There were not enough vegetarians in Smolensk, Sochi did not understand the format of the gastropub, and Muscovites preferred the variety of the Central Market to the fashionable Asian project. Not only novices, but also experienced restaurateurs suffered a defeat

Ruslan Shcherbakov    (Photo: From the personal archive)

The Russian restaurant market has been going through hard times over the past three years: visitors prefer cheap fast food to their projects. But many restaurants are not able to reach the payback, not only because of falling incomes. Often the reason for the failure is an incorrectly chosen location, a misunderstanding of its audience, a self-confident attempt to transfer the format that went to Moscow to the outback. Among those who overestimated their experience and strength are the owners of the RESTart holding Vasilchuk Brothers Alexey and Dmitry Vasilchuky, as well as the owner of Hurma Dmitry Levitsky. With this article, RBC begins a series of publications on startups from various business fields that have had to stop working in the past year and a half.

Neither grass nor meat

Back in 2007, Ruslan Shcherbakov, 37, decided to open a restaurant for vegetarians in Smolensk. “I am a vegetarian myself and have always suffered from the fact that there were no such establishments in my hometown,” the entrepreneur recalls. “Having talked with friends, I realized that this format would be interesting not only to me.”

Despite the relevance of the idea, the launch had to be postponed: the opening of the "dream restaurant" required considerable investments by regional standards, which Shcherbakov did not have. He invested all his money in the development of another business - a network of stalls with hot corn, hot dogs and other fast food (later the businessman opened points in Bryansk, Kaluga, Tula, Nizhny Novgorod and several other cities). He brought this business a little - only 50-70 thousand rubles. arrived per month. “I sighed, thought about the prospects, but I didn’t start the restaurant yet - I wanted to do everything efficiently and wisely, and this required both time and money,” Shcherbakov explains.

The opportunity to start a new project with him appeared only at the beginning of 2015. By that time, due to management difficulties, he had sold stalls in other cities (only the Smolensk point remained). Shcherbakov spoke about the idea of \u200b\u200ba vegetarian restaurant to a friend who agreed to become an investor. The first thing the partners found a room of 250 square meters. m in the center of Smolensk, on Bolshaya Sovetskaya, then they hired a designer, with whom they set about developing the interior.

They spent a total of eight months and about 10 million rubles on the launch of the Green House vegetarian restaurant. - twice the planned costs. The reason for the delays and additional expenses was the decoration of the room, Shcherbakov recognized. “I wanted to open an institution that was not like all the others in the city,” he says. “I came up with it in eco-style - with phytowalls, hanging plants, small cascading waterfalls and wooden furniture.” Entrepreneurs spent more than 5 million rubles on the creation of all interior elements, the rest went to equipment and rental premises.

At the end of December 2015, Green House finally opened. The restaurant had 70 seats, the vegetarian menu consisted of 180 dishes from different cuisines of the world. It seemed that the stake on the eco-component was justified: for the first six months, the project worked fully loaded and brought up to 150 thousand rubles. revenue per day (net profit was about 40% of this amount).

Shcherbakov was about to expand, but in mid-2016 the excitement began to subside. “At first, thanks to the unusual green interior that was visible through the windows, even meat-eaters came to us: everyone went on a hype, sometimes not knowing that we were a vegetarian restaurant,” the entrepreneur says. “But as soon as people found out that we had neither meat nor alcohol, they immediately forgot about our establishment.” I basically didn’t want to enter these positions in the menu, and the number of regular customers was not enough even to go to zero. ”

Partners closed the year 2016 with a minus of 1.2 million rubles. In 2017, despite the launch of catering services at events (for example, fitness meetings or yoga classes), the business brought them about 1 million rubles more. loss. “I’ve seen enough of vegetarian cafes in Europe and Moscow - I thought that this would be in demand with us as well,” says Shcherbakov. - But it turned out that people who monitor their diet in Smolensk and in the regions are negligible compared to those for whom it is unprincipled. If we had cutlets and vodka, we would develop, and without them we would become a restaurant for a limited circle of people. ”

By May 2018, the restaurant's daily revenue was reduced to 10 thousand rubles, and entrepreneurs decided to close it. The total loss of the project (including investments) amounted to more than 12 million rubles. Shcherbakov himself, however, did not give up vegetarian experiments: he began to produce natural products (for example, soy meat, eco-mayonnaise, etc.) under his own brand Vegetarian. Now his goods are bought by Smolensk stores "Organics" and "Harmony". Business brings from 200 thousand to 300 thousand rubles. net profit monthly.

