Business cooperation. Business from scratch on the production of layouts.

Author: Nikolay Garrievich Saganenko
E-mail: nickollo@mail.ru

I first came up with the idea of starting a business from scratch in 2001. It remained only to choose the scope of activities. Dozens of ideas were replaced one after another, and some of them were embodied in reality, ultimately reducing to a desire to recoup the costs and begin a further search. A couple of times there was a desire to quit this venture and go to work in the office. However, the turning point came from the moment of meeting with a former classmate, then working in one of the St. Petersburg mock-up workshops. His job was to create architectural models and did not bring him a special income by that measure. Communicating with a friend gave me some insight into the nature of the work he did and the work of his superiors, as well as business processes in the field of architectural prototyping.

It was then that an idea came to my mind to help a friend, by finding him an order for "hack work." After that, I opened the Yellow Pages, took the phone in my hands and started calling the construction companies, offering them a service to create layouts . The first calls were not crowned with success, since the secretaries of large companies loved to play directors and boldly made decisions that they didn’t need mockups at all. And so began the story of creating my currently successful business!

Within five days I received my first order! The customer quickly agreed, since the price of the layout was rather low, and included the salary of the layout maker and the cost price of the materials needed to produce the layout. We did the first layout at my home. They set the table, bought the materials, my friend was engaged in the layout, and I continued dialing the yellow pages. The main goal of our work was to attract the maximum number of customers. A means to achieve it - low prices and high quality of mockups compared to competitors.

All funds received from the execution of the first orders were invested in the registration of a legal entity, opening an account and creating a company website. During a short period of work, the company began to receive 3-4 orders per month! The company’s staff expanded: I needed a sales manager and an accountant, and a friend needed an assistant.

Already a year later, the company had the opportunity to maintain a full-fledged workshop of 60 m2 and a group of mockups. After that, the development of the studio and the promotion of the site became one of the priorities of the company. By 2006, the number of models created by our studio exceeded 300 pieces, among our customers are the largest construction companies and architectural bureaus. In 2007, we took the first state order. And today, not a single investment exhibition can do without layouts from the company "Mack-Master".

At the moment, I have a stably working and income-generating design studio, on the development of which I continue to think now. In this regard, a site has already been created in England and negotiations have begun with British customer companies.

I also plan to expand on the territory of Russia, and therefore I am looking for representatives in other cities and regions to open branches. The terms of cooperation are very simple. For me, this is a way to give someone else the opportunity to create YOUR business from scratch!

Respectfully,
Nikolay Garrievich Saganenko
CEO
LLC "Make-Master"