Igor Soshkin, COO of MimoUSA was always an entrepreneur in heart. As a young boy at age 8 he would resell candy in school. During college years he worked for multiple small size businesses and was promoted to director position of franchise chain within three years. Igor's goal was to always start a business of his own. Igor wanted a business where a group of people would work together to build something unique and beneficial to the public. Once it would be successful, the goal was to influence and invest in other people to follow his footsteps to be as successful as himself. Igor had great knowledge of the basics of operating different types of businesses since his experience ranged from managing night club, car wash, gym, dinner, etc. Igor interned at B&B law firm in 2000 to learn the basics of contract writing and supplementary legal documents. University majors included accounting and marketing.
Nick Soshkin, CEO of MimoUSA is a true master mind and genius. Nick's passion is computers. Nick got his very first computer at age 12 (1992). Igor would call him the next Bill Gates, since he would develop software code like writing a book. Certified by Microsoft Corporation, he can re-write the whole windows on his own if he desired. Nick was employed on his first job as computer programmer at age 17. At age 19 he was made a Professor in a university for computer programming to other students while he was a student himself in another university. Nick progressed to become VP of technology of Bank of New York before retiring to work with MimoUSA.
THE BEGINNING OF MIMOUSA
It was after 9/11/01, when Nick and Igor decided to discuss about starting an online business. Online was a booming economy and looked like a great direction. Igor didn't feel very secure about working in the City and that's where corporate jobs are located. Igor was studying accounting while Nick was working as computer programmer. Computer programming jobs were being outsourced, and accountants were everywhere. Plus the future of an accountant didn't look exactly exciting to Igor nor did the corporate world to Nick (The Corporate world isn't as pleasant as it may seem). Igor decided to give it a shot and start an online business with Nick's help and see what happens.
The first online store was www.AutoAccessoryStore.com which began with a very minimum investment of $20,000. It was placed in the living room of Igor's house, he managed the website, eBay and a small operation manufacturing dash kits. In 2002, there was no competition for Auto Parts online. The business was so booming that the whole house became a small factory. The cash flow was pouring in so fast, that there were 20 full time employees in the house. While Igor was managing everything himself on the computer and phones, there were people doing packing, dash kit manufacturing, etc. In 2003, Igor decided to do magazine advertisements and various car shows including Hot Import Nights. The business expanded to the point where the whole 2nd floor of the house would be filled with representatives, the first floor was packing and manufacturing and the basement was the storage filled with racing seats and other accessories.
THE EXPANSION
Due to massive amount of wholesale requests MimoUSA was created. The term Mimo came from Maximum input, Massive output. We believed that the more work we and the network puts in, the greater the output will be. By mid 2003, something went wrong. The business expanded quicker then we can manage it. Our advertising budget exceeded the limits, expenses were much greater then profits. During this time, Igor's neighbor decided to report illegal activities in the house (since it was not a commercial area). Police showed up and shut down the whole operation. It looked like a crime scene with yellow tape all around the house. The operation was quickly transferred to a warehouse, which expanded and now resides on 28 Van St, Staten Island NY.
HARD TIMES
While the fines from the house and the expenses of the new warehouse didn't help at all on the budget, the expenses were still growing and profits were not paying them off. ENSI Consulting which is a dba of MimoUSA and AutoAccessoryStore.com went from positive cash flow into a debt of $300,000 in less then a year. Igor and Nick were devastated. In fact one of the options was to file for bankruptcy if the situation didn't change.
CHANGE OF BUSINESS MODEL / PLAN
This is when Igor desperately needed to find answers. In fact he would sit in Barnes and Nobles reading and re-reading everything and anything he missed about operating a business, business plans, etc. While all the books were very informative and helpful, they would not have an answer how to get more cash flow. Igor always knew that if we were to cut off our advertising budget but still get the same traffic to the website everything would be fine. This is where SEO (Search Engine Optimization) comes in. Since Igor found out about SEO he has been studying it ever since. SEO is the only solution to a successful online business. Getting listed organically is like having a rent free location in a very popular mall.
MIMOUSA EXPANSION
In 2004, Igor began optimizing both websites with limited success since he was only in the beginning stages of SEO. It took a lot of time and studying to get things right but in 2005 everything changed. The websites began showing up organically on the search engines and the advertising budget was cut. Most importantly more products were brought in for MimoUSA dealers. When we attended the SEMA Show in 2004-2006 we got lots of great feedback about our company. In 2006, MimoUSA took a different approach with the dealers. Instead of just selling products like any other distributor, we had a very strong technology side in our company, thanks to Nick. He created the first software for MimoUSA called auction generator in March 2006. The software allowed dealers to list in various different market places. Other softwares were also created for MimoUSA which allowed the company to become more organized, cut down on advertising budget and layoff excessive employees. Today MimoUSA stands on a 20,000 SQ FT warehouse with over 50 employees at the current location which fulfills the work of about 200 employees.
CURRENT STATUS
MimoUSA is taking the approach of teaching the dealers everything there is to know about running an online business. In this case it's auto parts, but in reality it can be any type of business. Igor is taking on the responsibility of educating the dealers of everything there is to know about SEO and getting the websites listed organically. He wants to make sure that the dealers don't have to go through the trouble MimoUSA went through. Nick is took on the responsibility of creating software for the dealers that will help them sell, manage and expand there businesses as most dealers don't have access to a mastermind like Nick. Igor says "If there was a MimoUSA when we first started this business, I would have saved A LOT of money, grief, pain and time. Best of all, instead of wasting all that time and money testing the online grounds, we could have created something bigger and better for everyone." Well, thankfully you have found a source that went through all this pain and suffering that hopefully you didn't or won't have to go through yourself. As long as you appreciate everything MimoUSA provides you and teaches you, you will be successful. You will just have to take everything serious, use our software with everything we teach you, and put it into action. As the time passes by, MimoUSA will keep creating new ways to expand the online business for our dealers.
SHOPPING CART ELITE
MimoUSA is now in development of a automotive specific Shopping Cart branded Shopping Cart Elite using the backend technology of AutoAccessoryStore.com and MimoUSA. The estimated date of release is June 2008.
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