At the beginning of the year, programs for business trips to million-plus cities in Russia were drawn up, plus a delegation was planned to Uzbekistan, total of 8 delegations were supposed, and our previous record was four a year. But 2020 is a jubilee, so we wanted to celebrate with a grand scale. And the “Bulletin of Cyprus” was preparing to celebrate the decade of the Health & Beauty forum, the fifteenth anniversary of the Cyprus-Russian festival, the twenty-five-five-five-fifth birthday. The year promised to be extremely rich.
The best year in history, also jubilee!
At the end of 2019, we had ambitious plans. “Successful business” in the framework of his activities in organizing business events, planned trips to the regions of Russia and even - for the first time in our history - to Tashkent to show the potential for cooperation of Cyprus and Uzbekistan. The Cyprus business flourished and expanded the range of its international ties, the “Bulletin of Cyprus” was a convenient partner to achieve goals-we spoke Russian, knew the specifics of the country and mentality, could prepare the company for a foreign visit and find it local partners in Russian regions.
Spring, summer, autumn 2020 - every month was painted so that for 5 days I could fly on a business trip with the next delegation of our customers. We held negotiations (for this, at the end of 2019, I flew to Russia to personally prepare a program of visits), thought out routes, and approved the programs. I wanted to organize as many private meetings as possible.
Before leaving, it was necessary to spend the 10th (!) Jubilee Health & Beauty Forum, it was scheduled for March 25. They cooked it for six months, but just 10 days before the start, unexpectedly for everyone, a full quarantine was introduced in the country. Events were banned. At first it was assumed that the quarantine was only a few weeks, and we postponed the forum for the summer. Then I had to transfer to the fall - in the summer, events of this scale were still banned. And then in the news they said that in September they would certainly allow air travel and events-after all, it was necessary to give at least some funds to Cyprus hotels to earn money. The editorial staff again called all customers who paid for participation in the forum, they reacted with understanding of the next transfer. But in the fall, the event could not be done. Then the question was that it is necessary to return money for participation and sponsorship contributions. And there was nothing to return from! We spent all the funds by March: billboards and banners were already hung in prominent places, five thousand magazines with the program were They were printed and delivered to the office, the rental fee was paid for the hotel, and six months were paid wages to the team preparing this forum. And what remained was distributed in salaries back in March-April. It was hard time: I understood that if I want to stay in business, the money should be returned! But where to find them is a huge amount, and the newspaper has no income? Since March, since the beginning of quarantine, we have not had advertising.
I decided to meet with each of the 60 managers of the client business, one by one to agree on what to do with our debts. Both Covid and the failed forum were a big blow, a huge stress for us. We “changed” with someone for advertising, with someone agreed that this amount would remain in the next forum. We agreed with four customers about installments, I had to pay in cash: they no longer needed advertising or forum, by that time-because of Covid-they closed the business. Two months went to negotiations, not only time was spent, mental strength was wasted. And there were already few of them for six months of covid restrictions.
When there is nothing to live on, you live today
Back in the spring of 2020, I realized that the usual model of our business was destroyed. It’s good that I quickly understood, in the first two weeks! I could no longer rely on events or advertising - all businesses froze, advertising budgets were frozen. But it was necessary to somehow pay a salary: my business is special-he worked in Covid, moreover, he became even more important for the reader. After all, everyone was sitting home, they read the news with us. And in order for the news to appear on the site, I had to find money to pay my colleagues, for renting premises, for payment of electricity, communication, and other current expenses. Help from the patrona stopped, it was a strong blow. And I believed that it was impossible to stop, that to close at such a moment was akin to betrayal.
To feed the editorial office and family, I returned to the fact that I can do well and love - to training. I conducted Russian language courses, then Greek, invented seminars about life and business in Cyprus. It helped. But the main help was the business club. Every month I took 6 new members, promising to work for a certain annual fee for a certain amount of the annual fee for a year. This is a private club: I personally engaged in every person, helping in the development of business through correct and interesting acquaintances. So she survived-she worked for 10-12 hours without days off, working out the club obligations, teaching in groups, recording a video of online lessons and seminars. And on the money earned in this way, it contained a family and a team.
