February 15, 2015 at 14:44Lectures of the Technopark. Programming in management. The story of one student Baumanka
Today we continue the cycle of publishing lectures by Technopark (by the way, the project recently turned 3 years old ). In this lecture, Kirill Markin, a student at Moscow State Technical University. Bauman, will share his experience in creating a small company "Diafentis", which is engaged in the implementation of various software systems. See the lecture summary under the cat.
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Our company is small, only 12 people. We exist for more than three years, the annual turnover is several tens of millions of rubles. We work with profit, both on a yearly and monthly basis. All these three years we have been growing, and I hope that soon we will grow beyond the concept of "small business".
What is Diafentis? Now it is a company that implements CRM and ERP systems, mainly we work with Microsoft products. We take their platforms, negotiate with specific companies that want to implement them for ourselves, and implement them. That’s all, a simple business idea.
There are many major players in this market. I believe that large companies cannot do cool, fast and cheap enough, as we small players do. And so a certain circle of customers, including large ones, comes to us, to the “little things”. When they come to a large company, they say: “Hello! We want implementation, ”and to them in response:“ Well done. Month - approval of TOR. Another month - implementation ”, and a price tag of 10 million for any department. So customers begin to look around for other contractors. They come to us, to me and similar companies. We agree on a lower price tag, for shorter periods, and thus get our market share. Of course, the client has more risks at the same time, because they work with a small company, which can go broke while they implement it. There is a process of implementation for six months, but many try to save and take risks. Who are our customers? This distribution, banking, non-profit organizations, training organizations (schools, various courses, this is the direction).
There is a fundamental difference between those who have their own business and those who are going to create. It is exactly the same as between business owners and employees. That is, the desire to create a business does not make you a businessman. Perhaps in other countries they teach business management, but with us in this area it is rather sad. It’s possible to teach some management functions, and it’s very difficult to teach management as such, especially how to own a company. After all, how to teach someone who owns? It’s strange if we teach him, then why don’t we own it? As a result, it turns out that the most important thing is simply the “flying hours”. It does not matter what to manage. For example, a student team that does a course project and doesn’t know at all whether it will make a profit, but which calls itself a “company,” is already flying hours. Therefore, there, if you want to create your own company, then the output is very simple and elementary - it is necessary to create. To burn out or not to burn out is already trifles. Important only hours of flight. As with obtaining a pilot’s license, you can’t just come and learn to fly. It takes several hours to fly in order to just get a training card. It’s the same here.
First, I’ll briefly tell you what I have been doing all these 21 long years.
8 years. The first hello word program. How it was. I found a basic textbook somewhere and simply retyped the functions from there. I did not know what they mean, I did not understand these complex words that were in the book. That is, I retyped procedures and functions from the book and then composed some programs from them at a higher level. Without delving into how it is done, how it works.
At 10, he went to work. "Mom, Dad, I want a typewriter." "Earn." He became a cleaner. 4 hours on weekdays had to work. The first week was fun, then tired. Terribly boring! I just hated the 600 rubles a month they paid me.
Further to 14 years, he simply increased the amount of work and the number of areas in which he worked. These are 5 different posts, 5 different bosses, in two companies. Bosses in one company did not overlap. There began terrible problems over time. Around there are a lot of people who want to shove their work on you, but are not your bosses. I am 14 years old - generally a tidbit, also works almost around the clock. That is, I had some kind of immense amount of work, I understood that my bosses were unhappy, I had to look for a solution. I reread all the books of Gleb of Arkhangelsk. Something is being introduced, something is not, and it turns out somehow to make it so that they do not fire me immediately from five jobs.
At the age of 15, I decided that five works is somehow a lot, I need to concentrate, and became a personal assistant. This is such a very peculiar job, they can call at one in the morning, and you are mainly engaged in shifting pieces of paper. But a lot of books and information passed through me for my leader. Then I just read the same thing he did, looked the same, listened the same. He grabbed everything. He worked as a personal assistant in several companies.
At 16 years old - project manager. It was something spontaneous, like “We need virtual tours of these five objects, but there are no resources to do them. There is such a sum for these very tours. If you do, i.e. if they hang on the site by such a deadline - your money. If you don’t do it, there is no money. ” I’m getting in touch with the guys from the physical education department, we are stirring up something funny there. I made virtual tours, the first project was completed. I had 1 person in the project and 3 in outsourcing. By that time, I had tried a bunch of classes, worked since 10 years. I didn’t go to school, I passed anyhow. And at 16 I realized that I was hooked on the topic of management.
At 17 I understand that I want my company and that I can only work with techies. I have not developed normal relations with any of the humanitarians with whom I tried to work together. Having fallen in love with techies, having loved IT, being a geek from childhood, he began to go round technical universities. The building of Moscow State University did not like at all. Later I found out that programmers and mathematicians study in another building.
I finished school with a gold medal, before the exam was 3 months. Everything is good, passed the test, the exam is "excellent". It was 3 months, I worked and did not do it at all. I passed all the exam on 60 points and wrote exams. It turned out too little, they didn’t take it anywhere. I entered the paid branch in Baumanka to find a partner first, and then a team for my company.
In my first year I was looking for a partner. I thought it would be logical to just make a file for each of my classmates, and choose the best one. Wonderful man Konstantin Ershov won. In the second year, he and I created a company. From the age of 17, I understood what my company should be, developed everything related to its creation.
We had a consulting business, we took the training system that exists within the client’s organization. If it was not there, we developed it. And trained new employees on this system. In the first month we had a turnover of 10,000 rubles. They were ill-sawed, i.e. we left nothing for the development of the company. We decided that the first money should be taken away.
In the second month of work, we hired the first employee for 50 rubles per hour. Our partner salary was approximately 500 rubles per month, the amount of work - about 40 hours a week. 4 months - a change in the company's course, they went into the development of the database, completely abandoning consulting. 5 month - the first purchase for the company, a laptop. 7 month - 50,000 rubles went on sale.
For more than six months we worked to get 50,000 rubles for two. Despite the fact that I had experience from 10 years, if I started working for hire, I would get much more. At the same time, our salary came out at 2000 per person, everything else remained in the company.
9 month - a jump occurred, we already have 7 employees. The average salary is 120 rubles per hour. It’s not an IT level at all, we pay, and it works fine. We are growing.
11 months - we realized that we can grow further only if we attract investments. The first investments were small, several hundred thousand rubles. But they allowed us to make a new leap. It turned out that in vain. I had to cut three employees, because it was absolutely wrong to use the borrowed funds, which cost us a share in the company.
At the 13th month, we are finally developing business cards and a logo. The company existed without them for more than a year, and no particular problems. I do not agree with those who believe that design is paramount, which is very important to start with business cards, brochures, booklets, etc. from the very beginning. All this is nice, but I do not agree. Let's say you spend 50,000 rubles on a corporate identity. Even if you save money and hire the worst designer, then you have to redo it 10 times. Or good - once. 50 000 rubles will definitely be spent on corporate identity. And we have the entire turnover for the seventh month was 50,000.
Please note - growth is very slow. Unfortunately, I did not know how to make companies. And so there was a very slow growth. Now, in the third year, we have a turnover of several tens of millions a year. This is very small. These are terrible indicators for the third year of business life. They are good only in what I study. Having created new companies, I will develop them already faster.
15 months - 13 employees, turnover of 300,000 rubles per month. Now we have as many employees, only the turnover is several times larger. At that time, we worked inefficiently, many things did not know how to do, did not optimize something, etc. Constantly hired people, fired.
If someone has money, you can attract it. In most cases, you need to somehow convince the potential investor of the success and profitability of your scheme. Show that it is better to invest in your project than if this money will simply be in the account. If he, having invested in you, does not receive anything in return, then you are engaged in charity. Do anything, just not business.
The first investments of almost all companies are parents. Simple: "Mom, Dad, give 100,000." If the parents are smart, then they are forced to draw up a package of documents. Then calculate the return on investment, ROIrecount everything, everything is very harsh. If mom and dad are simpler people, then they can just give money. The point is that no matter who gives you money, always consider that they were taken from a bank that will take everything from you if you do not return it.
Friends, relatives ... you can almost always get a million. You can just walk around the hostel. You only need to convince people with the help of graphs, numbers, and not with the help of "I am a beautiful boy." It will work on three girls, and you need guys who have money.
Use connections, relatives, friends, colleagues. Ask who has any acquaintances who need, for example, a site? Nobody needs? Okay. A week later you go again. Who needs a website?
There is such a thing as active direct sales. Choose a market and begin to penetrate there. Your agents go, talk, use marketing, mailing, etc. This is an active stage. You have no money. You just created a company, you have a balance of 0. Yes, my company was created with zero balance. There were no cash investments at the start. My partner and I invested time. When you start, you do not have the money to actively seek customers. Look the other way around. Look for liabilities. Just sort through a bunch of your friends. Sort the phone book, call and ask - who needs a site?
You need to receive an order with minimal costs. The minimum costs are acquaintances, friends, who may need your services. For example, a course project I need to make a site. You want to build websites for huge companies, and they say to you “do a course project for 5,000 rubles”. Cool! You have your first order for 5,000 rubles in cash. Great! We take it. That is, the first customers are from their environment.
