The four questions to ask before you get ready to scale-up!
Answering these questions can prepare you to scale-up fast.
Read more at Book Summary – Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t.
Types of Online Edpreneurs
15+ Platforms to Create and Sell Online Courses (and Counting)
The Ultimate Marketing Guide for Online Educational Companies
About the Author: Shweta Luthra is visionary designer who comes with over a decade of industry experience under her belt, having done her Masters in Housing from the reputed School of Planning & Architecture back in the year 2002.
Not just reading books and articles, she travels around the world in order to stay in line with international trends and practices. She understands that first and foremost, detailed client interaction is a priority so that hi-end designs can take shape with precision and accuracy.
Under the tutelage of Marc, a highly successful interior design personnel from London, Shweta was introduced to a new dimension of Creating Energy Spaces a few years ago. Home is an extension of ourselves; ergo, by enhancing its energy in multiple shapes and forms, we can transform our inner capabilities slowly but surely.
Since childhood, multiple times I have heard that we are energy, everything around us is energy. Even all spiritual practitioners & healers talk about energy. I do believe in it but honestly have never given a deeper thought to it.
Luckily, last year in 2017, I got introduced to the concept of energy spaces by my coach, Marc an eminent interior designer from London. He is a ‘Shaman’ who is actively practicing & teaching about ‘Sacred Spaces’ & how they can transform our lives.
What I learnt from here is the fact that everything on this earth including us is a form of energy. We can raise the energy of our home spaces where we spend most of our time, which will enhance our energy & capabilities too.
I learnt about ‘power spots’ which are the crossing points where earth’s electromagnetic lines from North pole & South pole meet. These are the points of very high-energy frequency & most of our ancient sacred temples/cathedrals were built on it. The purpose was that people who visited these temples found that their energy capabilities were raised & inner transformation happened for them. Few examples to quote are the oldest recorded temple of Tiwanaku, Stonehenge in Britain and Pyramids of Giza.
It was amazing to know that our ancestors were so conscious & ahead of times, for sure more closer to the energy of the source. This
learning reminded me of ‘Dhyanlinga’ built by Sadhguru of Isha Foundation with a deeper knowledge & mastery over the inner energies. I happen to visit ‘Dhyanlinga’ few years back when I joined ‘Isha Foundation’. Sadhguru refers to these temples as consecrated spaces & public charging sites.
So, the question is how these high energy, sacred plates are related to our homes.
The answer is very simple:-
Likewise we can built power spots of higher energy in our homes which are representation of us. Since, we are also energy, oscillating all the time, when we are connected to higher frequency spaces; our energy will be enhanced too. We will not be stuck & inner
transformation will happen which will bring lasting changes for us.
Source: https://www.bellacasaindia.com/2018/07/20/energy-spaces/
About the author Shweta Luthra: A brainchild of Shweta Luthra, Bella Casa is a byproduct of our do-it-all visionary designer who comes with over a decade of industry experience under her belt, having done her Masters in Housing from the reputed School of Planning & Architecture back in the year 2002. Not just reading books and articles, she travels around the world in order to stay in line with international trends and practices. She understands that first and foremost, detailed client interaction is a priority so that hi-end designs can take shape with precision and accuracy.
Every year Milan play host to the most high profile interiors in the world. Milan Design week which is in the month of April takes over the entire city. High-end Fashion Designers, Bottega Veneta, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Armani, Fendi & many more fashion icons showcase their products & brands, merging the lines between Fashion & Homes.
This year, April 2018, I got lucky to be there with my Mentor, Marc, an Eminent Interior Designer from London. Sharing a few excerpts from experience I had while exploring beautiful designs of my favorite designers.
Headed by the creative director Tomas Maier, Bottega Veneta’s ground floor boutique in Milan is located in high ceilinged, beautifully be frescoed 18th century Palazzo Gallarati Scotti.
This year they launched its first modular seating system Bottega Veneta Tre. It’s modern in design & function, has a corner section, single seat section & pouf configured to suit one’s need, but it is also modern in design, applying the house’s instantly recognizable interlocking intrecciato design to the sides of its sleek,squared-off, Space Age sections.
