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Startup

3 Social Media Strategies Which Small Firms Can Use to Revive Their Business Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

Social media Marketing
Social media Marketing (Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons)

Mumbai, November 10: The coronavirus pandemic has affected everyone across the globe and small businesses are the worst hit. Businesses have been severely affected due to the coronavirus induced lockdown. However, with the opening up of the economy, things are getting better.

Small firms, therefore, need to draw out a proper plan and a strategy which will help them move forward and tide through the difficult times. They will have to keep in mind to use the resources in hand wisely and devise strategies which will reap the maximum results.

We bring to you three cost-effective social media strategies which you can use to revive your business:

The coronavirus pandemic has taught us the importance of technology. At a time when the entire world was shut down, it was technology which kept things running.

  1. Have a website: Start a website giving details to the customers about your business. There should be a contact us and a feedback page, which will help you get in touch with your probable customers. Now use this link on all your social media handles. This will be the face of your brand in the online world.
  2. Have a strong social media presence: If you have been thinking to start a Facebook page or an Instagram page for your business, our advice is DON’T DELAY. These social media platforms are a great way for small firms to promote their business and get in touch with people who are looking out for them.

    In today’s age, you need to start a page on all the social media platforms and can’t think of which one will be more beneficial to you. Remember to populate your page at least three times a week. This will help your customers to remember you.

  3. Be Human: Remember one thing that customers like to interact with humans. So your posts should also have a humanely touch. Don’t ignore any queries from your customers on your social media page. Attention should be given on how to make your customers feel special.

Today social media has become an important part of all our lives, and this is the reason, why you can’t afford to ignore this space. People today spend a good amount of their time on social media and this is where you need to target your probable customers.

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Technology

Facebook Rolls Out ‘SMB Guide’ to Help 9 Million Indian SMBs in Building Digital Presence and Reaching Potential Customers Online

Facebook (Photo Credits: Pexels)

New Delhi, November 4: With an aim to help the micro and small businesses in India to limp back to normalcy, social media giant Facebook on Wednesday rolled out a dedicated offline to online ‘SMB Guide’. In order to help these businesses recover from the pandemic-induced crisis, Facebook has come up with new resources to help make this journey frictionless for them. Reports inform that this offline to online SMB Guide for India is free and publicly available. However, the social networking giant is also proactively reaching out to nine million small businesses across the country to ensure it reaches the businesses who need it the most.

The SMB Guide is available in Hindi as well as in English in order to support a large number of businesses across distinct geographies. Archana Vohra, Director Small and Medium Businesses, Facebook India, said in a statement said that the new resources are geared to helping the smallest of businesses across geographies to move from offline to online with minimum effort. “”While the offline to online SMB Guide is publicly available, we are proactively reaching out to 9 million small businesses across India to ensure timely support”, she said.

The SMB Guide:

According to a report by IANS, the SMB Guide has been designed to provide a step-by-step direction on how the smallest of businesses can build a digital presence quickly, and reach potential customers online. The guide covers Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and key themes such as building an online presence, mobile storytelling, social media advertising, and creative and performance strategies.

The social networking giant said it is also rolling out the next leg of ‘Boost with Facebook’, a skilling and learning programme for scaling young businesses. The programme went virtual earlier this year, and is now going vernacular, and will be delivered primarily in Hindi through Facebook Live sessions. One of the key themes discussed during Boost with Facebook will be how small businesses can build for Diwali and the festive season beyond it, the company said.

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Startup

Startups in India: 6 Women-Led Startups Win COVID-19 Shri Shakti Challenge Organised by MyGov in Collaboration With UN Women

Startup
Startup (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

In a major boost to women-led startups in India, six startups by female entrepreneurs have won COVID-19 Shri Shakti Challenge organized by MyGov in collaboration with UN Women. MyGov in collaboration with UN Women, launched the COVID-19 Shri Shakti Challenge in April 2020 to encourage and involve women led startups to come up with innovative solutions that can help in the fight against COVID19 or solve problems that impact a large number of women.

After thorough screening, 25 startups were shortlisted for presentations to the Jury which included Debjani Ghosh, President NASSCOM, Rohini Srivathsa, National Technology Officer (CTO) Microsoft India, Dr R Ramanan, MD Atal Innovation Mission, Nishtha Satyam, Dy Country representative, UN Women India and Abhishek Singh, CEO MyGov. In addition to the earlier announced reward of Rs 5 lakhs for the top 3 winners, UN Women was generous enough to agree to reward Rs 2 lakhs each to the 3 startups chosen for their promising solutions.

