Western business models and ideas will not always be successful in Russia

Fast food, "coffee to go", hostels, mobile hotels - these and many other ideas and concepts came to our country from outside. Of course, we also had all sorts of pies, and we sold coffee in stalls, and we also had mini-hotels - but it is the modern, well-thought-out and optimized format that is most often taken from the West.

That is why some of our entrepreneurs turn their attention to foreign ideas. If you borrow a cool option in time, which has no analogues on the Russian market, then you can get a significant income. Let's simplify the task: below Reconomica will present a list of business ideas that are not yet in Russia in 2021, and that require minimal investment. We have collected the most interesting and unusual business ideas and conducted an initial analysis of the pros and cons. You just have to choose the option you like and act!

Why should you focus on Western business ideas?

Russian and Western business practices are fundamentally different. In the USA, entrepreneurship is almost a national idea: people there are more entrepreneurial and calculating. If they see that there is a demand for something, be sure that in the near future there will be a company that offers services in this area.

Now evaluate our market - more clumsy, conservative, often lagging behind demand and not noticing promising areas of activity. Remember the nineties: in those years, people who were not afraid to start entrepreneurship were much more likely to “rise”. And we are talking not only about those who started some large and serious business - now there are enough of those who were engaged in small trade during perestroika, or rode to Turkey for jeans, or sold draft beer. In those early years, there was a demand for everything, but there was very little supply - and therefore the business environment was a real paradise for those with an entrepreneurial streak.

America is the forge of startups.

In recent years (relatively speaking, from the second half of the 2021s), the situation has begun to change. Now our citizens have become more entrepreneurial, and much more often they seek to open their own business or do something for themselves, and not for hire.

However, the difference is still significant - and therefore it is definitely useful to learn from more mature Western “colleagues”. There are several reasons for this:

The Western market is tougher and more competitive. As a result, entrepreneurs there have to think much faster and deeper than ours, otherwise they simply cannot build a viable and promising business.

Western consumers are more spoiled and finicky. If the company was able to stay afloat, gain an audience, and is in demand, then the idea deserves attention.

More complicated technical and bureaucratic side of the issue. Russian entrepreneurs who criticize the tax, bureaucracy, and weak support for small businesses are simply not familiar with the American system. Compliance with various requirements and standards is much tougher there, all this is monitored much more closely, the punishments are more severe, and the requirements themselves are much greater.

However, there are some differences that can get in the way. An idea that "took off" in the United States may easily turn out to be unclaimed in the Russian market for the following reasons:

Mentality. It is seriously different for citizens of the United States and the Russian Federation, because of which the attitude towards the proposed product may also differ.

Entrepreneurs are constantly looking for business ideas that are not in Russia, mistakenly thinking that Western startups that have "shot" there will also be successful here. To what extent is this a strong delusion, why Western successful startups and business models often do not work in our country? How Western business models take root in the Russian market.

We interviewed 8 successful Russian entrepreneurs who have created successful (or not so successful) analog startups based on Western business models. Founders and representatives of start-up companies comment.

Service for finding performers for various everyday tasks of people. At the time of the start of business, only bulletin boards and semi-aggregators existed in Runet. We watched the first Western analog for a long time, but abandoned the business model - the approach is not close.

But the second analogue served as the basis for developing its own idea, which differs from the prototype in the authors' idea of ​​quality and convenience. In fact, the idea was to adapt Thumbtack to Russian realities. Constant feedback helped to quickly adapt the project.

• So, they led to success: careful choice of a prototype project and adaptation at the level of the original idea.

As prototype projects - two rather successful American projects (annual growth - 300-400%). Differences between Russian reality and American reality - in the United States, ordinary people often dine outside of their home. And there they got 3 dinners a week. But at the same time, studies of the Russian service showed that Russians prefer the menu for the whole week. Therefore, a set for 5 dinners was added to the set for three dinners. It turned out great - two thirds of the sets are now for 5 dinners.

The second difference is that in Russia it has not yet taken root to bind a card to a supplier. Therefore, while semi-subscription is used - customers are signed without a card link. Such is the adaptation - we increased the number of sets and work without map binding. But at the same time, a preliminary study of the Russian market was carried out.

What is important: turnovers are growing several times every year, and at the same time, the creators of the Russian service believe that the capacity of the Russian market is ten times less than the American one.

• Conclusion of the founder: what works in the West, works with adaptation in our country, but with a lag of 3-5 years.

This is a collective project. There are no direct prototypes. The market that was not formed in the West gave rise to this business idea. The three projects mentioned above gave three ideas (the choice of flights with the eyes, a convenient algorithm for working with maps, ideas for autotravels), three pillars for their own - a time scenario. Which became the top of the pyramid.

• This is a fundamentally different approach to Western business projects - pyramidal. The base is ideas from the West, and the top is its own idea. Not adaptive, but synthesizing.