On May 24 late night, the Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, along with former tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi, announced the launch of his new grooming and personal care brand FRSH. Salman Khan decided to launch a sanitizer as the first product under the brand considering the importance of hygiene and sanitization during the coronavirus pandemic.
Various governments and authorities are taking steps to contain the spread of coronavirus. Many celebrities, leaders, entrepreneurs are helping in their way to deal with the havoc caused by COVID-19. Some are rendering financial help while some are directly helping the affected. For instance, Kylie Jenner also announced that her brand would be manufacturing hand-sanitizers.
Amid the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic, sanitizers are in great demand around the globe as sanitizing is a key to safeguard against the deadly disease. Coronavirus has infected over 54 lakh people and killed more than 3.45 lakh patients. Thus, the need for sanitizers has seen a boom since the coronavirus outbreak.
Addressing the need of the hour, Salman Khan announced in a video on social media about the launch of a new personal care and grooming brand named FRSH which is co-founded by former tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi. The brand FRSH is co-created by Scentials Beauty Care and Wellness Pvt. Ltd.
Salman Khan also owns an apparel brand under Being Human – The Salman Khan Foundation which is a charitable trust devoted to education and healthcare initiatives for the underprivileged in India.
Salman Khan said in his video, “I am launching my new grooming & personal care brand FRSH as it is very essential to do sanitization. Initially, we had planned to launch deodorants under the brand but as per the need of the hour, we are bringing sanitizers. After sanitizers, other products like deodorants, body wipes, and perfumes will also be launched under the brand.”
The brand has also launched its official website https://www.frshworld.com. According to the website frshworld.com, currently, the frsh sanitizers are 72 percent alcohol-based to provide protection from the infection. The frsh sanitizers are available at its official website but later it will be available at stores. The products will also be available at various stores across the country once the supply begins Currently, people can buy the products from this official website at discounted prices.
FRSH sanitizers are 72% Alcohol based
The website frshworld.com shares an important message, “There are millions of germs and viruses out there that can make you ill and intercept you from life and career goals. Personal hygiene here plays a very important role. Maintaining good hygiene results in better health, of the body and the mind. And it all begins with your hands. Your hands are the busiest tools of your body. Germs on your hands can easily enter your body through your mouth, nose, eyes, or ears during your daily activities.
Hence it’s vital to keep them clean and sanitized always. Clean/sanitize objects that one may come in contact with, dispose of waste effectively, and use gloves when needed. In times like these, a little extra precaution goes a long way in ensuring the wellbeing of you and your entire family. FRSH world encourages you to sanitize! RAHO FRSH, RAHO SAFE!”
According to frshworld.com website, we can buy sanitizers in a pack of 2, 3, 5, 8, and 10. The prices of frsh sanitizer are: A 100 ml bottle of sanitizer is priced at Rs 50 and a 500 ml bottle of sanitizer costs Rs. 250. However, if one goes for combo sets, there will be discounts from 10 percent to 20 percent as per the website. A combo pack of 10 bottled consisting of 100 ml costs Rs. 400.
In the video post, Khan giving the logic behind this, says, “FRSH is spelled as F-R-S-H. If ‘there’ can be substituted with ‘thr’ then why cannot we substitute ‘fresh’ with ‘FRSH’.” After talking about the need for sanitization, Khan told that after a few days they will launch other products like deodorants, body wipe, and perfumes. He also talked about how the quality of FRSH is and that the prices will be affordable.
Salman Khan always releases his films on the occasion of Eid. But this year, due to COVID-19 lockdown, film releases and film shoots have been put on a hold. However, Khan from a new launch as he decided to make the most of this opportunity and gave his fans FRSH. Khan said that considering the need of the hour, sanitizer is more important than deodorants and perfumes.
Salman Khan actively posts videos on his social media handles to raise awareness about the importance of social distancing and personal hygiene. The actor has been utilizing his time during the lockdown to create awareness about the pandemic with the help of new music. Frsh sanitizer by Salman Khan is one such effort by the actor.
The customers are getting smarter nowadays and they won’t fall for the traditional methods of promoting products and boosting sales. They don’t believe in the aggregated TV commercial and most importantly they won’t fall for the honey talk of salesmen. Nowadays whenever we plan to buy any product, be it a bottle of shampoo or a car, our first instinct is to search for the information on the product over the internet. Today customers’ purchasing decisions are more influenced by the facts written online and the social visibility of the product, and this is what inbound lead generation is all about. Inbound leads are those customers who proactively or directly lands on your website in search of a product or service, rather than you going after the customer by sending him direct mails or via cold calling etc. Thus inbound lead generation is the process where you create great content and campaigns in order to bring the customer to your website and then convert them into leads. The best thing about inbound lead generation is that as the customer is already in the look out for the products or services you are offering, the chances of conversion of the inbound leads is more. Studies show that on an average inbound leads cost 61% less in comparison to outbound leads. Again inbound lead generation techniques produce 54% more leads than the outbound techniques of lead generation. Hence inbound lead generation is one of the best ways to grow your business, and in case you are wondering how you can generate inbound leads, these are some practices you can follow –
Easy and Inexpensive Ways to Generate Inbound Leads
Ever wondered how Google or any other search engine can easily identify your search words and present you with the right content of your interest. Well, it’s not magic, but SEO(Search Engine Optimization). SEO is the process that is followed to make an online piece of content easily discoverable by search engines. With every other company having an online presence, it is very important to optimize your website’s content so that it becomes easily discoverable in Google and other search engines as well. Only a website that ranks high in SERP (Search Engine Results Page) is more likely to generate more inbound leads.
The SEO is further divided into the following two parts:
On page SEO
On page SEO as the name suggests is the process of structuring individual web pages in a way that they can be easily discovered by search engines. Using related keywords in web pages, writing unique content, taking care of UX, proper meta data, SEO friendly URLs, including internal links etc are some crucial on page factors that needs to be taken care of.
Off page SEO
Off page SEO consists of the techniques that we implement off-page like building back links to your web pages and other techniques like guest blogging, answering queries on platforms like Quora, social media promotions etc, that increases traffic to your website.
2. Create a Blog to Address Customer Problmes and Queries
The best way to reach the target audience and make them believe in your services is through blogging. Write a blog that will handle all the questions and doubts that a person has about your niche. The blog should be written according to the perspective of the customers and can contain promotional elements to attract more sales and leads through inbound lead generation process. The customers are smart nowadays. so tell the truth to gain the trust and loyalty of the customers.
For example, if you have a website, that sells trendy fashionable clothes, then your blog topics should be like, how to stay stylish, a method to buy cheap branded clothes, the top leading clothes brands etc. So, it’s like bringing customers to your website, but in a twisted manner. Make them believe in your words of the blog, the blog must have the following things:
An innovative and eye catchy topic.
Friendly and easy to understand language.
It should be informative so that the readers feel satisfied after reading it.
The blog should attract the mass.
3. Utilize the Power of Social Media
The social media is a drastic tool for the inbound lead generation which in return escalate trade. One social media post can create and demolish your reputation easily. So, utilize the power of social media to enhance your inbound sales, but it should be done smartly after evaluating, every pros and con. The social media should be utilized very carefully. There are numerous social media platform available and each one has different methods to operate their function for the different targeted audience. So, it’s up to you how you take the advantage of social media to gather more customers and raise your trading.
For example, LinkedIn is a platform for the professionals and you will find business oriented people there. On the other hand, Facebook is bit informal and friendly place to chat with the potential clients. Now it’s up to you which platform you use and what kind of audiences you are attracting. So, choose smartly and wisely because it reciprocates your inbound lead generation capabilities and sales.
Social media monitoring is also a great way to know about what people are talking about your business in social media, which will allow you to connect to the prospective leads on social media through various content of their interest. This will inspire people to visit your website in search of solutions in the form of products or services.