Top 3 Female Entrepreneurs Who Won Are:

  1. Dr P Gayatri Hela is the founder of Bengaluru-based Resada Lifesciences Private Limited that designs and develops home and agricultural-based products using plant extracts instead of synthetic chemicals. As per Gayatri, germs and other bacteria/viruses become resistant to chemicals over time, whereas nature always has a way of fighting back against these organisms. For Shri Shakti Challenge, Gayatri submittedherinnovative product which is a non-alcoholic hand sanitizer that is  relevant not only for COVID- 19 but also for other infections. The idea had come to her in 2017, when she was battling the SARS pandemic with her with her one-year old daughter.
  2. Romita Ghosh,a cancer survivor, is the founder of Shimla-based iHeal HealthTech Private Limited which is a healthcare start-up that has been at the forefront of the fight against COVID and has been providing PPE kits to hospitals. Romita has also built a Made in India UV sterilization box for safe reuse of PPEs and masks that can help reduce costs for hospitals and other service providers.
  3. Dr Anjana Ramkumar and Dr Anushka Ashokan are the product manager and co-founder of Kerala based Thanmatra Innovations Private Limited have come up with the innovative solution of an anti-microbial solution that could be sprayed into handkerchiefs or dupattas for making them safe to be used as Face Masks. This also made it easier to protect kids. Their innovation is simple and scalable and can help convert any piece of cloth to anti-viral mask within minutes by a simple process of spraying and drying with their unique formulation.

Top 3 Startups identified as‘Promising Solutions’are:

  1. Vasanthi Palanivel, is the CEO & Co-Founder of Bengaluru-based Seragen BioTherapeutics Private Limited.As a scientist and researcher, she studied the symptoms and impacts of the virus and realized that the lungs were one of the worst infected organs in COVID and she has developed a plasma solution to treat respiratory distress due to COVID-19.
  2. Shivi Kapil is the cofounder of Bengaluru-based Empathy Design Labsthat focuses on healthcare, and took the pandemic as an opportunity to design solutions for pregnant women who could not go to the hospital due to risk of infection. Shehas designed Kriya, a wearable device for daily monitoring of pregnancy. The IoT-embedded product provides alerts and suggestions to expecting parents for timely action.
  3. Jaya Parashar and Ankita Parashar – a mother daughter duo are the founder and co-founder of STREAM Minds, and ed-tech company that works on promoting Science, Technology, Reading/Writing, Arts, and Mathematics education among school children across India. They have designed ‘Dobot’, a fully automated robot which acts as an in-house delivery assistant to make hospitals and healthcare clinics safe from the risks of COVID19.

MyGov congratulated the winners of Shri Shakti Challenge and hope that the solutions developed by them mature into full-blown products, and can scale up into robust solutions that help in our fight against COVID19; and of course also help address challenges facing women. All the winners and the participants of Shri Shakti Challenge are true testimony to the talent pool that exists in India and this challenge will go a long way in promoting women entrepreneurship in India.

All 25 selected startups presented their solutions to the Jury which evaluated the solutions proposed by the startups on the parameters that included innovation, usability, relevance and impact of their idea on the society. After thorough review, 11 finalists were chosen for the next stage. All the 11 selected startups were provided a prize money of Rs 75,000 each to further develop their ideas.

After giving time to the 11 Startups to develop the solutions, the final presentations were again made to the Jury on October 27, 2020. The quality of the solutions presented was excellent and the Jury had a tough time evaluating them. After intense discussions and deliberations, the Jury selected top 3 entries as winners, and in view of the high quality of solutions presented decided to recognize 3 additional entries as ‘Promising Solutions’.

This was a unique challenge hosted on the Innovate platform of MyGov that called for applications from women led startups as well as startups who have solutions that address issues faced by a larger number of women. The Challenge was implemented in two stages: Ideation stage and Proof of Concept (PoC) Stage. The challenge received an overwhelming response with a total of 1265 entries, from across the nation.

Mentorship sessions were organized to enable graduation of the ideas into Proof of Concepts that can be scaled up. These sessions were topics that included Business Modelling, Financial Modelling, Legal Certifications, Digital Marketing, Product Design, Art of making Pitch and were conducted with the support of NASSCOM, Industry Experts, and the Atal Incubation Centre  at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology.

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Startup

COVID-19 Impact on Women-Founded Startups: Funding Drops 24% in H1 2020

Startup
Startup (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

Bengaluru, October 29: The coronavirus pandemic has affected everyone, from businesses being shut to people being offered pink slips. It has not been a great time for women-founded and co-founded startups. According to an IANS report, funding fell 24 percent to $280 million in the first half of this year, compared to $369 million in the same period last year.

