Anastasia Kolesnikova came from Orenburg to the capital to get an education in Moscow and, if possible, stay to work in her specialty. However, her life turned around so dramatically that now she owns her own business, which she herself raised from scratch, although no one believed in her.
Now she has a Local Food Market business with a turnover of two million rubles a month, with a profitability of ten to fifty percent and a large number of implemented projects. And a few more projects under development or at the idea level.
Biography
Anastasia Kolesnikova was born in Orenburg in 1987. She grew up as a very nimble and lively girl, she always had a lot of ideas, which she willingly shared with friends.
After leaving school, Anastasia went to Moscow and entered the Institute of Transport. She seriously planned to connect her life with the railway, to make a career there, but in her third year she realized that this education would not be useful to her.
On the advice of her mother, the girl made a list of activities that she likes to do. After much thought, she realized that she wanted to work and develop in the field of PR. Therefore, after graduating from high school, she went into the PR sphere, and was engaged in this business for seven whole years. Her place of work was the Respublika bookstore chain, and then she moved to Look At Me media holding.
However, Anastasia did not leave the thought of her own business, and when she left Respublika, she opened a clothing store. This idea came to her after a trip to Europe, where such shops are not uncommon. They sell clothes of local designers, regular customers know about them, and gradually this store turns into a kind of club for friends. The idea was good, Kolesnikova managed to bring it to life, but two years later she was forced to close the business. The fact is that initially, due to inexperience, financial calculations were made incorrectly, and the store did not develop - there was some kind of constant cycle of profits and expenses, with no growth prospects.
It was very difficult to close the store and part with the dream. The realization that you did not cope, could not, oppressed. And I didn't really want to start something new at that time.
However, when the street food trend came into vogue in 2012, Kolesnikova began to have new ideas. Following street food, local gastronomy became fashionable, and something could already be done about it.
Anastasia, as a professional PR specialist, approached the matter in a new way - through social networks. On her Facebook page, she started talking to non-professionals about the gastronomic field. Surprisingly, a large number of people were interested in this topic, and every day the number of page subscribers increased significantly.
And then the idea came up that it was possible to create a platform where food producers could test their ideas without huge investments. This was the idea of creating a food market.
Nobody believed in this idea, but Anastasia made every effort to implement it. All calculations were made, there was informational support from friends. And there were many sleepless nights thinking about how to do everything so that both the manufacturers and the market visitors would like it.
Of course, it was possible to find sponsors and share all the mistakes and successes with them, but Kolesnikov decided to do everything for real right away, relying only on her knowledge and the help of like-minded people.
As a result, they found a site for a market in Gorky Park, friends from the Estrorama design studio made the decoration and kiosks. It took three weeks to get ready, and this is only thanks to the volunteers. The market participants themselves learned about the event through the same Facebook.
Fortunately, the first experiment was a success, and then, taking into account the errors and nuances, the following sites were held in a more organized and scientific approach. True, the invested funds were returned only after the third market, but if we consider that this was a completely new business, the result is very good.
Not just a marketplace
Everyone who wants to present their products on the site pays the registration fee - this is the income of Kolesnikova's business. The participants themselves also make good profits at this event. However, business is not limited to buying and selling and making a profit. On the market, you can simply test your products and see how people will accept them. There are also master classes for the participants. And visitors can taste a lot of new gastronomy products - dishes that they have not even heard of before, and this is also interesting.
Also, Anastasia constantly comes up with new ideas - for example, the “Local Food Box”, which includes eight products from local producers. This set is distributed by subscription, which is also a fairly new idea for Russia. Or the new brand “Mom loves you”. Here women who make original jam can realize their potential, and those who love it can buy an excellent homemade product.
Personal life
Anastasia says that her day is not scheduled strictly by the minute, because sometimes you need to be flexible and react quickly to certain things.
The only rule she adheres to is to go to bed on time and get up on time, because the regimen is right.
The business lady is not married yet. However, judging by her interviews, she knows exactly which man will attract her attention and what kind of family she will have. In short, she adheres to the rule of balance in everything: so that business does not rob a person of loved ones, and that household chores do not take up most of the woman's time.
Anastasia was engaged in ceramics, jewelry, but so far it is only at the level of a hobby.
