Interview with Roman Gurskyi, a strategist and founder of the Mriya Club - blog Cases, Traffic, Sales

Hello!

I’m Serhii Soloviov, CEO of Solve Marketing.

Today I talked to Roman Gurskyi, a strategist and founder of the Mriya Club.

From the interview you will learn:

how to build long-term consulting relationships with entrepreneurs;
common mistakes made by micro and small business owners;
whether a strategic session can save €30,000;
the benefits of business communities;
and much more.

— Roman, please tell us about yourself and your superpower.

— I conduct strategic sessions, develop and implement strategies in the business. Together with the team, I also help implement financial modeling and financial accounting for our clients.

My superpower is to help entrepreneurs clearly understand the specifics of their business, product features, and where they need to go. Many of them dream of scaling up, earning more, and making their products more popular with customers. But business owners don’t always know how to make their dreams come true. This leads to mistakes at this stage.

I help to see both the strategic (overall) and tactical (at the level of the executive) picture of the business — at the product level and in the local market. I study global changes in the industry where the client is developing. This helps to implement certain changes in the company. They contribute to growth or, at the very least, help to avoid making mistakes that could lead to business closure or staff dismissal.

And if we are talking about the Mriya Club, it is a community about finding common ground where people can unite.

— What is the main customer need you address?

— My main goal is to turn micro and small businesses into medium-sized ones, i.e. to develop and scale them.

This happens with the help of a strategy that allows you to choose priority areas of development, determine its pace and the resources available for it.

Most of the time, when entrepreneurs create a strategy on their own, it turns out to be very good and emotional. I call it “Elon Musk’s Mars Flight Strategy”. It can motivate the owners and the team, but it will not have a clear focus, will not take into account the lack of experience and resources.

But when you start assessing the real resources and opportunities, it turns out that you only have enough for a trip from Odesa to Kyiv, and even with a stopover.

That is, you need to take into account:

the current state of the business and the processes inside;
what can be done with them;
how and at what stage to attract additional resources;
general market trends.

Our task is to bring the business from point A to point B within the planned time frame, avoiding crisis factors.

— Where do your clients come from?

— Because of the recommendations of other clients, we do not run ads.

Let me tell you the background. I spent five years in marketing, running an agency with a staff of 20-25 people. We implemented more than 300 projects around the world. I was involved in operational activities, but I wanted to have a more significant impact on the growth and profit of companies. That’s why I switched to consulting.

Currently, I am working with a small number of projects. This keeps us focused on our work and helps us achieve better results. In addition, by working with just a few businesses, I know the owners, stakeholders, sometimes investors, team, product, and markets. As for the check, we are growing vertically.

We are not about single decisions, but about systematic work. You can invite an expert to hold a strategic session and motivate everyone, but this will last for a maximum of 2 months. That’s why I advocate building a fundamental systemic solution — comprehensive work with the team, product, market, etc. “Putting out a fire when you are on fire” is not my approach.

— So, is direct interaction with the owner important to you?

— Yes, I do not cooperate with owners who do not run their own business. We position ourselves not as contractors but as a strategic partner. And we do not promise to do everything instead of the business owner. That’s why we are always looking for enthusiastic clients who are ready to work.

Currently, I have some projects from Poland and Brazil that want to cooperate with us, but I don’t force things. Sometimes, at the first meeting, a client says they have a specific goal, but then it turns out that they have been in the business for 5 years, are tired, and want to pass it on to someone else.

— Yes, business owners are usually mysterious people, so it’s important to understand what they really want in meetings. What advice can you give on building trusting relationships with entrepreneurs?

— I chose the strategy of being as straightforward and sincere as possible with the client. Do not try to please them in any way. In fact, the client should also be interested in you if you want to work long-term and with pleasure. Especially if we’re talking about B2B business. Otherwise, even if you’ve done a good job, you’re unlikely to get a good review.

I recommend saying what you think directly and watching the client’s reaction to criticism. Business is like a child, and every owner thinks they are the best. When a teacher talks about problems, a defense mechanism is immediately triggered, that “you are not like that”. Here, the client must realize that he or she must be objective and take criticism adequately.