4. Video Marketing
Videos can have a profound impact on the minds of people. As such video marketing is a great way to reach out to your potential customers and attract people to visit your website. Besides creating videos need not be an expensive affair. You can shoot any good quality video talking about how your product or services stand out. Also you can make video about how your products are made. You may opt for explainer videos as well and there are many free tools that will help you in making these explainer videos. Once your video is created, you can share it on social media, your website or even use it for video advertising if your budget permits.
Video Marketing is a great way to generate inbound leads
5. Get Your Business Registered in Review Sites
A huge segment of people these days check online reviews before making any purchase decisions. Hence registering your business with review websites is a good way to get noticed by your potential customers. There are free business review sites as well where you can get your business registered.
6. Hold Webinars
Webinars are a good way to connect to people. Hold informative webinars on different topics of your niche. This way you can urge people to visit your website or sign up with you to get more of your products and services. There are free tools like ezTalksWebinar, WebEx, Zoom etc for holding webinars. Make sure to promote your website across various social platforms to garner interested audience.
7. Join Social Media Groups in Your Niche
There are many social media groups and communities which are amazing platforms to promote your business. You can join some such groups related to your niche and share great content and info related to the services and products you are dealing in. You will surely find some people who will take genuine interest in your offerings.
As marketing experts put in, there are basically 4 main stages that marketers need to follow when it comes to inbound lead generation which are – Attract, Convert, Close and Delight. The strategies mentioned above are those that will help you attract customers to your site. Especially if yours is a new business and you are operating on tight budget these are some effective yet very inexpensive ways to generate inbound leads. However, only attracting the potential customers is not enough, you need to convert these website visitors into leads by designing amazing landing pages, creating gated content and by using powerful CTAs with your content. When it comes to closing the deal, the success of inbound sales depends a lot on the of the inbound marketing team. Again, closing the deal is not the end, its actually the beginning of your relation with your customer, and you need to nurture this relationship by delighting the customer and providing him the required assistance as regards using your products or services.
You can try theses techniques for generating inbound leads, and you are bound to see some positive results, and please share your feedback with us in the comments box!
Boycotting Chinese products has become a trend for a while. It’s the most we can do at the moment to fight off the country which is responsible for creating a situation of a global pandemic. With an increase in the number of cases of coronavirus on a daily basis and the wait for a perfect vaccine still a dream countries have started to ease down the lockdown situation. The economy has been the worst affected by this pandemic as everything came to a standstill. China has been one of the biggest exporter of products in the world before this global situation. Chinese phones have acquired a life of around 66% of Indians and removing Chinese applications and using Indian based applications is the most we can do to teach them a lesson and also helping India to become Atmanirbhar (Self-dependent).
Application to Uninstall Chinese Application
OneTouch AppLabs launched Remove China Apps on 17 may 2020
There are so many Chinese applications that it is very difficult to find each and every application founder or parent country. An application named Remove China Apps developed by OneTouch AppLabs is making things easier for the people. Having a rating of 4.9 on Google Play store and having around 5 million plus downloads. It can be termed as a great development at this time. It is a Jaipur based company which has helped to boost up the anti-China movement in our country.
This app particularly detects the apps which have been developed in China which have been installed by the users in their phones, it sorts them out and gives an option to uninstall them. The apps which are pre-installed in some of the Chinese phones can’t be removed using this application though. This app acquires just around 3.5 Mb of storage and interestingly helps in removing more amount of space from your mobile phones. The app developer calls the application is used for the educational purpose only.
The application company has said that it detects the origin country on the basis of market research and cannot guarantee any false information provided by them so it does warns the people to install at their own risk.
There have been several factors which have played an important role in the growth of this application in last few days. Chinese applications have faced this downfall in the past couple of days and many Indian personalities have supported this cause of boycotting Chinese applications and there products too.
Celebrities Supporting The Movement
Sonam Wangchuk tweeted asking people to uninstall China based applications
Sonam Wangchuk a renowned Indian engineer uploaded a video and also tweeted about the same and asked all of us to start boycotting all the Chinese applications and install Indian based applications instead to help to boost our economy. An app named ‘Mitron’ which is a clone of Chinese based application TikTok has been also downloaded several times by the Indian users. Even actors like Arshad Warsi and Milind Soman supported this cause and came forward and have asked people to join this movement
YouTube Vs TikTok
The latest TikTok vs YouTube conflict going on the internet for a while has also helped a bit in this movement. People started to uninstall TikTok and rated it very badly which made TikTok to fall down to a rating of 1.2 and was a huge setback for China. Although Play store removed all the negative reviews and restored the previous ratings.
Indo-China Border Tensions
The latest tension at the Ladakh border has also created an environment that is making Indians boycott the Chinese apps. It has been one of the main reasons as China is creating a very critical situation at the border at the time of such a global pandemic. China is becoming a big threat to many of the countries at a time like this. As Sonam Wangchuk quoted “Sena degi bullet se jawaab, Hum dengey wallet se” (Let the soldiers answer them with the bullet and we as a citizen answer them with the help of our wallet)” it has started to become a nationwide movement slowly.
This peaceful way of protesting against China-based applications can help to create awareness among users and in a gentle and silent way. It will also help the Indian market a boost and helping up to create a new and improved Indian market. It will help to motivate the Indian entrepreneurs to expand their horizons and develop more applications that can be used around the world and create a global impact. Having the advantage of 2nd highest population around the world is a blessing in disguise and can be used as a great tool to make our nation a better country in the coming years. The coming years are although tough for the Indian market as everything has come to still for a while but now after the outbreak, many countries have lost their faith and trust in China and their products, so India can become a great place for investing and due to social distancing norms applications, will be the need of an hour. Developed countries like the United States, Japan, etc will surely try to increase there trade with India and there will be an increase in demand for Indian based products.
Top China Based Applications
Some commonly used China based Application
TikTok : It has been a very controversial app for the past few days and also has not been able to be used for what it was meant to be so people can stop using this application and start using Indian based application if they wish too.
SHAREit : JioSwitch can be used instead of this app
Vmate : Youtube is always a better alternative than this application
UCBrowser : Google chrome is a better option than UCBrowser and is much more reliable
BeautyPlus : There are many apps which helps in editing photo and give us better photos as compared to this app.
Xender : JioSwitch is a great alternative for transferring files
CamScanner : Adobe Scanner can be used in place of this application
ClubFactory/SHEIN : Online cloth store Myntra is the best store of buying clothes
AppLock : Apex Launcher is a very good Indian based alternative and will also keep the phone secure.
These are some of the most used Chinese Applications in India for the past 5 to 6 years and it has created a large amount of reach among the Indian market and created a great impression around our country for the last few years but these applications have the Indian made clones which can be installed by the users all around our country and help this anti-China movement. This will surely take time but will help in the benefit of our country and will help in creating a better India.
India is a vast, populous and diverse nation encompassing many different identities, languages, cultures and religions. People here have the courage and determination to step into the unknown and explore. The roots of business in India can be traced back to the times when it was referred to as the ‘golden bird’.
This was the period when the Britishers came to India and unknowingly kindled the spirit of business in this earthy country.Indian business remained primarily focused on trading and money lending until the middle of the nineteenth century, although there was a modest demonstration effect as Indians observed a new style of entrepreneurship practiced by Europeans in India. However, things changed as the British built transport infrastructure, abolished internal customs tariffs, and established a legal system which enforced property rights and eliminated the power of government to act in an arbitrary fashion.
In Bengal, ethnic British entrepreneurs seized the opportunity to build new jute and coal industries.
In Western India, Parsees such as the Tatas created a new cotton textile industry.
