Computer Firm: Behind the Scenes

After yesterday's topic about the comp. a company a lot of readers interested in the problems that we encountered along the way, and the cause of the "fall" of our creation.
Also, many fell in love with the phrase "about a rake" - so that actually they will be discussed.


LITTLE LIFE

For starters, I want to describe a few "pressing" issues and minor issues for people who already want or someday want to open a company selling a computer. technique.

1. The most important phobia and fear of the seller and the founder’s father.
I think I will not be mistaken if I say that this is licensed software and everything connected with it.
But what always surprised me was the fact that people installed licensed Windows in their company and thought that they had caught God by the beard and protected themselves from all the misfortune in caps and even masks. And the fact that the computer is teeming with other pirated software from WinRar to CorelDraw, as if it did not matter at all. When they check you, they will look at everything, not just Windows.

By the way, keep in mind that when buying Windows, you must have incoming documents on it, because the sticker itself does not yet indicate its legitimacy - you need an invoice.

But there is a recipe on how to protect a computer firm from all this. Melkosoft has a program for partners Microsoft Action Pack Microsoft Action Pack
The essence is approximately the following:
1. You become a partner of the soft ones - for this you need a simple registration.
2. Then you will need to take an online children's test.
3. After that, pay the account $ 350. At the moment, I don’t know the exact amount, but not more than that.
4. And now for 12 months you will be sent a package with all products from Microsoft: Windows 7, Server 2008, MS Office, etc.

It contains about 10 licenses for each individual product. That is, for a small company, it will fit completely. You will get a legitimate licensed software. And you can not be afraid of anyone.
And once again, the price of this good is 350ue per year. Although in the first year you can not worry about robots - you are unlikely to be interested in any kind of verification. And when you get started, you can afford this pleasure.

But this option is only for companies selling computers - otherwise it does not fit.

Another option: Linux. But this is if you yourself understand it. And to take an individual person under this business will be more detrimental to your pocket than to pay three hundred green a year.

The rest of the software use either the free or Portable versions, which are rampant in the internet. I had portable Photoshop, Corel, 1C, TC - and that’s all.

And then you don’t have to pray for the night and go to church every time our government decides to pick it up with the help of its organs for the next elections.

2. Money, Money
A lot of people asked about money - so I’ll try to describe in general terms. But this is not a recipe for action and no methodology for winning the market - this is just my personal experience.

Since our trick is that we do not mow loot instantly, but are looking for long-term prospects, then you should be a patient and moderate person in your needs. At least for a certain period of time. Do not immediately show ambitions and buy leather furniture, an expensive cell phone, renting an office in an elite business center.

Some will want to take a loan. Now I will not go into the details of lending, because at the moment it is not relevant. The only thing to remember so that you know about it even drunk in the insole: never take out a loan under the annuity scheme! Despite the fact that the annuity seems more profitable and obvious - you need to take only the standard or not at all.

So, the money. Where to get it? There is one simple trick that you can correctly use.
Beginners, be sure that after 1-2 months of working with a prepaid supplier, you will be given a credit line for 14 days. That is, if you took goods for 500 bucks on June 1, then “on paper” until June 14, your debt will be 0 ye. And on June 15th there will already be 500ue. Anyone who knows how to count even a drop will immediately understand that this is actually an interest-free loan at someone else’s expense. You just need to be sure of your turnover.

For example, after the first year of your life, your company has a turnover of 3 thousand. ye per month. This means that you can safely spend 1,500 ye "left", and preferably on the promotion of the company. And while the turnover is growing, you can actually spend 50% of the turnover on yourself. Although it is advisable not to exceed the threshold of 30%, then none of the suppliers will even have questions for you. But God forbid slow down - immediately get into debt and then it will become bad.
This information will be useful only to doubting beginners, because people already working in the trade cut through this chip quite quickly, although some slow down. Just be sure that with proper calculation and perseverance, you will have working capital - the main thing is to use them correctly.

