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Business motivation

How To Build A Strong Business Network When You Are An Introvert Entrepreneur?

Aditya, a 24-year-old guy, with plenty of revolutionary startup business ideas in his mind and a determination to set up his startup hails from Kanpur, a city in Uttar Pradesh. Surrounded by a large crowd of successful entrepreneurs and young solopreneurs who are chasing their business goals, he is getting nervous with each passing minute.

He can feel the sweat beads forming consistently and rolling down over his forehead against his will, which adds up to his discomfort. He can feel his heart thumping, ready to leap out of his chest. And, while many of you may think that Aditya is about to experience a cardiac arrest, let us tell you that nothing of this sort is about to happen.

Aditya, who has a charming personality and the confidence to sweep any businessman off with his effective communication skills and creative ideas, is also an INTROVERT. Being an introvert means meeting total strangers or attending an event with hundreds of people is no less than a nightmare.

While many people can easily share personal stories while making business contacts, there are also people like Aditya who want to build a strong network and close business deals for his business idea but can`t approach a stranger and start talking. You can also watch video on “Covid Proof & Recession Proof Business Ideas” , here:

Loud and crowded settings are often intimidating for introverts and draining. But in a world that often recognizes an extrovert as the ideal personality, how do introverts get ahead when it comes to building a network?

Here are five tips that can help even the most introverted entrepreneurs improve his or her networking skills:

1. BE YOURSELF

One of the most clichéd tips of all time, yet very effective and true. Accepting your weaknesses and strengths is the ultimate way of evolving both personally and professionally. Beating yourself up for not having an outgoing personality will not help you in any way. It will only create a sense of inferiority that will hold you back in the future.

Make improvements by learning from extroverts, but don`t expect yourself to behave like one. To get uplift your mood and spirits, you can listen to the best motivational speaker in India.

2. CUSTOMIZE YOUR APPROACH

There is nothing wrong if you feel more comfortable in a small group. After someone accepts your invitation to discuss your startup business idea, look for scenarios where you can meet people in settings that are peaceful and ideal for network building. You can invite business investors to small group or in-person activities like a cup of coffee at your favorite café to discuss endless business possibilities.

It may take you more time to meet new people. But, it will help you to overcome your hesitation to meet new people and will build much deeper and significant relationships.

3. ONE STEP AT A TIME

If you too get cold feet like Aditya when it comes to approaching even one person, then fret not! Take baby steps. Do not rush. Do not try to force yourself to go and talk to people when you are not comfortable. Forced conversations can leave a negative impact on your investor.

Begin by exchanging emails or few direct messages on LinkedIn with your business prospect. This will give you a sense of familiarity with the person you are about to meet in person. After you have communicated through emails, take the conversation ahead by meeting them in person. You can also hire a business coach who can help you overcome hesitation.

4. ASK FOR A WARM INTRODUCTION

It is very normal for introverts to remain with that one connection they make in an event for the entirety. However, being an entrepreneur you will have to build multiple connections for your business growth. Force yourself out of your comfort zone. Tell yourself a number and meet as many people within a certain amount of time. Explain that you are a little introvert and it will be amazing if they can introduce yourself.

5. PLAN AHEAD FOR EVENTS

Aditya is not alone in this world! Many people like him begin sweating at the mere mention of attending events. Many people in this world do not find the thought of meeting countless strangers pleasing. But, building a network is an important aspect of a start-up business. A little planning can ease out the entire situation for introverts.

When you find an event that can materialize your startup business idea into reality, you can contact the organizer a couple of days ahead of the event. See if the organizer can help you to make introductions through email or social media. On the day of the event, you will know specifically which people to seek out.

Introverts may find meeting total strangers and converting those meetings into treasured resources quite overwhelming. But as an entrepreneur, you have to have a strong network. So, networking has to be a part of the business plan.

To resolve this challenge, we have many ‘Problem Solving Courses’ that include personality development as well to help you build a strong network.

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Business motivation

5 Common Habits That Can Stop Your Entrepreneurial Journey!

For any young and aspiring entrepreneur or solopreneur, establishing the right practices and healthy habits is very important. It can help you to set on a path toward career success.  All too often, many young guns approach success as an overnight miracle.

