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School for a young billionaire: useful tips. School of a young billionaire: useful tips School of young millionaires

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Who needs unnecessary clothes

A graduate of the Financial University, a semi-finalist in the Forbes startup competition, Daria Alekseeva talks about how her Charity Shop benefits successful employees of large corporations and people in difficult life situations

My journey to the Charity Shop began in a rooming house in Honolulu (Hawaii, USA). Having foolishly lost my passport and bank card without remembering a single number mobile phone, besides my own, I went to the only place where they were ready to help me. After living for five days with other homeless people in a large hall that looked like a sports hall, receiving normal food for free and clean clothes that you could choose yourself, I understood a lot about what kind of help should be that I am not ashamed to accept.

Since then, I graduated from the Financial University, worked for six years in charitable organizations, volunteered in the Pskov village, Europe and Africa during the summer holidays - and understood how the non-profit sector functions.

The crisis of work in a fund is comparable to what arises in corporations: you cannot speed up decision-making, you must act within the framework of the vision of your manager, your ideas risk being buried under operational and urgent tasks. I started to feel like I could do more and was ready for my own big adventure. Thus the idea was born to open social business, which will operate like a regular company, but for something more than making a profit.

A business built on trash

In Europe and the USA, the “charity store” format is very popular, where everyone can donate unwanted clothes. The best one will be sold so that the profit goes to social projects, and items in substandard condition will be sent for recycling. I was inspired by the idea that we could raise money for charity without begging for it on the Internet, but simply by selling people good quality clothes at 10-20% of retail prices. In addition, we unloaded the closets of those who do not know where to put unnecessary things.

We rented a basement two minutes from the Tretyakovskaya metro station, I asked friends, acquaintances and people in social networks donated unwanted clothes, selected the best and opened a store. People were ready to bring their old clothes, I sorted them by hand, took the best to the dry cleaner and sold them at ridiculous prices - cheaper than even in ordinary second-hand stores. Things in average condition, and there were more than half of them, went to those in need. We sent things in poor condition to the factory, where they are made building materials and furniture filler.

In the first month we barely had enough income to pay rent, in the second I was able to pay the salaries of the sellers. Revenue increased by 20% monthly and after three months we reached operating profit and began to transfer part of the money to charities. For example, in 2015 we donated more than 250,000 rubles to the “Up” center and others charities, despite the fact that our monthly turnover is approximately 800,000 rubles.

Service that helps you help

Of course, everyone has a lot of unnecessary clothes and it’s easy for us to part with them - the problem arises at the moment when we need to take them somewhere.

We came up with and implemented a service for collecting clothes in the offices of large companies: we ordered containers for collecting things, which are temporarily installed in the office and each employee can bring any clothes directly to work and throw them in a box.

We take care of the removal, sorting, storage and redistribution of things, saving people time and raising the team spirit of the company’s employees (it’s nice to know that you and your colleagues, without stopping at work, helped 30 needy families in the Trans-Baikal Territory). In 2015, more than 45 companies took advantage of this opportunity.

Of course, not everything was smooth from the very beginning: we had to order the first mobile containers (since there were no analogues) from a company producing bee hives. As a result, the night before the first action (at a large bank), they brought us ugly, crookedly put together coffins that looked like plywood trunks for transporting goods. I painted them all night, trying to somehow make them look decent, but it didn’t help. Of course, since then the containers have been redesigned and more than 5,000 people have used them, but this story taught me one important thing: if you see that something in your product is not good enough, you should not think that the client and partner will not notice it.

Your old shoes will help you take your first steps

It turned out that some of the work can be done by people with disabilities and those in difficult life situations who find it difficult to find employment elsewhere. At first we had one assistant, a young man with intellectual disabilities, who did the cleaning and helped the sales girls carry heavy boxes. We currently have 22 employees, and nine of them are people from crisis groups. I'm glad that as a small business we inspire large companies to talk about inclusion - I am often invited to talk about our experience and how we manage to integrate people with disabilities into work without losing cost-effectiveness.

What’s also important to me is that our employees with disabilities get the opportunity to work because someone else does. big city I decided to take my unnecessary things not to the trash heap, but to the Charity shop.