Left without sweets

According to RBC Market Research, the share of Russians who refused to catering from 2012 to 2018 increased from 2 to 7%. This is mainly explained by the drop in income, the researchers say. Those who still visit cafes and restaurants began to pay more attention to the price tag. The most popular format among Russians is fast food: 71.2% of citizens visit fast food establishments. The least popular are expensive, mostly non-chain restaurants: today only 10% of Russians visit them.

“Consumers expect more and more from brands, and it is important for them that the service and quality of dishes remain at the same level or higher, and the price does not change or decrease. More and more Russians are looking for profitable price offers and are actively using coupons, discounts and loyalty programs, ”- RBC Market Research Daniel Rubinowski, Sales Marketing Director, KFC Russia. In addition, consumers are becoming increasingly conservative in their choice of establishments, says Igor Podstreshny, founder of the Burger Heroes network. “People have become less risky, preferring trusted institutions,” he says.

Life at your fingertips

The LocAsian Bar restaurant on Tsvetnoy Boulevard was not saved from failure either by the location or the names of the founders - Alexey and Dmitry Vasilchukov, owners of RESTart Vasilchuk Brothers holding, which includes projects such as Chaykhona No. 1, Ruski, Insight, Steak IT Easy, Obed Bufet other. The restaurant worked for only five months - from March to August 2018, after which it closed with a total loss of 30 million rubles.

Alexey Vasilchuk    (Photo: From the personal archive)

At first, the founders were absolutely sure that the project will succeed, Alexey Vasilchuk admits. “When in December 2017, the owners of the closed Buddha Bar offered me to occupy their site, I immediately agreed: the location was interesting, it seemed that the brand name was enough to shake it, even despite the size of 2 thousand square meters. m, ”says the restaurateur. The concept that he came up with combined the cuisines of different countries in Asia. The Vasilchuk brothers, together with Vladislav Andreev, head of the DBA-Group architectural studio, set about updating the interior left over from the previous tenant. Instead of wooden panels, they lined the walls with stone, hung chandeliers with colorful balls, decorated the halls with new furniture and lots of living plants.

After just over two months, in March 2018, the LocAsian Bar opened. On a vast territory (four floors with a terrace), the brothers managed to create a cozy space with a stylish design. The Pan-Asian menu included dishes of Chinese, Indian, Korean, Japanese and several other cuisines of the East - visitors could order at least tom yum with shrimps, at least the Tashkent salad.

Investments in the launch amounted to about 90 million rubles. Most of the funds went to repair and purchase kitchen equipment, furniture and utensils, 6-7 million rubles. rent per month.

“Already after a month and a half, after the LocAsian Bar opened, I realized that the project did not go,” says Alexey Vasilchuk. Its launch coincided with the opening of the Central Market on Trubnaya Square - office employees did not go to lunch at LocAsian Bar, but to the food court located on the market. For this reason, the restaurant was empty in the morning and lunch, Vasilchuk believes: LocAsian Bar was visited by an average of 200 people a day (400 seats), 80% of which came in the evening. “We thought that in the daytime we would have significantly more people,” the entrepreneur admits. - But it turned out that the Central Market took away all this audience from us. We did not take into account that food in the markets is now in trend. Plus, many people were afraid to come to us - they thought it was the same Buddha Bar with a tarnished reputation, it just changed its name. ”

If the restaurant "does not fly", it must be closed or reformatted so as not to save losses, Vasilchuk argues. It was a shame for the brothers to say goodbye to their own project a month and a half later, so they decided to reanimate it: to attract customers, they introduced 30 percent discounts on the entire menu at lunchtime, and started holding parties on Fridays and Saturdays. “We filled the nights, but it was not possible to lure the day-time audience of office employees,” the entrepreneur sighs.

As a result, on August 13, 2018, due to daytime downtime, a large rental and payroll load, the LocAsian Bar still closed. The total loss, according to Vasilchuk, amounted to about 30 million rubles. On August 15, “Teahouse No. 1” opened at the LocAsian Bar site - it, unlike an Asian restaurant, works as a plus.

“Fakapy happens for everyone - both for beginners and experienced restaurateurs,” says the entrepreneur. - This market lives at your fingertips: for the project to take off, it is necessary that there are many factors. For example, we did not guess the name and location of the pilot project, underestimated the rental load and the neighbors, and therefore failed. The lesson that I personally learned from this is to work out the entire business model in my head from the very beginning and not rely on the strength of the brand if there are doubts about going to zero. ”

Caught in a thunderstorm

“Sochi lacked a modern, in the spirit of major Russian cities, restaurant: after the Olympics, a large number of business-oriented young people moved there, who, it seemed to us, wanted something different from the usual Sochi cuisine,” recalls Dmitry Levitsky, president of the restaurant Alliance Real, co-founder of the Hurma Group (Dear, I’ll call you back ... network, Take It Easy, Darling bar, Meat Puppets restaurant, etc.). “But, as they say, you should not go to a strange monastery with your charter.”

