Baksht how to ruin your own business. Konstantin Aleksandrovich Baksht How to ruin your own business. Bad advice for entrepreneurs

How to ruin your own business. Bad advice for entrepreneurs

DEDICATED TO MY FAMILY

A father who showed me how a man should live and die.

Mom, who supported me when I fell again. And she believed in me, no matter what.

To my beloved uncle, who taught me that getting up once is not so important. It is important to be able to get up after a fall.

And, of course, Lena, Sasha and Misha.

I rise for you.

Introduction

They say that it is difficult to create and develop a business in Russia. Almost impossible. And this is so.

There is practically no state support for business in our country. Rather the opposite. High officials seek to crush big business - what they do in between the division of posts and the budget. Officials with a lower rank suck blood from medium and small businesses. The tax system is made not so that everyone pays taxes, but so that everyone is to blame. Entrepreneurs are to blame for life. And they are responsible for everything.

Yet the greater risks are balanced by equally greater opportunities. The profitability of business in Russia can be colossal. Russian businessmen take pride of place in the list richest people the world. So, build successful business in Russia you can. And this is a fact!

However, the analysis of thousands of our enterprises led me to a sad conclusion. In Russia, the most dangerous person for a business is its owner.

Many of our businesses are doomed already at the stage of creation. If the case still began to rise to its feet, then the owner can finish it off with a hundred different ways... It seems that most entrepreneurs are constantly trying to ruin their own business.

Of course they don't do it out of masochism. And not because of sophisticated malice or cunning. Simply, trying to somehow raise and develop the business, they constantly make typical mistakes. Moreover, these mistakes are the same for owners of completely different businesses in different parts of the country.

In this book, I have tried to list the main "rake" that hinders development or ruins the majority of small and medium-sized businesses in Russia. If, when building your own business, do not repeat at least thesemistakes - your business can already be considered exemplary. For reliability, at the end of each section there are recommendations: what to do in order to build a business reliably and efficiently. Of course, not all recipes are given. But some of the most important and key ones are still described.

They say that smart people learn from the mistakes of fools. And fools don't even learn from their own mistakes. The truth is, you can't build a business without making your own mistakes. But you don't have to do it yourself allmistakes, right? If this book saves you from at least a few mistakes, each of which can cost you your business, then you bought and read it for a reason. So go ahead!

Chapter 1. How to ruin a business even before it is created

We create a business to become a business owner

Do you know the survival statistics for new businesses? In the first three years after their creation, about two thirds of them die. Over the next three years, two-thirds of the survivors die. Result: out of newly created businesses, only one in nine survives six years after its creation.

Many businesses are sentenced to death from the start, simply because they were created in vain.Each case is initially created for the implementation of some idea. But not every idea is good enough to make a viable business. And the most disastrous idea for the future business is the idea of \u200b\u200bthe founders "We create a business because we want to become business owners."

Someone is setting up a business to make the best Italian restaurant in town - this business has a chance of success. Someone creates a business to produce quality tiles and sell them throughout the country - this business also has a chance of success.

And someone creates a business because being the owner of a business is cool. You are your own master, a free person. Employees work for you. You are a great and terrible boss to them. Again, how your status rises in any get-together! You present yourself as the owner of your own business - not like the pitiful mercenaries around you!

As a result, aspiring entrepreneurs sleep and see how to create their own business. Take the first idea that comes to their minds. Convince themselves that they will inevitably succeed. And they start a business.

"Let's organize our monthly city magazine!" The city has already published 150 city magazines this year. 30 of them went bankrupt. Of course, the new unremarkable magazine will be an outstanding success!

“Let's organize our salon cellular communication! " As a result of ever-increasing competition, most freestanding salons closed 3-5 years ago. Nowadays, only the networks of communication salons are competitive. First of all, on a Russian scale. But of course, new salon on Chuvyrlovka street will become an exception to the laws of the market. And it will make its owners rich!

In fact, not every idea (even sensible one) can turn into a successful business. It is often necessary to work through and calculate 10–20 ideas in order to start implementing only one of them. Moreover: there are no guarantees that this very best idea will make a successful business. Ultimately you try, do your best to achieve the goal. In some cases, you get a more or less successful business. In others, you lose the effort and money invested in this attempt. Partially or completely. And in any case, you gain invaluable experience.

You have no guarantee of success. Even when you have worked out a lot of ideas and have chosen the most successful one. What can we say about the situation when the first idea that comes to mind is taken and they are trying to build a business out of it? Some of these attempts are simply striking in their cretinism. Moreover, the person who creates such a business is not always a nerd. More often it is about self-deception. A person wants to organize his business so much that he convinces himself of the prospects and success of his business idea. This is where the fundamental principle of persuasion comes into play ...

