Month: March 2021

Categories
HR & People Management Startup

3 Effective HR Practices every Entrepreneur should Implement in their Organization

people friendly work culture
बिजनेस मॉडल

As an entrepreneur or a small business owner, it is normal and sometimes even necessary to don many different hats at the initial stages. But if you want to make your business profitable and successful in the long run, your management-related tasks must be handed off to a skilled and talented HR professional.

Companies that invest in their human capital achieve their business goals and promote a positive culture. A study by Darwish, T.K., Singh, S., & Mohamed, A.F. (2013) and Huselid, M.S., Jackson, S.E., & Schuler, R.S (1997) published in Forbes indicate the importance of aligning human resource strategies to achieve business goals and improved business performance.

We all have heard about the old metaphor, “jack of all trades and master of none”. But the fallacy of this idiom does not fit in the modern world. In doing so, it may lead entrepreneurs to make costly mistakes in terms of money and time.

Not only your business may face some serious consequences because of the lack of skills and knowledge. But it is completely unrealistic to build a successful business without building people, especially in a startup.

So whether you are a solopreneur, an entrepreneur, or a wantrepreneur if you want to create a professional and efficient culture in your company, here are three best HR practices that will guarantee a more productive culture in your organization:

1. Hire the Right Candidate

No desperate hiring, please! Because the hiring of the wrong candidate is detrimental to the startup business. Along with the essential skill set and a positive mindset, it is also crucial to consider the cultural fitment of the candidate.

Ensuring that the purpose of the position is met with the desired candidature of the job applicant is very important. Why? Because it ensures personal and professional aspirations being met. Developing a consistent interview process is also necessary as inadequate job descriptions attract less-than-best candidates.

Hiring the right candidate with a positive approach can help to create a culture in the organization where everyone feels welcome and participate. Select people who are self-motivated, goal-oriented, talented, and driven by passion and also share your vision. Keep your staff updated with the latest market trends by providing them essential training for futuristic skills. An improved and enhanced team will remain motivated. This will eventually accelerate your business growth.

2. Implement People Friendly Policies

The employees should be empowered to mold their work environment within the defined boundaries. Also, a set of policies that define the boundary within which it is to be carried out staying in alignment with the values professed by the organization.

Here a handbook comes in handy! The Policy or the handbook forms the foundation of the agreement on service conditions with the hiring candidate. This needs to be signed during the acceptance of the offer and every time the offer is amended.

3. A Performance-driven culture & a defined Improvement Path

When you invest in a financial scheme, you get returns! Similarly, when business owners invest in their employees, they, in turn, invest back in the business. Performance drives the success of any organization.

An agile and motivated work-force is every organization`s biggest strength. Whether you are an entrepreneur or an HR working in a large organization, it is necessary to ensure that your staff members are fully satisfied with their role in the organization.

Employees should have clarity about their current job role and growth opportunities as ambiguity can lead to non-performance. Encourage your employees to do self-evaluation. Try to nip the problems at the early stages.

An employee`s growth could be vertical as well as horizontal in which an employee is skilled and is made more capable.

As an entrepreneur, you must retain good employees and promote growth within the organization by making the entire staff skilled.

One of the most standardized and common initiatives that entrepreneurs can implement is new employee orientation. An orientation program will inculcate a sense of commitment in the employees, and thereby encourage a sense of ownership.

If the business size is small, it is advised to have a systematic performance review. A quarterly performance check would make more sense in a start-up. If you want to scale up your business and promote its growth, be honest about the performance.