Dmitry Levitsky    (Photo: From the personal archive)

The idea to launch a restaurant project in Sochi came to Levitsky in the spring of 2016. By that time, he managed to hold the annual gastronomic festival Gastreet several times in Krasnaya Polyana (the turnover of each such event is about 100 million rubles) and open the Fir-tree bar there, which brought up to 1-2 million rubles. arrived a month, but worked only during the ski season - from December to May.

The opening of the second restaurant, located lower, by the sea, will not depend on the seasonality factor, concluded the restaurateur. He set about searching for a suitable room. The entrepreneur hoped to launch the project in the summer - this would also capture the tourists who come to Sochi for summer vacation. They managed to find the site quickly: a few weeks later Levitsky had already launched the construction of a building with 80 seats near the local Central Department Store and the railway station. However, the construction was delayed for almost six months. “The quality of construction services in Sochi was much lower than in Moscow. We brought all materials from the capital, but the builders had to put up with the pace of work, ”the entrepreneur explains.

The gastronomic pub with the unpretentious name Groza, which served unusual dishes (for example, chicken with mint couscous, risotto with fried mini-squid and rice chips), was launched only in the fall of 2016. Investments amounted to almost 30 million rubles. About 13 million rubles. of which went to repair the premises, 10 million rubles. - for the purchase of furniture and interior decoration, 5 million rubles. - for the purchase of equipment, another 600 thousand rubles. rent per month.

“The opening was loud - almost the entire Sochi elite came to us, we immediately got into the top 10 according to TripAdvisor reviews,” recalls Levitsky. “But after the first month, it became clear that something was going wrong.” When you open a restaurant, usually without any advertising, people begin to come thanks to word of mouth. The restaurant spins by itself due to organic growth in attendance. Unfortunately, we did not see this growth. ”

Clear Sky: Why Groza Restaurant Has Closed

1. An impassable place not on the main street was chosen as the location.

2. The format of the gastropub was irrelevant and incomprehensible to local residents.

3. The institution did not have a pronounced direction, for example, attachment to the cuisine of a country. At the same time, food prices were quite high.

Revenues for the first month of operation amounted to about 1.5 million rubles., Loss - 1 million rubles. The main expenses were salary and rent. Until the spring, Groza was not a plus. “If we opened this restaurant in Moscow, we would immediately get worried and take some action,” says Levitsky. “And here, on an unfamiliar market, they attributed everything to a general decline associated with the same Black Sea seasonality.”

All hope was for the summer, but even it did not bring the restaurant out of the crisis. The loss for this season was about 1.2 million rubles, and Levitsky decided to close the restaurant. Total losses, including investments, reached 45 million rubles. “I didn’t see any point in continuing: it was obvious that we were mistaken both with how passable the location is and with how interesting the format of a modern gastropub can be in Sochi,” he concludes. - Making a restaurant to the taste of Muscovites, we really created something that Sochi does not have, but nobody needed it. For me, this failure was a good lesson: now I understand that it is better to work in those markets that I understand completely - from the energy of the streets to the taste preferences of the audience. ”

View from the outside

“Great professionals considered themselves multi-brand restaurateurs”

Sergey Mironov, owner of the restaurant chain "Meat & Fish", founder of the agency "RestConsult"

“Due to the protracted crisis, the restaurant market is becoming purely professional, with a small layer of those who are just lucky. However, in the last year and a half, not only non-professional projects of beginners were closed, but also non-specialized experimental institutions of fairly well-known restaurateurs. Great professionals considered themselves multi-brand restaurateurs who can open various institutions, moving away from their core concept. But this does not work: it is the same business where common technologies are important, a single concept.

All major players, as a rule, work in their debugged formats, which are tested both by time and by the number of establishments. When they discover something fundamentally new, theoretically they have enough knowledge and experience to go all over again. But they cannot allocate enough resources: they invest most of their time and money in the development of their main lines of business. This is exactly what happened with the LocAsian Bar and Groza - their formats were non-core for restaurateurs. As for Green House, the vegetarian format generally does not work either in the regions or in Moscow. Vegetarians don’t go to vegetarian restaurants: more often they are in the company of meat-eaters and go to a regular restaurant, where they order a dish that suits them. The Jagannath network is more likely an exception to the rule. ”

"People are being led by the very name" dining room "

Ekaterina Severova, manager of the Sochi restaurant "Barabul"

“Now in Sochi, the concept of dining rooms with a fashionable design is relevant. Moreover, the price tag in such places is not necessarily low. People are led to the very name “dining room”, thinking that it’s cheap there, but in fact they pay at least 500 rubles for dinner. A lot of such eateries have recently opened in the city, and they are flourishing. In addition, Caucasian cuisine will always be popular: it is food for every day, both tourists and locals love it. The brand also has power. For example, “5642 Height” Arkady Novikov and White Rabbit Family thrive here, we have a strong local London Group network. People sometimes go to the names and quality standard.