It is much easier to convince yourself of the success of your business than to convince the market of this.

In addition, many business founders do not even understand which business idea can be successful and which cannot. Young enthusiasts lack basic life experience. Adults and more experienced people are bred into left-wing business ideas by their young and energetic friends and relatives. The most dangerous thing here is when the “investor” with money does not understand the specifics of the proposed business idea. For example, a cashier trades on the market and knows nothing about computers. Thinks computers are cool. The future belongs to them. As a result, the son, who is fond of computer games, persuades his mother to give money - to create a computer gaming club. The sonny himself spends a couple of thousand a month in gambling clubs. And he thinks it's a cool business. He knows nothing about how to organize it. Not about how hard it is to find the right sysadmins. Not that the market has been oversaturated for four years already. And most of the organized gaming clubs go down the drain. The result is logical: Mom's money is scattered in the wind.

Instructions

First, enough activity. You are a man, not a machine. Start small: turn off the alarm and get up when you feel like it, don't forget to stop by a couple of stores along the way, cancel all appointments in the morning, and the more sudden the better. Do not explain the reason for the cancellation to anyone: you do not owe them!
If you are still at lunchtime, first answer a couple of personal letters, read everything on Yandex, go to lunch, and only then proceed to. By the way, there are many interesting games.

Secondly, never spend extra money on creating and maintaining a company website, especially if you sell something through it. Hire a freshman student, or better, let him make your site as simple as possible and not update it too often. After all, customers will buy everything they need, either from you or not from you.

Third, if a lawsuit is being filed against you, do not rush to hire lawyers to represent your interests. It's expensive, and you already have a lawyer, even two. True, they are mainly engaged in the design labor contracts with employees, but what if they also succeed in representing the interests of your company in court? Check it out.

Fourth, if you have negotiations ahead of you, it is not at all necessary to prepare for them. You are not your first day in business and you know all your clients better than your own relatives. And when did you fail impromptu? ..

Fifth, think about relatives. Some of them seem to have recently complained about losing their jobs. Be involved - take him to you. You can also have a couple of friends. It will be much more interesting to work in your company. And those that none of you like can be delegated to the rest.

Sixth, you spend too much money on staff training. Why all these trainings, role plays and workshops? Anyone, or almost everyone, can sell, and if he has not been able to sell effectively yet, then most likely he is simply lazy.

Seventh, it is not at all necessary to check the clients' solvency. If a client comes to you, he definitely has money. The fact that he does not comply with the payment deadlines does not mean anything bad about him. Hearing from a new client that the services of your company are expensive, immediately make a 50% discount.

Related Videos

note

How to ruin your own business. CHAPTER 1. How to ruin a business even before its creation. Co-founders, or when there is no agreement in the comrades. One of the most effective ways to ruin the business from the very beginning - to do it together with partners. In Russia, an attempt to launch a new case not alone subsequently means a death sentence for this case - with a probability of more than 50%. There are many reasons for this.

Useful advice

How to ruin your own business Those who are not familiar with Grigory Oster's Bad Advice will hardly appreciate Konstantin Baksht's “harmful advice” to Russian entrepreneurs, because he probably does not read books at all. If the first tips are useful to everyone - from young to old, then in the second, children will see only funny pictures: one, for example, shows an eccentric chained to a shovel, throwing everything that comes to hand into the firebox.

Sources:

A specialized site about small business.

Start your own business - the dream of many. Of course by organizing own enterprise, a person is set for success and expects that over time it will become successful and profitable. However, there are many examples when, after a while, the company went bankrupt, and the entrepreneur again began to work for his uncle. We analyzed the main mistakes they made. And now if you want to ruin yours too businessthen we can give you some valuable advice.

Instructions

Choose an area of \u200b\u200bactivity where you have no competitors at all, avoid them by occupying a marginal niche. Lack of competition will lead you to no need to generate good ideas and develop a business. Your caution and unwillingness to participate in a highly competitive business will keep you on the sidelines.

Get down to business in the details of which you do not understand and are not interested in its specifics. Entrust his conduct 2-3

Current page: 1 (total of the book has 22 pages) [available passage for reading: 5 pages]

Konstantin Alexandrovich Baksht

How to ruin your own business. Bad advice for entrepreneurs

DEDICATED TO MY FAMILY

A father who showed me how a man should live and die.

Mom, who supported me when I fell again. And she believed in me, no matter what.

