Founder's advice. Alexander Onikienko, CEO TakeItTaxi

“Founder Councils” once again acquaint Megamind’s readers with IT market stars, founders and managers of their own business.

As Alexander himself admits, over the past 8 years he has been learning to conduct business on his own samples and mistakes, experimenting with a wide variety of activities, from renting and renting Zorb to online stores of various kinds. For the last 3 years, Alexander has been involved in the taxi market at the head of TakeItTaxi, a startup we have already talked about .
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We asked Alexander, the managing director of the company, to share with the audience of “Megamind” his own advice, formulated during the acquisition of such valuable, personal, experience.

The first advice that is of particular relevance to me and I believe that this advice is in principle relevant for any “start-uper”: “Always test the professional skills of people and partners with whom you develop business together” . Including it is necessary to check and own contractors, and rather in detail.

Over 3 years of work, we have been in a situation many times when even with a competent technical assignment, the result of work is bad, so I pay attention to this particular item.

How do we deal with this problem in Take It? We collect reviews, ask for recommendations and want the person working with us to communicate in the same language: the same words and concepts. Then everything is good and you can work with a person.

If the final goals differ, you are unlikely to come to a good result, and in order to set goals, both parties must understand each other well.

This applies even to absolute details, like the typography with which you work. For example, we make business cards - and we are looking for a person who is interested in working with you and perceives you as a “good client”. Because for one printing house, a client with a circulation of 10,000 is “no one”, and in this case reluctantly pay attention to you.

No need to work with those who do not want to work with you. First and foremost. And test your skills.

You should always understand that nobody is interested in helping your business 100%. This is a rather obvious thing: “ Every man for himself ”, both in business and in life. And only within the framework of one team it can be interesting for people to grow a business and do their job as well as possible, hoping exclusively for themselves.

Often, we see a situation where “startupers” rely on investors, business partners or even clients. A million of offers come every day to take It - and these people are engaged in the same business as we do and do it for the sake of money. No need to deceive yourself and think that someone will help you for free. Do not forget about it and make a reasonable choice, the most important decisions should always be made only within the team.

Enthusiasm and motivation are the things on which I have been trying to build a business for a long time. After a while and experience, I came to the conclusion that this does not work - only discipline works. If we know that there should be 5-6 meetings a week, on such and such days and at the agreed time, they should happen. Even as part of a creative process, such as a brain storm, when you need to think of something (for example, the concept of an advertising campaign or the design of some part of a product), it is better to do it regularly. We do not tolerate such things: inspiration is good, but it is necessary to work systematically. When the process is organized in this way - systemic, then the result is more predictable. Creative processes from this point of view are no different from the processes of routine, cyclical, planned and predictable.

The secret to success is getting up every day and doing your own thing. Even when you run into a wall - the result can be achieved by circumventing or breaking the wall. The only thing that I saw working as a placebo in any business is persistence. Every day, do the same actions, even in a situation where the result seems subtle or absent. Only such knowledge will lead you to understand what needs to be changed in order for the result to be, or to improve.

“Turning back” does not work. It is necessary to be systemic and go forward.

The last 3-4 years I've been reading about the “wow effect”. At the previous place of work, we were subscribed to the books of the publishing house, the name of which I will not mention, and fashionable books on marketing came to us every month. I started about effects, marketing strategies and so on ... and I think that this is nonsense and in a startup, that is, in a young business, it does not work.

Now we have one goal - to understand the need of the client and to “close” this need well. After we do it well, you can sell more, scale up your business and think about viral marketing. But to start from the end is simply meaningless. Coca-Cola can do this, but those who have just entered the market are not. While you are small or medium business, you need to think about one thing - how to do even better what you are doing. Do not pay attention to "marketing innovations".

Often, including me, there are doubts. We read about what and where Uber did before us, and the hands drop by themselves: “Do we do everything right?”

At such moments, I force myself to think about what good I personally bring to the world in which I exist. In the business. People around me. If you think so, then most of the doubts pass right there - you come to the team, work with him on a quality product that your customer will be happy about. If you live the same way - it makes sense to do what you do.

New entrepreneurs: “We get what we need when we are ready to receive it . ” For many years I ran with presentations on funds, ventures, business angels, and so on, trying to attract 2-3-4 million dollars for a project. However, objectively, the project was not ready for such money. Now in Take It we, receiving similar offers, understand that we can digest them. And at the start, most likely, no one can.

When you are ready for anything and anything, then everything happens, the business receives money and the speed of development, the client. Of course, not by magic, but because it is possible.