhibitions and seminars, and went to creative gatherings of designers and entrepreneurs, where he could find potential clients and meet new partners.

A few months later, Vasya gained a reputation as an experienced and punctual professional in the field of interior design. The average cost of his order grew, and clients came to him based on the recommendations of their friends, to whom Vasya provided high-quality design services.

Step 7. Analyze the results and expand the project

When your business began to generate significant income, regular clients appeared, and you began to be recognized in the business and professional sphere, it’s time to sum up the interim results of your work and outline new horizons. Simply put, it’s time to expand your project in order to increase profits and your own “weight” (your name) in your chosen area of ​​business.

Vasily did the same; he analyzed his results, income, and outlined possible ways to expand his business.

As a result, our designer drew up a new business plan.

Now Vasily could hire assistants who performed all routine operations for him. Our entrepreneur opened his own interior design studio named after Vasily Pupkin. In it he was now the leader and art director.

Thus, having gone from a novice designer to a company employee, our now big boss Vasily proved to everyone by his example that opening a business from scratch is real and does not require cosmic sums, much less loans, which inexperienced entrepreneurs like to take out.

Dear readers, perhaps someone will say that this is a fictional story and the issues of registering a company, proper negotiations with clients, legal issues and other subtleties are not covered here.

Yes, this is true, but believe me, if you take these simple 7 steps as a basis, then starting a business will turn into an exciting journey for you that you will remember for a very long time. And as an experienced entrepreneur, you will share your practical knowledge with newcomers.

I will say that I personally managed to open a business using the described model.

I wish you good luck and I am sure that by approaching the start of your own project responsibly, after a while you will be doing what you love and getting paid for it.

Below you will find working business ideas for starting your own business from scratch, as well as real entrepreneurial stories about how my friends and I opened our own businesses.

4. What you can do to open your business from scratch - 5 best business ideas

The business ideas below will help you get started in business and actually feel like an entrepreneur.

Some ideas will be related to making a profit using the Internet, others will not.

All you have to do is choose the type of business you like and start immersing yourself in it.

Business idea No. 1. Consulting and training

If you know how to do something well, then there will probably be many people who want to learn from your experience and knowledge.

Nowadays, training via the Internet is especially in demand. This is where you can find hundreds and even thousands of people who are willing to pay you.

For example, I have a friend Alexey, he lives with me in the same city of Stavropol and teaches foreign languages. Just a few years ago, Lyosha had to visit his students at home or invite them to his home. Now the situation has changed radically, everything has become much simpler.

With the advent of the Internet, my friend began teaching people English and German via Skype. I myself used his services for a year. During this time, I managed to learn English from scratch to a conversational level. As you can see, it works.

You can also start your own home business from scratch training or consulting people online.

Nowadays, many lawyers, accountants and teachers make good money this way. But there is an even more advanced option for making money on your knowledge; it is to create and sell your own training courses via the Internet.

To make a profit this way you need:

• choose a topic in which you are knowledgeable;
• record a training course on it;
• start advertising this course online in different ways and earn income from sales

The advantage of this type of business is that you record your training course once and sell it many times.

In general, selling information on the Internet in the form of methods and manuals is called information business. You too can open it and make it your main source of income.

Business idea No. 2. Earning money using the social network Twitter (Twitter)

Today, almost every person has their own profile on one of the social networks. But few people know that here, in addition to entertainment and communication, you can make good money.

One of these opportunities is Twitter, which is common for many - a social network for exchanging short messages of up to 140 characters.

Ordinary people spend their time and money here, while smarter people have turned this social network into their source of permanent income.

It's no secret that wherever people hang out, there is money.

After all, our Internet users are an active paying audience. So why don't you get some of their money. Moreover, this is absolutely legal and does not require outstanding knowledge.

You just need to take a few RIGHT actions and get your first profit. We have previously written about how to start your own business on Twitter and receive income comparable to the average salary in Russia. Read our article “How to make money on the social network Twitter” and implement the methods described in it.

Business idea No. 3. We are engaged in mediation - we earn money on Avito.ru

Making money using electronic ad boards is the simplest and most accessible for most people.

You are required to have minimal computer knowledge, a few hours a day and a desire to work for yourself.

With the help of sites that specialize in posting free advertisements, you can build your own very profitable business.

This can be done in 3 steps:

1. Find something to sell
2. Post an ad on the website
3. Receive a call from a buyer and sell the product

We will use the most popular Avito board (avito.ru) as a site for posting sales advertisements.

Hundreds of thousands of advertisements are posted here every day, and the site’s active audience numbers tens of millions of users.

Can you imagine how many potential buyers there will be for your product here?!

First, you can start here by selling unwanted items you have around the house, and then post ads for goods and services that you don't even have in stock.

Don't believe that this is possible and want to know how it's done?

I myself tried to earn quick money with the help of Avito, I won’t say that I became a millionaire, but I managed to earn several thousand rubles in a week.

I wrote a separate article about this, “How to make money on Avito - 10,000 rubles in one week.”

Business idea No. 4. Growing from an employee to a business partner

If you are currently employed, you do not have to quit your job and open your own business. You can do this within the company you work for.

If your company is not too big, and you are one of the key specialists there, then under certain conditions you can get a share in the company’s business. This will allow you not just to receive a salary, but to become a full-fledged managing partner on a par with the current owner - your main manager.

This is possible if your actions can directly influence the increase in the company’s profits.

Become an indispensable specialist and it is quite possible that the owner of the company himself will invite you to become his business partner.

This method is proposed by the legendary Russian entrepreneur Vladimir Dovgan. Yes, you will have to work hard here, but you will become a co-owner of an already operating company without risks and really from scratch.

Dovgan himself gives the example of a guy who became a co-owner of a large restaurant chain in Moscow, and before that was a simple cook in one of the restaurants.

This young man really liked what he did, he was professional in preparing food and courteous with the guests of the establishment.

The owners, seeing his passion for work, first promoted him to restaurant manager, and then offered him a share in the business for developing their network of establishments and training staff.

I don’t remember this man’s name, but now he has become a dollar millionaire, without actually opening his own business, but by starting to develop someone else’s.

This is also a good way to start your own business, especially if you have a good career in a small or medium-sized commercial company.

Business idea No. 5. Building your business on the Internet

If you have good computer skills, know how to create Internet projects, or at least understand the principles of their functioning, then you should consider the Internet as a way to start your business from scratch.

There are two main ways to start an online business:

1. Freelancing. This is a business in which you provide paid services via the Internet. If you have professional skills, for example, you can draw beautiful designs, write texts professionally, or know programming languages, then you can easily make money on the World Wide Web. More precisely, it can rather be called working for yourself. Although successful freelancers earn between $500 and $10,000 per month.

You can start earning money this way on popular exchanges for freelancers “Freelance” (fl.ru) and “Workzilla” (workzilla.ru).

2. Classic business on the Internet. Building a full-fledged online business on your own is not so easy; it’s best to follow the beaten path.

To do this, just read my article on ways to make money online. There I talked about how you can make money on games, on social networks, on selling information from 50,000 rubles a month and gave examples of real people who are already doing this.

This concludes my review of business ideas. I hope that they will help you get started and start making your first money.

5. My own experience of starting a business from scratch in the service sector

As I wrote earlier, I opened my first business at the age of 19 - it was a vending business (terminals for accepting payments). Yes, this required funds. Then I had several more projects. All of them had nothing to do with the Internet.

And so, about 3 years ago, my current friend and business partner Vitaly and I opened our own website creation studio without a penny of money. We ourselves learned to make Internet projects literally on the fly, but in the end, after a few months, we earned about 500,000 rubles in our website creation studio.

