10X Growth: Transforming Mindset and Business Strategies
Today, let's talk about growing yourself and your business 10 times. What needs to be done, and who do you need to become internally to make this happen? It's important to understand that growing 10 times isn't just about changing a number or a parameter. For example, if you have a business and you decide to generate 10 times more leads, make 10 times more calls, or sell 10 times more, it's not just about these actions. You need to fully understand and live through the situation of growing 10 times: not just the process, but what it will be like for you and your business when you achieve that 10x growth.
When you make a big leap, a lot of things will change: sales, marketing, product, customer relationships, you, your partners, relationships with them, your mentors, management team, employees, legal, accounting, financial, technological systems, automation systems, your environment, energy, and office space.
We need to understand that if we are here and now, we need to make changes and move in bulk - launching a set of different opportunities, tasks, strategies, looking at a wide range of directions.
The first thing you need to do is set a goal.
It's not just "I want to grow 10 times", but what exactly happens at the end. For example, your company will be worth $10 million - this is your main business goal. You set it, and when you say you need to grow 10 times, if your company is now worth $1 million or $500,000, you have a final goal. You want to sell the company for $10 million. Or you want your business to generate a constant monthly income or profit for your personal use. You say, "I need to make $100,000 a month" or "I need to make $10 million a month".
You clearly set the goal: knowing it will lead you directly to achieving 10x growth. Again: the goal cannot be "to grow 10 times" - that won't work. You'll constantly be thinking about how to grow, instead of understanding that you are already at the end point of this growth, you've already grown.
There's a next step. One of the key things is to see what's beyond this goal, what movement is ahead, what variations and opportunities there are.
Then you need to think about a strategy that focuses clearly on achieving this goal. If you want to sell the company - then the strategy won't include points focused on making a profit here and now. The main thing you have is focusing on the value of the company. If you want to sell the company for $10 million, it's unlikely to be a small structure or system. You need a strategy.
Strategic Planning: The Role of Partners and Mentors in Business Growth
Next, you need to discuss this with other partners or owners, shareholders if you have them. You need to thoroughly understand the goal so that each of you knows: this is the most important thing to achieve now. If you don't have partners - consider if you need one. Often, when making a big change, you need to change very seriously - and an accelerator for this can be another person, a partner.
Another accelerator is having a mentor for you and separately for your business.
We'll call the mentor for you a mentor, and for your business, we'll use the word "advisor" - a person interested in the significant growth of your business. You probably need one: if you want to grow 10 times, you definitely need one; even if you have a partner - you need an advisor. A personal mentor is not interested in your company growing 10 times but in you personally growing 10 times, so you need one too.
Possibly, not just one, in different layers: there could be a mentor who will point out details from a business and professional activity perspective, and one who will guide your personal growth. Here, professional activity and business are not more important than things like family, your health, emotional state, relationships with others; circumstances where you live, what you do, where you are. So there could be a whole series of personal mentors.
Innovation in Sales and Marketing: Adapting to Growth and New Channels
Next, you look inside the business and see what tasks and directions there are to move in bulk. This includes changing the sales system, different approaches to sales. If you currently handle 100 clients a month and say: "To grow 10 times, I need not 100 clients, but 1000." That's not true, it doesn't work that way. "I need not 1000 leads to make 100 clients, now I need 1000 clients and 10,000 leads" - this proportion may not work. When you grow 10 times, all funnels, parameters, conversions, and systems can change. And you don't just have one conversion, there are many. It's a fundamental mistake people who don't think globally make: many marketers, salespeople, entrepreneurs, and financiers simply multiply numbers.
The thing is, when you grow 10 times, fundamentally, truly, all your funnels, indicators, parameters, and conversions change - the whole system changes. From many sides, a huge number of new opportunities and circumstances begin to flow. On the other hand, many new problems, fears, difficulties, and illusions appear. You need to change the fundamental sales system: what kind of automation do I have inside? What kind of sales managers do I have? Who are these people? You need to change the marketing system and understand it will change. If you attract clients today, for example, only through Instagram reels, you need to understand: when you grow 10 times - the flow within reels won't just increase 10 times. Scalable thinking, growth thinking - is when you understand that there are 15-20 more marketing channels, and you start considering them. You can focus on one, stay only in contextual advertising, engage only in an offline sales point where clients come. But you need to consider a huge number of other opportunities, you need people who think differently, who understand this. You need to be ready to dive into a new sales channel at any moment and not waste time, space, or go to some training to understand a new sales channel, or 10 new sales channels.
Team Management: Strong Leaders for Dynamic Growth
Of course, to make these changes in sales and marketing, what do you need? You need a strong management team. And it's important to understand: if you want to grow 10 times, you need an incredibly cool team.
You should have this team, and it won't be fully formed from the people you have now. Many of them will grow. It's great when people stay with you. At the same time, it's incredibly interesting when new people come in. Many people will leave for different places - to someone growing 100 or 1000 times, or someone who doesn't want to grow, or someone who is 10 or 100 times smaller; or a person will leave to start their own business, or a person just doesn't want to work anymore.
You need to be calm about your current team changing, and also calm about the need for many cool and interesting people if you want to grow seriously.
Here's a very interesting thing: many people want to grow under a certain organizational structure. In large management systems, in different schools, there is a description that before you grow, you create a new organizational structure. This is a good action, but there's an incredibly cool other solution that should always be remembered: when you see a good, interesting person, a professional, the strongest director, a cool and powerful leader, a very strong operations person, a creative director, a good performer - you adapt your organizational structure for this person, launch new directions, ideas, create a new project. And why I said, for example, when you consider new marketing channels, you shouldn't focus and stay only on one old one? Because you might find a cool, interesting new person through whom a completely new sales channel will be created.
For example, I recently managed the company GeekBrains. We merged this company with Skillbox to go public on NASDAQ in the States. We had J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley banks working with us, we were in the range of 1.8-2.5 billion dollars in company value. And when I knew we had to IPO on NASDAQ, my first and most important task was to form an incredibly cool team that would go with me because I independently managed one large part of the business, my partner – another part of the business independently. And what does it mean to form an incredibly cool team? It’s not always forming it under the org structure, but when you know there’s such a person (I’ve been in business for 20 years: I have a huge number of contacts, people) and you tell them: “Listen, I’m in such a project now, we have a big and interesting goal. It’s cool from the perspective of interesting work, professional growth, at the same time very big because you can earn a lot of money. Let’s go together.” The person asks what they will do. You offer them to start working on international development.
– Is it provided for now?
– Not yet, but I see it’s interesting to you now. Or:
– Let’s in this business you now take on special projects, you will develop and work with the state. I see it’s interesting to you.
Or:
– You know, we already have a performance marketing team. But we need a new marketing, new strategy, funnels. Let’s make you the director, who will stand parallel to the general marketing director, and you will be in charge of mass marketing, for example, large funnels.
– And you will be engaged in marketing in terms of large and serious PR.
– You will develop the brand.
And you don't necessarily have to report to one person. When I form a team, I am a leader – people come not only to the leader but work with me. And if I start putting them into a certain org structure and say that we already have a marketing director, it seems all the roles for strong people are taken, so it’s unclear how to interact with you – how many times have I heard this mistake!
This is such narrow, small thinking in a leader when an incredibly cool, strong person, who often exceeds all other people and yourself as a business owner a thousand times, is trying to be built into the system.
How many people have these business owners lost, how many people were lost due to poor management, when they just tried to fit a certain person – strong, with incredible growth potential, with a big core – into the existing system, instead of trying to change this system for the person.
For growth, scale, thinking to grow 10 times, you need to be ready for changes, for new things.
And on the example of the org structure in the company, management structure, management systems, this is very clearly visible. Look, when you come to a company and propose to change the CRM system – everyone starts to be negative, especially sales managers. They don't really understand what automation is, they themselves will never set up a serious CRM system, sales directors (9 out of 10) will not set up incredibly cool automation. They say: “No, we don't need it.” Immediately, without understanding why it should be done.
It happens, you take over some business, buy part of the business, or you have a new task in the business, a new partner appears – and people just start incredibly resisting changes. They resist these changes so much that it feels like if this happens, the person will just die.
Why are you resisting this?
This is a small, insignificant speck of what’s happening. Your life will change anyway: all teams will change, businesses and partnerships will die, all jobs will end, all employees will be fired or they will resign, all people will die sometime, everything will end. Why are you resisting this small change?
My wife and I sometimes quarrel at home about where to put a cabinet. At some point, I realized why I was resisting: often, when a question arises about placement, let's say, of a cabinet, everyone starts defending their point of view based on ego. In reality, it doesn't matter where this cabinet is, you need to let go and say: “Please, put the cabinet where you think it's necessary.” After some time, Polina comes to me and says: “Sasha, listen, maybe we should move the cabinet to another place?” I answer: “Let's try, I liked that place.”
At that moment you think, why did I initially argue, quarrel? Why did I argue to keep or not fire this person? Why did I argue to make the price 120, not 100 rubles? Why did I argue not to increase managers? Why did I argue not to test new creative? Why did I argue about how the piece of advertising looks on the main page? What color will the chairs be in the office, what will be the inscription at the office entrance, how will the YouTube video splash look – why did I argue so much and spent thousands of hours and tens of thousands of energy on this?
In a huge number of businesses, how many conflicts arose from this. Everyone should ask themselves this question: why did I argue? To grow 10 times, you don’t need to do this!
Financial control
Besides sales and marketing, you need to change the financial system. 99.9% that your financial system is not cool.
Recently, one person wrote to me: “I recently reviewed your videos on the financial management system and finally understood what it is! My financial director watched with me, she was so inspired, we want to implement this.” When a year ago I said that it was necessary to watch about the financial system, they told me how cool their system was. What happened? Why couldn't they hear it right away?
