Can everyone do business? Is it profitable to do business in Russia

What kind of business is profitable to do: 5 profitable business directions + 3 ideas for a business without initial investment + 6 ideas for success in the village + 5 tips on how to start a business + 5 steps to determine how “your” idea is.

Today, most people dream of financial independence. No wonder. If you get an average salary for our region, then you can only dream of an apartment in the city center and a brand new car in the garage.

But still, people continue to go to low-paid jobs, naively believing that they will not be able to earn money on their own business. They just don't know what kind of business is profitable to do and how to start it right.

Up-to-date statistics on what kind of business is profitable to do

In fact, at the initial stages, it is difficult for a beginner to understand which business is profitable to engage in, and which one will only bring losses, fatigue and disappointment.

Therefore, we offer you statistics of areas in which it is profitable to do your business:

5 options for profitable business directions

Their schemes above you could understand how popular this or that direction is. What options are most in demand in Russia?

No. 1. Business in trade.

Trade This is the type of business that is always profitable to do. The only question is, what product to sell?

Whether you follow trends or look for innovative types of goods - it does not matter at all. With the same success, you can sell clothes for pregnant women, and football paraphernalia, and food. The main thing is to determine what will be beneficial for you.

No. 2. Production.

If sales are not your forte, we offer to engage in production. Don't know what to produce? What is missing in your city/region?

You can be engaged in the production of live beer, parquet boards or collect agricultural machinery. There are more than enough directions.

No. 3. Business in the service sector.

Engaging in the provision of services is beneficial in that often the initial investment is much less than in trade or production. always remain popular and bring good profits.

No. 4. Internet business.

That's where the scope for the development of their business!

Now in demand, turnkey website development and similar options.

PS. It will also be beneficial to create your own culinary or beauty blog.

No. 5. There is money, there is no idea.

If you have “extra” money, but you don’t want to promote your own business, it’s not necessary to keep finances in the bank for meager interest. Become a business angel.

Business angel is a person who invests in risky projects at the earliest stages.

If you come across a person who has an interesting idea for a startup, but he simply lacks the funds to implement it, invest your money in this project.

It will be profitable for both you and the “carrier” of the idea to engage in such a business. Why? You will receive your share in the stake of the future company and, if successful, will receive huge profits and participate in management.

The main thing is to choose a worthwhile idea. You must believe in it.

3 ideas for a profitable business without initial investment

No. 1. Tutoring.

To implement this business idea without investment, you will need the knowledge acquired at school and university. They will allow you to tutor.

The scope of activity here is wide: teaching (English, mathematics, singing, etc.), writing diploma and settlement works, preparing drawings.

Before starting work, decide what subject you will teach and for what age category, where the classes will be held, how much one lesson will cost.

To find out how profitable this type of business is, find out the market prices for such services and calculate the cost of training materials.

How to find clients?

1. Order or make your own business cards. Give them to all your friends who have children. If possible, leave them in schools, supermarkets, clubs, etc.

Check out these tutor sites:

• https://profi.ru/repetitor
• https://repetitorov.net
• https://preply.com/ru
2. Place an ad in local newspapers.
3. Post flyers on bulletin boards in residential areas, near schools and bus stops.

Tutoring is profitable if you use the right approach to such employment. In the future, everything will depend only on your zeal: perhaps, being an English teacher today, tomorrow you will open your own school or foreign language courses.

No. 2. Repair services.

If you have "golden hands" and know how to do something better than others, then you should not bury your talent. This will also help to earn money and at the same time do the business in which you are a pro.

To get started, put up ads about various types of repairs near the entrances, write posts in thematic groups on social networks. You can find them at the request of "Repair Moscow", "Repair services", etc.

You can find ads on the "construction exchanges":

• https://propetrovich.ru
• https://poisk-pro.ru
• https://poisk-mastera.ru

If you have the skills, you can repair appliances, glue wallpaper, insulate facades, provide plumbing or electrician services. If you are a master of your craft, then this type of business is sure to bring good profits.

