Remart: how I created my business

    Part I. Idea and investors



    It all started with furniture . Leafing through one popular magazine, I noticed an article describing an interesting business. There, an American company produced and installed hidden walkways. This is something like what can be seen in the movie about the adventures of Batman. Before this incident, I saw something like this only in films, they say, you arrange chess pieces on a field with electronics inside, and if you place them correctly, the door will open. It’s an amazing thing, I remember this article.
    After a couple of months, life circumstances developed in such a way that the question before me was how to organize my own business.


    There was no concrete idea, but there was a lot of desire. Quite by accident, I remembered that very article, found a magazine and, using the company's website, got in touch with the American director of the company. There was a fairly simple small one, he was an engineer himself (apparently the company was small), but, it should be noted, they were already reported about in a number of fairly large media. With a light shoulder, this pleasant Mr. allocated me the region of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine for sales. I did not have much money, besides, starting such a business without experience in this area was a little exciting, but I decided to try it all the same. Since the case, in the end, did not work completely, I will not describe the search for the installer team, the solution to service problems, and the like, the main thing is that after some preparation we “rushed into battle”. Let's face it, I acted modestly and potentially the result would be slightly different, if I had more money at my disposal and if it’s not the years of crisis in the yard, this was not the main problem. I printed brochures and went about interior designers: everyone was groaning and groaning, how wonderful it was, but then groaning and groaning even louder when they found out their price. The simplest door in quality performance was about 10k dollars. In short, we did not sell anything significant, which, however, did not deprive me of motivation.
    Just at the moment of special mental torment, an unusual example of furniture - a transformer from Italy came into my field of vision. It seemed to be not too expensive, but still not cheap. Taught by bitter experience, I first imagined how this furniture could be better sold. In my head, everything revolved around the image of a large store, with huge monitors, which showed a beautiful video with furniture, a demonstration of the transformation mechanisms and other beautiful things. To do now such stores without huge capital behind is completely impossible, but, thank God, information technology is our everything. Thus, I have come to the conclusion that a website is indispensable. Then I thought about the upsale, about the presentation and the possibility of creating not a store, but a service that could offer furniture and arrange it according to the given parameters. The client visits the site, Enters the cost, color, type of room, its dimensions and a couple of parameters, the program processes and issues an interior solution automatically. Class! Dear Customer, if you cherish it, move the slider to get a more satisfactory solution, do not like the color - ask another one and buy. So I liked this idea, that I couldn’t even sleep normally. Then he called his friend, a programmer, at dinner he dedicated it to his idea, and he gladly entered my team. Only then did he admit that at that time he did not know how to technically implement it, and looking ahead, it turned out to be a rather difficult task. Fortunately, I didn’t know then, and boldly moved in search of designers as a team. I also found them quickly among my friends: the designer, who was doing repairs at my place, agreed to participate in the project and attract her husband.
    My team and I roughly estimated the size of the necessary investments, and the amount was more or less adequate. However, from rough estimates to the investment proposal was still very far away. Inspired by the potential of the idea, I rushed to find an investor, thinking that literally the first person I tell about it would immediately give me an investment . Then the general algorithm of actions seemed to me as follows:
    • We find a team.
    • We tell investors about the idea, we get money for implementation.
    • We quickly sculpt service.
    • We start selling.

    As it turned out, in general, everything was planned correctly, but the complexity of some points was underestimated. The search for an investor began with familiar businessmen. No one refused at once, they took time to think and thought for a long time. Naturally, I assured everyone that the implementation would be quite simple, relying heavily on the development team. As a result, everyone refused, justifying it not with the profile of such a business for them and with a lack of knowledge about this market. Then I went into the community of business angels, very quickly went through all their selections and everyone refused me. However, I’m a stubborn fellow: I contacted several of their officially announced business angels from this field. All three agreed to listen to me, only 1 did not like the idea, he was an IT specialist and apparently imagined how difficult it is to implement it in the form as it is. Two met with me and suggested that I work out this issue in more detail and then return to the topic of financing. I will not give the names of these people, but on a regional scale they are rich people, with business in the construction sector. I was allocated a consultant for a financier, and we began to work on creating a business plan for the project. In the process of work, meetings with potential investors, their managers and founders, in the process of participating in start-up weekends, the concept of business has changed. Now we are creating ready-made interior solutions for standard apartments. We sell everything in the picture. The goal that we set for ourselves is approximately formalized in the mission of our company: but on a regional scale, these are rich people, with businesses in the construction industry. I was allocated a consultant for a financier, and we began to work on creating a business plan for the project. In the process of work, meetings with potential investors, their managers and founders, in the process of participating in start-up weekends, the concept of business has changed. Now we are creating ready-made interior solutions for standard apartments. We sell everything in the picture. The goal that we set for ourselves is approximately formalized in the mission of our company: but on a regional scale, these are rich people, with businesses in the construction industry. I was allocated a consultant for a financier, and we began to work on creating a business plan for the project. In the process of work, meetings with potential investors, their managers and founders, in the process of participating in start-up weekends, the concept of business has changed. Now we are creating ready-made interior solutions for standard apartments. We sell everything in the picture. The goal that we set for ourselves is approximately formalized in the mission of our company: Now we are creating ready-made interior solutions for standard apartments. We sell everything in the picture. The goal that we set for ourselves is approximately formalized in the mission of our company: Now we are creating ready-made interior solutions for standard apartments. We sell everything in the picture. The goal that we set for ourselves is approximately formalized in the mission of our company:
    “We turn repairs into a simple, fun and enjoyable process. We want to make people’s apartments beautiful, comfortable, so that people come home with pleasure and spend time with their families ”
    We give people time for themselves so that people don’t worry and spend time choosing and buying goods for repairs, but rely on us” .
    The rethinking process was long, at least 6 months. This was due to the fact that we worked all on the main works, our consultants dealt with us on a residual basis, etc. However, we nevertheless created a good investment project with very good indicators, relying on very real figures (though our expectations were even more rosy). The amount that we need has already become several times larger and closer to the real one. This amount provided us until we reached self-sufficiency, according to our calculations.
    The amount is small for our potential investors and their employees said that the likelihood that it would be allocated was very high. However, the crisis made adjustments. Some investors suggested returning to this issue after half a year. The second investor said that he could, for starters, allocate an amount 5 times less, and we were asked to think about what we could do for this money, to try, and then make a decision on further financing. I refused. In the next topic, I hope to tell why :)
    I still do not perfectly understand the Habr structure, therefore, if there is a more suitable Hub, I will be glad to advise

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