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Finance

Ninjacart, a Bengaluru-Headquartered Supply Chain Platform, Gets Fresh Investment From Walmart and Flipkart Group

Bengaluru, October 12: Ninjacart, a Bengaluru-headquartered supply chain platform got a major business boost after the firm got a fresh investment from Walmart, Flipkart group. Ninjacart sources fresh produce directly from farmers and quickly delivers them to retailers and businesses. This investment follows the one made by Walmart and the Flipkart Group in December 2019, as the companies continue to focus on ensuring access to high quality fresh produce for consumers and retailers. According to a report by IANS, this is the second round of funding comes at a time when Flipkart is focusing on growing its Supermart (grocery) and Flipkart Quick (hyperlocal business).

Launched in 2015, Ninjacart had earlier raised money from top funds such as Tiger Global, Accel, Tanglin, Steadview, Syngenta, Nandan Nilekani and Qualcomm, among other prominent investors. Thirukumaran Nagarajan, CEO & Co-founder of Ninjacart said that the fresh set of investments from Walmart and the Flipkart Group takes us one step closer to our vision of making food safe and accessible for the billion people and changing the way food reaches our plate.

Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart Group, said in a statement said that the e-grocery market in India has seen tremendous growth over the past several months as people have increasingly taken to ordering groceries and fresh produce online. “At the Flipkart Group, we are focused on ensuring that we continue to work towards developing new and innovative ways to meet our customers’ needs in this space through the growth of Supermart and the recent launch of Flipkart Quick”, Krishnamurthy said.

In the months to come, Ninjacart will use the capital to expand to new markets and build new offerings and supply chains for emerging customer segments, reports said. The firm while continue to innovate on the supply chain to make it more efficient, reliable, and profitable. The transaction is expected to close by the end October, Walmart and the Flipkart Group said, without disclosing the financial details.

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Student

Delhi Skill & Entrepreneurship University’s First Academic Session Expected to Start in 2021 in Close Consultation With Companies

New Delhi, October 12: The Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University’s first academic session is expected to start in 2021 in close consultation with companies. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that these companies will be treated as ‘customers’ in this endeavour, so that courses are in tune with the industry demand and students are greatly benefited. The Chief Minister made the comments after meeting the newly appointed vice chancellor and board members of the university.

The Chief Minister said that students will be imparted skills and training at the university so that they can easily get a job as soon as they pass out from the institute or can pursue business by getting hands-on business training. “The Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University has been established through an Act of the Delhi Legislative Assembly. I am glad to announce that the university has started functioning today. The first board meeting of this university was held today,” Kejriwal said at an online press conference.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who holds the education portfolio, said the university will have a focus on quality and quantity – provide high-quality courses in the entire spectrum of skills training from traditional skills to those of the future and ensuring that the intake of students is large enough to cater to the existing demand.

According to reports, the government has appointed Dr Neharika Vohra, the head of the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM-Ahmedabad, as the vice-chancellor. Meanwhile, the board members include Pramath Raj Sinha, founding dean of the Indian School of Business and Founder of the Ashoka University, Genpact founder Pramod Bhasin, Naukri.com founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani, entrepreneur Shrikant Sastri and IP University founder Vice-Chancellor KK Aggarwal.

The Chief Minister said that the Delhi government has appointed the vice-chancellor of the university and its board members. “I spoke to all the board members and told them that the only objective and ideology of this university will be ensuring jobs for every student passing out from this university, or they should be able to pursue business,” Kejriwal said. He added that the first academic session is expected to start next year, in close consultation with companies who will be treated as customers in this endeavour, so that courses are in tune with industry demand.

The chief minister said that those designing courses will show the curriculum to industry bodies and companies and ask them if students who learn this will get jobs. “The university should also address the qualitative gap that exists in the skilling sector. This was seen when all industries, businesses, shops, and markets were shut down during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, and people lost their jobs,” he said.

During his address, Kejriwal said that with the easing of restrictions of the lockdown, he met people who did not have jobs, and those who had businesses but did not have people to work for them. “It means that both were available, but they could not come together on a platform. “On one hand, many young students are unemployed and on the other, industries are not able to find skilled and trained labor. If we impart skills to our children, the industries will give them jobs,” he said.

 

Categories
Business motivation

Sell Coffee Online: Steps To Launch A Successful Online Coffee Business

 Believe it or not, this is something new that is becoming more important to millennials than just food, clothes, and shelter. Coffee! Yes, coffee has been so deeply integrated in our day to day life that it seems difficult to survive without this magic potion.

Online Coffee Business, especially, has been becoming very successful amidst this pandemic as people have shifted towards ordering a hot brewed coffee online, rather than going to the coffee shop themselves. Keeping all this in mind, we will introduce you to what all it takes to launch an online coffee business.

How Exactly Is Online Coffee Business A Profitable Idea?

We all know that Money could be the most important and efficient motivator when it comes to starting a business. The online coffee business, too, could generate greater revenue if done in the right manner. With a very high number of people who consume this beverage daily, if not several times a day, there is a lot of scope to gather a huge customer base for your business which would end up in some very high profits.

On top of everything, you will have the advantage of branding cues that you can use in the most creative and innovative manner to attract customers to your sweet little brand. This is because when it comes to a high commodity product like coffee, one generally goes for branding cues rather than leaning towards a very well established brand promising the best quality product.

All You Need To Know To Start An Online Coffee Business

With all these steps mentioned below, we will put our best foot forward to make you understand what are steps to follow if you want to start your business from scratch.

Decide If You Want To Take Full Control Or Would Prefer Dropshipping

There are two ways you can operate your business. One is by using a third-party manufacturer to outsource and store the products you sell, known as dropshipping. The other option is to take full control of the business and sell your products directly to your customers online.

Take Your Time Finding The Best Supplier

Never settle for an average supplier that “just works”. Do your research and find your business strong support in the form of a great coffee bean supplier. It is very important because no matter how you try to save your business with the help of amazing marketing strategies, it’s the quality of your product that will decide the fate of your business.

Decide Your Products Wisely

Based on where you are starting your business and what are the demographics you are targeting, it’s very important to decide what all are the products that you want to sell. Just Coffee beans and beverages won’t do, you will need to add some more interesting products. Now it’s completely up to you if you want to sell snacks that go with your coffee or coffee-flavored items.

Build Your Brand

Building a brand is very crucial for your small business. You need to find out your target audience, work on developing a tone of voice and an online personality, think of the perfect name, design a catchy logo, as well as innovate a tagline that speaks volumes to your customers. 

Set Up Your Store Online And Let People Know

When all this is done and the concept of your business is crystal clear to you, you will need to build an online store. Make sure this online store has all the information your clientele may need. Once you build the store, let your current clients or the potential prospects know that you are open for business.

We hope that with this basic outline, you will be able to see a clear picture of starting an online coffee store. These topics broadly cover all the aspects of launching a successful coffee business. Now, we’ll leave you to ponder over it and realize the true potential of this business because, in coffee, the world trusts.

 

Categories
Business motivation

You Can, You Will – 4 Solutions For Women Entrepreneurs to Ensure Business Growth

Once you believe in yourself to make sure you can lead your team on the road to success, with your leadership, then you can take your venture to the heights. In the past few years, women entrepreneurship has experienced significant growth. Women make up nearly half the population in our country, still only 14 percent of businesses run by women.

By the efforts done by the government focusing on women entrepreneurship, there is a huge path forward for women entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

Let’s have a look at some of the steps for women entrepreneurs to kick start their business.

Assuring your Finance Access

A major setback for women who run a business is access to finance. Generally, women face difficulty in finding to come up with guarantors for the loans as the most assets are under their name. As we know, both banks provide collateral-free loans to women entrepreneurs.

But information regarding this tough to access and make it a huge challenge to secure these loans. Here when technology solutions should be provided and given complete knowledge about it.

Ensuring Constant Skill Development

Skill development is important for everyone as it enhances your productivity and gives you the right direction. Being an entrepreneur skill is a significant factor, therefore ensuring to provide knowledge and skills for yourself is important for running a successful business.

We need to provide a digital solution through online courses centric solution for women entrepreneurs. In the times where formal education can be a challenge to balance in day to day life, but technology solution provides an opportunity and make learning easy.

Bring Women Entrepreneur Online

As per the few studies, only 30 percent of female entrepreneurs use the internet, and less than one-third of Indian MSMEs are online. Bringing them online will provide immense opportunities for them to reach out to their target audience. This solution allows women, entrepreneur to access to online learning, bring their business on the social media platform, and access to government e-services.

Therefore, one step can bring so many solutions to benefit women entrepreneurs.

Catering Specific Requirements Of Indian Women Entrepreneurs

Today in our society where women entrepreneurs face not one but many hurdles and challenges which is not yet addressed. Providing solutions to these problems can help them in their growth as well as business.
Currently, available technology solutions can provide adapted to address their needs and problems which they face every day.

Helping women entrepreneurs will not help in their venture growth, but also their personal growth too. By leveraging, technology and connectivity will help them to work from home and cancels long travelling issues. These are a few solutions that can help women entrepreneurs grow in our country and give a platform to show their great leadership skills.

 

 

Categories
Business motivation

Tips to Help You Smoothly Run Your Small Online Business

Technology and the internet have changed our lives in many unthinkable and unimaginable ways and nobody is complaining. The reforms that have been brought as a combined result of the internet and technology is nothing short of a revolution. Now the internet is not just a medium to entertain yourself, it has become one of the best ways one can make money.

This article is all about us helping you with some amazing tips to run a successful online business. So, let’s dive in together to make the most of this connected world.

Keep An Eye On The Trends

Social media is a world where things, patterns, and trends evolve and change in the blink of an eye. If you want to make the most of the digital space, you ought to keep an eye on the latest trending. These constantly evolving trends on social media will help you keep up with the newest ways to market your business as well as with the branding.

Persistence Is Key

Let’s all be real about success. Although it comes easily to some, others have to work their hardest for quite some time. It is in the public domain now that for a business to become profitable, it at least takes somewhere around 4-5 years. Yes, that’s how long it takes to be somewhere closer to what you call a successful entrepreneur. We suggest you take inspiration from the success other businesses are achieving rather than comparing your progress with them and demoralizing yourself. Promise yourself to be persistent and never give up because even Rome wasn’t built in a day and your business is no exception.

Always Stay Connected

Yes, dear readers. There is no point in starting an ONLINE business if you can get yourself a speedy internet connection 24*7. We say 24*7, because an online business is something that never sleeps, well mostly. Before you even think of starting an online business make sure that you have a great internet connection because your livelihood is going to depend on it.

Keep An Eye On The Competition

No, we do not ask you to wake up the green monster also known as jealousy, we simply ask you to observe and keep a track of what the competitors are doing. These observations won’t only make you in the loop of what’s new that your competition is practicing as well as it helps you learn what are things that have been done wrongly by them and you can learn your lesson. It is as simple as that. Invest in a social media monitoring tool to stay aware of what your competitors are up to.

Maintain The Online Reputation

Maintaining your online presence and reputation can play an important role in maintaining and showcasing a positive identity amongst the netizens. Now that even the smallest of the business understand the importance of online reputation management, digital marketers are investing a good amount of time controlling what’s being published around their brand in the digital space. Again, investing in good social media listening tools could be important as it helps you stay in touch with each and everything that is written for and around your brand.

The technology, smartphones, and basically the internet has changed the dynamics of the business world. Businesses are constantly evolving with the necessary changes which are very crucial in order to not become obsolete and always stay relevant. We will leave you with these tips that will help you do just that. Good Luck!

Categories
Business motivation

Goldmine For New Entrepreneurs: Business Tips From Successful Entrepreneurs Around The World

Building your own business brings along a sense of financial freedom and achievement which can be expressed in words. However, the journey to this sense of achievement and financial freedom is anything but easy. Any entrepreneur worth their salt would vouch for how much it takes to build a  business from scratch.

Some very useful business tips from some very successful entrepreneurs around the world will help you understand the essence of entrepreneurship to help you understand the concept in its entirety. 

Put Yourself In The Shoes Of The Customer And Try To Fill The Gap

Time and again it has been said by many that in order to come up with a world-class business idea is to look into the gaps between the market and the consumer. First and foremost, try and put yourself in the position of your target consumer and think about what’s the need of the hour and how can you help fulfill that need. Observe your surroundings and the environment and try to find your niche with the help of which you can serve society!

Observe And Learn

When a brilliant idea strikes your mind, you get on the top of the game to start executing the idea as soon as possible. However, that may not be the wisest of the decisions. In case the business idea belongs to a field or domain that you are fairly new to, it is advised to get some hands-on experience first to understand how things work at the grass-root level. Even for a rocket to reach for the stars, it has to find its ground first.

Lend That Feedback An Ear

No matter how confident you are of your idea and planning, hearing what your near and dear ones have to say could really be beneficial. They will give their feedback from the perspective of your future prospects. How could that not be beneficial? With all the valuable feedback you can make appropriate changes to give your business a chance to shine even brighter.

Nail That Execution

Businesses often try to hire people with super high creativity level but tend to forget to hire those who actually have the ability to turn that plan into a reality by seamless execution. Execution is that very stage where most of the businesses feel overwhelmed due to how underprepared they have been throughout the planning phase. Don’t let your business entrap in this situation and try a striking balance between planning and execution.

Market Your Product Only When You Are Absolutely Prepared

New businesses often tend to make a mistake by spending a huge chunk of money on the marketing campaigns without being absolutely sure of the product/service or the ways they are going to measure the performance of the campaigns. That’s a big No-No! Go for these extensive marketing campaigns only when you are prepared with your marketing goals and the KPIs to measure the success of your campaigns. 

Establishing a business while emerging as a capable leader is already a task daunting enough that you can use all the advice that people have to give to you. If you are selective with your approach, go for seeking advice from the people who have already aced the game, the experts. You have nothing to lose but a lot to gain from the wisdom the experts have.

Categories
Business motivation Motivational

Pivot And Persist: These Companies Stood Successful In Pandemic Times

2020 has turned out to be a chaotic year with full of surprises and shocks for everyone. It will not be wrong to say COVID-19, called the worst thing for many businesses, but for many entrepreneurs, it came as a blessing in disguise. This hard situation may not only enable them to rotate their business operations, process but keeping mind the growth of their business.

It has been months for the Indians who are surviving and fighting with the threat of this unbeatable virus. As correctly said, the lockdown imposed by the Government for the safety of our added woes not only to entrepreneurs but every class people as well.

While suffering during this time, a lot of businesses worked hard to fight back by changing the direction of their operation and touching different dimensions to be stable and grow at the same time.

Let’s have a look into those few businesses who fought this pandemic with a positive mind and change in operations way.

Hula Global

A garment manufacturing company founded in 2018 based out in Noida, was entirely into garments before COVID-19 came. But after a worse situation faced by people in terms of safety from viruses, the company owner changed business operations and started into manufacturing PPE kits, N95 masks, face shields, etc., to fulfil the rising demand for products in the country.

A change in business operation not only helped people in fighting the virus but also helped in the growth of the business. Now the brand has collaborated with the Bahrain Government, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Brazil, and Italy to supply these kits.

Homescape

A co-working space, company founded in 2013 by Manoj Khandelwal operating from Bengaluru, when lockdown happened, then work from home to come. So, co-working spaces had major suffering during this pandemic time.