Although one cannot disregard the imperialist noose the Britishers had on India, the fact remains that British rule, whatever its defects, was on the whole good for Indian business. The most negative consequences of colonialism, was that it maintained the long-standing disinclination of the Indian business elite to invest in technological innovation because of “their easy access to foreign technology, thanks to the imperial connection”. It was unfortunate that these entrepreneurs blind sided to the Britishers when it came to quality which was unexpectedly below standard. This might be considered as a bad case of “colonial syndrome,” which made them believe that whatever the leading race was using was of the highest grade. Let us see the complete story behind the topic i.e. History of Business in India and Greatest Businessmen of Decades.
Some of the earliest players in the Indian market were the Jamsetji Tata, Ghanshyam Das Birla, Ardeshir Godrej, Kailash Chandra Mahindra, Dhirubhai Ambani. Most of these legendary companies are still going strong and their kin has followed their lineage. Some interesting facts about them are:
Acknowledged as the founder of the Tata Group, Jamsetji is often referred to as the ‘father of Indian industry’.
The Tata group has also supported humanitarian causes like in 1974, when the Chota Nagpur region had become the epicentre of the smallpox epidemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO), requested the collaboration of Tata Steel. The company obliged with resources and manpower. In six months, 20,500 villages and 82 towns were inoculated. By 1975, India was declared free of smallpox, for the first time in history.
The Tata group has been a key contributor to India’s growth story, in 2018 it contributed about 4% to the GDP and paid 2.24 per cent of the total taxation in India of ₹47,195 crore highest by any group.
Ghanshyam Das Birla was the Founder of Birla Brothers Limited, a leading producer of tea, textiles, cement, chemicals, rayon, steel tubes, among others. He laid the foundation for what later became a billion-dollar empire.
During the Quit India Movement in 1942 he developed the idea of starting a commercial bank. Thus was born The United Commercial Bank Limited. Now known as UCO bank, it is one of the oldest commercial banks of India.
The company operates in more than 35 different countries & employs more than 120,000 employees worldwide with a revenue of INR 14,577 crores for the year ended 31 March 2017.
In 1897 after a few failed ventures, Ardeshir Godrej, ventures, sets up a lock company. For him, the key to success turns out to be locks.
In 1918, Godrej launched Chavi(now Cinthol), the first soap in the world to be made without animal fat.
There are many more interesting stories behind these pioneers who revolutionised Indian business scenario.
Secrets to Successful Business
Now to analyse the key aspects of successful businesses over the years, we look into various companies and the principles they swear on.
1. Desire to innovate
Bombay dyeing which was founded in 1879, having its headquarters in Mumbai. The founders are Nusli and Wadia family. The company has managed to stay afloat over 100 years, despite competition and cut-throat price wars.
The company turned to textile only after it started suffering huge losses in its dyeing business in the early 1900s.
“The company’s ability to innovate and modernise continuously has helped it survive long,” .
Indians thrive on acceptance. Lakshmi Mittal is Britain’s wealthiest man and a non-resident Indian who heads up the world’s biggest steel manufacturer, ArcelorMittal, his view says, “Always think outside the box and embrace the opportunities that appear – wherever they might be.” Mukesh Ambani, one of the richest man in the world, Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited, has an approach to built a structure that adapts to change: “The organizational architecture is really that of a centipede, one or two don’t count. So if I lose one or two legs, the process will go on, the organization will go on, the growth will go on.”
Living more in the moment makes India’s business leaders very adaptable and opportunistic. Kumar Mangalam Birla is the Chairman of The Aditya Birla Group and he also counsels leaders to look after ‘the mind’: “Leaders must have the ability to mind your mind, which means quickly recognising when one is wrong and changing track accordingly. Also, far from being egocentric, they should have a great sense of humility.”
4. Problems are a gift
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chair and Managing Director, Biocon Ltd, shows how this works: “My philosophy in life is that every failure can be converted into a success, defeat is temporary but giving up is permanent. The way I approached it was that I am going to be just not brainwashed by perceptions. I thought let me do it my way.” The Indian born Lakshmi Mittal, head of Arcelor Mittal, knows about tough times and has this view: “Everyone experiences tough times, it is a measure of your determination and dedication how you deal with them and how you can come through them.”
Stories of personal perseverance, the ones where heroes overcome severe obstacles and achieve dizzying heights of success, have been around since the beginning of time but they never get old. They inspire us and inflame our passions, making us believe we too can follow suit.
The entrepreneurs we saw above and many more are examples of such determination and courage that has now taken India to global heights. The indefatigable will to succeed and own something which is made out of your sweat and blood is what took these pioneers to an unimaginable heights of success.
Needless to mention, Coronavirus has affected every aspect of human life. To contain the spread of the virus, many precautions are being taken at different levels. Many countries like India have declared lockdown to cope with the situation. While the delivery of essential services has been allowed, the supply chain is still struggling to cope with the security measures. India’s 21-day lockdown may have thrown up an opportunity for online grocers to shine, but the rest of the industry sectors is drowning in the Covid-19 tsunami.
But beyond this, the real economic impact from the coronavirus pandemic will come in the weeks and months to come. Many large companies are also helpless in this time, yet they are trying to manage things. But this pandemic has left small businesses & startups with no more option but to downsize & layoff.
Layoffs and downsizing in the startup ecosystem are set to accelerate as businesses take a hard look at high operational costs and dipping demand in an uncertain environment made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, India has banned entry of all foreign nationals till May 17 with exceptions, such as diplomatic visa. This means that international firms have to put their business plans on hold.
Coronavirus have some far-reaching consequences – besides killing human beings, this deadly virus can result into unprecedented economic recession. However this will have more impact on startups than on bigger firms. Last couple of quarters has seen startups laying off thousands of employees.
Indian startups and SMEs(small and medium-sized enterprises) have begun evaluating their options to cut spending as demand for their products and services has taken a massive hit due to the Covid-19 outbreak as startups are finding it difficult to raise funds.
Nearly, 71% of businesses have seen reduced demand. The firms are also looking to cut spending on marketing and advertising, tech infrastructure, commercial rentals and employee costs to survive during this tough time.
Layoffs increased in Startups since COVID-19 Outbreak
Many sectors are greatly affected due to COVID-19. The sector, especially startups, is likely to see more layoffs if the virus outbreak continues to cause havoc. In this, travel industry, startups, IT firms seem to be the first casualty. For India’s venture capital industry, 2019 was a milestone year with $10 billion deployed into overall startups, that saw a 55% jump from 2018, according to Bain & Company, highlighting how the industry grew amid global economic uncertainty.
But now this situation is taking another turn; layoffs have already started happening. Rituparna Charkraborty, co-founder, Teamlease Services, a staffing firm, told that as demand slows down, it will impact startups and might result in layoff. She explained that unlike bigger firms, they don’t have deep pockets and have to be frugal.
Travel Startups
India’s biggest travel portal: MakeMyTrip has decided to lay off 350 employees as its business has been affected severely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. MakeMyTrip has told employees that MMT has analysed impact closely and has spent considerable time figuring out the path to business recovery. Founder Deep Kalra and CEO Rajesh Magow sent out a letter to all employees informing them about the layoff.
Kalra and Magow have writtten in their letter, “What’s evident is that the impact of COVID-19 crisis is going to be long drawn for us. It’s unclear when traveling will become a way of life, as it was pre-COVID-19. We are living through extraordinary times that have impacted individuals, communities, businesses, countries and our world at a magnitude unknown before and there is no let-up in sight.”
MakeMyTrip promised to offer support to laid-off employees compensation including Mediclaim coverage for individuals and their families till the end of the year, leave encashment, gratuity, retaining the right to exercise part of RSUs as applicable. Employees can keep the company laptops and will be provided outplacement support apart from salary payments as per their notice periods.
At the same time, MakeMyTrip’s associated companies like GoIbibo and Redbus can fire 60% of their contractual employees due to decreasing demand. There are 650 such contractual employees in these three companies. Majority of them are working in customer service and backend support.