Opening a restaurant in Sochi, in addition to choosing the right concept, you need to be prepared for the high cost of rent and utilities. I would not recommend opening an institution in an impassable place. In general, I think that in the next couple of years narrow-focused street food projects will be developed, which are now very relevant in Moscow. Here both the low price of the dish for the consumer and the high payback of the project play a role. ”

Vadim Dymov

Founder and owner of the companies Dymovskoye sausage production, Suzdal ceramics, Respublika (a chain of bookstores) and Rubezh (cafes and restaurants)

Now you can start any business based on the replacement of imports from Europe. It can be something simple. You just need to analyze what was bought in bulk. To do this, you can simply refer to the customs statistics. It can be food. How to make such a business? Yes, exactly the same: arms and legs, with a cold head and a warm heart. The crisis has not really changed anything, people are the same, officials are the same. Purchasing power has probably changed, and then only temporarily. And for a startup, it doesn’t matter.

Need to farm. For example, as Brother Yegor [Duda] suggests to me: we are all leaving for the Far East, we take “Putin’s land” (but not 1 ha, but 100 ha each) and begin to grow soybeans in the risky farming zone, and then sell it to China. Soy is a great business. Milk is good too.

What else? Small engineering logistics or components for assembly. In small cities, you can now create small warehouses and develop services for medium and small businesses. We have these niches empty. You can make Russian furniture. I just want to build a carpentry workshop. Suddenly? Well, well, it’s nice to sit and eat behind the furniture that I made myself. And you can also become an official, get money and a term later, too, but that's another story.

Oleg Tinkov

The founder of the St. Petersburg network "Technoshock" and the dumplings brand "Daria", in 2003 created the Tinkoff brewing company, and in 2006 - the Tinkoff Bank bank.

The immediate future is for medical startups, for everything related to medicine: dietary supplements and medicines, pharmacies, clinics and the hospital sector. And if there is no appropriate investment for this, then you can do online consultancy applications and gadget-based recommendations - this is a whole expanse. We began to live longer, bodies began to age more actively, and care was needed for them. In this sense, Russia is 15-20 years behind world developments, but this provides an opportunity for copypaste. Ideally, it would be nice to invest in R&D and medical developments, but it is expensive and takes a long time to pay - we are not used to doing this.

Fedor Ovchinnikov

Founder of the chain of bookstores "The Power of the Mind" and the chain of pizzerias "DoDo Pizza"

In difficult crisis times, you can start absolutely any business, because a crisis is only a new coordinate system, life does not stop, only the rules of the game change. What matters here is not what, but how.

Mercedes will always buy, regardless of the crisis, you only need to find a competitive business model to win in the new conditions. At the same time, new players definitely have chances, because they can start from scratch, building a business in new coordinates.

After I suffered the first serious failure in my “entrepreneurial career” [selling bookstores for nothing], I start any business as if there is a serious crisis in the yard. I immediately ask myself the question: “What will happen to my business when everything will be bad, even if everything is very good now?” It seems to me that now the country is a great opportunity to start a healthy and strong business.

David Yakobashvili

He started as a co-owner of the Metelitsa casino on Novy Arbat and the Trinity Motors car dealer, stood at the origins of the Wimm-Bill-Dann company, and now develops the Bioenergy corporation (peat processing)

In the current situation, it is worth focusing on a business that can bring pleasure, peace and tranquility. I would advise startups to get involved in a business that is not a pity to invest in, a business that can deliver positive emotions. It’s difficult to talk about a new business that could become profitable: unfortunately, the refinancing rate leaves much to be desired today. So, as Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukaev advised us all, “it’s time to take care of the family and spiritual development.”

Sergey Belousov

Co-founder of Rolsen and software companies Parallels and Acronis, as well as Runa Capital venture capital fund

It is difficult to give a concrete answer to such a question, but one can start from simple facts. First, the skilled labor force has fallen in price in Russia, people have become more loyal to their employers and have begun to work harder. As a result, any export business received serious competitive advantages. In particular, this refers to the export IT business, which develops technologies in Russia and sells worldwide. I can clearly see this on the example of Acronis, Parallels and the Runa Capital portfolio. Such companies feel very good, and the best example here is NGINX. So you can advise starting with such a business.

