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How is Narendra Modi helping Startups Fight against the Coronavirus Outbreak?

Due to Coronavirus outbreak, every aspect of business is suffering through many problems and challenges. Flight, hotel booking firms are the worst hit. There is stupendous drop in demand of gig economy. Whereas, at the same time, video conferencing providers and online education companies, messaging platforms and of course healthcare & pharmaceutical companies are witnessing a boom in demand but the situation has become for worse for the startups & small scale businesses as they have limited sources and capital.

Effect of COVID-19 on Startups

With reduced revenue and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, various tech startups not just in India but across the globe are temporarily letting go of workers to help keep their businesses survive during this collapsing economic period. In the past couple of weeks, the situation has become more extreme with a ‘State of Emergency’ being called in some countries, leaving other regions unsure of what’s to come next. Social distancing mandates are forcing businesses to shut down and heavily reduce staff during COVID-19 outbreak. The labour department is facing a rush of unemployment insurance claims which is likely to increase in the next few weeks.

Coronavirus crisis is also affecting many aspects related to startups. For instance, postponing the EU-Startups Summit to April 2021. The EU-Startups Summit gathers over 1,500 founders, startup enthusiasts, corporates, angel investors, VCs, and media from across Europe. The two-day event is a great opportunity for networking, and a meeting point for aspiring entrepreneurs and investors who are aiming to build international tech companies. This summit was planned to take place on May 28-29 this year but now it is postponed to April 2021.

Government’s Aid to Startups

Today, the world is collectively dealing with the spread of Covid-19 and taking emergency measures to contain and eventually eliminate the virus. One such measure was taken by Indian government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw the power of the digital medium that can be utilised to serve the country and encouraged many of us to go all out to build a nationwide digital infrastructure. Modi’s ‘Digital India’ mission enabled India to build a robust mobile broadband infrastructure which accelerated the rise of technology startups in a short span of time. This is now coming to play a very vital role in supporting the PM’s call on social distancing while keeping the country moving during coronavirus pandemic.

According to reports, a mega exercise to increase Indian startups’ visibility globally is in the works. For this, the government planning to hire a consulting firm to evaluate the progress of the Startup India programme to chalk out an action plan to attract investment and identify bottlenecks which prevent businesses and high-net-worth individuals from investing in them. The consultant will identify challenges in\ regulatory approvals, taxation, ease of doing business, global expansion and facilitate startups in getting access to markets such as in private and public procurement, both in India and abroad.

COVID-19 Solution Challenge

The government of India has realised the need to open up the search for solutions to the startup ecosystem with the ‘Covid-19 Solution Challenge’. On March 16,2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the challenge on the Twitter and urged startups and entrepreneurs to come up with their technology-backed solution to curb the coronavirus outbreak. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to public to share any technology-driven solutions for strengthening the fight against COVID-19, saying such efforts can help the government and make public join the mission against the virus.

PM Narendra Modi announced the Challenge on Twitter on March 16

PM Modi said, “Harnessing innovation for a healthier planet. A lot of people have been sharing technology-driven solutions for Covid-19. I would urge them to share them on the government-citizen engagement platform MyGov.in.”

According to the MyGov platform, startups and individuals can send their ideas to help the government in fighting the coronavirus outbreak. Suggestions sent in will be evaluated by the government and some of the ideas will be adopted. The last date of submission of ideas for the Covid-19 Solution Challenge is on March 31. Participants can either send a document or a YouTube video of the idea using the MyGov Platform. The solutions that are deployed by the government will also receive rewards. INR 1 Lakh, INR 50K and INR 25K have been promised to the top three ideas respectively. This amount can be used as funding in startups. So it’s a good opportunity to earn funding just by pitching the idea.

The government said that it has already started to get inputs from individuals and startups that have developed technologies and innovative solutions in areas such as bioinformatics, datasets, applications for diagnostics and more. These technologies are expected to soon become part of the government’s efforts in the fight against the coronavirus.

