Purchase of the first three scarves, resale at a markup of 3 to 1. For a month, I bought and resold low-sales goods, finding new suppliers along the way and trying to order new product groups. So for a year, in the assortment I had a set of a modern girl from glasses to shoes. This experience gave me my first skill - selling online without ads. During the year I managed to save more than 10,000 dollars, which I unsuccessfully invested in opening a boutique and buying a batch of bags. It took another six months to recover the invested funds.

After a sad experience with China, I decided that I needed to have a product that could be produced in my own country, thus securing myself from losses in product groups. During that period, there was a surge of local designers, and I began to create wicker jewelry. The cost of each did not exceed $12, and the sale price through Instagram was more than $100 per piece. In just 3 months, I rented the first workshop and, having trained the same students as me in needlework, hired 7 employees. First $2,500 net per month. The first command, delegation, and work with copper personalities.

Being in the circle of local artisans, the idea came up to create a temporary platform for the sale of products and increase the number of consumers, both for themselves and for others. It took 2.5 weeks from idea to implementation. Attracted all traffic offline. New experience = 1.500 people who visited the event per day. Success made once is an accident, repeated is a skill. It was decided to make this a skill to attract offline traffic. So there were 3 more exhibitions with a total number of visitors more than 5,000 people. With traffic costs no more than $200 per event.

Full-fledged stores with designer clothes became a natural continuation of this kind of activity. The demand of consumers who came to the exhibitions has grown so much that in the 2GIS application for a month the search for the name of the exhibition exceeded 17,000 times. After 3 months, the first store in Almaty opened its doors. After another 3 months, the next one is in Astana, and so for 1.5 years 7 stores were opened in Kazakhstan in different cities. This time there was the first experience of opening and developing a network, hiring managers to control processes, and raising funds for the launch of each store.

Consumer demand grew 1.5 times in a year, but if we were ready to scale the retail network, our artisans could not withstand such a volume, and it was decided to open our own production line. The first batch of 200 units was sold in 1 week. And after another 6 months, we created a production facility producing 1,000 units per month in Almaty. Sales per network was 800 units per month, without attracting targeted advertising.

As it may seem at first glance, there was a series of successful actions that led to a large network, but still unforeseen factors always happen. And covid was just such a factor. We were forced to suspend the work of each store, and then production, switched to an online format, but a year later we realized that the model built initially on the network was not able to survive in the conditions of online sales in production. So I decided not to stop and try to use my sales skill in another way, I launched an online cosmetics store for a test. For the first month without attracting external advertising, I managed to sell goods for 8.5 million tenge ($23,600). Test passed. The skill is saved.

Throughout the year, I looked for niches in which I could reproduce an international network that meets today's market trends, the needs of both the client and the entrepreneur, in order to build a sustainable franchise development on different continents. I wanted to fit into the project my skills in online sales, creating a unique concept offline, and experience in building a network project. Therefore, today for 8 months we have been creating the "Body Stories" concept, which includes the implementation of skin care cosmetics + body shaping for women. We study the behavior of the client, his preferences and desires, not only at home, but also on other continents. Very soon we will present you a project that will give people not only self-care, but also development, inspiration and the desire to create.

While studying the market in the Middle East, I was lucky to meet Leonid and Vadim, who became those who believed in the possibility of my growth as an entrepreneur in the international market and became my partners and investors in a project that becomes an anchor for me in the development in the UAE - Not Schools Drums. We plan to build 100 schools in the Middle East.

This is where the stars aligned. Having moved to Dubai, having studied the local market, I came to the conclusion that I needed an already stable, profitable business that had proven its effectiveness - as an anchor that would allow me to enter the market with a minimum number of fakups, and also needed a symbiosis of partnership to strengthen my skills. That is how I joined the franchisee of the Non School of Drums, headed by Anton Shardakov and Tatyana Bibik. This new experience will bring us great development in the Middle East, as I see how each of us can strengthen this project.