June 2, 2010 at 15:25About bright ideas and harsh realities
Often our ideas, desires - very, very bright, necessary, interesting - turn into dull and useless activities that are not in demand by the market. Running a little ahead, let’s say - such situations entirely apply to layout. Having decided to open our own business, we are not burnt out, no. But they realized that it’s not worth a damn. So, having gained experience and made several observations, we decided to share them with Habr.
It is no secret that many IT people are inspired by famous personalities of the Western IT world: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Stallmann, Linus, startup-creators of Twitter, the same HabrHabr, Vkontakte, Engadget and many other people and services. For us, p2h.com guys became such “motivators” - it would seem like ordinary people, but for how many years they have been doing only typesetting and live quite perfectly. We wanted too.
We really like layout. It is magical - and the code itself, with the proper approach, becomes a wonderful creation of man. So we decided to create a business in Russia similar to p2h.com and which will work only for typesetting - to supply consumers with a good code that is normal and meets all the requirements of customers. Having accumulated capital, we decided to open a website (virtual business lair), and together with it LLC (paying taxes in a timely manner and keeping financial statements, concluding contracts and other nyashki of the official business) - and simultaneously with the development and clarification of the procedure that needs to be done for the state registration of the company, began the activity of “stuffing the portfolio” on freelance. The work was not just going on - it was boiling and smoking! But one oddity was noticed. More precisely, not strangeness, namely the harsh reality of Russian business.
The fact is that after working for more than six months on freelance stuffing briefcases, we noticed that no one has the desire to order typesetting separately. More precisely, there were such cases - but they rather confirm the rule. There was a serious chagrin - there was only enough money for bread and butter, and serious orders and the desired hint of independent existence, like p2h.com, were not observed. There is no good demand for layout - which means that our business is simply doomed to failure. And now we are at a crossroads.
As an epilogue, we want to say that we have not officially opened an enterprise. Why? Yes, it's just a noose around our neck. Taxes, payment of duties and all other things - and at the same time the minimum possible demand for our services. We will drown without having time to attract at least 10-20 customers.
But we also did not know the answers to the questions: is it possible to engage in mass layout only if it is needed in Russia only by units? And how to deal with those who offer a turnkey site, already includes layout in the range of services? Collaboration with them is not the point we sought. It turns out that the layout market is not in demand? And only needed as an “outsourcing” of large web studios? With these questions we would like to puzzle the habrasociety.
Published at the request of the-buddha.habrahabr.ru
It is no secret that many IT people are inspired by famous personalities of the Western IT world: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Stallmann, Linus, startup-creators of Twitter, the same HabrHabr, Vkontakte, Engadget and many other people and services. For us, p2h.com guys became such “motivators” - it would seem like ordinary people, but for how many years they have been doing only typesetting and live quite perfectly. We wanted too.
Meeting with the beautiful.
We really like layout. It is magical - and the code itself, with the proper approach, becomes a wonderful creation of man. So we decided to create a business in Russia similar to p2h.com and which will work only for typesetting - to supply consumers with a good code that is normal and meets all the requirements of customers. Having accumulated capital, we decided to open a website (virtual business lair), and together with it LLC (paying taxes in a timely manner and keeping financial statements, concluding contracts and other nyashki of the official business) - and simultaneously with the development and clarification of the procedure that needs to be done for the state registration of the company, began the activity of “stuffing the portfolio” on freelance. The work was not just going on - it was boiling and smoking! But one oddity was noticed. More precisely, not strangeness, namely the harsh reality of Russian business.
The fact is that after working for more than six months on freelance stuffing briefcases, we noticed that no one has the desire to order typesetting separately. More precisely, there were such cases - but they rather confirm the rule. There was a serious chagrin - there was only enough money for bread and butter, and serious orders and the desired hint of independent existence, like p2h.com, were not observed. There is no good demand for layout - which means that our business is simply doomed to failure. And now we are at a crossroads.
As an epilogue, we want to say that we have not officially opened an enterprise. Why? Yes, it's just a noose around our neck. Taxes, payment of duties and all other things - and at the same time the minimum possible demand for our services. We will drown without having time to attract at least 10-20 customers.
But we also did not know the answers to the questions: is it possible to engage in mass layout only if it is needed in Russia only by units? And how to deal with those who offer a turnkey site, already includes layout in the range of services? Collaboration with them is not the point we sought. It turns out that the layout market is not in demand? And only needed as an “outsourcing” of large web studios? With these questions we would like to puzzle the habrasociety.
Published at the request of the-buddha.habrahabr.ru