The crisis, the closure of borders, the lockdowns that occurred as a result of the pandemic led to the fact that people began to change their consumer habits. It turns out that the most profitable business in Russia now can be the one that will allow you to save either now or in the future, and will also be adapted to modern realities. Experts and entrepreneurs told Izvestia which businesses should be opened now in order to get the greatest income.

Kirill Plokhikh, director of the Faculty of Business at Synergy University, suggests that a stock store, food delivery, fitness center, designer clothing development, street food, event agency, catering, an online school for children and a cleaning company should be among the ten most popular business niches for a startup in 2021. According to him, investments in each of these niches range from 450 thousand to 3 million rubles. Profitability usually occurs within the first eight months from the moment of launch. For example, with an average investment in an event agency, the level of income from it can be about 60%. At the same time, much depends on the management strategy, the correct choice of the target audience, the location of the enterprise, and a competent investment in advertising.

"But often startups occupying the above niches remain afloat, at least in Moscow. It is important that these businesses are not niche, but mass market, they are well-known, they are understandable in terms of launch. There are a huge number of self-help books, a rich regulatory framework for running this business. In addition, it is quite transparent from the point of view of the law," the expert said.

Vladislav Samarin, founder, CEO of EnerGO, called an interesting direction of the popular business for buying a franchise powerbank-sharing - like carsharing, only with charging for gadgets. Investments in it amount to up to 1 million rubles and pay off in less than a year, while the business requires "much less involvement than coffee shops." This is interesting for entrepreneurs who already have their own business and are interested in obtaining additional passive income.

Takeaway food

Vladislav Samarin noted the wide popularity of such businesses as coffee shops with takeaway drinks, self-service coffee stations (the direction is similar to vending), pizzerias and other take-away formats.

"A significant driver of growth here is the purchase of a franchise. This makes it possible for those who are interested in their own business and have amounts from 500 thousand to 1.5 million rubles to start entrepreneurial activity quickly enough," he said.

The entrepreneur added that a franchise with investments of up to 700 thousand rubles pays for itself in 12 months, these are average indicators, subject to compliance with the regulations of the management company. Larger projects with investments of 3 million rubles and areas of 200 sq. m. m "with comfortable eating areas" pay off in about two to three years, he pointed out.

Marketplaces

Anton Larin, CEO of the service for the sale of goods on XWAY marketplaces, notes that in 2020 the pandemic forced entrepreneurs to go online - this is evidenced by the "record increase in the turnover of well-known marketplaces," which Kommersant wrote about on June 16, 2021. He stressed that for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), such a format allowed saving on rental of premises and logistics, as well as reducing the cost of promotion. Despite the growing competition, the sites are an affordable sales channel for small businesses, he believes.

Among the most promising niches today, it is possible to distinguish: hype products — a subgroup in which the speed of output to the platform is important. The trend products include anti-stress toys "pop-it", as well as masks from the TV series "The Squid Game". The demand for the assortment can be tracked both using analytics services and inside sites — for example, on Ozon in the seller's personal account there is a tab "best-selling products", among which you can highlight facial massagers, vacuum cleaners robots, hair styling devices, Larin said.

His one niche is seasonal goods, for the sale of which you need to prepare in advance — to make purchases in the summer for the New Year, in March — for Halloween and so on. In addition, it is worth planning in advance the time for the promotion of the product card in order to get to the top listing on the site in time, the expert noted.

Another subgroup includes goods of constant demand — these are food products, household chemicals.

"Advanced logistics and fast delivery on platforms make this category more and more popular among online users," Larin added.

Own-made goods are "the most difficult group", which requires investments in marketing activity, since first buyers need to learn about the product, the expert said. This category includes hand-made products, such as handmade candles.

The specialist reminded that on marketplaces the main assets of the seller are product cards and reviews, only by investing resources in the development and improvement of which it is possible to achieve high sales.

Nikolay Novoselov, business director of the distribution platform of Kuore LLC, noted that there are already about 400 thousand sellers on the marketplaces in total. In order to successfully earn money on such sites, according to him, it is not necessary to sell goods. Of the businesses that grow fastest around marketplaces, he called logistics and packaging, transshipment small logistics centers, daily FBS deliveries (a sales scheme in which the supplier independently collects orders from customers, packs them and transfers them to a delivery service or courier) and flexible FBO (a scheme of sale from a warehouse, not from a supplier), intermediate storage and reverse logistics the most successful. He pointed out that the central platform for the selection of performers is the YouDo service, which supplies individual drivers and companies.

Speaking about the packaging business, the expert noted that "each of the millions of parcels" that are sent somewhere is packed in a film and/or box. He complained that in Russia at the moment, even cardboard boxes continue to be a "huge problem": a queue for production, a queue for delivery, minimum runs. If something more complicated is needed, it is sometimes simply impossible to find a solution, he explained.

Or maybe crowdfunding?

Maria Balmforth, Head of the crowdfunding platform Boomstarter.ru She said that small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs come to the platform to launch online sales. She explained that crowdfunding is when a business sells pre-orders for its product, which is "a good way to honestly test demand and see which products are really in demand." According to her, the most popular among buyers on the platform are the release of fiction, music albums and health products — these areas are the most profitable. They are among the top three industries that have provided SMEs with the most sales for the year.

How to make a highly profitable business

Sergey Kapatsevich, ATOL SIGMA Product Director of the ATOL Group of Companies, told Izvestia that during the pandemic and crisis, controlled businesses turned out to be the most stable. To do this, entrepreneurs began to pay more attention to several areas.

"Firstly, we are talking about business analytics, which allows you to control profits and increase sales of high-margin goods, reducing costs on unpopular menu items. Secondly, many have reduced the costs of write-offs and spoilage of products. To do this, it is necessary to automatically monitor the movement of ingredients in the warehouse and purchase only running items," he said.

In addition, according to him, the control of purchase prices and cost has been strengthened, including with the help of technological maps. A necessary condition for process control is inventory, which demonstrates to the owner any deviations in the stock balance and allows to identify overspending or suspicious actions on the part of the staff, Kapatsevich pointed out.

In addition to reducing costs, the loyalty system and additional sales play an important role, the expert added. They allowed some market players to attract new guests and retain regular ones. We are talking about the use of bonuses for the favorite products of regular guests, SMS mailings to notify guests, he concluded.