Also Read: These Brands will Generate Massive Revenue During the Coronavirus Outbreak

With increasing cases of people getting infected by the novel coronavirus, a group of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggesting a lockdown starting as early as March 20 across the impacted cities for two to three weeks; to which PM Modi has taken action by implementing Section 144 on account of which only allowed shops can remain open till March 31. So, it has become almost ceased all the operations for startup till March 31.

According to experts, there are still ways to keep the operations going during lockdown too. According to top venture capitalists and entrepreneurs from India and China, overcommunication, keeping a cash runway and having a fixed routine despite working from home are some of the keys for startups to deal with the fallout from the novel coronavirus. While China is returning to normalcy and business as usual, the experiences of Chinese firms and entrepreneurs can serve as a reference point for Indian founders, where cases of the virus are still rising rapidly.

March 24, 2020
Tips to Sell your SaaS Product?
SaaS is a billion-dollar industry. And it’s only going to get bigger. According to TechCrunch, the SaaS industry is at the same stage as “the PC market in 1983, smartphone market in 2003, or the search market in 1998.” There is no better time than now to be in SaaS. But more opportunities mean more competition. If you want to lead the pack, you need to know how to sell SaaS.

Customer-centric selling is particularly important in the age of social media, where companies and customers engage in an ongoing public dialogue across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, websites, and blogs. Customer-centric selling starts by encouraging potential customers to tell you about their problems. Then, it continues with guiding them down a path to the right solution. In other words, they’re going to talk about you. Building trust over time by working together leads to promote loyalty, referrals, and positive word-of-mouth. All of this translates into generating more revenue.

Also read:
How to Sell your SaaS Product?

Below are a few points to keep in mind when it comes to selling SaaS products.

Sell Solutions, Not Products

Technology companies often struggle with the task of showing what they do for their customers into a box called ‘Product’. People check your website or contact you because they have a problem that needs to be solved. But, often, they don’t clearly understand what they want or need. It’s your job to be the expert. Asking the right questions makes selling an ongoing conversation about customer needs. Questions also help identify how far along they are on the decision path toward buying, which makes the entire process easier to track in a CRM.

Sell Solution, not Product

Selling solutions might not even involve making direct references to products. An example of this is ChatBot, a leading chatbot developing SaaS. It emphasizes the benefits of using ChatBot from the perspective of the end user. There is no reference to product features. Simply a clear explanation of how ChatBot can solve customer problems.

Example of Chatbot

Keep your trials short

At first glance, you might think giving customers a long trial period for your product will increase the chances that they pay for your product. A long trial might seem like a good way to hook your customer, but you’re really just hurting your startup. For 99% of startups, trials shouldn’t be any longer than 14 days. Here’s why.
- Most people don’t use free trials for the full duration. Take a look at your data and you’ll see that the vast majority of your trial users duck out after about three days.
- Users take a short trial more seriously. Your prospects will procrastinate, and when they procrastinate, they forget. With a shorter trial period, they’re more likely to try your product immediately.
- Lower customer acquisition costs. When you shorten your trial, you also shorten your sales cycle. If you’re able to shorten your sales cycle from six weeks to three, you will significantly reduce your customer acquisition costs.
Create Feedback Loops

When customers hit certain milestones (logging in to your platform for the hundredth time or making a repeat purchase), have your client services team check in with sales and marketing.

Feedback Loop

Demonstrate the value of your products and services each step of the way:
- Generate daily, weekly, and monthly reports on progress and activity.
- Create snapshots of key wins or success stories, such as a blog post or comment that did particularly well, or a testimonial.
- Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that are important to your customers, measuring success against these metrics.
- Check in with customers who are not meeting certain thresholds of activity (for example, if they haven’t logged in or made a repeat purchase in a month).
Also, in an effort to continue to build trust and assurance with your clients, regularly ask for feedback. It can come in a monthly service survey or by way of just calling your customer at relevant intervals to ask him or her if there’s anything else you can do.

