Know whom not to help!!

If someone is using your stuffs and criticising it at the same time.

Constructive criticism is ok, even that only for few occasions, but if any of your acquaintance of even friend is constantly availing your help or using your stuffs and criticizing, bullying or even blaming you for help not matching his or her expectations, it’s time to get rid of that burdensome friendship or acquaintance without any delay or at least maintain a respectable distance. Learn it now or you will realize later on your own meanwhile getting frustrated for no reason. You have all the right to choose whom to help and whom not, so choose wisely, you are not answerable to anyone for this.

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

From “Simply Customer” to “Repeat Customer”

There are two choices you make every now and then - either you like something of you don’t. You tend to retain what you like while discarding what you don’t like. It’s same with products, but more prominently practiced because of innumerable options available in market competing for the same position and segment by different brands.

You pick up a soft drink, energy drink or similar kind when you are a kid or teenage- either you like it or you simply don’t. If you like it, you like its color, flavor, smell, you associate it with some nice memory, you link it with some vague memory of an advertisement which you saw long back, you associate that wonderful experience of having that chilled soft drink and that cozy or adventurous environment, and you become a lifelong brand ambassador of that product. Now onwards you will pick up that same drink brand every time in future, given a choice. May be silent or talkative brand ambassador but a lifelong repeat customer for sure.  

Now your job as a company or manufacturer or promoter is to help your customer choose products offered by you.  How will you do that? We will see some strategies regarding that in the following upcoming post called “Help your customer choose what you want them to choose”.

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

Which way out..

Delving deep into the question show you the way out, not escaping from it.

Escape or avoidance of particular problem might give you an assumed temporary relief but that problem will be waiting there for you to return, waiting intact, waiting to be addressed, to be addressed with most sincere effort. Apply your brain or seek help, but address it now, might improve it later. You will witness and wonder how many will come forward to help, to lend a hand if you seek help, if they won’t be able to give you money they will surely give to wisdom, a piece of their mind, a piece of their experience. 

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

How to raise money to start a small business

If your requirement is of larger scale you can approach any bank but only after consultation and advice from a Chartered accountant or any related accounts personal or may be people in your business field,

Borrowing loans from friend and family may be a good idea if your requirement is not big.

Review your business plan once aging scale it down to make it more realistic,

You can bootstrap if needed, you can also cut down on fancy technological stuffs and save on fancy office interior at the beginning of your business

There is no end till what time you will keep on saving, launch when you think its right time,

Do take your intuition in account,

Know Top Advantages of Niche Marketing, in the following article http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/top-10-advantages-of-niche-marketing.html

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

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

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

What should be the Long-term Targets of an online business and startups?

It’s very important to have a vision for any company and its process and strategies should be aligned to that long term vision to make it sustainable. Long term targets are generally macro level targets spread over the period of 10 to 15 years or more. Some of the essential long term targets for any online business can be-

To get established as a trusted and honest brand

To get recognized as one of the leading business faces of the industry

To get recommended as a stable brand with strong track record and consistent performance

To be known for excellence in service and product

To globally establish itself as a known brand

Should have a client portfolio which showcases some of the biggest and trusted  brands nationally and worldwide

Should have a project portfolio which showcases a healthy mix of projects which help establish company’s expertise

To accomplish some of the most challenging tasks in their industry

Should have a well established company culture and Vision in which employees have faith.

Learn Top 10 suggestions for new start-ups and entrepreneurs - http://bit.ly/zU5soj

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

What should be the "Medium-term Targets" of online business startups?

Getting recognized and getting positive publicity in virtual world is much easier than the physical market domain and every startup should utilise the marketing and brand building advantages of virtual world

They need to get established as a brand in the period of 3-5 years nationally while spreading its presence globally.

They need to get noticed and get compared with some of the big companies in their industry, due to their uniqueness, innovation and great services, if not on financial parameter.

They need to expand their business in term of manpower in this growth period, they need to hire and retain faithful employees to share workload so that they can focus on larger picture

They need to start leveraging their business through synergy with similar business possibilities, like expanding their product base,

They should have a long list of loyal clients and repeat customers by now-  list length will depend on niche, demand and competition

They should have even longer list of prospective clients by now, 50 to100 or more depending, niche, location, demands etc.

They should definitely get coverage by both social and print media in the period of 3-5 years either for their contribution to that particular industry or for their unique approach, product or services, or at least for some good reason. Its very important for brand positioning.

Learn about Long-term Targets of an online business and startups http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/03/what-should-be-long-term-targets-of.html

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

How to manage Business risk

Take calculated risk

Never put all your eggs in one basket

Have a functional back up plan ready

Assess vulnerability of your business plan on different parameters and varied possible future scenarios

Keep a flexible business mindset to quickly negotiate changing business dynamics

Don't regret on mistakes made, learn from mistakes, change the strategies and move forward

Maintain professionalism in in your work even if you are doing business with friends,

Always keep few alternate revenue sources or prospects around your business, it will give you hope and boost your moral when business in down.