But truth be told, it is a grueling mountain climb to the summit. We all might want it to happen all at once, after all a winning moment is far more appealing and exciting than inching steps towards building it.

Even the best motivational speakers in India will you that success is what happens over time as the result of patience, focus, determination, and lack of harmful habits.

Few habits might appear simple and harmless, but in reality, they might be hindering your entrepreneurial journey rather than helping it. Many entrepreneurs might not even see them as significant hurdles in the journey of success.

But, the longer you maintain these bad habits; you might likely delay your encounter with success. So what are these habits that are harming your long-time success? Here is a list:

1. Being Overly Curious

Many people might drop their jaw in disbelief after reading the above subheading because entrepreneurs have to be curious to come out with innovative startup business ideas, right? But, sometimes their curiosity can lead to endlessly searching for a business idea that is unique or can become the next big thing. This distracts them from building the business at hand.

Be curious about legal, sales, accounting, marketing, and alliances as these can help you grow your business. But never lose focus because one bird is better than two in the bushes.

2. Overthinking

If you have ever attended a seminar by any famous leadership speaker in India, you must be well aware of one thing that all of them say unanimously- ‘part of being an entrepreneur is making a hard decision’. No, if we thought about something more than it required, we would never like to make a move.

Overthinking can be one of the reasons why most of the capable people with a great startup business idea are still doing a 9-to-5 desk job. Thinking about the pros and cons is a natural process, but some people might overdo it and will keep saying “what if”. The best way to make rational decisions is to think about them and move forward. Sometimes a decision will work, and sometimes it will not, and that is just a part of it. Hence, think about a situation, its consequences, analyze it, and make a move. You can also watch video on “Covid Proof & Recession Proof Business Ideas” here:

3. Seek Perfection in Everything

Many people brag about being a perfectionist in every aspect of their lives. But very few people know that striving for perfection in everything is a major form of resistance. And, it could be one of the major reasons that can hold an entrepreneur back. Seeking perfection is a covert form of procrastination.

When you seek perfection, you subconsciously are trying for something that does not exist. Try to do your best, but always remember that any product, business, and service will always be a work-in-progress. Learning and improvements have no expiry dates. Whatever, you decide to do, do it with a focused mind. Avoid demanding perfection because it will gobble up all your time and put your goals on hold for a prolonged period.

4. Not Asking for Help

Most often people say that your experiences make you wiser. But in the business world, what makes you wiser is to learn from other`s mistakes and ask for help when stuck. Not asking for help can play a giant roadblock in an entrepreneur`s success.

Learning by the trial-and-error method can be great, but it is a long process and can delay your business growth by many years. With the help of a business motivational coach or a mentor, your initial days can be a lot easier.

You can hire a professional business motivational speaker in India and with his expertise, you can take your startup business in the right direction.

5. Switching From Idea to Idea

Switching between different ideas and strategies constantly means you are not sure about your business goal. You are so keen to bring results that you are not pursuing any single approach long enough to see results.

Building a startup means taking decisions and experimenting with distinct strategies that will bring the best results. However, developing the patience to wait for the results is also necessary. There will be times when most thoughtful decisions will not work in your favor, or a powerful strategy will fail. But instead of following the next marketing or leadership trend, try one idea and then follow through with it for some time to see the results.

You can take help from the best business motivational speaker in India to build more strategies for your startup. However, the above-mentioned habits can delay your success. Hence, overcoming them is important.

With due course of time, you will begin to take setbacks less personally and understand them as part of the long road to success. Because success is not the destination, but the road itself! To navigate in the waters of business challenges, you can take our online business training course.

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Business motivation

How To Chalk Out An Outline For A Business Plan That Says It All

You know your business plan inside out because you came up with it, but how do you think your team and investors will manage to understand each and every single thing that your plan consists of and revolves around? That’s when a business plan comes into play. But are you aware of what goes into making an effective business plan?

