VKontakte is changing the model of working with artists - authors of stickers. Now the administration of the most popular Russian social network will pay them a percentage of the sales of such pictures. Izvestia was informed about this by sources familiar with the plans of the social network. The VKontakte press service confirmed the information.

In the near future, we will indeed open our sticker store to third-party artists, with whom we will share profits. But we will announce the details later,” VKontakte press secretary Georgy Lobushkin told Izvestia.

Stickers (English sticker - label, sticker) - pictures that express the user's emotion. Essentially an enlarged version of emoticons. They appeared on the VKontakte social network in March of this year and are both free and paid (about 60 rubles for a set of 16 or 24 pieces). Soon after the launch of the new service, the social network announced a competition for third-party artists to create stickers - they began to buy works from the winners of the competition.

Now the procedure is simple: you name the price, the social network agrees with it or offers its own,” says Valery Matyukhin, winner of the first sticker competition for VKontakte. - If agreed, a contract for the alienation of copyright is signed.

According to Izvestia’s source, the social network now wants to reconsider the terms of cooperation with artists. VKontakte will still offer the winners of the competition, which should be announced within a week, to cede their copyright. But now the artist will not receive a one-time payment for his work. Instead, he will receive a percentage of sales - what exactly is still unknown.

According to Sergei Kravtsov, CEO of the online messaging service 4talk IM, the optimal ratio would be 50:50.

Anything less is simply not interesting. Everything should be fair here. The question is how the social network will promote the works of artists, added Kravtsov.

Izvestia’s source noted that large communities on the social network are being considered as promoters. According to the head of MDK (one of the largest communities on the VKontakte social network) Roberto Panchvidze, they approached the network’s management with a proposal to give them the opportunity to promote the most popular stickers among their users.

It would be interesting for us to create a base ourselves that we could promote on behalf of our site and share income with the social network. A set of stickers costs about 65 rubles. It is not yet clear what kind of moderation there will be, how copyrights will be distributed,” says Panchvidze. - Emoticons used to be popular, but now stickers - the new kind communication between young users. The more there are, the more opportunities the user will have to quickly respond to comments. From 10 to 30% of sales - this would be quite logical for artists or the owner of the site.

Kravtsov considers the new VKontakte model interesting. But he doesn't know if it will become popular.

The artist sometimes fears that he will be deceived, says Kravtsov. - There must be a report on the profit received and the number of downloaded works. It is also necessary to explain how the money will be transferred to the author.

Matyukhin also believes new system settlements with artists are interesting, but in the future.

Regular income is attractive, but I don’t know the level of sticker sales,” he explained. - Therefore, a one-time payment for work done is a good option.

The Odnoklassniki social network does not yet provide for sending stickers in messages. There are paid emoticons here - unlike VKontakte stickers, they are not purchased forever, but for a certain period, for example, 25 days. In April 2013, stickers appeared on Facebook, where their use is completely free.

* The calculations use average data for Russia

Starting investments(online store):

Starting investment (island in a shopping center):

60,000 - 70,000 RUR

Net profit:

40,000 - 50,000 ₽

Payback period:

Sticker shops are stores of vinyl decals, stickers and other accessories popular among young people and teenagers. These products are sold at a high premium, and you can open a business even without experience.

Stickershop is a youth fashion business, which even a beginner can handle. Having a budget of 60-70 thousand rubles, you can open a retail outlet to the delight of connoisseurs of stickers, posters, vinyl decals and other cute accessories. And you can start in online trading with 5 thousand rubles in your pocket. The sticker shop concept involves creating original business, which will bring not only profit, but also pleasure from the process.

Professional kit for creating business ideas

Trending product 2019..

Today, stickers (or decals) are popular product among young people. Stickers can be found on phones, laptops, cars, in interiors, on clothes and, of course, in notebooks. The product is inexpensive, but beautiful - that’s why it’s so difficult to resist.

Before the beginning

Before taking specific actions to open a business, you should study the demand for the product. What do I need to do? Find an account of an existing stickershop on the Internet, analyze the number of subscribers and comments - this way you can understand how interested people are in this topic. Study the offer in your city - are there anyone who is ahead of you? For a metropolis, the presence of several competitors is acceptable, but for a small city it is already overkill. Stickers are too specific a product to be offered on every corner.

