January 14, 2009 at Our response to the financial crisis: first month results
Not so long ago I wrote about the appearance of the Polygon business incubator, and I promised to unsubscribe about the results. I'm doing it.
In short, Polygon ( link1 , link2 ) is a “sandbox” based on the idea of coworking for young entrepreneurs: here you can experiment, analyze and accumulate experience with minimal risks, without fear of losing all the achievements due to one stupid mistake.
"Polygon" - the project of the coworking club "Tower" ( link1 , link2) and the INK business laboratory. The Tower provides a business minimum: equipped workplaces, a ready-made legal entity with an accountant and a lawyer, experience and connections of former and current participants. INC provides a guarantee: no expenses will take this minimum from the participant, and no dangerous problems will be left without a solution.
And at the same time - Polygon does not receive any profit from the participant!
But how does it work then?
And these are our results. For those half a month that the country was resting, to us - hurray hurray! - 5 people came, all surprisingly active. We work closely, spit on holidays and vacations; and in addition to advancing in work on projects (which, in general, is of little interest to the uninitiated), we have done a more socially useful thing:
That's what I want to talk about. Well, how interesting?
This is our Project Map. As you can see here, all existing projects are arranged in a column, and the life line of each project begins to stretch to the left to the right of the column, divided into several successive stages.
The Map clearly shows what stage each project is at. This is the main plus: TRANSPARENCY. You can always see what projects we have and in what condition they are.
But there are also pluses:
1. Firstly, each stage has a responsibility. The picture in the left corner of each stage shows who took up it, and this allows you not to get confused and not to forget anything. IMPORTANT: any participant can be responsible if he is interested. Do you like to explore the market? In all projects, take the “market analysis” stage. Interested in real estate? It’s not a question, take the whole project “Cottage Village” under you. Have money? “Buy” any stages and get in the amount of 20-50-80% of the business profit.
2. By the way, yes! Each stage has its own cost. This is either a one-time payment (for example, the “market analysis” stage), or monthly, or SHARE IN BUSINESS. Need money right now? Carry out a market analysis and get 20 tr Need a long term income? Help the guys in something, and part of the business will deservedly be yours. Of course, for each specific project both the amount and the share can be discussed.
3. And each stage has quality criteria (not shown in the figure) and terms: 2 weeks, a month, six months. The deadlines are set in the business plan and allow you to control the overall progress of the project, as well as the work of the responsible person: did he earn his 10% of the business, or was he freebie? When the whole project is green, and you still haven't gotten a horse, you just won’t get away ...
Do you want to "Polygon"? Choose what you like on our Project Map. There is an idea - add it to the card and 3% of yours, even if you DO NOT do anything else. There are skills - no question, choose the stages in which you are speakers, and proceed. There is a desire to join the business - choose any project and get involved in the work. Have money - invest: all amounts, participants, stages and process before your eyes!
In general, we are useful for people of (almost) any type.
Speaking of stages.
This is the Life Line of a business project, our pride, our beauty :) Life Line not only allows you to clearly TRACK on what point in the process of creating your own empire you are now, but also allows you to bring all projects to one universal view. And when you know where you are, what to do next and how to distribute efforts between all projects - it becomes not just easy to work, but VERY SIMPLE.
We highlight about 20 stages that are needed to create a business. The more done, the less risk, therefore, we thoroughly broke the start of work (before going to "0"), but did not specify (visually) the optimization and automation processes. First, they will already be spelled out in the business plan; secondly, by this time profits will already go, and hired employees will be engaged in this work.
The first part of the project is carried out almost sequentially. This is IMPORTANT: if you skip a stage, you can lose a lot of information and eventually burn out (that's why I'm talking about high risks). Having collected and processed the information, we significantly clarify the situation, and then it becomes possible to DISTRIBUTE the work between people in order to conduct stages independently and in parallel.
Yes, by the way: if you copy this scheme and work on it, we will only be happy for you. But we must understand that the picture does not express 10% of the meaning that we put in it. For the remaining 90% - come to the Polygon :)
And another picture that we use to fully understand the situation -
This is the Profit Chart of the project. It wasn’t us who invented it: a slow decline (preparation), a failure (pilot launch), a tight exit to “0” (self-sufficiency), a sharp rise (tried!) And a smooth exit to the level (saturated a niche) - these are standard and well-known stages. But, as you can see in the picture, there are some interesting additions :)
The Profit Chart helps to keep 2 things in mind:
1. The first is the expected costs: which are already passed and which are still ahead. Often, a novice entrepreneur is not able to really assess the amount of investment he needs; The Profit Chart, coupled with the Life Line, helps to do this. Use for health!
2. The second is investors: who can support you at the stage where you are now? Whose attention should be persistently sought, and whose obviously is not worth the effort? The national network of business angels offers a very reasonable assessment of the situation , and we took it into service.