Plan to capture the city

Of course, while increasing clothing sales, we had to increase revenue in order to afford rent large warehouse, logistics and the labor of people who are involved in sorting. In September 2015, we opened another store, and now I am looking for premises for a third. In addition, we have become active participants in city events: the Charity shop zone can be found at Lambada Markets, Seasons, sales in Flacon, Artplay and other city venues.

Our biggest challenge in 2016 is to increase the number of locations where citizens can donate unwanted clothes. We contact shopping centers, cultural and leisure areas, government agencies and friendly establishments that agree to accept our storage boxes. Very soon the first batch of containers will arrive from the plant, and we hope that Moscow will greet them friendly. For now, clothes can be brought to any of our stores during opening hours or to your office if our promotion is taking place there.

Increased. If in January we had 20 mini-laundries, by the end of April their number was close to thirty. Laundries opened in Sterlitamak, Elektrostal, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Having expanded our geography, we decided to establish a service feedback via SMS messages: we have connected a mobile number to which anyone can write an anonymous SMS message with wishes or criticism. We see all incoming messages in personal account and we can answer them. As practice has shown, clients more often use this service rather than a telephone number technical support. Nonresident clients who stay in hostels asked to connect free WhatsApp messengers and Viber, so as not to waste money on long-distance calls.

Rescue powder

Feedback via SMS and instant messengers gave us an idea of how we could further expand our range of services. After analyzing reviews and suggestions, we realized that in every third message customers asked if they could buy washing powder from us. Then we decided to start selling the powder through administrators in hostels, but this turned out to be not very effective. Distracted by issuing and packaging the powder, administrators forgot to deposit money into the cash register and record the sale in the accounting book. Then we decided to automate this process - I found developers who made for us a wall-mounted machine for selling portioned powder. This allowed us to eliminate the human factor from the sales cycle, and not only made it easier to account for the powder, but also solved the problem of packaging. Now we pack centrally detergent and put it into the vending machines. This saves us at least 30% of the money spent.

After a few months, we realized that by solving one problem, we killed two birds with one stone. Often clients refused to do laundry because the powder in the hostel was running out, there was no one to ask, and it was too late or far away to go buy. Now, for 15-20 rubles, guests can buy a portion of the powder without leaving the washing machine and wash their clothes.

When sales of the powder began to be profitable, we thought about offering professional concentrated household chemicals. This helped not only increase revenue from one mini-laundry, but also increase the number of washes and their quality. We are even thinking of creating a device through which you can buy not only washing powder, but also disposable slippers, toothpaste, hygiene items and other little things you need on the road.

Automatic dryer

In addition to feedback via SMS and instant messengers, we decided to survey hostel administrators and the guests themselves. It turned out that people sometimes refuse to wash things if there is no time to dry them. “If you could dry it in a couple of hours, then yes,” the guests said. Then in one of the hostels we installed a drying machine, placing it directly on top of the washing machine, because the laundry room was located in a small room of a couple of square meters. We launched the drying service for free, while the cost of washing remained the same - 100 rubles. After just 1.5 months, the revenue of this point increased by 38%. This indicator allows you to return the money spent on purchasing equipment within a few months. We have already equipped four of the twenty mini-laundries located in hostels with drying machines. We are negotiating installation with the remaining points in order to be in time for the summer tourist season in St. Petersburg. Additional options helped us increase revenue from one point by 40%.

About the benefits of notifications

Another innovation affected points in student dormitories. When I stopped by to rent a cash register, I noticed that the students, coming with their things, were languishing at the washing machines, waiting for their neighbors to take their already washed clothes from the machine. There was a hitch that could last more than an hour. It created inconvenience for customers, and we lost money due to equipment downtime. SMS notifications about the end of washing helped solve this problem. Before starting the machine, a message about this service appears on the payment terminal and the client can enter his phone number.

In development and procurement additional equipment we invested a little more than 100,000 rubles. But I am confident that these investments will pay off and bring not only additional revenue, but benefits to customers. This solution will allow us to collect our customer base and analyze washing activity and frequency. It turns out that first of all you really need to hear your customers, and not just listen.