It is also worth considering that people come to you when they are in pain. So, you have to demonstrate that you understand these problems and know how to solve them.

— Very interesting, thank you! And how would you comment on the responsibility of consulting?

— Newcomers to this niche usually use such offers as “maximum responsibility”, “we do 100%”, “we return money”, etc. And if you already have experience and work with large clients, you don’t give any guarantees. You work as partners and participate in the work process together. An adequate person will agree with this.

You have to be responsible to yourself first and foremost. I would be ashamed to demonstrate a poor performance. In this case, I will frankly say that I failed and return the money.

If we are talking about KPIs for consulting, you need to understand that it is impossible to define them immediately. First, you need to work with this project for a month or two, look at your own productivity and capabilities, and evaluate the results of your work. Only then can you prescribe any KPIs.

For example, I am ready for KPIs only if the client has previously had analytics set up and experience that can be verified. If not, I will offer to work for a certain period of time, build analytics on their own, and only then set quality goals.

As for the level of consulting, I would promote the idea of a bonus from profits or goals. The goal can be different: profit, base, market, number of new or repeat sales, etc.

Therefore, if the owner wants to pay only for the result, let him make you a co-owner. This way, responsibility will be shared by you and the business owner.

— I know that the responsibility of consultants working on different projects correlates with expertise. And it, in turn, correlates with experience and successful cases that increase the confidence of the consultant and the business owner in achieving a great result.

What projects are you proud of?

— I’ll start with small achievements before the big ones.

The first case is an Odesa-based systematization company. They turned to us with complaints about stagnation in the team after 5 years of work. So, we held a strategic session, during which it turned out that the business had problems with household loans. Because of this, $500-700 was lost every month.

We restructured the business and figured out how to fix this situation in a year. Meanwhile, the owner regained motivation to develop his business.

The second case is a cosmetics company with which we worked in the area of strategic sessions.

We, like the owners, have a lot of brilliant ideas that die in the daily routine. At the beginning of the year, grandiose plans are usually set, and at the end it turns out that we need to at least catch up with the previous performance. That’s why I constantly emphasize the need for strategic sessions and advocate for daytime meetings to review daily, weekly, monthly, and three-month retrospectives. This should be done either with a consultant or with the owners of other projects.

And before we held a strategic session for this company, we found out that the last time it was held was a year ago, for three to four days. And there were no plans at all.

I am proud that I was able to convey the value of strategic sessions to the company. And three months later, I held a two-day offline session for the entire staff.

The third case study is a French startup with a large turnover. Initially, our key task was to bring our online business to international markets. And thanks to focus, strategy, and consistency, we not only did it, but also saved at least €30,000.

We chose the markets closest to the country — Italy, Spain, Germany, and the UK. Thanks to the management we had built, it was clear in which cities our products were in demand. We have combined online and offline formats of work with our distributors to form the maximum interconnection between the entire network.

We will know more about our profits in the summer, when we have completed a year of joint work. If we talk about strategy, it’s like brand management. You see your results in at least 3-6 months.

— Please tell me if customer gratitude and recognition are important to you.

— That’s a great question! This is probably the main reason why I left marketing — they often don’t thank you.

In general, marketing is about working for results every day. You can work on a complex project for a year and not receive feedback from the client. And if you ask first, you’re likely to get a dry answer.

I also didn’t like the attitude of being treated as contractors who do exactly what they are told. Even our extensive experience is not an argument for clients to listen to advice.

In consulting, the opposite is true. First, you are always asked how to do things better. Secondly, clients thank us both in a month and six months later. Already on the very first day of the strategic session we see crazy emotions and receive positive feedback.

But I also always tell my clients that they are the best and their product is super cool, even if they are already making millions. I also have this thing where I use all of my clients’ products and services. And it’s because I support their product with all my heart!

— Please tell us what is the most common “bug” in the mindset of business owners that you encounter.

— If we are talking about microbusiness, it is a desire to increase your income by providing all possible services and cooperating with any projects.