3. Dumping
Often, "newcomers" begin dumping - this is partly right. Such a strategy will attract more buyers to you. But when buying, they must feel that you are good not only at the price. Everyone who came to you for a low price needs to be “seduced”. Although dumping should be with a bunch of ads, that is, “aggressive” - otherwise you will still have few sales and even less money. And this is already fraught with consequences.
After a few months, a smooth rise in prices begins - with some of the customers being eliminated. Although, believe me, low-price seekers are not your friends. They are traitors in the trading open spaces.

But in no case should you go too far with dumping. The fact is that with such a policy, turnover can sharply increase. A high turnover, as mentioned above, will give you the opportunity to spend this working money quietly and with impunity. This state of affairs relaxes many people - because it seems that things are going up, the turnover is growing, but in fact you will actually work in the red. And each computer sold in the future will increase the cost of your work for the maintenance department.

Many people realize the dangers of rising turnover and low prices too late. I myself witnessed the collapse of 2 firms, which in 2 years went through the stages of rapid growth, prosperity and sharp withering, and bankruptcy.
Although spending part of the working money wisely, and then raising prices, you can still greatly improve your business.

4. Cash Register
Well, this is just advice. In parallel with the company, be sure to open an entrepreneur on a single tax.
Then the cash register is not needed and there will be much less problems with the accounting department of your company, which also does not have to keep the cash register. Though about businessmen wrote a lot on Habré. Remember the main thing - get an entrepreneur. It will make life a lot easier.

5. Accounting
For an emergency you will definitely need an accountant. But there is a moment: all accountants love to whine, what a difficult job they have and that they need to help a senior accountant who will help with quarterly reports. I, too, at one time was led to this, until I got into everything.

It’s just that they are languishing from the monotony of work and they want to embellish their existence with a multitude of importance and difficulty. Nifiga complicated there. Be sure to demand from Bukh ability to submit quarterly reports. If you don’t know how to start studying, there’s nothing complicated there: you just need to conduct normal bookkeeping and be able to count.
Of course, the first year you can pay the “assistant” once a quarter, but if after a year your bugger aches, that he still can’t make a report on the MPE, income tax or pension tax - put it in the neck.
At the moment of my life, I personally saw people who, thanks to their heads and the Internet, in 6 months could make any report - keep in mind. As for this, they were not engaged in bookkeeping. So you pay a salary - and you demand return.
All this I mean, that bang on an emergency is a very important person. It can be the cause of so many of your troubles and problems with the tax.

As a matter of fact, that’s all for readers. If anyone else is interested, I’ll be happy to answer.

And in the distance you can see the notorious rake. In fact, this will be a continuation of the past narrative, although not so interesting.

Ode to human stupidity.

Although mostly stupidity was mine.
But keep in mind that I am only retelling this, that was, and in no case teach anyone anything or give global advice. Adequate people will immediately understand that I was a fool and it was impossible to do so. I needed to get burned in order to understand what's what. I hope that such an “experience” will be useful to someone.

So, in order.

In the first part, I deliberately omitted some facts, since it was about the work of the company as such. But it was precisely these moments that caused the “collapse”.

If you recall, the company began with two people: me and bukh. So, the bukh was my co-owner, and the most interesting thing is that the docks for emergency were designed for him.
The fact is that at that time we could not open an LLC for 2 owners in terms of finances, and the emergency should have had only one owner. Since he was engaged in papers, it was decided to draw on him.
But we were friends - all the profit is 50/50, and the paper is garbage. After all, at that time we were amazing people, wore rainbow glasses and believed in justice.
But in our world there is only one justice - an official document.

By the way, in Ukraine now it is already possible to open an emergency on two or more owners without any mandatory financial injections. So keep that in mind.

The problems started much later.