A particular highlight of the new collection is in the lighting category: three bronze styles created in collaboration with Osanna Visconti di Modrone. They are made with a lost-wax technique to echo the intrecciato weave. This marks the second collaboration between Maier & Visconti di Modrone, following the set of Bronze tables presented in 2016.
The presentation featured new styles, functions, materials, and colors for both furniture and home accessories. The seating collection has been expanded with both new families and variations of existing ones, featuring unusual details, as well as new colors and materials.
Louis Vuitton showcased its objets Nomades collection at Palazzo Bocconi in Milan, last April 2018.
Hop over to original blog post by Shweta Luthra to checkout few collections showcased by some of the world’s most renowned designers like Humberto & Fernando, Campana, Marcel Wanders, Atelier Oi, Patricia Urquiola and Andre fu.
Shweta’s latest passion is “Sacred Energy Spaces”. Under the tutelage of Marc, a highly successful interior designer from London, Shweta was introduced to a new dimension of Creating Energy Spaces a few years ago. Home is an extension of ourselves; ergo, by enhancing its energy in multiple shapes and forms, we can transform our inner capabilities slowly but surely.
She can be reached at shweta@bellacasaindia.com.
ICO (Initial coin offerings) wave has truly caught up in 2017 — more than $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency has been raised through ICOs so far in 2017.
If you have not heard about the term let me give a simple primer. ICO is essentially an unregulated way to bypass the standard fund raising procedure used by some of the cryptocurrency startups. Coin essentially then becomes a vehicle to own some kind of stake in the venture. Coins were essentially designed to be an integral part of the product or protocol offering, but have been abused by many startups to raise quick money.
As an entrepreneur or businessman should I be investing in the Crypto wave?
Cryptocurrencies or the crypto wave has taken the world by storm. There has been a slew of ICOs (Initial coin offerings) accompanied by astronomical increase in prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and other cryptocurrencies. It seems like we are creating a new world everything built on top of a blockchain.
Prices of Bitcoin has risen from 0.008 Dollars in 2010 to more than $7000 dollars today. In fact some of the Indian exchanges now quote prices in Satoshi where one Bitcoin = 10^8 Satoshis. You can track Satoshi to INR price
So as a businessman and an entrepreneur if you are sitting on the side-line and wondering if there is a revolution happening or it is all just one big bubble please keep reading in on. In this post I am outlining a few key indicators you can use to assess an ICO or for that matter any crypto asset.
Team (Founders and early developers)
For any Open Source crypto project expertise of the team is most critical. So if you are looking for investing in ICO the first thing is to look at the team. Check their expertise. Go beyond LinkedIn profile, look at their publications and other credentials. Look at their code contributions in the past and the peer review of the protocol they are proposing. Check up the advisory board and early backers of the ICO.
Utility of the Coin (token) to the Product or Protocol
Whenever a new Initial Coin offering is announced first thing that you should look up is does the proposed product or protocol require coin (token) sale or not. If coin (token) is not native or intrinsic to the new product or protocol proposed then it is not a great sign. Ideally such products/ offerings should to go through normal venture capital route to raise funds. ICO in such cases is nothing but a shortcut to raise quick money. If you look up any of the successful Altcoins in the market like Siacoin or Filecoin , they are intrinsic to the protocol they are enabling .
Review code or at least check reviews of code from experts
For any new protocol ultimately what matters is great code backing it up. While all of us are not experts at reviewing codes, what we can definitely do is check what other experts are talking about the code. Please go to relevant forums like bitcoin talk threads to look up what other people are saying about the code / scalability and security issues. Read up their whitepaper or look for a review / feedback on the whitepaper.
Are developers enthused by the protocol/ICO?
For any protocol to develop and flourish, early adopters are the key. And in most cases, early adopters can be developers or other folks on the online communities. So do look out for developer interest – are lot of developers enthused by the project are they contributing to the project?
