A good entrepreneur does not make money, but makes the world better: story of a serial entrepreneur from Armenia

Today he is 57, he has a family, four children, a full house. And although there is no need to rush anywhere, Armen wakes up every morning at exactly 7 and not a minute later. Coffee, swimming pool, exercise - and off to work. It was precisely this clear routine and unprecedented hard work, he is sure, that helped him build a successful business. And not alone.

Photo from the personal archive of Armen Balayan

Usually people choose a niche, and in it they already achieve various heights. With Armen Balayan, everything is different. Ideas for businesses arose under the influence of the situation, and each time he rushed to implement them with unprecedented zeal. After college, he opened production workshops in Yerevan, but then fate brought him to Ufa (the capital of the Republic of Bashkorostan). There Armen got a job as a leading engineer at an engine plant. And then perestroika struck. They stopped paying wages, but the enterprising engineer was not at a loss and opened a sewing workshop at the plant - supplying the enterprise with work clothes.

“As the 1990s progressed, the situation in the country became more and more critical. The plant could no longer pay me with money, and they began to pay me in engines! Well, what should I do with them? I need to pay people salaries. I began to transport engines to Moscow and sell them there,” recalls Armen.

Business inception or an insane decision that proved everyone wrong

Ultimately this “strange” salary paid in engines equivalent was a windfall. On one of those trips to Moscow he met his future wife Elena. Armen tried very hard to impress her. They went to the best restaurants, and on one of those dates she suggested: “Why don’t you open a restaurant in Ufa.” The idea expressed by the woman he loved, stuck in his head. And the opportunity ensued. After he came back from Moscow, he suddenly received an interesting offer.

“As soon as I returned to Ufa, my friends called me: a state-owned enterprise is selling an abandoned cafe near the airport. Are you interested? I was surprised: how many times I drove from the airport I didn’t see him. We eventually found this godforsaken establishment: it was abandoned, there were some tires, dirt, and garbage lying around inside. I looked at all this and... decided to buy it. Nobody believed in my success. They took me for a crazy person,” the businessman admitted.

On the subject: How to get rich and succeed regardless of starting positions: 12 tips from the author of the cult book

The entrepreneur demolished the old cafe and in its place built a new building according to his own design. Armen decided to give his establishment a simple name - “Rest”. And I chose the cuisine that was closest to me - Caucasian. It was 1999.

Within a short period of time, the cafe became a full-fledged restaurant with a reception hall for 120 people, a children's party hall named Happyland and a playroom with a capacity of 60 a conference room and a summer terrace with a capacity of 350 people.

Photo from the personal archive of Armen Balayan

Restaurant transforming into a business empire

New business was booming. Another 23 years on, Armen’s brainchild became a city within a city.

Next to the restaurant there was a hotel with 45 rooms, and - unexpectedly for everyone - a car wash and tire service. This was Armen's cunning business plan.

“People come, sit for hours, relax, and I thought - they’re all in cars! And how nice it will be if they drive away in clean cars! How nice it will be if they know that when they come to me, they will wash their car at the same time. Well, tire fitting appeared there too - we are on the road, and people often puncture tires, so there is an opportunity to both rest and pump up the tire,” explains Armen.

The recreation complex continued to acquire new facilities. There is a restaurant, which means you need your own bakery and butcher shop. There is a hotel - we will build a laundry. The business has earned trust among partners and residents of the Republic of Bashkortostan.

The complex became the preferred host for major public events, including World Skills Russia, the SCO and BRICS summits, Junior Club World Cup in hockey, Folkloriada and a KHL all-star game.

Armen understood: we must move on. And he began to open different restaurants and cafes one after another. Different - because it’s more interesting for the experimenter. After Caucasian cuisine, he mastered Italian, then opened a steakhouse, then a Georgian restaurant, followed by a motel complex for truckers. The level of business was so high that the President of the Republic of Bashkortostan himself came to the opening of a new restaurant in the city of Tuymazy.

