How to start a business from scratch: practical advice from those who were able to

Determine if you will pull

Thanks to infomercials who sell courses for entrepreneurs, the illusion has been born that anyone can open their own business.
This is not entirely true. And the problem is not only in personal qualities, but also in the appropriate time, place and availability of resources. Your own business, especially at the very beginning, will drain a huge amount of effort, time and money from you. Profit will have to wait, there will be no quick results. This means that you must be prepared to work hard and receive practically nothing in return for some time.

If you want to start your own business just to get away from a boring office or to quickly pay off debts, you will be disappointed. If you are the only breadwinner in the family and you don't have a safety net for a long time, it can end sadly.

Stories where a future entrepreneur put everything on the line and became a billionaire are, of course, inspiring. But this is where a typical survivor mistake comes into play. Films are made and books are written about isolated cases of success. They are silent about thousands of failures. Therefore, you need to sensibly assess your capabilities and the consequences of a possible failure, as well as improve your basic entrepreneurial skills.

Many people go into business with the thought “we’ll figure it out on the spot.” There is no need to do this. It is necessary to understand the financial and legal aspects so as not to make mistakes in simple things and not slow down the process because of this. At the same time, you shouldn’t spend a lot of time and try to become an expert in everything, attend 100 seminars - most likely, this will not be useful. Knowledge must be acquired at the moment when it is needed.

Sergey Kofeinikov, CEO AirNanny

How to start a business - 9 main steps

Having your own business is not easy; at first it will take a lot of time, forcing you to think about implementing your own ideas for days on end. So before you think about how to start a business, take a look at the following steps.

Stage 1. Determining your value

A person is most successful in the area that matches his desires and interests. Therefore, you should choose exactly the direction in which you are most comfortable. A great idea comes from the intersection of people's needs and your interests. To understand how to start your own business from scratch, answer a series of questions honestly. What are you willing to spend your time on? What is of most interest?

At first glance, it seems that it is not difficult to determine your vocation - this is what you do with great pleasure. For example, you like to build, write texts, do home improvement, or draw. How to come up with a business idea from scratch? Set yourself a clear goal to come up with an idea and remember it every time. Your imagination and expanded horizons will help. An idea may come to mind spontaneously.

Stage 2. Market analysis and choice of niche for the future project

To figure out where to start your business, you should carefully analyze the market and decide on a niche. The advantage of choosing your niche is that if a person is passionate about something, he tries to learn as much as possible about it. For example, if you like to take care of animals, then it’s easier to start a business from scratch selling kittens. You know how to feed them, bathe them, care products, etc.

If you have not chosen a niche, or have set yourself the task of reaching a different level of life in terms of finances, choose the direction in which a lot of money rotates. This could be construction services, trade or the sale of real estate. Competition, of course, will not allow you to earn a lot at once.

However, clear customer habits and a scheme developed over the years will make it possible to get started without inventing something new. Once you start making a profit, you can hire a director and not take an obvious part in the business. And your free time will be spent on completely different tasks, for example, starting a new business.

Stage 3. Drawing up an action plan

Where to start your business? After choosing a business idea, you need to figure out everything in numbers, decide on expenses and income, and with detail down to the penny.

So, for example, in trade the main parts of expenses will be:

• premises rental
• purchase of products
• taxes
• employees' salaries.

All these figures should be reflected in the business plan. Moreover, take numbers not from your head, but use those that are on the market today. Therefore, carefully study the offers of product suppliers.

Anyone you find on the Internet, check prices by phone. Prices must be real. A properly drawn up plan will help you realize your idea and answer the question: how to open your own business from scratch.

Think over a business idea

The success of the business will depend on its demand among clients. So it’s not necessary to offer them something new and brilliant, it’s enough to give them what they need. And for this you need to research the market and target audience.

Ideally, you should create a product or service together with future clients and employees. You can assemble a chat of focus group representatives who want to work on the product. Ask questions, look for feedback, test different options.

As a result, you must clearly understand what consumer problem you are solving, what your unique selling proposition is, who your competitors are and how you differentiate yourself from them. Save the idea that you can “just try to be the best at everything” for an interview in a business magazine. Now your idea needs to be grounded and rooted as much as possible, only then will it grow. In addition, during testing you will find growth points that you cannot do without if you want to succeed.

