Oksana Matviichuk

When your marketing strategies are failing, it’s a clear sign of your business model being irrelevant to the fast-changing business and consumer environment. This is the time to pause and redefine the value that your business may bring to your existing or future customers. Dive deeply into the cost structure and the business processes, and remove any existing inefficiencies as well as find new ways of optimization.

I do not believe that assertiveness or confidence can ever harm negotiations in any form. It's when participants in the negotiation have issues with respecting personal boundaries that they may come across as aggressive or arrogant, which will definitely harm any communication, especially negotiations. When negotiations do not yield the anticipated progress, it’s wise to review the positions of the sides and potentially consider bringing in a mediator. No one should ever compromise on confidence, neither in negotiation nor in life.

In the entrepreneurial journey, managing multiple projects is both an aspiration and a hurdle. Succeeding only partially depends on working harder but on working smarter, setting clear objectives, and defining precise priorities. These act as your guiding light, enabling you to allocate time and effort wisely among your different ventures. Prioritization goes beyond scheduling; it involves aligning your actions with strategic importance, guaranteeing that each move contributes to your overarching vision. It's crucial to recognize the value of time. By establishing clear goals and prioritizing effectively, you can convert time into a valuable asset that drives your endeavors with intentionality and amplifies your impact.

Failure is a valuable part of building experience and contributing to success. How you treat failure differentiates the successful entrepreneurs from others. Viewing failure as a prism for gaining experience helps an entrepreneur get back on track and shape their next attempt with newly acquired insights. Each setback refines strategies and challenges assumptions, leading to better decisions. Embracing failure builds resilience, sharpens problem-solving skills, and improves risk management. Successful entrepreneurs use failures to inform their next steps, transforming them into stepping stones towards success.

The efficiency of promoting your business hinges on the level of focus on its primary needs. Any activity that moves you closer to fulfilling these needs can be considered effective promotion. The stage of the business also determines the most effective actions. For an early-stage business, the number one need is closing primary sales. After the primary clients have been onboarded, the next crucial goal is to improve the product or service, followed by the pursuit of new clients. As the business grows, scaling may become the next pressing objective. Achieving this will require optimizing business processes and attracting investors through concerted efforts.

Shared values and beliefs are the only things that can unite people. Creating a community is a complex and multilayered process. Building community among your customers begins with the value your brand brings to the table. In many senses, market offers are very similar; what can be a powerful differentiator are the values the brand sticks to, the narrative that the brand supports, and the initiatives that the brand contributes to. Leveraging sponsorships, events, influencers, and thought leaders to tell your brand story is one of a variety of PR tactics to create a community around your brand.