When the future of his co-working space future remains uncertain, then this Bengaluru-based co-working space Workshaala had set the example by changing business operations by an initiative called Homescape. The company started providing furniture like tables, chairs, and desktop to people working from home and help them individual’s productivity and provide them with comfort and ease at the same time.

Shree Shakti Enterprises

Shree Shakti Enterprises is a bulk trader of steel utensils since 1956 that has a good name in the market. But like most businesses in the world, they also hit a speed bump. This pandemic forced them to pause the economic activity, shut factories, so they had to close all its manufacturing units in Sonipat, Haryana.

Then their Rahul Bajaj, the owner of the company came up with the idea to touch uncharted territory of sensor-based sanitizer dispensers to hands-free hand wash systems, and automatic foot sanitizers. They started building a prototype within days of the lockdown. We can clearly say that the idea had changed their life.

2020 maybe turn out to be a surprise and shock at the same time. Last few months, many businesses have illustrated flexibility more than ever. As the pandemic and lockdown disabled not only the economy, our lives too across the globe. But, as it said you will find the way you go on the path of innovation with a positive mindset.

 

Categories
Business motivation

Tips To Save Your Small Business From Shutting Down

With big dreams in their eyes, many amongst us have been aspiring to become a great entrepreneur to make a difference in the society or even just to pursue their passion. Many of those are ready with their perfect idea but do not have someone to guide or advise them on all stages and crucial. This article is our genuine effort towards helping those dreamers with some super effective business tips to put their best foot forward while laying the foundation of their ambitious business plan.

Soak All That You Can

Regardless of whatever initiative we are in the middle of taking, we always lend our ear to those who give any piece of advice to give to us. Be a sponge and absorb everything that your family, friends, professionals, even experts have to say about the whole process. All this is part and parcel of the process of writing a coherent business plan. While writing this business plan, research, ask, and observe all you can.

The Simpler, The Better

We all have seen our parents and teachers telling us the same thing, again and again, that focus on one thing at a time and deal with one problem a day. This funda may seem very simple but has the ability to solve the worst of the problems. When you start your journey as an entrepreneur, try and work on your niche. The moment you see things going over the board, take a halt and figure out what are you going wrong with and how have you complicated the products/service, or management for that matter. Just remember that god lies in simplicity.

Hope For The Best And Expect The Worst

It is no secret that 90 percent of the businesses are forced to shut down in the first five years of their existence for many reasons. No entrepreneur would want their business to be trapped in such a situation and to be left with nothing to survive or get back on their feet for that matter.

Always be ready with a plan b in case your business for some unfortunate reasons doesn’t work out. It’s better to have a back up rather than falling flat on your face.

Budgeting Is Key

Budget is something that every entrepreneur who is about to start a new business struggles with. Once you are done figuring out what your next business is going to be all about, it is important for you to plan the budget. Plan how much resources are going to cost you, what would the rent be looking like, how are you going to manage the production,  and also try to plan some unexpected expenses. Once you are done calculating the lump sum amount, multiply it by 4. Yes, it actually ends being more than what you had already planned. So, be more prepared than facing hiccups once you are in the game.

There is no particular protocol to follow or tricks to exercise as such to make your business a sure shot success, however, the tips that we have shared with you will certainly open up your mind and will let you think of things with a whole new perspective.

Categories
Business motivation

Tips To Ensure Survival And Growth Of Your Business

Starting a business is not everybody’s cup of tea and it’s even difficult to keep it running smoothly considering how flawed the startup ecosystem is at the moment. Looking at the recent surveys it is observed that a huge chunk of the population is going to start its own business venture by the end of 2020, but how many do you think will make it?

Read these super useful business tips which when combined with your hard work and dedication will not only help you survive but thrive beyond imagination.

Plan It Out

Once on paper, always in mind. This might sound vague to you but we’ll walk you through the significance of these 6 words. There might be a billion ideas going in your mind around how you are doing to manage your business, rather than helping you out this chaos will make you forget doing even the most basic tasks. Getting organized is the need of the hour and writing your daily tasks would be the best way to stay in sync and to be on the top of your game.