Creative ideas, proactive solutions, emerging trends, and innovation stems out of a fully engaged workforce and not otherwise. Looking for a bit of expert advice on how to build a high-performance workforce? Click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RszxzBYiZpQ&t=791s

You can also take our Everything about Entrepreneurship course that will provide in-depth knowledge from starting a startup to expanding your business. Learn from the top industry leaders on the front line. To know more click here: https://www.badabusiness.com/?ref_code=ArticlesLeads

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Powerful Personalities

International Women’s Day 2021: 5 Famous Success Quotes From Women Entrepreneurs Across the World That Will Inspire You

Women Entrepreneurs (Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons)

International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8 every year around the world. The day holds great importance as it is a focal point in the movement for women’s rights. The special day is commemorated with a wide range of events. The theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is “Choose To Challenge”. The day, sponsored by the United Nations since 1975, celebrates women’s achievements and aims to further their rights. The day was trending as #ChooseToChallenge  and #IWD2021 on Twitter. The day celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.

On the special occasion of International Women’s Day 2021, take a look at 5 Motivational Quotes by Women Entrepreneurs across the world.

  1. “When you look at successful women, they have other women who have supported them, and they’ve gotten to where they are because of those women”- Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook CEO, Author
  2. “The challenge of a leader is looking around the corner..and making the change before it’s too late to make the change”- Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo
  3. “Without an open-minded mind, you can never be a great success”- Martha Stewart, American retail businesswoman, writer,
  4. “I really believe that entrepreneurship is about being able to face failure, manage failure and succeed after failing”, Kiran Majumdar Shaw, founder of Biocon Ltd
  5. “On my own I will just create, and if it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, I’ll create something else. I don’t have any limitations on what I think I could do or be.” – Oprah Winfrey, Talk Show Hostess, Producer, Philanthropist

“A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day. We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world. From challenge comes change, so let’s all choose to challenge”, the IWD said on its website.

Categories
Powerful Personalities

International Women’s Day 2021: Take a Look at Top 3 Famous Women Entrepreneurs in India

Savitri Jindal, Falguni Nayar, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Photo Credits: Facebook, Wikimedia Commons)

Every year March 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day (IWD). The day recognizes the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. First observed in 1911, the IWD also raises awareness about women’s equality and lobby for accelerated gender parity.

The theme of IWD 2021 is Let’s all choose to challenge. “We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women‘s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world. From challenge comes change, so let’s all choose to challenge,” according to the official IWD website. On IWD 2021, here are the top 4 businesswomen in India who inspire me and others around the world.

Savitri Jindal

Savitri Jindal is the chairperson of Jindal Group. Considered as one of India’s leading conglomerates, the company is a leading player in the steel, power cement, oil, and infrastructure industries. The 70-year-old took charge of the company after her husband and founder of the Jindal Group, Om Prakash Jindal died in a helicopter crash in 2005. Under her leadership, the company is touching new heights.

Falguni Nayar

Falguni Nayar, a former investment banker with Kotak Mahindra, founded Nykaa in 2012. With her hard work and dedication, Nykaa has become one of the leading online cosmetic and wellness company in India. The lifestyle retailer offers over 850 brands and has more than 30 physical stores. In 2017, Nayar got the title of “Most powerful business” by Business Today.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the billionaire chairperson and managing director of Biocon Limited, is a self-made businesswoman. She calls herself an accidental entrepreneur. Creating a biopharmaceutical company in 1978, her net worth is $4.6 billion (September 2020).

Categories
Business Startup Ideas Marketing Sales Strategy

Branding: Why it is crucial while scaling your startup business?

Branding plays a crucial role in the success of every business. And when it comes to startups, branding is of paramount importance. It is vital for the development and growth of an organization.

Your brand becomes a part of the customer`s everyday life. For instance, if a customer wants to purchase a product, he or she would like to buy from a company that not only offers great quality products but also provide other assurances. And, if a customer feels that your brand is the best in the market, then a customer will buy it even if it is a bit costlier. This is the impact of having a solid brand image.

A brand is what helps your business distinguish your product from the league and helps consumers associate themselves with your brand.

But many entrepreneurs fail to recognize its importance in the initial stage of the business. They make the mistake of obsessing over their products and turn a blind eye to every aspect of the branding. This can lead to a series of disastrous consequences for the product as well as the company in the long run. Due to the negligence, the brand might become unnoticed and irrelevant.