Naturally, we often had to work with legal entities that transferred payment for services by bank transfer. To do this, you had to either open your own company or work through someone.

We chose the second method, having agreed with our current business partner Evgeniy Korobko. Zhenya is the founder and head of her own advertising agency. I interviewed him, you can read about him in the article about opening an advertising agency from scratch, the material was published on our website.

Our first clients were entrepreneurs we knew.

We approached our business responsibly and fulfilled orders with soul. Soon the “word of mouth” effect worked when our satisfied clients began to recommend us to their friends.

This allowed us to receive a continuous flow of customers, and sometimes we could not even cope with orders. This experience helped us to believe in ourselves, and today we have a complete picture in our heads of how to start a business from scratch and make it successful.

I would like to note that with the development of information technology in the world, your sales market today is the entire planet!

There are no more distances, any information is available and now starting a business is much easier than even just 10 years ago.

I hope that all the materials in this article will help you take the first step towards your dream - your own business, which over time will turn from a small home project into a huge company with a worldwide reputation.

Therefore, dear readers, I assure you that everything is in your hands, just act, because the city takes courage!

6. The real story of how my friend Misha worked as a security guard and became a businessman

Here is one of my favorite stories about a real entrepreneur who started a business from scratch. After all, I promised to give examples from life in the article.

Do you want to know how Mikhail became an entrepreneur from a laborer, opened his own company, bought a foreign car and an apartment?

A few years ago, my friend Mikhail worked everywhere he could: as a construction worker, loader, security guard.

In a word, he was not engaged in the most monetary and intellectual work. It all started with the fact that my friend was guarding a company selling construction materials. One day a client came to them who wanted to buy a large batch of building insulation, but it was not in stock.

Misha knew that literally 100 meters from the company he was guarding there was another hardware store that definitely had such insulation. Having taken a contact from a potential client, he went to this store in the evening and agreed that he would bring them a large client if they would give him a percentage of the purchase made from them. The management of this store agreed and Misha worked as a freelance sales manager, earning about 30,000 rubles for just one transaction (recommendation).

And this was an amount equal to his monthly salary!

Mikhail thought it was an interesting business, and the financial result of the deal gave him confidence. So he quit his job and began by agreeing with various companies that he would sell their goods. Since Misha already worked as a laborer and security guard in a construction company, he also chose construction goods for sale: windows, doors, fittings, roofing, and so on.

My friend simply walked around the construction sites of the city and offered his goods. Some people bought from him, some they didn’t. As a result, Mikhail created an assortment of the most popular products and understood how to properly negotiate with construction site foremen.

After 2 years, Mikhail opened his own company selling building materials and involved his brother in this business. Before this, his brother Kostya worked at Gorgaz and received the usual small salary. Now the guys are quite successful in sales and earn good money.

By the way, I have been to their office more than once and have known Misha for several years. He told me this story himself.

By starting a business from scratch, you avoid the risk of losing money, and this is the most important thing. Also, starting with no material resources teaches you to make better decisions to make money. After all, if you are able to make a profit without investing, then with money you can even become a successful entrepreneur.

See you in the next articles and good luck in your business!

Please rate the article and leave comments below, I will be grateful for it.

..."People with different higher education can achieve success in business,” says the rector of the Higher School of Economics, Yaroslav Kuzminov. “For example, a medical school graduate can go into medical business after receiving additional education at a business school. University graduates do not have a direct path to business only with a degree in management, but also with economists, financiers, lawyers, psychologists. They can work as functional specialists in business organizations, and they often make good managers."

Today in Russia there is no generally accepted definition of a business school. Most often, this is the name given to university departments or independent educational institutions that provide postgraduate education, in particular, MBA (Master of Business Administration) programs. However, in the last five to seven years, educational institutions that traditionally specialized in training students (students of postgraduate programs are usually called that way) have begun to train students in first higher education programs.

