Monthly Archives: November 2014

5 Startup Mistakes that will Drag Your Business

Startup Mistakes

“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” -Steve Jobs

Running a company from just Ten people to now 100 plus in a span of four years really makes me wonder, whether I am dreaming or is it a reality.

Many youngsters or startup’s often take for granted that I built my pillar overnight, but fail to understand how much struggle or hardship I went through to get this done.

Business are not as smooth as a mosaic, it does not run the way we talk or perceive, lot of hard work, struggle, understanding of the product( whether it is developing a software or a mobile app ), self-experience in handling the product, that we intend to sell , the defects of the products, the client perception, and lot many data needs to be analyzed.

STRUGGLE

Every great entrepreneur from Narayana Murthy, to Steve Jobs to Mark Zuckerberg to Bill Gates, went through The Struggle and struggle they did, so you are not alone. But that does not mean that you will make it. You may not make it. That is why it is The Struggle.

Sometimes people come up saying – “for you it was a piece of cake to set up this company”. I feel amused listening to their words. I really wished it was a piece of cake, but what makes me still laugh about – is people forget to understand even a small cake requires right ingredients and right method, right process and pain to make it a sweet delicacy, that within seconds of it inside the mouth it melts. A moment which everyone want to have; same is with business, unless and until you struggle hard and know your ingredients and method of executing it, you will never ever succeed.

Coming from family who were not much into education or technology, who were not aware of the mobiles and smartphones, I persuaded my dream of studying into IT field, and after successful career for almost 20 years, I tried to make my base and learning through work of running a company, I took initiatives, made financial saving and set up a platform, and the day I felt I was capable of running a company then I firmly put my foot down and started with Space-O, a space which gives you a chance to explore yourself, a place to learn and make others learn. A place of sharing ideas and innovation.

As per the report of Bloomberg, 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs who start their business fail within 18 months.

Let’s get deep to understand why do so many startups fail?

As per the analysis of 101 Startup postmortems, by Fortune

42% Polled Startup Said – No Market Need

The Startups fail to research or study the market need of their product, they flop to understand the potential opportunity in the market which the customers are not at all interested and they go ahead without analyzing how their products is going to perform.

This is the worst move an entrepreneur can make, an entrepreneur need to study the statistics of the industry performance, as per StatisticBrain survey, 37% fail in information Technology(IT).

The entrepreneur need to take 1000 steps or put himself in shoes of a customer before getting the product out. Your customer is the key to your success, so analyze their pain, their needs and their basic wants and price.

29% Polled Up – Miscalculating (or not calculating) your Cash Burn

Many startups run of cash as they don’t budget properly, financial execution is important which they lack to understand or make, there by burn rate is too high. As per some surveys, new business owners fail to understand monthly expenses, almost 20% of owners lately realized they didn’t have enough finance.

Start analyzing your cash flow with real world variable. Forecast your sales that they will close and earn their revenue. Be realistic in gauging how much money you need to get going.

23% Polled – Not right Team / Hires

To get started you need right bootstrap staffing, an entrepreneur need to hire potential candidates, try to understaff as they drain huge funds, but if need you really need to bring in people to work for you. Try to outsource as much as possible; for instance like payroll, account receivable/account payable, taxes and more.

19% Polled – Get Outcompeted

An entrepreneur should be able to get as much information as possible about their competing products, analyze its growth or their reach to the customers, based on their study they must be able to make changes in their products if need to make it better. Above all their products must be competitive, cheaper and easier to use with many and unique features.

18% Feel Pricing / Cost Issue

Some of the startup owners have no idea about pricing their products, they are not able to find the right balance between cost and value to the customers, and due to this they often find themselves in trouble. Get the right time and capitals that are needed to get the right numbers. High prices will take you out from the market and too low will make it hard to cover your business expenses.So have a balanced pricing.

Failures are a common when you are running a business, but failure should not be practiced every now and then. Yes! Business is a stressful job, that creates emotional turbulence especially for starters, as there are high risk of failure involved, but as an entrepreneurs you must know the art of juggling many roles and face countless setbacks, there will be traumatic events all the way, launching a company is a wild roller coaster ride, full of ups and downs, but don’t make your business squeeze out your connections with your close friends and families – as they are the great support throughout your pathway.

Balance Work & Home with Right Cord to be Happy

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“You will never feel truly satisfied by work until you are satisfied by life.”
― Heather Schuck

Being at the top level, often people ask me how I seem to be contented with my life as I am able to balance my work and office?

Happiness and Work

I know this is a vast topic which has been discussed over and over again, but what draws me back here is even with so many topics on the website, still people seem to be untouched with the subject and lack to strike a balance with their happiness and stress/work.

I strongly believe that in order to excel well in your professional life, one need to be happy at their personal life too. At the end of the day we all strive for this contentment and this is possible by making some simple changes in our life and this is certain to happen only by ourselves.

