Own business: publication of guidebooks
Today, any tourist can easily find a suitable guide to the country in which he decided to go, and he is offered a choice of a huge number of publications, each of which has its own view of the tourist walk of the buyer, gives his advice and, usually, is very useful . There are, of course, bad copies that have no value for the consumer, but this is more a rarity than a pattern. But only if we are talking about foreign publications, but not about Russian ones. It is rather difficult to find a good Russian travel guide, in connection with which many tourists use English publications (or rather, printed in English), because the language level allows, and the quality of writing a guide is many times better. But it is more convenient for any person to receive information in their native language, why publishing guidebooks can be a good business for an entrepreneur who loves to travel and is willing to share his experience with other people. Especially considering the fact that you can make good money on this.
In general, there are really a lot of offers on the market, in any relevant store you can find a huge number of publications that cover a specific country, city, region or even the whole world (although the usefulness of such guidebooks is questionable). Each author writes in his own way, highlights important aspects of staying in a city or country, which is why a novice can offer something new to customers, look at the problem from a different angle, gather information that has not yet been presented elsewhere. In addition, it should be noted that some tourist routes and directions are worked out much worse, this concerns not so popular countries and cities. For example, a lot has been written about Europe, but a little less about South America. A person who wants to buy a guide in Russian also turns his attention to translations of well-known publications, but there are also a few shortcomings. First, a foreign author does not take into account the mentality of a resident of another country, and the translator does not always take it into account. Secondly, translated guidebooks often have outdated information, only very large publications, which are initially focused on work around the world, are deprived of this. In this regard, especially given the lack of high-quality Russian publications, you can begin your work. Only it is worthwhile to first study the market, read all the guides that are direct analogues of the product planned for release, understand the situation on the market and identify direct competitors. Then it will be possible to produce such a publication that will be interesting to a considerable number of consumers and for which they will be ready to pay money. Moreover, the publication of one guidebook does not justify itself often; the first guidebook usually becomes the start of a new series; it simply attracts people’s attention.
First you need to register as a business entity. It is best to choose the form of a limited liability company, that is, to register a legal entity, but this is only necessary if the entrepreneur plans to open his own publishing house. Otherwise, you can limit your registration as an individual entrepreneur. In any case, both individual entrepreneurs and limited liability companies have access to a simplified taxation system, which involves transferring no more than 6% of revenues or 15% of operating profit as taxes to the state. To register a legal entity is necessary only if the entrepreneur will independently engage in publishing activities, and not cooperate with any publishing company. If there is a desire to open your own publishing house, then you need to get a media license, and here there are a huge number of features and subtleties. In this regard, it makes sense to simply turn to a knowledgeable and intelligent lawyer, or even to a law office, which will help in solving all bureaucratic issues. Having your own publishing house will, of course, allow you to engage in many types of activities, to form additional sources of income, but it’s still better, if you only want to produce guidebooks, to limit your dealings to already working publishing houses and printing houses. So it will be much easier. In general, the process of registering just a legal entity cannot be called a long one, it can be done in a month or two, the amount of the state fee for registration of an LLC is 4,000 rubles, and becoming an individual entrepreneur is even cheaper. But the process of registering the media is very long and relatively difficult, and given that you can do without it, you should think about the alternative formats of your work.
In its essence, one person can also publish a guidebook – the author himself. Only here you need to understand that the author must independently understand the issue, that is, this business is suitable for travelers who have decided to become entrepreneurs.
