Business of Young Entrepreneurs in Russia. Age - This is a Competitive Advantage

At a turning point, when the minuses of hiring outweigh all real and probable advantages, each person will have a choice - either to find a new job, or to change the field of activity, or to open a business. The latter option is certainly tempting, because it attracts the picture that everyone sees as its result - "success, prosperity, development." But far from all are resolved on this cardinal step - the opening of their own business, someone lacks the courage, someone has knowledge about where to start, how and what to do.

In this article, it will be discussed, just about what opportunities young businessmen have and how they can be realized in our country.

My interlocutor is a young Russian entrepreneur who at 23 years opened his own business and at the moment, the owner of a 3-year-old company working in the field of hotel business.

The prospect of "working for yourself" does not all lead to the discovery of one's own business. Stanislav, tell us about where your business started? What were the prerequisites for its beginning?

I started working at the age of 16, my work experience is already 11 years. At the age of 20-22 years I had thoughts about my business, but the desire to open a business and the decision to put everything on the map - things are different. At the age of 16, I had the opportunity to assess the pros and cons of my own business by the example of a business of relatives. But only a fully realized desire, with an understanding of what is your own business, led to the discovery of your own. Until then, I was satisfied with the role of an employee, I saw my career in that capacity. I worked as a business coach, and for a long time in the field of advertising in large companies. And only when in the crisis of 2008 , I was reduced by half my salary, I realized that I was no longer ready to work for such kopecks on others. I decided that I will earn at least the same amount with my own business, and I will not carry out any more incorrect, in my opinion, instructions of the leadership.

And what other moments, besides reducing the salary, did not suit you as a hired employee? How do you avoid repeating them in your business?

Now gradually a change of generations begins in business, young entrepreneurs appear on the market. And all of us, who once worked for hire, who were crammed with situations when they do not pay or delay wages, or do not let them go on holiday and do not give vacation or inadequate behavior of management at work, we take this into account when we open our business, we know on our own Experience, how the leader should not behave. And in order not to allow this in your own business, you must always take into account the basic things, take a closer look at the little things. Yes, there were precedents when the staff was still small, I understood that tomorrow is the day of salary, but because of force majeure, there will not be any money for it by this time. Then it was necessary to go and collect money at night, take loans or borrow, and pay wages in the morning, because my reputation and reputation of my firm is important to me. But this is rather an isolated case, and as a result, nobody has ever detained a paycheck. It is better for me to pay it off on time than to start practice "I'll keep it all for a day."  

The fact that supporting small businesses in Russia is a myth is often written and said. So you can count only on your strength. How was it in your case?

In Europe, a business plan can take credit, serious money, which already and realize your idea. In Russia, either one must have the original capital, or start without it, since no one will give a loan. Support for small businesses is populism. You can get a consumer loan, a small amount at a huge interest, 50-60%. And now the lack of starting capital must be compensated with great enthusiasm and a lot of time spent on work, because in the first few years it will be in the foreground in life, and all thoughts will be occupied only by it. My business started: minimum of money and a great desire to achieve results.

How did you choose the field of business for your business?

There are two ways. The first, when you came to a decision to start a business and sat down to think "and what to open", is not the best option. The idea should mature, go through certain stages of understanding what and why you need to do. And you can understand this only by working in a particular field. In my case, relatives worked in the hotel business, hence the idea, there was a niche and the demand for business. And these introductory data, their knowledge was enough to understand what to do. The initial understanding of the internal cuisine of the area in which you will conduct business is an important advantage. It's much better than having a lot of money and not knowing where to put them.

Companies with an innovative idea or product, the only ones on their market, are very rare. In other cases, competition can be a serious problem for newcomers to the market. How can a new business attract customers?

I agree that a lot has been proposed for a long time in the market, know-how is not enough. But the point is that business in the old field can be done better than competitors do. What business area in our country you can not take, in practice, much is done very badly. Business is done by people who grew up in Soviets, in another country, with a different mentality. These are leaders who do not attach importance to advertising or marketing, and simply do not consider such basic things as reliability, responsibility, loyalty, and flexibility important. They do everything according to the already well-laid scheme, and their business can be improved and developed considerably if one starts to follow the current trends. Therefore, now a small firm can break through at the expense of its management, due to its attitude to customers and to trifles. Wholesale trade is based, above all, on human relationships. Managers in my company sell, in fact, their good attitude to people they work with, they know the problems of clients, they help to solve them. And then business laws start to operate: the competitive price, the qualitative goods, the big assortment is necessary, it is necessary to react quickly and accurately to wishes of clients, to be mobile. If there is an earned reputation and a stake on stability and reliability is placed, in the end, not immediately, but gradually, it will start working for you.

What is special about the business area in which you work?

The hotel business, like some others, is specific. First of all, it is specific to those people who work in companies supplying hotels. There are areas of business that are not of interest to young people. Young people do not go to technical specialties, engineers, technologists, this is unrewarding and low paid. Deliveries to hotels are related to textiles, equipment and technologies. And accordingly this area does not have the influx of fresh young frames. People of a certain age work here. They work, as they have been accustomed to since the 1990s, with minor amendments to the past decades, and they treat their clients incorrectly. They used to work on kickbacks, they used to do 100-200% of the mark-up to motivate one particular person, the buyer. At the same time, business owners lose money, lose stability, because the buyer, working on a rollback, ceases to choose the best for his hotel. Our company has a clear and transparent price system, they are all posted on the site, they are available in real time. We care about the customer so much. Yes, we have a small trading margin, but this, among other things, is our keystone for success, as we take not by one-time deals, but by consistency and stability. In the price sense, the customer without a difference to buy from us or from the factory, because we work at the expense of dealer discounts, and therefore our prices are competitive, but we offer a set of products, complex equipment, which is very important for hotels. As for competition, I think competition is good, it pushes us to achieve more. The more young people will be in business, the greater will be competition, lower prices and higher product quality.