Interview with Oleksandr Kovalchuk, entrepreneur, founder of Alex K Company - blog Cases, Traffic, Sales

Hello!

I’m Serhii Soloviov, CEO of Solve Marketing.

Today I’m going to talk to a talented entrepreneur, Oleksandr Kovalchuk, founder of Alex K Company, and we will discuss the following issues:

work or creativity — what to choose, and whether to choose at all;
how to organize the work of the team so that they work 1 hour a day;
how to conduct the perfect interview for a top manager;
how to choose a business partner and organize work to make everyone happy;
investments and something else that you will learn about when you read to the end 😉

Interview with Oleksandr Kovalchuk, entrepreneur, founder of Alex K Company

— Let’s start with one of my favorite questions to ask. Imagine you’re riding in an elevator with an entrepreneur who is an authority figure to you and you’d like to work with them. You have a minute to get to know him. What would you say to him?

— It will probably be a dialog like this:

“You have no idea how much money we can make together. Imagine the amount you would like to receive. Do you have it? Now multiply it by 10.

— I’m ready,” my interlocutor would answer.

— Why did you wait so long? Are you sure you’ve imagined it? Is it the maximum? Or maybe it’s better to imagine the amount of money I want to earn, and multiply it by 10″.

— You came right out with the trump card, didn’t you?

— Of course, a person needs to be motivated. If I talk about something that is interesting to me, it will not necessarily interest my interlocutor.

— Good. This interview is read by people who are somehow related to business, and they are interested in just understanding what topics are covered, who works with what. If you could tell us about the business area you work with, what would you say?

— The main areas are transportation logistics and investment. Where the negotiation stage is important. I am fascinated by communicating with people when I can learn more about a person than they can tell me in 20 minutes. I already have a lot of experience in this, so I use it in business.

— What is happening with transport logistics in Ukraine now? What do you think?

— Even before February 24, I used to joke that logistics, after food, was almost the only industry that would survive even during the war. But I could not imagine that it would actually happen.

Compared to before the full-scale invasion, we have more work to do. I am even revising the structure of our company to scale up.

— For those people who don’t fully understand what transport logistics is, like me, I understand that it is the transportation of goods for a particular customer, right?

— Yes, you are right. But logistics itself is not just transportation, it is the business of transport companies. Logistics in the general sense is the organization of a comprehensive solution for a client to solve his problem in the most profitable and efficient way.

For example, a client may come with a request for a 20-ton truck. Our task is to understand what exactly the client plans to deliver and decide which route and vehicle will be more efficient. Often, the client comes to us with their own vision of how to fulfill the request, but it costs twice as much as the option we offer thanks to our experience. After all, here you need to be able to look at the issue from a different perspective to get the desired result in the most favorable way. Therefore, it can be called a bit of a creative profession.

— Tell us, what place does creativity play in your life? How creative are you in general?

— I consider myself a rather creative person. For example, I write poetry and short stories, I have performed and even taught in a theater studio, I paint, and I take pictures. Lately, I’ve had a desire to sing, and I’ve even taken lessons, which I plan to return to soon. One psychologist advised me to shift my focus from creativity to business, because it seems that I have too much creativity.

I even began to notice that with the help of creative processes, I seemed to be moving away from work issues that I didn’t like. As a result, I felt remorseful for not fulfilling my work tasks and not enjoying my work.

That’s why I’ve defined an ideal format for myself: I work actively on a regular basis, and in my free time I do what I like. For me, the ideal scheme is “work well and rest well” and organize my plans so that work does not take much time and is enjoyable. Ideally, for me, I would enjoy my work as well. A friend of mine calls it “monetizing pleasure”. To summarize, I believe that we should live 24/7, not after 18:00 and on weekends.

— And how much time do you spend on business now compared to your creativity? Because you have such a list of hobbies, it takes a lot of time.

— It’s not much, about 1 hour a day. Some people may think it’s laziness, but it’s not 😉

— There are people who work all the time, even when they don’t have to, and then there are people who do the opposite. Do you belong to the latter? Do you belong to those who would not work at all?

— I consider myself one of those people who can work hard when they are passionate about what they do. There were times when I worked 20 hours a day. But now I have certain tasks at Alex K Company that I fulfill. Everything else works without my intervention.

That’s why I’m now working on new projects where I deal with strategic issues, and this process invigorates and energizes me. It was very important to understand in time what exactly I like to do, because similar functionality can be used in any niche. By the way, our mutual friend, coach Yurii Friedman, and Ivanna Yevseyeva helped me with this, so I highly recommend that those who want to start working for their own pleasure contact them.

In addition to strategic planning, I really enjoy conducting interviews. For example, when I am looking for a person for a top managerial position, I can conduct an interview lasting 30 minutes and then talk to the candidate for another 4-5 hours. But it will be just a conversation — not an interview or a job interview. This interaction gives me more energy.

— If a person can withstand four hours of interviewing, is he a worthy candidate?