Believe in happiness then things will follow automatically

Even research in neuroscience and psychology have discovered that the formula for success lies on happiness and not on hard work. Studies have revealed that the happier the employees are, they are more creative, engaged, productive and are more likely to be promoted.

If you look into the lifestyle of our ancestors, they were more positive towards their life and much happier than what we are today – basic fundamental rule they adopted was to Keep things Simple with limited wants.

Coming from a joint-family, gave me a chance to see life in depth, I was able to perceive happiness along with success and the secret recipe – was mingling and taking out more time with my family members when I am at home. I strongly condemn the conventional way that in order to be more successful one need to work hard, and the harder we work so does the success follows, but do you agree this is true? Even studies have shown that not only this formula will burn out our success but it demoralizes us, along with having poor social and family life.

Happiness fills us with success, the more positive we are,our brains becomes more engaged, creative, energetic, and we become more productive towards our work.

“A true balance between work and life comes with knowing that your life activities are integrated, not separated.” – Michael Thomas Sunnarborg,

I liked the quote above – as truly said by Michael Thomas, work and life are integrated and one must have certain disciplines and principles to make this a smooth process. People look at you as a role model especially if you are running a big company with hundreds of employees, and to keep pace with my role, I follow certain principles which I have shared here; hope it could help you to gain more happiness and balance life.

Talk to yourself at least once in a Day.. Otherwise you may miss a meeting with an EXCELLENT person in this World – Swami Vivekananda

Take some “ME” time

I make sure that every day I spend at-least few mins to be all alone; it may be after entire family sleeps or before I leave the office, I close all my work, sit ideally and keep my mind blank; if this does not permit me on a daily basis, at least once a week I make sure I spend 30 mins relaxing all by myself, it can be even sitting in front of my TV, or watching stars…

Don’t mix your activities, keep it separate –

The day you mix your activities like carrying work @ home or vice-versa, will be the ultimate worst thing to happen, you are ruining not only your life but the entire circle group, whether it is office or home. Once you’re more relaxed, you will be at ease to work, so make sure you strike that cord right.

Be Punctual, value Real-time & be enthusiast

Personally I believe in being very punctual and keeping up with time, we don’t have any rights to play with others time and vice-versa, so value every second of your life, respect your colleagues and be in a team to complete your work at the stipulated time frame.

The recent letter by Narayan Murthy to his employees is a very true perspective. A good example which needs to respected and adhere to in our life.

Happiness is pathway to working smarter, rather than harder, and with said above, I would like to put a full stop here and hope to see more happiness in everyone’s life.

Basic iPhone 4, 4S A Smartphone Cannot be Neglected

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iPhone 4, 4S Vs Other Devices Uses
The global revenue from smartphone is expected to increase to more than 272 billion by 2015. There are more number of iPhone user than Android or any other mobile phones with Apple iPhone users downloading nearly 48 apps per month.

89% of smartphones user use their smartphone the entire day with highest age group of 25-34 using at a rate of 62%, out of 1.08 billion smartphone user globally, and nearly 91.4 million of them are from the US alone.

Why there is such a fantasy for iPhones?

User need something easy to use and get help with, you don’t need to be a thinker to get most out of the box, but what makes iPhone unique is, it has the highest ratio of functionality and as the survey done by Businessweek – iPhone user partially has affinity for their handsets and the consistency of Apple’s customer service is unparalleled, that reflect the best part of an iPhone.

I always wondered whenever I read a blog, where people shared their views of still using 4,4S – even after the launch of iPhone 6, 6 Plus?

I was very curious and bent upon to find the data as to why even after the entry of new devices like iPhone 6 & 6+, with a mix OS on iPhone like 6, 7 and now the latest 8.1 hitting the arcade, still the old device like iPhone 4 & 4S rule among the users. Some of my findings helped me to get a fair idea of its popularity.

With the help of the flurry statistics I was able to get a good data which I would like to share here – out of 730,898 Unique Users – All iPhone devices, we have recorded 289,953 Unique Users using iPhone 4 & 4s, is 39.67% , a good number which cannot be ignored.

What may be the reasons for this?

Apple even after 3 years of old iPhone 4S are still able to provide software updates, which shows that there is a good demand of 4, 4S.
The iPhone 4, 4S still plays a critical role in various markets apart from major ones like USA and Western Europe, which are usually in front of the media.
iPhone 4, 4S is a perfect device for anyone looking to get into the Apple ecosystem for minimal cost, as they do indeed make a great ‘iOS starter device.
It is device which is very compact to use even though there are many features in 6, 6+.
As rightly said by Steve Jobs, this is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history.

Wrapping up, when coming to a total package from fit to finish both in terms of hardware & software, the cream of cake is always the best.

My Thoughts about The Successful Sales Closing

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You don’t close a sale; you open a relationship if you want to build a long-term, successful enterprise. – Patricia Fripp

As commonly known that big companies invest hugely on sales team as they are the main pillars for an organization to grow. MBA’s from Harvard, Stanford and many other management institutions are in great demand as many companies are standing tall and in line with a competition on a daily basis.

