Month: December 2020

Categories
Technology

Eric Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom, Named ‘Businessperson of Year 2020’ by TIME Magazine

Eric Yuan (Photo Credits: Twitter)

Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom, has been named the ‘Businessperson of the 2020’ by TIME Magazine for the growth of his video conferencing platform amid the coronavirus pandemic. Yuan, who began at WebEx as a coder, soon became integral to the creation of his video-conferencing platform that served as a communication medium for millions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The birth of Zoom by the 50-year-old founder and CEO became successful after he struggled for a decade to build the no-frills, highly functional conferencing platform for businesses. With his determination and hardwork, Zoom was now being used in all sorts of unexpected places, from delivery rooms to grade schools.

Zoom’s popularity grew in 2020 as the world was hit with the pandemic at start of the year, which forced people to stay indoors, maintain social distancing and work from home. With the pandemic spreading its arms over the world, Zoom started growing with leaps and bounds, helping people to continue with the work through online mode. The video conferencing platform allows individuals to communicate virtually face to face. Zoom is now in the business of connecting everybody, originally intended for businesses and universities. Business Ideas For 2021: Here Are 4 Business Ideas Which You Can Start Next Year.

“We never thought about consumers or K-12 schools when we started planning the year 2020,” Yuan was quoted by TIME while speaking over Zoom from his home in the Bay Area. He had ordered employees to work from home in early March, but it wasn’t until weeks later—around when U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted a photo of a Cabinet meeting over Zoom—that it dawned on Yuan that his company might play a major role in this new virtual world order.

Yuan soon found himself serving as the world’s relationship liaison, social chair, principal, convention-center host, chief security officer and pallbearer. Despite competition from corporate behemoths like Google, Apple and Microsoft, Zoom jumped out in front of the video pack, catapulting from 10 million daily meeting participants in December to a staggering 300 million in April. Zoom became a verb and a prefix, a defining syllable of a socially distant era. As his company’s valuation soared, Yuan crashed into the Forbes billionaires list.

Zoom’s software was released in 2013, promoting a free basic service for different-size organisations along with many paid levels. Although many other startups relied heavily on free goods to cause widespread saturation, Zoom targeted modest school and company networks that would pay year after year for subscriptions.

Categories
Startup

Business Ideas For 2021: Here Are 4 Business Ideas Which You Can Start Next Year

Business Ideas
Business Ideas (Photo Credits: Picpedia)

Mumbai, December 11: If you are thinking of starting a  new business in 2021, then you need to do the planning to go ahead with it. It is very important to finalise a great business idea if you want to become an entrepreneur.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things, from the way people consume products and services to several other things.  An idea which might have looked attractive in 2020, may not be profitable in 2021 because of the changing landscape. Creative Businesses: 5 Viable & Budget-Friendly Start-Up Ideas for People With Creative Mind.

We have listed 4 small businesses ideas which you can start in the coming year.

  1. Online Teacher: Due to the lockdown, schools shut and they were forced to go online to impart education. There was no other way for people to get knowledge. The pandemic still continues to rage and there is no certainty on the reopening of schools. Therefore, online teaching business is surely a profitable idea which you can start in 2021. All you need is a knack for teaching and basic knowledge of technology.
  2. Digital Marketing: Due to the pandemic, brands have strengthened their presence in the online domain. Therefore, digital marketing is a great line, which is growing and has a great future in the days to come.
  3. Freelance editor, copywriter: Whether you write blogs, web content or press releases, there are plenty of companies who will pay for your services. You can use this knowledge and bring to the table of your clients, and help them to craft a strategy to attack specific keywords that their target audience is already using in their online searches.
  4. Home Chef: This is another business which you can explore in 2021. The business doesn’t entail a big investment and can be done from their own kitchen. All you need to do is cook great food and market well on the social media channels.
Categories
MSME

Amazon India & CII Sign MoU to Help MSMEs Adopt E-Commerce & Digitisation of Business

Amazon India and CII tie up to help MSMEs| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Facebook)
Amazon India and CII tie up to help MSMEs| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Facebook)

E-commerce giant Amazon India and the Confederation of Indian Industry on Thursday signed a Memorandum of understanding (MoU), following which they aim to bring benefits of digitisation of businesses to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in ten states across India. “As part of the MoU, Amazon.in and CII will conduct trainings, workshops and host masterclasses to enable MSMEs to sell online. Amazon and CII will work together to create a special exports module to simplify exports with e-commerce for lakhs of MSMEs across India,” Amazon.in said in a statement. Amazon India to Host 4th Edition of Small Business Day 2020 on December 12, to Support Startups to Sustain Their Business Growth.

