Coronavirus has had a very bad impact on the economy. With the crash in the economy, a lot of people lost their jobs. Some people even believe that unemployement will have even worse impact of people’s mentality than the impact of coronavirus.
Many companies laid off thousands of their employees in one go.
We analyzed a list of 200 companies which laid off their employees. Over 27% of the companies were Travel companies.
Here is an infographic case study on the Layoffs Due To Coronavirus.
A little request from StartupTalky: If you see any hiring post on LinkedIn, engage with the post. Like it, comment, mention some people who would be perfect for that job or just share the post with your followers. This way, you boost the reach of that post and help someone who is looking for a job.
Don’t forget to share this infographic on your social media.
Micro-Entrepreneurs are the ones who are independent professionals but entrepreneurs in their mind and soul. They can make or break the economical growth of a country or let’s just say they can scratch a MNC’s back or break them apart. They eke a living and accelerate growth in their own terms which in turn makes them live in serenity. LINQ Stores has a faction of such dynamic and enthusiastic professionals all across India who are insistent to make a mark in their towns. LINQ Stores gives you an opportunity to start a business with the least of investment.
A LinQ store is an offline super bazaar that brings online shopping in the form of physical stores. LinQ does not have wares stacked in the store, it has computers and large screens connected to the internet to browse various e-commerce websites. Consumers are greeted by LinQ store assistants who help them to buy products according to their needs and best price availability. The store also showcases sample products, thereby, enabling a customer to check the quality of the product before purchasing.
A wholesale market is the best example of a capital business where even if the margin is in puny, the volume of sale is the highest. Unruly and yet systematic markets run in unity in due diligence of these Micro-Entrepreneurs. A myth saying, “Heaps of monetary value is required to start a business” is being scrapped as with a lot of referrals and a bit of your investment can help you kick off a small business.
Not everyone can uphold it though. In an economy where the highest percentage of people ‘make a living to just feed everyone on their table’ lack the possibilities and opportunities which otherwise comes easy to those whose families live and breathe business.
With the 9-5 grind in the corporate life giving you barely any satisfaction, franchising and starting up on your own is the best way out. Franchising is known to be the utmost successful business as the parent business is already set on their path. Best known examples being food chains, salons, apparel stores.
A franchise with the least investment possible with ‘Zero Inventory Management’ is trending in India. People from every corner are approaching this business type where under one roof, every product thought of, can be acquired. This business model helps customers who are unacquainted with online shopping trends and are lacking digital knowledge. Passionate and motivated for independence in work life micro-entrepreneurs are approaching LINQ Stores to earn and grow with them.
LINQ Stores is a prevalent name in the lower tiered areas of India for its ideology. Retail and E-Commerce Industry are looking out for such start-ups because they can be the last mile to the lower tiered regions. LINQ Stores not only is a branding and marketing partner for Retail and E-Commerce industries but also a solution to their problems relating to supply chain and return policies. LinQ has partnered with an various e-commerce services like retail, travel, health care, insurance, pharmacy, money-transfer, matrimony and others under a single platform.
The team is connecting consumers with Amazon, NetMeds, Gati, Via.com, Rubique and Hitachi. It has become a community of success stories with more than 300 offline stores all over India with a revenue projected at 90 Crores in 2017 is surely a trend to look out for.
Indian e-commerce giant Paytm has come up with this new idea of having a ‘contactless in-store ordering’. They said that the idea of Paytm contactless ordering will help in promoting the process of minimum physical contact.
Paytm in a statement said that they have developed an online menu system where a QR code will be given to the restaurants and the users can scan the QR code which will help them getting the menu on their mobile phones and can place the order without having a contact.
Paytm will include contactless ordering
This process of contactless ordering and dining will help to avoid the unnecessary need of touching of the menu that could possibly be unsanitised and there will also be a certain distance maintained between the customers and the waiters.
Paytm has already introduced the process of contactless payment or billings few years ago. Making a greater hold in the market soon after the demonetization phase.
As the lockdown has been lifted , Paytm is mainly aiming for the top 30 cities to start with with over one lakh restaurants which will work this way. This concept can be a great success as it is helping the restaurants to restore their business which had been closed for a while.
This concept of contactless ordering and dining has been brought to stop the spread of coronavirus infection after the reopening of the country. Restaurants have also been told to properly sanitize and create a particular distance between the customers and the owners.
Zomato which is an online delivery platform has also said in a statement that they are working towards adding some new features on their app in which it will allow the diners who are having food in restaurants and placing order can have an online menu which will promote contactless delivery option.
Statement By Paytm On Contactless Ordering
Paytm has said that its solution will support all of their payment methods which includes Paytm wallet, Paytm UPI, net-banking and cards and the orders will be updated time to time as the restaurant changes them.
“In the first phase, the company is in the process of onboarding over a lakh restaurant which will help them to ensure social distancing amidst covid-19 fears. This, in turn, will also enhance the restaurant’s efficiency and trust for the customers to recover their business while reducing cost overheads,” Paytm spokesperson said in a statement.
contactless ordering by Paytm
Paytm also added that it will extend this unique solution to many big franchisees and dine-in restaurants so that it could reach out to maximum people.
