Category: Startup

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Small Business Survival Plan For Dealing With The Coronavirus

Small Business Survival Plan For Dealing With The Coronavirus
Small Business Survival Plan For Dealing With The Coronavirus

Are you finding it hard to know how you can proactively manage your small business during the coronavirus?

With the coronavirus still spreading across the world, small business owners are worried about their survival. Restaurants, Retail stores, malls, theatres, and other small businesses are ordered to shut down and employees are asked to work from home. Many business owners are concerned about their small business survival in this situation because no one knows how long this economic situation will last.

Below are 9 survival plans with detail that can make a difference in being able to keep your doors open and calm your employees and customers:-

1. Immediate financial triage

The most important concern of the small business survival is how they will be going to pay the bill.  This is the most difficult question to answer because they are facing the most critical time of business reduction. Here are the important points to keep in mind on the financial front:-

  • Create a cash flow budget with fixed variable costs for small business survival.
  • Create a list of a fixed amount that needs to be paid. Prioritize the most important payments based on the timing of when they are due.
  • Contact all your debtors to try and get any overdue payments in.
  • Also, try to convince your creditor to see what payment they can defer in this critical time.
  • For small business survival eliminates unnecessary costs that are not producing revenue or securing the key business functions.
  • Always remember that your key employees can be your greatest assets if you cut them deep, you might not get them back.
  • Be creative and innovative in how your sales and marketing function. Find an additional financial source of earning to make small business survival.

2. Tax payment

  • Speak to your tax professionals to discuss the options to pay the tax.
  • Deferring tax payments can impact your eligibility for other stimulus packages.

 

3. Special COVID-19 policies

  • Create special Covid-19 policies for your employees and be clear with the safety protocols and business work from home culture to make small business survival.
  • Be flexible with the sick leave policy that employees want to take at work from home.
  • Do a webinar twice a week to stay connected with your employees.
  • Appoint a dedicated person (From the best performers of your company) for every team to maintain the workflow and decorum.

4. Employees and the talent

  • Make sure that you assured your employees about being protected. You have to retain the key employees who drive your business.
  • Stop hiring the new candidates instead try to diversify your employees. You can shuffle the key roles among your employees to understand their potential to handle the crises.
  • To make small business survival, make plans for next week, month and year and communicate the plan with your key people.
  • Unfortunately, you have to make hard decisions. Create a talent assessment in your company on who is a valuable asserted and how that person will help you in revenues.

5. Sales and marketing

  • Do regular communication with your customers and make sure that they know how to reach you.
  • Make it simple for the customer to purchase your product and services.
  • Start sending a regular newsletter or a series of emails and use it to communicate your willingness to help the customers. Tell them about the new feature, function, update and offer on your services and product.
  • Use social media to keep your customers up to date. If you don’t use social media, this is the time to build one.
  • Focus on your existing customer; provide them great service to maintain a relationship with your customers.
  • Find out new ways to deliver your product or services to your customers.

6. Research & development, operations, product or service improvements:

  • Invest your time to tackle projects you have been putting off.
  • Use this time to improving products and services and find efficiencies.
  • Use past customer feedback to improve your customer service and process.
  • Conduct online training or webinar for your company to create a world best product. You should also get training as a leader in problem areas to improve your company.
  • Invest time on media marketing, Accounting, IT or anything in your business category that can drive your business, only if you are weak on it. Involve your key team members into this.

7. Work from home for your employee

  • Many employees are having first experience working remotely; make sure you set the clear expectation.
  • Empower your employees with technology, if you want your small business to survive.
  • Implement a work from the home agreement with your employees.
  • Set an expectation and procedure for a daily productivity report and analyze it weekly so that you can track the workload and productivity of each employee.

8. Business strategy plan for 2020

  • This is an excellent time to make modifications to your business plan and you have not a plan for the year, it is the time to make one.
  • Start with the project that has been on your wish list and revaluate your objectives.
  • Use this time wisely and adjust your plan for this year.

9. Show humanity and be charitable

  • Reserve some money that could help in this time of disaster.
  • Try to serve and help those in your community.
  • Learn about how you can prepare yourself better for this disaster. Use this time as a wakeup call and learn from this experience.
  • Build small food storage that can help those people who cannot by food for themselves or for their family.
  • The more you help others in this difficult situation, the better you will feel.