Note: INC is ready to support the business throughout its development process. True, right now we do not have free millions to invest :) But we are paying back this shortcoming by what was promised above: the Failure guarantee of your case is below a certain minimum level.
Like this. Look again at the Project Map, at the Life Line, at the Profit Schedule - and decide if we can be useful to you. I really hope that this will be so.
But the decision is yours.
Sincerely, Alexey Glazkov.
UPD: Yes, we can accept your idea, realize it and give you a percentage. BUT! Firstly, an idea is not five words and a picture in your head: it is a detailed document outlining (in a free style) what kind of product / service / service is offered and where such an idea came from. Secondly, even if there is such a description, we can simply not accept the idea. You can’t even imagine how many people consider themselves to be brilliant innovators, although in reality they offer something like "... and there you can rob the cows."
UPD2:Yes, St. Petersburg can also participate. Even the Chinese can. We are not limited to Yekaterinburg. But you need to understand that many stages will not be available to you: firstly, only the Tower co-workers receive complete information on all projects, and secondly, some things should in principle be done where they can be controlled (If the investor said in Ekb - means in Ekb, and so on).
UPD3:Yes, only coworkers have full information. To become a coworker, you need to come to the "Tower". The ONLY exception is if you are the author of the project; then, of course, all the information on it will be available to you. However, if we make friends, for example, with New Level, and turn the Polygon into a network, you can come to New Level, become a coworker there and get full access. Now such cooperation is being established in Chelyabinsk. But so far we do not have a person who, for the sake of success, could represent our interests in Kiev, St. Petersburg, Moscow, or elsewhere. Maybe you will become one?
UPD4:No, the pictures are not sucked from the finger, not stupid and not wrong. Each comma has an explanation. BUT: you will not hear this explanation, at least until you become a co-worker of the Bashny, and at the most, you do not raise your business here. And the point here is not at all that we are afraid of competitors or we are sorry for the information. The fact is that in printed form it will inevitably be distorted and not perceived as it should, and then they will accuse us of the fact that nothing works, and we powder our brains and drain money. Well, I do not! We are not gurus and not MLM. Nafig need.
If you want, come PERSONALLY, ask a million questions, and in two or three days you will understand everything thoroughly. We will be happy to help!
In short, Polygon ( link1 , link2 ) is a “sandbox” based on the idea of coworking for young entrepreneurs: here you can experiment, analyze and accumulate experience with minimal risks, without fear of losing all the achievements due to one stupid mistake.
"Polygon" - the project of the coworking club "Tower" ( link1 , link2) and the INK business laboratory. The Tower provides a business minimum: equipped workplaces, a ready-made legal entity with an accountant and a lawyer, experience and connections of former and current participants. INC provides a guarantee: no expenses will take this minimum from the participant, and no dangerous problems will be left without a solution.
And at the same time - Polygon does not receive any profit from the participant!
But how does it work then?
And these are our results. For those half a month that the country was resting, to us - hurray hurray! - 5 people came, all surprisingly active. We work closely, spit on holidays and vacations; and in addition to advancing in work on projects (which, in general, is of little interest to the uninitiated), we have done a more socially useful thing:
- We collected all the more or less worthwhile projects that we worked on before, but froze for various reasons (18 in total),
- Added current projects (total 4),
- Wrote the ideas of those who came during this time (total 3),
- They entered ideas on which there is no knowledge / experience, but I would like to do something (well, you never know, suddenly you find the right person; only 7)
- And they compiled a GENERAL CONCEPT of the work of the Polygon.
That's what I want to talk about. Well, how interesting?
This is our Project Map. As you can see here, all existing projects are arranged in a column, and the life line of each project begins to stretch to the left to the right of the column, divided into several successive stages.
The Map clearly shows what stage each project is at. This is the main plus: TRANSPARENCY. You can always see what projects we have and in what condition they are.
But there are also pluses:
1. Firstly, each stage has a responsibility. The picture in the left corner of each stage shows who took up it, and this allows you not to get confused and not to forget anything. IMPORTANT: any participant can be responsible if he is interested. Do you like to explore the market? In all projects, take the “market analysis” stage. Interested in real estate? It’s not a question, take the whole project “Cottage Village” under you. Have money? “Buy” any stages and get in the amount of 20-50-80% of the business profit.
2. By the way, yes! Each stage has its own cost. This is either a one-time payment (for example, the “market analysis” stage), or monthly, or SHARE IN BUSINESS. Need money right now? Carry out a market analysis and get 20 tr Need a long term income? Help the guys in something, and part of the business will deservedly be yours. Of course, for each specific project both the amount and the share can be discussed.
