Creating a business is no mean task; you have to arrange for a proper study report of the business launch you are going to do, with proper professionals to work for your business along with investment and resources. There are number of factors which goes in to making a business, millions of people are doing business world wide but how come there are only few we actually know and talk about, may be because of the product quality or the marketing they do for their company or business. There can be either of these 2 factors, which makes it to A lists of what people talk about. To create business that people would talk about is no easy, you have to create a right environment and mix all the ingredients properly in a marketing mix and also in the product launch to ensure that people would like your product along with your company.

There are some specific rules set that you have to follow to make people talk about your business, the engine which will run even after decades of your business launch:

• Putting people a little off balance will help you to get them talking about your business as they will reward themselves after the discomfort they went through. You must have often noticed how big restaurants initiate their clients by making them wait in long lines before they can actually enjoy the cuisine.
• Create a ritual of your own, let your clients experience and enjoy your product with all the rituals you have set in. This will be memorable for ages and people will dearly talk about it. Remember, how Tiffany is engaged in making engagement ring shopping as a ritual by getting champagne and chocolate. There are many such real life examples you might have seen when you visit big departmental stores.
• Sometimes, you get more in life than you can really expect from life. Didn’t some particular incident get you excited to tell others of what you gained? Giving your customers more than they expect will surely create goodwill in market that people will talk about.
• Offering exclusivity in products will create a milestone people will talk about. Give your customer a real good amazing experience of their lifetime when they buy from you especially when it comes to buying something which they are going to use for a decade or may be lifetime take for example vehicles, Harley Davidson’s motorcycles can be highly customized so the users can create their own vehicles out of it.

• Route your business in such a manner so as to create it in to a story that is really inspirational, this will help your customers know you better and also create a specific feeling in the minds of customers about your company.
• Create a sense of eccentricity in your business by offering a surprise package to what your customers have been thinking or sensing about your business unit.
• Create an iconic status for your products in the markets locally or globally. When products become famous and widely used they become symbols of acceptance from people who have used your products. The look of your product is all it takes to create a feeling of strong ness or quality for example, the red bull’s can – looking at it you get the feeling of energy and that is what the company stands for.
• You must have often noticed, how a spoken word of mouth gets so popular in a crowd rather than talking it privately. Some business often give that chance for crowd to mingle amongst each other that may pass on some good message to potential buyers.
• Endorse your products when the loyal troupe of your customers stand behind the brand, your credible members are surely going to support you to endorse some new product in the market.

• Bring a level of consistency in your product serving to your customer, you have the choice to improve your product for better but in now way it should fall below the quality it was initially designed.

Get your customers talking about your business by providing them quality products and services, in no way you should fall below your dignity level by criticizing other company or their products. Let people use your products themselves and get them talking about you by creating a proper marketing mix and business strategic plans.

You want to make it big in online business, right? As one of the successful online business persons, I must tell you that my journey to the top was not all that easy. All the way, I was a good observer of failures and learnt a lot from them. I want to share my success secrets with you so that you do your homework before getting started and avoid failures as much as possible.

The first thing that you should bear in mind is that online business is like any other business and you get to taste success after a lot of correct moves. Like other businesses, those who make it big in online businesses are few. Business is not only about luck or hard work. An important ingredient is business acumen that helps you play your cards right. This is what the majority of us is not gifted with and therefore lags behind while only a few make it to the top. A successful businessman will analyze the loopholes in his concepts and techniques, and work upon them.

Surprisingly, I find, success or failure is not as much about technical knowledge or skills, as about human elements. This is what self development author and trainer, Dale Carnegie has to say about success:

“Even in such technical lines as engineering, about 15% of one’s financial success is due one’s technical knowledge and about 85% is due to skill in human engineering, to personality and the ability to lead people.”