As the future is uncertain, it is likely to be prepared for worse for small business survival. Recessions are cyclical by nature and entrepreneurs can make up for lost value at successive rounds once the economy improves.

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Startup

5 Business Strategies That Can Run Business Without You

Learn the art to build a business which runs on its own

Business Strategies
defines your business, Do you work for your business, or does your business work for you?

  • If by any reason you can’t look after or run your business regularly then will your business will be affected?
  • Would your business still succeed, would it merely survive, or would it suffer a tragic failure?

These are some obvious questions that every business owner must answer. We tell you 5 Business Strategies run a business without your daily involvement:

1. Decide on your goal

The first business strategy is to decide what your objectives are. Are you in business to scale or is it only a passion that you are growing? Do you want to continue to do the work yourself, say, like a software engineer or chef? Or a business is desired which can be run without your regular involvement?

  • For example, if you decide to continue to do the work yourself, then you will not have the time to build a business. You can hire associates to help the company bring in more revenue, but that revenue is split among the partners. So, this will not work as that business model will be run by other partners.
  • A professional like a CA, Doctor, Lawyer is a professional. They are still an entrepreneur but more like someone that is employed by his own self.

The first basic Business Strategy starts with you deciding to step away from a managerial role and bring a leader attitude towards everything.

2. Narrow the service you offer

Another important business strategy is to take a decision as a leader to streamline the work. Remember only process can scale.

  • For example, if you provide SEO services, and, for a typical client, you did everything from on-page optimization to building backlinks to PPC advertising. To make any business successful and scalable you need to choose the services in which you are skillful enough to deliver.
  • For example, let’s assume you just focused on GDN advertising then you become the specialist in that one particular area. It’s really important for you to be passionate and proficient about the work you choose.

When you narrow the service that you offer, you become a specialist. Specialists can be professionals or they can become leaders and build a large scale business. Specialists always command more value. Also they can always train more people to work for them in a certain defined process.

This is exactly what you must learn. Be a specialist and create a process that can be replicated by other people.

3. Train people to unlock your time and then build a team that repeats this process

Now that you’ve got your goal defined and services are narrowed, the third business strategy to apply is to start hiring smart talent that can unlock your time.

  • The business strategy applies here is, you don’t have to hire the best talent. You only have to hire competent and passionate people.
  • Important thing is to manage these newly hired staff effectively, you need to have a leader’s attitude and set an example in the company. This involves planning, predictability, control and culture.

4. Use technology for business automation

Business automation is the key. You must understand what technology will help you automate process, increase people’s efficiencies and save time. All technology must lead to an improvement in people and processes.

To understand business automation better, subscribe to the Busyness to Business problem-solving course by Bada Business. Download the Bada Business app or call 9810544443.

5. Hire your successor

At this point, you are now prepared to do one of the most important aspects, now the final Business Strategy would be to hire someone to take your place.

Prepare a plan to hire your successor within a particular time. That plan should answer the following questions:

  • When do you want this to happen? In one year? Two? Three?
  • Who will be your successor? Will you hire someone from in house team or from other sources?
  • What are the qualities required that are important to this position? Strategic thinking, risk taking or talent management?
  • What are the technical competencies that are important to this position? These will be specific to your industry.

These are the five business strategies for creating a business that can run on its own, especially helps you out when you reach that point where you can step away for few months and not have to worry whether you will have a business when you come back.