Keep An Eye On The Math Of It

How important do you think it is to keep track of the finances in your business? Turns out very! You need to figure out where to stand in terms of financial growth. Make a detailed plan of where you are and where you want to be with your financial projections but this could not be done until and unless you regularly keep a track of all the financial activities such as cash flow. Consider it a very essential move and form your future strategies accordingly.

Put On The Thinking Hat And Get Creative

Why should you try to blend in when you are born to stand out? No matter how amazing a product or a service you plan to offer if it fails to catch the attention of your target customer, your business will bear the consequences. Nobody wants that to happen and that is why we are suggesting you let those creative juices flow and think of the amazing ways in which you can market yourself to the customer.

Consistency And Persistence Matter

How consistently you try to put your hard work into growing your business and community every day tells a lot about how badly you want your business to be successful. To make a business successful, the kind of passion and dedication required to showcase isn’t something that is witnessed on a day to day basis. The ones who managed to showcase, emerge as true leaders. So, ensure your best work with praiseworthy consistency and be ready to work day-in and day out to ensure your strong market presence.

Don’t Lose Focus

If you listen intently to your long term goal, you will hear it saying, “focus on me”. Yes, don’t ever let your focus deviate from your long term objective by the routine difficulties that you are meant to experience in the process of making it all work. Never forget why you started this business in the first place. The business won’t immediately start experiencing sales or growth, it will take its own sweet time but until then don’t lose focus and keep working your hardest.

There are already enough businesses that are falling prey to the inefficient startup ecosystem across the nation and we know you don’t want to join the bandwagon. If you pay attention to what has been said in this article, it will only be a matter of time before you find yourself riding high on success.

 

Categories
Business motivation

Rule The Market: 4 Efficient Yet Simple Tips To Eliminate Competition

Any entrepreneur worth his salt knows that launching a business is a tough job and running it smoothly over a course of years is even crazier.  When you start a business, you work tirelessly to grow it in order to earn a greater market share. But you are not alone, there are tons of competitors out there waiting for you to make one wrong move. 

Yes, it just takes one wrong move for your competitor to knock you out and ruin your business. If you do not want to let that happen, read this article until the end to get your hand on some very easy but crucial tips to strengthen your position in the market.

Work on Building Relations, Sales Can Wait

Yes, we all understand that business is started with the ultimate goal to be financially viable and make good money, but that shouldn’t happen at the cost of running your image in the eyes of your consumers. Don’t just try and make sales, that will make you come off as greedy and self-centered. Work on building cordial relations with your customers and try to build a community first. Let them know what is the purpose of your business and ask them what are their preferences and feedback on your service/product. Sooner or later, this hard work will pay off in the form of skyrocketing sales.

Try To Sell A Solution, Not A Problem

Nobody wants to hear how amazing your product or service is no matter how many adjectives you decorate your product with. The customer out there wants his problem to be solved. Instead of listing the benefits of your product, tell them exactly how your product or service could possibly put an end to that problem by proving a kickass solution and help them achieve their goals.

Choose Your Employees Carefully

Your employees are the face of your brand. Considering this factor, you need to ensure that each and every employee of yours shares your ideology of being customer friendly. If we pay attention to what surveys have always been saying, it is highly likely for a customer to buy a product from a sales attendant who is nice to them. So, we would recommend you to hire employees who have a pleasing personality, are cheerful, and are genuine.

Identify And Nourish Your Unique Selling Points

Know what you’re best at. Work on planning, developing, and strengthening that one product of yours that has made your business what it is today. Always focus on that one product that will never let you lose your position in the market for years and years to come just for the fact that you have been great at it consistently. Be known for that one solid product/service that the whole world vouches for your credibility.

All in all, please understand that keeping your business alive and kicking does take hard work and effort but the protocol doesn’t always have to be complicated. The tips that we have mentioned above, and believe us there are many more such tips, will surely help you make a name for yourself.