As I went to rest, but expanded my business. Turkey

Hi, Habr. Today I want to talk about my successful business story that happened to me some time ago. This story is my successful experience, a recommendation to those who work in the IT field, or maybe just an interesting article. In any case, I hope you enjoy it. So, let's begin.

I work a lot, and every year I try to travel abroad at least 2-3 times. There probably is no point explaining how important it is to relax from work and routine. Without this, just nothing. A prerequisite for my every vacation is the sea or the ocean. I’ll explain later why it’s important for me to travel closer to the water. I highly advise everyone not to forget about their vacation. Despite my recommendations, on my last vacation I violated my principles, but there were reasons for this.

2014 from the very beginning began to take shape for me very, very productive. I launched my next new project directly related to IT and from the very start it began to bear fruit for me. I can’t explain in detail what I’m doing. It will smell like PR. Let's dwell on the fact that my projects are very closely related to online advertising, and even easier to say, we help other entrepreneurs sell more using the Internet. For several months everything went very well, I was a little tired of routine and monotony. As usual, I planned a summer vacation. Almost every year, in the summer, I go to Turkey. Warm sea, excellent weather - ideal conditions for my vacation. If earlier I went exclusively to hotels, then the last time I went to an excellent villa to my friend, who, in turn, is now also my partner. By the way, my friend has been spending a lot of time in Turkey for quite some time. He has his own business related to services there, now he also has a bunch of real estate. Do not think that I am boasting here, I will often make digressions, but all of them will ultimately be connected with the main theme and thought.

Upon arrival, I decided to buy mobile Internet complete with a wi-fi router. Previously, I tried to ignore the Internet and was limited only to slow wi-fi in the complex, to check social networks. But this time, work and my projects required more attention. Turkey has excellent 3G Internet, I used the services of Turkcell (according to sellers, the best choice). 15 gigabytes (maximum package) cost 99 Turkish lira, which in translation with our money is ~ 1700 rubles. The seller was clearly interested in why I need so much and what I plan to do with these 15GB. He explained quickly and clearly - for work, but interested the seller even more. I had to talk and tell a few details. From the conversation, I realized that there are few IT specialists in Turkey and the market of everything related to the industry has just begun to develop. Okay, We drove on and I'm on my way to the villa. Three or four days of a great sea and sun, and I appear more and more on the Internet, breaking up at work is already beginning, and about everything that happens on the network. I often get to YouTube, where they always spin the same pizza advertisement. It becomes clear that there are obvious problems with video advertising in the country, there are simply no advertisers for it.

Having google some queries, popular in Russia, but in Turkish, it becomes clear that with contextual advertising just about everything is also bad. At that moment I was visited by the feeling that I am where I need to and I can earn pretty well here. I closed my laptop, took my air mattress, as usual I swam to the buoys, where I liked to think, and began to think about how to proceed. The first correct thought is that you need to urgently work. The second thought - you need to start the company registration and score on vacation right now. Returning to his apartment, he immediately began to study the process of registering a company. Everything is very simple and inexpensive, but it takes time, which I do not have (2-4 weeks for registration). My friend helped me out; he already had several legal entities in the country, analogues of our LLC. Having outlined a little situation and prospects,

On the same day I rented a car. By the way, the cost of 95 gasoline, in terms of rubles - ~ 85 rubles per liter! But almost everyone drives a diesel engine - ~ 75 rubles / liter. One of the most, if not the highest price in the world (in Europe for sure). As I was explained, it is connected with the fact that there is a lot of agriculture in the country, and it is difficult to achieve normal tax payments for people who live closer to the mountains, so taxes were simply included in the price of fuel. It is logical and correct, but I do not know how much this is all true. I have a car, there is a company with a bank account too.

On the same day, or rather it was almost night, I strained our engineer to hire a translator who quickly translated our website into Turkish. Everything was ready, it remains only to find customers in an empty market. I felt that everything could work out, my friend supported me and insisted that the Turks were very business people. I could only hope.

(The photo I took in the local market was confirmed by my friend's words)


In the morning I woke up and immediately got down to business. I went to the nearest more or less big city (Alanya). I decided to have breakfast and at the same time try to shove my services right where I will have breakfast. To do this, I found a cafe that looked like a private business, and not like any network, but was civilized. It was a small restaurant where pasta was prepared with you. When I logged in, the first thing I asked was if you have a website? I nodded proudly in the affirmative. I held out my tablet and asked to drive in its url. The page loaded for a long time - and it would be better if it did not load. What I saw was horror. I'll post it right here. Yes, yes, I was not mistaken, below you see a full-fledged website of a Turkish restaurant. It is so cool that it fits in one picture:

( http://www.uknoodle.com/- the whole site in one picture)


Unfortunately, the pasta was not very tasty, in Moscow it is many times better! And the seller was not able to persuade the seller to “try” to launch an advertisement for the delivery of his paste and to take orders via the Internet. He was probably embarrassed by the fact that I highly recommended making the site better. I was a little upset, but I never give up, especially at the first failure. Sitting in his rented car, he began to look for other restaurants, or rather, purposefully he was already looking for companies that have a working delivery or at least some price list of their products on their personal website. Basically, everyone had terrible sites, but there were exceptions. For example, www.dominos.com.tr. Excellent design and functionality, I found it quickly, they were great and they were already advertising online, at least the context from AdWords worked. One thing was good, I did not see more online food delivery advertisements.

After sitting an hour in the car, a base of 20 food-related companies located in the same city was assembled. I will not describe my every meeting for a long time. I offered very favorable conditions, payment after the first customers. And to my happiness, I found a common language with 2 restaurants. They had mediocre sites, delivery (judging by the stories of the owners) also works, but is not in demand almost at all. The advertisement was organized and within a few days I received payments to a bank account as a sign of a successful advertising campaign. The amounts were small, this was only the beginning.

Next, a friend and I began to go around his partners with whom he worked or is working. Companies from different fields, everyone made contact, I showed our site, said that I was already working in Turkey, that I was doing great advertising. Everyone was very interested, I signed a lot of contracts, some for very good amounts. I began to offer to make a beautiful website for free, provided that a certain amount would be spent on advertising. My business worked perfectly, the low competition of online advertising in all areas did its job.

Advertising gave indicators that I had never achieved in Russia. Then we began to go round the arrogant hotels. All. Fortunately, there are a lot of them in Turkey. We spoke with the managers, left our contacts, they passed them on to the management. And even so, we managed to attract customers.

Every day I worked, very tired. But the sea is a great source of energy. That is why it is important to rest closer to any water. I noticed this for a long time: a week spent at sea, the best rest for your body and an excellent charge for several months of work. Every night I went to lie in the water and look at the starry sky. There is nothing better than this moment. This may seem false or self-hypnosis to you, but after 15 minutes spent in the water, you no longer feel tired at all.



Now I clearly understand why companies such as Yandex pay great attention to countries with poorly developed Internet and IT infrastructure in general. They know where to work. For those who work in IT, urgently go to Turkey and expand your business. There now, web designers, advertising specialists, SEO, SMO and so on are very needed. Turkey has very cheap food and accommodation, especially when out of season. October is the perfect time to travel and get started. The sea is warm and you can safely swim in it almost all year round. I’ve just arrived to settle some things and I’m coming back to work soon.

I hope you were interested. I can still tell many interesting stories and share my experience. Successes.