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Startup

5 Ways To Protect Your Business From Cybercrime

Prevention is better than Cure: Learn how to protect your business from Cyber-Attacks
Hacking, phishing, data-stealing are the new buzz words in the business environment. Though cybersecurity is not considered significant enough in small companies, protecting business from cybercrime
should move up the priority list. Cybercrime is on the rise and so it is important to know how to fight it. We tell you 5 ways to protect small businesses against cyber-attack.
1. Keep your servers and softwares up to date
System updates can be time-consuming but some businesses don’t understand that it can help in protecting the data. 
Hackers usually know all about the updated softwares in the market and hence target the low hanging fruits, businesses that don’t have a System security plan in place
2. Train & Educate your employees about the Cybercrime threat
Educating your employees about phishing attacks is the fastest and the safest way to protect your business from Cybercrime
Cybersecurity training should be conducted on a regular basis and the IT staff should be upto date with new technologies 
Educate employees on not to open unknown pop-ups, downloading files from unknown sources
Devising an IT policy for staff will help in protecting small businesses from cyber-attacks; for e.g. not allowing the employees to use office wifi from unsecured devices. This will help in keeping cyber threats at bay
3. Strengthen Passwords
Make sure your password policy forces employees to keep strong passwords- which means, have more than 8 characters in your password, with a mix of special characters, upper and lower case alphabets and numbers. If you just have only numbers or only alphabets in your password, the hacker can crack it in less than 8 secs. For a few longer ones, it is just a matter of hours and your password is out. So frame it with the most difficult combination which you can remember!
Make sure the passwords are changed after every 3 months
The more complicated the password, the better. This will help in protecting business from cyber crimes 

4. Encrypt and take Back up of Important Data

Data is the foundation for many businesses today. Have multiple passwords to open sensitive date
Also don’t keep the data in one source, divide it into various segments 
Encrypt servers, desktops, laptops, mobiles with advanced internet security so that when data travels from one network to another it is not compromised and you can protect the business from cyber-crimes
5. Get Insured
God forbid if a cyber-attack takes place, there is insurance for cyber risk that you can avail. However, there is no insurance in the world that can make up for lost data, but it can off-set the cost borne due to business interruption.
Protecting business against cybercrime
is an ongoing process. You cannot be complacent and should always be prepared for a cyber-attack. Strict limitations and having a security framework that covers all points of breach is the only way to minimize the occurrence of such attacks
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Startup

Top Successful Startups In India

Achieve the Unthinkable: Stories of Top Most Indian Startups

When an entrepreneur starts a business, its success depends on various factors. Stories of successful Indian startups and their journey can provide many learnings to new and budding entrepreneurs. Most successful Indian startups have disrupted the market and created a huge impact. We get you case studies of 5 such startups that have become a household name in the last few years.

1. Chaayos

Founders
– Nitin Saluja & Raghav Verma

  • The idea started brewing when Nitin Saluja and his wife, while they were in USA, wanted to have a ’garam cup of chai’ post-dinner, but couldn’t find a place that gave them freshly brewed tea. That’s when the idea struck him.
  • 2 years later when Nitin Saluja came back to India and met Raghav Verma. Both had worked together in a software company before.
  • Their love for tea and the huge growth opportunity they saw in the market made them start a tea caf’ that will serve ’apne type ki chai’. They made tea a bit more contemporary so that modern consumers also ordered or came to their caf’.
  • For the next two years, Nitin and Raghav launched a full-fledged market research, and the results only brought them good news.
  • That is how Chaayos launched its first cafe in November 2012; since then, the chain has been adding outlets at a rapid pace, with more than 100% growth year-on-year since inception.

Journey

2012- Launched their first outlet in Gurugram

In 2015, Chaayos had a total of 15 caf’s in the Delhi NCR

2016, it expanded to Mumbai with a total of 33 tea caf’s in the country

2018- The number grew to 52 Chaayos cafes

Today, Chaayos operates in six cities with more than 65 cafes making it one of the most successful Indian startup

2. UrbanClap (UrbanCompany)

Founders
– Abhiraj Bhal, Varun Khaitan, Raghav Chandra

  • UrbanClap is another booming startup that helps its users in finding the right service professionals for the activities required by them. Services such as beauticians, sofa cleaners, carpenters and all kind of technicians are available on this platform.
  • Today UrbanClap is available in 4 countries with more than 5 million customers and 25000+ professionals associated with it
  • In 2013, two college friends, Abhiraj Bhal and Varun Khaitan decided to quit their jobs and pursue their entrepreneurial dream.
  • After launching their first venture Cinema Box, which failed miserably, they met their third wheel Raghav Chandra
  • The three of them together pooled in Rs10 lakh each to set up UrbanClap, which was incorporated in December 2014
  • From being a mere search and discovery platform, UrbanClap went on build a business model that included on-boarding service providers, training them, & managing quality control 

3. Wow Momo Foods

Founders
– Sagar Daryani and Binod Kumar Homagai

  • Wow Momo which started with an investment of just Rs. 30,000 now valued at more than 100 crores. Like many other successful Indian startups, Wow Momo was also born out of the love for eating momos and making it an organized business idea.
  • Sagar started experimenting with different momo combination and when he discussed the idea with Binod, he jumped at the opportunity
  • Wow Momo was born in 2018, from a small kitchen with 1 table and 2 temporary employees in Kolkata.
  • As they started getting a positive response from the customers, in 2010 they opened their first independent store
  • Today they have more than 95+ outlets all over India

4. Urban Ladder

Founders: Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa

  • After working for top corporates both Ashish and Rajiv were looking out for online opportunities to start their entrepreneurial venture
  • Around that time they had bought new flats next to each other and had a very bad experience while buying furniture for their house. They could not find one decent platform from where they could order furniture of their choice with variety on display
  • After some market research & thinking through, this duo gave birth to their startup- Urban Ladder
  • It started in 2012 as a 10-member team out of a house in Bengaluru
  • After 8 years, they are present in 17-states, providing the best quality & service. What began as a simple idea has prospered into one of the most successful Indian startups

5. Swiggy

Founders
:  Nandan Reddy, Rahul Jaimini, & Sriharsha Majety

  • Launched only 4 years ago, Swiggy today is one of India’s fastest-growing internet companies and one of the most successful Indian startups in recent times
  • Nandan & Sriharsha had already faced a failure with their first startup, later they met Rahul and the three of them started Swiggy- an online food delivery platform in 2014
  • They built a proper logistic network & convinced restaurant owners to partner with them. Soon they had over 100 restaurants onboard and were delivering over 70,000 orders on a monthly basis
  • 2016 was slightly rough for them but with the help of VC funding and the startup was back on its feet
  • Disruptive ideas, innovation such has cloud kitchen and a sound customer experience got more and more investors interested in the company
  • Today Swiggy has access to more than 50000 restaurants in 50 cities

These successful Indian startups are just a few of the fishes in the big pond comprising of many new ventures. The milestones achieved by them are no easy feat and each one’s journey has a unique takeaway for our business owners. Get inspired, aim for the stars as nothing is impossible!

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Startup

In Times Of Corona What You Need Is Motivation

Are you getting demotivated in this corona downturn?
 

Staying positive in this tough situation is even hard for optimistic people. We have to take this virus very seriously as it is capable of severe illness, death and a long team change to how we work and live.

It is even cripple the economy. With all these things it is hard to stay positive and motivated.  There are many things you need to know and apply in coronavirus outbreak to protect and motivate yourself.

You should focus on the positivity so that you can fight and pass this difficult time.

Here are the things you can do to stay motivated in this downturn:-

1. Watch motivational videos

There are many motivational videos on YouTube. You can watch Dr. Vivek Bindra’s motivational videos which are full of motivation and knowledge. If you are an entrepreneur then these videos, can give your ideas related to your business. With these videos you can motivate yourself and stay positive in this downturn.

2. Reset your goals

In this tough time, when you have to be at home, do reset all your goals. Plan your day differently. Start learning a new thing. Start working on your weaknesses. Work on your future plans. Incorporate learning as you go through this time. Ask how this will affect the future of your enterprise and make adjustments. Work on your passed resolutions. Analyze your new project and work on that. Always remember that you have to motivate yourself to bring changes and positivity.

3. Invest time on yourself

Investing time on you to make yourself empower. Start learning new technologies. You can also consider Bada Business App by Dr. Vivek Bindra for free business and motivational learning that can help you achieve new goals. These videos on Bada Business app can solve the burning problem of the entrepreneurs. Invest time on your talent and hobbies. Connect with your clients, friends, relative and partners to rebuild the relation.

4. Take a daily inventory

Close your day with a positive acknowledgment of something you have accomplished, learned or are grateful for. It will help you to dilute the negativity and remind you that not everything that is happening right now is bad or depressing. Do something different every day to motivate yourself.

5. Maximize your productivity

Now that you are not spending time on commuting and have more time to pay attention to how to use the time smartly. Chart your most productive time of the day while you are working from home. This will help you to understand what time of the day to tackle the important tasks. ’You have time; get to know more about yourself’.