Always be prepared to materialize approaching business opportunity

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

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

Reading bestsellers before it’s written

You can't really afford to wait till someone gets inspired or disappointed or elevated or frustrated from everyday life or everyday business and compiles vivid colorful stories and experiences to mesmerize you, writes it down, get it published and waits till it hits the chart of bestseller, and book goes viral. By the time you are reading the book on a business trip journey or on a lazy Sunday afternoon story is as old as the first inspiration of bestseller writer which might be as old as his or her childhood memory or a decade or a year or few months old. You know the lightning pace at which the world and technology is changing, strategies evolving, myths are made and broken, breakthrough happening and believes are shattered as well as strengthened. You can judge yourself the relevance of those consolidated ideas in form of literature at this moment. 

Why not to have a glimpse of what’s going on at present in the human psyche and interaction, their hopes and aspirations. Why to wait till some skilled author will compile all this for you. Why not to go and read the first hand experiences and aspirations and lessons of millions out there writing every bit of their mind, a collective real time literature of mankind on blogs and forums and websites. Just be wise enough to know which information to relevant and which to discard. 


Similar is the process to understand your business from customer’s point of view. Now learn how to build and sell brand image of your business in following article- http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/6-ways-to-improve-your-products-and.html

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

Business setbacks as measurement scale.

Setbacks are part and parcel of business dynamics, sometimes business has high growth momentum, at times its all time low . What is business without a little bit of thrill. Setback is the measurement of how much risk you take in business, its part of business thrill. If you didn't ever have setback probably you didn't take enough risk. Come out of your comfort zone and have courage to take risk. Calculate the risk, have a backup plan and go ahead. You can't wait till business plan is 100 percent perfect; otherwise you will be too late in the market. 

Learn what to do when things go wrong in Business here – http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/what-to-do-when-things-go-wrong-in.html

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

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

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

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

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

Some tricks of the tech-trade for service delivery business-

You need to have strong data base (single largest qualification criteria) of all the existing and future prospective clients, (let it grow)


You need to track your transactions using behavioral tracking software/ systems, 


Understanding nature of customers in terms of frequency, choice of product, etc.. and offer similar promotional products and services 


Technology will help provide tailored service experience to individual customers.


It will help you make loyal customers by exceeding there expectations, every time they come back to you


Word of mouth Publicity

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

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

Never miss a Business Opportunity again

Never say No to any opportunity - if it aligns with your company vision

Never say No to any opportunity - no matter how challenging is the work

You should be either able to accomplish the work or should be able to convince the client to modify the nature and scope of work itself, - Just don't give up

Learn to operate in adverse financial situations- know where to cut the cost without compromising the quality of work- learn to bootstrap, learn to scale down when needed

Prove one now secure one for future - win the trust of client by accomplishing given project well and don't hesitate to ask for another project in advance from client

There are ways and means to accomplish the job - for each part of work where you lack expertise; there are people to help you out in those areas.

Be always ready with several versions of Business Plan, for different prospective clients

You should have a scalable, flexible and realistic business plan  

Learn best ways to make a realistic business Plan, here http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/how-to-keep-business-proposal-and.html

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

Business on the go - Ever ready entrepreneur

Always be dressed and presentable in business hours and beyond - 

  *You are the image of your company

  * Well dressed look increases your confidence level
 - Let the people enjoy your company and presentable personality 

Always keep your plug and play USB storage device with you-

                                You never know when is the next presentation

·                            You don't want to lose that precious new client  

·                             Keep Your Company information / proposal ready in different format

·                            Keep your company profile presentation updated

Keep your business relevant numbers and information at your fingertips

Keep one page profile/ project summary with you 

Learn tricks of “one page” business success strategies in the following post - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/one-page-business-philosophy.html

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

How to leverage your business in 7 easy ways

Find out other similar area of business expansion

Create and maintain a synergy between these businesses

Cross-promote your products using products complimenting to each other through your different business

Faster service and turn-around time using business process re-engineering

Automate as many services and process as possible - Auto reply, FAQ etc.

Utilize Social media potential

Outsource time consuming complicated processes with predefined operating procedure"

You should learn how much value you have created for yourself through your expanding business and tricks to know your market position in the next article - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/top-10-indicators-to-assess-your.html

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

Top 10 indicators to assess your business positioning & value for yourself

Customer satisfaction - Online or ground survey

Employee satisfaction quotient - companywide survey

Employee productivity quotient - annual/ semiannual appraisal

Quarterly financial comparison with competitors in similar segment and scale of operation

Prepare a list of monetary as well as intangible achievements in quarter/ previous year

Percentage of targets achieved

Pace of development towards macro level target/ vision

What you get out of your own business - personal gain/ satisfaction

How easy or difficult you find it to keep your business at auto-pilot mode

How much leisure time you get out of your business

Learn basic thumbrules of dealing with customers in the following post - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/3-basic-thumbrule-of-hospitality-and.html

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

Why you need to have a Vision for your business

What is Vision?

Vision is a macro level perspective of your future business direction. It is summary of what all you are committed to provide through business and where you see your business years down the line. A strong vision should be capable of conveying the core capability and commitment in a string of few words.

Why need to have Vision?

It gives a direction to your vision

Helps you, your business partners and your employees keep focused and keep going in difficult times

Vision directly interacts with customers and helps make brand image

It helps orient different projects and assignments in the desired direction acting as a common tying element

Represents company culture

It’s a sticky element that lingers on to the memory of customers and help in word of mouth publicity 

To survive the tough business competition you should learn how to deal with business competition, discussed in the following article - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/03/how-to-deal-with-business-competition.html

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

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

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor