Being married is great

One of the best motivators for writing a business plan is your wife in a soon-I-will-be-holding-a-frying-pan-instead-of-your-tea mode. Love you, darling, thank you!

After all, I've got my supplier. I've got the idea on how this works. Well, now I've got to do this.

Err, wish someone gave me money

Russian vodka brands - anyone interested?

Just wanted to ask, if anyone would like some info on the famous russian vodka brands. =)

Cheers!

You don't need a translation for that!

Russian business perspective - what's up?

In the 1990's when the world was younger, grass was greener and vodka was sweeter, Russia used to be free market economy with few rules, except for those of the outdated criminal code. Today in 2012 Russia is a country, ruled by Regulations with a big capital "R". Technically, binding businesses into a bureocratic came as a result of government policy of "vertical construction". The results are: Doing anything in Russia requires a paper for it and papers have a life of their own. My favorite example is the situation with the cosmetics market over the past 6 years or so.

One paper is never enough. So it seems, as you always had to have at least 2 documents for every cosmetic product. Before 2010, these were the "Sanitary Expert conclusion", issued by Rospotrebnadzor and the "Declaration of conformity", issued by a multitude of different government testing facilities. The funny thing is, test for both papers were almost identical. They checked the PH value, looked for bacteria, heavy metals and radiation. The paer logic (for imports or inside sales) was the following: "The first paper confirms the safety of the products, the other proves that it corresponds to the Russian standards - GOST's.
In 2008, a new form of "Sanitary conclusion" was introduced. The paper got the name of "State Registration Document". Technically, it was the same, but was supposed to last "for the duration of the product's existence". The old sanitary documents could only be valid for 2 years, while the declaratrions of conformity were only valid for 1 year. The routine was complicated and mildly expensive.

In 2010, Russia formed a Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan. To celebrate the event, all the old papers were abolished, the previously "eternal" state registrations were assigned an expiration date of January the 1st 2012.
Customs Union for more efficient bureocracy and transparency? Well, 2 sets of papers again. New "State Registrations" - now lasting eternaly. The cost to acquire went up 5-15 times, depending on the product. Well, we still have to prove conformity with the standards, don't we? A set of "Declarations of conformity". valid for 1 year was introduced. In late 2011 it was replace with the "Certificate of conformity" valid for 2 years, which was banned in February 2012 to be replaced with "Declarations of conformity" (yes, again), valid for 1 year.

These regulations are reinforced concrete. It is illegal to import any cosmetics without these sets of documents. Of course, any American, European or international certificate, like GMP, ISO, organic labels etc. is not valid in Russia. Currently, a package of documents for importing cosmetics to Russia is 50-70 sheets for a batch of 100 positions.

Other fields see the same development of bureocracy. Construction companies deal with ROSTEHNADZOR. A standard document package for a commercial building is around 350-400 sheets.

The key difference is that Russian regulations are almost never inspired by public organizations. It is strange for a Russian to hear that acertificate is issued by an association. The Russian overlooking institutions prefer the word "Nadzor", which means "Overlooking enforcement".

Stay tuned. I appreciate comments. =)

Future updates + some self-loathing

Earlier, I wrote about making myself do things. So I can have my own business in Russia. I need advice, bloody hell, lots of advice.

The problem is I am a lazy, self-dismotivated bastard. My wife wants me to quit my mother's business, but she wants me to do it for 14-year-old girl reasons, thouugh we are both 24.

Right. So, I havre these massage tools coming to the country and I expect the certificates soon afterwards. Now, my current problems are:

- I am the director general in a firm with little turnover from selling professional cosmetics, which I decided to make an online-selling range, rather than a saloon based one.
- I have to make my own money. No, I do get paid now, but as I said, my wife keeps telling me, she'd prefer 500 bucks a month with my mother at cannon shot distance.
- I don't have people to work with, as well as means to pay them. What this "company of mine" is now making just a bit more than my current salary.
- I only expect demand for the massage tools I am going to import.
- There is a chance, that if I follow my wife's demand and burn all the bridges, I'll find myself not making a living and choosing between selling the car to try to float for a couple more months or getting a job with a salary of $800 a month or even less.
- This mess also jeopardises my educational plans, as I am to start my Masters in global marketing online in August.

