Founder and manager of the fast-food restaurant chain Teremok, Ambassador of the Moscow Government Entrepreneurial Prize âBreakthrough of the Yearâ Mikhail Goncharov spoke about the first entrepreneurial experience in selling gauze to clinics, explained why Moscow is better than Tokyo, and gave three tips to those who just want to start a business.
Breakthrough of the Year is the first award for entrepreneurs held by the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development of Moscow to support small and medium-sized businesses in the capital.
About the first business
The first thing I started was not with business, but with an attempt to do something as an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is not necessarily a businessman. You can be an entrepreneur just by working in a company..
The beginning is very funny. My friend at Moscow State University had gauze in huge skeins, a meter in size and weighing a ton. They tried to sell it, looking for buyers for several months. Then I thought: probably, if they donât take gauze in this form, it should be sold in some other.
I took the directory and started phoning hospitals and clinics. When they found out about these skeins, they said that they did not need them, but in principle, they needed gauze cut into thirty-thirty squares. I found out what price they are interested in. I counted the cost of the pieces on skeins. It turned out that the deal is very profitable.
With this idea, I came to a friend. We hired students who cut everything. Crank up this deal. I liked it all very much â for the first time I felt the spirit of an entrepreneur. Then this spirit often helped me out..
I relate the opportunity to be an entrepreneur with the ability to find such solutions. âEntrepreneurâ â from the word âundertakeâ. So I stepped on this path.
There is another reason â the desire to see live progress, the result of their actions. When I studied at the University of Moscow at the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics, I had an idea to engage in the stock market. I went to lectures several times and realized that this was not mine. Of course, you have to work there, think, evaluate, but the stock market is when someone works for you, does something, and you just make money on it.
Then I started to get a little tired of mathematics. I did not see a practical return on my actions. This was a turning point. I decided to get down to business, for which I am responsible. In case of success or failure I will be obliged only to myself, and not to some external circumstances.
About mission
With experience of 25 years, I can argue that for me the first place is the case, and the second is profitability. Early enough, I realized that any business in any field can be successful. The question is how to conduct it, does it correspond to today?.
You can build a factory and make matches, musical instruments or open a restaurant, but if you act correctly, you will definitely make a profitable business.
You need to do what is to your liking and interesting. I always found inspiration in the tasks that I solved, and in the sense of the benefits that they would bring.
When I conceived âTeremokâ, the question was about business, income, to be or not to be an entrepreneur, but the basis was the desire to feed people.
The famous appeal âsirâ, âmadamâ did not come from a marketing point of view. I wanted to return to Russian these appeals, which were common in Russia before the revolution. Social challenge.
Now many perceive it as a marketing chip, but then I least thought about it.
About bugs
There were many turning points. Twenty years later, it turned out, as according to Nassim Taleb: every mistake in case of overcoming makes you stronger, increases the âanti-fragilityâ.
The first four years were insanely hard. Once every six months, an official drove along a certain square and did not like that there were a lot of street points. He gave the order to clean it. Here you go to bed â you have five âTeremkovâ, you get up in the morning, they tell you: within 24 hours to remove the kiosk.
Once it was very disappointing. With incredible efforts, reports, requests, I finally put the seventh point in Moscow. He worked for two weeks and one by one closed the other three points. It was a feeling that this is Sisyphus labor.
The key role was played by the belief that people really need my business. From the first day we received the best reviews. We were thanked for finally starting to bake pancakes.
The realization that this is necessary and from this you can build a real business, helped, with clenched teeth, to open kiosks again.
If you look at a retrospective, where we had kiosks, now we are opening beautiful, spacious, designer restaurants. It is very nice. All these difficulties were given in order for the company to develop and become âanti-fragileâ. Without stress, there will never be any change.
Since 2015, there have been changes in Teremka due to the next crisis, lower incomes. From us slowly, at 1-2% per year, buyers began to leave. We answered this not with resentment, but with hard work. We developed a new design, launched the âThank youâ program from Sberbank, delivered Yandex.Food, a powerful PR, and all this gave results. We are growing very well now.
About Russia and Entrepreneurship
Russia is well adapted for business. First of all, because there is little business in Russia. Now you can start a business and conduct it using the best world practices.
I was recently in Japan and found that, oddly enough, it is out of date. Why? Because 20-30 years ago, when the center of Tokyo was built up, incredible beauty of the house and multi-tiered highways appeared. Then it was new, unusual, this was not anywhere in the world. But these buildings and structures cannot be improved every ten years â everything is being built for many years. It turned out that what is being built in Moscow now, in terms of level, quality and appearance, is more interesting than what is in Japan.
We do not have an âoldâ business, and a ânewâ one can be created immediately at a high level. In this sense, Russia has a unique situation..
This is also a drawback. Since there was no business, there is no heritage, the transfer of experience from the older generation of businessmen to the young. But here the âmovementâ is important. You have to be relevant, so in some ways itâs not bad. Old experience doesnât always work.
The pressure of society and the state is not such that it interferes with being an entrepreneur. If the idea is good and there are enough forces, then these resistances will be overcome.
About money
Money should be treated simply: it must be counted and not scattered. No matter how rich the company, even the smallest service or product that it consumes should be purchased at market prices. This is the basis of the âfitness regimeâ for the company.
If the value is transmitted from the directorâs level: âWe are very rich, we have a lot of money, we can affordâ, â this will lead to a deplorable result. Money is just a tool, I wonât say anything new. Tool for solving problems and achieving goals.
About Mentality
The use of Russian traditions and names is a double-edged sword. If you apply them competently and fashionably, then this will work as a plus. When people see a Russian brand made cool, they are happy to consume it.
But if you do it unprofessionally, it will quickly turn into a spreading cranberry and play a negative role. I donât want to use such a service. In this sense, it is better to use foreign words.
I am entirely for the creation of Russian brands and the use of Russian words. But you have to be careful. Must have a flair.
Smoothies and bowls are very popular now. We are trying to create an analogue of these bowls, and we are in difficulty. We canât pick up a Russian word that adequately and fashionably describes an analogue of a bowl. Considered the word âcupâ. This is a special example of how convenient or inconvenient to use our words correctly or incorrectly..
Three tips for budding entrepreneurs
⢠First tip
Every day to be involved in your business and love it. If you go into business, because it seems to you that this is a fashionable direction in which you can earn money, then you simply wonât feel it.
Love for business tells you how to behave: what price to set, what quality to achieve. Due to the lack of love, you will not be able to adequately solve problems, the business will fail. This is my main belief.
⢠Second tip
Read the âPrinciplesâ of Dr. Edwards Deming. This is a famous American scientist, statistician, who participated in the program of the revival of Japan after the Second World War. He has 14 ideas on how to build the right business..
Perhaps the main one is that in all cases when the business worked poorly, only the entrepreneur is to blame. If his employees made a mistake, ruined the product, worked poorly with the buyer â the entrepreneur, not the employee, is to blame. The employee needed to be taught, and taught so that he learned. This is described in Demingâs ideas..
⢠Third tip
You need to love and respect people, accept them for who they are. Do not impose yourself on your preferences and principles, but understand that people are different.
In communication and work, it is very important for the entrepreneur that his employees are comfortable with him. I try, solving my tasks, as an entrepreneur and as a CEO, to play on the field the employees with whom I work. To some extent, adapt to communication and be on the same wavelength with them.
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What are some valuable insights or lessons Mikhail Goncharov shares about entrepreneurship, mission, and mistakes? Has he offered any unique perspectives or experiences that can help inspire and guide aspiring entrepreneurs?