In this time of constant negativity, you need an antidote of motivation so that you can keep your positive and march forward with determination and hope. Be deliberate in positive activities.

Together, we will get through this. You just have to motivate yourself.

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Startup

Business Guidance By Multi-millionaires On Starting-Up!

Business Guidance By Multi-millionaires On Starting-Up!
Business Guidance By Multi-millionaires On Starting-Up!

Life-changing Business Lessons from Multi-Millionaires

It has been seen that when it comes to starting your business or wealth creation, many people want to learn from the most successful, people who are their business idols.

Learning from multi-millionaires gives a peek into their struggles and their rags to riches journey.

Today India is amongst the top 3 nations in the world with the largest number of unicorns (billion-dollar companies) and we are poised to grow faster, but this will only happen when education and entrepreneurship spread across the remotest districts of India.

As a part of one of our top selling products- Everything About Entrepreneurship (EAE), India Inc and Billionaire entrepreneurs share life-changing business lessons with our customers. Under business guidance by multi-millionaires, small business entrepreneurs learn business strategies and how to implement them in their organizations.

Here are some key learnings from multi-millionaires on things to keep in mind before starting your business:

1. Create something that solves a problem

  • If your product or business is solving a burning problem that the customer is facing, it is bound to connect with the people and become successful.
  • Research, talk to consumers and learn before you start a business

2. Be ready to face failures

  • An entrepreneur should not be scared of failing. Fear of failure forces you to play safe and that will not help in the long run
  • You might be able start your business, but over time it will curtail your from scaling up or hamper your potential to earn more money
  • As a part of our EAE course, for the first time ever in India these multi-millionaire entrepreneurs have assumed the role of professors contributing to the growth of entrepreneurship.

3. God is in the Detail

  • When you are starting a business be obsessed with details
  • Be very particular about processes, work delegation and delivery and timelines of your business journey
  • There are many entrepreneurs who start a business, but he one who is more than passionate about detailing will find a way out to succeed
  • One great business guidance that we got from our EAE interview on the Bada Business App is by Dr. Velumani, Chairman & MD, Thyrocare. He said, “If you know COGS (Cost of goods sold), you can do business. But, if you know COGS of COGS, you can bring Disruption”. Through our ‘Learn at Home’ model, we want each of our entrepreneurs to bring about disruptions in their business that can change the fate of this country and its people

4. Learn from your mistakes

  • When you start your business, it is natural to make mistakes. Most billionaires have learnt from the trial and error method and become successful
  • An entrepreneur who treats failure as a natural stepping stone to success  and is willing to learn from his mistakes, will surely make it big!
  • Don’t let your ego come in the way, learn to accept that you don’t know everything

5. Have the courage to make Big Bets

  • When you need to take decisions that won’t be easy, but your heart allows you to do so then go for it
  • Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg got a lot of backlash when they started the ‘News Feed’ feature in 2006. But he and his team did not give in to the popular opinion and finally News Feed became the highlight of Facebook’s interface

6. Have Clarity of thought

  • The greatest business leaders in the world have established certain competencies. The most important of them is clarity
  • Clarity leads to speed in decision making and execution. Clarity creates ownership
  • Many of our billionaire Bada Business Professors stand testimony to this clarity. They have shared their success stories, and therefore make excellent role models for young and upcoming entrepreneurs looking for the right bit of motivation to get them that competitive edge
  • Xiaomi’s MD, Manu Jain in one of our videos of ‘Everything About Entrepreneurship’ gave business guidance on the clarity of thought. He was very clear from the beginning that Xiaomi phones initially will be only sold online-only, and this strategy gave them an immense boost in sales

One of the ways to learn important business lessons is to emulate successful leaders, learn from their mistakes and then tread on your own path to success. At Bada Business it is our endeavor to build a New India and make India stronger from bottom up. Business guidance from millionaires at the comfort of your home is a revolution in the making that is going to create entrepreneurs in every household of this country!

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Startup

How To Re-Structure Business Loans In Times Of Crisis?

How To Re-Structure Business Loans In Times Of Crisis?
How To Re-Structure Business Loans In Times Of Crisis?