There are several kinds of business plans that are made to serve different kinds of purposes, some are made informally to familiarise the internal team, whereas some are extensive and coherent plans that are designed specially to be presented in front of your investors. In this article, we will introduce you to a basic outline of a business plan that you could refer to anytime. Let’s begin.

Executive Summary

The executive summary is just like a window that helps you take a sneak peek of what’s inside. A good executive summary will help you design the highlights of your business plan such as what is your product, what problem does it solve, who is your target audience, your financial projections, founding team, etc. An executive summary serves an investor the same purpose as a sample sized product serves you to help you decide if you want to buy the regular product. So remember to better be good at it for it’s the summary that decides if the plan goes into the bin or takes off the ground.

Shed Light On Scope And Opportunity

In a section called opportunity, you need to focus on why you are bringing your product or service into existence. What was the problem that sparked your interest and led you to birth this idea? Tell them what your product/service is all about, how different and better it is going to be from the competitors, and what is the solid solution that you are planning to offer. While writing this section, rather than bragging about the amazing features of your product, focus on the customer problems that are going to be solved by this product/service. 

Market Analysis

All your claims would further need to be backed up by some actual facts and figures. These statistics should be about the target audience that you have designed your product/service for. This section should have all the details regarding who you are targeting as your customer base, where do they belong, what are their interests, why do they need this product, and what difference is your product going to make in the market. All in all, this part is where you will give a detailed account of the target audience and the demographics.

Financial Projections

This is a very important section that covers the financial aspect of your plan. It should tell about the sales forecast, profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, and all your assumptions and objectives. Also, don’t forget to highlight the financial needs to build up the business as in how much money is required to launch the business and where to plan on sourcing this money from.

Execution

An idea on its own has no value until it’s met with proper execution. This is what every entrepreneur needs to be wary of. Work on your manufacturing plan, sales plan, and that marketing plan that is actually going to help kick start the business and allow it to go on smoothly.

These are some very common points that could be found in almost all of the business plans. But it’s for you to decide which point you want to keep and which one you want to exclude depending on the requirement of your business and the audience. Leaving you with all this information, we wish you all the best with the business plan in making.

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Startup

5 Things to Remember Before Starting a Business

Big cheers to the people who have the ambition to start a business. Remember this before you take the first step towards your startup or even if you are at an early stage when working on the idea formation. You need to step back and think about the strategic vision of your business as starting a business can be stressful.

As you start working on its main plan, you think it’s a million things to get done all in one go. There is no lie, saying every new and small business owner have to take care of many things, and it’s tough. Therefore, a little planning can make it more manageable, and help you in taking action towards building your business.

As said by many, a few simple significant steps taken at the beginning of the business can help you streamline things easily. Therefore, we have listed some tips you need to remember to do before starting a business.

Do your Homework on Customer

Make sure you know your industry you are entering so you can dominate it. It doesn’t matter how different or unique you think your idea is, still you need to be aware of the competition. We always believe our business concept is brilliant, but it doesn’t mean anybody else hasn’t thought about that idea.

You start with the research, with your target demographic as is they are the driving force for your decision making. You can’t earn sales or profit without the right customer. It is crucial to make sure you are presenting what your customer need. Once you have researched the right way, then you will get insight into your customer buying decision and save you time for future experimenting.

Give importance to the legal aspect

Always follow the law, always remember this line. It’s one of the significant factors you need to keep the mind and should take while strategizing. In the first step, you should take in starting your business, choosing the right legal structure. At the beginning of the startup, you need a proper registration from the government, and you need to see all other legal aspects like taxes, paperwork, etc.

As an entrepreneur, you need to create the articles of incorporation, obtain an employer identification number, and apply for all required licenses.

Roadmap Your Finances

Every business needs money, which you need to plan from where you will get the capital. A lot of entrepreneurs start a business with limited capital, which is a large hurdle to many. There are plenty of options for arranging funds, but the most common is to seek from family or friends. And if you have exhausted this option, then apply for a business loan under government schemes.

Therefore, whenever you start your business, then make sure your road map completes financing for the present and future.

Know the risk.