NOTE TO APPLICANTS
Seventeen-year-old applicants can be found at the Academy of National Economy, where previously only managers with work experience studied; Students are recruited by the Faculty of Finance and Banking, the Institute of Business and Business Administration and other departments. Back in 1995, the Moscow International Higher Business School "MIRBIS" began accepting students, and today they teach the most popular specializations: "electronic business and law" (specialty "marketing"), "international corporate finance" ("finance and credit" ), "international trade management and commercial law" ("organization management").
In addition to Russian higher education programs, MIRBIS has “double degree” programs: after receiving a bachelor’s degree, the student goes to one of the British partner universities - London Metropolitan University or Middlesex University. There he studies for a Master of Arts for a year, then returns to Russia, where he also receives a domestic specialist diploma. To do this, you need to pass several exams, undergo an internship and defend a thesis.
New this season is the recruitment of high school graduates to major in marketing and management at the Synergy Institute of Economics and Finance, which has also traditionally taught adults (both MIRBIS and Synergy work in a strategic partnership with the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics). “The first higher education in business schools is the basis for continuous business education,” says Synergy Rector Mikhail Ioffe. “Having received a diploma of higher education, students will continue their studies in the MBA program and will periodically return to their alma mater for short-term courses. After all, knowledge in the field of business needs constant updating."
However, the list of specialties approved by the Ministry of Education that Russian universities can teach does not include a business specialty. Elena Lobanova, dean of the Higher School of Financial Management of the Academy of National Economy (the school offers only postgraduate training), explains this by saying that business is a multifaceted concept that cannot be “squeezed” into the educational standard. And Edward Goizman, rector of the Institute of Business and Economics (a joint MBA program with the Americans), on the contrary, argues that business is the same complex discipline as, for example, cybernetics or applied mathematics, taught in universities. And teaching business - a discipline that emerged at the intersection of economics, management, finance, psychology and other sciences - can easily be introduced as a direction of higher education: in American universities, along with the MBA, there are BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) programs.
“People with different higher education can achieve success in business,” says the rector of the Higher School of Economics, Yaroslav Kuzminov. “For example, a medical school graduate can go into medical business after receiving additional education at a business school. University graduates have a direct path to business not only in their specialty "management", but also among economists, financiers, lawyers, psychologists. They can work as functional specialists in business organizations, and they often make good managers."