Keep in mind that you will be working with young people, so think in advance which trading format to choose. We will consider two options: a store in the form of an island in a shopping center and an online store of stickers. Both formats can work. The main thing is to know which targets to hit.

Target #1. Format

Let's imagine that the demand for local market you analyzed and made sure that many people dream of buying cool stickers. This means it’s time to think about what form the stickershop will be in: as an island in a shopping center or as an online store. Let's compare which is better. The advantages of an island are spontaneity of purchase. This is when a person simply passes by, approaches your counter to look out of curiosity, and makes a purchase. Most customers will come to an online store purposefully. But an island in a shopping center will eat up a significant amount of your budget - even supported equipment will cost you an average of 30 thousand rubles, and rent is 5 sq.m. in a shopping center - about 10 thousand rubles, and this is even in the best case. So the first advantage of an online store is savings.

To sell stickers online, you don’t need to make a complex website, because you can simply create an account on Instagram, invest several thousand in its promotion - and recruit a target audience that will not only become your customers, but also a regular reader - and this increases the possibility of multiple purchases . Another advantage of an online store is the reach of customers from different cities. You can send orders by mail and explore new territories. This expands the circle of potential buyers, which promises increased profits. Stickers are a product that easily fits into a regular Postal envelope, so shipping costs will be negligible.

There is a third option: combine two business formats and work in parallel on an island in a shopping center and online.

Target #2. Location

If you do decide to open a retail outlet, you should choose places with high traffic: shopping centers, park areas, embankments, parks, cinemas, etc. Open where there will be a lot of your target audience.

To open a sticker shop you don’t need a large area - 5 square meters will be enough. m, on which the “island” will be located. This format allows you to attract more visitors. Rent price retail space will be about 10,000 rubles/month. To save money, you can purchase a used kiosk for about 30,000 rubles.

Target #3. Assortment and suppliers

You immediately need to decide the question of where will you get the goods? Some sticker stores form their assortment from what they produce themselves. The technology for making stickers is simple, but there is one caveat. On the Internet you can often find inspiring stories about how a person downloaded funny pictures and used a plotter to make stickers, which he then sold at a huge markup. And here, for some reason, everyone forgets that you can download the “wrong picture” and incur the wrath of the illustrator (or photographer), who will be absolutely right when he declares copyright infringement.

The moral is this: if you decide to make your own stickers, read the article. 1259 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. It is clearly stated there that the use of images in commercial purposes without the consent of the author is a violation of copyright. How can you avoid these legal delays? There are several options: firstly, you can find an illustrator who will draw custom stickers for you. Today you can easily find many talented artists. And the payment for their work will be moderate. Or maybe you are an artist yourself? Or is your friend a great drawer? There is no need to develop this idea: in this case, you yourself know what to do.

Secondly, you can use various photo stocks, where illustrators and photographers from all over the world “merge” great amount their works. You buy an image and make as many stickers with it as you want. Moreover, today there are a huge number of free stocks: you just have to look hard.

Those who decide to make stickers themselves will have to get a plotter - this is a professional printer with which images are printed and cut out. The cost of such equipment is 20-40 thousand rubles - it will be enough for mini-production. You will also need a minimum set of tools (scissors, a stationery knife, ruler, roller, etc.), as well as self-adhesive film as a consumable. If you don’t want to spend money, you can use the services of a printing house.

Ready ideas for your business

But you can go for more the simple way: simply find suppliers of stickers, collect an attractive assortment and then sell it. Where to look for suppliers? On good old Aliexpress, where you can find a wide selection of stickers for every taste. Many suppliers sell them in bulk - and the purchase price is meager. But everyone knows about Aliexpress. But not everyone knows about the foreign portal Etsy.com in Russia. But you can also find interesting stickers there - only they will cost more. Another way is to try to find artists who are already selling their stickers and offer them cooperation.

When choosing an assortment, try to take into account different tastes and cover the maximum number of interesting topics so that every customer can find stickers to their liking. Sell ​​stickers for laptops and phones, stickers for clothing and paper, interior and vinyl stickers. Sort the stickers by topic, the most popular: animals, plants, characters from films and cartoons. For certain holidays, order themed stickers.