It was witnessed that finding declined across all the three stages- early, growth, and late — compared to H1 2019, said the report by MAKERS India. The report titled “State of Women in Tech Entrepreneurship in India 2020” shared that many women-led startups in order to stay afloat in the middle of the pandemic scaled down their operations or pivoted their business models

There were a few women, who infact branched out to different operations. Like women behind some apparel startups branched out to manufacturing protective face masks and PPE kits.

The positive news was that despite Covid-19, startups with at least one woman founder were able to secure 71 funding deals in H1 2020, at par with H1 2019 (70 deals) and H1 2018 (70 deals).

The study highlighted an interesting trend that between 1990 and 2010, only 26 startups had at least one woman founder. However, 75 startups added at least one woman founder by 2014 and 184 more by 2019. Female-founded and co-founded tech startups in India currently stand at 285.

 

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Startup

WE Hub Selects 89 Indian Startups for Second Cohort of ‘Her&Now’ Programme

Startup
Startup

Hyderabad, October 23: As many as 89 startups have been selected for the second cohort of the ‘Her&Now’ programme by WE Hub, which is India’s first state-led incubator to foster and promote women entrepreneurship. The selected startups that have been shortlisted out of 600 applications  include Envi Robotics, Nuture Fields, Ladoo Box, Venica Herbals, ASARA Products, Verma Foods, Lesperanzau and SR Silks. According to a report by IANS, the pitching process had close to 150 women entrepreneurs out of 600 applicants, and each pitch was evaluated across 14 selection criteria like domain knowledge, digital literacy, potential to scale, impact, innovation, business feasibility etc., with external jury members in the panel, WE Hub said.

The acceleration programme is a six-month programme to help formally registered, women-led, for-profit enterprises from tier2 and 3 cities of Telangana to scale up. Reports inform that each entrepreneur was allowed for pitching followed by a 10-minute Q&A session. The programme will have an incubation program for seven months to help women entrepreneurs who have been running an informal enterprise or are a part of a group enterprise and now want to start up on their own and establish their enterprises.

About the Project:

  1. Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is implementing the project ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups by Women (Her&Now)’ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
  2. The programme is in partnership with the Indian Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MoSDE).
  3. It aims to support aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs in India.
  4. For over 60 years, GIZ GmbH has been working with partners in India for sustainable economic, ecological, and social development.

Background:

The first cohort of 30 start-ups from Telangana graduated in August by formally registering their enterprises and raising finances through credit linkages and equity investments. “We are happy to witness an escalated participation of women entrepreneurs from 28 to 89 into our innovation ecosystem. With WE Hub, we look forward to foster and supporting many more entrepreneurs in the future,” said Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary (ITE &C), Government of Telangana.

Deepthi Ravula, CEO, WE Hub, was quoted in reports saying that the journey from a minimal viable product or solution to a successful start-up is a not an easy one. “We are deeply committed to supporting the women entrepreneurs as they prepare to launch and grow their ventures. Our partnership with GIZ enables us to invest in entrepreneurship in tier 2 and tier 3 cities where innovation is booming. We are looking forward to helping these select enterprises thrive,” she said.

Julia Karst, Head of Project Her&Now at GIZ, after a successful round of programmes with the first cohort of women entrepreneurs from Telangana, we are looking forward to welcoming 89 women entrepreneurs into the second round of our incubation and acceleration programme. Her&Now through WE Hub offers support customized to each entrepreneur and her business, and we hope this will prove especially useful in these challenging times of the pandemic,” she said.

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MSME Startup

COVID-19 Impact: 78% MSMEs and Startups in India Reduced Workforce in Last 8 Months Since Pandemic Broke Out, Says Survey

Startup (Representational Image Only, Photo Credits: NeedPix.com)

New Delhi, October 20: Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in India, as many as 78% MSMEs and startups across the country have reduced workforce in the last 8 months. As per a survey by LocalCircles, only 22 percent startups and MSMEs have the same or increased workforce as compared to the pre-COVID levels. According to reports, India’s startups and MSMEs ecosystem went through a torrid time due to the deadly pandemic and lockdown that was imposed across the country. Revenues and operations were severely impacted for most businesses which led to cost cutting and some even shut down temporarily or permanently. Per CMIE, 6 million Indians had already lost white collar jobs in the March – August period.

To understand the impact of the pandemic on startup and MSME, a survey conducted by LocalCircles received over 7,000 responses from startups, MSMEs and entrepreneurs spread across 104 top business districts of the country. In the survey, startups and MSMEs were asked about how have workforce adjustments taken place in their business during the Covid-19 pandemic. In response, 25 percent said their business has shut down and all workforce has been let go, while 15 percent said their workforce has reduced by 50 percent or more.