Are you worried about how to sustain your business? Learn the approach to Business Debt Restructuring

Many borrowers face serious trouble in normal debt repayments during a financial crisis which will eventually lead to increasing number and volume of non-performing loans in banks’ portfolios.

In order to deal with these issues, Business debt restructuring techniques like payment rescheduling, debt-equity swap, and write-offs to ease debtors’ debts are being looked into to help businesses survive the crisis.  We get you the approach for restructuring of business loans:

The key objective of a comprehensive and timely business debt restructuring is to help get access to sufficient finance to sustain businesses

Approach to corporate debt structuring can be of many forms:

1. Debt rescheduling –

This means we restructure the existing terms of loan. It can be lengthening the time of debt repayment so that the payment amount in one installment is reduced increasing the number of payments.

2. Interest rate deduction –

The interest rate is at which a bank or a creditor lends funds. A reduction in the rate can help in reducing the amount of payment.

3. Debt-for Equity Swaps –

When a company wants to restructure its debt and equity mix to better position itself for long-term success, it may consider issuing a debt for equity or equity for debt swap. The logic behind this is an insolvent company cannot pay its debts or improve its equity standing in the market. The debt for equity swap reduces liabilities in the balance sheet and allows business lenders to have some upside in restructuring once the company returns back to normalcy.

4. Debt Forgiveness –
In this approach, a partial of the loan is forgiven or written-off for financially troubled businesses. The aim is to help the company in its business debt restructuring so that it can become financially healthy and pay off the remaining loan

5. After deciding what approach to use, the next step would be to design a point of departure in while drawing a framework for corporate debt restructuring strategies. Once the crisis is over, how would the next restructuring phase be devised?

6. Focus on Policy Measures –

During an economic crisis, the Government devises reforms/moratorium initiatives that can help restore not only businesses operating in the country but the banking system as well.

When you face a business crisis, the companies affected the most should work towards business debt restructuring.

It is only wise to do so if you want to improve operations and revisit your strategies for growth. Financial challenges will be there in a business cycle, but the important part is to overcome them with a systematic and sensible approach.

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Startup

How To Apply For A Startup India Grant?

Struggling to get funds for your New Business? Learn how to apply for the Startup India Grant

Startup India
Initiative has rolled out several programs with the objective of supporting entrepreneurs, That Startup India initiative has opened doors to many opportunities for new business owners.

Some of the benefits that can be reaped by Startup companies are related to tax benefits, easier compliance and financing. The idea is to build a robust startup ecosystem and transform India into a country of job creators instead of job seekers.

Through this article, we tell you the kind of grants available and how you can apply for a Startup India
grant.

Here is a list of some of the Government grants available to Indian Startups:

1. PRISM’s Technopreneur Promotion Program (TePP)

TePP is an initiative of the Science and Technology department of the Govt. of India. Individuals can use this to transform their innovation and take it to the next stage to form an enterprise. The grant is available from Rs. 2 lakhs to 1 crore. The grant is provided at various stages- from starting up, development, trial and finally taking it commercial.

2. Multiplier Grants Scheme (MGS)

The Department of Electronics and Information Technology offers the Multiplier Grants Scheme with the aim to support and fund industries such as IT, analytics, enterprise software, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and technology hardware. To apply for Startup India grant (MGS) you can avail funding of Rs. 2 crore for a duration of 2 years.

3. NASSCOM Startup Grant

As a part of the Startup India movement, selected startups are helped to raise money from VCs, government funds, angel investors, among others. The startups get to work with accelerators, are mentored and are helped to foster strategic partnerships with Nasscom’s network.

4. SIDBI Fund

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) further sanctioned Rs. 1000 crores to 30 venture funds through government funding as a part of applying for Startup India grant . It helps startups in early stages.

They have also allotted additional investment for encouraging the founders of new start-ups & approved by an advisory committee. 