Ready ideas for your business

What else can you sell in a sticker shop besides stickers? Posters, clothing stripes (patches), keychains, collectible figurines, badges, socks, thermoses and other accessories.

The main target audience of the sticker shop is young people, in particular students and schoolchildren who want to decorate their laptop or phone with an interesting vinyl sticker.

To advertise your business, you will need to focus on advertising on the Internet: in this case, promoting your Instagram account. This could be sweepstakes, promotions, advertising with bloggers, paid advertising through the Instagram service, etc.

5 effective ways increase online sales of your products:

Increase your potential client's trust in you. At the first stage, this is the main tool for managing online sales. Customer loyalty, which is based on the first impression of your account, directly affects the number of successful orders. Start with the correct “packaging” of your product offering. Create an attractive page and colorful photos to make people want to buy your product.

Targeted advertising (targeting). You can use official advertising, with the involvement of targetologists - specialists in this field. They will be able to identify your target audience among the entire array of users social networks and provide impressions advertising banners to your potential clients. Please note that the services of targetologists cost a lot. You can learn the basics of targeting yourself and set up parameters in your account.

Competitions, sweepstakes, promotions. These are one of the main audience activators. Come up with good prizes, various sweepstakes and promotions, mix them, try different methods. With their help you can attract a large number of active audience.

Opinion leaders (bloggers, famous people) - these are all those people whose opinions we trust and respect. If you enlist the support of such people (on a commercial basis or for ideological reasons), then you can promote your product and service among the opinion leader’s audience.

Target #5. Staff

A minimum number of employees will be required to operate this business. You can manage the online store yourself by accepting orders through Instagram and sending them through postal services. A retail outlet requires two salespeople working in shifts. There are no special requirements for these employees, so finding a suitable candidate will not be difficult.

At the initial stage, an entrepreneur can cope with all issues alone. Mastering the skills of working with a plotter (if you print stickers yourself) is not difficult. The most important thing is creating layouts. To do this, you need to have at least minimal skills in working with graphic editors like CorelDraw.

Target #6. Profitability

The task of any entrepreneur is to constantly increase sales volumes and profitability of his business. You can calculate your income yourself by taking sales volume as the initial amount. The markup on ready-made vinyl stickers is 100-200%. These numbers are very attractive. You can easily earn 40-50 thousand rubles in a month.

How quickly can a business break even? Owners of successful companies that managed to quickly grow and offer customers a wide range of stickers claim that the payback period is no more than three months.

Target #7. Business registration

To trade within the framework of the law, you need to register an individual entrepreneur. To do this, you need to submit an application to the Federal Tax Service, a copy of your passport and a receipt with payment of the state duty. The documents should indicate the chosen tax system (it is better to choose the simplified tax system) and the activity code according to the OKVED-2 classifier. Suitable:

47.6 Trade retail goods cultural and entertainment purposes in specialized stores

47.91 Retail trade by mail or via the Internet information and communication network.

There are no special requirements for your business from regulatory authorities. Standard set of permits from the fire department, SES.

Target #8. Risks

For your business to be successful, you need to try to minimize the risks associated with it. Stickershop is a relatively new phenomenon on the market. Stickers are not classified as essential products, so sales may be difficult and demand may not meet expectations. To prevent this from happening, you will have to invest money and effort not only in advertising your business, but also in popularizing the idea itself. It is especially difficult to succeed in small towns, where new currents reach with a delay. Therefore, at the initial stage, do not count on high profits. It is better to include the most pessimistic profit forecast in the sticker shop business plan. This will save you from disappointment and ill-considered expenses.

Ready ideas for your business

Even if you ordered exclusive illustrations from an artist, you should not think that you will be the only seller of such stickers. Your idea can simply be copied and stolen. It is very difficult to resist the violation of rights, so you cannot do everything on your own competitive advantages assign exclusivity. There should be other advantages: affordable price, good service, big choice.

In conclusion

If you think a sticker business can't take off, then this inspiring story will prove you wrong. So, one enterprising lady from the USA named Alexandra Pappas came up with new way application of stickers. She suggested applying them to the soles women's shoes in high heels.