Let me give you an example of a store that sells jam. If you see 3-5 types of jam in front of you, you quickly make a choice and buy it. If the store’s assortment increases to 40 types, you get lost, barely buying a maximum of one or nothing at all.

In small business, a common problem is the need to increase the team, delegate work processes, and not realizing how to do it and where to get the money.

I really liked what Dmytro Tetervak said: “The business owner is the only one who will work on his product for 5+. Everyone else will get a maximum of 4- or 3+. But your business will work anyway, and you will be able to celebrate any event with your family”.

If we are talking about medium-sized businesses, there is a false prejudice: the system that helped the business grow does not need to be changed because it works. This is a management problem, because all the processes that existed before need to be rebuilt. It’s like in football: at the beginning you are a dominant team with certain tactics, and when you enter the Premier League, you are an outsider. And here it is important to change tactics, players, and even management so that you don’t get beaten.

— So, do microbusinesses need to focus, not to do everything at once? And then grow a little and delegate?

— For example, microbusinesses need to find a focus point, and small businesses need to delegate and scale up.

In general, if we talk about strategy, it has three components.

1. Goal setting — defining the target audience to better understand who the product is for and how it should meet the needs of users, as well as the mission and values of the business. The latter helps to understand why and where to develop further. Especially when the basic needs according to Maslow’s pyramid have already been realized.

2. Planning — creating an action plan and evaluating the results of their implementation. There is a lot of “paperwork” here.

3. Daily routine work that makes all owners sick — fulfilling tasks and indicators to ensure planned leads, calls, and sales.

— Let’s talk about your business club. What was it like to create it in a highly competitive environment? What is unique about it? And why did you decide to start a business club in the first place and how much time do you invest in it?

— I have been to many business clubs and I can say that each one is cool. And the more, the better!

After the outbreak of full-scale war, many of the clubs I was in either stopped their activities altogether or put them on a long pause. I was overcome with depression, procrastination, and fear, so I had a great desire to communicate with like-minded people. And on April 28, the first offline meeting with 5-6 people took place in Odesa. Then we met offline or online, tested different formats, started sharing experiences and helping each other.

Then the community suggested that I create a club. And after a month of reflection, I decided what I wanted, wrote down my mission and values — a cobbler with boots) It was important for me to create not just a community, but a great story.

We also developed financial modeling, accounting, set up business processes, hired various consultants, and ordered legal and marketing consulting. We started working in October.

First of all, Mriya is an online community that unites Ukrainians from all over the world. And the mission of my consulting is to increase their number on the Forbes list. That’s why we help Ukrainian businesses.

Currently, we have limited the number of lectures and introduced in-depth formats where people work with each other and solve queries. It is also very important that we have a business approach. That is, because we do not have an offline format, we are focused on helping Ukrainians keep and grow their businesses.

I sincerely believe that a person in any community develops. And the more people there are, the bigger their environment is. Let me give you an example by analogy. Do you like to watch or read Harry Potter? Do you have any related hobbies?

— This cultural layer has not escaped me 🙂

— For example, you love to read books, watch movies, collect things, or play Harry Potter games. And so you share this with your friends. Of course, they support you, but they don’t fully understand.

Eventually, you find yourself in a community where you start to actively communicate on this topic, understand each other, give and receive advice.

It is the same with the business community. They understand what a cash gap is, hiring, motivation, and most importantly, failure. Because an entrepreneur fails in the morning and wins in the evening, or vice versa.

— Imagine that you have the opportunity to invite any person you consider “yours” as a speaker. Who would it be?

— I would invite a sincere person, even with little experience of victories and defeats, who is not afraid to talk about them. Most entrepreneurs are shy about sharing their failures. But they need to understand that by admitting them, they help not only themselves but also others.

They must be a person of value who knows how to not only take but also give. This is a synergy that helps to solve any issues. We don’t care how much our club members earn. Let everyone who reads this interview think about what kind of person they are, whether they can help someone or, on the contrary, need help themselves.

I wouldn’t invite someone who is looking for networking and turns it into a sales funnel. I am interested in those who are looking for a healthy environment.

— The main thing is that you are like that. That’s why I joined the community — I saw this attitude and the people who joined here. Thank you very much!