Travel & Hospitality service Startups
Airbnb also plans to lay off nearly one-fourth of its employees. The 25% of the company includes nearly 1,900 employees who will be laid off. According sources, the news would be broken to employees by CEO Brian Chesky.
CEO of Airbnb,Brian Chesky stated in his memo, “Airbnb’s business has been hit hard due to COVID-19, with revenue this year forecasted to be less than half of what we earned in 2019. We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime, and as it began to unfold, global travel came to a standstill.”
Chesky told that prior to the layoffs, Airbnb had 7,500 employees. Airbnb will halt projects related to hotels, a transportation division and luxury stays for some time. But Chesky has assured that laid off employees would get some facilities from company’s side.
Chesky said that U.S. employees laid off will receive 14 weeks of base pay plus an additional week for every year they worked at Airbnb. The company will also provide 12 months of healthcare for laid off U.S. employees. He also mentioned that May 11 will be the last work day for impacted Airbnb employees in the U.S. and Canada.
Similarly, around 5000 Oyo employees will be laid off across the world due to coronavirus outbreak. Oyo Hotels is laying off staff in the U.S., China and India as the company tries to find its way to profitability in turbulent times.
Oyo expanded rapidly after its founding in 2013 and reached a valuation of $10 billion but investors have soured on money-losing businesses after WeWork’s meltdown and SoftBank has pushed portfolio companies to prioritise profitability.
The travel and hospitality service company TravelTriangle has laid off about 50% of its workforce in the past 10 days. “TravelTriangle has fired about 250-300 people since March 20,” said one of the sources. Impacted employees are from operations, marketing, customer support and business development functions.
In addition to this list, corporate travel planning company TripActions, that was valued at $4 billion last year, laid off 350 employees via Zoom. The reports state the layoffs consist of about one-quarter to one-fifth of the total company. The company said in a statement, “We’ve cut back on all non-essential spend and made the very difficult decision to reduce our global workforce due to pandemic.”
Online Food Delivery startups
On May 18, Bengaluru-based food delivery startup Swiggy announced that it will lay off 1,100 employees and shut down some of its businesses as the coronavirus continues to take its toll. The core food delivery business has been severely impacted and will stay impacted over the short term.
Co-founder & CEO of Swiggy, Sriharsha Majety stated, “While we are very fortunate to have raised capital just before Covid-19 hit and have sufficient runway today, it is incredibly important to prepare for worse scenarios in the macro environment and make sure we are protected.”
Swiggy will give at least three months of salary to all impacted employees. For every year spent by the employee, they will be paid an additional month’s salary. Along with this, Swiggy plans to provide medical insurance for impacted employees until 31 December, 2020, as well as career transition and access to free learning on Linkedin for upskilling. Moreover, it has allowed the staff to retain office laptops and communication allowance for the next three months.
Similarly, Gurugram based Food delivery platform Zomato decided to layoff 520 employees which is 13% of its workforce. Also it will temporarily cut salaries of the rest as the Covid-19 pandemic and resultant nationwide lockdown has hit its businesses, Zomato’s Founder & CEO Deepinder Goyal said in the email on May 15.
Deepinder Goyal said in his mail, “Our business has been severely affected by the COVID lockdowns. A large number of restaurants have already shut down permanently, and we know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I expect the number of restaurants to shrink by 25-40% over the next 6-12 months.”
As compensation, the laid-off employees will receive half of their salaries along with health insurance for the next six months or till they find another job. Goyal also said that the company will provide impacted employees outplacement support to find jobs.
Cab Services Startups
Uber, American ride-hailing Mnc, announced on May 6, that it will lay off 3,700 employees which is about 14% of its total workforce. Also CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will forgo his base salary for the rest of the year as COVID-19 has crushed the travel industry because of lockdowns to stop the spread of the virus.
Uber has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Uber’s global gross bookings are down by 80%, according to reports. The company is set to lay off up to 700 people that is about 25-30% of its overall workforce in India as per sources. Uber has over 2,000 employees in India. The decision has been almost final and likely to be announced when lockdown will get lifted.
On May 18, Uber’s CEO, Khosrowshahi told employees Uber will lay off an additional 3,000 employees and close 45 offices globally. As part of the layoffs, Uber is expected to pay up to $145 million to employees via severance and other benefits, and up to $80 million in order to shut down offices, according to a filing with the SEC.
CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi said, “We are looking at many scenarios and at each and every cost, both variable and fixed, across the company. We want to be smart, to move fast, to retain as many of our great people as we can, and treat everyone with dignity, support and respect.”
On May 20, Indian ride hailing unicorn Ola said that it will lay off 1,400 staff which makes about 35 % of its workforce due to the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Ola’s CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said in a note to employees that COVID-19 has led to a drop of 95 per cent in Ola’s revenues in two months. The impact of the crisis will be long-drawn for Ola. Every affected employee will receive a minimum financial pay of 3 months of their fixed salary.
Similarly, other Cab service companies are also facing the heat as more people avoid taking public transport and cabs and have started working from home. Pravin Agarwala, co-founder of The Better Place, a blue-collar management firm, said cab aggregators are already witnessing drop in demand and this drop would go up to 30-40 % if the same situation continues.
Drivezy, a self-drive car rentals platform, has also cut part of its workforce to stay afloat, according ET’s report. Moreover, B2B platform Udaan has cut back on ground staff over the last few months at its pharmaceuticals and fresh division, according to four employees at the firm.
Scooter Rental Startups
Electric-scooter startup Bird said it is laying off nearly a third of its workforce to survive damage done to its service by the coronavirus pandemic. Bird has already paused shared scooter operations in many markets around the world and drastically cut spending and is now “laying off” 30 % of its workforce, founder and chief executive Travis VanderZanden said in a memo to employees.
In the same way, scooter sharing app Bounce has begun laying off hundreds of employees across functions and levels. At Bounce, the job cuts are across verticals and levels, operations staff, call centre, and technology and product according to reports.
Number of Layoffs is likely to Increase more due to Covid-19
Startups are Terminating the Hiring plans
Apart of layoffs, some of India’s top companies have also stopped hiring plans and are moving talent internally. Meanwhile recruitment firms have announced that processes of hiring have dropped by 50%, as interviews are being cancelled. Meanwhile recruitment agencies are informing that Indian startups also have cancelled upto 50% of all hiring and interviews with layoffs going on parallel.
Bengaluru-based firm Rupeek, which operates an online marketplace for gold loans, has terminated a human resource contract with Aasaanjobs, a recruitment marketplace for blue and grey-collar jobs. This will allegedly indirectly impact 600 jobs. Rupeek told it won’t renew the contract with the human resource contractors and reduce the number of outsourced staff in the current economic environment.
Rupeek said in a statement. “Considering current business and economic environment, we had to take the unfortunate decision of not renewing our contract with our human resource contractors & the consequent reduction in the number of outsourced staff. We regret the unfortunate timing of this event. To protect their interests, we are offering a generous severance package over and above contractual dues.”
Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, a staffing agency said, “Almost 50% of ongoing interviews, new requirements, on-boardings have stopped for the last two weeks now, particularly in the IT sector.” He also added that close to 25 captives opened in India last year and hired close to 5,000 people. However, this number is likely to come down as the coronavirus has made the execution a challenge.
According to experts, most firms have delayed the hiring process by 4-6 weeks. Appraisal hikes may also see a 2-3 % drop as well this year. In addition, with sectors across under stress, performance pressure will also be high, leading to more layoffs, said the experts.
Due to this laying off process going on all over the world, the United States, Europe, China and India are experiencing slowing economic activity that analysts predict will likely last through at least two quarters. India’s stock market has already taken a beating over the last week, and the pressure has now trickled down to private markets as well. India’s GDP growth slowed from 2.5% to 5.3% since the crisis began.