According to an analysis conducted by the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB), ‘brands contribute on an average of 19.5% and if the impact is measured based on firm cash flow, profits and firm value, the impact could be contributed for over 50% of the enterprise value.

Another report by the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) that included around 220 consumer products found that a superior brand preference or reputation commanded price premiums of 26% on average, even when brand quality is the same.

Brand Image: A living persona

Your brand image is like a living entity. If your brand can create ripples in the market and generate excitement by showcasing life, you can get a loyal clientele. Your brand grows and matures over the years and builds its persona just like a living entity and provides a solid competitive advantage.

In this age of digitalization, it is important to have a unique brand strategy that will engage the audience across multiple mediums. Therefore, it is essential for every company to carefully select and invest when it comes to building a brand that speaks volumes about the company`s unique business strategies and core values.

Branding is essential for business sales too!

If your brand connects straight away with your target customers, it will result in an excellent customer experience. And according to a report published in Forbes, ‘73% of companies with above-average customer experience performs better financially and also get higher revenue’.

Another report suggests that around 17% of the consumers are willing to pay more to purchase from a brand that has a great reputation and market value.

Harvard University professor, Gerald Haltman who is the author of ‘How customers think: Essential insights into the mind of the market’, writes in his book that 95 percent of a customer`s decision-making process happens subconsciously. Hence, the major reason why a customer will choose your brand instead of your competitor will largely depend on how the consumers ‘feel’ about your company.

And why this factor is important for a startup? Startups tend to have major competitors who have a larger team, better infrastructure, brand reputation, and marketing knowledge. A good brand image will help you to attract more customers and your product will finish on top of your competitors.

Brand Image: Honesty v/s Perfection

Startups represent innovation and a distinct approach towards the same product that is already available in the market. It`s their uniqueness that connects them super strongly with their customers. However, too many companies want to represent their brand under a perfect and idealized spotlight. This results in a brand image that lacks the character, texture, and trust of a consumer.

Another blunder that most startups do is copying other businesses or internet trends and images. Creating a fake image of their brand that does not represent them would simply mean wasting the most valuable emotional factor due to which a startup ends up eroding its customer base.

Branding in the internet age

With technological advancements, the internet has slowly taken over. Today, with the advent of affordable smart-phones, branding of products online is no longer a luxury. It has become a necessity for startups where they can sell their products to a wider audience.

With cost-effective internet that is available to most people, a business must use this opportunity. Despite the changing times and mediums of advertisement, branding is still an integral part of advertising and the business world. Hence, listen to what stakeholders and customers have to say about your brand, and use their feedback to make improvements. This will also build a better brand image.

Learn how you can take your startup to new heights with our Everything about Entrepreneurship. Click here to know more about this product: https://www.badabusiness.com/?ref_code=ArticlesLeads

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
MSME

SIDBI Collaborates with NSE to Develop Debt Capital Platform for Firms in MSME Sector

NSE and SIDBI | Representational Image (Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons)
NSE and SIDBI | Representational Image (Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons)

The micro, small and medium enterprises are blooming in the country with various government and non-government agencies undertaking several schemes and programmes to increase the investment flow for the firms in the sector. Massive inflow of funds has also helped the sector to stay afloat in even as major business industries suffered and incurred losses owing to the economic slowdown induced by the lockdown imposed to curtail the spread the coronavirus. The MSME sector frayed pretty well in the COVID-19 era as well.

There are various initiatives by public and private sector banks offer equity-based finance to the micro, small and medium enterprises. Even the non-banking financial institutions have extended schemes to support the firms in the MSME sector. However, the need to develop to additional debt and equity instruments to create more financial solvency and soundness in the sector. It is important for the overall development of the sector- capital intensive and labour incentive both. Startups and MSMEs in India Get Major Boost As Indian Bank Signs MoU With SID of IISc for Extending Exclusive Credit Facility to Businesses.

