Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
Source: BIZLife
Ivan Minić is the founder of the largest Internet community in the region, Burek.com with over 2.5 million users. He is a blogger, consultant in the field of Internet marketing and the editor in chief of the project “Moja firma” (My Company).
On the occasion of the upcoming 11th Business Café, which will be held 4 May at Mikser House, Belgrade, on the topic Little Big Companies, Ivan talked with BIZLife about entrepreneurship, career development, the brain drain and the particular characteristics of markets such as the Balkans.
You have independently established the biggest online community in the region, despite an extremely ungrateful market. How did you manage to achieve your idea in Serbia, and what was the idea that drove you to connect the entire region?
Independently, but with great help from friends and people who shared the same values as us. Burek was created at a particular moment 14 years ago, at a time when the Internet was primarily a place for people who lived off IT, as well as those for whom it was a hobby, a passion, or an interest. They socialized and communicated with each other through various internet communities, some of which are still active today. Informative sites did exist, but in a very rudimentary form, without any interactivity – usually as an impoverished version of the printed edition. Ordinary people had no place to talk about subjects that interested them – sports, music, film, politics, sex … I wanted such a place myself, and talking with people from my circles, I realized I wasn’t the only one, so I decided to try. Why Burek (savory pie)? Well burek is the only thing that unites all of us here from the former shared country. All of us, who understand each other, if we make just the slightest effort. This pie doesn’t discriminate, it’s liked by people of all nations, creeds, sports – or any other – affiliation; male and female, young and old.
What were the biggest obstacles you encountered on the way, and what are the benefits of this market when it comes to business?
There were many challenges. The hardest thing is to work with people. Especially if you are really trying to be fair to everyone, regardless of personal preferences, and there are many people, so the law of big numbers does its thing. And if you add anonymity to the mix, because in the context of forum communities people don’t use their real names, personal pictures and so on, but nicknames and avatars… In many situations, this means that they will share their opinions far more freely, and honestly. Let’s just say that this, in many cases, is disappointing. You know, all those strange people who “live in the comments sections” of newspaper websites. We saw them all five or ten years ago.
On the other hand, the development of such a community is quite an expensive bit of fun for your free time, especially seven or eight years ago, and there was no income in the first five years because the market of Internet advertising didn’t exist. However, thanks to the knowledge that I gained by developing the technical part of the platform that we use, I managed to fund it up to the moment when it became self-sustainable.
Benefits … I don’t know if there are any, except in the sense that we’ve become very resourceful, and that the “development” is relatively inexpensive but of good quality. In some situations, this mentality of ours is a big advantage, but in many others it’s a noose around the neck.
How much did things change when you, as an entrepreneur, connected with the large Telenor corporation for the project Moja Firma?
For years now we’ve been collaborating through various projects. When Telenor decided to pay particular attention to the small business sector, it was somehow logical that we would cooperate on that as well. We designed a project – they liked the idea – then we formed a team of writers – and they liked that as well. The conditions were agreed and we started the implementation.
The portal was launched on 1 September 2015, and right from the start it was enthusiastically received both by professional and target audiences. It received such a response because we are really not doing this as one of tens or hundreds of projects that go through our hands. Telenor knows this and believes in us, and gives us maximum support. We really care about this, and we are really trying to help people.
We will help them by explaining how and what can they do on their own when it comes to the most important procedures. We will help them by explaining in precise and understandable language what their rights and obligations are. We will help them by keeping them informed about all the relevant things that are happening now, and that concern their business. We will help them by answering their questions and problems. We will help them by expanding their knowledge in areas they may not have been thinking about, but which are certainly important for every entrepreneur, such as sales, marketing, human resources and management. We will help them by telling interesting stories, from the history of business, as well as from film, music, culture … Because all good things started from good stories and good people.
In addition, every week we have a substantial interview with interesting small entrepreneurs. Apart from revealing the entire development path to our readers, we also don’t shy away from talking about both good and bad business decisions. We believe that it will mean a lot to a lot of people to hear that someone else has been in a similar situation as they are, and to hear how they found the strength and wisdom to overcome such a situation. Occasionally, instead of entrepreneurs, we talk to some experts who can really help small businesses improve some area of their business. We’ve just started and we have a lot of ideas.
Why aren’t more young people walking in your footsteps? How can we motivate them?
I think the problem lies inside us. Young or less young, it’s irrelevant. I often talk with entrepreneurs about their earlier years, and unfortunately, entrepreneurship here is often the last resort for those who have no other choice. Allow me to rephrase, at the risk of upsetting someone; people that no one else wanted to hire are those who opt for entrepreneurship. Of course, there are others who’ve been thinking about starting something of their own, and at some point that desire becomes stronger than all the objections.
I often have the opportunity to speak to students about entrepreneurship, marketing and information technology. I haven’t counted how many of them have listened to me so far but I know it’s at least about ten thousand, and this topic often arises. How do you motivate someone to go into entrepreneurship? How do you motivate someone to work on themselves? If the circumstances in which you live aren’t motivating enough, I don’t think there’s anything I could say on the issue. I talk to them because I hope I will reach at least one or two percent of them. I have no illusion that there will be more. But one by one, we will make a difference, I’m sure of that.
Five years ago we concluded that we lack 10,000 developers. This is something that a mature, young, thorough, dedicated individual can learn in a year or year and a half, to the extent that they can slowly be tuned into a system through which they will improve. The starting salary is like two or three average salaries, and the potential keeps growing, even to ten average salaries. And, five years later? We have 20,000 new managers, masters and whatnot. But there is still a lack of developers – 10,000 still, now maybe even more. The universities are to blame. They say there is no one to teach them. Most people who are engaged in this today didn’t learn it at university. They weren’t taught by anyone. They taught themselves. They were interested, they invested in it, they took the time to learn. Such people will, always and everywhere, find a way to succeed, no matter what the circumstances are. These are the precious few.
If one in three of us decided to be even a little better than we have to be, I believe that we would live in a far healthier society. To begin, let’s start from our microcosm.
What is the greatest potential of Serbia currently in the field you deal with, and what are your plans for the future?
The greatest potential of Serbia is the fact that there is so much room for improvement. Our personal improvement. We don’t have to be a country that exports cheap raw materials. If we can’t export luxury goods, we can at least export semi-finished products. We don’t have to be cheap labor, because we are qualitatively far beyond some countries to which we export, we can improve our services and products.
For the kids there is IT, as one of the directions in which they can develop. Even though they may not directly work in the IT sector, they should at least understand it and be interested in the technology – it will dictate the development of all industries, whatever they may be.
Also, I think that opportunities lie in small firms. In precisely those to which we speak through the MojaFirma.rs portal. Some will grow, some will remain small, but a family or a circle of friends will be able to live from their work.
As for me personally, I will continue investing my efforts on all fronts to make a difference, however small it may be. Through MojaFirma.rs, Burek.com and through consulting work in the areas of marketing and development for web and mobile platforms. I work and will continue to work on interesting projects, and will try to keep myself surrounded by good people.
I enjoy it most when I can connect two of my passions through a project – sport and technology, and I will work on this more in the future.
Tickets for the 11th Business Café can be purchased online, or onsite at Mikser, until the start of the event.