MASTER BUSINESSMAN
Of all the postgraduate programs for training businessmen, the most popular today is the MBA (it is designed for 1000 academic hours: one and a half years of full-time study, two in the evening and part-time). One of the reasons is the promotion of the brand. The head of the marketing department of the Graduate School of International Business (GSIM), Alexey Onchukov, names three features of the development of Russian MBA programs. Firstly, the contingent of students has finally formed: it is not the unemployed and clerks who enroll in the MBA, as in the early 90s, but middle managers and senior executives who consider education as a condition for career growth. Secondly, competition has appeared for MBA programs at leading business schools. Thirdly, the motivation of students has changed: they are not looking for a “crust” or a job assignment, but for knowledge, skills, and business connections.
Among GSMB students, 30% are general directors of companies, 33% are other top managers (commercial, financial, executive directors, chief accountants), 18% are heads of departments. The age of 35% of listeners is under 30 years old, 48% is from 30 to 40 years old, 17% is over 40 years old. GSMB is the largest Russian business school: this year about 600 people are studying here in the MBA program. Managers of many well-known companies, including Gazprom, LUKOIL, Motorola, Hewlett Packard, have diplomas from this school. Last fall, the competition at GSMB was two people per place.
MBA programs in Russia were created taking into account American and European experience. Some were developed with the participation of foreign business schools (even if not from the top ten, but with both national and international recognition). For example, the MBA of the Institute of Business and Economics, created jointly with the University of California at Hayward, is accredited by the American Association of Business Schools (AACSB), which does not recognize every program in the States themselves. In 1999 The MBA from the Institute of Business and Economics (training takes place in Moscow, half of the courses are taught by Russian teachers, half by American ones) took first place in the ranking of similar programs at Russian business schools. The study (unlike many others) was truly independent: it was conducted by the expert council of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.
Rector Edward Goizman describes a graduate of the Institute of Business and Economics as follows: “This is a highly educated person, very well oriented in modern living conditions and especially in the economic environment. A pragmatist, not a romantic, very sociable, fluent in English. The goal of his activity is not money, but self-expression (but the money must correspond to his success). He can work not only in Russia, but also in the West. He is an advanced computer user. He has access to all modern leisure activities (holidays abroad, a fitness club, restaurants). reads so much. He knows literature, music, and painting worse than my generation. However, I often meet my graduates in theaters.”
Many Russian business schools, creating original MBA programs, collaborate with foreign partners and give their students the opportunity to also receive a foreign diploma. At the Higher Commercial School under the Ministry of Economic Development, you can obtain an Executive MBA diploma from the French Institute IEMI, founded by Pierre Cardin. At the MIRBIS business school, in addition to the Russian one, they offer a British MBA diploma. “The British have very high demands on diploma projects and sometimes send them for revision two or three times,” says MIRBIS Vice-Rector Tatyana Ivanishcheva. “They are not interested in presenting theory. The student must prove that during his studies he learned to solve practical problems business." Edward Goizman also speaks of strict control on the part of American professors.
Some Russian MBA programs are accredited by prestigious foreign organizations. Thus, the MBA program of the Higher Commercial School was accredited by the European Council for Business Education, and the prestigious British association of business schools AMBA recognized the MBA program of the Synergy Institute of Economics and Finance. “To give us accreditation, British experts analyzed the curriculum and assessed the knowledge of students,” said Synergy Rector Mikhail Ioffe. “For us, this was a good incentive to bring the program closer to world standards.”
Most MBAs in Russian business schools are considered generalist, that is, they graduate generalist managers. However, within these programs there is often a large range of specializations (usually consisting of elective courses) - from “medical business management”
(“MIRBIS”) to “football industry management” (“Synergy”). The Institute for Management of the New Economy of the State University of Management (SUM) offers within the framework of the MBA specializations "corporate governance and corporate finance", "value measurement and management in the interests of the company." The Higher Commercial School plans to open a specialization in political science and management in the new academic year. Some business schools traditionally focus on specific areas of business - e.g. The Higher School of Financial Management trains top managers responsible for finance in the company through the MBA program.
The essential components of the MBA program are the science of economics and management, practical business experience and modern educational technologies. In this sense, the MBA program of the Institute for Management of the New Economy of the State University of Management is indicative. This institute is headed by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Lvov, the departments are headed by academicians who head the leading economic institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences (a total of 10 academicians and corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences). MBA students at SUM are taught by economists, professional teachers, and successful business practitioners.
There is, however, another important factor: the MBA is not just a study, but also a “get-together”: students learn from each other. It happens that classmates even organize a collective business. Thus, graduates of the Higher Commercial School opened a large fitness center. And graduates of the Institute of Business and Economics created a business consulting company, which they called Alumni (in Latin - graduates).

