Excuse me, do you have a business, or just a brand?

Modern entrepreneurship, where everything is considered down to the last colour of the logo, except the revenue.

Recently I started wondering how complicated it has become to have an ordinary business. Once, someone opened a shop, offered a service, found clients and tried to earn more than they spent. Today that sounds almost improper. How can you simply sell something? Where is your mission? Where is your vision? Where is your personal brand? And, most importantly, how will people know that you are successful if you have not written it at least three times on LinkedIn?

I look at websites and profiles and discover an entirely new economic civilisation. Nobody offers consulting anymore. Everyone unlocks potential. Nobody teaches. Everyone transforms. Nobody sells an ordinary service. They create an experience that changes lives.

If I buy an accounting consultation, will I receive a balance sheet or a spiritual awakening?

I am especially impressed by businesses that have not started selling yet but already have a mission to change the world. The website is magnificent, the logo is golden, the photographs are professional, and the founder gazes confidently towards the horizon. The clients are probably somewhere out there too.

In the About section I learn that this person is a visionary, leader, strategist, mentor and creator of a unique methodology. I read carefully because I want to understand what they have actually done. After six paragraphs, I still do not know. But I am now convinced that they have gone through an extraordinary personal transformation.

Wonderful. And what does the company do?

Then comes my favourite part: proprietary methods. Every letter stands for something inspiring. Every word is written in capitals. There are circles, arrows, pyramids and colourful quadrants. I look at the diagram and wonder whether I am studying a business methodology or instructions for assembling furniture without the screws.

I have nothing against methods, of course. I object to methods that promise results before anyone has explained how those results are measured.

If a system guarantees growth, I want to know what kind of growth. Revenue? Profit? Costs? Because I can increase the last one quite successfully without a special methodology.

Then comes artificial intelligence. It already writes business plans, advertisements, articles, emails and motivational speeches. Soon it will probably start attending business breakfasts instead of us. I imagine two AI systems exchanging business cards, praising each other's personal brands and finally promising a strategic partnership.

Neither has a budget, but the synergy is magnificent.

While everyone is building ecosystems, scaling potential and positioning expertise, I remain interested in a few inconvenient details. What are we selling? To whom? For how much? What does it cost us? And what is left at the end?

I know these questions do not sound especially inspiring. It is difficult to create an impressive webinar entitled “Please check your expenses.”

But I have a proposal. Before we start transforming the market, let us check whether the market has even noticed our presence.

Before we scale, let us see whether there is anything to scale.

And before we declare the business revolutionary, let us try something genuinely radical.

Let us sell something.

Because a brand can be inspiring, the mission elevated and the methodology written in gold letters.

But I have never met an accountant who closed the year with a positive financial result simply because the logo looked expensive.

Irena Popova

KALEIDOSCOPE | Business · Technology · Society