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, 

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How to earn money fast and how about a second job?

There are no shortcuts as such to earn money fast, but there are ways and tricks to enhance the possibilities and probability of earning money faster than business as usual. It needs hard work and determination backed by industry knowledge. You need to choose an industry, which is your area of interest, but be cautious to choose an industry which has either future growth potential or proven good track record.  One has to be persistence with a touch of patience, but should be ready as well to take the risk.

Risk has to be calculated and you should not put everything at stake in one go. One should be ready with a realistic backup plan as well. 

One suggestion for people with regular job who are also aspiring future entrepreneur is that you should expand your knowledge base in your future business area while you are continuing your day job and you can also expand your area of operation, may be a secondary income apart from your day job either in your chosen field or through, blogging, affiliate marketing, writing, freelance job etc. to support your dream. When there is a regular and sufficient income from your second job you can either continue with your second job with continuously reinventing your strategies or you can switch your job for a full-fledged launch of personal business. 

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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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

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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

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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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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

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How to keep business proposal and project schedule realistic

It's easy to get swayed away by sheer numbers - do regular reality check

Don't get overenthusiastic with numbers - get your numbers validated by partners / trusted others

Overall business plan should make sense to your over-skeptical clients

Keep all the odd possibilities in mind while preparing project time schedule 

Business strategies should reflect in numbers and should complement each other

Try to foresee all the future obstacles and keep the time schedule flexible enough to accommodate the time lost due to this obstacle

Learn how and why to use Mindmapping tools which helps you streamline your business and makes your business plans realistic- http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/why-entrepreneur-should-start.html

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Rock bottom price strategy for startups

Do you really need to buy those fancy stuffs for your business?

Know when is the right time to buy and from where to buy

Attend auctions to get stuffs at rock bottom prices during down time

Make business out of your existing business byproduct

Create a network of information channel

Keep track of your expenditure

Optimise your budget, review it, optimise it once again to arrive at realistic needs

Bootstrapping wherever possible 

Learn to operate with minimums financial resources in business career at least once - for experience sake 

Learn to negotiate well.

Learn How to leverage your business in 7 easy ways in the following article- http://fromthediaryofmentor.blogspot.in/2012/02/how-to-leverage-your-business-in-7-easy.html

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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

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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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