A 19 percent said their workforce has reduced by 25-50%, and another 19 percent said their workforce has reduced by up to 25 percent. A 6 percent said their workforce has increased and 16 percent said they have same workforce as pre coronavirus time. This shows that 78 percent MSMEs and startups in India have reduced workforce in the last 8 months since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and only 22 percent startups and MSMEs have the same or increased workforce as compared to the pre-COVID levels.

The Government also took steps to help these small businesses through the Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme, but its advantages per feedback from businesses in July this year has been quite limited, the survey said.

The startups and MSMEs in India were asked about how employment of women has been in their business 8 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, 7 percent said women in their workforce have been reduced by 50-100 percent, 12 percent said women in their workforce have reduced by 25-50 percent, and 12 percent said women in our workforce have been reduced by up to 25 percent. 46 percent said they still have same number of women in the workforce as pre COVID-19. Not a single business reported increase in the number of women employees during the course of the 8 months of COVID-19 pandemic.

This means that 31 percent MSMEs and startups in India have reduced women workforce in the last 8 months. The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) among women in India, is one of the lowest in the world and appears to have slid even further during the COVID -19 pandemic.

In the final question, startups and MSMEs were asked looking at the next 6 months as to how do they see employment of women in their business. In response, 50 percent said they don’t plan to hire any women employees while 30 percent said they plan to hire 1-5 women employees. 13 percent said they plan to hire 6-10 women employees and 7 percent were unsure about it.

 

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Startup

India to Have Around 62,000 Startups, Including 100 Unicorns by 2025, Despite COVID-19 Blow, Says Report

Startup
Startup

Bangalore, October 15: Businesses have been hugely hit by the coronavirus pandemic. However, here comes a piece of positive news where it is expected that India is expected to be home to 60,000-62,000 startups, including 100 unicorns, by 2025, despite the COVID-19 blow, according to a report jointly prepared by TiE- Delhi, a not-for-profit promoting entrepreneurship, and Zinnov, a global management and strategy consultancy.

The report mentions that there has been a dip in overall funding by 50 percent during the lockdown, compared to pre-covid levels, while around 40 percent startups were negatively impacted. Four Indian startups- Nykaa, Unacademy, Postman and Razorpay-emerged as unicorns while the pandemic was at its peak. The report predicts that India is on track to having at least eight new unicorns in 2020, on a par with the 2019 numbers, taking the total number of Indian unicorns to 33.

Accoridng to another report conducted by the same group, it was found out that due to the pandemic, 15 percent of the startups have already halted their operations. In addition to this, 44 per cent of start-ups have cash runway for less than 6 months, 41 per cent of startups have been impacted negatively while 52 per cent are struggling to raise capital.

 

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Startup

Piyush Goyal Invites Startups to Register at Public Procurement Portal GeM And Offer Goods, Services to Government Organisations & PSUs

Startup
Startup (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

New Delhi, October 7: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday invited startups to register at public procurement portal GeM and offer goods as well as services to government organisations and PSUs. According to a Business Standard report, he mentioned that about 4,000 startups have already registered at GeM.

He made this announcement at the first edition of the National Startup Awards 2020 event. Goyal elaborated about the huge potential in areas including railways, airport services, food processing, education, healthcare, agriculture, electronics and defence, and that about Rs 4,000 crore was already disbursed through Fund of Funds for startups, to about 361 startups.

The National Startup Awards, conceived by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), recognised and rewarded the outstanding startups and ecosystem with high potential of employment generation. The first edition of the Awards invited applications across 12 sectors, which were further sub-classified into a total of 35 categories.

For the Awards, a total of 1,641 applications were received from startups spread across 23 states and 4 Union Territories. These applicants included 654 women-led, 165 academic institutions based, and 331 startups working in rural areas.

Then in the next step, all the applicants were evaluated against six broad parameters namely innovation, scalability, economic impact, social impact, environmental impact, and inclusiveness and diversity. Then after three rounds of detailed evaluation, 199 startups were selected for presentation before the jury.

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Technology

Google India to Launch ‘Namaste Digital’ Show on Doordarshan to Empower SMBs by Helping Them to Use Internet to Grow Their Business

Google (Photo Credits: Pexels)

New Delhi, October 1: As a part of its new multi-pronged effort to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), Google India said that it will launch a new show in partnership with Doordarshan called ‘Namaste Digital’ to navigate the challenging economic environment. The ‘Namaste Digital’ show aims to serve as a mass media programme for SMBs to learn about the Internet and help them grow their business. According to a report by IANS, the tech giant’s the new initiative will focus on accelerating the efforts to help businesses build digital presence in partnership with software development company Zoho and payment gateway Instamojo.

