Your Goal in Business: How to Define It and Scale Your Business

AVAlexander Volchek

Today I'll explain the most important thing everyone actually needs to sit down and do in their business right now. Your wife at home needs to believe you can build a business. You say, “I can sacrifice making money.” I was afraid. I was afraid. It immediately removes thousands of mistaken hypotheses, thoughts, stories, conflicts, details—anything. The first person to earn a billion dollars in cash without privatization. Your goal may be that you need money. I saw that people actually can't formulate a very clear goal for themselves. What's the most important thing a business owner needs to do to see their next step? Perhaps they want to increase revenue, start making a profit at all, or scale. They say abstractly, “I want to scale.” Or enter other countries or regions. What does this owner or entrepreneur need to understand? Hello, everyone! My name is Alexander Volchek. I've spent twenty years in business, entrepreneurship, management, mentoring, and advisory work, and helped thousands of businesses. The biggest question I've always asked myself, the one that has always concerned me—and probably the hardest thing to do—is how to see the best possible next step right now to reach the goal or result I need.

How do I see and formulate that next step? How do I understand what I need to do in marketing and sales? Fifteen years ago, when I opened my software development company, I thought differently. I often chose the next step intuitively or spontaneously, out of a conflict or a state of euphoria. It improved each year. Over the last five years, I've honed this quality enormously: how to take the right next step. Today—

taking the next step. Today I'll explain the most important thing everyone actually needs to sit down and do in their business right now, including anyone who wants to launch a business. In 2016, I started a partnership with Andrey Rogachev. We began building a technology trading platform for professional food trading. Andrey had tremendous experience. He's the creator of Pyaterochka and is considered the first person in Russia to earn a billion dollars in cash through serious, genuine business, not privatization. One of the first things we began working on together came from something he always said: most entrepreneurs and business owners make one fundamental mistake. They want to reach something and know they're doing business for profit. They have a strategy for achieving that business. For example, they want to open a software development company and earn a lot of money. That's how they've stated it. They decide their strategy is to find clients in the States. Then they, as owners and managers, and their management team do tasks every day. He said the biggest problem is that people do tasks that don't match the strategy, and the strategy doesn't match the goal.

The tasks go in one direction, with people doing their own things, while the strategy is completely different. Most importantly, none of it leads to the goal. For years, I developed this quality within myself. In our business and businesses together, we developed the habit of constantly checking our daily task: does it match the strategy we've set? And does that strategy match—

the strategy we've set. And does it match the goal before us? This was probably one of the fundamental issues and problems I saw in many businesses as an owner, minority or active shareholder, manager, advisor, mentor, or consultant. In recent months, I've paid close attention to the fact that the fundamental problem isn't doing the wrong actions, tasks that don't match the strategy, or a strategy that doesn't match the goal. Let's revisit the example. My partner and I decide to open a software development company. We want to earn a lot of money: that's our stated goal. Our strategy is to attract clients in the States. But when choosing tasks, we say we'll first develop websites for nearby companies. As the owner, I ask, “Wait, why are we building websites? That doesn't lead us toward our overarching goal of earning a lot of money through our strategy of attracting U.S. clients.” A partner or employees say, “But it will give us quick cash.” Or take acquaintances of mine who recently formed a venture capital fund in the U.S. and were recruiting investors.

They didn't have enough investors. They said, “We'll create a course teaching investment or venture investing literacy. Those people will then convert into investors who join us.” I ask, “Are you sure creating this course is really part of your business strategy and leads toward your main goal?” Helping an enormous number of people with these tasks, strategies, and goals, I saw that people actually can't clearly formulate a goal for themselves or identify their main goal. Someone works as a programmer at Google.

He asks a group of people, “Please advise me: what exactly should I do, what clear sequence of actions should I take to launch a business selling printed T-shirts? I'd like to earn $2,000, maybe $5,000, maybe $10,000.” People start throwing all kinds of ideas at him. At some point, I ask, “Wait a second. Before giving you advice on launching this business, let's find out your goal.” He says, “What do you mean, my goal? It's a goal. Isn't it obvious?” I say, “Goals can differ. Perhaps you need money as your main source of income. Perhaps you need additional income. Perhaps you want your friends to believe in you. Perhaps you've never run a business, aren't an entrepreneur, and want to experience that path. Perhaps your wife at home needs to believe you can build a business. She says, ‘I don't like you being a programmer.’ Perhaps you need to prove to your mother-in-law that you can do better, or to your mother that you can succeed.”

What's your most important goal? Different goals require different actions and strategies. If you simply want an additional source of money, use what you already have. You're a Google programmer. You can sell an additional hour of your work for $500, so sell it separately for $500. You have something exclusive, something one person in a hundred thousand has, rather than something a hundred thousand people can do: sell printed T-shirts. If you want to earn a lot of money, define and calculate that amount, and say whether you really understand that this is the business you should pursue. If you want entrepreneurial experience, casual advice given for fun, test ideas, things that aren't real, or abstract suggestions—

or abstract suggestions won't work. You won't live through that business or experience it for real. If your goal is for your friends to believe in you, let's look at what other strategy might achieve that. Perhaps it doesn't involve your own business, or a business making and printing T-shirts with your designs. Consider other businesses: entrepreneur clubs and communities, such as Atlanty, Equium, and Club 500. What was their original underlying goal? What goal and structure do they have? Club 500 says, “I created this club to draw profit from the business. As owners, we built it to generate profit. Creating the community is a secondary goal, of course, but profit comes first.” Equium says, “We created the club as a nonprofit organization to build a community.” Atlanty says, “We created a community, but it would probably be good to make some kind of business too.” What's the result? Club 500 generates profit. Equium doesn't.