Relevant read:
Find your right SaaS customers

You need to develop an ‘ideal customer profile’. It‘s a fictitious organization and you need to address the following to create the profile:
- How are they valuable to your company? In addition to paying for your service, will they provide referrals and testimonials? Can they point you to new opportunities, or provide resources to grow your business?
- How does your SaaS product help them? Does it improve their revenue, reduce their cost, or improve productivity?
- You need to build the fictitious customers from real data. To get this real data, talk to your existing customers, and find out what value they actually get from your product.
When you getting feedback from your existing customers, don’t just contact them once. Their input will be valuable before you sell, after you sell, and after they receive value from your product. Ask them to quantify the value so you can understand how it works and how it doesn’t.

Optimize your email campaign

Unless you have a killer email campaign, most of your prospects are going to forget you exist within hours of enrolling in your trial. To get the most out of your drip email campaign, follow these strategies. Use “human” email addresses. Don’t ever send an email from a department. Instead of “Sales@YourBusiness.com”, use “YourName@YourBusiness.com”.

Optimize your email campaign

Send activity-based emails. Your drip campaign should automatically email your leads at different situations, including when they sign up, if they visit the account or cancellation page, and if their trial is about to end.

Follow up

You will rarely close a deal on the first call. Startup sale’s success is dependent on your ability to follow up repeatedly. You want to get either a clear yes or no. A maybe isn’t a no until it’s a no. So, make sure you or your team follow up until your prospect gives you an answer one way or another. If your prospect has ever expressed interest in your product, follow up forever. Don’t settle for silence or “maybe”; maybes kill your startup. Keep calling and emailing until you get a clear “yes” or “no”.

If the lead is completely cold, follow this 14-day plan:
- Day 1: Initial contact.
- Day 3: First follow-up. Reach out at a different time of day with a condensed version of your initial message.
- Day 7: Second follow-up. Reach out at a different time of day and restate your call to action.
- Day 14: Third follow-up. If you haven’t received any response from your lead, send the break-up email. This is where response rates skyrocket.
If you don’t receive a response to your break-up email, move on to more promising leads.

Must read:
Build Solid Long-Term Relationships with your Customers

When your entire business lives online, sometimes it’s hard to build any kind of relationship with your customers. That’s why it’s imperative you and your team have great written and spoken communication skills. You or your sales team should be able to reassure prospects that your business will be around for the long term and is not a fly-by-night operation. When a customer decides to use your software, they should see it as a long-term investment in their own business. When you have a high level of rapport with your customer base, it makes it easier to increase your revenue through upsells or add-ons, or even bring in new business through referrals and testimonials.

Be Proactive

There is no “one solution” that is right for every company to use with its customers. Focus on identifying similar types of customer needs, and be proactive in creating solutions that can be standardized for similar types of customers. Patterns will start to emerge over time, and you will be able to create solution types that can be repeated and scaled. Using tracking software allows you to know what your customer is examining and for how long. This way, you can predict his or her objections upfront and notice trends among your customers.

Conclusion

SaaS sales is hard, but it isn’t impossible. If you incorporate these strategies into your sales cycle, you’ll drastically increase your chances of success. It’s important to remember when you are running your business not to get totally caught up with the operations and forget about working on your sales process. Automated sales are great, but sometimes you need to add that personal touch to really take your business to the next level. Do you have any other strategies to sell your product? Please let us know in the comments section below.
March 23, 2020
8 Tips to Stay Productive while Working Remotely

Due to the drastic spread of novel coronavirus or COVID-19, companies are making several efforts to keep their employees safe and maintain the productivity at the same time. Most of companies have asked their employees to work from home. As majority of the people don’t have experience in working remotely, it is difficult for them to stay productive as much as they would be in their offices. Here are the tips for employees to maintain the productivity while working remotely.