One hundred percent way to survive in the market is to constantly change, and first of all in the product. For example, if you buy and sell bananas in bulk, you will one day be able to offer a very rich assortment: banana flour, banana cake, banana chips, banana candies, banana face masks. Your product will change as your customer and market evolve.

Alena Krishevich, founder and managing partner of a business scaling company, investor, business analyst

Reasons why you should start your own business

Most talented individuals who know how to manage staff and come up with creative ideas suffer from their own lack of initiative, which leads to the fact that they are afraid to start something new all their lives, having stopped working for someone.

If a novice entrepreneur strives for success, is constantly looking for new opportunities, new ideas are simply flowing out of him, and he does not want to just sit with folded hands, then he has all the qualities that contribute to creating a business.

Reasons why you should start your own business:

1. Income is one of the main reasons why many people want to start their own business. Salary will no longer depend on your bosses, but only on your own labor, which will bear fruit in monetary terms. Income, to a large extent, depends not only on the personal qualities of the owner, but also on the efforts that were put into the business.
2. There is an opportunity to constantly grow and develop - business opens up a path for an entrepreneur that can only be passed through perseverance, constant self-improvement and hard work. If a manager is constantly engaged in development, then he will lead the business, which will have a beneficial effect on profits and expansion prospects.
3. Doing something that brings you pleasure - you can create your own business from a hobby, a favorite pastime. Business can allow you to develop a long-forgotten dream that had no place in an office job. You can gather a team of like-minded people with whom things will go uphill.
4. Time appears for yourself and your family - starting your own business from scratch takes a lot of time only at the stage of planning and implementation, after which the owner creates his own schedule, there is no need to sit in the office every day from 8 to 8, see his family only in the evenings and completely forget about satisfying his own needs.
5. Lack of management - no one will monitor how you work anymore. You will need to perform duties only for yourself, which brings incredible pleasure. Even if an entrepreneur has never aspired to become a leader, it is still pleasant to feel like a leader.
6. No restrictions - in appearance, place of work, lunch time and other little things. Opening your own business is an ideal option for those who value freedom.
7. Thanks to a successful business, you can fulfill long-standing dreams - someone wants a new apartment or a country house, finally buy a car or go on a trip. With your own business that generates income, all your dreams can come true.
8. You can significantly improve your standard of living - a fixed salary does not allow you to improve your living conditions, make expensive purchases and generally raise your standard of living. Of course, the business will not immediately generate a lot of income, but over time it will only grow.

Many beginning entrepreneurs, when faced with the first difficulties, immediately give up, thinking that the problems cannot be solved. But in reality, they simply lack the perseverance and clearly defined goal towards which experienced businessmen are moving. To achieve success, you need to learn something new every day, constantly make useful contacts, set daily goals and fulfill them.

Take a responsible approach to finding partners

If you start a business with partners, it is important that they are like-minded people. A common goal minimizes disagreements and helps make the right decisions along the way. It is important to remember that partners are equal in experience, knowledge, achievements and ambitions.

Due to the fact that I made an incorrect agreement with my first partners “onshore”, after our separation, my company suffered losses of 3.5 million rubles. Clients, specialists and third-party contractors left behind them. Then I realized that when choosing partners, it is important to determine in advance the functions of each, the conditions for entry and exit, and secure them in an agreement. It took me a year to recover from our breakup and rebuild the company.

Alena Krishevich, founder and managing partner of a business scaling company, investor, business analyst

What should a businessman have to start a business from scratch?

An aspiring entrepreneur who is thinking about how to open his own business must have a minimum set of personal qualities that will help him achieve success.

These qualities include:

• Determination.
• The ability to take risks at the right time.
• Hard work.
• Responsibility.
• Stress resistance.
• Negotiation skills - making concessions and compromises when the situation requires it.
• Persistence.

It is important to realize one thing - absolutely anyone can open their own business, with or without start-up capital and experience. After all, the main thing is to understand the ultimate goal and, despite all the obstacles, persistently move towards it.

There are many examples of how people who were uneducated by the standards of a school or university started a business that became famous and began to generate good income. History also knows many cases when seemingly talented, intelligent people were unable to realize themselves in such an area.

Be prepared to spend money on promotion

At the start you will have to invest heavily. Even if your production costs are minimal and your product is brilliant, no one will know about it without advertising. And it will cost a lot of money.

And here you may be faced with a difficult choice: on the one hand, you don’t want to take out loans for a business that is not yet operating. After all, there are no guarantees that it can be repaid at the expense of profits. On the other hand, if you save on advertising, then all other investments will be in vain.