The fact is that a person has no financial system, he attends some course, comes and sets up a system, thinking that he has a financial system. But there is a big range between a “cool financial system” and “some financial system.” A huge number of companies set up “some financial systems,” this needs to be changed.
Remember the rule: you should daily submit a cash flow report with a full plan of items. Every morning you should receive a report that finalizes the previous day: you will clearly see how your week, last month, quarter, year went and comparison with other years. This is a simple action that any financial manager will do, spending 30 minutes or an hour. Ideally, you should also see the projected PnL – profit and loss statement every day. This is a bit more difficult to do. It will come to you when you are ready to grow 100 times, to make the next leap.
It is important to pay attention to the accounting system to grow. Look at what’s happening there, and understand a bit. The fact is that when you grow stronger, different parameters change – they need to be seen and anticipated in advance. It is equally important to look at your management organizational structure: what legal entities, companies you have, how your money flows are distributed. It is important to look at the legal system – both from the client part and from your internal part (processes, regulations, relations with your employees). It is important for you to look at your PR, brand, product. Your product will be different: you should calmly, easily relate to this.
I was an advisor in a company that made about 1-2 million dollars a month, selling education. The owner always said: “I want to sell IT education in a specific programming language – Python. I want to be the coolest in Python.” I told him: “It is important for you that your company becomes a market leader. And market leaders, such as companies like Skillbox, or a brand like Yandex Practicum, teach not only Python, not only programming. They teach many professions. You will not earn enough on Python to grow many times. And, accordingly, you now want to fulfill your personal ambition. This does not match your company’s strategy and definitely does not lead to the goal we all, as owners, have set together.”
Pricing and marketing
You must work on the product. And at the same time, you need to work on, probably, the most important component of growth – the right pricing.
How much does your product cost? What discounts, promotions, packages are there? How do you sell today, how will you sell in the long term? What loyalty programs, referral programs do you have? What kind of system is this? How will this happen? How many businesses have I seen that made a breakthrough at some point, then come and say they need to launch a referral program. And they start doing this and thinking about it at the transition point when the scale has already partially happened. What happens next? Stop and stagnation, because many changes that you did not foresee from the very beginning, then it will be very difficult and often almost impossible to do.
Approaches to management and hiring
You need to revise your hiring system, pay attention to your HR service.
Be calm that if you hire one person today together, you may need to hire 50, 100 people. People think: “I have 5 sales managers working, I need to hire 50 more sales managers, and I will grow.” I say: “Nothing, that your sales managers will quit? And they will need to be accompanied inside, they will start working in a completely different way. If one manager sells for 500 thousand rubles, this does not mean that 10 managers will sell for 5 million rubles. It won’t work that way. Most likely 10 managers will sell for 3 or 2 million rubles.”
The hiring system is something that each of you can do right now, especially this is cool in the Russian-speaking space.
I am in the USA, in Silicon Valley: here many startups, which are already worth tens of millions of dollars, often more than a hundred million dollars, may not have an HR. Honestly, for me this is generally surprising and striking, because if they had an HR, it would be much easier to hire, but since each person is expensive, some companies have formed such an approach.
You can easily find a person who will hire people. The person who will create a flow of potential candidates for you may not be an HR. If you want to grow, you must conduct interviews yourself, select candidates yourself. How many business owners say that when you grow, you stop hiring and selecting yourself!
Recently I spoke at a program with 400 people, and it was often mentioned: business owners achieved certain results when they reduced their time within the work. Moreover, for most people, the goal was to scale, and along with it, there was always the story that if I scale, it's cool if I stop working myself.
If you want to grow – you need to let go of your worry and understanding of how much you need to work. When you want to scale 10 times, you might feel like you have to work 10 times more; once the business grows, it will be very big – you want to work 10 times less. The thing is, until you reach that point, you don't know how much you will need to work, how much you can work, and most importantly, how much you will want to work.
I've had periods when I really didn't want to deal with operations. There were all kinds of periods. In 2007, I started my first software development business, and in 2010, I left the partnership. When I left the partnership, I said I didn't want to run my own business right now, I didn't want to decide whether a chair should cost 20, 30, or 40 dollars, I wanted to go into employment longer. I became the CEO of the leader in the cloud service market in the Russian-speaking space, Megaplan. There was a moment when I left the company Business Youth: I was the owner of the company, managed it for a long time. I stepped down as CEO and said I didn't want to deal with operations. There was a time when we launched AGRO24 with Andrey Rogachev: I remember how there was an incredible desire to work 15 hours every day, Andrey and I would sit together and brainstorm everything. No one understood where the energy came from to deal with operational activities. When that desire ended – we parted ways and stopped dealing with operations.
You don't know how you'll feel and what you'll want when you reach a 10-fold growth point. Let go of this worry: whether you'll need to work a lot or a little, whether there will be something to do or not. The thing is, with a strong top management team, you don't start working more or less. At GeekBrains, I had 30 directors, but I still came to the office every morning and could leave late at night. But if I didn't want to – I stopped working. It all depends on me.
But the most important thing you need to understand: there is no single simple action for 10-fold growth.