To add to that, the coronavirus outbreak has emerged as a new threat to the global economy and Indian manufacturing. India is currently in its fourth week since the first batch of Covid-19 positive cases were identified. The startup ecosystem in India has taken a major hit and entrepreneurs are trying to figure out how to run their operations by cutting costs in trying to stay afloat.
‘You may be smart but there’s someone out there who’s smarter than you’. Traits like intelligence, creativity, credibility, sensibility and others that I’ve failed to mention are always sought after in an individual who can aspire and inspire others to achieve greatness. The phrase ‘one man army’ exists for a reason—people have done feats unimaginable single-handedly. Innovation is the result of a person’s ideologies and idiosyncrasies, who molds it further with his ability and capabilities. But if you turn through the pages of history, all examples have one thing in common—teamwork. If you still have residual doubts, the world of technology has ample illustrations proving the point. The conglomerates gracing the Fortune 500 list came into being as the result of multiple minds aggregating together. In some instances, only one guy in the team had hogged the limelight but those hidden behind the curtains, concealed from the public’s attention, had a significant if not equal part to play in the success of these ventures. In the world of entrepreneurship, it’s difficult to establish a revolutionary business setup unaided and unassisted; teamwork is imperative here.
So, when the budding innovator is on the lookout for that person with the same vision and pursuit, certain indicators and tips can make the task at hand simpler with the results being even more satisfying, because what can be better than a perfect crime partner in your business. Lt us see the complete aspects of- Qualities of “The Perfect Co-Founder “.
Here are some aspects to look for the perfect crime partner /cofounder :-
1. Similar vision and goals
Birds of same feather flock together, as it said means the one who understands you the best can take you the farthest. Alignment of targets is concordant with higher gains. If an enterpriser can find another visionary striving to seek success in the same realm, then the path becomes easier and smoother because it becomes simple to tackle difficult situations; the ups and downs that ensue on course of rolling out the product or service are better handled as a team, with the team members working in the same direction.
2. Credibility
The efforts put over the past few months is taking shape, the prototype is nearing completion and it’s just a matter of few hours for the final product to be ready. But all of a sudden, the cofounder bails out on the main guy. Saddening, isn’t it? Here, credibility comes into play. Stay away from one who sings his own praises because this guy will be nothing more than an overhead, lying there without giving anything beneficial in return. Do a background check of your going to be cofounder before taking any sort of step. Make sure your cofounder focus on the duo, not on himself only.
3. Ability to communicate
When it comes to idea pitching, every person in the team should be able to articulate and convince VCs and investors. Not only this, being lucid and persuasive in communication is a much needed asset owing to the fact that any business is more than creating products; the finesse in selling the product is the base of the cake rather than the icing. Hence, scout for such a partner that can communicate with one and all because, a wrong communication, your whole hard work is in water?
How much investment can be made without external support is decisive in creating an effective prototype that would then be used to lure in funding. So if your cofounder can arrange for some financial backing in addition to your existing investment. The more money you put into the startup, the more sumptuous outcome awaits you…there are exceptions to this, of course!
Ideas can get as crazy as people want them to be. When two or more individuals put their creativity on the table, one gets to actually leverage the benefits of brainstorming. So, a fellow being who can contribute in terms of creativity in addition to technical prowess is a strong contender to become one of the begetters.
6. Possessing leadership qualities
A person who can set the right example for others, who can guide others in times of adversity, and one who can bear the responsibility and grunt when others fail to do so…these are the signs of true mentor. If you happen to meet such person, either by chance or intentionally, don’t let go of him/her so easily; he/she may be the cofounder of your next venture!
You don’t want someone who will go to east, if being mentioned West?Hence, understanding is the key between the confounders. As, it is evident that some of the biggest collaboration in history happened because of the mutual understanding between the cofounders. So, make sure you have a mutual understanding with your cofounder for the smooth run of your business.
8. Adaptability
Adaptation is the key to survival. Humans adapted themselves according to the climatic changes to survive and evolved through it. So, that is the key to a great partnership, adaptability. A person can be a great cofounder to you, if the person is able to adopt the ups and lows of the company, instead of complaining.
9. Passion and thirst of knowledge
Just having same visuals and goals is not enough, sharing same passion is also an important quality to look in the search of the perfect cofounder. Also, the thirst of gaining more knowledge in the field of your expertise shows your partner ‘s interest in work. So, if you share the same passion with the person, then make sure you discuss you future with the person because it may be “the one “for you.
10. Emotional Stability
You don’t want a crybaby to be your cofounder, because instead of handling the bad situations, you have to handle your partner and have to wiping those tears away. So, look for a person who has the emotional stability to separate personal life and professional life and doesn’t mix them up.
11. Honesty
You don’t want a partner who will backstab you in future, right? That’s why honesty is so important. A great partner is one who agrees to its mistakes to the other and have the other partner’s back in case of need. So, do look for honesty as a quality in your cofounder.
As we all know, a great team makes everything possible, likewise great coordinator makes everything easy for the team and they can work efficiency. Also, finding that ideal candidate is like looking for a needle in haystack. You may eventually find the needle but make sure that it isn’t a rusted one. The right cofounder, whose thoughts are in harmony with yours can do wonders to your initiative. Don’t strictly abide by some checklist when building a team, combine practicality with ‘gut feeling’ to actually build a formidable group. And when the group eventually comes into existence, with the team members cohesive in principles and ideals, the probability of positive outcome increases many folds, be it an entrepreneurial project or any other work. Though prima facie finding a cofounder may seem to be a daunting task after reading all this, but then good things don’t come easy.
Creating strong Backlinks is one of the most crucial ways to rank
Okay, so you wrote and published a good, long and well-researched article. You waited for a week to get shares and appreciation from your users. But to your surprise and amusement, you didn’t receive the response you were looking for and are wondering why and what went wrong. This is the time and place when “backlinks” come into the picture. Backlinks are links from outside domains that point to pages on your domain, essentially linking back from their domains to yours.
Well, there is only one major reason behind this lack of traffic and that is your poor link building skill which is not up to the mark. Link building is very important to get your website rank higher on any search engine. Also if you are assuming that any kind of backlink to your website is good, then you need to change your thinking buddy. Google, one of the major search engines with more than 80% of web traffic, doesn’t value poorly backlinked website. Generally speaking, backlinks are considered to be a “vote” of confidence for the content that’s being linked to on your domain from outside sources. Each of these votes tells search engines, “This content is valuable, credible and useful.”
While the right inbound website link can grow your Google rankings, revenue and brand, the wrong ones can get your site penalized. And you never know what Google will do next. Google doesn’t tolerate poorly linked websites and never hesitate to take strong actions against such offenders. According to a study, about 37% of business owners spend between $10,000 and $50,000 per month on external link building. If you’re making that kind of investment, you need to have accurate information on how to build links that Google will trust. So in this post, we are going to dwell deep to find the perfect backlinks for your website and the right approach which you need to follow to achieve that link.
Google is the big daddy here when we talk about SEO optimization and high ranked links. So if you want to publish nice content online without getting penalized from the Google, then you need to understand how Google functions. By understanding the Google behavior in advance, you can save your time as well as the search engine’s. Google asks you to get the answer to these two questions before building backlinks for your website. [symple_ul style=“simplelist”] [symple_li]Is my content well-organized?[/symple_li] [symple_li]Do I provide useful information to the sites that will link to mine?[/symple_li] [/symple_ul]
Google only gives high ranking to websites which are well organized and viewers can easily operate them. The website should be designed in such a manner that a first time user can easily navigate through it. Also, the content of the website must be clear and meaningful.
The sites which linkback to your site must have relevance to your website. The websites which aren’t relevant to your website’s content won’t be approved by Google. For example, if you have a beauty tips blog and you are seeking links from a dog products website, it will be highly inappropriate. So get backlinks from the sites which are related to your site; taking the above example, you can take links from a beauty product selling website and some other related websites. You can use different tools to generate relevant links such as Alexa.