Early Backers
Quality of early backers can also help you understand the quality of ICO. For e.g. Blockstack whose ICO is open now is backed by YCombinator, Naval Ravikant and a bunch of really smart people in the valley. This can be a good way to look at the quality of ICO.
Transparency of the core team
For any open source project to succeed, a key factor is how transparent and forthcoming the team is. Are they open to hard questions? Do they communicate openly with the community and other stakeholders? Do they publicly share progress? Are they open to be grilled on choices they are making?
Block chain and distributed systems present tremendous opportunities to build a new kind of technological landscape. But as it is with every boom there are too many fakes around. For every bitcoin or ethereum, there will be a bunch of worthless tokens. So before you jump in, do your research and you can use some of the suggestions we discussed in this post.
About me: I am Sarabdeep Co-founder of Sipacoin.com – a service which helps you set up price alerts for your favourite cryptocurrency.
I was recently invited by one ‘Fitness company’ to advise them on how to cut the losses. One of the ways devised by them was to appoint franchisees so that they can have economies of scale for buying equipments and marketing expenses. Now that the company had decided to expand through franchisee route, the whole focus of the said company was to find people, though acquaintances or any other other means who would be their potential franchisees. I had no problems in this strategy, which perhaps was a good and viable option. However, I was my concern was they were missing an important piece when you are expanding your business. In my assessment, they needed to expand their bandwidth at the top and it was necessary to think about composition and functioning of the board. The kind of milestones the company intended to reach would be near to impossible to achieve without a proper board.
In India, the board is plugged mere for regulatory network, in case of private limited, the number of directors required is two and in public limited, the number should be seven. Most of the time, the board is comprised of friends or families, irrespective of their qualifications. Board doesn’t meet often, and whatever transactions it does, it mere does for regulatory considerations. In India, there is a dire need of sound board, but the importance of board is not at all valued in India, let alone talk of actual functioning of board.
The fundamental problem is that, overwhelming number of business people are ill educated about the need of Board. Management studies are bereft about the emphasis of what board potentially can deliver.
Few years back, most of the traditionally business house did underwent professional makeover but board remained untouched, somehow its importance has picked up.
Another misnomer about board is that people think only listed companies require it, whereas in my view the smaller companies need it more. It can provide direction, accountability and better guidance.
In this direction, I am glad that Omnizent labs is driving this educative as well as actually providing Directors for small companies. It will be a low cost exercise for small and medium companies.
For details about how to become a director or how to avail the services of director and make your board strong you may read this introduction page here and write to us at raj@bizvidya.com.
Author: Raju Moza has 14+ years of experience across various industries and domains like Telecom, Retail, Education, Electronic & Mobile Services, Travel & Hospitality and Manufacturing. He has been a turnaround leader with deep insights in understanding of diverse markets. He is regularly invited to speak at seminars and conferences. Besides the strong business pedigree, he is an ‘active writer’, has written some of the critically acclaimed pieces on diverse subjects namely Kashmir, Afghanistan, Political Islam, International Affairs, Political Economy and Short Stories. He recently shot a documentary as well. He is an MBA in finance and has recently done a Venture Capital development program from ISB, Hyderabad, India.
Often I see entrepreneurs or small business owners moaning about lack of “enough business”. Some are more crude – Can you get me a customer? Or, can you email our brochure to all your contacts? I try to be as polite as possible on such requests, but many are offended as to why I am not helping them! The thing is that if I am not convinced about their work, I have no choice but to gently decline. Interestingly, when I quiz them back on their sales or lead generation plan or process, their answers run on these lines:
Dig further and you will find that there is no specific process or periodic targets (although, boldly they show revenue targets on business plans and pitches to investors).
When I suggest the word ‘process’, it lands on them as something that is needed by large organizations. Most startups and small businesses do not use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool – perhaps they do not need a CRM tool yet. However, that does not mean that they are excused from having an effective lead generation process.
If they are still around, I invite them to convert their revenue targets into a daily plan. Here is one way to do some basic calculations that are required to set-up a simple lead generation process that can be easily tracked on a spreadsheet:
[A] State your revenue target. For illustration, let us take a figure of INR 5 crores for next twelve months.