Set Up a Routine

The remote work obviously often allows you to set your own hours, a lack of structure or routine can be damaging to your workflow. When you engage in remote work, it’s easy for your colleagues in regular offices to think that you’re always there to “take calls.” It is better to use a digital calendar tool to let co-workers know what your working hours are so that they can know when it’s appropriate to ask you questions or when you should be left alone. One must schedule their hours around appointments, lunch, and other activities just as you would at an office job but it’s also important to pencil those into your calendar as well. Make sure to discuss your remote work hours with your manager before you begin and once those hours are established, make a point of sticking to them. Within that “block” of time, divide out your subroutines. It is essential to make sure that you clearly establish which times you’re receptive to emails, phone calls, etc. and when you’re officially off the work.

Keep Your Workspace Clean

At the end of every day, or at least every week, it’s worth cleaning your office(your workspace). Make sure that you have dedicated space that’s “yours” to work in. It can help you effectively if that space is solely devoted to work only. After a few weeks, you’ll instinctively know it’s time to lock down as soon as you sit down. Throw away what’s unnecessary. It will help clear your mind too. Psychologically, it is proven way to boost efficiency. It is important to keep things at right places. You can start by creating a dedicated and welcoming workspace. Next, invest in the equipment you’ll need. For example – an office chair and desk, a speedy internet connection, a hands-free headset, a good quality webcam for your video conference calls, etc. Creating a cozy and inspiring environment is important too. This is a space where you’ll be spending a lot of time. Give it some love.

Communicate Frequently

When we work in a team, communication becomes extremely important. When in doubt, communicate with colleagues and managers. This will make sure you remain in touch with them. When working remotely, it’s better to over-communicate than it is to under-communicate. After all, your employer won’t necessarily know you’re working, so you’ll need to make sure everyone is aware of what you’re doing. It is advised to keep records or updates on any messaging platform to let other Teammates know what you’ve been up to today. It encourages us to get things done every day and lets others know what we’ve been working on.

Be transparent

When you’re out of sight and people can’t reach you as easily, small doubts can begin to arise. Therefore, it is a must to build trust from the start by agreeing with your employer and colleagues by keeping them updated on your progress and activities. You could propose quick but regular status calls to teammates or a simple progress report that you can send out at regular intervals to your manager. If in case you aren’t going to be reachable for a period of time, provide advance notice to the colleagues who might miss you.

Communication becomes essential while Working Remotely

Use the right tools

The right kind of tools can be game changers when it comes to remote teamwork. Tools like Slack, SmartSheet, Skype, Hangout, Zoom and Google Drive are just a few to name. These tools are really essential because they can help you collaborate on projects and share documents. Now, many of these softwares & tools have cut down their charges. Moreover, they are also providing the additional features. Thus, by using the right video conferencing software like FaceTime, Zoom or Skype, etc., one can stay connected with their team to increase the productivity.

Set goals & meet them

As mentioned above, it is important to create the routine but it is equally important to stick to the plans. Distractions are an issue when you work from home. At the start of the week, determine what hours you plan to work and stick to them. That’s why it’s a good idea to set concrete work goals to keep you focused and moving forward. And while setting goals is important, one must make sure to hold themselves accountable to them too. Use your smartphone for information and not distractions even though you have got liberty use it whenever you want to. When one works with focus & discipline, after completing those goals, it inspires them more to follow the same attitude towards their goals.

Take Breaks

It is the best to mimic from home the same habits you would have if you were working in a physical office such as taking a moment to chat with coworkers or grabbing a cup of coffee at your local cafe. It’s also vitally important to move your body. Don’t sit still for the entire day. Get creative with your breaks and run out for lunch with a friend or take a walk around to get some fresh air. Ideally, try to work out once a day, or at least go for a daily walk. One can rock out at home with a rich playlist to get into the zone. Essentially, anything you can do to give your brain and body a break will be beneficial to your overall experience and productivity. Mentally, too, it’s good to occasionally stop working and move around.

Separate Work from Life

Now that you work from home, the boundaries between work and life will seem thinner. But it’s important to keep those boundaries as interference of either of these would land you in troubles. So, avoid working where you sleep or where you eat. Find a space where you work and only work.