Indeed, shoe designers always neglect the soles, painting them in neutral and boring colors. Therefore, Alexandra has developed a series of stickers that can be glued to the sole and, if necessary, easily replaced with others. To sell her invention, Alexandra launched a website on free hosting. Today, these stickers are sold in dozens of countries around the world and bring Alexandra a permanent income. Thanks to the fact that she was the first to implement such an idea, she quickly developed, increased sales and conquered large markets for her unusual product.

In our country such things are not yet sold, so there is a chance to borrow free niche. It’s very easy to come up with such stickers for the soles. Alexandra herself depicted flags, recognizable patterns, and funny pictures on stickers and sold them at prices starting from $14 per pair. The author was probably inspired by the idea of ​​a company that sold Wedding accessories and released a collection of stickers for the soles of wedding shoes. These stickers read “I Do,” “Just Married,” and other wedding phrases. This can also be a good business idea that can attract attention and win new consumers.

Another motivating story happened with Anna Hindmarch, who founded her own brand. It all started with leather stickers. Fashionable stickers with emoticons, various slogans and painted lightning bolts went on sale during the spring/summer 2015 season and became a real hit. They brought their creator $18 million in just two seasons.

Anna Hindmarch says she was inspired by her school memories, when it was customary to cover your notebooks, diary and briefcase with colorful stickers to show your individuality. And yet, Anna began to take stickers seriously much later, when technology appeared that made it possible to transfer complex and colorful sketches to the skin. This is how a simple sticker turned into a fashion accessory.

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Surely many of our readers, when communicating on social networks and instant messengers, actively use stickers in their correspondence - pictures that can be used to express emotions. Surely someone had a desire to draw their own character. After all, it can be seen by millions of users around the world!

Text: Elena Volozhanina

In general, it seems that the easiest way is to offer your own version of stickers for the VKontakte social network. To do this, you need to go to the official VKontakte Stickers group and attach sketches to the proposed news. The Japanese messenger Line has a special Creators Market service, with which users can create and sell their own stickers. From time to time, social networks and instant messengers organize competitions to which you can send your characters. For example, Viber held two international competitions last year: in spring and autumn. In April, 10 finalists received $10,000 each, and the winner received a job at Viber Design Studio in Tel Aviv! In December, users were asked to draw stickers dedicated to Berlin, Innsbruck, Istanbul, London and San Francisco. Five of the best artists (among whom was Andrew Gavrish from Russia) were able to work in the Viber design studio and turn their drawings into real sticker packs for the application. The winners also received a share of the profits from each sticker sold. 15 finalists received thousand-dollar prizes for creativity. Sounds tempting!

Cartoons inspire

— I drew my first set of stickers in 2014 to participate in a competition held by VKontakte. In it I took 3rd place, and my character was... a raccoon. This set was the most difficult and incomprehensible, since I had never done work of this level and scale before. I drew prints, illustrations, logos, but these were all small projects, and here I had to not only come up with a character, but also draw the whole range of his emotions. About 80 sketches were created for Ralph, of which only 32 turned out to be the most successful and suitable. After I finished working on my first set, I was asked to come up with new set, and then subsequent ones.

I drew and draw for VKontakte and Telegram, I had experience working with Badoo, and I also created sets for individuals. In general, everyone has one requirement - to come up with something unique and interesting that would catch the user’s eye. The work process is also similar.

—Which of your heroes do you consider the most successful?

— It’s difficult to single out a specific set and say that you like this one more than all the others. I had to pore over each character for a long time, think through every element, shape and color. I had to experiment with the style and redraw everything several times. Many characters were not accepted and subsequently did not appear anywhere, remaining sketches in a folder.

— How do you come up with characters’ personalities? appearance? Where do you look for inspiration?

— In the process of creating a character, you often start from a specific theme that the customer designates. Is Valentine's Day coming soon? So we need to think about a set that would be useful for these same lovers in communication. Of course, there are non-thematic sets in which a pretty or not so pretty character depicts some kind of emotion. In such cases, you need to clearly understand how cute, serious, crazy, etc. the character should be. All this is worked out and approved at the sketch stage with the customer.