Currently Armen’s company, called OtdyhGroup [ОтдыхГрупп], encompasses restaurants, hotels, roadside cafes, car washes, tire and auto repair shops. The list is impressive:

• roadside complex-motel “Otdykh” on the Ufa-Orenburg highway with 30 rooms, opened in 2012;
• Master Kuzova [Мастер Кузова] auto repair shop, opened in 2012;
• Otdyh [Отдых] Hotel has 45 rooms, opened in 2014;
• Car wash and tire shop with a capacity to service 35-45 cars per day, opened in 2015;
• Kebab Hayat [Кебаб Хаят] bistro, opened in 2016;
• Bakery, opened in 2016;
• cafeterias at stopping points on the Ufa-Airport highway (2016);
• Akvarel [Акварель] restaurant with seating capacity of 150, opened in 2018;
• Yal [Ял] restaurant, opened in 2019;
• Vikingi [Викинги] restaurant with seating capacity of 80, opened in 2019;
• Two bistro-cafes, Pelmesha [Пельмеша] chain, opened in 2019-2020.

The entrepreneur is not going to stop just yet. He has a slew of new ideas that will propel him into the future and help him progress.

One of these ideas is the construction of a plant for the production of personal hygiene items for hotels: toothbrushes, toothpastes, mini-shampoos. He has already completed the project and is now looking for a plot of land for it.

Photo from the personal archive of Armen Balayan

Bridge worth a million dollars

Although Armen’s company has been helping orphanages for many years, he himself does not talk about charity as readily as he does about his restaurants. Like, good deeds love silence. He speaks enthusiastically about only one of his philanthropic projects - he had to wait 10 years for approval from the authorities in order to do a good deed.

“We had two public transport stops near the complex on the federal highway. And people died there all the time under the wheels of cars, because the highway - cars drive fast. I wrote a letter to the government with a proposal: let me build a pedestrian bridge. There was no answer for 10 years. Exactly 10 years! I wrote a letter in 2000, and the answer came when the government changed. They found this letter, called me, and asked: do you still want to build this bridge? I say: don’t you see that it is needed? You should have built it during this time!”

As a result, Armen was given the opportunity to build the bridge. Of course, he couldn’t do without his own project - the glass passage cost the businessman a million dollars. But the authorities gave him the Order of Peter the Great - for his great personal contribution to the development and strengthening of the state. This is probably the only one of the many awards that he truly values. He says it’s nice that they paid attention to what he did for the city.

Even when you own a business empire, you should love your job

Currently, Armen's companies employ about 600 people. Many have been with him since the first days. He laughs: he raised a lot more than four children.

“I literally created my chef, now he is among the top chefs in Russia, my manager has been with me from the very beginning, he has worked his way up from a waiter. And in principle, many people who started as waiters for me are now administrators and managers throughout Russia. I have my own approach to personnel selection. First of all, decency in a person is important to me. People who don't fulfill their duties, are late, don't like their jobs - they don't stay with us. I often say: if you don’t love your job, Yandex Taxi is looking for drivers. All. You have to go to work with love. If you come just for the money, it won’t do any good.”

Photo from the personal archive of Armen Balayan

Armen is sure that love is the main secret of his success. After all, he is absolutely sincerely passionate about each of his projects - be it a restaurant, a car wash or building a bridge. He never copies anything - he creates everything himself from scratch. And he doesn’t doubt for a minute: the new project will also be successful, like the previous ones. The same beloved woman helps him maintain such confidence, just like 25 years ago.

“My wife still keeps up with me! Every time she has new ideas: this should be done, this! He says: Armen, you will succeed! She believes in me, believes that I can achieve anything. And this gives me strength,” Armen concluded.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Three books that will teach you to think like a millionaire, although they are not at all about business

Top by Bill Gates: Five Books for Hard Times

The Rich Don't Play the Lottery: How to Learn to Think Like a Millionaire

What geniuses read: 25 books recommended by Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Bill Gates

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.