Amazon also intends to work with the Ministry of MSMEs and enable MSMEs across the country to take their business online so as to ensure a wider customer base for them, not only in India but at a global level. As a part of this initiative, the CII and Amazon will publish regular reports on market analysis and conditions to help the MSMEs foresee any opportunity and be ready for threats. They will also publish insights for enterprises on promising categories, marketing, and branding of their products, logistics, MSME success stories and information on top performing products and services. IIT Kharagpur Develops Portable AI-Based Device to Enable Automatic Inspection of Goods in MSME Sector.

The Director General of CII, Chandrajit Banerjee, said that their initiative will help Indian MSMEs to reach customers at a global level. She added, “education about e-commerce and e-commerce exports will enable MSMEs to identify opportunities that help them access national and global customers.”  Adding, “We are excited about our partnership with Amazon that will help bring e-commerce closer to MSMEs and drive their digital transformation.”

Early this year, Amazon India had made three key announcements including digitising 10 Million MSMEs, enabling $10 Billion in e-commerce exports and creating 1 Million jobs, by 2025.”As we continue to work closely with the government on this important agenda, our collaboration with CII will help bring more and more MSMEs online, help them be part of the growing digital economy and create newer business opportunities for them,” said Amit Agarwal, Senior VP and Country Head, Amazon India.

Recently Nitin Gadkari the Union Minister for MSMEs had also talked about the importance of technology and digitisation of the sector. “In the next 5 years, technology and e-commerce will play a key role in enabling this growth and ensuring the success of millions of MSMEs in domestic as well as international markets. The combined efforts of government and the Industry will bring us closer to realizing the vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” he had said.

 

Categories
Startup

Hottest Startups of 2020: Paytm, Dream11, Zomato, Ola, Swiggy Among Top 10 Startups of 2020, Says Report

Startup
Startup (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

Mumbai, December 10: As per the Hottest Startups of 2020 Report, Paytm, Dream11, Zomato, Ola, Swiggy, Big Basket, Oyo, Byjus, Snapdeal, and Unacademy are the top 10 hottest startups of 2020. It needs to be mentioned here that all the ten startups hold the title of unicorns.

Paytm topped the list in terms of creating the most consistent buzz throughout the year while Dream11 bagged the title for the prominence of its brand.

The Hottest Startups of 2020 Report by Wizikey, celebrates the top 100 most influential startups in India emerging sectors like Fintech, E-commerce, SaaS, Logistics & Edtech, that have successfully redefined the ecosystem in 2020.

2020 also emerged as the year of Fintech due to the strong wave of cashless transactions like UPI and wallet payments that were witnessed in both metro and non-metro cities.

Some of the new players that have found a place in the list of hottest startups are- CRED and Khatabook. Big Basket found itself leading the sectoral list but ranking overall at number 6, way above Grofers which is ranked at 15.

 

Categories
Startup

Start-Up Funding: 5 Sources that Provide Quick & Easy Funds

5 Sources that Provide Quick & Easy Funds to Start-Ups| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)
Representational Image | (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

Funds are the lifeline of any enterprise. For a firm to start, succeed and sustain, consistent and adequate funding is of utmost importance. Without regular flow of finance, all the other operations of the businesses including production, marketing, and selling among others become stagnant. Especially, in the present business environment which is fast paced, dynamic and highly volatile a secured stream of financial resources is important to defend the start-up against the harsh competition and market shocks. Narendra Modi Govt Clears Payments of Over Rs 6,800 Crore Owed to MSMEs Over Past 3 Months.