[B] Estimate the average size of an order. Say, INR 25,000.
[C] Thus, you need 200 orders to achieve your revenue targets. Taking a year as 50 weeks, this translates to 4 orders per week.
[D] In your experience, what percentage of your customer meetings or interactions lead to a confirmed order? Begin with an estimate and change as per experience. Say, 25 percent. So, for our example, you need to arrange 16 sales meetings / interactions / demos per week.
[E] What percentage of your Qualified Leads (QL) translate into (as a result of initial interaction) prospects agreeing to explore specific purchasing via demos or product-trials. A Qualified Lead is an entity that is a potential customer on paper (in terms of pre-determined parameters like business size, segment, location, etc) for your products or services. Say, 50 percent. So, you need to generate at least 32 QLs per week.
[F] Now, what percentage of your Raw Leads (RL) get converted to Qualified Leads? A Raw Lead is any valid contact details of person or organization which may or may not be interested in your products or services. Say, 10 percent. So, you need to have at least 320 fresh RLs per week or 64 RL per day (taking five working days). If you are using a tele-caller, then this is the minimum (s)he should be calling everyday. If you are using your web pages as a lead source, then this is the minimum number of users that need to submit their contact details on your landing page.
Many have liked this approach and created a spreadsheet to track this. However, soon I found out that inertia has set in and no sustained action was taken to make the process work. Some eager entrepreneurs took this discussion to next level in terms of choosing market segments, identifying ideal customers and so on. The enlightened business owners took our help to convert this into a small but robust lead generation process on lines of a state-of-the-art Balanced Scorecard framework with KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) integrated with KRAs (Key Result Areas) of promoters and staff responsible for Sales Targets.
Since I am quite lazy to keep elaborating this repeatedly, I am sharing this here publicly with all, so that, next time, when an entrepreneur rues “no business”, I simply have to share the URL of this article!
You may request a free* initial Coaching or Consultation on your Lead Generation Process by sending an email to coach@bizvidya.com
*Conditions Apply
We had advised earlier to Clarify Your Goals in a previous post here. But then, temporary clarity using a few smart technology tools is not good enough in these “interesting times”.
Especially when you are in a critical business situation and decisions need to be made among a series of contradictions.
Often, we find ourselves overwhelmed with a large number of exciting options, immense possibilities, conflicting opinions, changing priorities, shifting bottlenecks, fluctuating market scenarios and unpredictable customers!
Test your situation with this TEN-QUESTION-TOOL to re-engineer and transform your situation into a workable strategy and a clear-cut plan!
List the tasks and intended results: List immediate desires, intentions and goals.
My need or motivation: What is my intention? More revenues? More profits? More productivity? Better Lifestyle?
Recent relevant past: What is my sponsoring thought for this? Am I launching this product because sales are declining? Or, because customers are complaining? Or, I need a higher margin product?
Ask multiple nested Whys: Use the Five Why Tool recursively to break down answers to #1 , #2 and #3 above. Launching this product for more revenues or larger customer-base? For new market segments? More customers in current market segments?
What is working and what is not working: What are the good points, workable areas, benefits and strengths of the current situation? What are the threats and weaknesses?
Long-Term Results I would really like to create: Where would this ultimately lead too? Bigger Business? Best in the market? Most expensive in the market? Cheapest in the market? What is the long-term Brand Image desired?
Possible paths: What are the possible routes to success – Should I resort to cannibalizing? Should I explore a Blue Ocean? Should I spend on Research and Development? Should I use the Fail-Fast strategy on a series of products?
Visualized Goal and Measurable Results: Convert goals into specific numbers and timelines.
What or Who is stopping me?: Put on the Black Hat and list all possible obstacles, barriers and whatever makes the project look difficult.
Who or What help can make a big difference?: Finally the juiciest part: What is that one big thing that can make this a big success – One Big Customer? Large Capital? Large Customer Base? Large User Base? Many Small Customers?
Decipher that (we are there to help) and Do That One Thing By Doing Which Everything Else Will Get Done!