5. Venture Capital Assistance Fund
 

This fund has been set up by the Ministry of Agriculture and Family Welfare. It helps in assisting agri-preneurs to make investments in setting up agribusiness projects through financial participation

6. Apart from the Centre, the State Govts. of more than 15 states have set up grants, seed funding opportunities and advisory services under the Startup India initiative

How to apply for Startup India Grant:

The process to apply for grant is not very complicated but make sure you meet all eligibility criteria for it which is available on their website:

  1. Register on the Startup India portal
  2. Post registration; apply for DPIIT (Department for Industrial Policy and Promotion) recognition
  3. Access the Section 80 IAC exemption application form here
  4. Fill in all details with the below-mentioned documents uploaded and submit the application form

With an aim to start a Startup revolution, the Startup India grant has helped many new businesses take the first flight and add to the GDP of the economy. There are many other ways to get funding for your business as well, but the Startup India grant not only offers financing options but also an ecosystem around it that can help your grow your business.

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Startup

How to raise funds – Pitch Deck explained by Mr. Ratan Tata

How to raise funds - Pitch Deck explained by Mr. Ratan Tata
How to raise funds - Pitch Deck explained by Mr. Ratan Tata

What can a well-designed pitch deck do for your business? To begin with, it can inspire the world’s best investors to invest in you.

Having an impressive Pitch Deck is a key component while fundraising for your business. A powerful pitch tells your potential investors that you are ready to raise money. It shows how prepared you are. How well do you know your business model, information about your team and more. For the investor, the Pitch Deck is the first window to your venture.

The Pitch Deck is the first thing that will keep your investors engaged to know more about your business.

Below are 10 powerful tips you should always keep in your mind while making the Pitch Deck. The recommendations have been made in the pitch deck by Sir Ratan Tata.

This will give you enough confidence to design and present a killer Pitch Deck for fundraising for your business.

1. Problem

This is the first slide of your presentation is to make the investor understand about your preparation. This slide will cover the problem of how you are filling the gaps in the market. What burning problem you are solving? A problem with the people can relate and the investor can understand.

The investor will have 3 solid reasons to involve in your venture:-

  • There is a clear sense of ROI.
  • The investor has experienced the same kind of problem in the past.
  • Their expert find it good to go

If your investor falls in these 3 buckets it means you got the lead investor.

2. Solution

  • A solution should be very clear and to the point. After the problem, investors always look for the solution.
  • Now you have to show your investor how your company and product will address the problem.
  • Most of the entrepreneurs focus on their product when instead they need to focus on their customers and the burning problem they are facing.
  • Try to use pictures and stories when you describe the solution.

3. Unique selling proposition

  • Is your product is unique enough to solve the problem of the customers? Is your product can attract your customer’s attention?
  • If the answer is yes! Then you have got the lead investor.
  • You need to work on the characteristics which can make your solution a “never-before” solution.

4. COMPETITION & BARRIER TO ENTRY

  • An image or a diagram is a good idea to tell the investor about the competitors that you have in your space. How you compare them and where you land with the value proposition.
  • You should clearly differentiate your product and company from your competitor which will make your company unique for the investors.
  • This uniqueness of your product will also create an entry barrier for the other competitors.

 

5. Revenue Model

  • Now that you have already explained your product/service, you have to talk about how your product will make money.
  • You have to discuss how your pricing will fit into the market.
  • The investor will keep an eye on how you will undercut the existing solution in the market with your pricing and will your customers be ready to pay that price?

6. Target Market

  • This slide will share the data of your ideal customers and how you will position your product in the market.
  • This is where you tell the story about the scale of the problem you are solving and the scope of getting success.
  • Always remember that the more specific you are with your targets, the more realistic your pitch will be.
  • The market size will decide whether you are getting the funds or not because if you are operating a small market then the investor might find the potential ROI small and risky to fund.

7. The product/Service

  • In this slide, you have to show the unique features and value to impress the investors.
  • This part of your Pitch Deck is all about to show off of your product/service.
  • Use pictures, screenshot, descriptions, quotes and testimonials from your previous customers to show how much they love your service/product.

 

8. Milestone

  • Investors like to spend more time to look over in this slide.
  • It should have your company project growth over the last and next 3-5 years with the detail of the finances and business model.
  • Your economic plan can also be shared in this slide which can include the distribution channel, operational structure and a plan to make money in the future.
  • No one can do the prediction where you will be in the next 3 years but the investors would like to see your future plans and the financial knowledge to reach there.
  • Do share your profit and loss statement for the last and next 3 years, if possible. This will give your investor a clear picture.