As the start-up ecosystem bloomed in India, it has become easier for young entrepreneurs to procure funds on lenient terms of repayment. The central government has also through its Start-Up India initiative, opened funding avenues for start-ups. Here are five options a start-up owner has to avail easy and regular funding –

Venture Capitalists

One readily available option for start-ups to avail funds is through venture capitalists. A venture capitalist is a private equity investor which provides seed capital to start-ups exhibiting potential of high growth in exchange for an equity stake in the firm. It provides funds at early, growth and later stages of business cycles. Apart from the funds, venture capitalists also provide expertise and monitoring of the business operation of the start-ups. Mostly, VCs invest in equity and once the business releases its IPO or is subscribed, they exit.

Angle Investors

An angel investor is an individual with high-net worth and surplus financial resources, who provides funding to small start-ups or entrepreneurs with high-yielding business plans to earn huge revenues from the investment. It is also known as a private investor, seed investor or angel fund. Though angel investors usually have higher return expectations and offer lesser investment amounts, they can prove be highly beneficial of start-ups in their early stages or during expansion. Finance Ministry Sanctions Rs 1.61 Lakh Crore Worth of Bank Loans to MSMEs Under ECLGS to Battle COVID-19 Pandemic.

Business Accelerators and Incubators

Various investment and asset management firms work as business incubators and accelerators for other enterprises. While a start-up looking for seed capital or early stage investment needs to look for a business incubator, they ‘incubate’ potential business plans with a hope of turning them into successful enterprises. A business accelerator comes into picture when an already existing firm looks for expansion or diversification  and need money for the same, it ‘accelerate’ the business.

Banks and NBFCs

Banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) also provide quick loans to start-up owners at easy terms and conditions. However, these institutes consider more factors other than growth potential before offering the loan. They may even ask for a collateral security or a guarantor. The rates of interest are higher than the other funding alternatives. A start-up owner can apply for a term loan to buy fixed asset or do construction or working capital loans to meet day to day administrative and functioning requirements.

Crowdfunding

Sourcing capital through crowdfunding has garnered lot of attention and popularity in recent times. It does not require any organised institute; the founder raises funds from more than one person at the same time. In crowding funding, more than one investor is involved. These investors offer a fixed amount of funding depending on several factors including his budget, in return of regular and high dividends. One can gather funds from family, friends and co-entrepreneurs that believe in the start-up potential.

It is crucial that the start-up owners are aware about all the funding alternatives available to them. They should carefully analyse all the terms and conditions of procurement of funds and make informed choice. Regular and low cost financial resources keep the start-ups afloat.

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Startup

Amazon India to Host 4th Edition of Small Business Day 2020 on December 12, to Support Startups to Sustain Their Business Growth

Amazon (Photo Credits: Twitter)

Bangalore, December 8: Amazon India announced that the e-commerce major will host the fourth edition of its Small Business Day (SBD) 2020 from midnight on December 12 until 11.59 pm on the same day.

According to an IANS report, the online event would offer customers an opportunity to discover and purchase unique and hard-to-find products from start-ups, women entrepreneurs, weavers, local shops. It will be instrumental in supporting these small businesses to sustain their accelerated business growth.

On Small Business Day, products across categories including work from home essentials; safety and hygiene supplies; eco-friendly products, kitchenware; sports essentials; Christmas special products and others will be available on the marketplace.

Manish Tiwary, VP Amazon India, said in a statement said, “At Amazon, we are committed to supporting our 7 lakh+ sellers to continue the momentum built up over the past months through various sale events. With the upcoming Small Business Day, we want to create an opportunity for SMB sellers and B2B sellers to generate greater customer demand, revenue, and end the year on a positive note.”

Amazon Business customers can avail an exclusive business customer only cashback of 10 percent and additional savings on GST input tax credit. In addition to Small Business Day, the e-comm major also announced that it will celebrate All India Handicrafts Week 2020 starting December 8 to December 14. The objective of the event is to increase awareness about indigenously produced handicrafts from different parts of the country.

Categories
Startup

Start-Up Failures: Here are 5 Main Reasons Why Your Start-Up Might Fail

Tips to follow for successful start-ups| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)
Tips to follow for successful start-ups| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

While starting a business, an entrepreneur looks forward to a long-term and successful venture. However, many businesses are not able to survive the market and competition beyond a certain point. According to a study by IBM Institute of Business Value and Oxford Economics, titled ‘Entrepreneurial India’ as many as 90 per cent of start-ups in India fail in the first five years of their establishment. Starting an enterprise is often easier than sustaining it in long term. Apart from the CELL- Capital, Entrepreneurship, Land and Labour- there are various factors that need to be considered while setting up the enterprise. Myths Around Startups: Here Are 3 Popular Myths Which Every Entrepreneur Should Ignore.

A business might fail because of several reasons including human, physical, technical, and legal among others. A entrepreneur should therefore be cautious enough while taking and implementing various administration and operations related decisions. Here are the most common reasons for business failures-

Lack of Innovation and Novelty

One of the biggest reasons of a business failure in present times is lack of innovation and uniqueness in the product or services offered. If an offering lacks novelty, it becomes difficult for the start-up to create its own identity and USP. As a result, the already existing and establishes players easily sweep the new entrant out of the game. According to a survey, around 77 per cent of the venture capitalists believe that lack of innovation and novelty is the main reason behind business failure in India.

Lack of Financial Management

Another important and prominent reason for business failure is the lack of financial stability in the firm. Usually an entrepreneur seeks outside help for funds to start the business. Improper management of the funds causes huge to incur huge losses. With proper financial management, a start-up soon start experiencing liquidity crunch, which has a direct and spill over effect on all the operations of the business.  A balanced cost structure is important to keep the business afloat. An entrepreneur should try to get a mix of equity and debt both as firm’s capital.

Lack of Proper Marketing Strategy

A start-up needs to be very careful while deciding upon its marketing plan.  Communication is indeed the key in every business, the way an enterprise communicates with the customer, medium of communication and its channel play key role in creating awareness about the product. A proper and well researched marketing plan helps the firm to understand the customers, and how to influence them. Advertising, public relation and sales promotions are main components of a marketing strategy, which help in establishing the product in the market. Without it, the product struggles to find get recognised.

Lack of Legal Compliance

Every country has its own set of legal requirements that a firm needs to fulfill both- before starting the business and while running it. A failure in meeting these results in severe repercussions, including the collapse of the enterprise.  Start-ups have to duly follow all the laws related to incorporation, entitlement, customer protection, and taxation among others. Not only can its non-compliance leads to winding up of the company it can also attract huge financial penalties for the entrepreneurs.Here Are 4 Kinds of People To Avoid When Starting a Business.

Lack of Cultural & Social Acceptance –

A business operates in a society that is governed by certain rules and regulations, if a firm fails to live up to the cultural and social expectations it is bound to fail. The start-up should not hurt the religious, ethnic and cultural sentiments of its existing and potential customers. It is important for a firm to understand the respect the cultural and social orientations of the place it sets-up the business in and incorporate those values in its marketing and communication plans.

A good entrepreneur studies and analyses various external environment factors that might affect the business. Proper understanding and implementation of various elements of a business environment is also important to ensure that the start-up doesn’t succumb to outside shocks and threats. It also helps the business to seize the market opportunities.

 

Categories
Startup

Myths Around Startups: Here Are 3 Popular Myths Which Every Entrepreneur Should Ignore

Startup
Startup (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

Mumbai, December 7: No doubt, starting a company is not an easy task, but with the right strategy, the correct focus, good funding, one stands a chance to succeed. There is a lot of glamour associated with startup and many have the notion that it is all about young, bubbly, and vibrant talent.

There are certain myths about startups and we try to bust them for you.

You need huge funding to start a startup: This another big myth. According to experts, in order to burst the myth, one should adapt to the practice of bootstrapping, which allows maintaining full control of the startup strategies, avoiding time delays and energy spent to attract investors and retaining maximum equity.

