8 stories to inspire your business exploits

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The path to success is usually difficult and thorny. Therefore, those who have passed it have a lot to learn.

1. Fedor Ovchinnikov, "Dodo Pizza"

Fyodor Ovchinnikov began his path in business when he opened a bookstore, deceiving a loan from a bank: he said that he needed money to repair his apartment. The entrepreneur described all his actions in a blog, thanks to which he quickly became popular. The success attracted influential partners to whom Ovchinnikov was forced to sell his stake in the business during the 2008 crisis.

The entrepreneur's new business was not connected with the sale of books. Apart from the fact that at the checkout in "Dodo Pizza" they offer the edition written by him. He himself admitted that he was discouraged from opening a pizzeria in Syktyvkar, since it would not withstand competition, and no one needed delivery at all. But his business model worked.

The entrepreneur is open to communication, talks in detail about his work in social networks. And they don't make a secret of making pizza: the client can watch the process through a webcam.

Later, one pizzeria in Syktyvkar turned into an international chain, but Ovchinnikov's business is more than retail establishments. This is both a proprietary information system that integrates into business processes and allows them to be made more efficient, and a franchisee product.

By the way, in January 2017, the revenue of that very first pizzeria "Dodo Pizza" in Syktyvkar amounted to 7 million rubles.

2. Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg

A successful entrepreneur and 108th mayor of New York, he is firmly established in the Forbes list of the richest people in the world. In 2018, he took the eleventh line of the ranking.

The future billionaire was born into a poor family of an accountant and secretary. He did not shine either at school or at the university, his grades were average. He entered Johns Hopkins University thanks to the patronage of an employee of an office equipment sales firm, where he worked part-time in high school. But by the last years of the university, Bloomberg, unexpectedly for the teachers, became one of the best students.

After university, the future entrepreneur became a student at Harvard Business School, successfully graduated from it and got a job at Salomon Brothers. His career with this major investment firm has been promising. He started from the bottom and eventually became the senior partner of the firm.

After 15 years of work for the Bloomberg company, they fired - allegedly due to staff layoffs. However, he himself saw the reason in the conflict with one of the leaders.

The 39-year-old financier found himself on the street, albeit with a nice $ 10 million payoff. In the same year, Bloomberg created the Innovative Market System, later renamed Bloomberg L. P. The company specialized in providing financial information. To avoid being accused of borrowing technology from Salomon Brothers, Bloomberg began developing his own software. Thanks to the creation of a terminal through which users can monitor and analyze the movement of the financial market in real time, the company earned 600 thousand dollars from the very first transaction for their sale.

Bloomberg's finance company later expanded into a media empire. The Bloomberg News Service has provided financial markets news to the media since 1990. Then the radio station WNEW, 24-hour news TV program Bloomberg Information Television, Bloomberg Magazine joined the holding.

Bloomberg later drew on his successful project management experience as mayor of New York.

For 12 years, he managed to reduce the level of unemployment and crime, reform education, and improve the environment. And all this for a salary of $ 1 a year.

3. Mikhail Peregudov, "Food Party"

A businessman from St. Petersburg makes money on the desire of people to make their life easier."Food Party" is a delivery service for boxes of prepackaged foods and recipes for them. Peregudov got the idea from Plated in New York. The overseas project was actively growing, besides, the service looked convenient and in demand.

The Food Batch launched just in time: it was only the third company in the market to deliver groceries for the preparation of dinners. Subsequently, many clones were discovered, but few managed to get the same fame.

Peregudov himself sees the difficulty of developing such a business in people's distrust.

The main objections are too expensive, the portions are small, the products are of poor quality. They work quite actively with them. For example, the company's YouTube channel has videos that provide answers to common questions. In one of them, Peregudov buys food from the "Food Party" menu in a regular supermarket and compares the final cost with the price of a box.

The project started in 2014 at almost the same time as the first economic sanctions were introduced. Peregudov admitted in an interview that the situation was stressful. Now "Food Party" offers six different menus, as well as fruit and vegetable sets and products for making desserts in addition. The recipes were created by chef Mikhail Stepanov.

4. Amancio Ortega, Inditex

The name of this Spanish businessman is not the most recognizable, but his brainchild is known to everyone. A year ago, he fought for leadership in the Forbes ranking of the richest people in the world.

Ortega was born in the family of a railway worker, his mother worked as a servant. Due to lack of money, he could not graduate from school and at the age of 13 began working as a messenger in a shirt store.

At the age of 14, he tried himself as an apprentice for a fashion designer, but he said that he would not leave a tailor. And I was wrong.

In 1972, Ortega opened his own knitwear factory. At first, he and his wife made custom-made clothes and underwear in the living room of their own home. When the partner refused to buy out a large batch of goods, the couple decided to sell it themselves, for which they opened a small store called Zara. The brand later grew into the Inditex Corporation.