In addition, it is extremely beneficial to maintain a good reputation, because then orders will “flow like water”.

Is this business profitable? Certainly. After all, you will only need an initial investment in tools, and all consumables are paid by the client.

No. 3. Online business.

It's no secret that every year it becomes more and more profitable to do business online. All you need is a lot of free time and a computer with Internet access.

There are places to roam. You can work as a designer, programmer, marketer, but certain skills will be required.

If you are ready to invest in your future business, take paid specialized courses in the chosen direction. This investment will become very profitable in the future.

You can find such courses by ads or on the Internet:

• https://www.mbastrategy.ru
• https://www.ucheba.ru
• https://honorcup.ru
• https://teachmeplease.ru

To make your business more profitable, look for free courses:

• https://universarium.org
• https://www.intuit.ru
• https://academicearth.org
• https://www.edx.org
• https://theoryandpractice.ru

It is profitable to engage in such a business both on an ongoing basis and as a job in your spare time. The main thing is to develop a permanent customer base and ensure a good reputation.

6 examples for doing profitable business in the countryside

A small town or village has several advantages for developing a profitable business:

• there is an opportunity to grow something for sale (animals, birds, vegetables) and make environmentally friendly products (for example, natural dairy products);
• rent of premises and land in the countryside is cheaper than in cities;
• the infrastructure is less developed here, which means there are more unoccupied niches.

The main disadvantage of starting a business in the countryside is that it will not work to create a large business - there is not such a high demand and purchasing power. At first, you will not be able to earn millions, but in the future it is possible to arrange delivery to the nearest cities (respectively, an increase in profits).

In this case, doing business in the countryside may be even more profitable than in a big city.

Consider 6 specific business ideas that are profitable to do in the countryside.

No. 1. Store opening.

In the village, it is not necessary to have large investments in order to open a profitable business.

- this is not an innovative idea, but the business is quite profitable, especially where competition is minimal.

To do this, you need to ensure a regular delivery of bread, drinks, sweets and other products. You can also bring clothes in a small assortment or to order.

No. 2. Rural tourism.

This activity has become popular relatively recently. People who have already earned their first million sometimes need to unwind, live in the countryside, or residents of the metropolis want to show their children where tomatoes grow and what ducklings look like.

And if your village is full of picturesque landscapes, then with the correct use of advertising, a constant flow of customers is guaranteed to you.

So, if you inherited a house in the village, do not rush to sell it. It will be more profitable to restore it and engage in a small hotel business.

No. 3. Medicinal tea.

Many people want to be able to treat simple ailments with herbs without being dependent on pharmacies. Therefore, it is profitable to engage in the manufacture and sale of medicinal tea.

The peculiarity of this type of business is that not every locality is suitable for this. Plus, you need to study the usefulness of herbs and be able to distinguish one from the other.

No. 4. Farming.

Eco-products are gaining popularity all over the world.

Livestock or poultry meat can be sold directly to buyers, or you can arrange for deliveries to local stores. You can also focus on breeding a certain breed of animal, which is also valued in a specialized market.

No. 5. Growing vegetables.

Again, eco-products.

If you have a properly equipped greenhouse, you can secure an income all year round, fruits and berries. The same products can be sold in the winter in the form of conservation.

Do not forget about growing seedlings and seedlings (strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, fruit trees and greenhouse vegetables).

In general, recently there has been a tendency when people “come” to the village in search of more favorable conditions for their business.

No. 6. Services of a hairdresser and nail master.

All girls - both in the big metropolis and in the countryside - want to look beautiful.

You can take professional courses as a hairdresser or nail master. Of course, it will be more profitable to do such a business at home or with a client at home, but if things go well, then you can save up for a small beauty salon.

Liked one of the profitable ideas discussed above? Top 5 tips on how to start your own business will help you realize it.

