Apart from his small business, Yermek has a day job at a pension fund.

"I had an idea of launching a pancake house three years ago", he says. "All this time I was gathering information, looking for equipment, analysing demand on the market and tried to approach the business seriously in general and calculate everything thoroughly before opening my enterprise. Many people open multiple outlets at once, thus taking huge loans and then being in debt. I did not want to do it. I had saved 15 000 dollars by that time and that is exactly how much it cost to open a pancake house. This spring it will be a year since we opened."

"We prepare batter for pancakes at home as there is too little space and not suitable conditions at the kiosk. I could not cook at all, but for the sake of the business I learnt to make batter and fry pancake. We have invented our own recipe with my wife. Initially we made several mixings trying to find the right proportions of the ingredients, which are flower, milk and eggs. We did not use home recipe as such batter will be spoilt by evening. We have our own little secret: milk has to be of a certain temperature, and while making batter it is necessary to keep to time. If the time is too little, pancakes will be too spongy and if the time is too long they will be too hard."

If Yermek is the one responsible for batter, his wife Anastassiya sells pancakes.

"I always support my husband in all his initiatives", she says. "The idea of our own pancake house appealed to me at once. It is nice to sell something that you yourself eat with pleasure, without worries about your health. On weekdays we prepare 3-4 litres of batter and on weekends 5 litres. We try to cook a certain number of pancakes per day, and we eat ourselves whatever is left."

"Our son Alimzhan is 18 months old, but his young age does not prevent him from making batter. We also noticed that on the days when he helps us our pancakes are sold out."

"So the batter is ready, I have to take it to the outlet", Yermek explains.

"I will take a day off work and fry pancakes myself specially for the photo shoot."

On the way Yermek told us which difficulties he had to face when launching his own business.

"Our sales volumes are not that big equaling about 40 000 tenge, but we are developing. It is a pity that small-scale enterprises do not get any support in our country. We had not even opened when we had to pay a fine of 60 000 tenge to tax office for not registering a cash till, even though they could have just given us a warning in the beginning."

Half an hour later Yermek shows us his small booth.

"We were lucky with the kiosk. One insurance company was selling their kiosks with discount. I installed it together my friend. There are advantages and disadvantages in family business. The main pro is that you are sure about the quality of your product and service, whereas the con is that it is hard to do everything youself."

"During weekdays my wife works in the booth and on weekend, if I do not have to buy products, I stand in for her. The most important thing for those who want to launch their own business is patience. If the idea is worthy, you have to hold on till the end."

"We try to follow all hygenic regulations, and it is due to the cleanness of our kiosk that many clients trust us."

"We use a special liquid used by surgeons to disinfect hands."

"Now we have to wait until the stove is heated to 300 degrees. We try to cook at high fire, because if the temperature is lowered pancakes will be too dry."

"Initially when we just started to experiment with new equipment and batter, our pancakes were lumps. Now even the first pancakes are good."

"There are people who used to eat only donners, but having tried our pancakes became our loyal customers. Why not? Pancakes are much better for health, more filling and weigh no less than a donner itself if you count the stuffing. If donner weighs 250 grammes, our pancake with filling is 300 grammes."

"Our pancake stove is the largest in the city, it is 40 centimetres in diameter. Initially I thought that we would fry pancakes using a frying pan, but such stove is much more convenient."

"One pancake measures 150 grammes in liquid state and 120 g when it is ready. If you consider that the diameter is 40 cm, it is quite a thin pancake."

"There are 14 types of stuffing in our menu. Pancakes with condensed milk, with banana and chocolate, with red caviar, with cheese, with chicken and sauce, with horse meat, with ham and cheese, with jam, with salmon, with maple syrop, with honey, with white cheese..."

"We want to develop even further. Firstly, we would like to add more types of stuffing to our menu. Secondly, we want to organise tables and chairs. And thirdly, we want to sell greater variety of dishes, for instance, to cook soups as well as pancakes."

"We do not have our own original wrapping. We use paper plates that can hold a temperature of up to 85 degrees."

"Simple pancake with butter costs 120 tenge, with sweet filling from 200 to 350 tenge and with meat stuffing from 200 to 450 tenge. The most expensive item on our menu costs 1400 tenge, and the whole 60-gramme can of caviar is used to make it. Many people ask, why it is so expensive? But the price of the product is calculated based on the price of ingredients used. For instance, we use only ham produced by Bekker company and never dilute pancake batter with water, but only use milk. All the ingredients are always fresh."

"However, irrespective to the prices, people like our pancakes, even though our market is still very small. In Russia pancake business is very well developed. For example, Teremok company also started with one outlet, and now they have pancake houses all over Saint-Petersburg. Or famous McDonalds that was launched only as one fast-food restaurant."

"Everything big always begins with something very small. Which means that we have a chance to grow into a big company in the future!"