Ali Aliev and Maksym Havryshchuk on Business in Poland

Maksym “Max” Havryshchuk is a Ukrainian entrepreneur and co-owner of EVAMATS, a Polish manufacturer of custom car mats. His work involves products tailored to individual vehicles. In this interview, he discusses researching new markets, choosing between relocation and starting again, and adapting business operations to commercial conditions in another country. 

Ali Aliev is a Belarus-born entrepreneur based in Poland, where he has lived for twelve years. He runs an accounting business and provides business consulting, following earlier experience operating a sushi restaurant. In this interview, he discusses tax matters, business relocation, local partnerships, recruitment, and understanding unfamiliar markets.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen interviews Ali Aliev and Maksym Havryshchuk about starting businesses in Poland, relocating operations, and entering unfamiliar markets. They discuss accounting, hospitality, custom car mats, local partnerships, recruitment, and transferring senior managers. The conversation closes with their views on hard work, stability, inequality, and cultural attitudes toward suffering.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Could you each introduce yourselves, tell me where you are from, and describe your businesses in Poland?

Maxsym Havryshchuk: I am from Ukraine, and my business in Poland manufactures custom car mats.

Ali Aliev: I was born in Belarus and have lived in Poland for twelve years. I run an accounting business and work as a business consultant. We help businesses with accounting, optimization, and tax matters.

Jacobsen: Have you two had any business dealings before? Your fields seem quite unrelated, although perhaps there is a connection.

Aliev: I previously worked in hospitality. I had a sushi restaurant, which I sold before opening an accounting business.

Havryshchuk: I have also had some startups. One involved selling boxing gloves.

Jacobsen: Did you box?

Havryshchuk: Yes, I used to box.

Jacobsen: What weight class were you in?

Havryshchuk: I was a beginner.

Jacobsen: The “ability to throw a fist” class.

Havryshchuk: I had about ten fights.

Jacobsen: “Can you punch skulls?” 

“Yes.” 

“You’re in.”

[Aliev and Hvryshchuk laughing.]

Havryshchuk: I also sold watches and had a business involving apartment renovation and repairs.

Jacobsen: A handyman or repairman?

Havryshchuk: Yes, repairs in apartments.

Jacobsen: There is a North American expression, “a jack of all trades.” There was an old Canadian comedy show where the solution to everything was duct tape. It had the line, “If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”

What would you recommend to people who leave their country and either start a new business abroad or transfer an existing business to another country?

Havryshchuk: It depends on the business. You need to analyze the country you are moving to and decide whether it would be better to transfer your existing business or start a new one.

For a business with physical operations, like mine, I think starting a new business in the other country may be better. If you have an online product, transferring it may be more practical.

Aliev: For me, starting a new business in the new country can be easier than transferring the existing one.

You can build relationships with new business partners and learn how things work locally. You need to understand how businesses operate in that country, make contacts in your sector, and develop your knowledge of the market.

For example, if you are starting in Poland, learning how business works here and finding local partners can help you establish a new business.

If you transfer an existing operation, you may need to move employees and bring over your systems. That can be difficult and expensive. For those reasons, I would prefer to start a new business.

Jacobsen: What advice would you give to people who are just getting into business, or who already know how to start a business but are entering a different industry? Someone might move from manufacturing car mats to insurance, or from insurance to manufacturing. I am interested in general principles rather than specifics. Probably with new people, because your existing employees’ skills may not transfer directly. People who make car mats cannot necessarily move straight into accounting, and vice versa.

You, as the owner, might start a business in a new field and hire people who already have the relevant skills in that country.

Aliev: I would prefer to hire and train people in the new country. They live there, understand how people think, and know how things work locally.

You might bring one or two people from your existing company, perhaps up to five senior managers, and then build the rest of the team locally.

Plata in Mexico, associated with Oleg Tinkov, is an example that comes to mind. My understanding is that people from an existing company moved into senior roles, while others were hired locally because they understood the Mexican market. That is the kind of approach I mean.

Havryshchuk: For me, it is the same.

Jacobsen: What is your favourite piece of Slavic business wisdom? It could be a quotation, saying, or aphorism. For example, “All that glitters is not gold” expresses the idea that you should look beyond appearances. Is there something similar that you associate with business?

Havryshchuk: Something about the mentality. It is about mentality.

Aliev: For me, it is “Work hard, play hard.” There is a long period of hard work at the beginning. After one or two years, you may have built a strong business and community. I associate that with Slavic business culture.

In my view, businesses in more stable parts of Europe can develop over a longer period because people have more time and stability. In Belarus, Ukraine, and other former Soviet countries, people have faced difficult conditions.

From my perspective, the divide between rich and poor can feel especially sharp in Ukraine and Belarus, while the middle class seems more established in some other European countries.

Jacobsen: I see a connection with religious culture and social culture with that business culture orientation, including themes in Eastern Orthodoxy about suffering as part of the path to God.

In my view, there can also be a social attitude that happiness has to be earned through suffering, as though your happiness is justified by how much pain you have experienced. Those are different layers of culture expressing similar ideas.

Thank you. I appreciate it.
What advice do Ali Aliev and Maksym Havryshchuk offer on starting a business in Poland, relocating operations, and hiring local employees?

Maksym “Max” Havryshchuk is a Ukrainian entrepreneur and co-owner of EVAMATS, a Polish manufacturer of custom car mats. His work involves products tailored to individual vehicles. In this interview, he discusses researching new markets, choosing between relocation and starting again, and adapting business operations to commercial conditions in another country. 