Recently, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) entered into an agreement with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to explore the feasibility of a debt capital platform for the micro, small and medium enterprises. “Keeping in view the large and diversified MSME sector in the country, there is a continuous need for various institutions to co-ordinate and co-operate with each other for the benefit of MSME sector,” V Satya Venkata Rao, Deputy Managing Director of the Small Industries Development Bank of India told the reporters in this contest. MSMEs in Haryana Get Major Boost! Products Manufactured by MSMEs in the State To Get Global Market, Talented Artisans To Benefit.

Taking about the collaboration he said that both the institutions (NSE and SIDBI) run several programmes for the enterprises in the MSME sector, adding that the co-operation will help increase the impact and reach of these programmes. Rao also said that an expert committee on MSMEs, headed by U K Sinha, the former Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has made several recommendations for the micro, small and medium enterprises, including the need to develop additional instruments for debt and equity, which will help crystallise new sources of funding for MSMEs.

Categories
HR & People Management Startup

7 Important Tips for Building a Winning Team!

Business Tips

The value of a high-performing team has long been recognized. Probably, this is the reason why every organization wants to hire and retain the best employees.

A high-performing team is at the core of every successful business. When the employees work together towards a common goal, everyone wins! One of the best and easiest ways to get things done in any business is to build a great team.

Do you remember the 1983 World Cup cricket match? Even though the Indian cricket team was not in great form, they won the world championship for the first time. The Indian squad had Kapil Dev as the captain of the team, but the ‘man-of-the-series was Mohinder Amarnath’. However, it was the unwavering determination and serious efforts by all the players in the team that helped India won its first Cricket World Cup in 1983.

Be it a cricket match or an organization, when a group of independently talented people comes together in which they can merge their skills, the results are remarkable. Not only their creativity and productivity will be increased, the loyalty and engagement will also be greatly improved.

According to a McKinsey report that was published in 2017, when the team members of high performing teamwork together towards a common vision and achieve a common business goal, the financial performance of the organization increases by 1.9 times.

But, building a great team is like capturing lightning in a bottle! It remains as tough as ever. Ambitious, energetic, capable, and talented people are always a plus, but they often represent distinct functions, geographies, background, products, resources, and a lot of other factors.

Do you want to establish a high-performance team in your organization? Do you want to instill a healthy working culture that encourages team building and high productivity? Here are seven strategies for team composition and team dynamics that have long proved their worth:

1. Team Composition

Team composition is the first step towards building a high-performance team with essential skillset and a creative mindset. It is just like adding a cherry to your sumptuous cake. Just like the quantity of the salt has to be balanced to make the dish taste delightful, the team needs to be kept small- but not too small.

A small team that consists of around six to seven members is likely to result in poorer decisions because it lacks diversity. A small team will also lead to slower decision-making because of a lack of bandwidth. Hence, keeping the right number of team members can be a great start towards building a winning team.

2. Team Dynamics

It is one thing to hit the right composition. But, a team will deliver productive results only when they start working together. Once, the character of a team emerges shaped by team dynamics, only then they will be able to overcome challenges and achieve great things.

3. Build a team-oriented organization

Don`t just talk about teamwork. Instead, build your company values around teamwork. Put a clear focus on self-managing teams that are self-sufficient and empowered to make decisions. Also, show your employees the commitment by enabling teams with the authority to get their jobs done on their terms.

4. Assign Team Goals

Assign your team with important projects and assignments. Rope in all the team members when you are looking at innovative and new market trends. It is vital to keep a fresh perspective towards the market trend, which is why keep asking different team members for their opinions. Ask them to challenge the status quo and the conventional approach. This approach will help your company to stay ahead of the game.