If I could go back in time, I would have started promoting the product during the development stage. We closed one of the first projects simply because we hoped for word of mouth, approached the marketing component carelessly, and did not bother with PR at all.

Alexander Bochkin, General Director of IT

Become a freelancer

There is always a demand for talented writers, designers and developers. By working as a freelancer, you can use your skills and help people from all over the world with their projects (while making money, of course). It is not necessary to take on large-scale and long-term projects that will eat up all your free time. Choose shorter and simpler tasks that fit into your schedule.

The most popular freelance exchanges in Russia are fl.ru, freelance.ru and weblancer.net. If you are fluent in English, try Upwork or Fiverr.

It's worth noting that Fiverr is a little different from traditional exchanges. All prices for work there are multiples of 5 dollars. To earn more, customize your offers so that you can easily sell additional services to your customers.

For example, as a basic service for $5, you could offer to write the introduction for a 150-word blog post and charge $10 for every additional 150 words. See how others are doing it and adjust the prices of your services so that the final price is worth your time. You can also read this article about working with Fiverr.

If you have chosen freelancing as your main source of income, read our tips for working from home.

What is the advantage of doing this?

• Freelancing allows you to choose projects you like and work on a schedule that suits you and in a place that suits you.
• It's nice to do what you're good at and get paid for it
• If you're new, freelancing is a great way to gain experience in a variety of fields and expand your portfolio.
• You may discover talents in yourself that you didn't even know you had.

Be selective in your hiring

You will need an accountant and a lawyer. It is not necessary to include them on staff, especially if you have a tiny company. But you need to have people on hand who will do their job in the best possible way for your money. If an accountant makes sure that you report to the tax office on time, and a lawyer reads the contract template, this will save you from a lot of problems and expenses in the future.

When I opened my first company, accounting became a headache for me. Either the documents were not drawn up correctly, or the reporting was not submitted on time. Receiving threatening letters from the tax office, I was shaking, and when the current account was blocked, I thought it was the end. I would advise beginning entrepreneurs to spend their first profits on quality accounting support. This will save time, save money, and later help you earn money.

Natalya Storozheva, General Director of the Perspective Business and Career Development Center

It is equally important to find excellent specialists for other jobs. At the start, you have no room for risky maneuvers, so you must understand who is doing what. Delegating does not mean simply pushing all the work onto others. You need to clearly control the process.

If I could go back in time, I would not hire specialists without first understanding their field of activity at least at an initial level. I and many of my colleagues faced this problem. The system of reviews, recommendations, and excellent portfolios does not always work; the risk of bumping into an incompetent person is very high. And the consequences for your business will be terrifying: if you’re lucky, you’ll only lose money, and if not, you’ll also lose your reputation.

Alexander Kuklev, founder of BENKONI

What prevents you from starting your own business from scratch and generating ideas?

The ultimate success in starting a business depends on how much the entrepreneur’s head works on the development of a promising idea. If a manager does nothing, but just sits and waits for something to change, then he will never be able to launch his own project.

Lack of self-confidence is also a key factor. To fix this, you can try yourself in opening a small business, without large start-up capital - this approach will help you learn the basics of entrepreneurship and give you self-confidence.

The following factors usually hinder the generation of new ideas:

1. Doubts that the idea might be of interest to someone - a simple survey of friends and acquaintances, or a survey on social networks, where people can speak about your proposal, will help with this.
2. Fears - failing what you started, losing money, fear that the entrepreneur will be ridiculed. It is necessary to fight all insecurities, because otherwise your whole life will fly by, and you will never try something new.
3. Envy - of course, it is important to observe other experienced businessmen, but you should not be overwhelmed by feelings of envy. In most cases, these powerful people started from the bottom, building their empire through knowledge and willpower.
4. Inability to use time and money - if an entrepreneur has found a great idea, but constantly puts off its implementation until later, spends the collected capital on unnecessary trinkets, then this indicates that he lacks the skills to control his actions. Without proper organization of available resources, it is impossible to build a business.

You shouldn’t put off good ideas for later, because you can start building a business and making money today. Also, there is no need to give up at the first problems or failures - the business is built on patience and perseverance, which the owner must contribute.