In the first year of work there was no load on the bay - I did all the work, but there were almost no paper movements. So I, because of the kindness of my soul, constantly let him go, and I myself worked - because my eyes were burning and my soul was eager for battle. That is, I was engaged in: advertising, assembly, delivery, programming, customers, etc. It’s not that they didn’t help me at all, but the co-owner should do more than just accept incoming work.
But in moments of youth you can work around the clock, you can wake up at 8:00, and go to bed at 4 nights, and then again in the morning in battle - there are enough strength, health and dope for three. And in such moments, the euphoria from what you do overlaps all the negative moments.

It is precisely this state of affairs that somehow strengthened with time: I am fully engaged in the company, and he is in the paper business. And then - occasionally. The profit is 50/50. Perhaps if I set the goal of immediately “withdrawing” a heap of money, I would immediately sound the alarm. But I was still quite nice, kind and unfired ...

After a year and a half of such work, the bukh asked me to hire my brother - I did not mind. We were just looking for an assistant at that time. Well, the work went further: development, increase in volumes. More workers began to appear. But the bukh worked less and less, and besides, we took the chief accountant to help him, who helped with reports once a quarter.
At certain moments of “insight,” I began to be indignant that it would not hurt him to work on development, and not just on the fact of accounting work. To which he received the answer that they say there is a brother and they are as one whole, which means that the brother just replaces the underdeveloped co-owner.
At the moment, I look at those situations differently, but then it suited me. But well, I thought, I have enough agility, energy and intelligence for two, well, let him be lazy for himself, but we work, we earn money, enough for two - so why complain, because everything is so good. I simply attributed my spiritual discomfort to egoism.

But after 5 years of work, the situation really started to strain me: I basically do everything that everything in the company from programs to advertising, almost everything was created by me, I was without vacation for 4 years, we earn good money and share 50/50 profit who in just resting and does not want to appear at work.

I posed the question with an edge and realized that I can’t actually do anything. The docks are not written for me, I can’t present anything legally, and all attempts to agree and any options for taxiing down came to the point of either leaving yourself, because we don’t keep you, or continue to work. After all, we earn and everyone is well. But this time, I decided that the restlessness of the soul was caused precisely by “healthy” egoism.
And then I decided to quit. Just quit, leave give. I was still self-confident and thought that I could build a new business from scratch.

This is the sign of 2008, which began with the fact that we were in the best shape and ready for new achievements: in fact, at the peak, I simply left the company without actually taking anything from it. It can be narrated and read easily, but the procedure for this “break” was more than unpleasant. Now you can guess a lot how to resolve the situation, but everything happened just like that.
Ottudov and went to the problems of the company. Since I was completely engaged in everything, and all the clients knew exactly me, the new people who sat down in my place ceased to “satisfy” them. By the way, I knew some clients for exactly 5 years, I knew their children who graduated from school and bought a computer for them, then they grew up, graduated from the university and already bought a new computer for themselves - we had very good relations with many. Family, I would say.

After my departure, things sharply worsened. The company moved further by inertia, but inertia in business is not eternal - there is a lot of friction in our world.

I "sewn up" for 5 months. I just rested - it seemed to be enough money. The fate of the company completely ceased to bother me after all attempts to reach an agreement failed. They calmly destroyed themselves. Bukh actually turned out to be a specific forehead in his work, he directly pushed clients away from himself, behaved arrogantly and arrogantly. Turnover fell more than twice and continued to fall. Their fate was determined.

I was going to do mine.

STUPID?? STILL DUTER !!

S. King once wrote: if someone deceived you, let him be ashamed, but if you were deceived a second time, then let him be ashamed of you.

I turned out to be an idiot in the most negative sense of the word. Having made all the relevant conclusions for myself at the expense of the business with partners, I decided again to do something that I am well oriented in - namely, selling equipment.