Online conferences: the possibility of live communication
We could not gather in the hall, as before, but we could meet at Zoom. So I also held a legal conference, so we discussed changes in the tax agreement between Cyprus and Russia, innovations in the international tax policy, IP-box and the influence of new rules on business. They also talked about the rights of people: there were a lot of duties and rules, they locked everyone around the houses, but whether there were any rights to the Cyprus citizens, as these rights can be enjoyed. Plus, of course, I invited doctors, psychologists, and other specialists who helped to cope with the situation. The online one was new, but conversations were important and necessary. Every day, without exaggeration, I spent “live” in front of the computer’s screen, communicating with the audience.
I am writing “I”, “I”, “I”, because at that moment there was no one to take care of the income: I had to leave on the salary only those without whom the news would not be released, the rest worked hard or did not work at all. Everyone sat at home, and every day I came to the office - I did not miss the day for the entire two -year period of Covid. This allowed myself to mobilize, cheer up, feeling that I was beneficial.
The first serious demographic study
In the summer of 2020, I finally began the project, which I thought about five years - a demographic study of the Russian -speaking community in Cyprus. With a partner-research, who had 20 years of experience, we prepared a questionnaire and started an online survey. Already on the first day we collected more than 600 answers, and in the end - almost 2000. This gave us facts and numbers to talk about Russian -speaking people in Cyprus.
Our connections and contacts
In the spring, thinking how to live on, I decided to collect all my contacts in one file (I never thought about how many people I know personally). I wrote to the Excel file of all who have ever been at our events or posted advertising. It turned out 6,000 people. Of these, I remembered 3000, which I personally came across at work. And I decided to create a group of these people, but first, before adding someone there, meet this person, to talk. So a closed group appeared in LinkedIn, and a coordinator appeared at the business club, which later became the director of the “Herald of Cyprus”. For my work, this was a new stage: I learned to contribute administrative tasks in order to devote more time to communication with people. Already in October of that year, we held the first international online meeting-the leaders of business clubs from six countries shared their experience and found points of contact. I studied, watched that it was working and what not, I adopted experience from other countries. So formed The final concept of my private business club.
Rethinking: why and for whom we work
2020 forced the “Bulletin of Cyprus” to look for answers to the main questions: who are we and why. When the usual sources of income disappeared, the illusion of stability disappeared - the “Bulletin of Cyprus” could not be called a successful business, continuous losses, and huge debts. But the team remained. Readers remained. And we continued to work.
Now we began to create expert content. Give advice. Respond to letters. Write instructions. Conduct seminars. “Bulletin of Cyprus” was a source of news, and a support, and an adviser. We experienced Covid with the reader: in 2020-2021 we had more visits to the site than ever before or after those years. Every month, 150-170 thousand “unique visitors” were read by our news and articles-someone several times a week, someone daily (and as a result, two million readings of pages were released!). We understood that we were working not in vain.
Natalia Kardash
This article is part of a series of articles about the history of the "Herald of Cyprus" dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the newspaper. Read other materials by tag#History of the Herald of Cyprus and by links:
How in 30 years the "Bulletin of Cyprus" has influenced the life of Russian -speaking people
1995. Advertising booklet, which accidentally became the beginning of a new era
1996. The newspaper comes to life: the first headings, the first letters of readers
1997. They came here, "to talk in Russian"
1998. "Bulletin of Cyprus" - almost "Literary Gazeta"
1999. "Bulletin of Cyprus" united lovers of books and films
2000. Library "Vestnik Cyprus" and the first KVN
2001. Change of team: a new stage in the history of the newspaper
2002. Seven employees and a thousand guests
2003. Sturrent period: magazines, courses, reference books
2004. The largest regional media holding
2005. The anniversary year and the emergence of multinational holidays
2006. The editors received up to 500 visitors per week
2007. Uniting adults and children, newspaper employees established the Association
2008. Good traditions "Bulletin of Cyprus"
2009. How we went on the air: the story of "Televials" in Cyprus
2010. Invisible work, visible result
2011. Chess, business journal and economic diplomacy: year of great ambitions
2012. Studs, nesting dolls and helicopter: unforgettable year
2013. Lost almost all advertisers. But they did not give up!
2014: year of new formats and historical achievements
2015. 20 years with the reader: intuition and quick changes in the leg with the times
2016: "Bulletin of Cyprus" turned into a daily edition
2017. Now the events "contain" the newspaper
2018: News - daily on the site, paper newspaper - monthly
2019. When the world was still the same and predictable