I will talk about this through the prism of my understanding of business and company. I cannot urge him to follow. My understanding is this: customers have needs to satisfy. They need this very site, they need this implementation, they need the floors removed, it doesn’t matter. This need must be satisfied and receive money. This is primary. And legal registration, taxes, deductions, etc. are not important. By no means do I call for illegal business, no. I only say that it is less important than the client. If it is convenient for the client to give you cash - do not show off. It must be done as convenient to the client.
When a company is just born, you do not have your own lawyer. And there is no money for him. It is advisable that everything be correct in terms of accounting, jurisprudence, etc. Be sure to collect all the data about the suppliers, you need to know them. It is necessary to officially arrange yourself for your work. There are a lot of all sorts of nuances. And they need to be resolved when you have enough money so that you don’t mess with your customers. I do not urge to abandon the white bookkeeping. But for me it is more important that I have clients and I work for them. Everything else is distracting. There are clients who want their problem to be resolved, and there is a state that wants to squeeze in somehow: “Guys, maybe you will pay us too?” We will pay. We will have money, then calculate how much we must pay you.
I will return to this later, but we must understand that the legal entity is IP, LLC, etc. - it's just a fiction. A company exists from the moment you decide that it exists. Let's say many chain stores open three LLCs for the project. They are presented within one store, some have one, others have another. You go there - who, where, whose? It is incomprehensible, and this is not accidental. We live with such wonderful laws and rules that if you can see who you are, you can always be imprisoned.
The legal issue of the first transaction disappears. The first deal is 10,000 rubles. Seriously. If a tax inspector comes to me and says: “Have you paid your tax?” I will say: “The first transaction is 10,000 rubles.” He will say: “Ah, okay.” And he will leave, because it is not interesting to anyone. For 10,000 rubles, no one will put anyone in prison.
There were two of them. The first is the feeling that I am a fool. It’s like someone somewhere knows something like this, but I just created a company. Nothing like this! If you are 12 years old, you just created a company that sells strawberries on the road, then you know best within the next 10 kilometers how to sell strawberries on the road. And no one can advise you normally. Not because they are all fools, but because they don’t understand anything about selling strawberries. If it seems that you need to do something, you need to do it. If it seems that a person needs to be fired - fire! Do not make a mistake and do not begin to doubt your innocence.
And the second mistake - I did not know how to steal algorithms. Not ideas, but algorithms. I am not a startup. Probably, with startups it’s somehow different. At the age of 35, I can’t explain to myself why I earned minus $ 2 billion. I need to have a positive balance. I need to know how much money I made, how many useful services I made, how much I improved in this world. I am a streaming businessman, such projects, such companies - a billion. And here it is very important to be able to steal algorithms. Find out how a neighbor is doing. Go into the next dorm room, which is someone's office, and eavesdrop, but how is he doing? And then introduce it at home. Steal, improve, steal, improve, steal, improve. This applies to all algorithms.
When we create a company whose business model has already been invented before us, we must steal everything and then improve it. Because if from the very beginning we want to build everything beautifully without stealing, then there simply will not be enough time. We will have more time to develop from the very beginning. Therefore, we must be able to steal cool algorithms. A lot of guys gladly give them away. Seriously. To steal is a very big word. In fact, everyone is happy to tell. Like me now.
These conclusions are only mine, they may be wrong.
A systematic approach is a very simple thing. You need to be big from the start. When you create a company, how does this happen? You say: “Guys, I want my company. All tomorrow I’ll go look for orders. ” The first order appeared a week later, “We must now find one guy, I alone can’t do it. I’ll find one guy, and since I will constantly look for orders, in principle, leave him, let him work. Well, I’ll take the project for the first time, but we'll see. ” A month later, you have this guy, you close the order, get the money. And here it is very important to stop telling your friends and customers how big you are, and instantly become so. If your customer knows that he is very important to you and brings the main profit, then he will crush you for the price. This is logical. Therefore, in no case should any customer know that he is your saving order. Let the company close if you don’t receive this order now, but this infection should not know that it is.
To become big you need to do only two things. The first is to close information on the composition of owners and turnover. You can talk back. Remember, as I said at the very beginning, that I have several tens of millions. How many? Unclear. I can calculate the turnover in ten different ways, I will get different indicators. I lie to my customers. I tell them a different figure. It is necessary to instantly give out the information that you want to hear to your customers.
Sales are a very dirty topic. You need to understand that if you are engaged in sales (and if you own a company, you must engage in them), be prepared that you will have to lie by looking people in the eye. Nothing terrible will happen, everyone does it. This is for good sales. Top companies don't have thousands of employees, but never talk about true numbers. And if you are talking to a native of officials who measures the volume of a company by employees? Everything, you are in flight. You have to look like a big player, and make it cheaper. And you can do cheaper because you are small, you can take yourself less margin. But large ones cannot.
It is very important to immediately build the correct system. Do not stop at something small, momentary, otherwise you will not have development. If your algorithm, suppose it works, think about how to scale. From the very beginning, you need to figure out how you capture your piece of the market. If you do not, you can just stay with your little piece, turn into a collector of freelancers: there are three of us, when there is no money, one, and when there is -10. Not that! We need a systematic approach to constantly grow.
Every year, my turnover and profit figures increase, I have to beat them out. It is important for me to take a piece of the market. I am not interested in a freelance company that is “rushing around” on projects. I need a steady stream of projects.
The first conclusion. Functional. We have a company, and there are functions. This is just one example of how to break down the functionality of a company. You can do it any other way. Imagine you need to model a company. That you have some classics, some employees, your own characteristics. And now you are writing code for these classics and characteristics. Moreover, these employees under whom you write the code, they are also a kind of "black boxes" for you. And in the end, you have a set of biorobots and resources, some external sources. And you need to write code. This is one of the main tasks of the entire management.
I will give a very simple example. Most often, in the first month of work, you are the only employee of your company, you should receive a salary that must be calculated not by one line in Excel (“I am wonderful and beautiful, 5,000 rubles”), but by ten different ones. Because you get paid as a general, as an accountant, as a salesman, as a security guard, etc. The salary is small, scanty, but you need to count yourself in different lines. It is very important. If you think in people, then you will have a kind of family business. You accept people, you love them very much, appreciate them, mourn them. Look, what a wonderful guy ran. Let’s give him such a job. The fact that the work is useless and the company is not needed is not of interest. In order not to hit such a thing, first do the functionality, and then people. First decide what needs to be done for the company, and then you’ll figure out with whom to “plug the holes”. Most often, 1-2 people are enough at the start of the company. Two are enough to close the entire functionality of the company. Why? Because we do not have legal and accounting functionality due to lack of money for them.
When you start to grow, then these functions are simply transferred to other people. The position as such should be tied to the functional. It is clear that accounting is done by an accountant. But only when you have money for an accountant. And initially you play this role.
So, how to paint functions. The rules are very similar to coding. Only so that there are not so many functions, otherwise we will not figure it out later. We should have as few variables as possible. That is, we have a set of rules that apply in conventional software development. We must write this “code” in an optimal way, and at different stages of the company’s development this optimal type is different. You will rewrite classes, functions, responsibilities, get rid of entire classes, i.e. fire people. Reduction is not when you fired an employee because he is a fool, but when you realized that you did not need this function.
This is one of the main things. To describe functions in a company, you have to be very, very lazy. Well, for example, how did I create a technical support department in my company? I was then a project manager, and one of the users of my clients wrote me a letter. Something like "But it doesn’t work for me here, it is something there, I don’t know which button to click on." I am so lazy a bastard that I am ready to work 60 hours a week so that I do not have to answer this letter. Do you understand the logic?
When we talk about this technical support, we need to be lazy, not want to answer these letters ourselves, and create a feature in which technical support will respond to the flow of such letters.
It is very important not to turn standardization into a bureaucracy. For example, when you have too many obscure standards that state that your analyst should come to a client, be sure to call your boss upon arrival, but in fact no one respects this. It turns out that the standard requires you to do so, and we will do as we want, and then customize. This kind of standardization is not needed. She is useless.
When you create a standard, be sure to familiarize yourself with how employees implement it. If they really reduce it somewhere, then usually this is a kind of optimization. They are so lazy that they improve your standard. Observe how they work and change the standard. Because when new employees come, they don’t need to reinvent the wheel. They should take advantage of what your employees invented before them. For example, I have slang, mate and jokes allowed in the standards.
One more example. This is a developer workflow. We have our own project accounting system, and here it is written how to work with certain tasks. We use a phased, detailed explanation so that even a novice can figure it out. Standards should be written for idiots, but not because your employees are idiots.
Be sure to paint the functionality of not only your employees, but also yours. You are the CEO. What does the CEO do? For example, he receives 50,000 rubles, we write out his tasks. It turns out that he looks at one report once a month. Why then 50,000 rubles? For viewing the report and making one decision? Break down the functionality, because when you hire another CEO, you need to know what that person will do. The same thing here.
Look for cool, best employees, geniuses, and with them create your company’s system. And these cool guys, together with you, also cool, should create a system with standards for idiots. For example, you went on vacation, and your personnel officer hired an idiot, well, it happens, you yourself can accidentally hire an idiot, this also happens. And you have a whole training system built up, but, unfortunately, this is unattainable by standards alone, you need hired trainers, either outsourcing or inside the company.