Factors on which Link Building depends
Link building for some people is a very daunting task and hence, they pay very less attention to it, if not ignoring it. While selecting the back links for your website, pay attention to following aspects of the site:
Domain Authority: It’s important to know the domain authority of the websites you consider for link acquisition. A great tool for this is the Moz Bar which shows the authority status of any domain or keyword in the search results.
Domain Relevancy: It has already been mentioned above that relevancy is the key factor to get a high Google ranking. Thus, it is important to consider domain relevancy while linking the website.
Trust flow: Trust flow is the ranking which reflects the people’s trust on the website. So pay close attention to this parameter while backlinking your website. The trust flow is ranked between 0 to 100 and higher the number, it’s better for you. For example, Bing has 86 trust flow, which is very good.
Citation flow: This metric from Majestic is designed to predict how influential a website link in a site might be.
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Earning backlinks is an essential component of off-site SEO. The process of obtaining these links is known as link earning or link building.
Some backlinks are inherently more valuable than others. Backlinks from trustworthy, popular, high-authority sites are considered the most desirable backlinks to earn, while backlinks from low-authority and potentially spammy sites are typically at the other end of the spectrum. Whether or not a link followed (i.e. whether a site owner specifically instructs search engines to pass, or not pass, link equity) is certainly relevant, don’t entirely discount the value of nofollow links. Even just being mentioned on high-quality websites can give your brand a boost.
Tagging your content with relevant keywords is essential to get more backlinks on your website. How relevant are your keywords to the prospects’ needs? If you want to make your site more powerful through external link building, you can’t afford to ignore keyword research. Keyword research helps you to dig into the minds of your target audience.
To better understand the importance of keywords, let’s take the example of searching for the best hotels in the New York City. Let’s see how you will perform this search according to the Google Adwords planner:
#1: Log into your account and click “search for new keyword and ad group ideas.“
#2: Type in “hotels in New York.” Now, scroll down and click “Get ideas.“
#3: Next, click on “keywords ideas” for a list of search queries that you can target. The suggestions for this will be like:
Link building is not a cup of tea for everyone and can’t be summarized in a short article. However, we have tried to compress it in three main elements which can’t be avoided with respect to backlinks. Hope this article helps you in securing some high ranked backlinks for your website.
You have started a business, and you are offering excellent products or services at excellent rates. But, you are still not getting enough customers. If you are facing this issue, you are probably not following the right promotional strategies to reach out to your potential customers. To define, promotional strategies are strategies followed by companies to generate awareness among the target customers about their products and services, and to influence the customer base so that it buys the companies’ goods or services. People will buy only those products or services which they are aware of. So no matter how good your offering is, if your potential customers don’t know about its existence, you can never grow your business. While following the right promotional strategies is crucial for every business, strategies to be followed are not the same for every business. In this article, we have curated some of the best promotional strategies for service based businesses.
The promotional strategy of any service business should rely on the following two basic principles:
The promotional strategy should be strictly in accordance with the nature of your service. For example, if you offer service in home decoration and you are using radio to promote your service, then you won’t benefit from it. The channel of promotion restrict you from showing the sample work to the viewers. In this case, television or the internet is the best mean to promote your service.
Keep a hawk eye on the budget while planning the promotional strategy for your service. Promotion is an important part of the business, but it doesn’t mean that you spend all your money on promotion and publicity. Distribute your financial resources and only use limited funds for the promotion, especially when you need to pay extra attention to the budget as an entrepreneur.
Now that you are aware of the two principles to be followed while choosing the promotional strategies best suited for you, lets have a look at some of the best online and offline strategies for promoting your business.
The first step behind the promotional strategy of your service is to construct an informative website. The website should contain relevant information about the services you offer along with the details on the need and scope of the service. Use funky styles and animated features to make the website look more attractive and friendly to the viewers. The website must be regularly updated with the latest happenings related to your service. If you offer legal services, then add information about the latest changes in the law, the latest case you win, etc. You can easily hire a web developer to create an attractive website and update it periodically. Also, make sure that the content on your website is SEO optimized so that your website is visible to your target audience.
Use the Power of Social Media
We all are familiar with the power and coverage of social media, so use it to increase the popularity of your service and for expanding its reach. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can be used to promote your services for free or you can opt for paid promotions as per the requirements. If yours is a B2B businesses, LinkedIn is the platform you must use to reach out to your target segment. Many businesses promote various offers and hold contests through social media platforms to attract new customers. Sharing customer reviews on social media can also help.
Get Your Business Registered with Google My Business
With over 2 trillion Google searches per day (as on 2020), you cannot afford to miss out on the large number of customers who Google about the services you deal in. With Google My Business, you can promote your business to a wide customer base and that too for free. Say, you provide laptop repairing services and have listed your business in Google My Business. Now, when someone googles to search for laptop repairing services in the location where you operate, Google shows your business details to the searcher. These details include your phone number, office address, directions to reach to your office, customer ratings and operating hours. Moreover, Google My Business allows you to post new offers and any other announcement you want to make. You can also respond to customer queries by integrating Google messenger with Google My Business.
Take Help of Other Websites
There are several websites who promote other websites to increase business for both. For example, JustDial provides its users the ability to list all the services they offer. There are many such sites like Sulekha, Asklaila, etc. where you can register your business, and whenever people search for the services provided by you, your business becomes visible to them.
E-mail Marketing
E-mail marketing can never go out of trend. It is a great, affordable and a non-obtrusive way to reach out to your target customers. You can use e-mail marketing for to serve many purposes. Through e-mails, you can encourage your potential customers to try your service by letting them know about the various benefits or great discounts meant to drive customers to your website, and to retain customers by offering various loyalty benefits. E-mails also keep customers informed about the various developments in your business. Overall, e-mail marketing is great way to stay in touch with your customers so that whenever they need the services you are offering, your business is on the top of their minds.
Video Marketing
Many service providers go for video marketing. Video marketing makes use of videos that businesses leverage to make their customers aware about their products and services. These videos can be either included in a business’s website, can be posted in the business’s social media account, or used as video advertisements on platforms like television or social media. While there are some who think that video advertising is just for the big companies, the fact is video marketing is beneficial for local businesses as well.
Video marketing by a local business
Podcasts
With increase in the popularity of podcasts, many businesses are also using podcasts as a way to promote their business. According to a PWC report, the number of podcast listeners in India increased from 25.4 million in 2017, to 40 million till the end of 2018. You too can start a podcast in the niche your business operates in and bring relevant content to the audience. This is a great way to influence your target customers.
Register with Deal Marketplaces
These days, online deal marketplaces like Grabon, Mydala, Nearbuy etc. are trending. These websites are visited by a huge number of customers who want great deals on various online and offline purchases. As a business, by registering with such sites and rolling out some attractive deals, you can reach out to a huge audience. You can also try offering free demos and trials of your services.
Promote Your Services through Influencers
Social media influencers have a great number of followers. By promoting your business through influencers, you can reach out to this audience. As reported by Influencer Marketing platform StarNgage, 70% of teenage Youtube users trust the opinions of influencers over celebrities in India. A huge segment of Indian customers now take their purchase decisions based on social media references. Thus, many companies promote their products through influencers. Not just big companies, small and local businesses can also benefit from getting local influencers to promote their business. There are many websites where you can connect with influencers from different niches and localities.
Offline Promotional Strategies
Attending Events and Trade Fairs
Always be on the lookout for local trade fairs, events, etc. where you can promote your services to your target audience. For example, if you have a playschool and there is a trade fair in your locality, it is worth it to put up a canopy in the fair and interact with the parents and guardians visiting the trade fair. You can promote your school and the facilities and services you provide. Giving away visiting cards or brochures to interested parents along with some interesting discount coupons to promote your business.