That is the fact, there will always a risk with a new business startup. Understanding, calculating, and then planning as per it is a significant step for any new and old startup. Therefore, this means you need to assess your industry risk before entering and moving forward with your plan.

So, before taking the faith of leap in your idea, you need to sit down and talk about all the risks you about to come across.

Time it right

Time is money because timing is a significant factor in setting up a business. Of course, you want to start your business when the economy is healthy, but there is also a flow to decision making that’s important to be aware.

Therefore, the timing should be right where and what you need to think through and take what decision should be taken.

Starting a business can be exciting and challenging, but you need to do your homework and think about all the steps you need to take now and in the future.

 

 

 

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Business motivation

What NOT To Do While Writing A Business Plan

 Why do you make a business plan? To pitch the idea of your dreams and turn it into reality. But what if this business plan does the exact opposite? You will be crushed to see your years and years of hard work and excitement going down the drain just because of few loopholes that were not paid attention to. The whole world talks about what to do when you make a business plan, but we will talk about what not to do while making the plan.

Let’s together ponder upon a few mistakes that are repeatedly made by the entrepreneur while writing their startup business plan and be sure of learning our lessons.

Don’t Conduct A Half-hearted Research

The Colosseum in Rome has been standing tall since forever. It has been made possible only and only by the solid foundation that was laid for it. Similarly, a good, productive, and detailed research is something that will provide the strongest of the bases to your business and help it stay in the market longer than whatever you are hoping for. Bad or wrong research which is not reviewed or double-checked can make things go haywire. Be wary of it, and always double-check your sources.

Don’t Present Unrealistic Financial Goals

We all know nobody is a fool these days. When we talk about financial goals, investors observe keenly. Nobody likes to show a dreamy picture which is far from reality. Avoid being over the top and tell them about the real financial trajectory. Tell them how and what you have planned for a particular business in order to make it successful. The more real you are, the higher are the chances for you to get the funding.

Don’t Be Unaware Of Your Target Consumer

Can you sell maternity clothes to office going men? No, right? It is of extreme importance to who does your product/service target. Make it very clear in your business plan the kind of audience you intend to target and the demographics you are going for. Always remember, only after defining your target audience can you move further with conducting the secondary and tertiary market research.

Don’t Publicize Unnecessarily

Don’t try to amaze them with what they want to hear, rather show them the power of your vision. We know you believe in your business idea but how do you plan on making others develop the same kind of faith? By using the abused adjectives of all times like greatest, mind-blowing, promising, hottest, worth your while, or by presenting your extensive research and the growth trajectory to back your excitement up? Only and only the latter will be able to help you solidify your claims.

Don’t Underestimate The Competition

They say keep your friends close and enemies even closer and we don’t see anything wrong in this. Never forget to talk about the competition in your business plan or business pitch. Your investors will not appreciate your confidence where you completely scraped the competition section out of the business plan. Even if you don’t think you have any competition just because you have a brand new idea that has not been touched yet. Think about how, if you become successful, people would want to copy you and encash the opportunity. Think about how you are going to deal with the competition then. Think about what is unthought-of and always be prepared.

Writing a business is a tough job and needs a lot of factors to be considered before finally it is shown to the investors or prospective partners to gain their trust and sentiment. Your plan should be designed in a way that paints a coherent and realistic picture with a hint of your enthusiasm and determination to make it work. 

 

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Startup

List of 4 AI-Based Start-Ups Which Will Inspire, Amaze, And Amuse You

DREAM BIG, ACT NOW – is the new motto for success in any start-up now. In the past few years, AI start-up numbers have tremendously increased. Now, many industries have adopted Artificial intelligence for better and security and other purposes.

So, every passing day we get closer towards an AI-first world, and it will be no wrong to say it’s the right time to step into this world and make your mark on it. We all talk and say, in the future world will be run by AI and robots. We listed a few startups who are working hard to bring a great change in transformation in the Indian tech ecosystem.

