“Help your customer choose what you want them to choose”.

Some strategies to govern customer’s choices in your favor-

Provide multiple product option in the same category – e.g. same or similar energy drink in different colors, flavors and packaging in single cost bracket. Give them more options to choose.

Broaden your product line – Offer something which is perceived totally different from the existing product without expanding by leveraging your existing production and design capacity. Divert their attention to some other product from your line of product.

Start early – Your product should start targeting your prospective customers in its early interest phase, when children start choosing their own chocolate, when teenage start choosing their own spectacles, when a young couple start searching for their first car, when early grey-haired citizens start looking for investments. Approach early, either through target marketing or through mass promotion. 

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Do you need to go to college to be an entrepreneur?

It partially depends on what kind of business you want to start. Formal educations up to the college might not be necessary for some creative entrepreneurs but it helps you on many fronts like personality development, interaction skill, of course industry knowledge, business intricacies etc. but usually pre-college education can help understand the basics of business dynamics, and will help interact with people in general and specifically client. Whether college or not one should definitely learn basic finance and one can always keep increasing their business and industry knowledge while keeping track of market affairs. 

In this information age it’s easier than ever to acquire knowledge, through different social media streams. It’s an open knowledge economy; people are much more open and willing to share their success stories, business tricks, business pitfalls and lessons compared to past. Feedback was never so readily available through the emergence of blogs, forums, etc. There are ample success stories to justify the need of formal education and equal ample stories where successful entrepreneurs have emerged without formal college education, but there were few common traits in both the categories, which is – Vision, determination, hard work, persistence and continual search for knowledge while reinventing themselves. 

Learn how to read a business bestseller before it’s written in the following post

http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/03/reading-bestsellers-before-its-written.html

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25 Rules of success for business and online startups

Launch early - you can’t afford to wait till you have a 100% fail-safe plan

Learn from your mistakes

Don’t repeat the same mistakes again, ..http://bit.ly/ArDoG0

Understand the legality of your business, choose your business name and content which is unique and does not attract legal notice.

Leverage your business through common attributes..http://bit.ly/xbhCGZ

Create business synergy among many businesses or support service or product line

Improve your products, services and online experience based on customer’s feedback.. http://bit.ly/xaNRyo

Reduce number of clicks to sell your products online

Reduce turnaround time

Promote relevant products

Do not get spread too thin doing multiple task yourself

Hire people for those parts of business you don’t like doing yourself

Keep track of your accounts from the day one; you are going to need those details on way to success

Maintain professional attitude from the get go …http://bit.ly/wEn1rh

Maintain focus- it’s easy to get distracted.. http://bit.ly/zuyxst

Be careful while hiring or joining friends for business…http://bit.ly/wi5I0i

Hang out with people with positive vibes, avoid people with negative spirit

Listen to criticism passively and discard everything which demotivates you

Utilize technological possibilities and help at your disposal ..http://bit.ly/yuGSYU

Utilize social media potential or hire someone to help you optimize it for you

Create a product or service capable of triggering word of mouth publicity… http://bit.ly/yibMqn

Pause to have a reality check, review and restrategize if needed… http://bit.ly/wv6vUE

Pause to appreciate what you have been doing

Don’t judge your success by someone else eye, only you know what you are getting from your business apart from money, things like satisfaction, attention , authority, control on your time and life etc. ..http://bit.ly/xLfxjc

Pay to yourself and feel good about you and what you have created.

Learn how to materialise every Business Opportunity which comes your way -http://bit.ly/x5Dv24

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Why and how of customer service

Why customer service?

It helps you retain customers

Returning loyal customers

You get word of mouth publicity

If your product is same as your competitors, you should have something sort of service edge which will keep customers busy talking about

How to service?

Customized services

Deliver wow

Launching regular new products will keep customers busy and coming back

Learn what are the top problems faced by new business owners in providing customer service in the following post -http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/top-5-problems-faced-by-new-business.html

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How to minimise obstacles between customer and product online

Give crisp and precise information regarding product or services

Provide customised information to repeat customer

Eliminate the membership and signup process for payment

Reduce the number of clicks from landing page to payment once and reduce it again

Using behavioral tracking software for optimised user experience

Create engaging audiovisual user interface

Induce surprise elements in the website to keep them stick to website till the payment is done

Learn about the top 5 problems faced by new startups in providing customer service here - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/top-5-problems-faced-by-new-business.html

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How to deal with business competition

If you think you can beat the competitor with rock bottom pricing, it can only be a short term strategy, its not sustainable. Bringing prices down to attract the customers will only reduce your profit margin, and you are only likely to compromise with quality of product or services.

