The experience of building a business student who can not get a job

I want to share my experience of doing traditional business in an unconventional way. I started this business as a student, borrow from friends a couple of thousand dollars, and sold after 3 years for 900,000 dollars.

This was in 2008. It seemed to me that I get out of university graduate in front of me and open the doors of those companies that I spotted another in the third year. But I did not take even where I especially do not like. And so it went for weeks, months ... interview for the interview, despair, new hope ... After another failure became clear to me that I had only one option - to do something yourself.

I was sitting at home behind the screen of the monitor, fingering one option after another, from the online store fruit stall and ending with flowers. The task was to find a business in which you can enter, with a very meager initial capital, without any specialized knowledge and experience, but having the desire to do something.

Analyzing another crazy idea, found an ad for the sale of goods vending machines. This was the moment when he had to choose the "best of the worst," and I decided to stay on these machines. But not knowing and not knowing anything about this business, I first had to make at least a minimum check. Last week I spent about the same (only the already installed) coffee machines and counted every single drunk in their cup. Make sure that it is possible to earn, I decided to buy my first vending machines in parallel leafing through a notebook in search of people who could help me find a good place for a couple of installation.

So I found myself in vending. Money was little, managed to take only a couple of thousand dollars from friends, so I saved at all. I had to work 18 hours a day. I was an electrician, a loader, a development manager, operator and accountant all rolled into one. Bought / used equipment, machines serviced at night and store goods in the garage, saving on lease warehouse. Thanks to this network economy grew fast enough, but with the growth appeared already an urgent need for personnel, warehouse, transportation, and almost every thing that was able to save was the item of expenditure. Only vending machines continue to save my money. Thus was born the concept of building a vending business b / equipment.

Purchase of equipment - one of the main items of expenditure in vending. The difference in price of the new / used - almost 2 times, while the reliability characteristics are essentially the same. Thus it was possible to increase the efficiency of business almost doubled, allowing pay for each machine on average for 6 months. What this means in practice - a new device for the first year only would repay itself, bu apparatus for the same year not only pays for itself, but also brought about 120,000 profit.

A very important role is played by the advantage when selling a business, because its cost is the sum of the financial performance and the average market value of the equipment. I did it so that each ruble invested capitalization increased by 150%, and the purchase of a new on each ruble invested capitalization fell by 30-35%.

Such a possibility of doing business in Russia appeared relatively recently due to the formation of a civilized market b / equipment. When I first started my business, themselves b / y vehicles were few, not to mention some streamlined market sale of such equipment. It was unclear what devices should not take what is not worth what they have left a resource which may be difficulty. It was not clear in what the technical condition of the machine, which you buy. Accordingly, there was a high risk - buy equipment, as it has in no condition and fall apart after a week. So the first time relied solely on their own intuition.

But over time, it became easier, the market has become more, there are companies that specialize in selling used / vehicles that provide guarantees. It turns out, of course, a little more expensive, but it was more than true for me when there is a good point, and the machine was needed on the same day.

So I turned vending business, but it is quite another, radically different from the traditional efficiency. At the time of its sale in the network was about 160 machines.

In general, so that's the story of a business that is able to build without large investments at the start, without having to build some complicated circuit, but with a great desire to change something in their lives.

I hope that someone it will be useful.