For me, inspiration mainly comes from cartoons; they present emotions in a very bright and original way. Take classics from Disney or Miyazaki, new releases from Nickelodeon or Marvel, whatever suits your taste. There are a lot of charismatic and interesting characters, whose emotions are overflowing. They are the ones who charge me and inspire me to come up with something of my own.

Explore the trends

— I have been drawing stickers for the VKontakte company for about 3 years. The popularity of a character depends on the quality of the work done. The most important thing in stickers is the minimum amount of detail and the most accurate expression of a particular emotion, it is extremely important not to go too far, otherwise you can lose the essence - the semantic content of the picture, such a sticker will be of no use.

The first thing I do is study current trends - which characters are popular and why. Gradually, collecting information, I draw a certain conclusion for myself and, based on it, create several rough sketches of one or more characters. The next step, after choosing a character option, is to determine the painting style - searching for a color solution. Now that I have a ready-made character, I start working with emotions, preparing a lot of sketches. After some time and with a fresh look, I sift out half and select only the most clear, bright and concise sketches and start painting them.

It takes about a month to develop one sticker pack, then it gets queued for publication with other sets, so in total it takes about two months from idea to publication.

Before offering your services, you should carefully study ready-made and popular sets of stickers from other authors and try to understand for yourself how your characters can be better.

Be active

— To apply for consideration, it is enough to draw 1–2 stickers in color, the so-called final version, in which you can understand how the character will ultimately be drawn (style, color, etc.) and 3–4 black and white sketches.

— Suppose we already have several sketches, what should we do next? To whom and how can they be offered?

— How to sell VKontakte or Telegram stickers? It’s unlikely that anyone will respond to a message like: “I want to draw stickers, give me some money.” Therefore, I will give three pieces of advice. First - after you have thought up and drawn the set (try your best!), send it to one of the administrators official groups and be patient. Dozens and hundreds of messages pass through them a day, like the one I cited at the beginning. Second, monitor competitions. VK, Telegram, and many other messengers often organize competitions to attract new artists to the process of creating stickers. Third, water does not flow under a lying stone. You need to be active.

— If the sketches are approved and you are contacted, how does the work proceed?

— Once the character is approved, the sketching process begins. I draw as many sketches as possible. I'm thinking about it different situations and emotions, the more the better. Sketches are sent to the customer. From this whole heap, he selects suitable options, if there are not enough emotions for the set, I complete them.

After all the sketches are approved, I draw stickers in color. If necessary, I draw icons, backgrounds, and adjust stickers to all required sizes. And I send the finished files in *.png format or in the format you need.

— Copyrights are sold, a contract for the alienation of copyright is signed. I can’t say exactly the amounts. It all depends on how you agree. For example, Telegram paid $80 per sticker during the competition.

— What else can you advise to beginners who would like to offer their own options for stickers for social networks and instant messengers? Is it worth sending the same series to all potential customers at once, or do you recommend a specific one?

— If you suddenly have a desire to draw a set for VKontakte or some other service, messenger, first of all you need to rationally assess your strengths. Look at what sets already exist, their level of rendering and style of execution; if you can do the same or even better, then feel free to invent a character. You don’t have to be clever and try to cram everything you can into it. Start small - a cute or malicious animal, imagine how angry, happy, crying it is, try to avoid static and repetitive poses, pay attention to emotions. Should I send it to everyone at once? Don't know. Often everyone has different requirements for a character's style, so it's better to focus on something specific and not try to please everyone.

Study the demand for the service of producing stickers (stickers). There are many directions. You can choose to work with stickers as a decorative element in your interior. Car stickers are very popular. There are many options for making stickers to add originality to various things, clothing, and souvenirs.

Ideally, it is desirable to cover the entire range of services. This will allow you to work with the maximum number of clients. But you should start creating a business and testing your idea with one or two specializations. Having achieved good results, you can gradually expand. That is why it is necessary to determine the most promising direction In your city.

It is also important to find out everything about your closest competitors. Analyze their advantages and disadvantages. Your company should offer the best service to customers. Despite the apparent simplicity of the sticker manufacturing business, accurate calculations and planning are necessary. Create a business plan that is as realistic and based on reliable data as possible. It is advisable to calculate profit according to the most pessimistic scenario.