5. Respect your Team Members as Individuals

A business needs to have a fresh and creative approach towards its goal to prosper. At work, you want your employees to a part of your team, but you also need a perspective. Every individual team member has a story of their own. They have come far in their lives without your company, and they presumably have rich and varied lives post work.

Hence, it is important to rope in the new team members when making an important decision. A robust team blossoms only when every member is respected and honored for their unique skills.

6. Motivate your Team Members

‘You get more flies with honey than vinegar’- an adage that great leaders swear by. In the real world, it simply means that it is effective to shape behavior with positive feedback rather than criticism. Also, the leader should be self-motivated. A highly motivated leader can inspire his team members to be goal-oriented. Resist the urge to criticize your team members` mistakes.

Rather, give them a positive environment by citing their behaviors and events that you particularly liked. You can encourage them to bring more of that as it is far more productive to keep your team highly motivated.

7. Reward & recognize the good performance

Every human needs appreciation, especially at the workplace. If you are a large organization and fortunate enough to rewards your employees with financial bonuses, you should do it. If you are a startup with little cash on hand, you can find creative ways to rewards your top-performing team members.

Want to know more about team building? With our ‘Everything about Entrepreneurship’ course, you can learn to bring together people with diverse capabilities to work towards a common business goal. To know more, click here: https://www.badabusiness.com/?ref_code=ArticlesLeads

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Business motivation

4 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Motivate Themselves When Feeling Low

Ways to Motivate Entrepreneurs| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

Business goes through several phases of ups and downs throughout their operational life, which have a direct and long lasting impact on the morale of its owner and managers as well. For any low business cycle, or any loss that the firm incurs, the entrepreneur also starts to doubt her caliber and question her self belief. A negative market reaction suddenly plunges all the motivation in the business owner. The entrepreneurial journey is a long, tiring one with full of hardships and unseen contingencies. A business person needs to be ready to face any challenge, for that one should always be positive and forward looking.  5 Motivational & Inspiring Quotes for Young Entrepreneurs to Help Them in Difficult Times.

The business environment poses as  a constant threat to the operations and performance of the firm. To keep up with the constant tribulations and hardships, an entrepreneur needs to be herself motivated. Here are some ways for young business person to pull themselves out of low-phase and get to work:

Have Mission Statement:

First and foremost thing for any entrepreneur is to have a mission statement, which includes what she wants from business, why she started it, what she wants to achieve and how she wants to carry forward the business. Every time one is feeling low, read and re-read it till all the positivity and will to work comes back.

Read it Out:

Another way to overcome low-mood phase is by reading motivational stories, novels, biographies, short-stories, success articles, and other which helps the entrepreneur to focus on the positive side of the spectrum and induce the spirit of ‘never give up’ in her. Readings need not necessarily be of motivational genre, any write-up that makes one feel motivated would do. 7 Inspirational JRD Tata Quotes that will Motivate you to Chase your Dreams!

Watch Movies:

Watching movies and documentaries is a good way to refresh the mind. It shifts the focus from the problem at end and relaxes the entrepreneur, thereby helping her to come up with innovative solutions and take correct decision. If after a tiring or disappointing work day, a good visual treat always charges any person up.

Talk With Friends:

One of the best way to overcome a low phase is by talking it out. Sharing the thing that is troubling one with their friends or relatives always brings a peace of mind to the entrepreneur. Discussing problems with others also at times provides solutions to them.

The long entrepreneurial journey is filled with numerous highs and lows, however to achieve success one must keep going till the final destination is reached. Feeling low and demotivated is obvious, still to fulfill one’s dream and have a successful business person, one should keep self motivated and positive.

Categories
Business motivation

5 Motivational & Inspiring Quotes for Young Entrepreneurs to Help Them in Difficult Times

Motivating Quotes| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)
Motivating Quotes| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

The journey from ‘Passion’ to ‘Profession’ is not an easy one, still many young and determined people take it up, and start taking small but firm steps to reach their destination. However, some of them tend to back out in the middle owing to the hardships and the hurdles. On the journey to establish their own business, people face have many difficulties, from self-doubt, guilt to social pressures, financial hardships and peer pressures, which lead them to drop their dream start-up plan in the middle and change the path.7 Inspirational JRD Tata Quotes that will Motivate you to Chase your Dreams!

