Diversified strategies for a single task

It’s tough to survive in business if you can’t see the multiple ways to do the same thing. What if it’s a do or die situation and the only trick you knew to get this job done didn’t work? Leaving technical aspects apart for few situations, no matter how small or how big the task is, you should have more than one technique at your disposal to make things work in business. If you are not able to find the way out, seek help, you don’t have to go far; there must be someone in your team, in your office who will help you out, don’t hesitate don’t underestimate anyone. You want your job get done, don’t you?

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

If you didn’t care till now, this is the time

If you have been like this in relationship dynamics of new and old friends and acquaintances, pause for a moment, step back a bit, shed the translucent screen of reliance, understand the dynamics from a fresh perspective, appraise the situation, face the facts, pleasant or bitter, and take a decision, to continue, to keep a safe distance or to discard, because you have to reinvent such associations from time to time in the light of changed situations, newly emerged influences, new environment, sensing others changed temperament, believes, and attitudes. You might find after situational analysis that you don’t have to change anything at all in the present association dynamics, but if you have to, you can’t afford not to realize it as early as possible. You don’t want to be a victim of ignorance. Even friendship and business associations need recurring validation for a healthy relation to continue. Reality check is name of the game. 

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

Dream big but dream wide awake.

Dream today, dream often, but dream with your will not leave it at the mercy of time. Best thing about willful day dreaming is that it’s all yours, no one else knows, there is no limitation on your dream, no boundaries. You realize something only if you dream it first. Don’t delay don’t postpone, do it now, when you are travelling in a public transport, when you are driven in your car, dream in your bed before you are asleep tonight, dream in your bed when you wake up tomorrow, dream when your are sitting idle now, dream if you don’t like something, dream when you really like something, dream of what you think is achievable and dream of what nobody think is achievable. You dream and you realize your dream, only if you dream. 

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

Two ultimate sources of free mentor tips which you can get objectively

It was always there, it’s just that you underestimated it.

Discussion Forums: you can get a continuous stream of advice from online discussion platforms when it comes to seeking advice objectively or anonymously, though you always have an option to participate in the discussion of seek direct advice. Though you have to be cautious in filtering the sensible advice out of tons of junk advice, but remember to reach the diamond you will have to filter tons of coal.   

Published Interviews: You can get tons of crisp, sensible and encouraging tips from interviews of successful people no matter which stream of life or business they belong, you should prefer online documented text versions rather than interview videos because it’s absolutely fast to search and extract the advice and tips you are looking for from a text file rather than a video format. For instance open a online published interview of any successful CEO, Search for the Key word “Success” in the documents through auto search option, highlighting word “success” located everywhere in the document, and read the relevant paragraph. Going through an hour of interview video or two minute search in a text document to get a single advice, you choose yourself! No matter what published interviews are one of the best ways to learn from others success and experience, objectively. 

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

Never underestimate something which you can’t estimate now!!

You feel bad when underestimated, don’t you and that’s why you make an extra effort everywhere you go to make your presence felt, to prove your worth. You are not alone, everyone feels the same, no matter at which pedestal of success they are standing.

A child who comes to your shop and you didn’t entertain him just because he has no serious money at present, he will never come back to you again even when he will have all the money to buy your whole shop. A person who was not entertained well at a brand outlet because that expensive car or clothing is beyond his reach at present, he will never in his life will buy your car of cloth line even if he has to pay extra to go to your rival company. If you fail to estimate potential of a small time writer, actor, artist or any creative soul now, you might have lost a treasure box, something which didn’t clicked you might appeal to someone else.

Pay close attention to your future business prospects now or you will never get it. Don’t underestimate anything at its face value. 

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

“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. 

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

Dwelling on achievements

One takes pride on his/her achievement. Why not? They have achieved something and should celebrate their success. But past glory of success should not overshadow the present effort and future prospects.   


We often get caught in the glorification of past success accentuated by praise of others and tend to miss the present opportunities. When achievement becomes achieved, politely accept it and move forward to achieve the next big target. 