When a business is created, it seems to you that you can do what you want. This is not true. A manager is just a laborer. The higher the position, the more he is a laborer. This is the most decent of words. In fact, it would be more correct to call a “whore”. The higher your position in the company, the more holes you have to plug if they form under you. The CEO must become a courier if he does not come to work. A courier should not become nothing if someone has not done something. Therefore, the higher you climb into the company, and ownership is the highest, there’s simply nowhere to go above — the more you become a laborer in your company, and it doesn’t matter what you want to do. You will do what the company wanted. Well, your loader did not go to work today. Forward! The guy didn’t come out today, who was supposed to go to a meeting with a client. And you cannot send anyone to a meeting with a client; you have no options. If you do, you will not have orders. And we are with you in IT, we have B2B orders, everything starts with 50,000 rubles there. And you will lose them if you don’t get up and go to the client right now. The person you take on a management position needs to know this. And you yourself simply have no options. You must do this. And if you do not, then you lose money. must know this. And you yourself simply have no options. You must do this. And if you do not, then you lose money. must know this. And you yourself simply have no options. You must do this. And if you do not, then you lose money.
There is the concept of "agreement." It is primary, and a legal contract is a secondary thing. What is an arrangement? When representatives of the two companies agreed on which of them will do what and what will happen if each of them does not do something. Punishments are not a mandatory item; they can be excluded. Punishment can even be used to self-stimulate. For example, if you need guarantees that you will do the work, then include in the contract the punishment for yourself for non-compliance.
If you reach an agreement with a client, then you have a classic option: you can legally fix this agreement. How are all the agreements at the top level, the most expensive, for example, the sale of the company? Companies with a price tag of several million are sold on a napkin in a cafe not because they are so much cooler, pretentious, and so they write in magazines, but because it is the easiest way. You don't care. You agreed, and then just exchanged the phones of lawyers. All. They will figure it out. It does not matter exactly how it will be framed, what will be done with it. You need to specify the price tag and basic conditions on each side. If they are agreed on a napkin, then everything else is clear.
After that, the lawyers of both companies discuss and draw up a contract, give it to their bosses, and they approve it. Bosses don't finish on a napkin. They agreed on it, and then they approve a piece of paper, read it. But they do not make it up. Then the lawyer puts them on the table and shows the risks, you need to put pressure on such and such a parameter, and there will be so many losses, maybe then ... If you don’t like it, the bosses try to negotiate.
It is impossible to break agreements with your client. If you are unable to fulfill the agreement - call, cancel this agreement and create a new one. To postpone the term of the order is a change in the terms of the agreements, you do not violate it, you offer: “And let me do it not tomorrow, but after 2 days,” and if they say to you “Come on,” then you have not broken a single agreement. If they say to you: “No, don’t give”, but you didn’t do it tomorrow, then you have broken the agreement. The initial agreement must be fulfilled, but you can try to change the conditions. As I said, legal registration of an agreement is not necessary. In a huge number of cases, even by law is not necessary.
There are some key positions — suppliers, customers, staff — that determine the value of your services. It is very important. How much does a website cost? The answer to this question must be sought in the market. We open freelancer exchanges, job sites, look there. We take the supplier base, google, ring up the top 20 queries - how much does anyone have? We drop all extreme values - too expensive and too cheap. Too cheap - most likely bad. Too expensive - most likely, they simply snickered or did not monitor the market. And in accordance with these amounts we form the numbers we need or set price tags. Or we offer employees a certain salary. It is very important to be able to monitor the market, a search engine is enough for this. As soon as you find your average price for market services.
Your company should always have a tender system. For example, when choosing suppliers, you can never choose from one supplier. If my friend supplies water to the office, and I have an office and I need this service, then there is some small chance that the ideal supplier and my friend are one person. The probability is extremely small. The market is huge. You need to always look for the perfect supplier. They allow you to pay after a year, they want little money and ideally provide a service. Suppliers can be “squeezed”, you can not pay them longer, you can call and change the agreement: “But let us still pay you a month late.” Your task is very simple - spend as little as possible, earn as much as possible. Another thing is that you need to do it right, otherwise you just go bankrupt.
While you are small - no tender. We must take and do the work. When you are big, see who you work with. Having arranged a kind of unofficial (!) Contest, you can refuse some problem customers and take more convenient ones.
Never choose employees for one interview. At least three. Even if you really liked the candidate, conduct 2 more interviews at least to make sure that he is cool. And you need to choose from several candidates, because a tender should work everywhere.
There are most jambs at the beginning of the business, and jambs are not global, but small logical jambs. Everything is really simple. You need to count the money. There is such an anecdote: the hare came to the lion and said: “Please give me 100,000 for the business.” Leo says: “Well, good. I'll give you a try, but we'll see. ” Gives him 100,000. The hare leaves happy. The next day he returns, says: "Another 100,000." The lion says: “Well, right so right away?” Hare: “Well, actually.” Another 100,000. The next day returns: "Another 100,000." Leo says: “On! But I’ll go now and see what you do there. ” "Come on, go." The lion comes, and there is a huge queue of animals, long-long. The lion comes to the wolf and says: “What are you standing?” The wolf says: “So the hare changes the ruble by two.” The lion did not understand, he was going to the hare: “Hare, are you crazy? What is this? ”The Hare says:
Very often, small, newly created companies sell a non-existent service. They agreed with their employees that they would be paid a salary next month, and used their time, closing contracts for a lesser amount than the amount of employees' salaries. As a result, a negative balance. This is not a business. Therefore, you should always consider your finances. It seems ridiculous, you think that I certainly won’t do it. Do it. And I did it.
If you hire a financial director, then he should receive a percentage of the profits. Not from income, how much you received all the money for this month, but from profit - how much you received minus how much you spent. Because otherwise your CFO will spend as much money as you want to get more. He can just drive you into this trap. It is also important not to forget about the turnover, because if we have a mad profit, and the customer is only one - you will go bankrupt.
From the very beginning of the existence of the company, it is necessary to keep a record of funds. You have cash, all kinds of cards, credit cards, etc. There are funds from your employees and partners. And there is a bunch of money that belongs to the company. This bunch of money for every moment of time, minus all the obligations that you have to pay, belongs to the owners of the company. That is, if you are a 100% owner, then you own the whole bunch of money minus the money that you owe - salaries, taxes, i.e. debts. After paying off all the debts, all that remains, you can take in your pocket. You can, but do not automatically pick up. The difference is huge. You must decide that you are withdrawing money from the business. Therefore, you need to have a separate envelope, a separate cash desk. This envelope is the cash desk of the company, and you need to keep it. You have to consider every penny,
If things are going well, then you get a net profit every month. Most likely, starting from the third or fourth month, if it is a streaming production, and not a startup. Net profit must be distributed. You can leave it on the development of the company, in bank accounts or in envelopes. But keep in mind that your accountant will see this money in statements.
You can send it to the company's stabilization fund, this is a separate envelope with a separate file with transactions that you do not show to any of the employees. This is money for a rainy day for the company if something happens. If your accountant knows that you have an extra million in your accounts, then he will not even think about it, but how would it be more optimal for us to pay money to suppliers. A million lies the same. Now pay. Although under the contract, the payment term may come in 5 days. If you take this million into the stabilization fund and do not show it to your accountant and sales people, then for them this money is not. They work, they know that they need to earn money this month in order to get a salary. The presence of the stabilization fund itself does not need to be hidden from employees, everyone understands that it is, but how much money is there - you can’t say in any case. It is necessary to keep in the stabilization fund an amount sufficient to work for 5 months without income. At least three.
And the third, where you can put money, is to withdraw from the business and divide into shares according to the number of owners. It is important to find a balance. There are those who conduct their business, withdrawing 100% of net profit. Those. nothing remains for the development of the company, and they invest there something later. I do not understand and dislike this approach. The first years of 2 I didn’t get anything at all, everything was fine. And then, from a certain moment, the owner needs some kind of motivation. You can display a percentage of net profit. This is also your decision, the decision of the business owners. And you need to decide how much to leave. You can distribute money equally among all owners, or you can not withdraw it at all until you take certain positions in the market.
And the last moment is budgeting. We take all the transactions that went through your company, and each of them is assigned a certain category.
The numbers are invented, the proportions are preserved. We have two types of income - development and other income. A two-tier system is shown here. It happens that they make both a three-level and a four-level.
We have semi-annual indicators, there is a percentage of income or expense, how much we have this or that transaction. The balance at the end of the month is carried over to the next period, it is indicated here that, after deduction of the stabilization fund, 30% comes out for development and everything else. And our delta, i.e. how much money we received is income minus expenses.
Of course, the budget of a real company looks much more complicated. In financial management textbooks, everything is very cool and cool, there are a lot of indicators. It's not needed. At first, it’s enough to draw up your budget system, and then you must definitely implement everything that smart people of this world have come up with. But then. Because while there is enough time and money only on Excel. Each category has its own, i.e. How do you like. Detailing is needed where the most money. For example, 70% of the salary fund is a lot. Perhaps you need to break down salaries into various articles - production salary, administration salary. To monitor every month how much and where you will spend money. Based on this, plans are formed for salespeople, logistics managers, etc.
How large should the company be for the state to want to intervene in its affairs? Unfortunately, I don’t know. Politics always intervenes, but, for example, if a new tax is introduced now, I will have to pay it. At this level, intervenes constantly. At other levels, it never affects while you do IT. What is the policy in IT? They do not understand how it works. Most likely, you will not be interested in them. In IT it’s not easy to manage a company, a development team. How to take this business from me? It will be hard. I have my own team, my own management system, which is designed specifically for this team. If you remove me, the team will break up.
When you open your company, you get into an action movie. This is not a joke. The theft of money, information from my clients, blackmail, luring employees - all this I had. Unless mask shows have yet to appear. Fearfully. The lawyer has now compiled an algorithm of what to do if uncles run in and put their muzzle on the floor. For example, one of my customers, if administrators do not disconnect user access on time, then he logs in and destroys the data in bulk if he has access. Or spoils. And then we sit and pump everything out of the backup.
Here the choice is very simple - it is not. If you want your company, you are turned on it, you cannot live without it, then you will have to solve it. If you do not like it, then it is better to go to work for hire. There is no shame in this in any case, just a different mindset, there are fewer risks. If you own a company, then you need to understand that all this is real. And do not sue anyone, nothing can be done. And if you can, then you will not bother. By the way, I have not yet been offered a "roof." Probably, because we can’t be hooked in any way, we are not located anywhere. Yes, we rent an office, but we can move without problems in two days. Even at Gazelle we can work temporarily. A good business is very dynamic.
There is an idea that negotiations are when certain people gather in the meeting room to discuss sacred things, like the same agreement. This is not true. If you came to your friend to ask for money for your project - this is negotiation. If you at least do something about your business, this is negotiation. If you call your girlfriend on the phone to tell you a supplier, this is negotiation. Anything can be a negotiation.
Before the start of negotiations, we draw up a goal, draw up a script for negotiations, rough drafts of the main positions and how we generally imagine how this will happen. Perhaps consider work with objections. We can assume in advance how they will argue with us, and come up with answers to this. Therefore, it is already possible to negotiate. The main thing is not to hack. We must look very carefully. Negotiations are not such a simple topic, and you can’t just like that “Ah, well, I can agree”, despite the fact that people seem to just be nice talking. ”
When asked why partners are needed, most often I hear the answer “Because it scares one.” In this case, you never need to take partners. In no case. This is not an argument. The following methodology works here. You can apply this logic: imagine a round table, you have come to negotiations with all your partners, with people who want to be your partners. They want a stake in your business. You need to understand that every small percent of your business after 3 years can cost a lot. Well, not really, but a lot. If now you give a person 1% of your company, and after 3 years you want to buy it back, then this can be a significant amount. Therefore, every percentage of your company is an expensive pleasure, very expensive. Be aware that you will receive for it. And then be sure to get what you have planned.
The most common model: you choose someone for partners and divide the business 50 into 50. Awful. There’s just nowhere worse. Even if you make 50 to 50, at least agree on an advantage, who will decide if you hate each other. At least a small advantage, i.e. 50 to 50, but the advantage is behind me or you. You do not have to have a controlling stake.
Perhaps you and your friend are doing some kind of company, the concept and, in general, the idea of creation belongs to you, and he says that he will sit and code together with you. Then agree how many hours he codes, what exactly he does, how he will give it to you and how you will control it. It is very important if he promised to program 40 hours a week for the next six months for his 10% of your company, so that you compile a file and control it. Because 10% of the company is expensive. And he can violate the agreement, and not specifically. It is necessary to inspect not because it is bad, but because you can accidentally just fool each other.
For example, my partner and I had a special test. We checked what to do if one of us stole money from another. There are partners, there is business, there are access to all sorts of services, we sat and thought up scenarios. So, you want to steal money from me, how will you do it? We come up with algorithms for how to do this, and methods of struggle. You discuss openly with your partner how exactly you will control each other so as not to deceive each other. Because there are different situations.
How to pay money to your employees? We need to look at several indicators. There are several key points. The first key point is the market. Analyze salaries on popular job sites. The second limiter is how much can you even spend on this? Remember, I showed that I paid a person 50 rubles per hour? But this is clearly below the market. He was a developer, well, what 50 rubles per hour? Is he crazy? But the maximum amount of money I could pay was much lower than the market salary of such a specialist. There will be more money - we will increase salaries.
The same goes for salespeople and their standards. If you don’t know how much your salesman should sell, because you have never sold it before, do you hire him for the first time in your life? Or you yourself want to sell, but you don’t know what rate to set for yourself, you have not sold yet. Then you can just come up with it. Assign from the ceiling and consider that it is the right number. If it is incorrect, you will understand this in the course of work.
Such a wonderful motivating slide. General, or owner, he is to blame for everything. If your employee is cheating on your client, you are to blame. You hired him, you trained him if you don't like the word “hired”. If he did not come to meet with the client - you are to blame. If your loader screwed up - you are to blame. If your courier has not arrived, you too are to blame. You are always to blame. Of course, the guilty employees are also to blame, but this does not diminish your guilt. All the shoals that a company can do at all are your fault. It is sobering to understand that you are always to blame.
We just take lists of all of humanity's hobbies. Dancing, theater, picking up Warhammer models, whatever. Sometimes the most effective thing you can do for your business is to assemble a plastic tank. Because if you work instead, then you will make more jambs than if you assembled the tank, calmed down, and continued to work further. Here is such a logic. The main categories are very simple - sleep, sex, sports. Well, then all sorts of hobbies. If it seems to you that you are doing nonsense, that it is time to give up this business, just resort to one of these methods, and again everything will be fine.
There are various software products that are worth paying attention to. They are convenient to use at the start.
Question: What are your sales channels?
Answer: Most often, our products are sold at some events. When you arrange it, convene business owners and give some of the useful information. These are the so-called two-step sales.
Question: Why don't you like startups?
Answer:I really like startups. They are cool guys! I just don’t know how they do it. There are some crazy risks. We are on an empty market, there are not enough such companies in Russia, there is no oversaturation yet. To make a streaming company that makes money, you just need to borrow a business model and improve it. It is very, actually, difficult to accomplish. One must be very stubborn, be an entrepreneur, work very hard to do this, but it is possible. And startups have a very risky area. I admire them, I love them. But just do not understand.
Question: How to find your market, your niche?
Answer: To be honest, I believe that there are no niches of their own. There is an entrepreneur as such, and what to do is not so important. You need competence in this area, and that’s it.
Question:Are we entering a market where there are already players?
Answer: We enter the Russian market. No matter how many players, consider them not. There is no competition. That is, you can search for niches, and the most profitable ones are quite affordable. How to search - I don’t know. It seems to me that we are now in such a market, that no matter what you do, there are free customers to whom you can provide services.
Question: Have you heard about Business Youth? What do you think of him?
Answer:Very bad opinion. I am not a supporter of such a sectarian approach. It doesn’t matter how many years a business opens, you don’t need to equate the company with this indicator, it cannot be an indicator at all. In addition, I am not a supporter of consulting. I take consultants only if they are very adequate. I don’t like it when someone clever ... I don’t know ... I don’t like Business Youth simply because of their reputation. I think I didn’t know much about the issue, I’m sure that they have useful content, it’s 100% direct there. Well, there is no useless content when there is so much noise. That is, useless content happens, but not in the case of such a popularity of a resource or company. They have normal indicators. Overpriced, but nonetheless.
Question:What about the functionality of a CEO who gets 50,000 a month and makes decisions?
Answer: No, we are just cutting costs, why should he pay 50,000?
Question: Does he know what decision to make?
Answer: If this decision is worth it, then yes, you can pay. If you just look at the position, you don’t know how to pay. And if you look at a specific solution, then maybe it is worth it.
Question: He knows that the whole company will follow this decision.
Answer:You can not hire a gandir at the start. At the start, only you can decide. There is no one smarter. There is no adviser. There is no smart employee to come and set up. The option of all IT is to do it yourself, so at the start you yourself are the CEO. You need to set a market price, including yourself, if you want more money, get it out of business. Do not give out salary in any case, otherwise you pollute the scheme. You do not know how much you earn.
Question: Is there a fear of not repelling the investment? What is usually done in such cases?
Answer:There is a little fear. This is not a startup, everything is clear here. There are planned indicators, they are not increasing abruptly. You are increasingly loading yourself and your company. For example, if last month you reached a turnover of 1 million, then this month you simply write to yourself, “I want to reach a turnover of 1 million 100,000 rubles.” I don't care how I do it. You set yourself such a task and went to work. And gradually increase and increase as long as you can. If you can’t, then the indicators go down. Of course, there is no escape from fear. But if it is persistent, like a ram, to work, work, work a lot, then everything is solved. There is nothing difficult to manage, there is nothing complicated to develop and program. You just have to sit down and program for many, many years.
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Our company is small, only 12 people. We exist for more than three years, the annual turnover is several tens of millions of rubles. We work with profit, both on a yearly and monthly basis. All these three years we have been growing, and I hope that soon we will grow beyond the concept of "small business".
What is Diafentis? Now it is a company that implements CRM and ERP systems, mainly we work with Microsoft products. We take their platforms, negotiate with specific companies that want to implement them for ourselves, and implement them. That’s all, a simple business idea.