5. Anna Tsfasman, "Doublebee"

Tsfasman, according to her, was not going to open her own business. She was the CEO of the Caffeine chain and has worked for the company for over five years. But in 2012 she left, disagreeing with the desire of investors to reduce the quality of coffee beans. The entrepreneur returned to the market with her project. Together with the chief barista Olga Melik-Karakozova, they opened their own coffee shop.

Initially, the former managers of "Caffeine" were going to open a network of stores with tea and coffee, and the plans were ambitious - 300 points in six months. But it turned out to be easier to persuade the owners of the rented premises into coffee shops, and in the end it was decided to stop at them. Investors were found pretty quickly, they invested $ 1 million in the business.

The Doublebee project has a “humble” goal: to offer customers one of the best coffees in the world.

Now there are more than 85 coffee shops in the network, including in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities of Russia, Dubai, Barcelona, Prague, Tbilisi. Most of them are franchised.

One of the difficulties in the coffee business for Tsfasman was the fight against stereotypes: people are wary of additives like sugar, milk and syrup, and the lack of food in the coffee shop. However, for now, the selected format works. The company plans to open budget DoubleB White coffee shops and DoubleB Black coffee and alcohol bars.

6. Mikey Jagtiani, Landmark Group

The family of the Indian Jagtiani moved to Kuwait, and then sent their son to college in London. He did not live up to expectations: he failed exams, abused alcohol, dropped out of school and worked part-time in a taxi. Jagtiani returned to his homeland and very soon was left alone: all members of his family died.

The businessman has an inheritance of 6 thousand dollars and a place in Bahrain, which his brother rented for trading before he fell ill.

Jagtiani spent all the money on the purchase of children's clothes, which he planned to sell to his compatriots who came to Kuwait to work.

At first, he had to work without help, but this helped him generate ideas that attracted customers. For example, he set up a bench for men to wait for their wives. Although the store with a full range of children's products was already a novelty.

Jagtiani's now Dubai-based Landmark Group is represented in ten countries. At the same time, the businessman is still trying to focus on the middle class and immigrants from India in pricing policy.

7. Evgeny Demin, SPLAT

The entrepreneur started his business with the distribution of dietary supplements and teas. But soon he decided to switch to creating his own product, and the team began to develop a toothpaste formula. The dizzying take-off did not work because of the crisis. All the money went to the project, and Demin admitted that the wallet was empty at that time, and even the phone was turned off for non-payment. Even when a unique product appeared, buyers did not line up for it: the market was overflowing with cheap advertised goods.

The problem could be solved by making the paste cheaper by changing the recipe, but Demin chose another option - to explain to potential buyers why they need to choose this product.

So in the SPLAT boxes there were inserts with letters from the entrepreneur, thanks to which word of mouth was launched.

As a result, demand generated supply: pharmacies and retail chains placed pasta on their shelves. Now SPLAT toothpaste is sold in more than 40 countries around the world.

8. Donald Trump, President of the United States

Trump's story bears little resemblance to the standard "was nobody - became everything" success story. His father is a successful entrepreneur and real estate developer. Donald Trump received a good education: he graduated from a private boarding school, Wharton School of Business. He also had no problems with employment: he started his career in his father's construction company.

Back in college, Trump implemented a project to modernize an apartment complex, which brought in $ 6 million in net profit. Until 1989, the future president became more successful and richer. But the financial crisis changed everything.

Trump did not build expensive facilities with his own funds. To increase the pace, loans were taken, which were covered by other loans. As a result, the scheme did not work.

Trump's debts amounted to $ 9.8 billion, as a result of which bankruptcy proceedings were initiated against the company and himself.

The businessman was saved by his ability to negotiate. He agreed to cede 49% of his stake in a five-star hotel to six creditors. In exchange, Trump received more favorable conditions for payments on loans taken from them. The businessman gave up the Trump Shuttle airline, did not retain ownership of any of the construction sites. He was offered to manage construction for a modest salary, but was allowed to use his name on buildings. An important image move was the preservation of Trump Tower in New York.

When I walked the streets of New York and saw the homeless, I understood - what happy people they are! They are $ 9.8 billion richer than me.

Donald Trump

In 1995, Trump made another attempt to return to the previous level and organized a joint stock company Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, which includes the remaining casinos. However, the fall in the company's share prices in 1998 again ends in debt. During the boom, the company regained some of its assets, then accumulated debts and filed for bankruptcy several times.

Despite financial troubles, Trump is turning his last name into a brand.

He launches the Candidate TV show, his bottled water line and his Visa Trump card, and implements major construction projects. Although in his biography the words "bankruptcy", "court" and "debts" are found in almost every second line, in the eyes of the public he always looked like a successful businessman.