NOT MBA ONLY
Despite all its advantages, an MBA is far from the only form of postgraduate training for working in business. There are other types of programs: second higher education and master's degrees in economics and management, professional retraining (on average 500 academic hours), advanced training (at least 72 hours) and short-term trainings.
“The second higher education is designed for those who work in their specialty, without, as a rule, having the appropriate education. For example, a certified engineer works as an accountant, and he needs to get an education in the specialty “accounting, analysis and audit,” says the first vice-rector of the Moscow University International Institute of Econometrics, Informatics, Finance and Law Vladimir Lednev “For those who are not a manager, but want to study for an MBA just because it is fashionable, we advise getting a second higher education in economics, management or finance,” says the vice-rector of MIRBIS. " Tatyana Ivanishcheva.
As a rule, a second higher education can be obtained in 3-3.5 years (some courses are re-credited on the basis of the first diploma), and classes are usually held in the evenings and on Saturdays. The block-modular principle of studying disciplines is popular here: students simultaneously master not a dozen subjects, like students receiving their first education, but three or four. Tuesday - Marketing, Thursday - Management, Saturday - Banking and Human Resources. They pass the test and proceed to other disciplines.
Elena Lobanova tells how once at an orientation lecture in the specialty “finance and credit” she noticed atypical students - “pumped up”, with shaved heads and in black leather jackets (intellectuals with glasses are considered typical). “I told them: “If you want to buy a diploma, you have come to the wrong address; It’s better to look for a simpler and cheaper business school,” recalls Elena Nikolaevna. “And they frowned and said: “No, we are at the address: we want to study, because we bought the plant.”
Master's programs in economics and management (as a rule, the duration of study is two years) should not be confused with MBA programs. The master's program is designed to train not so much managers as analysts (students are offered more theoretical disciplines in the form of lectures). Master's programs that graduates of other universities can enroll in are, for example, at the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University and the Higher School of Economics. Less often, master's programs are opened in business schools - for example, a master's degree in financial management is available at the Graduate School of Financial Management. "Synergy" offers a distance program from the University of Durham (UK), upon completion of which Russian and British master's degrees in management are issued.
A good alternative to an MBA for those who want to save time and money, but still learn business, are professional retraining programs, usually designed for one year. For example, at the Higher School of International Business this year the program “Management: Trade and Services Sector” is opening, addressed to managers and leading specialists of trading companies (it “grew” from another GSMB program “Effective Trade Manager” - a three-month advanced training; many listeners said that three months was not enough for them). "MIRBIS" offers, in particular, a professional retraining program "System analysis and project management in business", designed for those who lack knowledge in the field of business analytics.
Finally, advanced training programs provide even more narrow specialization and usually last from a week to three to four months. The range here is huge: from comments on the latest instructions on paying taxes to training on effective communications. The Synergy Institute organizes seminars for managers of football clubs, including those that take place abroad (in Liverpool, training is conducted by British specialists in the field of football business). The Higher Commercial School offers many short-term programs, where classes are taught by teachers with extensive business experience. For example, the vice-rector of the Higher School of Management Sergei Skosarev, who headed the personnel service at VimpelCom (Bee-Line), runs a 10-day program “Human Resources Management”.
The Arsenal management school specializes in short-term programs. Her “specialty” is trainings lasting from one to four days on various aspects of doing business for company owners, top managers and middle managers. Arsenal is also famous for its two- and three-month courses for sales managers and real estate experts. You can apply for them even without work experience, but through competitive selection. The study is an ongoing training, the purpose of which is to develop sales skills. Those who successfully complete their studies are guaranteed employment. Students pass the final exam to a commission consisting of employers, and based on its results they receive invitations to work.

TRAINING FOR YOUR COMPANY
Corporate training - programs for employees of one enterprise - is not new in Russia for a long time. The most popular are corporate advanced training courses, professional retraining programs are less common, and corporate MBA programs are very rare (they are offered by the Higher School of Financial Management of the Academy of National Economy, the Higher Commercial School, MIRBIS, the Institute of Economics and Finance "Synergy").
Business schools train personnel not only of individual enterprises, but also of large corporations, both private and public. For example, the Higher Commercial School has been declared the basic educational institution of RAO Bumprom (an enterprise in the forestry, pulp and paper and woodworking industries). The Academy of National Economy and the Higher School of Economics train, in particular, employees of regional branches of the Central Bank. At the Academy of National Economy, the Faculty of Finance and Banking works with them, training is conducted under the professional retraining program “Curator of a commercial bank - bank manager”. “The essence of this program is the training of bank managers of a new generation who have special knowledge and management skills in a commercial bank in accordance with international standards,” says the dean of the faculty Seda Nasibyan.
The main emphasis in training is on students acquiring practical skills in bank management. For this purpose, the Bank Exec International training program, developed by the American Banking Association and used to train banking and financial managers in 15 countries around the world, is used. Trainings under this program are conducted by specialists led by Vice-Rector of the Academy of Economy Andrei Volkov, who have undergone special training in foreign business schools.
The last chord is the presentation of final works at a meeting of the state certification commission, headed by First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia Andrei Kozlov. The program is highly appreciated by both the leaders of the Academy of National Economy (see interview with Professor Vladimir May) and the heads of the Central Bank. In the future, the Faculty of Finance and Banking plans to train employees of commercial banks in it.

