How to build a successful business in Britain from scratch: tips Evgeny Chichvarkin

In the UK, an entrepreneurial boom: 70% of residents in a country aged 25-35 want to try to start their own business. For the success of an enterprise in England, passion and a true business plan are needed - no advertising. Entrepreneur Yevgeny Chichvarkin, co-founder of the Euroset network of communication salons, who left for the UK in 2008 to the UK, spoke about these and other business startup secrets. He launched the Hedonism Wines wine shop there, and recently opened the HIDE restaurant. The entrepreneur shared his business secrets in English in a conversation with Sergei Polonsky in the Business Talk project, and Inc. recorded the most interesting.

How I came up with the world's best wine shop

The first year in England, I did nothing, I was drinking and eating. Then six months, I chose what I would like to do. I went to every store on Oxford Street and asked myself the question: do I want to be the owner of this store? I lingered in the record store, but then I thought it was unpromising. I stayed in the perfume shop, I thought that I really like it here, but I can hardly continue to fly private jets (and I love private jets very much, they are very nice to fly. I hate queues, waiting, rudeness, control).

Then I went to the wine shop Berry brothers320 years (this is the oldest company that sells wine). They poured Petrus, smuggled Cutty Sark to Canada to sell to America. I realized that they absolutely did not focus on retail. Opposite them is Justerini & Brookis also a wine seller. I tried to buy something there, but I was told that it was possible to buy only with a box, wait six weeks. I thought why six weeks, if two hours to fly from Spain. I was not asked how urgent I needed. I realized that I was pleased to do this, in the liquor store I can spend hours, days and generally die.

I personally traveled all possible and impossible competitors, approximately 50 stores. I bought something everywhere, tried to buy something unusual, something to order and so on. It took about two months, and after that I realized that I needed to make a company. And in the summer of 2010, we made a company Hedonism.

Then I met my fighting friend Tatyana, who knows how to organize everything, and I realized that we have the most basic basis: business has a mom and dad. We took the list, wrote on it: "The best wine shop in the world" - and we have fulfilled this plan on 80% at the moment. The rest of the ideas turned out to be utopian - either too emotional, or too romantic.

When you are not presented

Then we began to look for a room. We had a funny task for agencies - 250-400 meters. We met with all the agents, they listened to us sadly, and we realized that something was wrong. We wrote a letter to everyone that we double the commission, and then we call in a week and ask: “Is there anything? - You know, there is nothing. - And why? “Because you were not represented to us.”

After that, Tatyana and I went 42 every day to the Golden Mile and stopped in front of each store. As a result, we found a room without an agency. From the moment of the search for the idea, a little more 1 passed the year, from its design - 7 months.

We were quickly shown the room, we made an offer and agreed to all the conditions. But we were also asked to make a deposit in the amount of 1,5-annual rent, show a certificate from the bank that we have more than 10 million pounds, a business plan, and even before **** (a lot) of everything.

These were the 2 premises. It turned out that one of them had the status no use, that is, neither for trade, nor for a cafe, nor for bottling alcohol can not be used. Another category A1 - that is, retail. There was a wall between the rooms. And we had to rent them first and only then get permission for the alteration. We found the premises in January, and we were able to conclude an agreement only in October. All this time, quite expensive lawyers on both sides have had hard sex with each other's brains for my money. In parallel, we began to make licenses and permits. Naturally, we were immediately banned: since you are Russians, you will have soft porn. I had to hire another, the most expensive, the royal lawyer - it's 750 pounds per hour. This man worked with us for several months, and we began to demolish the walls in order to come to an agreement and obtain licenses - six months before we signed a lease agreement. That is, we could not pass it, and we have already kindled some hellish money.

We signed an agreement in late October, and in November our people had to go to the construction site to demolish the walls with permission. We thought "class, we will open in the spring." But asbestos was found in the house. It is removed only by a state-owned company that needs to wait 40 days. Then there were holidays, and no one worked for a month because of Christmas. Our people went to work only at the end of January or in February. And by the end of June, the store was ready.

Then with the site we were thrown by Tyoma Lebedev - he took the money and just did not. Could not do for a man who went to London. Try not to do it to me when I was in Russia.

Flew

As a result, by the end of July, everything was ready, 3 weeks were setting everything up, choosing all sorts of nice things, blowing dust particles - and 17 August 2012 was opened with zero advertising. This happened 26 months after the idea was born. Burned on this terrible amount of money. All my friends, people who wished “good luck and success to you,” said behind their backs: “It will never be broken off at all, they don’t do it here. Who are you to buy alcohol from us? Trade phones. Well, no, it never pays off. And how much will you sommelier pay? What are you crazy? ". We pay 2,5 times the market, because everything is in the share: the buyer in the share, the management in the share, the management in the share, and with the largest share those who sell this wine. The purchase price is disclosed to everyone, and the payroll fund immediately leaves 60% profit. We have made the most capitalist system in the world. For a long time, again, with lawyers, they thought about how to circumvent moronic laws, according to which you have to pay for watches in the UK. The capitalist system itself eventually became the most socially oriented (half of our employees got married, got better, bought houses and cars, moved).

We conducted 700 interviews to select 30 people. And these are the most polite, the most knowledgeable, the most good-natured by nature people who speak English without mistakes, have common sense, knowledge of wine and do not get tired of tedious work.

Our ambitions are absolute, as they say here, destination point, the final place for people with taste. Now people say “how cool, how cool,” they write a lot on instagram, and people from the industry, of course, ask: “Who does that? We had to put a bar on top. With this markup, you will never earn, "- and so on. These are all the wonderful bad advice we ignore, listen only to our guests, we are guided by them.