And here, Providence sends me an old friend. I think each of you has such a “buddy”: he always twists, stirs up, sells, buys, well “spoils” the people for all sorts of stupid things, his thoughts forever with some tricky bias, bordering on fraud, and you he constantly wonders how he still walks smiling through the territory of our sinful state. He either disappears, then appears and seems to even conduct some kind of business.
I don’t know how, but this friend intersects with me and casts a bait on a successful business just on the topic of selling computers. Upon reflection, I decide what I can try: there is finances, experience too, and I’m kind of like a shooter, who is worth a few un shot.

Being supposedly “burnt” and confident in my experience, I make clear docks, legally describe all the responsibilities of the company and my own in it, do an emergency for two with a clear statement of the share of each. In addition, knowing about the "playful" pens of my partner, I immediately take clear control over all finances. We start and in the first month immediately go to the turnover, which is equal to the fallen turnover of the company with which I left.
After 2 months of work, heavenly punishment follows, for my "sins." Karma decided that if I do not understand kindly, then it is necessary to convey to the mind of the brain more and more stringent methods. At a certain point, I understand that the partner is too unclean and the measures that I took were not enough. “Left” and irrevocably spent a lot of money, a lot.
But this time I was not going to retreat. I managed to transfer the state of emergency to myself, remaining the sole owner of it. And to "remove" a partner from work, and with him a considerable amount of money has sunk into oblivion.
And on such a merry and violent horse to the sounds of marches and fanfare, to the glory of stupidity, I enter the 2008 crisis.

And in sum, all these ill-fated coincidences paint a very sad picture in oil - “Arrived”.

This is where the wondrous story actually ends. Besides the fact that I am alive and working with a sweat to restore what was once. Only this work is no longer from scratch, but thanks to the last partner, from the "minuses". But as the old people often say, it would be health, and there we will break through.

SMART LEARNING ON ANOTHER'S MISTAKES

I happened to happen on my own.
Everyone is free to draw conclusions himself. Yes, and can I judge something if all my actions up to this point have led me to such situations. And this means that all the conclusions and assumptions at that time were incorrect. But let's hope that everything has changed and I have passed the lessons of life.

The most important thing for me: it is almost impossible to build a normal business with a partner. In such relationships, someone will always be a victim, and someone dependent. If you fall into the role of a dependent, then, in principle, you can start a business. But nobody wants to be the victim.
The conversation is only about small business, where everyone should invest sweat and blood.

If we are talking about a joint venture, where you and your partner need to invest in a certain amount of money and just keep track of the case, then, in principle, it seems to me that this is a normal situation. Both of you will simply control the business.

Many advise not to start a business with relatives. Now I am inclined to believe at 100%. I imagine what will happen in such matters, even if there are a lot of problems with a simple person.

Perhaps the fault is the lack of business skills and business acumen, which I mentioned last time.

After all, any business with young people begins with enthusiasm. We begin to work for ourselves, earning a trifle. But often we live with parents and we almost do not need to spend money on food and an apartment. But growing up, we become independent, go to our own apartments, start girls and wives, and even children, take loans, buy cars - money becomes a necessity for us. And imperceptibly pass the times when you tried to save on yourself in order to invest in business. When a family and a separate life appear, you start saving on someone, to invest in a family, you start to think differently. Then the partnership fades into the background. And here frictions between partners are possible - everyone wants to live better.

So starting with a partner is not dangerous. Dangers begin when your business grows into something more serious.

Here, in fact, all the rake. It was partnership that killed our endeavor.

I follow their fate less and less. 2008 ended very badly for them. 2009 is even worse and I hardly see any hope, looking from the side. In fact, I do not care. On the other hand, I feel sorry for 5 years of irretrievably lost work. It seems to me that now I could not work with such dedication and zeal. Although our heart is a pump, we can survive a lot.

Please understand that all of the above is purely my personal experience. I'm not trying to teach anyone. It’s just possible you, unlike me, will be able to draw the correct conclusion from the mistakes of others, and not learn from your own.

Thanks to everyone who responded. I knew that there are a lot of good people here, but I did not expect that SO much.