‘As for the trend of the recent years, cryptocurrency, its era is gone’

“It is a bubble that will burst tomorrow if not today”

Cryptocurrencies are one of the trends of the recent years for starting one’s own business, but their time is gone. Moreover, it is still bubble that hasn’t been regulated at legislative level and can burst, not to mention the digital currency’s high volatility, thinks Candidate for Economic Sciences, senior professor of the Russian Government’s Finance University Valery Fetisov.

“As for the trend of the recent years, its era is gone. The market is subject to huge fluctuations, while the legal status still hasn’t been regulated. It is a bubble that will burst tomorrow if not today. The Tulip mania in the Netherlands in the 1960s can be an example of such thoughtlessness,” he told Realnoe Vremya.

Also, Western anti-Russian sanctions can be a blow for miners. For instance, the European Union recently banned Russians from storing cryptocurrency in European wallets. The new restrictions affect not only European companies but also all cryptocurrency wallets operating on the territory of Europe. Moreover, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges Binance suspended withdrawal of Bitcoins in mid-June because of hanging transaction.

Moreover, the process of legislative regulation of the cryptocurrency market in Russia isn’t yet over, while in January the Central Bank was in general against its circulation in the country. The Finance Ministry’s cryptocurrency market development concept as well as a signing of a road map helped to soften the regulator’s stance a bit.

E-commerce market is 45% up

In 2021, Valery Fetisov notes that the e-commerce market was 45% up, to 3,3 trillion rubles. In his opinion, it is one of the most promising areas to start a new business in today’s economic and social reality.

He calls a low entry threshold as advantages of starting one’s own business in this area: one can start with a small online store to run a business. Also, a big coverage among Internet users, no additional costs on equipment, commercial areas, an office can also be an edge.

“If the entrepreneur still has to analyse the situation in the market, one should start trading on a small scale and not intend to quickly occupy niches. Foodstuffs, household goods, car accessories, small equipment, handmade products — these are what will be in demand,” the expert told our newspaper.

E-commerce is especially popular in Tatarstan. So from 24 February to 24 August 2022, the republic ranked first in the average receipt in online stores, it was 5,051 rubles. Also, the republic rounds out the top 10 most active regions in e-commerce.

At the same time, Tatarstan extended its e-commerce development programme in 2022. It is also noteworthy that sellers’ revenue at marketplaces can total 50 billion rubles, while the number of such entrepreneurs during the first five months this year alone rose by 1,500.

The creative industry market has prospects too

Valery Fetisov calls the sphere of creative industries where in most cases only creative ideas are needed another promising market to develop one’s own business. Also, it is enough to have a phone for some basic works in video production, while finished videos can be uploaded on platforms free and provide fee-based access. Such a scheme can be in demand, for instance, for educational video courses.

“For instance, to create educational content, it is enough to make a video and place it on YouTube or Vk.com and then provide fee-based access to it, for other areas of the creative industry (cinematography, architecture, painting, theatre, fashion, design, advertising, publishing) will require a deeper elaboration of a project and financial assistance,” says Fetisov.

At the same time, the expert notes that more complicated projects in creative industries will require deeper elaboration and financial assistance. Though people who are self-employed have certain advantages like a lower tax burden. Many representatives of creative industries work like self-employed people, which lowers their tax rates and frees them from the necessity of providing a financial report — suffice it to simply report your income in the app or on the website of the Federal Tax Service and the tax will be calculated automatically.

“And if the idea turns out to be good and popular, active clients will advertise you to everybody, which will have a positive impact on the financial components. Most of them are freelancers who pay taxes at a reduced rate as self-employed people,” the expert notes.

As President Rustam Minnikhanov noted during his recent address to the republic’s State Council, 215,000 self-employed citizens have been registered in Tatarstan. Also, he urged the government to continue supporting young entrepreneurs.

Small and mid-sized businesses in Tatarstan account for up to 41% of all jobs in Tatarstan. Also, professional income taxpayers were allowed in mid-September to participate in agricultural fairs, earlier, they had to be registered as sole traders.

At the same time, the sphere of self-employed citizens attracts teenagers too. For instance, Tatarstan is in the top 5 regions in number of professional income taxpayers. Also, natural persons including self-employed people have been permitted to register trademarks since this year. This in particular can help cope with an unfair game in the market when your rivals register your logo as theirs and make you pay for it or change the design.