Business Consultations: The first free mastermind session for entrepreneurs took place in Kyiv.
A free event for small and medium-sized businesses was held in Kyiv in the format of public consultations. During this event, experts from PR, marketing, and media helped entrepreneurs from Khmelnytskyi and Odesa understand how to become more effective. They also answered the question: “Which direction should we move in?”.
The mastermind session titled “PR for Business: How It Works Using Your Case” was organized by PR buro Ackermann. The issues were addressed by its founder, Oksana Ackermann, alongside two invited experts: marketer and business literature author Oleksiy Filanovskyi and media trainer and host of the “My Ukraine Plus” TV channel, Olena Tsyntyla.
“When a person starts a business, usually the whole family is involved. The wife manages Instagram, and the son handles marketing. To avoid mistakes and unnecessary expenses, a professional perspective is needed. An expert can assess the current situation and say, for example: “You don’t need a PR specialist right now. You need a sales director who will build the entire product distribution chain.” Thus, we created this format so that Ukrainian entrepreneurs could rely on the professional experience of the best specialists from various fields,” — says Oksana Ackermann.
The first entrepreneurs to submit their cases for consideration were the craft cheese dairy Monsher from Khmelnytskyi and the new cosmetic brand Burdova from Odesa.
Oksana Synyuk owns a goat farm, studied cheesemaking in European countries, and invested about $200,000 into her business. Over six years of existence, Monsher has gained loyal and even devoted fans of its products. However, there are several challenges. The owner handles all processes herself because she is afraid to delegate. The business is not generating profits. There are no state subsidies for this sector, and the demand for cheese already exceeds supply. So, what should she do? Scale up? How?
The experts suggested several ways for the entrepreneur to address this issue: hire a CEO to manage all processes, learn to delegate and become the CEO of her business, or remain a craft cheese dairy with limited offerings and high prices. However, first and foremost, the experts advised Oksana to reflect on her own desires and answer the question: “What do I want? To make cheese, to promote the benefits of goat milk, or to manage business processes?”
“It is essential to define your ambition. Why are you starting a business at all? What do you want to achieve? Then, consider the scale of your ambition. Do you want a national business, one for a single city, or just for a neighborhood?”, – explained Oleksiy Filanovskyi.
The second case came from a cosmetologist and owner of an aesthetic medicine clinic in Odesa. Iryna Burdova has ambitious plans. She is constantly expanding and implementing new ideas. Currently, she has launched a trial batch of hypoallergenic cosmetics under her own brand. However, she lacks experience in the product business.
“I understand that the start of every business is very important. But how do you start correctly? It can be either a spectacular success or a total failure. Recently, I've been using many opportunities to learn what to do. I have many steps that need to be taken. But there’s no system,” – shared Iryna Burdova.
In addition to practical business steps and understanding whom to sell the new products to first, the experts advised Iryna to reach out to a wider audience and promote the culture of proper self-care.
“You can already provide expert advice even before the cosmetics come off the production line. This can include chat consultations, online consultations, free skin condition analysis, etc. This is a kind of audience engagement work. And most importantly – show real before-and-after results,” – noted Olena Tsyntyla.
As a result, a full two-hour session was held, after which each business received a roadmap for further development. In a month, the experts will reconnect with Oksana and Iryna to find out what they have managed to implement in practice and what difficulties they encountered.
The next mastermind session will take place in January next year. You can submit your case for review via this link.
The project is non-commercial and is realized with the support of media partners: My Ukraine+, Obozrevatel, Delo, Informator, Tavr Media, as well as the business partner company Arion.