Building on its effort to help consumers discover small businesses on Google search and maps and keeping the needs of different businesses in mind, Google has also partnered with delivery services providers Dunzo and Swiggy to fast track the on-boarding process. Both partners have committed to provide additional support to small businesses to start accepting orders online and enable delivery logistics. Under the new initiative, small businesses will be able to create business websites using Zoho inventory and sell online through Zoho Commerce for free till March 31, 2021. Instamojo on the other hand is offering a six-month free subscription to its “Premium Online Store Solution.”

SMBs can also avail Dunzo’s 24×7 merchant support for free with zero sign-up fees and instant registration and can make use of Swiggy’s seven days “Fast track Onboarding”. All these will be available for SMBs on “Grow with Google Small Business” hub in India which was launched in July this year.

Shalini Girish, Customer Solutions Director at Google India, said in a statement that today, the need to go digital is a necessity and SMBs are hard-pressed to digitise fast. “We need to do everything we can to handhold millions of small businesses in their digital-transformation journey and support business recovery during the current crisis”, she added. Adding further, she said that the needs of small businesses differ across the country and we are partnering with the industry leaders to offer more support to help small businesses go digital.

The ‘Namaste Digital’ Initiative:

  1. The new initiative builds on the “Grow with Google Small Business hub” effort. It is in direct response to the feedback received from small medium businesses captured in the Google-Kantar small business tracker research conducted in July.
  2. According to the report, customer related challenges tops the list for small businesses, with 92 per cent businesses facing customer related challenges, revenue loss due to low demand and payment of fixed costs are the other most severe challenges among businesses.
  3. The report also highlights that businesses are seeing the benefits of going digital, and today 5 out of 10 businesses are using digital channels to engage their customers compared to just 4 in 10 in April.
  4. In addition to providing support to go digital, Google India is also investing in efforts to scale its outreach to help small businesses learn to use digital tools in local Indian languages.

As part of this effort, Google has worked closely with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) to drive an industry wide skilling program which has already trained 1.2 million individuals.

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Startup Technology

Humsafar, an App-Based Doorstep Diesel Delivery Service Provider, To Help Startups Become ‘Fuel Enterprises’

Fuel (Photo Credits: Pexels)

New Delhi, September 15: Humsafar, an app-based doorstep diesel delivery service provider has introduced its support services to help aspiring fuel entrepreneurs. This unique opportunity will help the startups to be a part of one of the biggest disruptions in terms of fuel marketing in the Oil industry – Diesel Door Delivery (DDD). According to a report by IANS, Humsafar plans project support from scratch to complete fruition to new start-ups of doorstep diesel delivery. The plan includes setting up a company, fabricating bowsers, (oil dispensing vehicles) and setting up a tech platform for delivery of diesel at doorsteps in various parts of the country.

Sanya Goel, Co-Founder and Director, Humsafar was quoted in the report saying that Humsafar also helps start-ups market the service in the industry by partnering with other dealers and acquiring new customers.The opportunity the Doorstep Diesel industry provides is enormous, offering safe and legal alternatives to fuel procurement.

About Humsafar App:

  1. In less than four months, the Humsafar app, ‘Fuel Humsafar’, has crossed over 10,000 downloads on Google Play Store and has processed 20,000 transactions.
  2. The app has been customised to help clients and vendors manage their orders, drivers, tracking of the bowser, checking fuel capacity, stock management, advanced MIS.
  3. The report informs that Humsafar also offers a dedicated app, just for the Drivers, which allows them to track the user’s location, check orders, review order history, and manage stock, which in turn allows the vendor to view the driver’s performance and delivery status from time-to-time.
  4. Humsafar is currently servicing 24 states across India. The startup has also roped in 50 plus retail partners across 24 states.
  5. Humsafar is also looking to raise its first external investment and plans to launch B2C ordering by the end of 2020.

The mobile bowsers, popularly known as dispensing vehicles, are expected to supplement petrol pumps, changing the landscape of fuel procurement. Goel added saying that it’s great to see that most of their applications have been from the younger generation which speaks volumes of the entrepreneurial spirt among the youth.

The gross revenues of the startup stood at Rs 22 million in the year 2019-20, and by the end of 2021, Humsafar plans on targeting diesel delivery of 500 million litres. This will translate into a revenue of Rs 100 million.