Merab Elashvili talks about the changes in the business environment and among businesses that have taken place over the last 10 years , as well as whether or not to open your own business now .

Business today and 10 years ago – the sky and the earth . I opened my business in 1993, when I was 19 years old. All then went with pistols (but not me ) . Today all civilized : lawyers go about their business , business – his own. All times are interesting in their own way . 10 years ago there was no competition, running a business today is more secure . It’s not so bad, but we are very far from civilization .Now the system works, supporting the business . But there is still no cheap money , long-term money . Entrepreneurs learn how to work in these conditions , but when the head holder is loaded with things for the business is not very good . And it is likely that in the near future will not change anything .

Now young people leave to study in the West, but there it remains. And it makes the business more unpredictable. And not only in personnel , but in fact for anyone to build a business . After all, young people – a movement . We need to do something to our young people wanted to work in Russia , but not only in government agencies . We’ll see what will come up with our government to encourage young people to work and develop in Russia .

Personally, I’m not afraid to start new projects. For example, we will soon open a chain of hostels . In the big cities of Moscow and hotel prices are very high. And in England , Austria and the United States, many people are coming to a city stay in these hostels : inexpensive, neat and clean.

Our business plan was based on the calculation of the price of 800 rubles for a place to load and 74% in the capital and 69 % in the regions . So, what is more profitable than to build new facilities and renovation of rented premises do . Now we are looking for such facilities , will appeal to the heads of the regions – we want to take a favorable location. Without their help, the room will cost us dearly , but this does not correspond to the economy of the project. First, we want to open such hostels in the capital and several major cities. In which cities we will open hostels , depends on who the first to be able to negotiate . I do not think we will get a failure, since all regions are now interested in the development of tourism. Today, 285 of our restaurants operate 5 44 cities of the world.

For 10 years the owners have changed . And if before the crisis were important to them revenue and geography , but now all are only interested in cash flow , if a point in lower income, then it should be closed . It’s not that simple. We have already had to close unprofitable restaurants in Russia and other countries. For example , in 2010, we closed all in Ukraine: all major cities have been our restaurants , but as a result of the crisis hryvnia fell , and all our products are imported from abroad. Raise prices we could not , because the competition was . Therefore I thought it necessary to close the business.

One should always keep an eye on efficiency. It happens that after successfully running a restaurant opening nearby shopping center is just impractical.

It is better not to start the projects in which you can control the situation yourself . In Egypt, we opened the restaurant Viaggio together in a local partner . Six months later, it was clear that the planned efficiency, we have not reached , and the partner did not fulfill all the promise . As a result, I sold him the whole business and walked away from the project. As it turned out , it was on time .