The second fact - during a recession, the big advantage is the presence of cash, and its absence is a serious risk. Those who keep a good eye on their cash situation usually have the opportunity to buy other businesses inexpensively in a crisis. But for those who do not pay attention to this, there is a risk of being, on the contrary, bought. Both possibilities must be prepared to take advantage.

Alexander Kravtsov

Founder and owner of the company "Ruyan", through which he first traded shoe cosmetics and mosquito repellents. Then he created the umbrella brand Expedition, under which goods for tourists and gifts are sold. Owns several restaurants and organizes various expeditions.

Now you can start any business, if there are strong people, then they can do it. It is important to maintain good spirits and invest in the project. If you are not afraid, do not bury your head in the sand, then everything will surely work out.

I have always believed that crises do not exist. Now there are a lot of collapsing markets. But I know many enterprises that are overloaded with orders. For example, in Russia there is the only company that sews backpacks, they have a lot of orders. Extremely interesting topics are food, domestic tourism. All markets are interesting, especially those that foreigners left. If you drive along the Garden Ring in Moscow now, you can see many rental offers, a year ago this was not.

But now you need to be careful with fixed costs. Substantial changes are taking place in the market, the employer's market is returning: before, the employees were picky, there were few people with high qualifications, but now there are many free specialists. Today healthy cynicism in management is important: not to have unnecessary expenses, not to pay high salaries, expensive rents and not to invest in what you would invest earlier.

Photo: TASS, PhotoXPress, Ekaterina Kuzmina / RBC, facebook.com/ovchinnikov.fedor

Find a popular business idea that will benefit people. The list contains seven stories of Russian entrepreneurs who succeeded: Pavel Durov, Evgeny Demin, Tatyana Bakalchuk, Petr Osipov, Vsevolod Strakh, Dmitry Khrapov, Maxim Nogotkov.

Is it easy to open a business without experience and initial capital? The answer is easy to open. But to make it successful is much more difficult. We have prepared the stories of the ups and downs of young Russians who not only know how to open their own business from scratch, but managed to succeed and earn considerable money.

The list does not include children of oligarchs and government officials who have inherited fortunes, as well as those who have earned from privatizing state property.

Pavel Durov (Vkontakte, Telegram)

Pavel Durov - creator of the social network "Vkontakte". This man is called "Russian Zuckerberg." From childhood, Pavel was fond of programming and from school years was distinguished by eccentric behavior. He was denied access to computers, but he cracked any passwords.

While studying at the University of Durov, he created several non-profit Internet projects. It was a university forum and a library of abstracts. These projects were not particularly successful, as users were hiding behind fictitious names.

From his friend, who returned from America, Pavel learned about the Facebook social network, he decided to implement something similar in Russia. So the project “Student.ru” appeared, the name of which was later replaced by “Vkontakte”. Durov, together with his brother Nikolai, founded Vkontakte LLC and launched a social network in October 2006.

Already in 2008, the number of users exceeded 20 million people. In 2011, Pavel Durov’s fortune was estimated at 7.9 billion rubles, and Durov was in 350th place on the list of “The Richest Russian Billionaires”.

In 2014, Durov resigned from the post of general manager of Vkontakte, now the social network belongs to the holding of Alisher Usmanov Mail.Ru Group. Durov has a new project - the Telegram cross-platform messenger.

In 2016, Tatyana took the 3rd place in the ranking of Russia's 25 richest women according to the Forbes online magazine (with a fortune of $ 500 million), and her store of clothes, shoes and accessories Wildberries.ru is one of the largest online stores in Russia .

How did success come about? Tatyana - a former teacher of English, sitting on maternity leave - in 2004, began to deal with clothing orders in the Otto and Quelle catalogs. The goods warehouse was in the apartment where Tatyana lived with her husband Vyacheslav. She picked up the parcels from the post office herself by public transport. There was only enough money to develop the site.

As an advertisement, a banner was placed for 1,500 rubles. per month on one of the women's sites. Orders began to arrive literally on the first day. A year later, the apartment was small for use as a warehouse, and Tatyana and her husband rented a small office and storage room. Hired couriers and operators.

The fact that a small home-based business grew into a giant of online retail and the most recognizable online store was promoted by several innovations that were introduced by its founder:

• the first significant decision, in addition to selling clothes, was to start selling shoes online, although no one was doing it then and many were skeptical of such an idea;
• the second starting point in the successful construction of a business is free fitting at points of delivery of orders;
• and the third factor is free shipping.

Tatyana does not take pictures and does not communicate with the press. Only once did she give an interview to Shopolog, an online commerce publication. Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is as follows:

“Don't be afraid to start. Do not be afraid to make mistakes. Take risks, contrary to the majority opinion, if you know that customers need this. To have close people nearby who are able to support. ”

Petr Osipov (“Business Youth”)

The young entrepreneur Petr Osipov and his high-profile project “Business Youth” (molodost.bz) were also included in our list.