In-Store Promotions
In-store promotions are great for attracting potential customers and converting them into paying customers. Offering special in-store discounts and loyalty programs can help your business to retain customers. A well-organized and beautifully decorated store with proper discount signage, well-behaved store staff, etc. are factors that decide the footfall in your store.
Print Publications and Print Ads
Despite all the craze about going online, print publications and ads have not lost their charm yet. In fact, print publications and ads can both supplement and compliment online ads and publications. Many companies now include QR codes in their print advertisements which customers can scan to get discounts, visit their website, enter contests, etc. You can also start writing on various topics related to your niche in print media. This will help gain credibility and visibility for your business.
Print advertising is still a great way to promote your business
Cross Promotions
Cross Promotions is quite an effective promotional strategy. According to Wikipedia, ‘Cross-promotion is a form of marketing promotion where customers of one product or service are targeted with promotion of a related product’. As an example, a local gym and a store selling health supplements may do cross promotions for each other. Gym members may be offered discounts on purchasing products from the said health store, and the customers of the health store may be provided attractive offers or free trial classes in the gym. Many famous brands do cross promotions for each other. Though we have listed it under offline promotional strategies, cross promotions are done both online and offline.
Referral Program
Another promotional strategy that is quite popular and can be executed both online and offline is a referral program. Referral program is when you ask your existing customers to refer a friend or acquaintance to come and try out your products or services. This is a reward based program where an existing customer gets rewards in the form of discounts, goods, etc. to spread good word of mouth about your business. Customers coming through referral programs also get discounts.
There are many other promotional strategies like cold calling, sending out snail mails, etc. which businesses use. This article consists of some of the best, yet affordable promotional strategies, that you can use to promote your services and products. However, not every strategy is meant for everybody and you need to be smart enough to choose the ones best suited for you. With the right selection, you will surely acquire more customers!
Entrepreneurship and innovation are no longer some alien, buzzwords to India. Indians are now walking together with their western counterparts when it comes to ditching 9-5 jobs and working for their own startup. It may be surprising to some but these ventures aren’t restricted only to the top metropolitan cities like Delhi or Bangalore but nearly every city in this country is proliferating with budding entrepreneurs who are willing to think outside the box.
We have compiled a list of successful startups that are growing and continue to expand in and out of Lucknow. Lucknow is capital of Uttar Pradesh and it is also knows as City of Nawabs. You can also check the list of startups in all the major cities of India.
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Founders: Amar Nath Bansal and Praveen Kumar Singh
Building upon the idea of delivering healthcare, fitness and beauty products on time and at a minimal price, HealthTokri is disrupting the conventional way of how pharmaceutical stores across India function. This successful startup in Lucknow is working in conjunction with manufacturers to ensure that 100% genuine products are delivered to the customers. The website sells a plethora of products related to health and fitness. HealthTokri is one of the startups in Lucknow, that is racing towards success.
Sachin Sahni and Simran Sahni are seasoned professionals in the health and wellness industry with an experience of over 19 years. They noticed that when it came to satisfying their mid-meal hunger pangs, people often went for snacks that were deep-fried, loaded with artificial flavours and extremely unhealthy.
This got them thinking about whether they could come up with healthier alternatives that offered wholesome nutrition. They revisited traditional Indian as well as global superfoods and began experimenting, gaining experience. It all came to fruition with Keeros, a brand of Healthy for All, Safe for Diabetics Roasted Supersnacks. It received funds of USD 438K from Venture Catalysts, Ravinder Singh, Saurav Dasgupta and other investors.
Eduace
Eduace Logo | Lucknow based Startups
Founders: Gaurav Yadav and Kalpana Singh
Having set up a huge network encompassing 2,500 plus schools across India, EduAce focuses on quizzing as a source for learning. This successful startup in Lucknow has a flagship program, known as School Quiz League – Pratibha Ki Khoj, is now widely recognized by students in Indian Schools. Moreover, EduAce emphasizes teaching values such as ‘general awareness’ and ‘life skills’ through quizzing.
Founders: Dr Ranjana Srivastava, Prof. B.S. Srivastava
Founded in 2012, Nextec Lifescience is based in the beautiful Indian subcontinent focusing on a multitude of biomedical research applications and products. Its focus is on development of diagnostic assays for infectious diseases, biomarkers and diagnostic/ sreening assays for lifestyle related and life threatening diseases, Biosensors , newer screening system solutions for novel antimicrobials, anticancer and against other diseases. It is founded by a team of scientists who strongly believe in education, training and community outreach. Nextec Lifesciences provides consultancy to biotech and non-profits and custom courses designed on policy, biosafety and regulatory issues. Nextec Lifesciences is actively developing outreach programs for villages in healthcare education and plan to organize screening camps for lifestyle and life threatening diseases and invite NGOs to form alliances.
TechEagle
Techeagle Logo | Lucknow based Startups
Founder: Vikram Singh Meena
Dealing with the UAV/Drone industry, this promising and successful startup in Lucknow aims to build up the knowledge and expertise of the Indian youth related to drone technology. Interested individuals can learn through UAV manufacturing and training courses, specifically designed to establish oneself in the bright and prosperous drone industry in India. TechEagle with its innovation at the right place is boosting business as well as creating a leap towards teaching Indian youth. TechEagle was acquired by Zomato in December of 2018.
Haxtax
Haxtax Logo | Startup Company in Lucknow
Founder: Anubhav Pandit
When it comes to resolving tax related queries, one needs to rely on the right person for this job. And the advent of GST hasn’t made life simpler (well, that’s a matter of ongoing debate)! This is where this successful startup in Lucknow comes into the picture. With expertise in income tax related manners, filings, legal services such as RERA litigation, and cloud-based accounting software to help with GST returns, Haxtax is like a bottle of water in the scorching heat; it makes life easy and convenient. Although, it is successfully thriving towards best accounting solution.
InMotion strives to make life easier for the auto-rickshaw drivers by setting up booths known as ‘Bachat Mitra’ kiosks across strategic locations. This successful startup in Lucknow provides a platform for auto-rickshaw drivers for seeking assistance in matters of education, healthcare, insurance, loans and welfare schemes. The setup is progressing rapidly and has now grown beyond Lucknow to Delhi. This startup is successfully educating to boost up literacy among auto-rickshaw drivers in Lucknow.
Knocksense is a digital platform. It produces visually-appealing content on cities and topics, which are generally left uncovered by mainstream media houses. Currently Knocksense writes about Travel, Food, Technology, Shopping, Humour, Short films, Lifestyle and latest viral stories from around the country. Knocksense blends video, audio, photograph and written material on one single platform and offers a modern way of information consumption.
Blazing Star Softech Pvt Ltd.
Blazing Star Softech Logo | IT Company in Lucknow
Founders: Mr. Brijesh Kumar Singh & Mr. Balawant Kumar Singh
Founded in 2013, Blazing Star Softech is a joint initiative of Mr. Brijesh Kumar Singh & Mr. Balawant Kumar Singh. It is a positive step towards the web development , programming and training of soft skills. The company works in the IT field to act as a reliable association for software developments, web developments , programming and also conducts workshops and seminars to develop a good set of skills in the youngsters.
Sevamob
Sevamob Logo | Healthtech Startup in Lucknow
Founder: Shelley Saxena
Founded in 2012, Sevamob is fundamentally transforming primary healthcare in India through mobile clinics and a tele-health marketplace. It provides a 24/7 call center for accurate diagnosis and treatment and leverages cloud-based mobile technology and data analytics to manage and monitor health outcomes. It provides services ranging from dental care and treatment, ENT, dengue, malaria, hemoglobin, diabetes, urine analysis, and more. It provides vans that comes with doctors and accredited professionals to carry out tests. It has received funds of USD 203K from ADAP, Artha Venture Challenge, D3Jubilee and other investors.