To my beloved uncle, who taught me that getting up once is not so important. It is important to be able to get up after a fall.

And, of course, Lena, Sasha and Misha.

I rise for you.

Introduction

They say that it is difficult to create and develop a business in Russia. Almost impossible. And this is so.

There is practically no state support for business in our country. Rather the opposite. High officials strive to crush big business for themselves - and this is what they do in between the division of posts and the budget. Officials with a lower rank suck blood from medium and small businesses. The tax system is made not so that everyone pays taxes, but so that everyone is to blame. Entrepreneurs are to blame for life. And they are responsible for everything.

Yet the greater risks are balanced by equally greater opportunities. The profitability of business in Russia can be colossal. Russian entrepreneurs hold pride of place in the list of the richest people in the world. This means that it is possible to build a successful business in Russia. And this is a fact!

However, the analysis of thousands of our enterprises led me to a sad conclusion. In Russia, the most dangerous person for a business is its owner.

Many of our businesses are doomed already at the stage of creation. If the case does start to rise to its feet, then the owner can finish it off in a hundred different ways. It seems that most entrepreneurs are constantly trying to ruin their own business.

Chapter 1. How to ruin a business even before it is created

We create a business to become a business owner

"Let's organize our own cellular salon!" As a result of ever-increasing competition, most freestanding salons closed 3-5 years ago. Nowadays, only the networks of communication salons are competitive. First of all, on a Russian scale. But, of course, the new salon on Chuvyrlovka Street will become an exception to the laws of the market. And it will make its owners rich!

...

It is much easier to convince yourself of the success of your business than to convince the market of this.

The real reason why most newly established businesses die goes deeper: to build a business effectively, you need to be a professional business owner yourself.The profession of a business owner is difficult and difficult. They learn it mainly by trial and error. If the owner of the business is not experienced and professional enough, he can ruin any business that would become quite successful with another owner.

...

Think learning is key professional qualitiesnecessary for a successful owner is better in strangerbusiness - in which you are employed. A professional owner needs to be a pro in three professions: sales negotiation, management, and financial management. It makes sense to plan your career so as to deal with serious practical tasks in all three areas.

But experience in sales, management and finance doesn't make you a professional owner yet. The owner must know and be able to do what no hired employee knows or can do. Therefore, it is wise to enter your first business as a junior co-founder with an experienced prime owner whose style of running the business you enjoy. You may not end up being a co-founder in this business as a result. But on the other hand, you will gain experience that is much more valuable.

Also, the big question is - should you really become a business owner? Your business is a terrible stress and a very big responsibility. Imagine that the month was not entirely successful and you need to pay 3,500,000 rubles to cover the current losses of your business. Of own pocket... And so - for several months in a row. And two leading employees realized that the case smelled like kerosene, and left you, taking their Client base. Many business owners can't stand the strain that weighs on them and ruins their nerves every month. They break first. Then their business dies.

If you create a business to become a free person, you will not succeed. In business, there is no more unfree person than its owner. Any of your employees can leave you. You have nowhere to go from your own business. You are 100% financially responsible. In addition, your employees look in your mouth and expect a miracle from you every day. This is how you become the main workaholic in your own business. Many business owners I know work 10 to 14 hours a day. Without days off and checkpoints. Some of them do not go on vacation for 5-7 years. What kind of wage job would you be so stressed out on? It turns out that in fact you have become not the owner of the business, but its slave.

Therefore, starting your own business in order to become a free person is not the best best idea... This can be achieved by very different means - seriously engaging in investments.

...

The idea that you can become a free person by starting your own business is just a myth.

It's time to deal with another popular myth - that you need to have your own business in order to make a lot of money.

We create a business to make a lot of money

The next popular misconception is "Now I am going to own a business and make a lot of money." Indeed, many business owners are wealthy people. The only nuance is that only owners become wealthy people. successfulbusinesses. And as we already know, most businesses die before they become successful.

If the whole idea of \u200b\u200ba business is just to make a lot of money, such a business may be doomed from the start. Every business is organized for profit. But Clients bring you profit because they get something useful and valuable for themselves. They will not pay your Company simply because you want to make a lot of money. Actually, the mission of your Company should be the answer to the question:

...

"What is so useful and valuable that my business gives Clients to pay them money?"

Let's assume that the business is based on a sensible business idea that makes it possible to make money. But it will take a long time to get income. First, you will make the initial investment. Then you will pay recurring costs every month. Incomes will not start to appear at all from the very beginning. The first happy month will be the one when current income exceeds current costs, that is, the business passes the breakeven point for current payments. To this moment financial results creating a business is a deep minus. Equal to the sum of the initial investment and current losses for all previous months.