Igor DERGUNOV, Managing Director of MENATEP SPb Bank, graduate of the MBA program at the Institute of Business and Economics and Hayward University of California:
- In the 80s, I graduated from the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy and in the post-Soviet period I mastered the basics of business on my own. In the early 90s, it was possible to do without an MBA diploma: graduates of business schools, trained according to Western standards, did not fit in well in Russian companies. But gradually there were more and more such specialists; today they are carriers of a new corporate culture. I thought about going to study at Harvard or Wharton, but, firstly, to do this you need to be younger, and secondly, it would be a shame to leave Russia for two years - business here is developing too dynamically. And in 1999, I entered the Institute of Business and Economics, which offers a Russian-American MBA program. I found the institute through the recommendations of friends who studied there. It was necessary to pass entrance exams in mathematics, English and an interview. The selection was quite strict: to enter here it is not enough to pay money. I had to learn English. It is very difficult to combine evening studies with work. I then worked as an adviser to the chairman of the board of the investment bank "Russian Investors"; I had to go to classes every evening at half past five. Both at work and at the institute, it was necessary to sacrifice something, because it is simply impossible to be on time everywhere. I used to do homework at night. Education for me is, first of all, an investment in my own future. After all, MBA today is a universally recognized brand, and when studying at a business school, it is very important to communicate with managers from different areas of business. All these people went to study to change their lives. An MBA gives a person a certain “drive”, an incentive to develop. A few months before graduation, I was offered to go to work at the MENATEP SPb bank, and I agreed. If it weren’t for the “drive” I received in the MBA program, I would not have started working on a new and, as it turned out, very promising project.

* * *
Naina ARUTYUNOVA, student of the MBA program at the Institute for Management of the New Economy of the State University of Management:
- My first education was technical - in 1987 I graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute with a degree in aircraft instrument systems. She worked in tourism and recruiting. In the late 90s, I became deputy general director, and then general director of the KASCAD-VIA Company, which produces plastic windows. In October last year, I began studying for an MBA program at the State University of Management. I chose this program because I was attracted by its “Russian specificity”. I learned that the students there are mainly managers working in domestic companies, and that during the classes they examine many situations from the practice of Russian companies. My choice was also influenced by the fact that at the presentation of the program the teachers did not try to lure us to the university by any means - in particular, they did not promise to solve all our problems.
Among the academic subjects, I am especially interested in marketing, information technology in business, and strategic management. As it turned out, the mistakes I made while running the company were quite typical. For example, from a strategic management course, I learned that you should not make changes in a company without having a strategy for its development. And information technology classes helped me create a corporate information system at the company. Teachers are very attentive to students, willingly advise on business problems and respond to all requests for organizing the educational process. I notice that many employees of companies that produce plastic windows go to study at business schools. This is probably typical for other areas of business - managers of book publishing houses, a fitness club, and a company that sells confectionery products study in my group. For some, a state MBA diploma is especially important, for others, advice from teachers. Sharing experiences is also important to me. I get a lot of business information by communicating with classmates: I find out how their business works, what problems they face.