3. And each stage has quality criteria (not shown in the figure) and terms: 2 weeks, a month, six months. The deadlines are set in the business plan and allow you to control the overall progress of the project, as well as the work of the responsible person: did he earn his 10% of the business, or was he freebie? When the whole project is green, and you still haven't gotten a horse, you just won’t get away ...
Do you want to "Polygon"? Choose what you like on our Project Map. There is an idea - add it to the card and 3% of yours, even if you DO NOT do anything else. There are skills - no question, choose the stages in which you are speakers, and proceed. There is a desire to join the business - choose any project and get involved in the work. Have money - invest: all amounts, participants, stages and process before your eyes!
In general, we are useful for people of (almost) any type.
Speaking of stages.
This is the Life Line of a business project, our pride, our beauty :) Life Line not only allows you to clearly TRACK on what point in the process of creating your own empire you are now, but also allows you to bring all projects to one universal view. And when you know where you are, what to do next and how to distribute efforts between all projects - it becomes not just easy to work, but VERY SIMPLE.
We highlight about 20 stages that are needed to create a business. The more done, the less risk, therefore, we thoroughly broke the start of work (before going to "0"), but did not specify (visually) the optimization and automation processes. First, they will already be spelled out in the business plan; secondly, by this time profits will already go, and hired employees will be engaged in this work.
The first part of the project is carried out almost sequentially. This is IMPORTANT: if you skip a stage, you can lose a lot of information and eventually burn out (that's why I'm talking about high risks). Having collected and processed the information, we significantly clarify the situation, and then it becomes possible to DISTRIBUTE the work between people in order to conduct stages independently and in parallel.
Yes, by the way: if you copy this scheme and work on it, we will only be happy for you. But we must understand that the picture does not express 10% of the meaning that we put in it. For the remaining 90% - come to the Polygon :)
And another picture that we use to fully understand the situation -
This is the Profit Chart of the project. It wasn’t us who invented it: a slow decline (preparation), a failure (pilot launch), a tight exit to “0” (self-sufficiency), a sharp rise (tried!) And a smooth exit to the level (saturated a niche) - these are standard and well-known stages. But, as you can see in the picture, there are some interesting additions :)
The Profit Chart helps to keep 2 things in mind:
1. The first is the expected costs: which are already passed and which are still ahead. Often, a novice entrepreneur is not able to really assess the amount of investment he needs; The Profit Chart, coupled with the Life Line, helps to do this. Use for health!
2. The second is investors: who can support you at the stage where you are now? Whose attention should be persistently sought, and whose obviously is not worth the effort? The national network of business angels offers a very reasonable assessment of the situation , and we took it into service.
Note: INC is ready to support the business throughout its development process. True, right now we do not have free millions to invest :) But we are paying back this shortcoming by what was promised above: the Failure guarantee of your case is below a certain minimum level.
Like this. Look again at the Project Map, at the Life Line, at the Profit Schedule - and decide if we can be useful to you. I really hope that this will be so.
But the decision is yours.
Sincerely, Alexey Glazkov.
UPD: Yes, we can accept your idea, realize it and give you a percentage. BUT! Firstly, an idea is not five words and a picture in your head: it is a detailed document outlining (in a free style) what kind of product / service / service is offered and where such an idea came from. Secondly, even if there is such a description, we can simply not accept the idea. You can’t even imagine how many people consider themselves to be brilliant innovators, although in reality they offer something like "... and there you can rob the cows."
UPD2:Yes, St. Petersburg can also participate. Even the Chinese can. We are not limited to Yekaterinburg. But you need to understand that many stages will not be available to you: firstly, only the Tower co-workers receive complete information on all projects, and secondly, some things should in principle be done where they can be controlled (If the investor said in Ekb - means in Ekb, and so on).
UPD3:Yes, only coworkers have full information. To become a coworker, you need to come to the "Tower". The ONLY exception is if you are the author of the project; then, of course, all the information on it will be available to you. However, if we make friends, for example, with New Level, and turn the Polygon into a network, you can come to New Level, become a coworker there and get full access. Now such cooperation is being established in Chelyabinsk. But so far we do not have a person who, for the sake of success, could represent our interests in Kiev, St. Petersburg, Moscow, or elsewhere. Maybe you will become one?
UPD4:No, the pictures are not sucked from the finger, not stupid and not wrong. Each comma has an explanation. BUT: you will not hear this explanation, at least until you become a co-worker of the Bashny, and at the most, you do not raise your business here. And the point here is not at all that we are afraid of competitors or we are sorry for the information. The fact is that in printed form it will inevitably be distorted and not perceived as it should, and then they will accuse us of the fact that nothing works, and we powder our brains and drain money. Well, I do not! We are not gurus and not MLM. Nafig need.
If you want, come PERSONALLY, ask a million questions, and in two or three days you will understand everything thoroughly. We will be happy to help!