Paytm Vice-President Nikhil Saigal in a statement said, “We understand that after the lockdown, our country will require a safe dining and food ordering experience. Therefore, we have built this technology to help restaurants and their customers to follow social-distancing norms. With our ‘contactless in-store ordering’, they will avoid touching menu cards and cash for a safer experience”.
Paytm has been an revolutionary industry for the Indian market. When they brought in the method of online payment services it created a great impact in the market for a while now. When they brought in the concept of online payment it was not a big hit but the promotion of this concept at the right time which was just after demonetization helped them to have a good hold in the Indian market.
By bringing in this new concept of contactless in-store ordering this can help them creating a good impact in the market once again. At this time of crisis people are looking at the ways which can help promoting the concept of social distancing with no human contact as it has become a necessity now. By launching of this concept it can become a major hit among the people and will also help in promoting this concept.
Dhivya Suryadevara replaced Chuck Stevens on September 1, 2018 as chief financial officer of the No. 1 U.S. automaker – General Motors. General Motors in one of the very rare scenarios, paved ways for two women to be in CEO and CFO’s position. CEO of the Automobile giant is Mary Barra and the CFO being Dhivya Suryadevara, the first woman of Indian origin to hold the prominent position in a top-notch automobile firm and above all, in a male-dominated industry.
CEO of GM, Mary Barra said, “Dhivya’s experience and leadership in several key roles throughout our financial operations positions her well to build on the strong business results we’ve delivered over the last several years.”
Although Suryadevara never imagined going into the automotive industry, she revealed that she has always enjoyed anything “challenging and complicated.” That was the theme of her upbringing in Chennai, India. After her father passed away when Suryadevara was young, all parenting duties fell onto her mother.
Born on 14 April, 1980, Dhivya spent her early days in Mandaveli, Chennai where she completed her schooling and undergrad. Growing up, she never had it easy; she faced the hardships when she lost her father at an early age and how her mother had to meet their financial needs in raising three children single-handedly.
In an interview, Dhivya Suryadevara recalled, “My mom had to raise three children on her own, which is difficult to do anywhere, let alone in India. She wanted to make sure there were no corners cut when it came to our education and to prove that we could have the same resources as a two-parent household. Her high expectations made us want to do better, and we learned that nothing comes easy. You have to really work hard to get what you want.”
She graduated from St. John’s College, Chennai with a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce. But her mother’s high expectations stayed with Suryadevara as she completed her bachelor’s and master’s degree in commerce at the University of Madras.
When she was 22, Suryadevara moved to the U.S. for the first time for further studies. She attended Harvard Business School where she obtained her Business Degree from Harvard University. After obtaining her MBA from Harvard University, she began working for UBS, a Swiss multinational investment bank as an Investment banker.
Her struggle was not over yet. She had to pay back her student loans. That was a different extent of pressure she faced. She moved to General Motors, Detroit, where she served various positions before being recognized as Vice President, Corporate Finance; for her crucial role in securing several deals when the company was dealing with a transition and restructuring of its operations.
Dhivya’s Corporate Journey
Dhivya Suryadevara has played an integral role in some significant deals GM has made as it has restructured operations over the past several years. It included the divestiture of the company’s European arm Opel and the acquisition of self-driving vehicle startup Cruise. She played a role in securing a $2.25 billion investment in GM Cruise by Japanese tech giant SoftBank Group Corp.
In 2013, Dhivya Suryadevara became CEO and chief investment officer of GM Asset Management. While running GM’s $85 billion pension operations, she also took on the role as vice president of finance and treasurer in 2015, and split her time between New York and Detroit. In 2016, she was named Automotive News Rising Star and a Crain’s Detroit Business 40 Under 40 winner last year.
During her 13 years with General Motors, Suryadevara helped achieve ratings upgrades from all three credit ratings agencies, completed $2 billion in notes issuance to fund discretionary pension contributions and upsized and renewed GM’s $14.5 billion revolving credit facility. In July 2017, she was named vice president, corporate finance, a job that included overseeing investor relations, the company said.
Seeing her progress, General Motors announced in June, 2018, that 39-year-old vice president of corporate finance then, Dhivya Suryadevara, would replace current CFO Chuck Stevens, who has been working at the auto company longer than Suryadevara has been alive. Interestingly, Suryadevara was born the year after Stevens began his career in General Motors.
The estimated Net Worth of Dhivya Suryadevara is at least $8.39 Million dollars as of 1 April 2019. Suryadevara owns over 34,756 units of General Motors Co stock worth over $325,882 and over the last 2 years she sold GM stock worth over $1,299,874. In addition, she makes $6,767,560 as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President at General Motors Co.
According to a statement released by the General Motors, they said that Dhivya played an integral role in the Opel divestiture, Cruise acquisition, Lyft investment and more recently, SoftBank’s investment in GM Cruis. A company which is not known for diversity, opening its arms for talented and creative leaders irrespective of gender, race is commendable.