From idea generation to actual implementation, a business person has to undertake and carry out various tasks pertaining to different aspects of firm. Many young entrepreneurs find it difficult to cope up with them. In such situation, constant source of motivation and inspiration is required to keep up the spirits. Here are some quotes to keep you motivated:

“One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you.” -Amazon.com Founder Jeff Bezos

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney, Co-Founder The Walt Disney Company.

“Be ready to work! Business is not simply built on innovation — we’ve had a great idea in a great industry that’s required quite a bit of “perspiration” and late nights to achieve.” – The Zebra Founder Adam Lyonz The Most Inspiring Journey of Mary Kom: Born to Beat Adversities!

“The core of any business is to earn money. You have not done your job well until you find a stranger who is willing to open his/her wallet to give you money for the service/products that you are offering.” – Filpkart Founder Binny Bansal

“If you fully accept the worst that can ever happen in your journey, fear won’t ever be an obstacle in starting-up.” – FreeCharge Founder Kunal Shah

Nothing in life that is worth it comes easy. Every time one thinks to quitting on the journey of her dream destination, remember why she did start it at the first place. An entrepreneurial journey is a life changing one. Any one who undertakes it is bound to face difficulties, however giving up in the middle is not an option. Stay Strong and Keep Moving till the dream is achieved!

Categories
Startup

Startups in India Need To Be Encouraged To Ensure That They Are Not Afraid of Failure: Piyush Goyal

startup ipo india

New Delhi, March 3: Piyush Goyal, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said that startups need to be encouraged to experiment and ensure that they are not afraid of failure. In his address at the CII’s Global Bio India Startup Conclave, Goyal said that in some sense, failure also has its importance, particularly in research, innovation and invention. The Minister emphasised that Indian startups need to be encouraged to experiment and only then they will be able to prove their capacity to go beyond in the long run.

“Our startups need to be encouraged to experiment, to go beyond the run of the mill thinking. We need to ensure that our startups are not afraid of failure. I believe that the country should celebrate failure because it is only when somebody fails, he knows how not to do something,” he said.

Emphasising on the talent in rural India, the minister said that the need of the hour is to engage more with rural India as there is a lot of talent lying there. “You cannot have great innovation and invention coming up through just government initiative, we need to have all sections of business involved. The government should act as an enabler, a service provider,” the minister added.

In India, the government is taking steps to promote startups by launching a slew of initiatives to boost the startup ecosystem in the country. It had launched the Startup India initiative in January 2016 to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and entrepreneurship.

Categories
Business motivation Finance

India Ready To Offer Incentives to Tesla for Cheaper Production Costs Than China

Tesla (Photo Credits: Pexels)

New Delhi, March 3: Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that India is ready to offer cheaper production than China to Tesla Inc if the electric carmaker commits to set up a plant in the south Asian country. This development comes after billionaire Elon Musk’s firm registered a company in India in a bid to enter the local market.

According to a report by Reuters, Tesla is planning to import and sell its Model 3 electric sedan in India. Gadkari said that instead of importing, the carmaker should make the entire product in the county. “Then we can give higher concessions,” he said.

“The government will make sure the production cost for Tesla will be the lowest when compared with the world, even China when they start manufacturing their cars in India. We will assure that,” the transport minister was quoted as saying by Reuters.

In 2020, only 5000 electric vehicles were sold in India due to poor charging infrastructure. Whereas, in China, Tesla sold 1.25 million EVs. Gadkari said that India is a big market and could also be an export hub. “I think it’s a win-win situation for Tesla,” the union minister told the news agency. The minister, however, did not give particulars of what incentives would be on offer.