How I earned up to 600 thousand rubles per season from harvesting and selling brooms. The real story of a resident of the city of Cheboksary

Relevance of the business idea

The Russian bathhouse is a legend. We still like to take a steam bath; a bathhouse is a mandatory attribute of dachas, modern recreation centers, cottages and private country houses. There are steam rooms and public baths in cities. And since a broom is a product with a limited shelf life and every time a client visits a bathhouse the client needs a new one, the demand for these products is high.

Features of broom production

If an entrepreneur has never made brooms, then his first question will be - where to start his business, what nuances to pay attention to? It is better to open a business in the summer, because it is at this time that the trees turn green. Warm weather is the right time to harvest leaves and twigs for future brooms. Preparations have been made since the beginning of June.

It is important not only to collect fresh and green leaves, but also to prevent them from starting to dry out. If you want to collect as much “harvest” as possible, then you should involve hired employees in the work.

It is important to properly prepare the drying room. It should be spacious, with special temperature and humidity conditions, and have good ventilation. Compliance with storage conditions is the key to whether production will be profitable or not.

The uniformity of drying will also be important. To achieve the desired effect, you can go one of the following ways:

1. hang brooms on ropes;
2. spread on the floor, turning over at certain intervals (then the broom will additionally take the shape of a fan).

After drying, the brooms are put into bags and placed in a room with hay. It is important that it is dark and cool.

Costs and profits

The minimum investment in organizing a business is from 0 to 4,000 rubles to start it yourself from scratch. The profit from selling 10 brooms per day will be 30,000 rubles per month, for which the project will recoup any investment.

Start-up costs: approximate calculation for Nizhny Novgorod

Monthly costs

Which OKVED code must be specified for the manufacture of brooms

Regardless of what organizational and legal form the businessman has chosen (opening a legal entity, individual entrepreneur), the documents submitted for registration must reflect the code according to which the activity will be carried out. To set up production for the production of brooms, you will need to look at section C, which includes any activity that directly relates to manufacturing. Here, for the named business area, code 32.91 is suitable, including the production of brushes and brooms. This also includes brooms.

Permits and documents

Business registration

If you are determined to conquer the market for bath brooms, you have start-up capital and want to develop this business through official sales channels, then immediately register an individual entrepreneur. It will take only three working days, you do not need to invest authorized capital, and the package of documents is small - we have presented it below.

Choose a simplified taxation system, and indicate the OKVED code 02.30.2 - Collection and procurement of non-timber forest resources.

List of documents for registration of individual entrepreneur

• Application for state registration of an individual as an individual entrepreneur (form No. P21001)
• Copy of Russian passport
• Receipt for payment of state duty

Growing sorghum

To grow raw materials you need sorghum broom. Culture seeds can be bought at a specialty store or borrowed from neighbors. In the southern part of our country, sorghum has time to ripen; the seeds of the crop can be collected independently.

Harvesting and planting seeds

Ripened sorghum grains are black in color; they are not needed for the production of brooms, so the seeds are collected during the procurement of raw materials. Many summer residents simply squeeze the stem and tear off the sorghum with their hands. In this case, it is necessary to use gloves to protect the skin on your hands. Craftsmen have come up with a simpler way of preparing seed material. They take a metal bucket, clamp the seed part between the handle and pull out the stem - the grains end up in the bucket.

Sorghum is planted in previously prepared, weed-free soil. It is best to carry out operations after the threat of frost has passed, when the ground warms up to +15 °C. Sorghum is sown to a depth of 2 to 4 cm in rows, with a row spacing of 35–40 cm. There is also a continuous scatter sowing method. The area is leveled with a metal rake, which will allow the grains to be deepened into the soil.

Important! After the emergence of seedlings, the crops need to be thinned out so that there is a distance of 7–12 cm between neighboring plants. This will prevent lodging of the crops.

Harvesting

Harvesting begins at the stage of waxy maturity of the grain. The stems are cut by hand, only the tops within 80–100 cm. After this, the grain is collected in a bucket, sorted and the stems are tied into bunches. It is necessary to properly store the raw materials; they are hung under a canopy or in a well-ventilated area.

Agrotechnicians recommend drying the grain, part of it will be used for subsequent sowing or for sale, the rest is used as an additive for poultry. Unnecessary stems that remain in the field are collected in late autumn, when the summer resident has more free time. The raw materials are crushed in a special crusher and used as mulch for various garden crops.

Equipment

The list of equipment needed to prepare brooms is ridiculously small:

Although we have indicated prices for equipment, it is likely that you have most of the list on your farm. And a small life hack - instead of twine, you can use clamps, which eliminate the need to tie strong knots on brooms.

