Survive or Thrive
Making a profit in Serbia
Is is possible for you to become more then financially stable in Serbia? Can you with your start-up project have massive gain and financial success in a country with a poor economy?
The average salary of a person in Serbia is about 250-300 euros a month. This is considered to be a good salary and if you have a job that can pay you that much, over here, its a really good thing. In other countries that I have visited or lived in, that kind of money for a month of hard, daily work is laughable. Of course the living costs here are lower, but they are really not that much lower if you put it all on the scale and see what the real costs are to live comfortably here for a month. The financial situation in Serbia is the reason why so many people live with their parents for so long. With such little money coming into the family piggy bank, you can see why it seems to be smarter to put it together and be able to live to a higher standard.
When I think about the money CE earns in comparison to the amount of actual work that it takes, it really doesn't make sense. Even though I am not an expert at calculating costs and figuring the financial details of our company, I can see that the income always just manages to make CE and me survive. It pays the bills, for improvements, my living costs, the staff that work there, and there is nothing left over. Even if I did try to be more frugal with my spending on CE, I don't think the difference would be that great. I have a continual need to reinvest into the space, to add new things and to re-spend the money earned to make CE better and more comfortable for the customers who come here.
Whenever I return home to the UK for Christmas or another occasion, I am struck with the same feeling many of you have I am sure. I feel poor... :)
I really cannot afford to do stuff with my friends there, to eat out, or to buy expensive gifts for my family. Sometimes I get down about this and worry about the future. I wonder if my family is disappointed in me, as I am always on a shoestring budget with no extra frills.
There are very successful businesses in Serbia. Obviously every country has the rich and the poor, the middle class and the imbetweeners. There are smarter ways to make money, to save money and to spend money, these are all lessons I am learning.
To be perfectly honest, I took out the answer of money from my requirements of success in Serbia. Being financially wealthy and seeing the profit margin soaring would be somewhat exhilarating for a time. However because I don't see Culture Exchange as a place where big money can be made. I chose to focus my attention on the other aspects of success that I wanted to see from the business.
For me success in Serbia... thriving in this country is..
1. Customers happy and satisfied with their drinks
2. People always feeling comfortable and welcome in CE regardless of race, age or style.
3. New artists having their art displayed and musicians able to perform.
4. Bike kitchen running and people making their bikes and learning about bike mechanics.
5. The staff being happy, having jobs and feeling productive.
6. The business running on a moral standard I am happy with. Honesty, love and care.
My goal for Culture Exchange in Novi Sad is not to get rich, I am happy with the money that I get, and I am always searching for ways to improve, change and make the project better. As long as I feel that this is what I want to do with my life, I wont be thinking towards my first million euros... but rather towards the people that the project can reach. I want Culture Exchange to be the best it can be, financially and in every other way. But before the question of if I am earning enough.. I think more about If I am really living the life I want to live.
I am sure you can be financially very successful in any country, the right idea, the right people behind it, the right circumstances, and the right timing can all play to your advantage. However I think we need to worry less about if we will have money and think more of the other things that we want for our lives that are so much more vital to happiness. Having money does bring you happiness of in many ways, it gives you freedom to make the other choices that can make you happy. I found that the chase for financial gain is never ending, you can never really have enough until you are truly satisfied with yourself and your own life choices.
I believe that if you do what you love, it will pay off, maybe not immediately, but one day it will. Its almost like we are all running the wrong way towards the goal. If we want to be financially well off and we continually do the business choices of putting money as the main goal, we become kind of stressed, because of the stress we cannot be happy, and because we are not happy we are not good at what we do, and because we are not good at what we do, our business does not run well, and because our business does not run well, we do not earn well.
So the horse in front of the cart is to follow the things we are passionate about and follow your heart with financial choices. Striving to be the best we can be and to make our projects the best they can be will in turn bring us closer to our financial dreams as well. (well this is just my opinion and my experience, and I hope its all going to turn out to be true in every way)
Making a profit in Serbia
Is is possible for you to become more then financially stable in Serbia? Can you with your start-up project have massive gain and financial success in a country with a poor economy?