As you know men, money and material are three important resources of any business. If there is any shortage in any one of them, it could make your business suffer. But handling these shortages is a part of every business life cycle. Now you know that every business goes through this. And by keeping all these things with you, you could also make your business life amazing and beautiful.
So, do you want to start a new business? Or wanted to expand an existing business? Both of these decisions have one concern in common. And that concern is nothing but strategizing a decision on ‘how to raise funds’. There is nothing to worry about. We are here to provide you 20 alternatives of raising funds from investors. You could choose among them as per your business’ needs. Let us see the complete story on the topic- 20 Alternatives of Raising Funds from Investors.
Even small contributions from large number of people can solve your funding problem. If you have an ‘out of the box’ plan for your business, then you can expect huge funds in the form of crowd funding. This form of funding contains low risk yet you can earn high returns out of it. But you can promise your investors some returns in future.
Venture capitalists look for those businesses that have attained some revenue stability. If you also fall in this ambit, then try to attract a venture capitalist for having investments. These investments generally contains high risk-return ratio. They can also give management support for your business. So, your business would get two things at one go, i.e. adequate funds and a reliable mentor.
3) Advertise it through Initial Public Offer
It is a platform where you can raise funds through public at large. First you have to get underwriter who will decide where to list your shares. Generally IPOs have high credibility and trust factor play a major role here. Investors also know that for issuing IPOs, you must have gone through various compliances. This could also help in building your brand image among investors.
Steps of Fund Raising
4) Win contests for your business plan
Is your business plan unique? Do you expect high growth in future as well? Then it is time to take part in some contests and tell the world about your business plans. With this, your business plan would get enough recognition among peers. Also you could win funds in the form of prizes.
5) Organize events to attract sponsors
Events could become major platform to attract investors for your business. It would be a costly affair initially but you can expect various capitalists out from there. You just need to display your business plan effectively. With the help of this, you would make various connections for your future business endeavours as well.
6) Take help from Business Incubator
Business incubator are specially designed to help start up businesses to sustain and grow. They could provide you all necessary resources which are essential to run any business. There would be an immense support system for your business to prosper. Try to reach a suitable incubator which matches with your business interest.
You have plenty of options in the form of bank loans. For this you need to display your effective business module. They would also enquire about your future growth prospects. Adherences to compliances were major hurdle for getting bank loans. But now governments are also helping to reduce the burden of compliances.
8) NBFCs also have attractive funding options
Non banking finance institutions have attractive funding options for your business. The process is more or less similar to bank loans. But the major difference is they come up with lower interest rates. As interest rates are low, they come up with high risks as well. There is often high liquidity crunch in NBFCs which make it riskier form of fund raising.
9) Attract risk-averse investors by Debt Mutual Funds
There are some investors who are risk averse but want some good returns out of their investments. You can target them by providing debt mutual funds. Debt mutual funds have stable returns and there is no loss of capital as well. Execute your business plan in an effective manner so that you could give your cost of capital on time.
It is always good to make a team instead of going solely in the battle field. Try to find those who also have similar business ideas like yours. You would get more resources in form of men, material and money than earlier. Also the risk factor could be divided among partners as per ratio of investment.
11) Tap for Private Equity firms
These firms could provide you funds in return of ownership. They usually look for high prospering businesses. You could reach out to them by giving your future plan of action. Try to turn your USP work into your favour because these firms could make your business grow. Mark your presence among these powerful business houses and give your business a new outlook.
12) You can also get some peer funding
Peer funding is always being a trusted form of raising funds. You can deliver your attractive future plans to your friends, family, colleagues, etc.
Also there would be low operational cost associated with this form of fund raising. But you can invite your peers to become partners. This is the most suitable form of investment which has high return with low risks.
13) Issue debentures to raise investments
Debentures provide fixed rate of interest to investors. They would give you long term investments. For this you have to ensure stable earning to provide fixed rate of return to investors. This is not as high risky as equities. But on the other hand, this is one of the most secure forms of investments for investors.
14) Make them owners by giving secured preference shares
There are some investors who want to become owners but they adhere to risk of becoming owner. For investors, this could be a mixture of having debentures and equity at one basket. It is an attractive form of raising funds which provide stable returns with an ownership status.
15) Take help of some exciting government schemes
Nowadays government is also coming up with amazing plans to support businesses. They know that these businesses help to generate employability in nation. Try to reach to those plans of government which can support your business endeavours. Also the cost of capital is very less in this alternative.
16) Make your suppliers ‘The Partners’
You usually need huge funds to make payment to your suppliers. But what if you make those suppliers as your partners? This could become a great venture where there is no operational risk for your business. Also you would get reliable and trustworthy supplier who is directly associated with the profits of your business.
17) Give ESOP instead of salaries to your employees
Salary expense is one of the major expenses of any business. You could save this expense by giving employees ‘Employee Stock Option Plan’. Transform them as owners and they would also get motivated to work in a more effective manner. This would be a low cost of capital for your business.