Experiment

If a problem cannot be resolved in the traditional way, try non-standard methods. This is logical: if there was only one correct instruction for business, then everyone would cope with it. In market conditions, laurels go to those who were able to solve the issue more effectively.

I started my business in 2012 from a corn selling point. The first saleswoman turned out to be a drinker. On the second day I came in with a black eye, on the third I was drunk and had to be fired. The second said that she was an athlete and a traveler, and in the evening she stole a bottle of vodka from the warehouse of the store where we rented part of the premises. We decided to change something and realized: we need grandmothers-sellers. And they submitted a recruitment advertisement to the newspapers “Kurochka Ryaba” and “Pensioner”. The bids were closed within a day, and since then we have had a steady flow of quality staff.

Alexey Voitov, businessman, co-founder and owner of the Kapibara sushi bar franchise

What kind of business can you start - TOP 10 ideas for a beginning businessman

Let's get down to specifics.

Ten promising ideas for beginners with minimal experience.

1) Homemade soap making

The first private soap makers of our time made soap right in their apartments. Some people still do this, but it is better to have a separate room for these purposes.

I have a friend who lives in Chisinau. Katerina started making handmade soap 7 years ago. The first experiments - multi-colored ellipses of soap with herbal scents, which she sent me as product samples - cost her too much. In addition, in Moldova the demand for this product was almost zero.

She gradually improved the technology, accumulated a customer base and now has a full-fledged online store, where, in addition to designer soap, there are a lot of other exclusive and natural products. The high price does not bother buyers from Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities. They care about quality, original execution and purely natural ingredients.

2) Tutoring

If you are fluent in foreign languages, a six-string guitar, school subjects, and other useful skills and knowledge, no one will forbid you to share your experience with others for money.

Thanks to Skype you can teach people all over the world

To begin, place advertisements on social networks, notify your friends, and post flyers on all entrances and poles. The main thing is to find your first clients. And then your reputation and good old word of mouth will work for you.

3) Management of corporate events and holidays

An idea for people with organizational and public speaking skills. Creative thinking, self-confidence and a little courage, and you will become the soul of any audience.

The ingredients for success are as follows: constant practice, original scripts, competent room design, and a constantly changing repertoire.

4) Equipment repair

If you were born with a screwdriver in your hands, clearly understand how household appliances work, and understand electronics, why not turn your skills into a source of income?

Modern technology has a low safety margin. Most people are better off getting their washing machine repaired than buying a new one. Meanwhile, repairing one “washing machine” costs from 2 to 5 thousand rubles . Several orders a day, and the income is enough not only for bread and butter, but also for an annual vacation to Bali.

Costs are minimal - tools, diagnostic equipment, spare parts. If you have a garage, then the problem of renting a room disappears. Large equipment can be repaired at the customer's home.

5) Food delivery

In Novosibirsk, where I live, you can order anything to your home or office, from hot corn to a full meal from a Chinese restaurant.

Such a business requires investments - renting premises and transport, purchasing raw materials, paying employees. Permits from sanitary services are needed: the premises must have ventilation, all necessary communications, and employees must have sanitary records.

6) Transportation of goods

Are you the owner of a truck? Engage in the transportation of large-sized cargo. You don’t even have to buy a car - rent or lease it.

You will need 2-3 responsible workers, and not people from the street, but experienced riggers who know how to properly transport furniture and household appliances, how to pack fragile cargo, how to lower a piano from the third floor.

7) Video channel on YouTube

The YouTube channel's audience is more than a billion viewers. This is every third Internet user on the planet. Promoted TV channels bring their owners millions in profits. Some of the presenters are not even 15 years old.

The ingredients for success are as follows:

• popular trend - video games, beauty blog, TOPs and lists, entertainment;
• signature feature - original image, unique format;
• competent promotion - use professional techniques.

Most Internet users are young people raised on gadgets. They prefer to see it once rather than read a long text, which is why video blogs are so popular.

You can learn how to become a popular YouTuber and make money by running YouTube channels in a free three-day online workshop from the owner of the silver button.

A little educational program from popular YouTube video bloggers:

Home photo studio

You will learn how to take satisfactory pictures in a couple of weeks. You will need professional photography equipment and equipment for printing photographs. And then work in the format that you prefer - photo for documents, wedding photography and videography, prom albums, image processing and photomontage.

How to get promoted? Through social networks, advertisements on online platforms and offline, through friends and acquaintances. My niece (15 years old) mastered the art of photography in 2 months.