CONTENT

1. Brooms as an integral part of the bathing process

2. Business plan for bath brooms

The bathhouse in Russia has enjoyed deserved popularity since time immemorial. At the same time, the vaping process itself has not changed at all, despite all the achievements in the field of high and other technologies. The seemingly archaic process, however, continues to improve health and bring pleasure to millions of steam lovers. And this is already mass demand and, therefore, a field for business.

Brooms as an integral part of the bathing process

The presence of a broom in the steam room, or better yet two or even three, is a well-established gradation of the “steepness” of the process, in which the broom is given a central place. Birch, oak and juniper, individually and in combination - they are all welcome participants in bathing procedures. A well-prepared aromatic broom will create a fragrant atmosphere, massage a heated body, and allow you to breathe in the living scent of a forest tree.

They take care of brooms, prepare them for themselves and store them for a long time, bring them to the bathhouse in expensive cases and sports bags, boast about their virtues and emphasize their specific features. Without exaggeration, a broom is a “cult” accessory and an object of desire for almost every bathhouse regular.

Business plan for bath brooms

If there is a stable demand for brooms and not particularly susceptible to seasonal influences, then you can build a good business on this demand. To do this, it is necessary to have a closed, dry and spacious building in which ready-made brooms can be dried, knitted and stored, as well as a small utility room for packing finished brooms into plastic bags and gluing labels.

Preparation of branches for brooms can be carried out for only two months in the summer, just during the holidays. Senior schoolchildren, students, and summer residents can be involved in the procurement, and no additional training will be required for such workers. As the harvest progresses, the branches are sorted, tied into brooms and hung out to dry. After drying, they must be placed under a press, and then packaged and sent to the warehouse. The more brooms you can prepare, the more income you can expect until the next season.

There are many stationary points for selling ready-made brooms - these are the bathhouses themselves, markets, and specialized stores. It is unlikely that any of them will refuse a popular product. You can also try selling via the Internet. You can come up with some kind of joke in the form of specially designed brooms associated with a significant event in life or for certain categories of people. For example: a broom for newlyweds, for a young father, for a graduate, for a brutal macho, for a blonde, for best girlfriends, etc.

This is how, without worrying too much, you can engage in this business, for which you can receive not only material rewards, but also the gratitude of people.

How to prepare brooms

“In a bathhouse, a broom is more valuable than money,” so it is important to create truly high-quality products so that any consumer is satisfied. Collecting and preparing brooms is a real art and requires knowledge of the intricacies.

For example, birch brooms should be collected only in mid-July and on a dry day in the morning until noon, when the dew has disappeared. But oak ones can be knitted almost any time. The most popular among bathhouse lovers are, of course, birch ones.

Common broom - production and collection of sorghum

Now in more detail about manufacturing. As we said earlier, the main raw material for their production is sorghum. This grain crop is planted in the spring, after sifting the seeds before doing so. The latter are pre-soaked in water for 30-35 minutes (this is necessary in order to remove low-quality seeds that have floated to the top). The sorghum itself is planted in mid-May, in a continuous row. The distance between the rows should be about 25-30 centimeters. The depth of sifting of grain crops is 5 centimeters.

The first weeding is done around the beginning of June. Here you should thin out the rows so that the distance between plants is about 10 centimeters. The next weeding and loosening of the soil is done after 10-14 days. Sorghum ripens in August, and in September you can begin general harvesting.

Staff

If you do not know the details of the process of preparing brooms very well, you can learn this from videos on YouTube. But you can go another way: hire villagers for a piece rate.

Surely among them there will be those who know how to perfectly knit brooms, know the nuances of picking and need some extra work. If you have a solid start-up capital, you can even hire several employees and put the business into high flow.

The average salary per month of knitting brooms will be 12-15 thousand rubles. But it is better to agree on work per hour or even per unit of production. For example, for each broom you can assign a reward of 30-50 rubles, and you will sell it for 150-200.

The more brooms you make, the more you will earn - the main thing is to find reliable and constant sales channels.

Expenses

Now let's look at the production of brooms from a financial point of view. Land rent is the main expense item. In order to harvest a normal sorghum crop, you need about 20 hectares. If this is a lease from the state, then on average it will cost about 3 thousand rubles (for 1 year).

It is worth noting that renting plots from private companies will be much more expensive. Taking land from the state is much more profitable. Next comes the purchase of grain. One kilogram of sorghum costs approximately 35 rubles. For the entire rented area, you will have to harvest at least 1.5 quintals of sorghum. In terms of finances, it will cost 5-5.5 thousand rubles.