18) Business credit cards when there is urgent need of funds
These credit cards are workable when there is urgent need of funds. This form of funding is usually having high cost of capital. But when there is urgency no cost is a high cost. You just have to be little careful while using them because it could make your business debt trap.
19) Make an agreement for ‘Line of Credit’
Line of Credit is generally an agreement with banking institutions. It could provide you funds until the maximum limit is reached. You can borrow money at anytime and from anywhere which make this source of funding as flexible one. But there is a condition that you have to adhere as per the agreements.
20) Angels investors could become your healers
Nowadays there are many professionals who look for various investment opportunities. These professionals usually have affluent earnings. What they want is to earn extra profits from those earnings. They merely look for start-ups who have high potential of growth. Try to reach out to them and make sure you deliver your future plans in an effective manner.
Raising funds is an important task for every business. For you also, it could be a major decision for your business. But you have to keep one thing in mind that you should not depend on one alternative only. Take alternatives as eggs and see this. Remember if you move ahead with only one egg in your basket, there is a possibility that one egg may broke down in middle of the road. In this situation, you won’t have any other alternative to go ahead. So, try to have bundles of eggs in your basket. If one egg is broken, then there would be not much concern for your business. And you can move ahead with rest of them.
First thought that comes in an entrepreneur’s mind is to get funds for his startup. The startup founders live in the biggest myth of life that, once they have funds for the business, their startup will automatically run. However, due to common mistakes seed funded startup do has led them to scum to halt. The seed-funded startup is great to kickstart a successful startup, but never assume it as a final destination, because the journey is very long after this. Launching a new startup is like a giving birth to a baby which ideally take a short span of time but the real responsibility comes after that. You need to plan the whole life of your baby and take care of all the needs. In the same way, after getting the initial investment through seed funding, planning and using it properly to boost the startup is important.
Numerous startup founders fail to manage it after getting seed funded, as they had utilized their all energy in getting the funding. As per a recent release of a report, it revealed the fact about the failure of new startups, which we would share with the esteemed readers right away. A common reason for the failure of the startups is they fail to deliver their promises and fails to manage their team. These are the two major reasons for the downfall of many startups. But these are not the only mistakes which startup owners do, other than this few other mistakes are present in the bucket to avoid failure which is enumerated –
It’s very important to give the investors what you have promised them earlier. The selection of the team is very crucial and should be made after full clarity. As the whole performance of the business depends upon the employees that are going to work in it. So hire very carefully, so you won’t need to fire easily. Keep the following points in mind before hiring your staff:
Don’t hire your family members or friends in your startup. They might work at fewer rates, but they are not trained to perform the job. So never mix up business and personal relationship with each other, as this reaction might get explosive.
Don’t hire because a job seeker is ready to work at less rate. You need an experienced person to run the startup, as your business is already new, so don’t add a new equation to it. Hire someone with knowledge of market strategy and a person who is, as passionate as you about the idea of the startup.
Avoid outsourcing the employees. There are several companies present in the market, which outsource their staff and they are running very successfully. However, for new startups, it might cross the budget and pile up the employment cost.
Don’t hire only because a person has worked for Google, Apple or some other big tech company. You should not judge them on the basis of their previous company but you should assess them as per your startup requirement. An employee should be suitable to work in a startup culture.
Keep your book’s Straight
To utilize the money properly and keeping it from wastage, make the required documents and accounting records perfectly. The two major books that every business should be made are:
The bookkeeping is the major part of a successful business. You need to record all the expenses and incomes accounts to tally the growth of the business. You need to record all the petty and big cash expenses daily. From spending a dollar on coffee to the purchase of any new equipment all should be written in the accounts properly. To get the fair picture of your business, it’s highly important to make your journal daily. It’s good to get it checked by a Chartered Accountant from time to time.
The legal documents are required to make daily contracts or bindings. Startup owners normally spend thousands on hiring lawyers to do legal work, which they can easily do themselves. All the legal wording is available online and you know the procedure also, so why waste money on hiring an expensive lawyer, when you can do that on your own.
To understand the nature of your customers and to understand the demand for your product regularly, it is very important to get feedback. Although hiding from the facts or not sharing your ideas with anyone, because of the fear that they might steal it is underestimating yourself. Your idea could be unique but one day or the other your competitor would come with the same plan. There is no worry if you share your idea because it will always get better with the feedback.
Put curb on unwanted expenses
You do many unwanted expenses in the daily course, which can be easily avoided or can minimized. So identify those expenses and reduce them to the bare minimum level. Few of the avoidable expenses are:
Don’t spend money on the locality of your office or the decor to attract customers, as they are here for the product and not to see your fancy chandelier.
Gifting the investors is again a bad idea because if they can fund your startup then they can even buy gifts for themselves.
Don’t waste time and money on conducting useless meetings, because no meeting has deliver any benefit to the startup owners and start having hurdle session with your team to motivate and get to the root of the problem.