It is extremely difficult for startups to compete with big established companies: You need to identify the advantage which you have as compared to a biggie in the market. For e.g. Being a startup, you’re less likely to experience the bureaucratic drama that is involved in the whole process. This not only allows you to be more flexible but gives you a lot of creative freedom.

Yes, a startup can’t compete with a corporate big shot in terms of the budget, but you can identify your niche and focus only on that. Your spending will be more focussed.

Ideas Make a Startup: Yes, a good idea will help you to stand out. But, it is no the only guarantee for a good startup. There are numerous e.g.s like Facebook, Google who didn’t come into the market with an innovative idea. These ideas were tested before as well. However, the reason why they became successful was because they built a great product.

 

Categories
Startup

Creative Businesses: 5 Viable & Budget-Friendly Start-Up Ideas for People With Creative Mind

Start-up ideas for creative people| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)
Start-up ideas for creative people| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

Businesses are widely undertake, operated and promoted to make profits and get a regular and consistent stream of income. Enterprises mostly aim at maximising the shareholder wealth by generating huge revenue. However, not all the businesses have profitability as their prime and sole objective. There are several people who have entered the start-up ecosystem to fulfill their creative urges; they make their passion as their profession. The prime aim here is to live while doing what makes you feel content and earn some amount on the side for basic sustenance, and re-investing the remaining into the business growth. Here Are 4 Reasons Why Starting a Business From Home is Not a Bad Idea.

Such businesses do not require any huge fixed or working capital investments. There seed capital requirements are often lower than other profit-driven organisations. All the entrepreneur needs to have are skills, talent, creativity and dedication for building it and one can start the business any time. More and more people are converting their passion into profession, leaving behind the orthodox work style. Makeup Artist Business: Here Are 4 Things Which You Need to Remember If You Want to Establish Your Makeup Artist Career.

Here are 5 Start-Up Ideas for Creative People –

Interior Decoration

One of the most straightforward to unleash your creativity is to provide home, interior decoration services. All you need is an eye for beauty and aesthetics to get into the professions. Many new-home buyers who are bored of regular-cliched home designs and set-ups are increasing demanding interior decorator services. It does not require any qualification, except for having a strong sense of order- what looks good and where. An understanding of colours, textures and art is an added advantage.

Jewellery Making

Another well paying profession for creative people is jewellery making or designing. Beaded jewellery has become popular, all you have to do is collect some beads and other stones and have a sense of sequencing and colour scheme. Many people like to buy handcrafted jewellery as well, because of the uniqueness of the design and having a one-of-a-kind piece. You can make customised jewellery with name, initials, symbols inscribed for the user. It does not require an elaborate set-up to sell jewellery. You can start by selling it only and visit all crafts fairs to sell your jewellery.

Home Bakery

If you like baking and can spend your entire day seeing the dough fluff inside the oven, having a home bakery is the right thing to do. Baking is an art; it requires a proper knowledge of various types of flours, seasoning and flavours. Homemade cakes, cupcakes, cookies, chocolates, muffins are in huge demand. You can start this business from your kitchen itself.

Pottery Making

Pottery making gives you plenty of creative freedom. You can mold, twist, shape the clay in whichever manner you want. It gives a sense of authority over your creation. Pottery making is no longer limited to utensils or plants vases, clay products are among the highly sought after articles. From utensils to photo frames, show pieces, holders, name plate, clay products are in huge demand. With the growing environmental awareness and concerns, consumers are ditching plastics and turning towards more eco-friendly options, clay being one of them. However, it is a delicate work that requires special skills.

Blogging

If you have a knack for writing then blogging is the best profession to stick to. Unlike older days when writers were highly unpaid and unacknowledged, they are well-paid and recognised for their literary works. You can zero-in on a topic of your choice and expertise, pick up a pen or sit down with a computer and start writing your thoughts. Various online platforms provide opportunities to aspiring writers to publish their work. You can have your own blog as well. From hard articles, to fiction to poetry you have complete power to unleash your thoughts in whichever manner you want.