Do you think having a salesperson is worth the money spent by the company?

To my level of experience and practice yes, a good salesperson will be able to close the business deal, that will not only bring sales but horizon the company to betterment.

Above all, the CEO must have hands on experience on marketing and its strategies in case the mid-level are not able to handle the sales or fluffs with an important client.

As a CEO, I strongly believe in basic structure and old principle which has helped me to gain my customers successfully in the long run and able to close the deal in a very professional way.

As rightly mentioned by – Patricia Fripp, I too go with understanding that a sale is never closed but an open relationship that continues for better growth, a win-win-situation for customer and the company.

Know your Customer & take him into confidence

Before leaping into a big fish mouth, set small step to know your client, their background and if possible analyze your customer profile. Understanding your customer will help you to sell more, the more knowledge about them the easier the opportunity to sell your product and target them with appropriate offers. Take them into your confidence about your organization and the product. This will take you to greater leap.

Understand your product and know how your firm can best serve the market:
Before selling the product to the customer a salesperson should be aware of

Personal understanding of the product
Customer Segments – the product how competitive it is in the market.
Competitive analysis – Competitive positioning is very important when dealing with the product and the client so Know your competitors very well.

Probing Sales Questions to Your Customers to get full understanding of the problem or opportunity:
Asking probing questions can be the building blocks for providing your clients with the best solutions to their problems like Open-ended questions & Open opportunity questions.

Rose attracts more flies than cactus, so start off your analytical sales questioning by exploiting on what’s going right with your clients and then ease into problem areas.
Leading Questions – This will guide your customer to a point of view in an influential manner
Probing Questions – When you want to illuminate your customers’ hidden needs and wants and gain a better insight into a person’s thought process to further illuminate their rationale or position.
Emotional thermometer- Galvanize customers’ emotions so they’ll take action, with your help. Sometimes you may sense that something might be starting to boil beneath the surface. So address the pending emotional response that might otherwise de-rail your sale if left unchecked.

Negotiation Skills
As commonly known negotiation is a fact of life and everyone negotiates something every day. It is a skill and it plays vital role in getting the deal closed.

You must have a knack to convince your customer to spend money.
The negotiation should produce a wise agreement, must be efficient and should improve and not damage the relationship with your client.
Time limit – you have a short span of time and need to stretch your negotiation as much as possible by convincing your client to go for your product, the uniqueness that makes your product different from others.

CEOs are ultimately responsible for the company’s performance, and there is no area of competency that yields a greater impact on company performance than negotiations, so go for value-based negotiation methodology that will help you close with your deal.

Above all – Patience is key to any business closure successfully

Closing a big sale is not smooth as a honey neither it is as hard as an iron. The essence is in being patience and don’t rush for anything. Everything happens at right time. One need to shut down their emotion switch and should not allow oneself to be either positive or negative situation. All that is required is logical thinking and things will fall into its place.

Have you had any successful experience in closing a business deal? Happy to hear you in comments below:

Organize Myself with Google Calendar Makes My Vacation at Ease

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Google Calender

Do your remember the time when juggling task was a big thing, we literally had to jot down or mark our task in our calendar books and every now and then had to peep down the calendar to see what’s next? Or we had to rely on our PA all the time to get our task remembered.

Just turn around and see where you are today?

Technology era has revolutionized every inch of our life and we have become parlayed without them.

Thanks to mobile app age and above all the Google Calendar that helps me to organize all my task; as in the world of management, timing is everything and time is one of the most critical assets in business and if not scheduled and monitored rightly, it will get the best of you.

I always felt being a CEO with lot of travelling in my cards I need to be ahead, as staying ahead requires more than just organization and getting your task done feels better when they lead to successful outcomes.

So how do I balance my Calendar?

Being a big fan of Google Calendar has helped me to stay a step ahead of others and this is a wonderful enterprise-grade tool that has helped me to plan, react and accelerate and above all, it has helped me to connect with my business world; even when I am on vacation without having any kind of time zone barrier.

Though there are plenty of Calendar apps like Sunrise, Tempo, CAL and many more, I never felt anything better and easy like Google Calendar.

The Google Calendar not only helps me to Sync with other computers and electronic devices, but the best part of this software is that when I am across multiple time zones – the Google calendar’s event time zone helps by avoiding confusion of cross-country time zone and the changes instantly reflects across all my events on the calendar, regardless whether the device is in airplane mode or offline.

A Person like me who is nosing into the books at spare time, a constant reminder, or beep from Google Calendar has helped me to see my task, and attend meeting or appointment or assignment. And the best part even without internet access, no-matter where I am with the help of read-only I can view my schedule.

Even though Google Calendar was never designed for trip planning, I personally have found plenty of benefits by using it. It may not be a great tool for planning daily minutiae, but it is a great tool for visually planning out the major movements in a convoluted trip.