The average salary of a person in Serbia is about 250-300 euros a month. This is considered to be a good salary and if you have a job that can pay you that much, over here, its a really good thing. In other countries that I have visited or lived in, that kind of money for a month of hard, daily work is laughable. Of course the living costs here are lower, but they are really not that much lower if you put it all on the scale and see what the real costs are to live comfortably here for a month. The financial situation in Serbia is the reason why so many people live with their parents for so long. With such little money coming into the family piggy bank, you can see why it seems to be smarter to put it together and be able to live to a higher standard.
When I think about the money CE earns in comparison to the amount of actual work that it takes, it really doesn't make sense. Even though I am not an expert at calculating costs and figuring the financial details of our company, I can see that the income always just manages to make CE and me survive. It pays the bills, for improvements, my living costs, the staff that work there, and there is nothing left over. Even if I did try to be more frugal with my spending on CE, I don't think the difference would be that great. I have a continual need to reinvest into the space, to add new things and to re-spend the money earned to make CE better and more comfortable for the customers who come here.
Whenever I return home to the UK for Christmas or another occasion, I am struck with the same feeling many of you have I am sure. I feel poor... :)
I really cannot afford to do stuff with my friends there, to eat out, or to buy expensive gifts for my family. Sometimes I get down about this and worry about the future. I wonder if my family is disappointed in me, as I am always on a shoestring budget with no extra frills.
There are very successful businesses in Serbia. Obviously every country has the rich and the poor, the middle class and the imbetweeners. There are smarter ways to make money, to save money and to spend money, these are all lessons I am learning.
To be perfectly honest, I took out the answer of money from my requirements of success in Serbia. Being financially wealthy and seeing the profit margin soaring would be somewhat exhilarating for a time. However because I don't see Culture Exchange as a place where big money can be made. I chose to focus my attention on the other aspects of success that I wanted to see from the business.
For me success in Serbia... thriving in this country is..
1. Customers happy and satisfied with their drinks
2. People always feeling comfortable and welcome in CE regardless of race, age or style.
3. New artists having their art displayed and musicians able to perform.
4. Bike kitchen running and people making their bikes and learning about bike mechanics.
5. The staff being happy, having jobs and feeling productive.
6. The business running on a moral standard I am happy with. Honesty, love and care.
My goal for Culture Exchange in Novi Sad is not to get rich, I am happy with the money that I get, and I am always searching for ways to improve, change and make the project better. As long as I feel that this is what I want to do with my life, I wont be thinking towards my first million euros... but rather towards the people that the project can reach. I want Culture Exchange to be the best it can be, financially and in every other way. But before the question of if I am earning enough.. I think more about If I am really living the life I want to live.
I am sure you can be financially very successful in any country, the right idea, the right people behind it, the right circumstances, and the right timing can all play to your advantage. However I think we need to worry less about if we will have money and think more of the other things that we want for our lives that are so much more vital to happiness. Having money does bring you happiness of in many ways, it gives you freedom to make the other choices that can make you happy. I found that the chase for financial gain is never ending, you can never really have enough until you are truly satisfied with yourself and your own life choices.
I believe that if you do what you love, it will pay off, maybe not immediately, but one day it will. Its almost like we are all running the wrong way towards the goal. If we want to be financially well off and we continually do the business choices of putting money as the main goal, we become kind of stressed, because of the stress we cannot be happy, and because we are not happy we are not good at what we do, and because we are not good at what we do, our business does not run well, and because our business does not run well, we do not earn well.
So the horse in front of the cart is to follow the things we are passionate about and follow your heart with financial choices. Striving to be the best we can be and to make our projects the best they can be will in turn bring us closer to our financial dreams as well. (well this is just my opinion and my experience, and I hope its all going to turn out to be true in every way)
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