The beautiful idea of \u200b\u200bstarting a business without investment, on closer inspection, is nowhere near so beautiful. Few businesses can start normally without significant investment. Often, underfunding is a delayed death sentence. Such a business can be organized. And it can even generate income for a while. But then the competition intensifies, the business starts to incur losses and bend. The question arises: what problems are causing the business to die? But there is only one problem: it was necessary to invest more at the very beginning!

Thus, the business at the time of launch creates a big hole in the owner's pocket. The next few months (or even a year or two), the total losses are growing. Even when the business reaches its current profitability, the business owner is the last one in line to give money. First you need to pay all current obligations. Then invest in development: pay for advertising and additional purchased property. And only what remains of mandatory payments and investments in development is received by the owner.

That is why professional owners are so attentive to the return on investment. At the moment when the owner fully returns to himself all the funds invested in the business, he moreearned nothing. But he alreadylost nothing. That is, he has the right to at least not feel like a fool.

Conclusion: organizing new businessYou should consider a situation in which you incur recurrent costs for a whole year and do not receive any income. If you can afford it - welcome to our entrepreneurial ranks! In any case, you are ready for the planned losses.

Easy money, or Copy someone else's profitable business

To create a successful business, you need a good business idea. It's not easy to come up with it. Many entrepreneurs are racking their brains but still cannot come up with any worthwhile business idea. Therefore, they act easier: why invent their own, when you can borrow someone else's?

These entrepreneurs see someone's lucrative business and think they could do the same. And make some money. They especially love to create businesses that create everything around them. The result is logical: in most cases, such entrepreneurs find themselves at a broken trough.

...

EXAMPLE

In every region, a fashion periodically begins for a business, turning into an epidemic. In the region None of the first business epidemics was the pharmacy. The first pharmacies were indeed profitable businesses. After that, everyone who could open them began to open them. Most of these pharmacies have not recouped even the initial investment. As a result, only pharmacy chains remained competitive. All individual pharmacies went into negative territory and were bought by chains.

Then there were the business epidemics of communication salons, Internet centers, plastic window manufacturing enterprises, photo salons ... Some of them were simply outrageous.

The first internet center - "A." - cost its owners a tidy sum: 40 thousand dollars was invested only in repairs. It makes sense to repair this class only in ownroom - as it happened in this case. (If you make too good repairs in a rented space, then this leads either to moving out of that space or to an increase in rent.) A lot has been invested in both furniture and computer equipment. All costs paid off in 11 months. Not bad.

On the second Internet center - "BM", - organized by the same owners, the invested funds were returned in 9 months.

Both Internet centers brought income to their owners. And a very significant one.

After the Internet center "BM" was launched, many other entrepreneurs in the region Ninterested in similar business... More than ten new Internet Centers were soon opened. Most of them could not even reach self-sufficiency. Why?

The main source of income for Internet centers was ... online computer games. The very name "Internet Center" was a cover - so that taxes would not be taken from computers, like from slot machines. Although they also provided Internet services. The first internet point hit the stream. Many teenagers were interested in fighting computer games over the network. And they were willing to pay for it. The second center, located on the main pedestrian street of the city, has significantly increased the number of such players. But their total number in the city and the amount of money that could be collected from them on a monthly basis were limited. While this turnover was divided into two Internet centers, the business was highly profitable. When the number of centers increased from two to twelve, the number of players did not increase sixfold. It has remained approximately the same. But the money they brought began to be divided not into two parts, but into twelve. Wherein lion's share still got the two "old" Internet centers, which already had their own clientele. In order to somehow attract visitors, new centers began to be dumped. But the Clients' money was not enough for the centers to be self-sufficient, even at the old prices. And the dumping just precipitated the market crash. In the next couple of years, most of the Internet centers just worked in the negative. And closed one by one. In parallel with this, new Internet centers were opened. Their owners believed that they could make money on this business! They probably thought that before them only idiots were engaged in this business. As a result, the Internet centers of the newly minted clever could not earn even to cover running costs... And they burned out with cosmic speed.

Summary: if today this line of business is highly profitable and easy to enter, then soon the total profitability of all businesses this direction will tend to zero. This means that most of these businesses will simply be unprofitable.

It can be said even easier: if you are going to invest in a business that is not very difficult to enter and in which you can quickly make a lot of money, keep in mind that you are not the only one so smart. There is a whole city of such "smart people". And many of them at this very moment are investing in the same business in which you are going to invest. As a result, the number of such businesses will grow several times. At the same time, the number of Clients will not increase. None of you - "smart people" - will not be able to return even the money invested.