Just six months after the start of her career, she was invited to major city events as an official photo-chronicler. I don’t know why, but clients like her photographs even more than photographs of experienced professionals.

9) Growing vegetables and fruits in a greenhouse

An idea for those who are interested in gardening and gardening. One greenhouse will give you several harvests a year, and people need fruits, herbs, vegetables and flowers every day.

Before buying a greenhouse and seedlings, take care of the product market, study the competitive environment, price, read specialized literature and thematic websites.

A greenhouse is a great tool for your own business

Additional income: canning, processing and freezing vegetables, selling seedlings and seeds.

But this is a long-term business for the patient and smart. If you want to earn 1000 rubles per hour without investment, read the special publication.

10) Seasonal storage of tires, skis, bicycles

Income close to passive. Very nice idea. You just need to prepare the room: an empty garage is best suited for these purposes. Install shelves, insulate the room, install a security system. In summer, store winter tires, sleds, skis, snowboards here, in winter - bicycles, scooters, summer tires, etc.

Learn to work with reporting

Accounting is important. But within its framework, as a rule, you receive reports on the company’s activities when it is too late to change anything. This is especially true for small businesses that need to understand in real time how decisions affect financial performance.

I would really encourage anyone starting out to figure out what metrics are truly important to your business and how you can track them. After this, it is worth organizing the accounting of key operations so that you can see important indicators in real time. This way you will learn to detect a cash gap and distinguish the fact of having cash from the real profit of the company.

Anton Aksyonov, founder and CEO of Basis Genotech Group

An unprofitable company may have enough cash for some time (received advances from customers, reduced balances in warehouses, owed money to suppliers), and vice versa, a profitable company may regularly lack finances. Both of these situations are dangerous for business.

How to open your own business in 6 steps?

First step. Deciding on an idea

1. First you need to choose the right direction of activity. And it is important that you like it.
2. You also need to analyze what you can offer your consumer, in what ways your offer will be of higher quality and unique than others.
3. It would be a good idea to study your competitors. Find out how in demand their services are.
4. Find out how freely you can enter the market with your offer.

Step two. Business plan

At the initial stages of business development, you can draw up a plan yourself.

The basis of any plan is the calculation of income and expenses. Based on the amounts received, you will receive an approximate efficiency ratio of your business, as well as its profitability.

Example:

“You want to open a photography studio.

If you do not take into account the expenses that will appear in the first month (opening an individual entrepreneur and further registration), then the estimate of income and expenses is as follows:

• monthly rent of the premises will be 50,000 rubles;
• costs for electricity, water, internet and other utilities RUB 10,000;
• studio worker's salary is 15,000 rubles. per month.;
• You will spend about 30,000 rubles on promotion and advertising of your studio. per month;
• Every month you need to save money to purchase decor when changing the interior of the location, about 20,000 rubles.

Thus, the monthly cost of maintaining the studio is 105,000 rubles.

• The photo studio is open from 9 am to 8 pm. On weekdays, the cost of renting a hall is 1,500 rubles. On weekends, the cost of renting a hall is 2300 rubles.
• But on weekdays, on average, the studio is occupied twice a day.
• On weekends I am busy for an average of 5 hours.
• On average, the monthly income from renting out a studio is 150,000 rubles.
• This means that the business remains in the black by 45,000 rubles.”

From the example it follows that when calculating the efficiency of a business, it is necessary to take into account equipment, its maintenance, furniture, consumables, employee salaries, utilities, and so on.

But an entrepreneur should be familiar with the concept of a “break-even point.” This is the volume of production or sales at which costs are offset by income, and ultimately equal zero.

Knowing this indicator, you can determine the payback time of your business, as well as make a preliminary analysis of the cost of rent, delivery, labor, and so on.

Step three. Starting a business

At this stage, you need to agree on the rental of premises, purchase equipment, raw materials, products, consumables, and also fully prepare the place for carrying out your activities.

Get ready for the marathon

If you are starting a business, you need to immediately plan on your strength for a long period.

When you enter a new business project, you need to focus on at least five years. Because it is simply impossible to build a sustainable company faster. A large-scale project takes 10–15 years to build. Let business incubators promise that their methods will allow you to promote everything in two weeks, it doesn’t work.

Sergey Kofeinikov, CEO AirNanny

You will have to work hard in the coming years. And if everything works out, you will already be talking about your success story.