Don’t hire unwanted employees like receptionist, as you are very capable to handle your own business calls and make your own coffee.
Go electronic and take the help of technology. For example, if you want to hire an assistant to handle your emails simply download a free Email sorting app and save an employee’s salary.
Miscellaneous Factors
90% of the startup owners don’t emphasize on the reason behind their failure. They keep chasing their aim while neglecting the reasons for failure.
The startup founders built their own LA LA land. All those compliments from people can be intoxicating. Feel good about them, but don’t let them get into your head. You have not made it big yet.
Not thinking of realistic unit economics.
Giving too many employee benefits like HRA, Education allowance etc. shrink your working capital funded by investors. Until and unless you own 100% stake in your startup, avoid giving unnecessary allowance.
If you are not planning a yearly budget for hiring & other things then you might end up landing in trouble.
Growing a lot of vanity metrics / Developing features that get users/engagement but may not help the business in a long run in any way to make revenues.
Well yes, the startup owners make so many mistakes after getting seed funded. They really get crazy and spend the investor’s money rudely, but they forget the deal they need to return it at some point of time. Well, we hope that the above article has provided you with immense information to seriously manage the sum of investment and grow out of it.
Life is too short and you have so much talent to showcase towards your work. It’s very difficult to explore everything in the short period of time, but you only get one life to live and make your dreams come true, so don’t waste even one second of your precious time and start planning your life from now on. However, after working tiringly all day at the workplace and earning money to be independent, you don’t spend quality time with your family or have the energy to do any personal work. This is the biggest hurdle in your life and people are scumming to their fate, they want to follow their dreams, but they also need to stay active after work hours. This is the question that pops into our mind, after realizing that you don’t have much time left to fulfill our dreams.
The solution to the above problem is to have a routine management in your life. Before starting your day, you could make a To Do List, set up priorities to work on to manage time more specifically towards a particular job. This would give out some quality time to achieve unattended dreams easily. Furthermore, to maintain a great routine some tips and tactics are enumerated below to manage 24 hours of the day into a productive routine and to take full advantage of your time. The simple five rules to make your life productive after hard working day are:
Rule #1. Make most of your time in all day
“Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.” —Thomas Edison, inventor
After waking up in the morning you don’t feel to have time in hand, but in reality, you always have plenty of free time in a day. The problem which the majority faces is they don’t schedule themselves according to time and priorities which thus turns the clock other way around for them. You need to identify the window of free time and categorize it to take out your full potential towards the best result you can produce. If you start noticing every day you are investing some time to commute to your workplace although you also get some sneak-out break at afternoon and evening for lunch & snacks respectively. However, now the point comes how to utilize the commute & break time to be active after work and enjoy time with your loved ones. So, let’s chalk out a blueprint to take one step closer towards our happy living.
It’s best to select a podcast of your choice and learn something new while commuting or in the free time.
Listening to new things will energize your brain and reflect more productivity.
Reading will soothe your mind and soul. The audiobooks are best as they allow to close your eyes and relax.
Walking for a few minutes will do wonder for you. A yoga class or quick burst of exercise is a good method to calm your spinning head.
If you wish to doodle then use this break to dwell into your soul and doodle something that connects with your thought.
Rule #2. Make a to-do list
The person needs to draft his life in advance to set the goals straight and clear. It’s difficult to plan every aspect of life, but it’s important to draw an outlook on life and live it accordingly to achieve goals. Start focusing on small things which could change your way of living a struggling routine, such as
Early to bed and early to rising gives you a noble life. It’s not a myth, it has been proven by some most successful entrepreneurs of all time. This would help you to do brainstorming and create new ideas for further success.
Eat a healthy diet, try to include fruits and salads in your daily food items.
A 30 minutes Meditation would be a great practice to dwell on your thoughts and to relax your mind.
Lay down the daily routine in a paper or mobile and during the day tick on the points which you have achieved. This helps in self-evaluating the activities.
Yes, make a plan to initiate a fruitful conversation with your loved ones. It seems hard to converse after a tiring day, but it’s important to talk which shows how eagerly you love your family. Let us shorten the process for you
Take a break for a few minutes and don’t jump to another task immediately. Roam around a little bit and relax for at least half an hour.
Do some caring work like helping to cook or plan to watch a quick short film to relax your mind.
Listen to some light music and take a long nourishing bath to release tiredness.
Rule out your plan and take steps to achieve it. If you have a goal to write a book then pen down at least 2000 words daily and follow your rule very strictly.
Rule #4. Make a weekend getaway plan
No play, only work will, in turn, a jack into a dull boy, so to recharge the energy and to bring freshness in it, you need to take a well deserving break from your routine. Taking a break will energies you and new thoughts will come into your mind. It’s good to spend some time in a new environment and mingling with friends and family which will give you mental satisfaction and happiness. So take a break and change your scenery. Visit some new place and embrace some holiday spirit in yourself. Treat yourself and spoil yourself little will improve the mental health.