Praveer Shukla is an advertising and marketing professional with 35 years’ experience in India, Hong Kong, the US, and Oman. His clients have included Dupont, ITC WelcomGroup, ITC Golf, Uncle Chipps’, DCM,Escorts, Star TV, Rajasthan Tourism, Kashmir Tourism, The Oberoi, Milkfood, HM The Sultan of Oman, HH Mahesh Maharishi Yogi, among others.
He is sharing some of his “secrets” here and introducing his company, Onetree Content.
There’s a practical reason why we exist at OneTree Content. But before that, some quick facts from the Canadian Council of Small Business and Entrepreneurship:
Here’s my personal take on the business of entrepreneurship, as I’ve seen it over 40 years.
1. Its a winner-takes-all-world – so listen up.
Especially, if you’re a start up, an entrepreneur, or an SME, listen to experienced people, whether it’s professional groups or forums, your investors, mentors, or coaches. That way you won’t have to re-invent the wheel. And, when you fail – make no mistake about that, you will, at different stages – the people you listen to can be the difference between being stuck with failure and moving on to the next level in your enterprise. And, most importantly, you’ll cover the distance between Idea to Revenue in a much shorter time!
2. Money doesn’t buy products or services. People do.
Know your customers. At OneTree Content, we perform due diligence to know your service and your products cold. We get to know your customers like we know our own parents. We also get to know your product’s positioning in relation to your competitors—without repeated explanation from you which burns up your time and budget.
3. ROI
You’re thinking ROI = Return On Investment, right? Our take on this as specialists in market communications, is different. Unlike earlier times, today, a brand is not recognized by its trademark, mission statement, logo or slogan. That kind of branding went out of the window around the time that electricity was discovered.
Our kind of branding is recognized by the kind of conversations or content that our specialists create about your company, its products, its world, the people who use it, and also, the people who do not use it.
These are conversations that enliven, delight, and empower users. They’re created with authenticity, to communicate the uniqueness of a product or service. By participating and engaging in these conversations, customers are created and references are freely provided by them to other potential customers.
At OneTree Content, our version of ROI is this: Return On Imagination.
Talk with us. You’ll enjoy the conversation! That’s why we created the company!
First thing is to CLARIFY your goal. What do you exactly want out of your business?
Money for comfortable existence? Or, are you on your way to becoming a global tycoon?
Do you wish for a stable business? Or, a growing business? Or, an accelerating business which, perhaps, you can sell soon?
What is the most appropriate growth strategy for your business?
Is organizational culture important to you? What kind of culture do you want?
For example, many small businesses in India find it cost-effective (often, inadvertently) to have low salary low retention employees, who may be damaging the internal culture and/or customer relations and business growth. Would hiring the ‘Best’ make more sense for your business?
Should you allocate resources to enhance Business Processes & Systems?
Should you invest more in implementing Technology? Which Solutions? Why?
Whatever your questions, you don’t want to run around without CLEARLY articulated goals that are regularly communicated down to the last rung of frontline executives.
No fun in having all your people and resources run around in circles when they can actually deliver dramatic results with laser sharp focus.
Clarifying Your Goals is a recurring exercise because things change – business climate, technology, competitors, customer needs, your needs and so on.
One efficient way to do this is to categorize all your goals along TIME HORIZONS – from Immediate and near-term to long-term life goals. In his book, Getting Things Done, David Allen presented “The Six-Level Model for Reviewing Your Own Work”:
This is a useful first step to start de-cluttering your life and business. Another complimentary tool is a “Mind Map”.
Mind Maps help in creating a WHOLE business picture which can be drilled down to the “Runaway” level.
Created intelligently, it can be a powerful first step in organizing your business to clarify, track, and monitor business goals and results.
With Open Source around, freemind and xmind are great free tools to create Mind Maps.
You can maximize the power of Mind Maps by sharing Mind Maps with your team and asking them to contribute. Xmind, The “Social Brainstorming and Mind Mapping” Tool, allows users to share Mind Maps for collaboration.
Happy De-cluttering, Organizing and Creating What You Wish To in your business!
Omnizient Labs 