As in Euroset, the range is determined by a professional. That is, we have the best purchaser of wine in the UK, it defines the range in the framework that we initially agreed on, and he agreed with this vision.

Our know-how is the level of service, the level of beauty and aesthetics, unusual for the retail business. Nobody uses such approaches and, even seeing success, will not use them. Because they are greedy. Tanya sometimes in the morning 4 responds to some buyers who have not got something in Hong Kong, or have gotten wrong, or not, or have not met.

We ship to Hong Kong every day, sometimes a double-digit number of shipments, we also ship to America every day, and to Singapore. Total in 70 countries. We made about 500 shipments over Christmas.

With the wine business, we entered 2014 in the 25 of UK fast-growing companies in the 24 location. We have returned investments for 3,5 of the year, and now this business is feeding us. It’s too early to talk about success in a restaurant; here we work for 7 weeks. But we already have some interesting numbers there.

Officials of Russia and England

The bureaucracy in Russia and the bureaucracy in Great Britain differ in the same way that the NKVD differs from the Gestapo. The Gestapo tortured people to get the truth from them, to find out the truth. The NKVD tortured people in order to get some untruth from them, some kind of left-wing testimony. In Russia, the bureaucracy creates the conditions for you to break the law, so that you cannot fulfill it and bring money. Here bureaucracy is needed so that you can fulfill the law. I have never bribed anyone here.

Moreover, we have never treated anyone. Not a single journalist has a single glass, not a single penny on advertising, not a single penny on PR (I’m talking about a store). No discount cards, no loyalty cards, no club systems, no such hrenomuti, no red prices, no “buy it - get this”, nothing from marketing - except for signboards and chocolates in the impulse zone (there are six types of chocolate and products under our name). Our clients are people with taste, everything is done with respect for their right to a calm choice.

How to write a business plan that looks like the truth

The landlords of the premises for the store asked for a business plan, we wrote, as we see it, gave our consultants. They said: “You are crazy at all. You write the average price of a bottle of 90 pounds without VAT, for Harrods 60 or 70, write 30 or 40, no one will believe you. If they give it to someone to read from the industry, because they themselves, too **** do not understand anything, they will say that these people are just visionaries. You simply will not surrender this place, because you are in Interpol, it is not clear for you whether they will arrest this money or not. ” In the end, we made a fake business plan, where we pay off for three years, and dramatically caught up with just the amount that we sell. There were indicated a small salary. The plan has been approved. Almost half a year later we paid off. But instead of 30-40 pounds, the average price is 160 pounds excluding VAT, 16 thousand rubles per bottle.

VAT in England 20%. If it will be Brexit, they will reduce taxes, because it is a little overkill. Excise taxes are very large, especially for strong alcohol, and the presence of excise taxes makes it very cool for us to sell wines of the middle and lower middle class. Excise is the final value for each bottle, that is, everything up to 100 pounds is almost impossible to sell to France, to Belgium or elsewhere. If there would be a normal excise, we would have much more foreign sales. And the state would probably get even more.

Without a business plan to attract investment is still impossible. Because the other side needs to understand that there is a manager sitting there who is responsible for someone's money, he needs to cover his ass with paper. As my investigator said, “more paper is cleaner than pop.” Therefore, the paper will have to mess a lot. Laws with numbers act in such a way that all your intentions, if you want to operate with other people's money, you need to present and be able to prove, as well as defend, as a thesis defense, but such an honest defense of the dissertation. Without a business plan for other people's money in paradise will not enter.

We made a business plan as follows: we wrote what we see the first year, and decided that in the business plan, to be believed again, this would be the third year, and the first two made it worse, an order of magnitude worse, and with such a business -plan came to the bank and got the money.

What to do to the entrepreneur

When launching a restaurant, I spent an hour chatting with Zelman on 3 or 4 (Mikhail Zelman, a network restaurateur Burger & Lobster in the UK - Ed.), with his colleague Gosha Weinstein (launched in London Goodman "Arpikom" - Ed.) A few hours. I witnessed how Novikov was launched, I was asked to work for free as a cook in a couple of three Michelin restaurants. Just for free, the cook came in the morning and cut a salad, and they screamed at me, and I said “eat, chef”.

We have not read a single book, how to open the best restaurant. Guided by personal experience, visited 200 various restaurants. We gathered with my combat friend, probably a total of under a hundred Michelin stars or more, visiting, evaluating, communicating, arguing about what was needed. Then they found a chef with whom we matched vectors.

I advise all entrepreneurs, of course, to read Ayn Rand “Atlas Shrugged”. If you do business in Russia, you must read Anna Karenina to understand who you are dealing with.

Not all countries have declared war on Russia, but only one country — Russia itself. I recommend buying a weapon and hiding it somewhere. You need to keep the Schengen and British visa open and carry this passport with you. If there is a lot of money, let the plane or the option of leaving through Ukraine and Belarus be ready.

The time of low energies must be waited, self-education must be done, something must be done so that it will not be excruciatingly painful for later years, so that the children can look into their eyes without diverting them, so as not to spoil their obituary. It seems to me that this is the task for this time. And it is better, of course, to gather strength, to take, to overlap books, read and try yourself somewhere else. To feed werewolves is a bad thing, I do not advise anything else, I left almost 10 years ago precisely because of this. Could I give them a bribe and continue to do something there? Yes, he could - I did not want to.

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