Peter was born and raised in Cheboksary. There he received his first experience working in election campaigns and conducting public appearances. After school, he moved to Moscow. He studied, worked as an assistant to the deputy, conducted trainings in oratory.

In 2010, Osipov with a friend - Mikhail Dashkevich organized the project "Business Youth" (BM). Its essence is to help young start-up entrepreneurs (and not only beginners) in increasing their income and the effectiveness of their business.

According to Peter Osipov in one of his videos, the impetus for the opening of his own company was the training of Radislav Gandapas, which Peter visited for 25 thousand rubles.

The project is positioned as the most ambitious community of entrepreneurs in Russia. Training is carried out according to several programs: intensive “Business start”, in-depth program “Workshop”, programs “Billion for a Million”, “Real Direct”, “Real email marketing”, “Million for a hundred”, “Real marketing”, “ From unpacking to packaging ”and others. Participants are given assignments and step-by-step instructions for achieving success.

There are BM representative offices in more than 200 cities of Russia and neighboring countries. Annual revenue of more than 900 million rubles. The project is hotly debated: someone calls the BM a sect, someone really helps training. But in this article we will not understand the essence of the project itself. Below are links to the company’s website, Petr Osipov’s personal blog and Vkontakte profile.

Vsevolod Fear (Sotmarket, Goldprice.ru)

Vsevolod Fear is one of the youngest members of our list. He organized his business in 2005, when he was 17 years old, he was in 11th grade. Initial investments in the business amounted to 20 thousand rubles. This amount was accumulated over three years from the money that the parents gave.

Through a familiar shuttle that was transporting goods from China, Vsevolod ordered data-cables (devices with which data are transferred between digital devices).

Created a site with the uncomplicated name sotmarket.ru. The first orders were sent to customers personally, paying ten rubles for postal workers for each parcel drawn up.

Starting capital in the amount of 20 thousand rubles ended after a month and a half, and the newly-made entrepreneur already fell into despair, but unexpectedly received the first revenue of 27 thousand rubles, which Vsevolod invested in goods.

By the time he entered the institute, Fear rented a small room for an office, warehouse and hired an employee. He studied at the Faculty of Business Informatics and wrote a product accounting program for his company. In addition to data cables, Sotmarket now sold a lot of additional goods: from mobile accessories to garden tools. Sotmarket's revenue in 2012 amounted to 4.15 billion rubles and became the third online electronics retailer in the country by this indicator.

However, due to the fact that Vsevolod took a lot of loans to expand the business, the company did not bring profits and a 51% stake was sold to IQ One. Since the fall of 2015, Fear has been the director of electronic commerce for the mobile operator Tele2.

Since the beginning of spring 2017, according to the RBC Internet portal, Vsevolod Fear has become the CEO of Goldprice.ru online jewelry service.

Watch the video from the Business Secrets series: Oleg Tinkov asks questions to Vsevolod Strakh about starting, establishing and developing a business:

The general director of the Vologda CJSC Mezon told RBC Vologda Oblast why the company, a successful computer technology trader, decided to engage in precision metalworking.

In 1994, the company, which had just been created by a young Vologda engineer, a graduate of the local Polytechnic, took up the trendy and extremely demanded business at that time - the sale of computer equipment, actually creating a new, previously non-existent market in the region. And now, a new direction in the Vologda region for innovative engineering, which is being developed by Mezon, is again the “front line” of the domestic economy ...

- Is such a choice the logic of a business or a character trait?
  - Probably both. When we opened the enterprise, there really was not enough computer equipment in the country. But then we chose rather complicated paths - not just selling ready-made, but first we organized our own assembly of computers. And then, in addition to sales, assembly and service, they also organized a training center to prepare users for our product. The center is still operating and up to 1,500 children undergo training there. And after 2010, we took up production activities - we got both serious metalworking equipment and specialization in the field of precision metalworking.

“What is your interest here?”
- To some extent, our choice is related to the history of the enterprise. A number of our workers back in the Soviet 80s at the then Vologda Polytechnic Institute worked at the Department of Flexible Production Systems. They tested models of future production, where the use of computer equipment, robots, machine tools with numerical control was supposed, and training in all of this. So we probably did not invent anything particularly new. If in the 90s to solve production problems did not have enough strength and capabilities, then after 2010 we pulled people together, mobilized reserves. Our production site today is entirely focused on modern technologies, machine tools with digital software equipment, there are areas related to robotics. We do not forget about education. If in the 90s we started with children, teaching them computer literacy, now we already have two basic departments at Vologda State University.