Dwelling on past success is affair of an average mentality, its affair of those who does not have anything exciting at present to share or waiting in the cards. Dwelling on self glorified past is a habit, which makes you self obsessed, its little difficult to break, but it’s better to shed. Those memories of successful moments in life of course give you a positive kick, just keep those alive in your mind to share with your grandchildren, but don’t linger on it, don’t dwell on it. Those who dream big, they are always on the move, always chasing, with occasional pause to rejuvenate their mind, body and soul, 

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

Solution also needs maintenance

We are always looking for permanent solution in business and personal life, or solution to solve the problems of world, the poverty, hunger, or financial meltdown, fighting back to solve the problem. There is no conclusion, no single solution when we are searching for answer.

Solutions are temporary and fleeting in nature, larger the issue more volatile is the solution, in business every day throws a new challenge, and one need to respond sincerely with appropriate answer, keeping in mind that this solution is temporary in nature, solution has to be reinvented in course of time in the light of ever changing business landscape and technological evolution, even if the problem remains same. 

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

How to motivate your sales team

There is no predefined highest achievable target when it comes to sales and it varies from product to product and service to service, so there is always some scope of improvement, but one can always push the target further and chase it, which should be further backed by rewards and incentive through company policy to motivate the sales team, Chasing an apparently difficult target gives a thrill and help keep the team and employees positively charged. Motivation can surely help. One can try short term training program or organizing a workshop by influential and motivating mentor in said field.

To know what’s common between successful business leaders see the following article http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/what-is-common-between-successful.html

advantages-of-niche-marketing.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

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

Tricks of public relation - Workshop & Seminars

Attend every seminar and workshop in the city for first few years

Find out frequent faces of your industry attending seminars & workshop

Find out more about those influential personalities

Go ahead and introduce yourself - no matter how brief is the conversation

Do not forget to exchange business cards

Do write a customised mail to each of them within a week

Appreciate what they said or delivered in the presentation, or just thank them for their time

Do not let them forget you - keep posting mails appreciating their latest venture - also join them on Linkedin

Keep in touch

Your target is to be a recognized face in the crowd of thousands standing with the people you appreciated in your business startup days.

View top 10 suggestions for new startups and entrepreneurs, in the following post - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/10-suggestions-for-new-start-ups-and.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

One page Business Philosophy

You should be able to summaries each component of your business for clarity, simplicity and understanding, though you can keep the details of business components for further reference.

One page Vision and Goal to guide the company

One page Target to drive the company

One page ever ready Business Plan to expand the client base

One page of Company Policy to guide the employee

One page Company Culture for uniformity

Know “why your Business needs to have a Vision” in the following post - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/why-you-need-to-have-vision-for-your.html

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor

The most crucial period on business timeline

Every Business has a growth timeline and it witnesses many ups and downs as well as achieved milestones on its growth trajectory, but one of the most important time period in its growth timeline is the time when business expands- "scaling up business". Expanding and taking business to the next stage is a volatile time period unless perceived and planned beforehand. Its the time when many individuals at middle management level gets involved in a business which was originally started by one or few enthusiastic entrepreneur with few helping hands at bottom level of business.

In business or corporate arena it is said that "one should hire smarter people "  but at times in course of business expansion, business owners feel little threatened  by the pool of smart middle management which they just hired, it becomes little difficult for the owner to handle sudden growth in number of employee. Founder entrepreneurs can't do every work on their own, they should learn to develop trust in its employees and should focus on most important aspect of business development, finance and macro management.

Entrepreneur should develop a company culture from the get go to encourage and develop trust of employees in the vision of company keeping inevitable future expansion of the business.

Business expansion demands thoughtful consideration of acquisition, merger and partnerships. Learn what precautions need to be taken while forming partnership with friends and close associates in the next article - http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/what-precautions-needed-to-form.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 advantages of Niche Marketing

Higher perceived value due to unique content

Less Competition

You can quote higher prices

Higher profit margins

Early bird advantage

You can create your own niche market

Easy to establishment and operation - requiring minimal resources 

It's easier to provide targeted Solution in your area of expertise

Niche segment is loyal to your product or service once they like it

Easier to study the need of small niche market compared to general market

Suggestion

Find out the niche segment in wider publicized market itself like money, wellness etc.

Smaller the niche higher the profit margin - find out the minimum sustainable customer base

Keep upgrading industry knowledge as you grow

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

Tweet

Follow @DiaryofMentor