There are many major players in this market. I believe that large companies cannot do cool, fast and cheap enough, as we small players do. And so a certain circle of customers, including large ones, comes to us, to the “little things”. When they come to a large company, they say: “Hello! We want implementation, ”and to them in response:“ Well done. Month - approval of TOR. Another month - implementation ”, and a price tag of 10 million for any department. So customers begin to look around for other contractors. They come to us, to me and similar companies. We agree on a lower price tag, for shorter periods, and thus get our market share. Of course, the client has more risks at the same time, because they work with a small company, which can go broke while they implement it. There is a process of implementation for six months, but many try to save and take risks. Who are our customers? This distribution, banking, non-profit organizations, training organizations (schools, various courses, this is the direction).
There is a fundamental difference between those who have their own business and those who are going to create. It is exactly the same as between business owners and employees. That is, the desire to create a business does not make you a businessman. Perhaps in other countries they teach business management, but with us in this area it is rather sad. It’s possible to teach some management functions, and it’s very difficult to teach management as such, especially how to own a company. After all, how to teach someone who owns? It’s strange if we teach him, then why don’t we own it? As a result, it turns out that the most important thing is simply the “flying hours”. It does not matter what to manage. For example, a student team that does a course project and doesn’t know at all whether it will make a profit, but which calls itself a “company,” is already flying hours. Therefore, there, if you want to create your own company, then the output is very simple and elementary - it is necessary to create. To burn out or not to burn out is already trifles. Important only hours of flight. As with obtaining a pilot’s license, you can’t just come and learn to fly. It takes several hours to fly in order to just get a training card. It’s the same here.
Biography
First, I’ll briefly tell you what I have been doing all these 21 long years.
8 years. The first hello word program. How it was. I found a basic textbook somewhere and simply retyped the functions from there. I did not know what they mean, I did not understand these complex words that were in the book. That is, I retyped procedures and functions from the book and then composed some programs from them at a higher level. Without delving into how it is done, how it works.
At 10, he went to work. "Mom, Dad, I want a typewriter." "Earn." He became a cleaner. 4 hours on weekdays had to work. The first week was fun, then tired. Terribly boring! I just hated the 600 rubles a month they paid me.
Further to 14 years, he simply increased the amount of work and the number of areas in which he worked. These are 5 different posts, 5 different bosses, in two companies. Bosses in one company did not overlap. There began terrible problems over time. Around there are a lot of people who want to shove their work on you, but are not your bosses. I am 14 years old - generally a tidbit, also works almost around the clock. That is, I had some kind of immense amount of work, I understood that my bosses were unhappy, I had to look for a solution. I reread all the books of Gleb of Arkhangelsk. Something is being introduced, something is not, and it turns out somehow to make it so that they do not fire me immediately from five jobs.
At the age of 15, I decided that five works is somehow a lot, I need to concentrate, and became a personal assistant. This is such a very peculiar job, they can call at one in the morning, and you are mainly engaged in shifting pieces of paper. But a lot of books and information passed through me for my leader. Then I just read the same thing he did, looked the same, listened the same. He grabbed everything. He worked as a personal assistant in several companies.
At 16 years old - project manager. It was something spontaneous, like “We need virtual tours of these five objects, but there are no resources to do them. There is such a sum for these very tours. If you do, i.e. if they hang on the site by such a deadline - your money. If you don’t do it, there is no money. ” I’m getting in touch with the guys from the physical education department, we are stirring up something funny there. I made virtual tours, the first project was completed. I had 1 person in the project and 3 in outsourcing. By that time, I had tried a bunch of classes, worked since 10 years. I didn’t go to school, I passed anyhow. And at 16 I realized that I was hooked on the topic of management.
Own company
At 17 I understand that I want my company and that I can only work with techies. I have not developed normal relations with any of the humanitarians with whom I tried to work together. Having fallen in love with techies, having loved IT, being a geek from childhood, he began to go round technical universities. The building of Moscow State University did not like at all. Later I found out that programmers and mathematicians study in another building.
I finished school with a gold medal, before the exam was 3 months. Everything is good, passed the test, the exam is "excellent". It was 3 months, I worked and did not do it at all. I passed all the exam on 60 points and wrote exams. It turned out too little, they didn’t take it anywhere. I entered the paid branch in Baumanka to find a partner first, and then a team for my company.
In my first year I was looking for a partner. I thought it would be logical to just make a file for each of my classmates, and choose the best one. Wonderful man Konstantin Ershov won. In the second year, he and I created a company. From the age of 17, I understood what my company should be, developed everything related to its creation.
We had a consulting business, we took the training system that exists within the client’s organization. If it was not there, we developed it. And trained new employees on this system. In the first month we had a turnover of 10,000 rubles. They were ill-sawed, i.e. we left nothing for the development of the company. We decided that the first money should be taken away.
In the second month of work, we hired the first employee for 50 rubles per hour. Our partner salary was approximately 500 rubles per month, the amount of work - about 40 hours a week. 4 months - a change in the company's course, they went into the development of the database, completely abandoning consulting. 5 month - the first purchase for the company, a laptop. 7 month - 50,000 rubles went on sale.
For more than six months we worked to get 50,000 rubles for two. Despite the fact that I had experience from 10 years, if I started working for hire, I would get much more. At the same time, our salary came out at 2000 per person, everything else remained in the company.
9 month - a jump occurred, we already have 7 employees. The average salary is 120 rubles per hour. It’s not an IT level at all, we pay, and it works fine. We are growing.
11 months - we realized that we can grow further only if we attract investments. The first investments were small, several hundred thousand rubles. But they allowed us to make a new leap. It turned out that in vain. I had to cut three employees, because it was absolutely wrong to use the borrowed funds, which cost us a share in the company.
At the 13th month, we are finally developing business cards and a logo. The company existed without them for more than a year, and no particular problems. I do not agree with those who believe that design is paramount, which is very important to start with business cards, brochures, booklets, etc. from the very beginning. All this is nice, but I do not agree. Let's say you spend 50,000 rubles on a corporate identity. Even if you save money and hire the worst designer, then you have to redo it 10 times. Or good - once. 50 000 rubles will definitely be spent on corporate identity. And we have the entire turnover for the seventh month was 50,000.
Please note - growth is very slow. Unfortunately, I did not know how to make companies. And so there was a very slow growth. Now, in the third year, we have a turnover of several tens of millions a year. This is very small. These are terrible indicators for the third year of business life. They are good only in what I study. Having created new companies, I will develop them already faster.
15 months - 13 employees, turnover of 300,000 rubles per month. Now we have as many employees, only the turnover is several times larger. At that time, we worked inefficiently, many things did not know how to do, did not optimize something, etc. Constantly hired people, fired.
How were the investments attracted?
If someone has money, you can attract it. In most cases, you need to somehow convince the potential investor of the success and profitability of your scheme. Show that it is better to invest in your project than if this money will simply be in the account. If he, having invested in you, does not receive anything in return, then you are engaged in charity. Do anything, just not business.
The first investments of almost all companies are parents. Simple: "Mom, Dad, give 100,000." If the parents are smart, then they are forced to draw up a package of documents. Then calculate the return on investment, ROIrecount everything, everything is very harsh. If mom and dad are simpler people, then they can just give money. The point is that no matter who gives you money, always consider that they were taken from a bank that will take everything from you if you do not return it.
Friends, relatives ... you can almost always get a million. You can just walk around the hostel. You only need to convince people with the help of graphs, numbers, and not with the help of "I am a beautiful boy." It will work on three girls, and you need guys who have money.
Where to get the first customer
Use connections, relatives, friends, colleagues. Ask who has any acquaintances who need, for example, a site? Nobody needs? Okay. A week later you go again. Who needs a website?
There is such a thing as active direct sales. Choose a market and begin to penetrate there. Your agents go, talk, use marketing, mailing, etc. This is an active stage. You have no money. You just created a company, you have a balance of 0. Yes, my company was created with zero balance. There were no cash investments at the start. My partner and I invested time. When you start, you do not have the money to actively seek customers. Look the other way around. Look for liabilities. Just sort through a bunch of your friends. Sort the phone book, call and ask - who needs a site?
You need to receive an order with minimal costs. The minimum costs are acquaintances, friends, who may need your services. For example, a course project I need to make a site. You want to build websites for huge companies, and they say to you “do a course project for 5,000 rubles”. Cool! You have your first order for 5,000 rubles in cash. Great! We take it. That is, the first customers are from their environment.
Legal issues
I will talk about this through the prism of my understanding of business and company. I cannot urge him to follow. My understanding is this: customers have needs to satisfy. They need this very site, they need this implementation, they need the floors removed, it doesn’t matter. This need must be satisfied and receive money. This is primary. And legal registration, taxes, deductions, etc. are not important. By no means do I call for illegal business, no. I only say that it is less important than the client. If it is convenient for the client to give you cash - do not show off. It must be done as convenient to the client.
When a company is just born, you do not have your own lawyer. And there is no money for him. It is advisable that everything be correct in terms of accounting, jurisprudence, etc. Be sure to collect all the data about the suppliers, you need to know them. It is necessary to officially arrange yourself for your work. There are a lot of all sorts of nuances. And they need to be resolved when you have enough money so that you don’t mess with your customers. I do not urge to abandon the white bookkeeping. But for me it is more important that I have clients and I work for them. Everything else is distracting. There are clients who want their problem to be resolved, and there is a state that wants to squeeze in somehow: “Guys, maybe you will pay us too?” We will pay. We will have money, then calculate how much we must pay you.
I will return to this later, but we must understand that the legal entity is IP, LLC, etc. - it's just a fiction. A company exists from the moment you decide that it exists. Let's say many chain stores open three LLCs for the project. They are presented within one store, some have one, others have another. You go there - who, where, whose? It is incomprehensible, and this is not accidental. We live with such wonderful laws and rules that if you can see who you are, you can always be imprisoned.
The legal issue of the first transaction disappears. The first deal is 10,000 rubles. Seriously. If a tax inspector comes to me and says: “Have you paid your tax?” I will say: “The first transaction is 10,000 rubles.” He will say: “Ah, okay.” And he will leave, because it is not interesting to anyone. For 10,000 rubles, no one will put anyone in prison.
Key Mistakes
There were two of them. The first is the feeling that I am a fool. It’s like someone somewhere knows something like this, but I just created a company. Nothing like this! If you are 12 years old, you just created a company that sells strawberries on the road, then you know best within the next 10 kilometers how to sell strawberries on the road. And no one can advise you normally. Not because they are all fools, but because they don’t understand anything about selling strawberries. If it seems that you need to do something, you need to do it. If it seems that a person needs to be fired - fire! Do not make a mistake and do not begin to doubt your innocence.
And the second mistake - I did not know how to steal algorithms. Not ideas, but algorithms. I am not a startup. Probably, with startups it’s somehow different. At the age of 35, I can’t explain to myself why I earned minus $ 2 billion. I need to have a positive balance. I need to know how much money I made, how many useful services I made, how much I improved in this world. I am a streaming businessman, such projects, such companies - a billion. And here it is very important to be able to steal algorithms. Find out how a neighbor is doing. Go into the next dorm room, which is someone's office, and eavesdrop, but how is he doing? And then introduce it at home. Steal, improve, steal, improve, steal, improve. This applies to all algorithms.
When we create a company whose business model has already been invented before us, we must steal everything and then improve it. Because if from the very beginning we want to build everything beautifully without stealing, then there simply will not be enough time. We will have more time to develop from the very beginning. Therefore, we must be able to steal cool algorithms. A lot of guys gladly give them away. Seriously. To steal is a very big word. In fact, everyone is happy to tell. Like me now.
conclusions
These conclusions are only mine, they may be wrong.
A systematic approach is a very simple thing. You need to be big from the start. When you create a company, how does this happen? You say: “Guys, I want my company. All tomorrow I’ll go look for orders. ” The first order appeared a week later, “We must now find one guy, I alone can’t do it. I’ll find one guy, and since I will constantly look for orders, in principle, leave him, let him work. Well, I’ll take the project for the first time, but we'll see. ” A month later, you have this guy, you close the order, get the money. And here it is very important to stop telling your friends and customers how big you are, and instantly become so. If your customer knows that he is very important to you and brings the main profit, then he will crush you for the price. This is logical. Therefore, in no case should any customer know that he is your saving order. Let the company close if you don’t receive this order now, but this infection should not know that it is.
To become big you need to do only two things. The first is to close information on the composition of owners and turnover. You can talk back. Remember, as I said at the very beginning, that I have several tens of millions. How many? Unclear. I can calculate the turnover in ten different ways, I will get different indicators. I lie to my customers. I tell them a different figure. It is necessary to instantly give out the information that you want to hear to your customers.
Sales are a very dirty topic. You need to understand that if you are engaged in sales (and if you own a company, you must engage in them), be prepared that you will have to lie by looking people in the eye. Nothing terrible will happen, everyone does it. This is for good sales. Top companies don't have thousands of employees, but never talk about true numbers. And if you are talking to a native of officials who measures the volume of a company by employees? Everything, you are in flight. You have to look like a big player, and make it cheaper. And you can do cheaper because you are small, you can take yourself less margin. But large ones cannot.
It is very important to immediately build the correct system. Do not stop at something small, momentary, otherwise you will not have development. If your algorithm, suppose it works, think about how to scale. From the very beginning, you need to figure out how you capture your piece of the market. If you do not, you can just stay with your little piece, turn into a collector of freelancers: there are three of us, when there is no money, one, and when there is -10. Not that! We need a systematic approach to constantly grow.
Every year, my turnover and profit figures increase, I have to beat them out. It is important for me to take a piece of the market. I am not interested in a freelance company that is “rushing around” on projects. I need a steady stream of projects.
The first conclusion. Functional. We have a company, and there are functions. This is just one example of how to break down the functionality of a company. You can do it any other way. Imagine you need to model a company. That you have some classics, some employees, your own characteristics. And now you are writing code for these classics and characteristics. Moreover, these employees under whom you write the code, they are also a kind of "black boxes" for you. And in the end, you have a set of biorobots and resources, some external sources. And you need to write code. This is one of the main tasks of the entire management.
I will give a very simple example. Most often, in the first month of work, you are the only employee of your company, you should receive a salary that must be calculated not by one line in Excel (“I am wonderful and beautiful, 5,000 rubles”), but by ten different ones. Because you get paid as a general, as an accountant, as a salesman, as a security guard, etc. The salary is small, scanty, but you need to count yourself in different lines. It is very important. If you think in people, then you will have a kind of family business. You accept people, you love them very much, appreciate them, mourn them. Look, what a wonderful guy ran. Let’s give him such a job. The fact that the work is useless and the company is not needed is not of interest. In order not to hit such a thing, first do the functionality, and then people. First decide what needs to be done for the company, and then you’ll figure out with whom to “plug the holes”. Most often, 1-2 people are enough at the start of the company. Two are enough to close the entire functionality of the company. Why? Because we do not have legal and accounting functionality due to lack of money for them.
When you start to grow, then these functions are simply transferred to other people. The position as such should be tied to the functional. It is clear that accounting is done by an accountant. But only when you have money for an accountant. And initially you play this role.
The basic rules of standardization
So, how to paint functions. The rules are very similar to coding. Only so that there are not so many functions, otherwise we will not figure it out later. We should have as few variables as possible. That is, we have a set of rules that apply in conventional software development. We must write this “code” in an optimal way, and at different stages of the company’s development this optimal type is different. You will rewrite classes, functions, responsibilities, get rid of entire classes, i.e. fire people. Reduction is not when you fired an employee because he is a fool, but when you realized that you did not need this function.
Laziness
This is one of the main things. To describe functions in a company, you have to be very, very lazy. Well, for example, how did I create a technical support department in my company? I was then a project manager, and one of the users of my clients wrote me a letter. Something like "But it doesn’t work for me here, it is something there, I don’t know which button to click on." I am so lazy a bastard that I am ready to work 60 hours a week so that I do not have to answer this letter. Do you understand the logic?
When we talk about this technical support, we need to be lazy, not want to answer these letters ourselves, and create a feature in which technical support will respond to the flow of such letters.
Standards
It is very important not to turn standardization into a bureaucracy. For example, when you have too many obscure standards that state that your analyst should come to a client, be sure to call your boss upon arrival, but in fact no one respects this. It turns out that the standard requires you to do so, and we will do as we want, and then customize. This kind of standardization is not needed. She is useless.
When you create a standard, be sure to familiarize yourself with how employees implement it. If they really reduce it somewhere, then usually this is a kind of optimization. They are so lazy that they improve your standard. Observe how they work and change the standard. Because when new employees come, they don’t need to reinvent the wheel. They should take advantage of what your employees invented before them. For example, I have slang, mate and jokes allowed in the standards.
One more example. This is a developer workflow. We have our own project accounting system, and here it is written how to work with certain tasks. We use a phased, detailed explanation so that even a novice can figure it out. Standards should be written for idiots, but not because your employees are idiots.
Be sure to paint the functionality of not only your employees, but also yours. You are the CEO. What does the CEO do? For example, he receives 50,000 rubles, we write out his tasks. It turns out that he looks at one report once a month. Why then 50,000 rubles? For viewing the report and making one decision? Break down the functionality, because when you hire another CEO, you need to know what that person will do. The same thing here.
Look for cool, best employees, geniuses, and with them create your company’s system. And these cool guys, together with you, also cool, should create a system with standards for idiots. For example, you went on vacation, and your personnel officer hired an idiot, well, it happens, you yourself can accidentally hire an idiot, this also happens. And you have a whole training system built up, but, unfortunately, this is unattainable by standards alone, you need hired trainers, either outsourcing or inside the company.
Your company doesn’t care what you want to do
When a business is created, it seems to you that you can do what you want. This is not true. A manager is just a laborer. The higher the position, the more he is a laborer. This is the most decent of words. In fact, it would be more correct to call a “whore”. The higher your position in the company, the more holes you have to plug if they form under you. The CEO must become a courier if he does not come to work. A courier should not become nothing if someone has not done something. Therefore, the higher you climb into the company, and ownership is the highest, there’s simply nowhere to go above — the more you become a laborer in your company, and it doesn’t matter what you want to do. You will do what the company wanted. Well, your loader did not go to work today. Forward! The guy didn’t come out today, who was supposed to go to a meeting with a client. And you cannot send anyone to a meeting with a client; you have no options. If you do, you will not have orders. And we are with you in IT, we have B2B orders, everything starts with 50,000 rubles there. And you will lose them if you don’t get up and go to the client right now. The person you take on a management position needs to know this. And you yourself simply have no options. You must do this. And if you do not, then you lose money. must know this. And you yourself simply have no options. You must do this. And if you do not, then you lose money. must know this. And you yourself simply have no options. You must do this. And if you do not, then you lose money.
There is the concept of "agreement." It is primary, and a legal contract is a secondary thing. What is an arrangement? When representatives of the two companies agreed on which of them will do what and what will happen if each of them does not do something. Punishments are not a mandatory item; they can be excluded. Punishment can even be used to self-stimulate. For example, if you need guarantees that you will do the work, then include in the contract the punishment for yourself for non-compliance.
If you reach an agreement with a client, then you have a classic option: you can legally fix this agreement. How are all the agreements at the top level, the most expensive, for example, the sale of the company? Companies with a price tag of several million are sold on a napkin in a cafe not because they are so much cooler, pretentious, and so they write in magazines, but because it is the easiest way. You don't care. You agreed, and then just exchanged the phones of lawyers. All. They will figure it out. It does not matter exactly how it will be framed, what will be done with it. You need to specify the price tag and basic conditions on each side. If they are agreed on a napkin, then everything else is clear.
After that, the lawyers of both companies discuss and draw up a contract, give it to their bosses, and they approve it. Bosses don't finish on a napkin. They agreed on it, and then they approve a piece of paper, read it. But they do not make it up. Then the lawyer puts them on the table and shows the risks, you need to put pressure on such and such a parameter, and there will be so many losses, maybe then ... If you don’t like it, the bosses try to negotiate.
It is impossible to break agreements with your client. If you are unable to fulfill the agreement - call, cancel this agreement and create a new one. To postpone the term of the order is a change in the terms of the agreements, you do not violate it, you offer: “And let me do it not tomorrow, but after 2 days,” and if they say to you “Come on,” then you have not broken a single agreement. If they say to you: “No, don’t give”, but you didn’t do it tomorrow, then you have broken the agreement. The initial agreement must be fulfilled, but you can try to change the conditions. As I said, legal registration of an agreement is not necessary. In a huge number of cases, even by law is not necessary.
Market in everything
There are some key positions — suppliers, customers, staff — that determine the value of your services. It is very important. How much does a website cost? The answer to this question must be sought in the market. We open freelancer exchanges, job sites, look there. We take the supplier base, google, ring up the top 20 queries - how much does anyone have? We drop all extreme values - too expensive and too cheap. Too cheap - most likely bad. Too expensive - most likely, they simply snickered or did not monitor the market. And in accordance with these amounts we form the numbers we need or set price tags. Or we offer employees a certain salary. It is very important to be able to monitor the market, a search engine is enough for this. As soon as you find your average price for market services.
Your company should always have a tender system. For example, when choosing suppliers, you can never choose from one supplier. If my friend supplies water to the office, and I have an office and I need this service, then there is some small chance that the ideal supplier and my friend are one person. The probability is extremely small. The market is huge. You need to always look for the perfect supplier. They allow you to pay after a year, they want little money and ideally provide a service. Suppliers can be “squeezed”, you can not pay them longer, you can call and change the agreement: “But let us still pay you a month late.” Your task is very simple - spend as little as possible, earn as much as possible. Another thing is that you need to do it right, otherwise you just go bankrupt.
Customers
While you are small - no tender. We must take and do the work. When you are big, see who you work with. Having arranged a kind of unofficial (!) Contest, you can refuse some problem customers and take more convenient ones.
Frames
Never choose employees for one interview. At least three. Even if you really liked the candidate, conduct 2 more interviews at least to make sure that he is cool. And you need to choose from several candidates, because a tender should work everywhere.
Financial management
There are most jambs at the beginning of the business, and jambs are not global, but small logical jambs. Everything is really simple. You need to count the money. There is such an anecdote: the hare came to the lion and said: “Please give me 100,000 for the business.” Leo says: “Well, good. I'll give you a try, but we'll see. ” Gives him 100,000. The hare leaves happy. The next day he returns, says: "Another 100,000." The lion says: “Well, right so right away?” Hare: “Well, actually.” Another 100,000. The next day returns: "Another 100,000." Leo says: “On! But I’ll go now and see what you do there. ” "Come on, go." The lion comes, and there is a huge queue of animals, long-long. The lion comes to the wolf and says: “What are you standing?” The wolf says: “So the hare changes the ruble by two.” The lion did not understand, he was going to the hare: “Hare, are you crazy? What is this? ”The Hare says:
Very often, small, newly created companies sell a non-existent service. They agreed with their employees that they would be paid a salary next month, and used their time, closing contracts for a lesser amount than the amount of employees' salaries. As a result, a negative balance. This is not a business. Therefore, you should always consider your finances. It seems ridiculous, you think that I certainly won’t do it. Do it. And I did it.
Link key positions to profit
If you hire a financial director, then he should receive a percentage of the profits. Not from income, how much you received all the money for this month, but from profit - how much you received minus how much you spent. Because otherwise your CFO will spend as much money as you want to get more. He can just drive you into this trap. It is also important not to forget about the turnover, because if we have a mad profit, and the customer is only one - you will go bankrupt.
Account and transaction management
From the very beginning of the existence of the company, it is necessary to keep a record of funds. You have cash, all kinds of cards, credit cards, etc. There are funds from your employees and partners. And there is a bunch of money that belongs to the company. This bunch of money for every moment of time, minus all the obligations that you have to pay, belongs to the owners of the company. That is, if you are a 100% owner, then you own the whole bunch of money minus the money that you owe - salaries, taxes, i.e. debts. After paying off all the debts, all that remains, you can take in your pocket. You can, but do not automatically pick up. The difference is huge. You must decide that you are withdrawing money from the business. Therefore, you need to have a separate envelope, a separate cash desk. This envelope is the cash desk of the company, and you need to keep it. You have to consider every penny,
Profit sharing
If things are going well, then you get a net profit every month. Most likely, starting from the third or fourth month, if it is a streaming production, and not a startup. Net profit must be distributed. You can leave it on the development of the company, in bank accounts or in envelopes. But keep in mind that your accountant will see this money in statements.
You can send it to the company's stabilization fund, this is a separate envelope with a separate file with transactions that you do not show to any of the employees. This is money for a rainy day for the company if something happens. If your accountant knows that you have an extra million in your accounts, then he will not even think about it, but how would it be more optimal for us to pay money to suppliers. A million lies the same. Now pay. Although under the contract, the payment term may come in 5 days. If you take this million into the stabilization fund and do not show it to your accountant and sales people, then for them this money is not. They work, they know that they need to earn money this month in order to get a salary. The presence of the stabilization fund itself does not need to be hidden from employees, everyone understands that it is, but how much money is there - you can’t say in any case. It is necessary to keep in the stabilization fund an amount sufficient to work for 5 months without income. At least three.
And the third, where you can put money, is to withdraw from the business and divide into shares according to the number of owners. It is important to find a balance. There are those who conduct their business, withdrawing 100% of net profit. Those. nothing remains for the development of the company, and they invest there something later. I do not understand and dislike this approach. The first years of 2 I didn’t get anything at all, everything was fine. And then, from a certain moment, the owner needs some kind of motivation. You can display a percentage of net profit. This is also your decision, the decision of the business owners. And you need to decide how much to leave. You can distribute money equally among all owners, or you can not withdraw it at all until you take certain positions in the market.
And the last moment is budgeting. We take all the transactions that went through your company, and each of them is assigned a certain category.
The numbers are invented, the proportions are preserved. We have two types of income - development and other income. A two-tier system is shown here. It happens that they make both a three-level and a four-level.
We have semi-annual indicators, there is a percentage of income or expense, how much we have this or that transaction. The balance at the end of the month is carried over to the next period, it is indicated here that, after deduction of the stabilization fund, 30% comes out for development and everything else. And our delta, i.e. how much money we received is income minus expenses.
Of course, the budget of a real company looks much more complicated. In financial management textbooks, everything is very cool and cool, there are a lot of indicators. It's not needed. At first, it’s enough to draw up your budget system, and then you must definitely implement everything that smart people of this world have come up with. But then. Because while there is enough time and money only on Excel. Each category has its own, i.e. How do you like. Detailing is needed where the most money. For example, 70% of the salary fund is a lot. Perhaps you need to break down salaries into various articles - production salary, administration salary. To monitor every month how much and where you will spend money. Based on this, plans are formed for salespeople, logistics managers, etc.
Politics and Business
How large should the company be for the state to want to intervene in its affairs? Unfortunately, I don’t know. Politics always intervenes, but, for example, if a new tax is introduced now, I will have to pay it. At this level, intervenes constantly. At other levels, it never affects while you do IT. What is the policy in IT? They do not understand how it works. Most likely, you will not be interested in them. In IT it’s not easy to manage a company, a development team. How to take this business from me? It will be hard. I have my own team, my own management system, which is designed specifically for this team. If you remove me, the team will break up.
Real threats
When you open your company, you get into an action movie. This is not a joke. The theft of money, information from my clients, blackmail, luring employees - all this I had. Unless mask shows have yet to appear. Fearfully. The lawyer has now compiled an algorithm of what to do if uncles run in and put their muzzle on the floor. For example, one of my customers, if administrators do not disconnect user access on time, then he logs in and destroys the data in bulk if he has access. Or spoils. And then we sit and pump everything out of the backup.