It’s very important to do some soul searching from time to time. Take some steps to understand your inner self and evaluate the performance on your own. No one knows you better than yourself to evaluate the strong and weak points of your life, so it’s important to have time to time soul search for yourself. You can use numerous tools to search your inner feelings, such as:
Yoga and meditation help to attain a clear mind.
Walk in the park will embrace your health towards positivity.
Some alone time away from all.
Long drive to a peaceful destination will give you lots of free time to think.
Call to Action time, Try these few techniques to stay productive in your free time and get your dreams to come true. Embedding the following rules in your life will make you feel positive and self-motivated towards your life. It’s very important to stay fertile all your life, as only dead are infertile. Time to make some changes to achieve new height.
Intelligence and creativity go hand in hand, at least in entrepreneurship. Innovative ideas remain on paper if one doesn’t know how to execute them. India is home to many such ingenious minds who have delivered awesome solutions. Mobile2win is one such innovation that has created a buzz in the Indian startup ecosystem. Mobile2win India Pvt. Ltd designs and develops digital entertainment software. The company offers contests, interactive music, social media interaction, games, and infotainment to users. So, how did this venture generate the attention? And, who’s Alok Kejriwal?
Alok Kejriwal is one of the earliest internet entrepreneurs in India to have achieved multiple exits from his startups. He is well known for his idea “Mobile2win”. Apart from being an entrepreneur, he is a power speaker and an engaging presenter who thinks out of the box to satisfy customer needs. He is currently the CEO and founder of Games2win, his fourth startup. Games2win is a global mobile games enterprise with over 150 million game downloads and entertaining over 10 million players per month.
Quick Facts
Name
Alok Kejriwal
Born
25 December 1968 – Mumbai, India
Age
51
Education
Campion School, Mumbai and Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics
Occupation
Entrepreneur
Known for
Founder & CEO, Contests2Win.com
Family Background
He grew up in a Marwari business family and was exposed to the business world due to his family’s interests and functions. He had set up the export division of his father’s socks business but, as he faced obstacles such as family issues which included his uncles and relatives drove him to search out for something big of his own.
Alok Kejriwal’s Mobile2win
mobile2win logo
Alok is an experienced campaigner and has been in business for nearly two decades. In 1998, he launched the country’s first online contesting site—contest2win. His work spurred the concept of advergaming for the first time in the world of gaming. Several multinational companies have partnered with his website. Brands like Pepsi, Nestle, and L’Oreal were introduced in the Indian market through contest2win.
He followed contest2win with mobile2win. This was founded in the year 2001 with his team. He was invited to China by Softbank, one of the first investors in his company. Mobile2win pioneered the first-ever TV powered SMS service in the world; and this was instrumental in big names collaborating with mobile2win. Alok and his team launched Mobile2win in India after much planning. Mobile2win presented the idea of SMS service via TV, and the first consumer was Sony. It chose this model to implement voting facilities for The Indian Idol.
As his company scaled new heights, Alok successfully sold Mobile2win China to Walt Disney, and Mobile2win India to Norwest Venture Partners in China and India respectively.
Kejriwal has successfully raised venture capital from some of the world’s leading names such as ICICI, eVentures, Softbank China, Siemens Acceleration, Clearstone Venture Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, and Nirvana Venture Partners.
Alok’s Two Cents
Alok has several words of advice from his wide ranging experience. He encourages youth to start off with small projects of their own. In his journey to fame, Alok took up a range of small projects like bank referrals, locating leak-proof drums, and financial services for the needy. According to him, this helps in understanding business.
He often associates curiosity with growth. He urges all aspiring entrepreneurs to develop curiosity as a serious habit. This inquisitiveness helped him diagnose a fault in a costly sock-making machine. It was his curiosity that inspired him to use the internet as the foundation for his startup.
He also advises entrepreneurs to commit at least ten years to scale their business. He believes the journey of pain, trouble, and hard work eventually lead to success. For Alok, there is no ‘easy money’ in this world; if anything comes easy, it slips out of your hand even easier. Alok sought tips from the deep research practices and long-term investing habits of successful traders.
He refrains from companies fostering deceit, cheating or manipulation. Being honest has taken him to places and he encourages budding entrepreneurs to do the same.
Investors
For Alok, VC can mean venture capital, vulture capital, and vampire capital. Entreprenuers should exercise caution in choosing their investors. His company had to weather some challenges due to a dysfunctional board. The silver lining in the cloud was Disney. It came forward with an all-cash acquisition deal. Further developments lead to the dominance of Games2win and the rest is history.
Alok has innate passion for speaking, presenting, and content writing. Some of his important talks include:
Presentation at the Wharton and Harvard Business Schools.
Presenting his ideas at different IITs and IIMs across the country.
Speaker at TEDx Mumbai.
He presented his ideas at the Rashtrapati Bhawan to speak on Entrepreneurship in the August company of the President of India.