Ali Aliev is a Belarus-born entrepreneur based in Poland, where he has lived for twelve years. He runs an accounting business and provides business consulting, following earlier experience operating a sushi restaurant. In this interview, he discusses tax matters, business relocation, local partnerships, recruitment, and understanding unfamiliar markets.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen interviews Ali Aliev and Maksym Havryshchuk about starting businesses in Poland, relocating operations, and entering unfamiliar markets. They discuss accounting, hospitality, custom car mats, local partnerships, recruitment, and transferring senior managers. The conversation closes with their views on hard work, stability, inequality, and cultural attitudes toward suffering.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Could you each introduce yourselves, tell me where you are from, and describe your businesses in Poland?

Maxsym Havryshchuk: I am from Ukraine, and my business in Poland manufactures custom car mats.

Ali Aliev: I was born in Belarus and have lived in Poland for twelve years. I run an accounting business and work as a business consultant. We help businesses with accounting, optimization, and tax matters.

Jacobsen: Have you two had any business dealings before? Your fields seem quite unrelated, although perhaps there is a connection.

Aliev: I previously worked in hospitality. I had a sushi restaurant, which I sold before opening an accounting business.

Havryshchuk: I have also had some startups. One involved selling boxing gloves.

Jacobsen: Did you box?

Havryshchuk: Yes, I used to box.

Jacobsen: What weight class were you in?

Havryshchuk: I was a beginner.

Jacobsen: The “ability to throw a fist” class.

Havryshchuk: I had about ten fights.

Jacobsen: “Can you punch skulls?” 

“Yes.” 

“You’re in.”

[Aliev and Hvryshchuk laughing.]

Havryshchuk: I also sold watches and had a business involving apartment renovation and repairs.

Jacobsen: A handyman or repairman?

Havryshchuk: Yes, repairs in apartments.

Jacobsen: There is a North American expression, “a jack of all trades.” There was an old Canadian comedy show where the solution to everything was duct tape. It had the line, “If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”

What would you recommend to people who leave their country and either start a new business abroad or transfer an existing business to another country?

Havryshchuk: It depends on the business. You need to analyze the country you are moving to and decide whether it would be better to transfer your existing business or start a new one.

For a business with physical operations, like mine, I think starting a new business in the other country may be better. If you have an online product, transferring it may be more practical.

Aliev: For me, starting a new business in the new country can be easier than transferring the existing one.

You can build relationships with new business partners and learn how things work locally. You need to understand how businesses operate in that country, make contacts in your sector, and develop your knowledge of the market.

For example, if you are starting in Poland, learning how business works here and finding local partners can help you establish a new business.

If you transfer an existing operation, you may need to move employees and bring over your systems. That can be difficult and expensive. For those reasons, I would prefer to start a new business.

Jacobsen: What advice would you give to people who are just getting into business, or who already know how to start a business but are entering a different industry? Someone might move from manufacturing car mats to insurance, or from insurance to manufacturing. I am interested in general principles rather than specifics. Probably with new people, because your existing employees’ skills may not transfer directly. People who make car mats cannot necessarily move straight into accounting, and vice versa.

You, as the owner, might start a business in a new field and hire people who already have the relevant skills in that country.

Aliev: I would prefer to hire and train people in the new country. They live there, understand how people think, and know how things work locally.

You might bring one or two people from your existing company, perhaps up to five senior managers, and then build the rest of the team locally.

Plata in Mexico, associated with Oleg Tinkov, is an example that comes to mind. My understanding is that people from an existing company moved into senior roles, while others were hired locally because they understood the Mexican market. That is the kind of approach I mean.

Havryshchuk: For me, it is the same.

Jacobsen: What is your favourite piece of Slavic business wisdom? It could be a quotation, saying, or aphorism. For example, “All that glitters is not gold” expresses the idea that you should look beyond appearances. Is there something similar that you associate with business?

Havryshchuk: Something about the mentality. It is about mentality.

Aliev: For me, it is “Work hard, play hard.” There is a long period of hard work at the beginning. After one or two years, you may have built a strong business and community. I associate that with Slavic business culture.

In my view, businesses in more stable parts of Europe can develop over a longer period because people have more time and stability. In Belarus, Ukraine, and other former Soviet countries, people have faced difficult conditions.

From my perspective, the divide between rich and poor can feel especially sharp in Ukraine and Belarus, while the middle class seems more established in some other European countries.

Jacobsen: I see a connection with religious culture and social culture with that business culture orientation, including themes in Eastern Orthodoxy about suffering as part of the path to God.

In my view, there can also be a social attitude that happiness has to be earned through suffering, as though your happiness is justified by how much pain you have experienced. Those are different layers of culture expressing similar ideas.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is a blogger on Vocal with more than 200 publications on the platform. He is the Founder and Publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978–1–0692343; 978–1–0673505) and Editor-in-Chief of In-Sight: Interviews (ISSN: 2369–6885). He writes for International Policy Digest (ISSN: 2332–9416), The Humanist (Print: ISSN, 0018–7399; Online: ISSN, 2163–3576), Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066), Humanist Perspectives (ISSN: 1719–6337), A Further Inquiry (SubStack), Vocal, Medium, The Good Men Project, The New Enlightenment Project, The Washington Outsider, rabble.ca, and other media. His bibliography index can be found via the Jacobsen Bank at In-Sight Publishing, comprising more than 10,000 articles, interviews, and republications across more than 200 outlets. He has served in national and international leadership roles within humanist and media organizations, held several academic fellowships, and currently serves on several boards. He is a member in good standing in numerous media organizations, including the Canadian Association of Journalists, PEN Canada (CRA: 88916 2541 RR0001), Reporters Without Borders (SIREN: 343 684 221/SIRET: 343 684 221 00041/EIN: 20–0708028), and others.

Image Credit: Scott Douglas Jacobsen.