Now, do you see the dividing line? Why the majority of us are unsuccessful is because of our attitudinal problems. Here’s what I gathered from my experience in the online business world. Thinking in these lines is going to help you in avoiding failure to a large extent:

1. Faking authority is foolish: When I surf the internet, I come across only a few reliable sites. Unfortunately the rest are all bogus. Do you know why? Many people eagerly try giving information without having expertise in the subject. Remember, that your readers are no longer novice in anything. Using Internet technology they gather heaps of information at the click of a mouse button. They are intelligent enough to figure out if you are an expert in your subject or not. If they find that you are faking expertise, they’ll label you as unreliable, and go to the expert. Before you start selling your products make sure that you are armed with expert knowledge.
2. Why do it when you don’t have your heart in it?: Blindly joining the rat race is what many of us do. When the internet business concept first came into being, I saw many ‘budding entrepreneurs’ running for it just because it was the talk of the town. But then, may I ask why the number of people who make it big is so few?  Don’t give in to a popular craze if it really doesn’t interest you. See if you really like it and if you have the skills to succeed in it.  Well, you might be short of rewarding career options. But even the most popularly rewarding career might suffer if you aren’t the correct person for it. Just listen to your heart and you’ll be on cloud nine. That’s what I did and I really thank my stars for that. Believe me; a whole hearted attempt always pays.
3. If money is your only passion, forget it: Working for money, is different from working for only money. Online business does give great monetary returns and many of us are primarily attracted to online business investments for these returns. I don’t blame anyone for that. Naturally, when livelihood has become so expensive, money is an important criterion for a business investment.  But if money is your only attraction and you don’t like the business or don’t have aptitude for it, better you quit. The logic out here is very simple. To get a good output, you need a good input. Money is an output. Your interest and skills are your inputs. If you don’t have a good input how can you expect a good output? Your output should never be your motivating factor because without good input motivation, its illogical to think of a good output. The inputs were my passion and the output was my reward.
4. Have faith in yourself: In the early days of my business, I had to struggle a lot. There were many times when I felt that my business wasn’t giving me the desired results and so I should switch over or just wind up. I was repeatedly unsuccessful in around 20 attempts of mine. After that the silver lining on the cloud became visible. I started climbing up the ladder to success and since then I’ve never looked back. If I would have let my fickle-mindedness get the better of me, I would not have got the opportunity to see that which was in store for me beyond my failures. Every failure was a learning experience for me rather than a disappointing event. My self confidence and determination were the foundation stones of my success on which I built up my prosperity.
5. Be a Warrior: Success does not come that easily. In a world full of fierce competition, you can’t expect things to come your way very easily. I faced a lot of obstacles when I first launched my online business. Nobody noticed me in the market and my revenue was nil. Many a time, there was a lull in the market in which many online businesses did not get good response. The statistics of the successful percentage was pretty discouraging, but I fought my way through. I did not lose heart. Another thing I learnt was not to make myself totally dependent on anybody. Just imagine, many online businesses have become parasitic on Google. You should be able to survive even without Google if situations turn out to be so.

Now since I’ve told you my secrets, learn up these and proceed ahead. Don’t waste time in common mistakes. Feel free to share your opinion with me here.

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing.”
– Abraham Lincoln

Last blog we discussed about Venture capital and the things that you need to keep in mind while raising finances for your business ventures. You got to have right amount of ingredients to mix well with business requirements, the investors have the money and you have the talent, just show your cards right and go home with a win-win situation for both the parties. Make use of intelligent and unique methods to impress your Venture capitalists and get ahead in expanding your business.