He has addressed many Indian business news channels on the current situation of the Indian startup circuit. Alok has been a judge on different entrepreneurship oriented reality shows. He has worked off the field as well. He is the founder of therodinhoods.com, a community of entreprenuers. He meets two to three entrepreneurs and mentors them. He has also contributed to the Art of Living. Alok is a teacher, mentor and spiritual speaker for the community. A man of multiple qualities, entrepreneurs should follow Alok Kejriwal’s learnings!
The emergence of social media embodies the 21st century. Social media is an inseparable part of every millennial’s life. It is impossible to imagine a day without texting our friends and followers through WhatsApp, posting images on Instagram, and scrolling through memes on Facebook. Something’s missing here? Yeah, it’s Snap (Snapchat). The emergence of Snap as a social media giant goes to Evan Spiegel.
Posting pictures with creative filters has provided a boost to Snap, frequently appearing in the ‘top grossing list’ of Android and iOS apps. Snapchat is like a blessing to the startup circuit. Time to find out how Evan Spiegel brought Snap Inc. into the picture and changed the social media industry forever.
Quick Facts
Name
Evan Thomas Spiegel
Born
4th June 1990 – Los Angeles, California
Age
30
Education
Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, Standford University
Occupation
Entrepreneur
Known for
Co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc.
Net worth
US$4 billion (April 2020)
Who Is Evan Spiegel?
A co-founder of Snap Inc., formerly known as Snapchat Inc., Evan Spiegel is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of today’s times. He created Snap Inc. along with Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown, his college mates. The trio were the students of Stanford University. He enrolled at the Crossroads Schools for Arts and Sciences, and later on secured a seat at Stanford. He had an unpaid internship at Red Bull and was a paid intern for a biomedical company. He is amongst the three self-made billionaires in the world who are under 30 years of age. Evan Spiegel’s innovation permits approximately 203 million people to send photos and videos through Snap.
The Tale Behind Snap Inc.
Snap Inc logo
In college, Spiegel proposed an application with ephemeral messaging for a class project that wasn’t received well by his classmates. Every noteworthy story is riddled with setbacks followed by rise to fame, and Spiegel’s story was no different. He worked with Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown to launch a prototype called ‘Picaboo’ into the social media segment. Picaboo was rechristened to Snapchat. The popularity of Snapchat and increasing user acceptance compelled Spiegel to leave Stanford University and focus only on Snapchat’s development. The number of daily active users crossed the 1 million mark unexpectedly quick.
Evan Spiegel Net Worth
Evan Spiegel’s net worth is $2.1 billion as of 16th March,2020. He owns around 18 percent of the company. Evan Spiegel was named as the youngest billionaire in the world in 2015. In 2017, Spiegel and his co-worker Murphy pledged to donate 13,000,000 shares of Class A common stock over to arts and youth non-profit.
With the steep increase in Snapchat’s revenue and popularity, nothing seemed impossible for the company. In 2016, the company rebranded itself as Snap Inc. and introduced the concept of camera-equipped spectacles. This further boosted revenue as Snap Inc. earned more than $400 million in 2016.
Snap Inc. faced challenges. After going public in 2017, the company failed to meet the public’s expectations, causing the stock price to fall in March 2017. The stock was below $12 per share by August. This was mainly due to stiff competition from Facebook. The mega-giant has its own success story, but has been accused of plagiarizing ideas and concepts of various social media companies. Snap Inc. was also a victim of plagiarism which lead to algorithmic filtering of content and several other improvements, bringing in new customers.
Avoiding Facebook-zone
After scaling new heights, Spiegel received an offer from Facebook. CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered to buy Snapchat for $3 billion. Spiegel, a visionary entrepreneur, refused to sell his venture even though he and his co-workers were to net around $750 million from the Facebook deal. Evan Spiegal never seeked short term gains, a big win mattered to him the most.
Rift Between The Co-founders
Snapchat was now a big shot. In order to have his share of the pie, Reggie Brown filed a lawsuit on the grounds that his idea was being used by Spiegel and Murphy for developing Snap. Brown argued he wasn’t provided the intellectual property rights of the company even though the iconic ghost logo was his creation. In 2014, Reggie Brown received a settlement of $157.5 million.
The social media industry owes to Spiegel. His efforts to connect people all over the world have made him a popular household name. Even though he was offered to sell Snap Inc. to Facebook, he refused. Short term investments never enticed him. This is a lesson for budding entrepreneurs! Even though Snapchat’s idea was later on copied by Facebook, it found out other ways to attract customers. In the present era, it is never easy to sustain momentum as a social media application, but Snap Inc. did it by being unique. Having more than 1 million daily users from around the globe consistently is a testimony to Snap Inc.’s position as a heavyweight. This in turn has cemented Evan Spiegel’s place in history.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator has been proved as a very interesting tool to increase the sale of the product and it can give your product a boost that you were always looking for. Although, if you are new to LinkedIn Sales Navigator and want to use it’s ebonic services to enhance the performance and range of your product then start using it for free. It comes with a free 1-month trial and thereafter you can subscribe it according to your preferences.