Singsys
Singsys Logo | Software Startup in Lucknow
With offices in Lucknow and Singapore, Singsys deals in cloud consultancy, mobile and web app development, and digital marketing. Having many Fortune 500 clients, Singsys has more than 200 professionals skilled in domains such as UI/UX development, and mobile/web app designing. Singsys is easing tech development for startups in Lucknow for further success.
A2 Cricket
A2 Cricket Logo | Manufacturing Startup Company in Lucknow
Founders: Arindam Aggarwal
Cricket is the most revered sport in the Indian subcontinent. Every gully, nukad, and mohalla in India is beaming with wannabe cricketers with the ultimate aim to play for the nation. Both professional and amateur cricketers and in fact, teenagers want to play with the best cricket equipment. To cater to the needs of those who appreciate the craftsmanship involving cricket bats. Arindam Aggarwal, a University of Bristol graduate, who loves and plays cricket at various positions, decided to create India’s first brand providing bats, manufactured using A-Grade Willow. Customers can place orders for custom cricket bats and can select from a variety of products available on their website. Cricket lovers surely need to look out for this startup! A2 Cricket is a startup in Lucknow giving wings to budding cricketers to play for the nation.
Vortex Global Services
Vortex Global Services logo | Startup in Lucknow
Founders: Ramish Zaidi
Have you heard of ‘web properties’? Ramish Zaidi came up with Vortex, which in addition to being a web design and development company, also maintains its presence on the internet through assets such as SimpliCV and KwikJobz. The company’s services are particularly useful for small and medium enterprises (SME). Moreover, this startup has successfully eased MSMEs presence in Lucknow.
If newspapers such as Amar Ujala and Dainik Jagran praise your idea, it ought to have some substance behind it. NotNul is an initiative making books, magazines, study materials and what not available in E-book format on the web platform. This successful startup in Lucknow is striving to make Indian literature available to all, for a nominal amount. NotNul, with its digitization effort at the right place is minimising deforestation.
EduGorilla
Founder: Rohit Manglik
EduGorilla is an edtech startup company in Lucknow. EduGorilla provides Online Mock Tests with an emphasis on State Competitive Exams in several vernacular languages. The company services a demand in a market that is highly unorganized, and unpredictable via a comprehensive app and website. EduGorilla has overcome the three significant roadblocks facing State Level Competitive Exams, enabling its consumer to access test series within 4 days of a new exam notification.
Shut Down Startups
Estandardz
Estandardz Logo | Startup in Lucknow
The restaurant business is one of the most lucrative ones out there. Apart from the food, the ambiance and layout of the restaurant play a decisive role in either attracting customers or at the same time, repelling them. Estandardz is an initiative specializing in hospitality solutions; it deals in concept development, menu conception, kitchen and bar designing, communication and publicity strategies and a whole lot of other services. For budding entrepreneurs planning to set foot in the hospitality industry especially the food business, this startup is the right tool to analyze and evaluate investment opportunities! Estandardz has expanded to many states of India and some other countries as well. They are doing well all around the corner.
So, this was our list of fastest growing startup companies and famous entrepreneurs in Lucknow(Uttar Pradesh) that are making huge strides in their respective fields. It also include shut down startups as we can learn a lot from failure too. Hope this list helps you in having business idea and opportunities which you can start on your own in Lucknow. If you know any other startups in Lucknow, please let us know in the comments!
Will companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft fail?
The future is highly uncertain and especially in the business world, where in one minute you can lose the glory of years. The business owners whether they are big or small has to be on the edge you never know when the fate turns and your billion dollars company scums to ground. Companies fail when they fail to adapt to the changing markets. Well, today we are going to discuss the business uncertainty issue by taking the examples of few big daddy’s of the business industry. Well, if we ask any amateur to name four world famous companies and trust me 99% folks will name Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. These four companies are very famous and it’s hard to not know about them.
“The point is, you can’t keep doing the same thing and expect it to keep working. We had to do something different, but the really hard question was, What is it? We made plenty of mistakes along the way to answering that question, but the most important thing we identified was that we needed to know more about our customers and what problems they were really trying to solve in their businesses–even if they didn’t neatly fit into an existing category of ours.“ – Michael Dell
But, have you ever wondered which of these four multi nation brands will fail first and what will be the factors behind the fall down of these big sharks. Okay, so there are mainly two main grounds which will decide the success of any company. The two criteria points to examine the fall down are:
The number of talent retention and the success rate of the employees.
The revenue generation and method of revenue.
So, on the ground of these two major factors let’s examine which organization will fall first individually.
Google is dominating search engine since many years. Right now there is no strong competitor for Google.
Okay, on the grounds of employees retention and attracting the talent, Google has been the top company since 2003. The Google is the best talent attractor when it comes to large public companies. It has been the #1 Public company for over a decades. Google is still holding its foundation as a top company to work. From about 5000 employees in 2005 to about 70,000 in 2017, it is amazing that Google is able to maintain its top position with respect to quality of the hires. The companies who are able to over power Google are Uber and Airburn. That’s only because they are unicorns and it is easy for them to hire/ retain employees.
Google Revenue Source
The regular source of revenue for the Google will be the income generated from the advertisement and YouTube. The Google AdSense is the hub of advertisement and every blogger or website designer go for advertisement on Google only. To be honest, YouTube is very steady, so on the grounds of income Google is way more stable. Similarly, Google is also taking control over smartphone market, PC market with their Google Pixel and Chromebook. They are not relying on only-ads anymore. So, I guess it seems difficult that Google will fall.
Facebook has been a top company for about seven years now. During 2007–20011, the talent index at Facebook was identical to Google. Right now Facebook is the second best public company when it comes to talent attraction. But recently few changes in the Facebook talent index decrypted as they are losing some good talent to the unicorns. So, this is interesting to see the talent shift in Facebook headquarters, but still, Mark has few tricks up his sleeves to prevent this downfall.
Facebook Revenue Source
Facebook does not make any hardware so the major source of Facebook income is the advertisement and the information of their users. Facebook mainly relies on a single product that only works if it can retain its userbase of billions of people.Many other social media platforms like Instagram, Quora, Medium & Twitter are becoming popular. If it looses users on its application due to cases like Cambridge Analytica and privacy issues, it will be difficult for Facebook to survive.
Amazon is also ranked in the top ten company list and is ranked #3 among public companies for talent index. Although there was a tight tussle between Google, Facebook, and Amazon a few years back, the order now seems settled. Amazon comes ahead of other public companies like Linkedin, Salesforce, Apple, and Workday.
Amazon Revenue Source
The company earns their revenue from buying and selling. Amazon has a unique business model. Amazon shares have been in pretty good condition recently due to their new addition to grocery shopping and new product such as echo. The CEO Jefferson also become the richest person in the world beating the Microsoft CEO this year. That tells the stable economic condition of the company. With smart phones/e-commerce/prime/AWS, Amazon will likely to survive.
Microsoft is a HUGE company ! It’s twice as big as Google when it comes to the number of employees. It has been around forever. Right now Microsoft’s talent index is not in the same league as the other companies mentioned here. The inflow of talent at Microsoft is very different compared to Google/Facebook/Amazon. Microsoft was ranked in the top ten until 2010. From then, there has been a steady decline in talent. It is currently ranked #47. Microsoft has clearly lost the cool factor that it had during the last decade.
Microsoft Revenue Source
Microsoft has few big brands under their name. They earn income from computers, phones, and corporate solution, and to be the clear demand of these products is going nowhere in the near future. So, Microsoft is safe here and they are competent enough to change their approach as per the situation demand. It is very less likely to fall since it has its revenue spilt over various products.
Conclusion:
To be honest above mention all company are highly stable in their grounds and they have reached the position, where they are safe. There might ups and downs within these four companies, but in near future, they are going nowhere.