Read more about the project

Your company must have been established no earlier than August 2016. A business project must go through the stage of discussing and testing the idea: a prototype has already been created or the first sale has taken place. The project must be relevant to the Russian market.

3. What criteria should an ideal application meet?

We evaluate applications on a case-by-case basis, but we would really like your videos and presentations to meet the following minimum requirements:

Please read and fill out all fields in the application form carefully. This will help us quickly check whether your application meets the project requirements.
Be careful when choosing a faculty and do not forget to indicate which of the 4 you are applying to.
Please indicate email founder. We receive about 200 applications annually; it is impossible to contact each of you by phone. For this we would need a special call center.
Provide a link to the video on Youtube. Your video should tell about the essence of the project, its state at the time of application, the team and the project leader. Ideally, this should be a video where they talk about the project real people who are doing your project.
The number of slides in a presentation should not exceed 6-7. If your presentation has more than 7 slides, we will not consider it, unfortunately(.

4. What happens to my application after I have completed the form?

As soon as you click the “send” button, your application goes to a Forbes editorial staff member. At the first stage, we check whether your application meets the stated criteria. If not, we contact you and ask you to supplement it, if possible. If the application does not meet the criteria at all, we will notify you about this. Then, alas, we cannot accept it.

5. How are applications selected after the application period officially closes in February?

After we close the collection of applications, they are evaluated by Forbes journalists. We evaluate all applications from the point of view of the viability of the business idea, the charisma of the project leader, the prospects of the business project, and simply common sense. We give each project a score from 0 to 5, and then scale them up and rank the projects according to the largest number points. The 50 projects with the highest scores advance to the quarter finals. We then send a list of these 50 projects to our mentors and ask them to evaluate the applications using the same criteria. Based on the results of the jury's voting, we select 5 projects in each of the 4 declared categories. These projects become semi-finalists and will study at the Billionaire School until the end of June 2018.

6. What will I get from participating in the Billionaire School project?

Firstly, you will receive a publication on the site, even if you do not qualify for the semi-finals. We publish on the website all applications that meet our criteria. If you are among the 20 semifinalist teams, then you will have the opportunity to talk about your project on the website, receive a video about your project filmed by the Forbes team, regularly receive advice from a personal mentor for 6 months, and also participate in events of the School and expand the network of acquaintances in the business environment.

7. Can I choose a mentor?

Unfortunately no. Mentors are distributed by the Forbes team, taking into account the opinions of the mentors themselves.

8. How often will I be able to communicate with my mentor?

You agree with him individually on the scheme of work with a mentor. We introduce teams to mentors at the first meeting, which will take place in February.

10. Can I communicate with other people's mentors?

Yes, sure. For this purpose, we specially organize events in the format speed dating, where we invite all project mentors. At each of these events, you will have 10 minutes to ask questions to each of the mentors.

The Forbes Startup Competition is now accepting applications.

Forbes begins collecting applications for the “Young Billionaire School” competition. This project is a continuation of the startup competition that we held in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Ten semi-finalists will be able to tell the whole country about their business and receive advice on its development from experienced entrepreneurs and top managers.

Conditions of participation

Entrepreneurs who registered their company no earlier than August 20, 2013 can submit an application for the competition. At the same time, management experience own business should not exceed 5 years: companies previously created by the applicant alone or with partners must be founded no earlier than August 20, 2009.

A business project must go through the stage of discussing and testing the idea: a prototype has already been created or the first sale has taken place. There are no restrictions on the scope of activity. The project must be relevant to the Russian market.

How to apply

To apply, you must complete the following four steps:

1. Remove and place in YouTube video, telling about the team and the project - in any form, up to 3 minutes. In Russian.

2. Upload a presentation of your project to Slideshare - up to 7 slides. In the presentation, be sure to indicate who is the leader of your project, what problem the project solves, who your consumer is, who your competitors are, and also what are the main problems facing the project that you would like to solve during the competition. In Russian.

3. Write an essay about how the project differs from its competitors and why it can win the startup competition. Volume - no more than 2000 characters.

Based on the results of the work, the curators will determine best projects, taking into account the dynamics of their development during training and achievements. The results will be announced in June 2015.