Well, what I want to share in the future:
- Problems of cosmetics market around the world
- How to turn creative management into a global crisis
- Democratic vs totalitarian market regulation system. Which is worse.

Stay tuned!

Kickstart: SMM, marketing or sales?

It turns out, I will most likely start with next to no starting captal and with next to no experience in venture capitalism. Shortly, sorry, bro, no money.

Well, here are some pre-business plan ideas. So I have found this supplier, who sells this simple equipment. I happen to know people, who will be looking forward to buy that from me quite quickly. So, clearly, the first steps will be about personal sales. Like, I get a batch, sell most of it, reinvest the funds, sell again.

The key elements for goods for this period:
- Not perishable. An item can be sold after a year in storage with no loss in value
- Light & compact. Cheaper transport fees, less storage space required
- Simple. No service support, no 50-page user manuals. The client knows what to do with the stuff

So, it crystalizes into:

- B2B
- Homogenious assortment
- Maximizing speed rather than quantity

Kick number 1

One of my first steps is to create a business plan for myself. This should include:

- A strategy of achieving my business goal
- Sheldued plan
- Opportunities and motivations for me & my future associates

Kick me!

Well, my life has been difficult over the past months. Now, I will have to switch from theory to practice. I also intend to use this blog as a "kick log" for myself.

So the situation is: I work for my mother's business and both me and my wife hate it. I tried to find a job, but with my current age and qualification, the situation looks quite hopeless. My top expectations were around $1000 a month, which is actualy higher than grads normally get.

Still, I want to go on my own, that is start and run my own business. So, here we go!

My options so far:

- Import and distribution of beauty industry supplies to Russia
- Cosmetics from the EU
- Massage rollers and stuff from China or the EU

My goals:

- Achieve a sizeable income by September
- Get free from my mom's grasp
- Use the money to: Fund my Master's and to purchase real estate in the EU\US\New Zealand by 2015.

I welcome any critical responses!

Gay rights in Russia

The world has been shocked by Russia’s new law, which effectively bans any public actions by St. Petersburg’s gay community. Many Westerners just can not understand, how a city, which claims to be the “gates of Europe” of the world’s largest country could pass a law, which seems so much against the modern idea of human rights.

Nevertheless, on March 7^th 2012, the law was signed by the Governor of St. Petersburg, which means, there are only a couple of days left, until it will be being enforced. So, how could this happen? In this article, we will try to answer this question from a political and language perspective.

Russian politics have always (for at least 200 years) been characterized as “acting despite the pressure”. Russia has always aimed at being a powerful player, somewhat, reinforcing its own independence by ignoring foreign advice and pressure. This was especially true in the soviet times, when the country was constantly preparing itself for confrontations with the West. We are using this to explain, why the parliament of St. Petersburg and the governor ignored international pressure. From their point of view, Western powers, always eager to spread their political influence, have been using international interest groups to pressure Russia. Russia, in its terms, has reacted to pressure as it always has: by ignoring it.

The entire concept of human rights has almost failed in modern-day Russia. It has failed politically after the 1990’s, when the so-called liberals and democrats promoted what is now called “the stealing, crushing and selling of our great country”. Millions lost their jobs and were pushed into a decade of poverty and uncertainty, crime flourished, population decreased. Anyway, for the majority of modern Russians, words like “liberalism” and “democracy” sound more like curses.

Finally, the popular attitude to gay people is quite negative. Decriminalization of 1993 did little to improve the situation. In particular, the Russian criminal culture places gay people into the lowest social position imaginable. In male prisons, gays must not be allowed to share food with fellow inmates, sleep on beds on which others sleep. There is no way to change this status, so a gay person in the Russian criminal culture is doomed. People are forced into being gay for serious offences, including rape of women and children. It is worth mentioning, that criminal culture is very influential in the modern Russian society.

The last, but not the least is that in modern Russian, pederasty and homosexuality are translated with just one word. So, it is clear, why the majority of population do not see any difference.

The new law is going to be popular. Similar initiatives have been proposed in several regions of Russia, as well as a federal law proposal.