1. Your dreams are the birthplace of business ideas.

   Starting a business will not be easy. It can bring very good results, but at first it will be difficult. The only way to get things done without getting discouraged at the first loss is to be passionate about what you do.

   Follow your dreams and use your knowledge.

   You must be able to convince people.

   
   If you want customers to part with their hard-earned money by buying your products or services, make sure they get what they want.

   If you need investment, you must be able to convince the investor that your idea is 100% successful. Develop a business plan, present it using all possible tools (presentations, infographics, etc.)

   Follow your specialization.

   If you already have many years of experience in a certain field, doing business in this direction will be much easier. You can make good use of your skills and previous education, your network of contacts and industry knowledge.

   Study, study and study again.

   If you don't know much about the business you're interested in, but you're in the mood for it, be prepared to spend enough time learning before you start to avoid making critical mistakes in your business planning.

   Start with the basics of strategic planning and management:

   • https://www.culturepartnership.eu/publishing/strategic-planning-course
   • https://www.toptraining.ru/trainings/4869
   • https://www.eduget.com/course/osnovy_managementa-873

   Agree, it is much more profitable to invest money and time in your training than to entrust another person to run your business. In addition, in the process of learning, you will be able to find out which business is really profitable to do.

   Always test your business idea.

   Even if you have a lot of experience with the business you decide to do, you should do your best to check how good your idea is and whether it suits you.

5 steps to determine if the chosen business is right for you

Here's a step-by-step guide to assessing whether a business of your choice is right for you.

Step 1. Try it out.

Before starting your own business, it would be a good idea to get your own experience in a particular industry that interests you.

For example, if you want to open your own tailoring studio, then you simply must know how satin differs from silk, and lace from guipure.

Try to work in an industry that interests you. In a few months, you will be an expert in every aspect of tailoring and will be able to determine how profitable this business will be for you.

Step 2: Ask questions of entrepreneurs in the same industry.

If the business you are interested in is a "dark forest" and you cannot find work in this area, talk to those who provide the product or service you are interested in.

Small business owners are often willing to share their knowledge when they don't see you as a competitor. After all, it is not entirely profitable for them to reveal their chips and secrets. Therefore, it is better to cheat and not talk about your intentions.

Step 3. Understand if you are enjoying the business and how you are making progress.

If you're not enjoying your business, find a new idea. It's much harder to succeed in a business you don't like. And the likelihood that over time you will like something that "the soul does not lie" is close to zero.

Step 4. Calculate if the business has a reasonable chance of making a profit.

Based on the knowledge gained, get an idea of ​​whether the business is potentially profitable and calculate the minimum set of financial indicators.

It makes sense to open your own business only if it is really profitable to do it.

How to start your profitable business?

Get a step-by-step algorithm from 3 models for opening a successful business:

Step 5. Assess all possible risks and minimize them.

Even the best plans can fail if you disregard common sense and choose an extremely risky business.

If your business idea does not meet any criteria from the list, do not despair - this does not mean that you should abandon it and that it is not profitable to engage in this business. You just need to be more critical of the nuances and approach things wisely.

Starting a business is exciting and intimidating at the same time. But the more you think, prepare, and invest, the more successful your business will be. Before answering the question what kind of business is profitable to do Try to understand exactly what you want.

After all, businesses that belong to someone who lives, breathes and loves what they do are destined to succeed.
Therefore, find your passion and then be smart about pursuing it.

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Let's start with the fact that over the past 5-6 years in Russia such media phenomena as business trainings, business coaching, business seminars, business webinars and other words linked to the word "business" have noticeably gained popularity. This is due to the oversaturation of society with content and other entertainment materials. In the late 90s and early 2000s, the era of total glamor and entertainment served as such content, after which the era of esotericism, training, success began, and at this stage it is at the stage of “be free, develop, engage in self-knowledge, do not work for your uncle, do business.”

This massive trend has seeped into Russia from the West, where such representatives of humanity as Robert Kiyossaki, Donald Trump or Richard Branson back in the 80s of the 20th century they saw a highly profitable niche associated with teaching people how to how to become a businessman , gain freedom, change the world, do not work for an uncle, do not be a miserable salaryman and other inspiring slogans for mere mortals. Yes, of course, these are unconditional business practices and their programs contained a lot of valuable things, however, for the most part, the entire industry has been reduced to wild populism and, as a result, to a complete simplification of the business model. At the same time, people willingly paid money, attended such seminars, bought thousands of books about how to become an entrepreneur and this implicit market has grown significantly.

In Russia, this trend developed in the early 2000s, reaching an extreme in the second half of the 2000s with the popularization lover of the American business system Oleg Tinkov, who longed to become a kind of Russian Branson. Just like in the West, our “business teachers” describe all the delights of a businessman’s life, motivate them with beautiful success stories (without going into too much detail), sell books with completely banal and well-worn content, etc. In the dry residue, it turns out that every second youth begins to imagine himself a businessman, especially if, after reading the content of the "business teacher", he starts selling cheap watches through a page on a social network, having 1-2 clients per week and a profit of minus 10%. And someone generally just sits at home and continues to consume such platitudes, becoming a businessman already in their fantasies.

But let's get serious. In those distant times at the end of the 80s, when the USSR allowed the creation of cooperatives (that is, they actually legalized small businesses), the first entrepreneurs, like their followers until the early 2000s, operated in conditions of low supply and gigantic demand. You understand that in this situation, it was possible to make a fairly profitable business in no time, especially if at the same time you paid for the roof to the bandits who valiantly defended their merchants from each other. Since that time, almost all Russian businessmen known now have appeared, starting from the same Tinkov, ending with Prokhorov, Potanin and Chichvarkin.

Today the situation is that all the largest and highly profitable business areas were occupied . At the same time, small and medium-sized businesses suffer from oversaturation of the market with supply, which gives rise to the highest competition. Suppose you decide to trade in clothes, open your first retail store. Here immediately there are very serious difficulties:

1. The largest corporations and brands have already occupied almost the entire market segment and what is most offensive is that every year more and more people buy clothes from them. We know quite a few examples of such networks, be it O'Stin, Zolla, Colin's, JeansSymphony, Gant, Zara, H&M, etc. It is more and more pleasant for the consumer to deal with brands known throughout the country in large shopping centers than with small shops in pavilions. And one should not think that the regions are so backward that the influence of small traders still remains there, since almost every small city already has large shopping centers, malls, malls, etc., and the media image of “good taste” and a prestigious appearance is clearly leaning in favor of chains.
2. The cost at which you can sell clothes is completely uncompetitive. compared to large networks, as they buy or sew clothes at the best prices, due to the fact that they have their own workshops or due to discounts on large orders. Western companies, on the other hand, always supply goods to their specialized stores in other countries at the best prices, so that small entrepreneurs who import clothes from China or, for example, Turkey, will either have to save on quality or on profit.
3. Trading networks, as a rule, have a huge amount of free funds and influence, as a result of which they either buy up entire areas (for example, in Prague in the city center there is a five-story building that is wholly owned by the New Yorker chain), or get good rental prices, since they immediately wholesale rent a large area. Representatives of small businesses are highly dependent on the rental price, and it should be borne in mind that the more prestigious and in demand the shopping center, the higher the price for it will be.

Of course, here you can try franchising (if you want open a franchise business?), that is, to become a regional representative of a brand, working on its terms, but the fact remains that the point of starting a typical business is quite low due to the above factors. Another thing is to try something unusual, new or get into the field of trading via the Internet, but this is a completely different story.

Communal
Interestingly, an even more predatory position in relation to business than the tax inspectorate and the pension fund is taken by the sellers of housing and communal services: a water utility, an electric grid, heating companies, landlords, and management companies too!

Sellers of housing and communal services are brought down by greed, a great desire to break the jackpot from the business as much as possible without making the slightest effort for this, as they say, without lifting a finger. Let's take water utilities, including the Voronezh water utility. They do not even bother to make a normal system of settlements with customers via the Internet. They definitely need to come to their office and personally pick up the bill! Quite recently, it was possible to pay only at their place in the window in the corridor. And submit information about water consumption by any means, including tapping Morse code on a water pipe. And if anything, they will apply penalty rates based on the cross section of the pipe and the theoretical speed of water in it, which usually exceeds the real cost of services by 20-30 times.

The tariff for electricity for business is completely incomprehensible. Before the fall in the exchange rate, it was 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, higher than in the US and Europe. What does this say, besides the predatory habits of our energy sector and the government fawning over it? In the cost of electricity, only about 50% of the cost of its production, the rest is distribution through existing networks. The ambitions of grid companies are off the charts: TNS-energo sends invoices in advance for a date that will be in a week, and, moreover, in advance, for the planned amount of energy consumed. Why, apart from engaging in fraud, do they need to “remove” the advance payment first, and then for the actually consumed energy? And it doesn't matter how much it costs to double divert bookkeeping to make payments?

There are also heating companies. Where their huge bills come from in the winter months is not clear, despite the fact that the rooms are cold. Verification of heat energy meters by an affiliated company costs 17-18 thousand. It is likely that no one installs and verifies these meters.

It seems to me that the moment has already come when it is time to talk about the nationalization of housing and communal services companies back. Tariff regulation turned out to be a rotten idea, and the monopolies went wild and lost their sense of proportion.

Rent
The behavior of the tenants also remains mysterious. In cities, there are already up to 30% of unoccupied office space, and they have not been occupied by anyone for years, even standing unfinished. But landlords will never reduce their appetites, they will not reduce rental rates. Let no one get better.

Human capital
However, everything that has been said so far is only an introduction to this basic Difficulty of Doing Business. Human capital is people with their education and work skills who want to work. So, human capital in the country has recently been tending to zero. No, there are people, there are many of them, but their education, work skills and, especially, the desire to work have practically vanished.

Familiar entrepreneurs complain that, despite the large number of phone calls after the announcement of a vacancy on the site job.ru and the like, the actual number of candidates who came for an interview is a small proportion of the calls. Arriving and finding an office for many applicants is an impossible test. And those who did come, are completely deprived of the necessary general culture, literacy and desire to work! They immediately begin to demand that their salary be bigger, and work hours and responsibilities smaller. But the employer just wants to find a person who would love his job. If the candidates have some, even minimal, responsibility, they immediately say - "oh, no," and disappear.

We have now received in the country the so-called generation Y, which, in principle, cannot and does not want to work. And it's just ridiculous to say that someone likes to work and knows how to do it from this generation. They would only have high salaries, positions and entertainment. This is the result of the work of education in modern conditions, not education reforms, but education itself. Reforms are trying, but not able to smooth the picture of the resulting new generation, in principle, incapable of working.

Few people still realize the real scale of this national catastrophe. And soon it will lead to the fact that many enterprises in the country and in our region will close. A mechanical plant, an aviation plant, and many others - and all because none of the young people want and will not be able to work for them. And many businesses will stop. And we will indeed descend into darkness and return to planting potatoes in the country houses.

Even the military complain that they used to have personnel of the 1st category in aviation, but now they are 2nd-3rd. They no longer fully understand how their equipment flies and why it shoots.

