The FINANCIAL — Building a successful career for yourself depends on many factors including adequate education, setting ambitious but achievable goals, hard work and enough experience to reach every new goal.
To start your career by being employed first is a good way to gain enough experience to start your own business.
People employed by companies and organisations in Georgia generally don’t have as high an income as entrepreneurial businessmen.
“In general, it is my observation that many people obtain knowledge, experience, work skills and information on that specific area while working as a hired employee and then, several years later, start their own business,” Lasha Papashvili, successful Georgian businessman and Chairman of the Supervisory Council of Bank Republic, told The FINANCIAL.
“Gaining success usually involves a suitable business environment and right choice of the sphere of activity, combined with academic knowledge and skills. Some people feel comfortable as hired personnel, knowing the scope of their functions/responsibilities and being appreciated for their professionalism. Some have the ability to see opportunities where others don’t. This urges them to lead new initiatives by linking opportunities with resources,” he explained.
Natia Abramishvili is an example of someone who used their work experience to start their own business. She currently has her own travel agency. She started working as a tourist guide five years ago. She mastered the business while working as a guide for one of the most popular Georgian tourism agencies.
“I did a theoretical and practical guide’s course at Neukaz, then I worked as a guide for two years,” Abramishvili said. I always dreamed about having my own tourism agency but didn’t dare start it without any experience. After two years I realized that I was fully prepared to start my own business. My brother is a manager and he encouraged me as well.”
“At the initial stage we launched a webpage for my agency, which was quite informative. We managed to attract a few visitors in the first year, but this already brought us quite good profit as we had minimal expenses,” she claims.
They used Abramishvili’s apartment as an office. At the beginning Abramishvili and one of her friends were working as guides for the company as well. That way they managed to maximally cut expenses.
“I’m an English-speaking guide and my friend is a German language guide. After a year I had already hired other guides and now I’m managing my own agency. I already have an office, call-centre operators, as well as my own minibuses. My business is developing slowly but surely. I think that this is the result of my experience of working for another agency. My experience helped me to manage everything just right.”
Giorgi Kiparoidze opened his ‘Tone’ (traditional Georgian bakery) just before New Year.
“I had no experience of working at all,” Kiparoidze said. “I graduated from university and directly faced problems of unemployment. Nobody wanted to employ me with my humanitarian education and no experience. I was looking for a job for a while but with sadness realized that it was almost impossible to find work.”
“The situation became tougher because I wanted to marry and definitely needed monthly income,” he continued. “So I decided to start my own business. I took a risk and I’m happy that I did.”
Kiparoidze had no money at all and took a loan out from the bank. He calculated everything in advance. He chose the place very carefully and successfully registered his tone. He opened the tone before the New Year as demand for bread is always very high during this period.
“The situation was very tight and every single GEL counted. All the time I was thinking about how I had a loan and was doing this for my future family. Now three months since opening the tone I think that if I actually had had more money and the situation hadn’t been so critical I almost certainly wouldn’t have been so driven to succeed. I had nothing except a big wish to start a successful business, but I managed to achieve everything I wanted,” Kiparoidze said.
“I think that it was the right decision. If I had started working somewhere as an employee I wouldn’t be so successful and wouldn’t have near the same level of income that I have now. I’m already thinking about expanding my business in actual fact.”
“I encourage everyone to take the initiative and do everything they can to fulfil their goals. We gained the custom and loyalty of our clients in just a short period since opening. We baked tiny loaves of ‘shoti’ bread and gave them to the children coming to my tone. This very positively affected the number of our clients. Such fresh ideas help people be successful,” he claims.
“I think it is important for a company to have a careful and moderate growth strategy, reflected in its business plan. It is also no less important to choose the right partner to provide your financial service. But above all, one first needs the desire and vision to achieve their goals,” Papashvili stated.
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