 

9. Funding so far

  • If you already have investors on board, now is the time when you should talk about why they choose to invest in your company.
  • All you have to provide is a summary of the investments. This will help you build credibility and validation of your company.
  • Also mention a realistic number raised through the other investors and the commitments if you expect to fund.

10. The Team

  • Here you have to mention the key role and expertise of your core team members.
  • Describe the unique value of each team member brings to the company. Also, talk about their seriousness and passion for the project and why they choose to work with your company.

Now that you are very much clear about the Pitch Deck, let’s take a look at some common dos and don’ts which will also help you in fundraising for your business.

Do’s
 Don’ts
Use bullet points in the slides Don’t fill your slide with text
Do include your contact details Don’t add too many team members
Tell a story while presenting Do not only focus on stats
Do elaborate the slides Don’t only read the slides
Use a powerful template to create the deck Do not over design

A solid pitch deck helps you secure the funding and will convert your business idea into a reality.

Categories
Startup

5 Strategies to build world-class customer experience

Is your customer-facing a bad experience?

Customer experience is the best opportunity to multiply your revenue because focusing on your It will reduce the churn and multiple the revenue which will lead you to higher profits.

Customer experience is an interaction and experiences your customers are having with your company. Customer who has a positive experience with a business is more likely to become a repeat and loyal customer and if you want them to be loyal then you have to invest in their experience.

What is a great customer experience?

Great experience come from providing amazing experience at every stage.

Why it matters to have a good customer experience?

  • According to a survey, 74% senior executive says that Customer experience impacts customer enthusiasm for being a brand advocate.
  • A study by American Express says that 60% of people are willing to pay more for better customer experience.
  • A study says that 49% of customers have made impulse purchases after receiving a more personalized and satisfying customer experience.

Let’s discuss the 5 most important strategies to build world-class customer experiences:-

1. Build a clear Customer experience vision

  • Start with a strategy to have a clear customer-focused vision that you communicate with your organization.
  • The easiest way to explain the vision is to create a set of guidelines and principles that help in building great experience.
  • The customer service department must be trained to solve the problems with these guidelines and principles because they are the face of your brand.
  • Analyze what kind of technology, tool, people and process you want to fulfill the objectives.
  • Check the gaps that exist between the customer’s expectation and experience?

2. Pay attention to the customers need and feedback loop

Thinking back to the Bain & Company research from earlier, 80% of companies believe they are providing great customer service, but only 8% of customers agree with them.

  • Post interaction with the customer start with the real-time feedback survey to know their need.
  • Do regular follow-up over the call for more details of the customer.
  • Start paying attention to what is being said by the customer on your social media. This is the only place where the customers are the most honest.
  • Keep your ear to the ground to hear what exactly your customer is saying.

3. Build a quick and effective resolution system

  • Keep a live chat system on your website. You can also add video-based assistance.
  • A quick response system can promote the purchase and also improve the customer’s perception of your brand.
  • Create a fun based feedback form to make them more engaged. A traditional feedback form can still serve the purpose.
  • Do not force your support on your customers but show them that the support is there and how to access it.

4. Keep an eye on customer experience metrics

  • Failing to measure the experience leads to missing out the valuable information that can boost the strategy of your customer experience. Always remember that if it can be measure, it can be improved.
  • Schedule regular feedback.
  • Use NPS (Net Promoter Score) to measure the recommendation percentage of your customer. This will show whether the customer would or would not want to recommend your company to their family or friends.
  • Use CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) to know the metric on how satisfied your customer is with the last purchase. Interact with the customer over a call, it is very flexible.

5. Use technology and tools to build a great customer experience

In 2008, only 12% of businesses had cloud-based Customer Service Management Tools. Now it’s 87%!

  • Always remember that technology and tools can reduce the workload of a company with 67%.
  • These technologies can increase the efficiency and reliability of your organization.
  • Engage your customers with an automated tailored message.
  • Engage them with multiple channels in one place.
  • Reduce churn with analytics.

Customer experience can lead you to failure or success so considers it very seriously and provides your customers with the world’s best experience. It will not only keep you in the game for longer, but it will also differentiate you from your competitors and help grow your business.