Renting agricultural equipment for weeding, sowing and harvesting will cost 20 thousand rubles (for 1 year). Well, storage space plays an important role. This is perhaps the most expensive “pleasure” for such a business. Its monthly rent will be 30 thousand rubles (if we take an area of ​​500 square meters). It will cost 360 thousand rubles per year. To purchase threads for the first batch of brooms (5 thousand units) you will have to shell out another 10 thousand rubles.

As for the manufacturing itself, purchasing machines instead of regular labor will seem expensive at first glance. But on the other hand, you will have to pay up to 100 thousand rubles for labor costs, that is, the machine will pay for its cost in about 3-6 months of the first work (if we take into account its 10-fold productivity). With manual work, you will never achieve such volumes of production, and therefore profits. The very last point is transportation costs, which will cost you 150-200 thousand rubles.

How to advertise a business

Even before knitting the first broom, take care of where you will sell your products. The ideal option is bathhouses that can purchase them in bulk immediately. Go through the list of bathhouses in your city, visit each one personally and offer your products.

Then you can try to get into shops and markets. If things work out, open your own retail outlet, and then an online store with an accompanying advertising campaign. Perhaps you will be so fascinated by the business that you will add other bath accessories to the assortment.

Double knitting

With it, two strapping belts are made; it is the most traditional and universal. It provides very high strength to the broom and allows you to make a handle that is rigid and easy to grip. A special feature of double knitting is the use of the so-called cross broom knitting method and the use of different knots for the upper and lower belt.

With the cross method, the bottom strap is performed first.

There are two ways to do it:

In the first option, the branches collected in a bundle are tied closer to the end with a strong cord, thread or twine, but so that the tie is not too tight. After this, the beam is divided in half and these halves are rotated relative to each other by 360 degrees.

In this way, the strapping self-tightens, and it will securely hold the branches. The operation requires some physical effort. It is important that the first tie is not too tight, otherwise you will either not be able to twist the halves of the bundle, or you will break the branches.

The second method is that the branches collected in a bundle are immediately divided in half, and these two parts are crossed over each other at an angle of 90 degrees, after which a harness is applied and then the halves are twisted until they are connected into a single bundle.

The top binding is made with a simple tightening knot, as in the case of the simple single knitting described at the very beginning. It is also necessary for additional subsequent tightening when the broom dries out. In some cases, for the top dressing, a special wedging technique is used, in which, after several turns, the ends of the twine are passed through the bundle and the turns are applied again. Wedging dressing significantly increases the strength of the broom, but does not provide the possibility of additional tightening. The cross method is very good for knitting reusable brooms (for example, oak or birch). It is impossible to break such a broom even with the most intense steaming.

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However, double knitting of a broom can be done in a simple way (as in the case of single knitting, see above). In this case, both strapping belts are made with a regular tightening knot, and the sequence of applying the belts is not of fundamental importance.

Pros and cons of a business idea

✅ The project has a lot of advantages:

• Business without investment
• Versatility - suitable for men, women, pensioners and students
• Available raw materials
• Fast payback

❌ Disadvantages are difficult to find, but they still exist:

• High competition and, as a result, lack of sales channels
• Obvious seasonality with low product procurement turnover
• Special conditions for long-term storage: maintaining humidity balance

Making brooms for a bathhouse is a simple and profitable business. It can be considered as a source of one-time income for the summer, an addition to the main activity, or as a serious matter. The main thing is to actively approach the implementation of the idea and make high-quality products, gradually expanding the range.

Single knitting

The method when only one strapping belt is performed is a simple method. With its help you can very easily and quickly make a bath broom. This knitting is used for small brooms and especially for those used fresh.

These can be herbal brooms, massage brooms, pine brooms and short brooms for use in pairs (hovering with two hands). Products with single strapping are usually designed for one-time use. However, this circumstance does not reduce the requirements for node reliability. Here, as in other methods of knitting, a tightening knot is used, which, on the one hand, provides sufficient strength to the bundle, but on the other hand, makes it easy to tighten it further and make it tighter in the case when the branches, as they dry out, somewhat lose volume and density the handle weakens. The latter is required in the case of harvesting for future use and storage for several months.

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Do you need to formalize your activities?

Whether or not to register as an individual entrepreneur for the procurement of brooms, which lasts a maximum of two weeks, is up to you to decide. Private baths and saunas willingly take brooms without documents at a slightly lower price than from other suppliers.

If you are going to sell brooms at retail yourself, then official registration is required. How to register as an individual entrepreneur can be found in this source - https://business-poisk.com/kak-otkryt-ip-samostoyatelno-poshagovaya-instrukciya-po-registracii-ip.html. How to choose tax systems for your business, read here -.

What other taxes does an individual entrepreneur pay, read this link.