Driving school for the country
Artem Dogaev interested in running a car in 7 years. Now he's 32, he — the owner of the GK "Traffic light", dedicated to training of drivers of all categories in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region. Plans Artem — the creation of a Federal network of driving schools and primary floatation on the stock exchange.
the Idea of a business owned by father of Artem, Victor Dogaeva, who opened one of the first private driving school in St. Petersburg in 1989. In 2010, Artem took the reins into their own hands, registered brand "Traffic light" and has opened several branches in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region and other cities of Russia. Then there was the trick of driving school — own research and development in the field of theoretical distance training of drivers. Innovative designs are used in the school "Traffic light", but in parallel are drawn in separate project pdd.tv. This cross-platform multibrowser distance learning system is now fighting for the status of a resident "SKOLKOVO".
"Svetofor" for each region
Start-up capital in 2010 year made up about 5 million rubles, the money went to the purchase of training vehicles, teaching AIDS and rent of new premises. Now the company along with the franchisee about 30 branches of the driving school "Traffic light", 20 of them are in St. Petersburg. The company's turnover in 2012 amounted to 120 million rubles. In the Park companies together with affiliate branches there are 150 cars in the state employs approximately 200 teachers.
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in the photo: Artem Dogaev, the General Director of group of companies the Traffic light
Photo: Valentin Belikov
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According to the founder, branches of school study 5–6 thousand people per year, since 2010, has trained tens of thousands of people. "Business–the model was tested, now we are negotiating with investors in order to replicate branches in the cities–with over a million people of Russia, we are talking about $2 million," — says Artem. His task — to create a Federal network of driving schools under the brand "Traffic light" and put them in holding, establishing a headache management company.
Volume of driving schools in St. Petersburg is estimated at 960 million rubles a year, it is only category B — training to driving of cars. Market, according to experts, since 2008, steadily growing to 15%, however, now slightly decreased the number of clients of driving schools — the results of the demographic hole. "the Big players a bit, mostly in St. Petersburg are small companies with two to a maximum of five branches", — said the businessman. Its closest competitors "Traffic light", according to Artem, you can call the system of driving schools "Smolny".
A very closed market
Business is seasonal: in may, June and July, according to Artem, driving school loses up to 30% of the profits, the rise observed in August-September and in February. "to Overcome barriers to entry into the market is difficult, it is easier to buy a franchise — customers looking at the name of the company, reviews and opinions, — says Artem. — Also need to pass a number of serious agreements, which take about 6 months".
to open a school, need to coordinate with the traffic police the material-technical base, to obtain all licenses associated with the specificity of the learning process, to equip the training area for practical training, to choose the teaching staff and so on.
"Competition in the market increases every year. A driving school finally–I realized that you need to prepare instructors began to take it more seriously, so beginning to seriously increase the quality of education", — said the General Director of the driving school "Virage" Dmitry Nekrasov.
to go to the market, says specialist, it is very difficult, given that in St. Petersburg there are many driving schools that operate for 20 years or more. "as far As I know, there are about 150 schools, — says Dmitry Nekrasov. — But schools that affect the pricing in this segment, no more than 10".