Understanding DECK

By now, I think I have improved my thinking about how venture capitalists work in a business world and how to make them more approaching to finance you; it will work best when you have a readymade Powerpoint presentation, commonly known as “Deck”. Deck can be used to pitch your Venture capitalists about your business; it will give them a clear picture of your project by the graphs, pictures, etc. I am going to help you to prepare that perfect DECK for your presentation; it should be including the following:

1. All the companies have their own mission statements, so make sure to mention all the details of what your company is into and where you plan to take it.
2. A company is made up of team, one person cannot run the company. You should be good in convincing people to work for your company than can you convince VC to invest money.
3. Once your company is established, make sure to do something out of box, like you can portray how your company has stood in the times of adversity.
4. Don’t just describe the problems that your company can solve, show them practically through slides, graphs and the product details.
5. Compare your company to other competitors in the field, list them down in your slide show, you can explain your plans to overcome the competition.
6. Do some research in the market and you can state the different problems which as a company everyone will face. You can offer simple solutions to such problems through slide show.
7. Have a brilliant business model showing a perfect sense of making money by hook or by crook. You can list out different possibilities in making money to your investors.
8. Marketing is one of the most important ingredients to sell your products in market, show a clear plan of act what you are going to execute in future.
9. State clearly as to how much finance you would require and what would be its purpose, when you state openly about your wants people will appreciate it.
10. Investors would want good returns for the money they are investing, so make an effort to show them how hard you are working to achieve the goals.

With all heavy inputs, I am sure you are going to be questioned from 360 degree angles. I know well how it feels when you are surrounded in a conference and heavy weights asking you questions out of jungle but if they are investing, it is their right to know the answer. My advice to you is simply, stay calm and have confidence in yourself and answer the questions honestly, if you are well prepared and studied your plan in detail, I don’t think any possibility of someone surrounding you. Some of the common questions that they ask during such times are:

1. What is your target?
2. Why you need finance from us?
3. Why should we finance you?
4. What makes your product different from the competitors?
5. What if you can’t get any finances?

Believe me, I have attended so many conferences, meetings, given presentations, one thing I found was that you cannot expect people thinking from your point of view, you can only try your best to explain them but the perceptions would never be the same. I remember, the times when I used to go crazy when asked with silly questions but I let it go, staying cool and calm, may be that they are trying to check my patience. You never know what’s running in their minds. So stay upright, lively and get kicking.

Grow Your Business Through Reputation Management

I have come across so many people in my life, had so many acquaintances and so many people I dealt business with, I have found one truth to success that you got to have good Reputation in market to go ahead in life. Did I just say that the word “Business” gets so closer to the word “Reputation”, when we talk about any business partnerships or joint ventures, the first thing that comes in any one’s mind, is the person’s reputation, whether he carries good reputation in the market? In the business world, Reputation is all people ask for when signing the papers, if you don’t have good reputation how are you going to sell? When people buy products from you, they have expectations from you regarding the quality of the product, the use, the service, etc. if you have been doing business since last 5 years and are providing good customer service and quality products then its more likely your business will continue for more 50 years.

As they say, “First impression is the last impression”, while starting a business venture make sure to provide the best of services and quality products to your customers and continue with it forever. If you are really determined to make a strong hold in market, you have to come out with innovative ways to build a good reputation of your brand name in the market. Given below are some of the 3 best effective ways to build a good reputation for longer period:

1. If you are a starter in business, then the best and quickest way to build reputation is through Parnerships, when you partner with good reputed firms, your company will gain same reputation and it would be easier for you to sell products in market. I know, its difficult to get large companies to partner with small firms but you can convince them of your skills and talent and also by taking lesser share they might agree to take you in. The end motive is to build reputation and not the money what you make.
2. Another best way is to Associate yourself with well known people in the industry, when you get some famous well known personalities talking about your business, people are surely going to look up to you to partner with. You can get people to invest in your company, show them your skills by working hard and providing quality products to your end users. In such cases, networking helps, when you are part of a larger social network you can ask the well known persons to do a guest post on their blogs.
3. Some people think that they can do all on their own and they don’t need anyone’s help but in real world, you need partners or professionals to work with. You can build your reputation through sharing ideas over different networks, when you share ideas with larger group of people online, the chances are they might suggest you a better way to do something. Start blogging, don’t just talk about your business but talk about matters people want to hear from you and in most of the cases you will see you will get comments or suggestions from people which will help you in your own business.