- What is the peculiarity of the new market niche chosen by Meson?
  - The specificity is that we did not create production for the production of any specific products, relatively speaking, spoons, forks, plates, or any equipment. We immediately created a kind of technological platform that will do high-quality and accurate metalworking. It is oriented towards cooperation with very large companies, but also with small ones, however. We have mastered the technological niche, we can produce parts with micron precision. Our customers are in Vologda, we cooperate with the Vologda Bearing Plant, an optical-mechanical plant, with Cherepovets companies, for example, Severstal ...

- Do you have orders?
  - Enough. Why do we work with us, such large companies as, for example, the leader of the domestic engine building "UEC-Saturn", because we are committed to solving complex problems. For example, our partner is preparing new products, or prototypes that require high engineering costs, troubled products or have a large number of defects in some details - all this is what we do. This, of course, is not easy. But these are precisely the competencies that attract large serious companies, make them work with us.

- What is the development prospect, how great is the competition in this market?
- I think this direction will develop. In Soviet times, the plant, creating some new products, organized the entire technological chain from start to finish. Because of this, huge factories arose, and the world was surprised to see what large plants the USSR was building. Now this is not. Industrial capacities have been significantly reduced. Everyone considers the costs. I think the future lies with distributed production, with outsourcing, when companies join forces and make a high-quality product "in parts", occupying their technological niches. This is a global trend ...

- How, in this sense, Mezon CJSC plans to develop, relatively speaking, “in breadth”, increasing production capacities, or “inland”, developing competencies?
  - We have an understanding that it is necessary to create a research and production center at the enterprise, to solve the problems of developing new technologies in terms of creating some new products and producing some of the most complex assemblies and parts for these products. At its own site, but in cooperation with large companies. In the foreseeable future, we strive to become the most knowledge-intensive, and not the largest.

- Does this plan require significant financial investments?
  - Until now, we did not need any “super sums,” but recently the question of a high-quality and reliable partner, a financial institution, has become acute. I will explain with an example. For a long time, we focused on working with small regional banks. Because there was an impression that they work more flexibly and quickly. For a long time, this was how it was: when questions arose about loans, paperwork, such issues in small banks were always resolved more quickly. But in recent years, a well-known process has been going on in the banking sector, when small banks disappear and large ones remain. The last straw was the situation with Vologdabank, which lost its license, which forced us to go in search of a new major partner. Such a partner for us was Sberbank, which managed to prove that you can work with it.

- Was it a specific loan?
- The situation is like this. When Vologdabank disappeared, the loans that we took from it (several tens of millions of rubles — this is good money for us) became “nobody's money”. It was necessary to refinance, to start working with another bank. In addition, with the disappearance of Vologdabank, our development did not stop. We needed a financial institution with which we could work for the future, which could provide us with a solution to current and operational strategic tasks. The decision to cooperate with Sberbank was not easy. Sberbank is large, quite regulated. But we must pay tribute to the heads of the bank branch in Vologda - they made a lot of efforts to build normal relations with us, we also tried. All credit obligations that we had at Vologdabank were transferred to Sberbank on more favorable terms for us. We like it. In addition, questions began to arise about obtaining guarantees. Moreover, the large company with which we entered into a contract put forward very high requirements for a guarantee bank. Sberbank issued these guarantees very quickly. They explain this by the fact that, since we have become their client, they will resolve all issues promptly. While Sberbank keeps its promises. Let's see what will happen next.

- You have been in business for a long time, probably the readers of our business portal will be interested in the principles of doing things that have guided you all these years ...
  - I, probably, will not be original, because I consider the basic rules for myself that were declared in the USSR when they said that it is necessary to work honestly, that money is embodied work and an assessment of this work. First of all, you are valuable in what you did, what arose as a result of your work. Therefore, we have such projects - training centers, basic departments, production ... The level of approaches is traditionally conservative. It is necessary to tackle the difficult task, to solve it qualitatively, to do everything honestly, without bribes and kickbacks. Perhaps because of this we are not developing as fast as we would like, but we have been developing for many years. And this approach of ours especially helps us in times of crisis - in these conditions, on the contrary, we begin to develop more actively, because it is the crisis situations that the volume of labor that you invest begins to play a particularly large role ...

- What advice would businessman Elgaev like to give to young entrepreneurs?
- Unfortunately, many people think that business is easy. Although you need to be aware that a person who decides to engage in entrepreneurial activity takes up a very difficult task, and it is far from the fact that this must be done. One must think a hundred times - to create something of their own or not. We are told on every corner - "we need new entrepreneurs." It seems to me that often the people addressed by these calls are not indicated by the level of responsibility, and the seriousness of the matter that they take upon themselves. And it seems to me that you need to be honest with people ...