The fight against Covid-19 is still going on and many companies from the world are leveraging the use of technologies in the best possible way

Ajna AI

Ajna is a Chennai- based founded in May 2020, AI start-up which aims to build SaaS products that deliver a vision-based video Analytics solution. This app currently provides solutions like crowd safety intelligence, automated queue management, and retail video analytics system. Tasks carried out by them are mask detection, social distancing, people counting, safety reporting, crowd density analysis, and risk prediction.

Their focus industry is the retail industry, where they try to solve problems like limited information about customers and their behaviour in-store and many more.

Expertrons

Founded in 2019, Mumbai – based start-up is the world’s first AI video bot- assisted platform. This platform helps aspirants to learn from the interview experience of other experts in the field.

The main motive of the platform is to help college graduates understand the experience of a big organization’s work. The start-up owners say the best way to know how to crack a certain interview when you know from the people who have cracked it. They provide 24*7 interview question- related queries through video-bots of mentors.

Blocksapp.AI

This Hyderabad based start-up has developed an AI-based drone for a monitoring solution for helping police and local bodies in their work. Their drones help in sending an accurate image to the ground station to keep track of the situation. To fight with the Covid-19, solve many purposes like surveillance on hot spots, unsecured locations, spraying of disinfectants by drones Supply, and delivery of essential medicines.

BlueSemi

Another Hyderabad based tech start-up has developed a contactless and wireless thermal scanning device. The best part of this AI-enabled device helps in recording the temperature without any manual interference and is integrated with any healthcare platform.

BlueSemi can be handled by any Bluetooth/wireless device, ideally on a mobile app. We can call this new – age wireless technology helps in minimizing the exposure of healthcare workers by providing useful information at record speed.

Our country is among the top nations to have achieved millions of funding tech-based start-ups. Through their innovation, great minded strategy, and use of impactful use of technology made these startups stand out. We have mentioned just a few start-ups who work on AI-based, but there are many more on the list.

 

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Business motivation

Business Plan: The Key To Flawless Execution

It’s tough to build a successful business when you don’t even know what you are trying to build and how you will build that. It is always advisable to come up with a  business plan. This layout of your business will help you realize where you are, what you want to achieve, and strategies to achieve them. It will allow and help you to get some clarity for yourself in order to set the key objectives for your dream business!  

Develop a system, streamline the entire process, and increase the efficiency of your business. not only making it faster and simpler. If you wish to get your business organized and strategically increase the profit margin, then keep reading.

Overview

First and foremost, we will talk about the overview of your business plan. An overview that tells what actually your business is all about. This section includes the official name of your business, its legal structure, and the location where you plan to operate. Along with these core points, you also need to mention the mission of your business because it is what all your plans are focussed on achieving. We would also suggest to include a chart that says who is accountable to accomplish the various tasks such as sales and marketing, finance, operations, etc.

Message

We all want our businesses to be successful but often fail to put across the message that our business wants to convey! All successful businesses to date have been very clear on the message they want to communicate to their target consumer base. The message that shows your importance in their lives and how you help them solve their burning problems! 

Marketing Strategy

To successfully market a business, it’s a basic requirement to know who is your target customer. You can figure out your target audience and evaluate their respective demographics and psychographics. You need to calculate the estimated size of your target market and where you can find groups of your target audience. If you do not have enough information to build up this section of your business plan, then probably you might require to conduct careful and detailed research to set and pivot your marketing position.

Products/Services

This section describes the product you sell, physical or digital. Choose one product as the primary product/service that your business revolves around and invest your energy and undivided attention in promoting and developing it. One of the many advantages of making a single product/service your primary concern is that the business development becomes way easier if only a single product is involved at the nascent stage.

Goals

It is very important to set goals for your respective businesses as all these plans would end up being of no use if you do not have a benchmark set for it. Always be prepared with the goals that you want to achieve and these goals should basically revolve around sales, revenue, impact, and progress.

With all the points mentioned above, it is understood that a goal and a plan, go hand in hand! Writing a business plan is all about knowing what you have taken care of and what you are unaware of! Try to become more aware of the things that you have not already thought about and note it down somewhere to make a cohesive document. You know there are hundreds of thousands of ideas crossing your mind around your dream business venture, you might as well pen them down in the form of a business plan to make the most of it.