For many small business owners, growth becomes the default goal. But Yali Saar, CEO and Founder of Tailor Brands, argues that growth without direction is not a plan. In a recent LinkedIn post, Saar stated plainly that “going big is not a strategy,” pointing instead to the importance of deciding what a business is ultimately being built to achieve.
That idea anchors Tailor Brands’ upcoming webinar, “How Smart Business Formation Leads to Better Exits,” scheduled for Monday, January 5th, 2026, at 3 p.m. EST. Saar will be joined by Blake Hutchison, CEO of Flippa, for a conversation aimed at helping small- and medium-sized business owners understand how early decisions influence long-term outcomes.
The Goal Comes First
According to Saar, the starting point for any business is not scale, funding, or even product. It is intent. Founders must decide whether they are building for job security, personal legacy, or a future sale. Once that decision is made, it becomes the goal, and everything else flows from it.
Saar emphasizes that this clarity allows founders to work backwards. Instead of reacting to opportunities as they appear, entrepreneurs can evaluate decisions based on whether they move the business closer to its intended destination.
What Experience Teaches
Saar draws on his observations of first-time and repeat founders to illustrate this point. One of the biggest differences he sees is that serial entrepreneurs understand the toll building a business can take. Because of that awareness, they invest time early in defining a clear goal.
Some founders reach this point through a structured methodology, while others develop it after enough trial and error. Either way, the result is a stronger sense of direction, often long before meaningful growth occurs.
Planning Backward to Move Forward
Reverse engineering a business plan, Saar notes, is not a guarantee of success. It can be difficult, and it may not unfold exactly as planned. But having a goal provides an essential way to measure progress.
When things go sideways (as they often do), founders with a defined goal can assess what went wrong and adjust course. Without that reference point, Saar suggests, progress becomes harder to evaluate, and outcomes are left largely to chance.
This mindset underpins the webinar’s focus, particularly in building businesses that have value beyond their founders.
A Conversation Grounded in Real Outcomes
Tailor Brands currently helps more than 2% of new U.S. business owners launch their companies, giving Saar insight into how businesses are formed. Flippa, which has supported over 100,000 online acquisitions globally, offers a view into what makes a business appealing to buyers.
During the webinar, Saar and Hutchison will connect these two perspectives, discussing how starting a business with intention can open up more options later, including the possibility of a successful exit.
Building with Direction
The session is designed for SMB founders who want to step back from daily execution and think more deliberately about where their efforts are leading. Rather than promoting a single definition of success, the conversation centers on choosing a goal and aligning decisions around it.
“How Smart Business Formation Leads to Better Exits” will take place on January 5th, 2026, at 3 p.m. EST. For entrepreneurs navigating the early or middle stages of building a business, the webinar offers a chance to rethink strategy before momentum turns into misalignment.
Saar’s message is measured but direct: businesses don’t become valuable by accident. They become valuable when they are built with clarity from the start.