The entrepreneur, who will receive 151 million rubles as a result of the transaction, decided to focus on developing Like educational centers abroad and launching a network of residential and working smart spaces in Russia

Ayaz Shabutdinov    (Photo: Oleg Yakovlev / RBC)

26-year-old entrepreneur Ayaz Shabutdinov told RBC about the reasons for selling his share in the Coffee Like network, which included retail coffee shops in Izhevsk and Moscow, the management company LLC Coffee Like (engaged in the sale of franchises) and LLC Logistics Coffee (responsible for supply of coffee and other consumables to the partners). Coffee Like, which is considered the largest chain of take-away establishments in Russia, was acquired by a group of private investors. The estimated cost of the company is 200 million rubles. According to the transaction, Shabutdinov will receive 151 million rubles.

The entrepreneur does not name their names, but clarifies: “The network belonged to me by 75.5%. Of these, 50.6% belonged to me as an individual and another 24.9% - through the company "Like Business". The co-owners not only remained in the company, but also decided to take part in the transaction and increase their share in the business. ” According to SPARK, co-owners of Coffee Like LLC are entrepreneurs Ivan Ermilov and Alexander Nudin: each of them has 12.25% of the company. This suggests that at least part of the share of Shabutdinov was acquired by his former partners.

“The reason for the sale of Coffee Like was the change in focus of the Like group of companies towards other projects,” says Shabutdinov. “That would not allow Coffee Like to provide that rapid growth, which allows its market potential.”

The decision to sell a chain of coffee houses was made in early 2018. At this time, Shabutdinov had already focused on the development of Like educational centers. The centers conduct face-to-face courses for entrepreneurs, which Shabutdinov launched in the spring of 2015 as a continuation of his VKontakte business blog (649 thousand subscribers) and YouTube videos (224 thousand subscribers). Today Like educational centers are represented in 241 Russian cities. According to the entrepreneur, over the past three years, 831 thousand people have completed educational programs. There were 237 thousand paid customers with an average check of 4.5 thousand rubles. from one person. The cost of paid programs - from 500 rubles. (three-day course) up to 1.5 million rubles. (six months in mini-groups with invited experts and tracking).

From the applications of graduates of his courses, Shabutdinov selects several projects that continue to develop through the investments of the Like group of companies. “At the moment, in our pool of potentially interesting projects there are 63 companies with which we are at different stages of work: we only get acquainted with someone and conduct an audit, but someone has already been made an offer and we are negotiating the price,” says Shabutdinov . According to him, out of 50 proposals received, approximately ten are considered by the investment committee, after which the company acquires a share in one to three projects.

According to Shabutdinov, “Like Center” has high growth dynamics: in 2015, the revenue of the network of educational centers amounted to 48.5 million rubles, in 2017 - already 327.5 million rubles, in the first eight months of 2018 - 744.8 million rubles “A considerable part of sales is made by our partners in the regions, so our money there is about 74.7%.” Now Shabutdinov is preparing Like centers to enter the Western market. “The first educational events have already been successfully held in Los Angeles, New York and London. However, while mainly Russian-speaking audience comes to study, - Shabutdinov admits. “Part of the proceeds from the sale of Coffee Like will go just to expand the project abroad.”

In addition to the educational project, the entrepreneur decided to develop a real estate project. He plans to acquire properties ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 square meters. m in different cities of Russia, combining them in a network of residential and working smart-spaces. “The standard apartments and offices, in my opinion, are archaism, especially for generations Z and Y,” says Shabutdinov. “They want to sign an agreement today, give money and start living or working in a room where everything is equipped.” And after - also without any difficulties to be able to move out. We decided to combine smart spaces with sharing economies. Thanks to the IT system for managing prices for premises, we will be able to efficiently use every square meter and receive income higher than the average for the real estate market.

Part of the target audience of the new network should be entrepreneurs who study at Like educational centers. “It seems to us that we understand their problems well, so we decided to create“ our place ”for them. We built the concept based on already existing world experience, our own research, in-depth interviews and, in the end, on our own needs, since we ourselves are the target audience, ”says Shabutdinov.

Ayaz Shabutdinov is a co-owner of more than 20 companies (hostels, barbershops, language school, etc.), some of which are developed on a franchise basis. Coffee Like is one of the first projects of the Like family. Shabutdinov launched the network in 2013 with Izhevsk entrepreneur Zufar Garipov. At the time of sale, the network totaled 408 points, most of which were franchised. In 2017, Garipov sold his share to Shabutdinov and began developing a network of laser hair removal salons.