— Ideal communication is when it lasts for several hours. During this time, you can notice some important qualities of a person. In addition, you can hold a face for 20-30 minutes, but 2-3 hours in a row is impossible — there will definitely be a puncture somewhere.

— So, this can be used as a tip for conducting interviews for managerial and top positions: hold a person for 4 hours, and they will expose themselves.

— In my opinion, one and a half to two hours is enough. Of course, it may seem that this is too much, but I enjoy it. Moreover, you will definitely have something to talk about with a person who is planning to take a leadership position in your company. In my case, such an interview turns into an interesting conversation for both participants.

— I’m still interested in returning to the question of how you can work several hours a day and effectively manage your business. Could you give me some tips on what you need to do?

— I would like to increase the efficiency of my management. Right now, my business allows me to live the way I want to live, travel, and work for a minimum of time. But as advice, I would highlight the following points for our readers.

It is important to set up all processes in the company and make them standardized.
Build relationships with employees where they have both responsibility and freedom within their powers and tasks. People generally like responsibility. The question is how to organize it.

— I am very interested in what moments a person needs to be changed, why?

— Let’s say you want to change something in the company. For example, like me, you plan to radically change the structure, open a new direction, and for this you hire new managers. They get into the existing system and adapt to the old formats. Then it will be long and difficult to implement changes.

I have employees who have been working for 10-14 years. This is both very good and difficult at the same time.

— Why is it hard?

— This is usually a good thing. But let’s say you’ve been running a company for many years, and your vision of the business and your approach change. And your team changes at its own speed. That’s why I tried different approaches, but I settled on the fact that when implementing changes, I and my employees should feel comfortable. We are not breaking a train that is running quite well, we are not disassembling the rails, but making it work more efficiently. Also, based on our experience, we build new rails nearby. As a result, we get peace of mind, efficiency, and 2 trains that work.

— I heard an interesting opinion on this matter from my mentor Felix Morozovskyi, who cited a dialog between two managers as an example”. — Aren’t you afraid that your employees will learn and leave? — No, I’m afraid that they won’t learn and stay”.

Again, we return to the question of how to work one or two hours a day and be effective. Tell us, how do you understand the general processes of the company, what do you think it is? How do you build relationships between people and set up a system?

— In general, I don’t think it’s advisable to prescribe a perfect and very detailed system, like in a bank, where everything is standardized and there is no room for each employee’s creativity. I like to work with people who are proactive and creative within the framework of their tasks. If we need to break the rules to achieve a goal, we do it consciously.

But of course, it depends on the scale of the company and the founder himself: the larger it is, the more standardized processes there should be and the less dependence on each individual.

In my company, for example, we have a customer journey, which includes every step of the way, but these are not strict instructions. Or, for example, every day at 10:00, we devote time to operations. We made it a rule, which now brings a lot of benefits.

— Speaking of job descriptions, who writes them in your company? Department heads, or did you write them?

— We have such job descriptions. Some were written by me, some were written together with employees. But in our case, I can’t say that we strictly follow them — we have a more family approach to business.

— Do you have any partners in your business?

— Not in logistics. But I’m currently working on launching a new project, and I’m planning a structure in which I will have two more partners. Before that, I had experience in construction, where I worked with two partners for 15 years. I like working with partners. I am a team player.

By the way, I can recommend the book “Pro Partnership” to our readers. Unlike many other books on this topic, it is clear how it should work in practice, not in theory.

— And speaking of partnership, what do you think is the main advantage of partnership?

— First, with a good partner, you can do a lot of work faster and better. Moreover, it is more interesting to work in a team 🙂

Secondly, by choosing the right partner, you reduce the risks that may arise when making decisions, because everyone has their own life and business experience.

Thirdly, it helps you financially, and it speeds up the process.

For me personally, another important factor of partnership is that I travel a lot — I can leave the business to a partner for a while and go on a trip, for example.

— When it comes to fixing agreements with partners, do you prefer the format of a gentlemen’s agreement or do you put everything on paper?

— I respect the gentlemen’s agreement, but lately I think the format of a documented agreement is more appropriate. It’s not necessary to go to a notary, but it’s important to sit down together, write everything down, and understand each other. Because a verbal agreement can be forgotten or misunderstood.

But I will sign even a very interesting economic paper agreement only with a person with whom I share the same worldview and values.

— Do you have a template of a partnership agreement that you could share with readers?

— I have examples, but the agreement cannot be universal. Therefore, I recommend drafting each agreement individually, taking into account the specifics of the business and the characteristics of the partners.

If you are working on building a large-scale business, I advise you to seek legal advice immediately. There are specialists who deal with drafting partnership agreements. They organize a joint meeting and ask you questions. This is convenient, because sometimes it is not one of the partners who asks uncomfortable questions, but a stranger. For example, if a partner asks: “What do we do if one of the partners wants to leave?” it can be taken personally and provoke resentment, sometimes even conflict. In this way, all the questions are asked by another person who will not be offended.

— Thank you, that’s clear. Since we are a marketing agency, how can we avoid the question of marketing? In your logistics business, where do additional customers come from now? Do you use any digital marketing channels, online advertising, or something like that?