Main risks

This is a relatively new service that does not fall into the category of essential goods. Therefore, you will have to invest money and effort not only in advertising your business, but also in popularizing your business idea. It is especially difficult to achieve success in small towns, where new movements arrive with a certain delay. Don't count on high profits. That is why the most pessimistic profitability scenario should be taken into account when writing a business plan. This will save you from disappointment and ill-considered expenses.

You should not count on an advantage if you have original layouts. Having seen your idea, someone will definitely copy it and make money from it. It is almost impossible to resist copyright infringement. You'll have to come to terms with this.

Location

Many entrepreneurs start working from home. For testing a business idea for producing stickers, this format is quite acceptable. But with the purchase of a professional plotter you will have to look for premises. This device has impressive dimensions and is noisy, therefore, for production it is necessary to look for a separate room. If you don’t have enough money for rent, you can start even in the garage. Suitable semi-basement or basement in an industrial area, suburb - choose any convenient option that allows you to save on rent.

It is not necessary to locate production and office in the same building. For meetings with clients, find a small space closer to the center or in a business district. Can be considered as an option for space in business centers.

Equipment

The most important part and most expensive purchase for starting a sticker making business is a plotter. This is professional large format printer. This is where you will print and cut out your images. There is no need to save money on buying a plotter. The quality of your products depends on the model. It is better to opt for offers from well-known manufacturers. The approximate cost of the plotter is 400,000 rubles. The dimensional machine allows you to produce stickers of any size. Although, many novice entrepreneurs break the image into fragments, place them compactly on the film and then glue them together.

To work you need a computer, special software for working with images, graphic and vector editors.

Consumables - different kinds films for stickers. It is necessary to provide a decent choice:

1. matte and glossy in various colors;
2. stained glass (transparent);
3. with increased water resistance;
4. with improved color rendering characteristics;
5. reflective;
6. light-accumulative.

Cutting needles are also important consumables. Quality offerings cost more, but are more durable than cheaper options. Initial investment in Consumables are about 40,000 rubles.

Personnel

At the start, the business owner can handle the work. It is not difficult to master the skills of working with a plotter. The most important thing is creating layouts. To do this, you need to have at least minimal design skills. If you do not have such skills, hire a qualified and creative designer. The cost of developing layouts depends on the complexity of the drawing, but there are other factors - average wage in your city, designer’s experience, features of cooperation.

After passing the testing period, it is worth hiring a customer service manager. Active search New markets and popularization of your company's services must be carried out constantly. This is the only way you can increase profits.

Documents and licenses

For a company providing services in the production of stickers, the individual entrepreneur registration form and the choice of the simplified tax system are suitable. But if you plan to expand your activities or create a business together with other founders, it is better to register a legal entity.

There are no special requirements for your mini-production from regulatory authorities. Standard set of permits from the fire department, SES. There may be some nuances depending on local conditions.

Profitability

The markup for selling stickers to customers is 100% of the cost of its production. This gives wide scope for discounts and demonstrates the high profitability of the business. It is possible to accurately calculate the payback period only under specific conditions. It all depends on the number of clients. Owners of successful companies that were able to quickly advertise their services and offer clients a wide range of stickers claim that the payback period is no more than 3 months.

Marketing

Quality and impeccable service are the main success factors in any business. But it is important to correctly present your services to the widest possible circle. potential clients. Marketing policy must be very active. First of all, it is necessary to create and popularize the company’s website. This is a modern service, yours the target audience- These are, for the most part, young and active people. Most of the sales come through the website.

Not only information about your service, a list of design solutions and types of film are important. Your field is design, therefore, the design of the site must match. Constantly expand the range of layouts, offer discounts and attractive promotions.

But you shouldn’t discount traditional types of advertising. Advertisements in local media and on city portals work great. Print out brochures and offer cooperation to companies specializing in apartment renovation. If their clients want to receive original and inexpensive design solutions, the craftsmen will recommend your company.

Summary

Making stickers is a very promising line of business. Low entry threshold allows you to create successful company even for a beginner with minimal starting capital.