Atlanty would like to make a profit, but doesn't either. When an owner asks, “Let's generate profit,” the first question is, “Is that actually your goal?” Another situation: education businesses such as Skillbox, Netology, Yandex Practicum, or Skyeng. What has their goal been in recent years? To create a valuable business that can be sold. Profit is secondary, mainly influencing that high valuation.

Gaining a position or recognition is also interesting, but secondary. Perhaps one of Yandex Practicum's fundamental goals was simply to create a leader in this field. Accordingly, these companies don't make a profit. But they have an organizational structure that can be sold. Equium might say, “We don't have a strong management team or a highly developed management system. We don't have an incredible core in finance, management, sales, and marketing.” Skillbox says, “We have a very strong management system and strong finance, sales, and marketing structures.” What's the difference? One company is working toward a high valuation, which requires a strong internal structure. The other has never considered selling as a goal. When that goal appears—“Let's sell”—you need to have built that large, substantial internal structure. Look at virtually any club, such as Club 500, Atlanty, or Equium: they won't have a substantial internal structure and team.

They may have good teams, good people, and a good owner, but not a structure comparable to that of large edtech teams. Take Like. From the beginning, it was created to generate profit, while also being designed to grow large and eventually be sold. Accordingly, it's practically the only company in the professional edtech market that wanted to sell itself and has a profit. It could be sold and was offered for sale, but the fundamental first priority was profit. Selling is an entirely different question and problem. We're not examining the circumstances or judging the many other factors here. What matters in these examples? In these examples—

what matters in these examples is always seeing the underlying goal: what's fundamental and important. Netology was created to become a large asset. That's why it didn't earn a profit; that wasn't the fundamental purpose. Later, it had a wealthy investor and owner interested in its value as an asset, rather than taking profits out of it. When GeekBrains' original owners created it, it was simply their business. They needed to earn some money, and they did. When the question arose of the company being worth a lot, you changed the structure. What comes first? If selling is your priority, you say, “I can sacrifice making money.” So the actions we often take in business don't just fail to match the strategy, or the strategy the goal. The person doesn't fully see or know the goal. Having, knowing, and defining that goal allows entrepreneurs, owners, or people who want to launch a business to focus very clearly. Focusing means seeing the next step. Focusing, when you know the goal and have sat down and stated it clearly—

immediately removes thousands of mistaken hypotheses, thoughts, stories, conflicts, details—anything. It allows you to focus clearly on the final goal. Your ability to quickly identify that goal, even in someone else's business, increases your chance of seeing the next step. In other businesses, I quickly focus and understand the main goal, or see a whole range of goals the person might have. I ask, “Is your goal this, this, or this?” I quickly focus on it: “Right, that's the goal. The strategy and principles are roughly these. So here's the next action you need to take, the most precise possible action to reach this goal.”

another action to reach this goal. It would be great to record this for yourself in the comments: do you know your goal right now? Do you know the goal for your current or potential business? Are you certain? Write “I know,” “I don't know,” or formulate it. It's a very useful and interesting reflection. Become aware of it. I've formed hundreds of partnerships and been involved with hundreds of businesses. I didn't always know the goal, and often took actions that didn't lead toward it. Why? I was afraid. Afraid I wouldn't succeed. Afraid to arrive at the truth. Afraid to get very close, very quickly, to the point of realizing that things aren't actually so clear and much won't work out. When you know the goal and have a clear direction for strategy and principles, sometimes you realize the goal is no longer attainable, the business won't exist, and everything else was an illusion. You don't need to stay in that illusion anymore.

If there are several partners, especially two or three, understanding the goal, strategy, and principles lets you identify the next step instantly, if the partners are ready for it. We'll discuss that in other videos. Here I talk extensively about partnership, business, scaling, growth, and how you, as an owner, can accelerate enormously, find yourself, and take an incredible, correct next step. When you sit down with your partners and focus on the goal, strategies, and principle, and all three of you want to move toward that goal and are open to it—

to moving toward that goal, are open to it, and understand its importance, you'll find the next step very quickly. Or you'll quickly discover that each of you understands the goal differently. Katya needs money, Masha wants fame, and Olya wants ordinary daily work. The best next step is to sit down together and agree on the business's goal. Can agreement be impossible? Yes. In some situations, it will no longer be possible. That's exactly why people fear discussing it: they fear they might not agree. But if that possibility exists and you don't address it now, you'll spend one, two, three, five, or ten years on the path and face enormous disappointment. Sit down and discuss it honestly now. Look at it honestly. This is a fundamental decision within the business and company, for yourselves, your employees, team, senior management, and everyone in the organization. The better someone understands the company's main goal and the strategies and principles for achieving it, the more precisely they can take the right next step.

The next step that brings you closer to that goal. Not further away—closer, definitely closer. If you hit a wall, you may be at a point where you need to reconsider the goal, change the strategy and principles, or recognize that the outcome is unattainable. Often, goals need to be reconsidered. A business goal isn't eternal. Only your inner state and sense of freedom can be eternal. Hold on to that and rely on it with all your strength. A business goal can change. The task—

the task of monitoring your actions, strategies, principles, and goal every day isn't easy. You can start doing it and observing. But clearly formulating a goal is within everyone's reach. An important, interesting distinction you'll discover is between a business or project goal and your own goal in life, or the principles and ideas that form your life's foundation. Living without a goal is also possible and wonderful in this context. That calls for a separate reflection and video. It's a large subject for many videos, and we'll definitely explore it here. See you next time!