To survive the competition or to win it, all you need to do is to provide uniqueness in your product or service or both to the end users. When number of people is selling the same product or service you need to differentiate yourself from the masses through innovation in product and services. 


Another advantage of having uniqueness in product and service is that you can dictate and control the prices and slowly a unique category of loyal customers emerges to buy your product and services, which also help promote your business through word of mouth publicity. You will need to create your own niche market by providing uniqueness to cope with Competition. Know top advantages of Niche Marketing, here - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/top-10-advantages-of-niche-marketing.html

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6 ways to improve your products and company image

Customer feedback and Input

Quick Online Survey - Hire a online survey firm, integrating quick poll form in your website etc.

Studying available online comments on forums, blogs etc.

Periodic company brand image makeover to keep pace with the marketShift in strategies, if needed

You need to hire best designers in industries - Bootstrapping other requirements if needed 

You will learn about what is the common success factor between all the business owners in the following article- http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/what-is-common-between-successful.html

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3 basic Thumbrule of hospitality and service industry

It all depends on front-end staff - they are the face of industry

It’s about 40% ambiance and 60% service and of course affordability cannot be ignored

Education and training makes a difference - you must be wondering why a 2 star hotel staff won't behave like a five star staff while both are human capital 

Learn about the top 5 problems faced by new startups in providing customer service here - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/top-5-problems-faced-by-new-business.html

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6 must know Thumbrules of customer service for every business

You should know as much as possible about your every customer - Beforehand

Respect your prospective customer - Even if its 5 year kid

You can't satisfy every customer - But you have to deal with it somehow

Single point assurance - Customer is not supposed to run from one desk to other, it’s your job

You need to make sure the problem of customer has been solved - Before customer asking twice

Either job is done or apology for delay - No need to justify the delay

Learn about the top 5 problems faced by new startups in providing customer service here - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/top-5-problems-faced-by-new-business.html

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Brighter side of partnership

Your partners validate your dream

They keep you rooted when you deviate to far from subject

They can help keep you rational when things go wrong

You feel lonely at times walking alone – having company is mostly fun 

You should know what precautions needed to be taken while forming partnership with close friends to avoid any future business complexity as discussed in the following post - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/what-precautions-needed-to-form.html

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Top 5 problems faced by new business owners in providing customer service

New startups should be aware of traps of technical support to customers

Handling multiple contractors and coordination - a toll on time and resources

Unreliable contractors - Brand image at stake

Lack of uniformity in support services due to multiplicity of outsourced work

Poor workmanship by contractors - Difficult to meet the quality of services provided directly by Office staff

Not that profitable

Suggestions

Online and Telephonic customer services can be encouraged

Make a robust FAQ section, answering every possible customer queries,

Following article will answer youre all the basic queries about the customer service - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/03/why-and-how-of-customer-service.html

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What precautions needed to form business partnership with friends?

Keep the following suggestions in mind while getting into business partnership with friends.

Have a company vision - agreeable to everyone

Set the rules of game in the beginning - Draft a company policy up to the fine details, agreeable to everyone.

Share and ask for detailed CV - No matter you have grown up together - playing cricket together is one thing and running business together is different

Don't leave the room for surprise - Get the information validated 

Set pilot milestones - Set the short targets, do the math and see if the venture is likely to work otherwise change the strategy

Don't be casual - Maintain absolute professionalism while on job and make sure you also have fun together later

Here are the top 10 suggestions for new start-ups and entrepreneurs - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/10-suggestions-for-new-start-ups-and.html

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What is common between successful business owners?

They have strong feeling of ownership

They believe in their dream and product

They have focused passion for their business

They advocate their product

Learn how to materialise every Business Opportunity which comes your way in the following post - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/never-miss-business-opportunity-again.html

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