Here the choice is very simple - it is not. If you want your company, you are turned on it, you cannot live without it, then you will have to solve it. If you do not like it, then it is better to go to work for hire. There is no shame in this in any case, just a different mindset, there are fewer risks. If you own a company, then you need to understand that all this is real. And do not sue anyone, nothing can be done. And if you can, then you will not bother. By the way, I have not yet been offered a "roof." Probably, because we can’t be hooked in any way, we are not located anywhere. Yes, we rent an office, but we can move without problems in two days. Even at Gazelle we can work temporarily. A good business is very dynamic.
Conversation
There is an idea that negotiations are when certain people gather in the meeting room to discuss sacred things, like the same agreement. This is not true. If you came to your friend to ask for money for your project - this is negotiation. If you at least do something about your business, this is negotiation. If you call your girlfriend on the phone to tell you a supplier, this is negotiation. Anything can be a negotiation.
Before the start of negotiations, we draw up a goal, draw up a script for negotiations, rough drafts of the main positions and how we generally imagine how this will happen. Perhaps consider work with objections. We can assume in advance how they will argue with us, and come up with answers to this. Therefore, it is already possible to negotiate. The main thing is not to hack. We must look very carefully. Negotiations are not such a simple topic, and you can’t just like that “Ah, well, I can agree”, despite the fact that people seem to just be nice talking. ”
Partners
When asked why partners are needed, most often I hear the answer “Because it scares one.” In this case, you never need to take partners. In no case. This is not an argument. The following methodology works here. You can apply this logic: imagine a round table, you have come to negotiations with all your partners, with people who want to be your partners. They want a stake in your business. You need to understand that every small percent of your business after 3 years can cost a lot. Well, not really, but a lot. If now you give a person 1% of your company, and after 3 years you want to buy it back, then this can be a significant amount. Therefore, every percentage of your company is an expensive pleasure, very expensive. Be aware that you will receive for it. And then be sure to get what you have planned.
The most common model: you choose someone for partners and divide the business 50 into 50. Awful. There’s just nowhere worse. Even if you make 50 to 50, at least agree on an advantage, who will decide if you hate each other. At least a small advantage, i.e. 50 to 50, but the advantage is behind me or you. You do not have to have a controlling stake.
Perhaps you and your friend are doing some kind of company, the concept and, in general, the idea of creation belongs to you, and he says that he will sit and code together with you. Then agree how many hours he codes, what exactly he does, how he will give it to you and how you will control it. It is very important if he promised to program 40 hours a week for the next six months for his 10% of your company, so that you compile a file and control it. Because 10% of the company is expensive. And he can violate the agreement, and not specifically. It is necessary to inspect not because it is bad, but because you can accidentally just fool each other.
For example, my partner and I had a special test. We checked what to do if one of us stole money from another. There are partners, there is business, there are access to all sorts of services, we sat and thought up scenarios. So, you want to steal money from me, how will you do it? We come up with algorithms for how to do this, and methods of struggle. You discuss openly with your partner how exactly you will control each other so as not to deceive each other. Because there are different situations.
Money
How to pay money to your employees? We need to look at several indicators. There are several key points. The first key point is the market. Analyze salaries on popular job sites. The second limiter is how much can you even spend on this? Remember, I showed that I paid a person 50 rubles per hour? But this is clearly below the market. He was a developer, well, what 50 rubles per hour? Is he crazy? But the maximum amount of money I could pay was much lower than the market salary of such a specialist. There will be more money - we will increase salaries.
The same goes for salespeople and their standards. If you don’t know how much your salesman should sell, because you have never sold it before, do you hire him for the first time in your life? Or you yourself want to sell, but you don’t know what rate to set for yourself, you have not sold yet. Then you can just come up with it. Assign from the ceiling and consider that it is the right number. If it is incorrect, you will understand this in the course of work.
Such a wonderful motivating slide. General, or owner, he is to blame for everything. If your employee is cheating on your client, you are to blame. You hired him, you trained him if you don't like the word “hired”. If he did not come to meet with the client - you are to blame. If your loader screwed up - you are to blame. If your courier has not arrived, you too are to blame. You are always to blame. Of course, the guilty employees are also to blame, but this does not diminish your guilt. All the shoals that a company can do at all are your fault. It is sobering to understand that you are always to blame.
How not to burn out at work
We just take lists of all of humanity's hobbies. Dancing, theater, picking up Warhammer models, whatever. Sometimes the most effective thing you can do for your business is to assemble a plastic tank. Because if you work instead, then you will make more jambs than if you assembled the tank, calmed down, and continued to work further. Here is such a logic. The main categories are very simple - sleep, sex, sports. Well, then all sorts of hobbies. If it seems to you that you are doing nonsense, that it is time to give up this business, just resort to one of these methods, and again everything will be fine.
Useful Tips
There are various software products that are worth paying attention to. They are convenient to use at the start.
- Accounting "Contour". All clear.
- Evernote. Очень удобная штука, можно использовать совершенно по-разному. В бизнесе очень хорошо работает, у меня и у моих клиентов.
- Targetprocess. Там мы ведем все свои проекты, т.е. если у вас потоковое производство, либо продукт, который вы итерационно разрабатываете, это очень классная софтина, облачная, белорусы сделали. Если вы в службу поддержки напишете по-русски, они и ответят по-русски.
- Regus. Просто замечательная компания, там за определенную денежку можно в разных бизнес-центрах работать. Если у вас много встреч в разных бизнес-центрах, то бывает удобно воспользоваться их услугами. Например, офис на 5 дней. То есть вы 5 дней можете посидеть в любом из бизнес-центров, где у них имеется офис. У нас недавно там была серия переговоров.
- LinkedIn You need to create an account and develop, get acquainted with a large number of people in order to one day go to someone technical director, or a good salesman.
- Media Wiki. It is very convenient for storing various company documentation, including standards.
- www.hh.ru . All clear.
- Skype Everything is clear too.
- In VKontakte it is very convenient to do newsletters and look for frames.
Questions and answers
Question: What are your sales channels?
Answer: Most often, our products are sold at some events. When you arrange it, convene business owners and give some of the useful information. These are the so-called two-step sales.
Question: Why don't you like startups?
Answer:I really like startups. They are cool guys! I just don’t know how they do it. There are some crazy risks. We are on an empty market, there are not enough such companies in Russia, there is no oversaturation yet. To make a streaming company that makes money, you just need to borrow a business model and improve it. It is very, actually, difficult to accomplish. One must be very stubborn, be an entrepreneur, work very hard to do this, but it is possible. And startups have a very risky area. I admire them, I love them. But just do not understand.
Question: How to find your market, your niche?
Answer: To be honest, I believe that there are no niches of their own. There is an entrepreneur as such, and what to do is not so important. You need competence in this area, and that’s it.
Question:Are we entering a market where there are already players?
Answer: We enter the Russian market. No matter how many players, consider them not. There is no competition. That is, you can search for niches, and the most profitable ones are quite affordable. How to search - I don’t know. It seems to me that we are now in such a market, that no matter what you do, there are free customers to whom you can provide services.
Question: Have you heard about Business Youth? What do you think of him?
Answer:Very bad opinion. I am not a supporter of such a sectarian approach. It doesn’t matter how many years a business opens, you don’t need to equate the company with this indicator, it cannot be an indicator at all. In addition, I am not a supporter of consulting. I take consultants only if they are very adequate. I don’t like it when someone clever ... I don’t know ... I don’t like Business Youth simply because of their reputation. I think I didn’t know much about the issue, I’m sure that they have useful content, it’s 100% direct there. Well, there is no useless content when there is so much noise. That is, useless content happens, but not in the case of such a popularity of a resource or company. They have normal indicators. Overpriced, but nonetheless.
Question:What about the functionality of a CEO who gets 50,000 a month and makes decisions?
Answer: No, we are just cutting costs, why should he pay 50,000?
Question: Does he know what decision to make?
Answer: If this decision is worth it, then yes, you can pay. If you just look at the position, you don’t know how to pay. And if you look at a specific solution, then maybe it is worth it.
Question: He knows that the whole company will follow this decision.
Answer:You can not hire a gandir at the start. At the start, only you can decide. There is no one smarter. There is no adviser. There is no smart employee to come and set up. The option of all IT is to do it yourself, so at the start you yourself are the CEO. You need to set a market price, including yourself, if you want more money, get it out of business. Do not give out salary in any case, otherwise you pollute the scheme. You do not know how much you earn.
Question: Is there a fear of not repelling the investment? What is usually done in such cases?
Answer:There is a little fear. This is not a startup, everything is clear here. There are planned indicators, they are not increasing abruptly. You are increasingly loading yourself and your company. For example, if last month you reached a turnover of 1 million, then this month you simply write to yourself, “I want to reach a turnover of 1 million 100,000 rubles.” I don't care how I do it. You set yourself such a task and went to work. And gradually increase and increase as long as you can. If you can’t, then the indicators go down. Of course, there is no escape from fear. But if it is persistent, like a ram, to work, work, work a lot, then everything is solved. There is nothing difficult to manage, there is nothing complicated to develop and program. You just have to sit down and program for many, many years.