What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn is a social media platform for elegant business practices. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is still new in the India and people are not yet fully familiar with the functionality of LinkedIn. A person can make their business profile on LinkedIn and create a group for the products to bring the attention of the potential customers to the business.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator features a powerful set of search capabilities, improved visibility into extended networks, and personalized algorithms to help you reach the right decision maker. It’s described as the best version of LinkedIn for sales professionals. It allows sales teams to engage with contacts and accounts within the LinkedIn platform.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator salesforce
How to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
1. SETTING BUSINESS GOALS
In every business school, it is taught that the first rule to start any business operation is to set its goal. Yep, so firstly set the goal in your LinkedIn Sales Navigator profile and write down the goal for which you are creating the LinkedIn profile. Setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely) goals can help you evaluate the goals you wish to set. However, think about whether they are realistic.
You should write down your goals in your business plan to help keep you on track to achieve them. Transparency is crucial to success when it comes to goals. Your biggest goals, those important goals that are central to the success of the organization, should have more than one contributor. Collaboration increases your chances of meeting key goals. Don’t settle for a goal because it seems achievable. Set the bar high. Even if you don’t make your goal, you will likely achieve more than you would have with a smaller, easier goal.
Provide the right direction and motivation to your team to achieve the goal as the team plays the very major role in achieving the result. It’s also important for employees to have the opportunity to set their goals themselves. Share your goal with your team and motivate them to achieve the desired goal. When employees have some freedom in creating their own goals, they are far more likely to take ownership of their goals.
This, in turn, makes employees more likely to meet their goals. Employees can see how their goals align with the rest of the organization’s goals. This allows for greater cooperation across the entire company. They can see how they contribute to the success of the whole organization. Making front-line employees contributors to a larger goal gives them a sense of purpose. It creates a work environment where everyone knows how they contribute to the company. Additionally, everyone feels that the company values their contributions.
3. PERSPECTIVE
Think as a buyer, yes thinking as the buyer will change your persona and you will feel more connected to them. This will help you to understand the need of the buyer and you can easily deliver product according to the customer’s requirements. Turning a buyers vagueness into clear solutions is the job of the salesperson.
Always remember that the buyer is looking for the best solution, delivered in an effective and pleasurable manner. An entrepreneur, therefore, must know the value provided by each category of consumer and should, therefore, target the same with an appropriate marketing strategy to maximize the returns on investment in the associated marketing campaigns.
4. COMPETITORS
Competitor analysis is an essential component of corporate strategy. Keep your one eye always on your competitors. This will keep you stay alert with the market trends and the business strategy of the competitors. This will helps you in planning one step ahead than the competitors and you will always in lead. A competitive analysis is a critical part of your company marketing plan.
With this evaluation, you can establish what makes your product or service unique and therefore what attributes you play up in order to attract your target market. Evaluate your competitors by placing them in strategic groups according to how directly they compete for a share of the customer’s dollar.
For each competitor or strategic group, list their product or service, its profitability, growth pattern, marketing objectives and assumptions, current and past strategies, organizational and cost structure, strengths and weaknesses, and size (in sales) of the competitor’s business.
5. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER
After identifying the customers, the next step is to make yourself visible to them. Identify the keywords by which your customers will search you and connect right keywords to your content to make it super visual. This ascertains the identity and location of the potential customer, and gain a good understanding of their business activities.
This can be as simple as locating documentation that verifies the name and address of your customer. You have to first decide whether a client or customer fits your established risk profile, before entering into a business relationship with them. You can only do this by undertaking the appropriate Customer Due Diligence (CDD) measures. This ensures that identity thefts and any potential forgeries can be detected early on.
When authenticating or verifying a potential customer, classify their risk category and define what type of customer they are, before storing this information and any additional documentation digitally. Having a meticulous and comprehensive process for documenting CDD-related information is not only highly effective, it also mitigates any potential risk for you as a business.
6. MARKETISE
Take the benefit of SEO ranking and link your content to the high ranked SEO links to get better attention. In order to get found for the keywords that are chosen in your keyword strategy, it’s important to optimize every page that is created on your website. All pages should include the appropriate keyword within the content, page properties, and the image tags.
The next number one rule to get constant visibility is to post your content regularly online. Make a plan and regularly follow it to deliver the content. As regular posting will only generate the buyers for you and make you visible on the internet. Post blogs to generate more traffic to your website and write quality content that can easily connect customers to your blog.
Moreover, PPC campaigns give you an opportunity to put your message in front of an audience that is seeking your product or service. Through keyword research, strategic bidding, and a compelling advertisement you can get the results you want. You can use other social media platforms to promote your LinkedIn profile and get the followers from other social media platforms towards LinkedIn.
Also Read:How To Use LinkedIn For Marketing
So, these were some tips which you should complete first before using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to generate leads quality leads for your business. The process of getting sale leads online is a very lengthy and time-consuming task, don’t expect any outcome for at least first two-three months. So, don’t lose your patience and keep on blogging, and one day you will get a very reaped fruit as your return gift for your patience and hard work.