Earning while doing what you enjoy the most is the biggest satisfaction a person can get. So if you have enough skill-set and creative mindset then you can easily make a mark by starting-up a business of your choice with minimum investment and maximum contentment.

 

Categories
Startup Strategy

Social Media Marketing: 5 Key Principles Every Start-Up Should Follow While Promoting Its Business on Social Media

Social Media principles all start-ups should follow| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)
Social Media principles all start-ups should follow| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

A business is able to survive and sustain in long-term only if it creates adequate and apt awareness about the products and services it offers. Enterprises all over the world have been increasing investing in widening their market and customer base. One way of reaching out to the potential customers is through social media. According to Satistia, nearly 50 per cent of the world’s population uses social media. That’s over 3 Billion users worldwide. It has become indispensable for businesses, both established and start-ups to increase their social media presence and attract people. For start-up owners, creating an online presence should be of utmost priority. Each person spends an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes on social networks and messaging, as per Global Web Index.

Mere creating accounts on various social media platforms won’t suffice. Every start-up should emphasis in creating a comprehensive, well-researched and flexible social media strategy. Different social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube,  LinkedIn, among others have been proved useful in promoting, advertising businesses and generating awareness about the product. However, strategy should be in compliance with the functioning of the respective platform. 7 Strategies For Getting More Business From Social Media.

Here are 5 Key Principles all Start-Ups Should Follow While Promoting Their Businesses on Social Media –

Choose Your Platform Wisely:

All social media platforms have their own reach and users, however one should be careful in choosing the digital platform used to advertise the products. One may choose multiple platforms as well, but careful prioritisation will be needed in that case. Usually one should start with a platform he/she has complete knowledge about. For instance, if the start-up is youth-centric, one should go for a full-fledged promotion of Facebook and Instagram, both of which have huge young followers.  According to data 7 4 per cent of users check Facebook daily, with an average of 8 times a day. LinkedIn is a better platform to promote research-based or KPO-based products and services.

Post Attractive Context:

One of the most important elements of any marketing and advertising strategy is the content. On social media, especially content is the king. One should try and incorporate various multimedia components in the post. Making the content attractive and unique is important so that it doesn’t get lost in hundreds of things being posted online every second. Several multimedia elements like audios, videos, graphics, images, interactive media, infograms, GIFs etc can be used to make the content attractive. Avoid writing in bigger texts as no one on social media have the patience to read and respond to it.

Collaborate with Social Media Influencers’:

The biggest gamble in the social media game is to get followers, likes, shares and clicks. One of the tried, tested and easy ways is to collaborate with social media influencers and personalities.  According to Fourcommunications report, 49 per cent of consumers claim that they depend on influencer recommendations on social media to inform their purchasing decision. A consumer feels confident in the recommendation from an influencer, and he or she will be more likely to purchase the product. Top Trends To Remember Before Planning Digital Marketing Strategy.

Use of SEOs and Hashtags:

Making an account of social media and posting content is not sufficient, one’s content should be visible to the target consumers as well. Scores of content is being generated and pushed on various digital platform every passing second. It is therefore necessary to create SEO-compliant content. SEO or Search Engine Optimisation are basically those keywords that are most searched online. When someone tactically puts the SEOs in its content, the probability of it being fetched by search engine increases. Similarly the use of appropriate ‘#’hastags is also important while promoting posts on digital platform.

Social Media Analysis:

It is important to have a regular monitoring of the performance of various social media posts, so that the firm knows what the customers want. Several social media engagements including number of likes, shares, retweets, quotes, comments etc,. There are various tools that help to analyse the social media, for instance Google Analytics, Snaplytics, Sprout Social among others. It is important to keep a note of social media performance, and receive the policy as and when required.

Promoting the start-up on social media is the need of the hour. As more and more people are drifting away from physical market place to digital ones, robust and detailed policy on social media management is important. 321 million new people joined social media in 2019, which brought the total from 3.48 billion to 3.8 billion social media users (an increase of 9 per cent) in 2020, as per a recent data.