— I usually don’t. Most clients have been working with us for many years. In this industry, the client’s life cycle is very long: there are clients with whom we have been working for 10-12 years. We can call old clients, call their databases, but this happens systematically.

But in the business I am preparing to launch, advertising will be necessary. It’s like in most businesses: if you want to increase your company’s profits by 5-10 times, you have to master all the modern means of communication with customers.

— I understand. Tell our readers more about your investment experience.

— Previously, this could be called my hobby. Now I started working on it as a business — when I realized that I had everything set up in logistics, I decided to pay attention to this area.

I communicate with new people every time and learn a new product. It is interesting for me to participate in the start of a new project.

Here we come back to the topic of business partners: I am usually approached by young talented people with cool ideas that have already been tested, but they lack the funds for full implementation or have no experience, for example, in building a team. But they have a base and come to me with it, and then it’s interesting to work with them. These are usually people under 25, with a fire in their eyes and a desire to work. I was like that at that age myself, so I like working with them.

— Do I understand correctly that you are looking for people who are searching for investments to scale their businesses?

— Usually, these are specific people who do not yet have formalized companies. They are entrepreneurs, but not yet business owners.

— And what areas are you most interested in investing in?

— Usually, I consider those areas in which I have already understood something or can figure it out. For example, I have not yet touched stock markets or cryptocurrencies, although I understand that there can be good profits there. But you need to devote a lot of time to understand the specifics of these niches. As for me, it is very difficult and inefficient to control what you do not understand. But I am happy to consider other topics where I can quickly understand. But I almost always decide whether I will work with a project based on more than just the field of activity. This is the case when I care more about the person than the topic with which they came to me.

— So do you invest in people first and foremost?

— Yes, this is usually the case. I believe that it is now possible to build a successful scheme in which you find a decent partner with identical values, and then you find specialists who can balance you with their knowledge and skills and lead you to success. And this scheme will not work the other way around: if you have a dishonest partner, even the best specialists will not save the situation, even if they have knowledge or money.

Usually, after answering 5-7 questions, I understand whether a person is sincere and decent when communicating with me. And if the person has passed this stage, then we can continue to discuss the direction of cooperation, numbers, and so on. If not, then I see no point in talking and discussing further.

— I understand. Tell me, have you had any negative experiences with such partners, when you made a mistake in your choice?

— There are a lot of negative experiences.

— Can you give us any examples to help us understand the situations you’ve encountered?

— The most striking example brings us back to the partnership agreement. Once I started a new business, I gave a person a whole area and we agreed that he would receive 20% of the profit. The condition was that this area should develop. But in about 6 months, it became necessary to replace him in this position and then fire him. And the person says that he has 20% of the business, so his opinion should also be taken into account. And we ended up in a situation where we did not understand each other. As a result, a well-established, profitable business suffered.

— What are the three qualities of people you respect the most?

— Probably honesty, openness, responsibility, and ease. I believe that one should live and work efficiently, easily and with pleasure.

My parents have instilled these values in me since childhood. And now, when I have my own children, I realize the importance of this position and am very grateful for it.

— Please tell us about your work in the theater, what did you do there?

— In general, I used to go to the theater very often as a spectator. I was already about 45 years old, and I had an idea to go to a theater studio, but I have a business, and I’m not a very good age (as I thought). But I thought about it for about two or three years.

One day, a friend of mine went to the Image theater studio run by Inna Konovalova and offered me a place. I believe it was fate 😁 We had a good team with whom we made a production of 12 Chairs in six months, where I played the main role of Ostap Bender. After that, I started to lose interest — I wanted to continue my development and move on. And so the teachers offered me to lead the group. I was able to choose my own direction, develop classes that they simply approved. That’s how my wife and I started leading theater groups — I for adults, and she for children.

I usually had people who were similar to me, who already knew how to improvise and tell something. But sometimes, for example, business owners would come who couldn’t articulate a thought well or tell a story. It was very strange for me. Once I had a man in his 30s come to class. He sat in silence for about 30 minutes. I was looking for a way to approach him, but he didn’t even want to talk about life, saying it was boring in all areas. It took about an hour and a half of work with him, and he opened up. He started talking so interestingly about his relationship with his then girlfriend, now wife, that I was puzzled. He was from Armenia, and the girl was from Azerbaijan, and because of the military conflict, they hid their relationship from their families, and even got married in secret.

I like to see the seeds of talent in people and see them sprouting with my help.

— What would you advise someone to discover and develop their talents? Apart from theater.

— It is difficult to advise one thing. I can suggest trying everything! For example, I started painting and singing at the age of 40, when few people believed that I would succeed. But I listened to my intuition. I painted not what the teacher at the art school said, but what I wanted to do. Sometimes I could paint all night.

You have to get rid of the “I can’t do it” shorts. I sat down, wrote a list of 30 things I wanted to master, and studied. I listened to my feelings. Because if you are really interested in doing something, you will definitely learn and find your own way. After all, you can even paint black squares and be famous.