Behavior of consumers (customers).
There are also problems for business caused by the mentality and past experience of the Russian consumer. This is his ability to be content with little and save on everything. All this leads to the fact that the Russian consumer is more likely to purchase a cheap product than a high-quality one, or simply refuse to buy. And in the niche of cheap goods, no business can compete with retail chains operating on imports from China. Our shops now - even Auchan, even the Metro - are shops of cheap Chinese goods. Almost everything there is made in China, does not meet any quality and safety requirements. Even foodstuffs - mainly from low-quality components, such as flour from feed grains, dairy products from powdered milk and palm oil ... Appropriate consumer behavior is an important condition for business development, and we do not have it.

conclusions.
At present, the Russian Federation, our country, remains essentially a fragment of the USSR, a country of Bolshevik ideology and a dominant bureaucracy. Eknmically not self-sufficient. There have been very limited transformations on the capitalist model, and there is a rollback in the opposite direction in these transformations. Where it leads?

To poverty, need, and, as a result, to new unrest and social upheavals along the lines of Ukraine. After all, it is only for propaganda that it is said that the nationalists carried out a coup d'état there. Yes, nationalists, but we have no less nationalism in Russia, and it is on the rise.

The coup in Ukraine occurred as a result of increasing poverty, stagnation in economic development. It was a continuation of the bourgeois revolution, stuck in the 1990s, and therefore acquired a terrorist character. Terrorism is the result of the inability to achieve change through democratic or less sacrificial means....
And now our society is in such a state that it is ready to pounce on business and be left with nothing, waiting for an increase in pensions and budget salaries, which there is nowhere to get. This Bolshevism, this poverty among the Russians, they are not so simple - it sits in our heads.

And now in Russia there is such a moment, a time of great opportunities, when you can be poor, and if you want, you can become rich. And you can enter the middle class. And this is determined by nothing else than the mentality of a person, his desire, faith in his own strength, ability to cite, perseverance ... Everyone decides for himself where to be, everyone chooses a fate for himself and his children ... So, maybe it’s still worth doing business in Russia?

Doing business in Russia is still dangerous and inconvenient, and lately it has also been unprofitable, business ombudsman Boris Titov believes. He stated this in an interview with Vesti during the Gaidar Forum. Titov noted that with falling demand, costs are rising: taxes remain high, they are planned to be increased, tariffs for products of natural monopolies are growing, and interest rates remain high.

Mark Lerner, CEO of Petropol:

Inconvenient, dangerous and unprofitable? I'm not sure just about convenience. Just recently certain positive infrastructural and technical changes have been taking place. For example, the possibility of filing on electronic media, the principle of "one stop" for officials, reducing the time for registration. Everything has become more systemic, everything has become somewhat more modern. Growth in ratings like Doing Business is due to this, which is fair.

But this is only one part of the picture. It is not safe to do business in Russia now. If your business is small or low-profit, you do not fall into the field of view of dishonest officials and businessmen close to them. But if you are successful and there is a tendency to further growth, then you begin to arouse their interest.

As for profitability, it is really difficult to make a business successful and growing now. In the last year or two, the subjects of the economy have not a rate of profit, but a rate of loss. On the one hand, there are the above dangers, on the other hand, there is no understanding of the prospects, no one knows what the economic policy will be like. This limits demand, and costs rise.

You cannot raise prices - and you are forced to first go to zero profitability, and then, in order to save the business, work for some time in the red. Say, for builders, the cost price has increased by 30-40%, but prices have not increased at all, and as soon as someone tries to raise them, demand stops. We are following the path of eating away what we have earned and accumulated earlier – both in terms of material assets and in terms of developments and reputations.

Entrepreneurs do not understand what will happen next. Nobody starts new projects, they are afraid to invest money. Stand day, hold out night, and then we'll see. What is the first thing a business needs? Certainty. Those of the participants in our market who survived are flexible and tenacious, they only need an understanding of which direction the state is going to move in the coming years.

Another thing is that the words about economic policy should not remain just a declaration, the state must convince, it must be believed. Our entrepreneurs do not trust the state, the state does not trust entrepreneurs. Distrust is a key reason for the current state of our economy.