A separate topic is the situation when an employee (junior partner) leaves the Company. To create his own business, like two peas in a pod, similar to the business from which he left. Most of these attempts are doomed to fail from the start. Some, however, may be successful. So which attempts to steal the business have a chance of success, and which do not?

When the business is purely intermediary (buy and sell), it can be successfully “taken away” along with the customer base. The possibilities of such a “withdrawal” are especially great for a merchant who serves the main clients of the Company. And maintains a personal relationship with them. The likelihood of "withdrawal" increases if personal meetings with key Clients is carried out only by this merchant. And the rest of the Company employees do not meet with them personally and do not go to visit them. Telephone communication is not enough!The likelihood of “diversion” is even higher if the same people are involved in both the sale and purchase. And even higher if a significant volume of deliveries is made to order - that is, large stocks are not required.

The more resources are required to organize a business, the more difficult it is to “take away” such a business without outright theft. It is more reliable when serious investments, real estate, licenses, and administrative resources are needed to organize a business. All this provides additional protection against "drift".

Complex businesses are not badly protected from “diversion”. A complex business is not easy to get up and running. But it is just as difficult to reproduce, that is, to "take away." This is why I have always loved the Internet service business. In this business anyseed funding is not a sufficient condition for creating successfulbusiness. The same can be said for many other high-tech and “expert” businesses.

The most unfortunate option for "ditching" a business is when trying to create a small copy of the original business. Such a copy does not differ from the original in anything other than size and resources. When asked how the new business will be better than the original one, they answer: "The owner of that business is a complete goat!" Of course, those executives don't know how to run a business. And we are smart, and we will definitely succeed! These homebrew entrepreneurs don't even understand the true size of the challenges facing business owners. Blinking their eyes, they rush to open their own business. And when they understand how they got there, it's too late.

...

EXAMPLE

In a training company I know, one of the leading businesswomen felt that she was not appreciated enough. She conspired with one of the trainers. He was also of the opinion that the business was poorly run, the employees were paid little, and the business owner was a jerk. Together they decided to create their own business. We started campaigning among the employees. All this was revealed. And the sweet couple were expelled - along with another young employee whom they managed to lure.

Coach registered entity... We rented an office and started working. It was then that it turned out that making money with the three of us, starting from scratch, is quite difficult. And the office, salaries, taxes, accounting and everything else eats money, monthly and constantly. The "original" business used the funds left over from the Clients' payments after payments to merchants and trainers. As a result, the profitability never exceeded 10-15% of the turnover. Although a team of 30 people was engaged in making money. And where thirty people can hardly provide a 10% profit, three are unlikely to be able to add up at all.

And so it happened with our trinity. More money was constantly required than they earned. Skirmishes and strife began. Six months later, the three "accomplices" parted, pouring black mud at each other. The coach tried two more times to assemble the team from scratch - both times everyone ran away. Less than a year later, he gave up the office. And so another died promising business... Which on common sense shouldn't have been created at all.

Konstantin Alexandrovich Baksht

How to ruin your own business. Bad advice to Russian entrepreneurs

DEDICATED TO MY FAMILY

A father who showed me how a man should live and die.

Mom, who supported me when I fell again. And she believed in me, no matter what.

To my beloved uncle, who taught me that getting up once is not so important. It is important to be able to get up after a fall.

And, of course, Lena, Sasha and Misha.

I rise for you.

Introduction

They say that it is difficult to create and develop a business in Russia. Almost impossible. And this is so.

However, the analysis of thousands of our enterprises led me to a sad conclusion. In Russia, the most dangerous person for a business is its owner.

CHAPTER 1. How to ditch a business even before it is created

We create a business to become a business owner

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Business book description:

According to the analysis of thousands of Russian enterprises, the most dangerous person for a business in Russia is its owner. Many of our businesses are doomed already at the stage of creation. If the case still began to rise to its feet, then the owner can finish it off in a hundred different ways. Trying to somehow raise and develop a business, its owners constantly make typical mistakes. Moreover, these mistakes are the same for owners of completely different businesses in different parts of the country.

In this book, the author tried to list the main rake that hinders development or ruins the majority of small and medium-sized businesses in Russia. If you do not repeat at least these mistakes when building your own business, your business can already be considered exemplary.

The presented fragment of the book was posted by agreement with the distributor of legal content LLC "Liters" (no more than 20% of the original text). If you believe that the posting of the material violates your or someone else's rights, then.

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