Conclusion :

A remote team can be just as effective, if not more effective, than a local, in-house team. Although it requires some coordination, it allows everyone more flexibility, which can help your team maintain a healthy work-life balance. When done the right way, a remote job can provide both workers and their companies with a healthy balance of freedom, flexibility, and production. Using the tips above can serve as a guide for how to make remote work as effective as possible.

March 22, 2020
Tisharth: High-End Fashion Is Now Affordable!

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.

Whoever quoted first impression is often the last impression couldn’t have stated the truth better; people tend to generalize one’s personality and upkeep from appearances. Therefore, having a good wardrobe is more than a necessity these days. But when one looks for quality clothing from big brands, shelling out money becomes an obstacle. And if you consider international trends, the price blows through the roof! To make fashion that’s popular across the globe affordable and accessible, a venture based in India is working relentlessly and that’s Tisharth.

Startup Name Tisharth

Headquarter Gurugram

Founder Shivani Jain

Sector Fashion

Founded 2015

Tisharth – Introduction
Tisharth – Industry Details
Tisharth – Founder
Tisharth – How It Started
Tisharth – Name And Logo
Tisharth – Product
Tisharth – Business and Revenue Model
Tisharth – Customer Acquisition
Tisharth – Funding
Tisharth – Challenges
Tisharth – Competitors
Tisharth – Achievements
Tisharth – Technology Used
Tisharth – Future Plans
Tisharth – Founder’s Advice

Tisharth – Introduction

“Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well”, said Vivienne Westwood. And it makes sense. Fashion makes one look appealing from the outside and confident in his/her skin. Fashion designers are constantly coming up with different designs and innovations to meet the needs of different occasions, seasons, locations, tastes, body types, etc. The creative minds are always on the prowl for inspirational patterns and designs. Shivani Jain of India is one such passionate designer who conceived her prêt clothing label, Tisharth, to meet international cuts and fits.

Tisharth deals with women clothing that is classy and trendy. Tisharth exists to provide high-end fashion which is comfortable and high on style at affordable prices. The venture caters to the apparel needs of women of all ages and build.

Tisharth – Industry Details

The fashion industry in India is growing rapidly. The segment is expected to grow at 15% CAGR till 2022. A recent report forecasts the apparel market in India to be valued at $102 billion by 2022.

Reports by Facebook, KPMG, and Nielsen narrow down to the same finding—with internet availability no longer being a hindrance, consumers in tier two and three cities are becoming familiar with brands and products through e-commerce and social media.

Mobile platforms are expected to influence nearly two-thirds of the purchase on apparel and fashion accessories by 2022.

Fashion industry is growing rapidly in the modern generation. People are now more careful for what they are wearing. So, Tisharth team see themselves making a fashionable future for others.

Relevant Read: FOReT – Offering Beautiful Fashion Accessories Made of Genuine Cork

Tisharth – Founder

Shivani Jain, Founder, Tisharth

Shivani Jain is the founder of Tisharth. An alumna of NIFT, Shivani started working from the early age of 19. She ran her own label in the beginning, then worked for 10 years as a designer and a fashion merchandiser before taking a sabbatical to be with her growing children. Her love and passion for fashion designing could not keep her away from work for much long, and she launched her own prêt label, Tisharth by Shivani, in 2015.

Tisharth currently has a skeleton crew of 15 people comprising designers, tailors, embroiders, and assistants.

Shivani Showcasing Her Creations at a Fashion Show

Tisharth – How It Started

There was an instance when Shivani needed a stylish dress reflecting international cut and fit but could not find it locally or online. The failure compelled her to take the mantle on herself and make such apparels available to all. She decided to launch a label that would cater to global trends, aesthetics, and quality.

Tisharth – Name And Logo

The word Tisharth has been derived from Shivani’s kids’ names.

I took the first 4 letters of my son’s and daughter’s first names. It was always my dream to start my very own label but I took a sabbatical to raise my children. So I named my label after them.

The logo is a cloth hanger with the word Tisharth hanging from it. It aptly captures the essence of fashion!

Tisharth logo

Tisharth – Product

Tisharth brings you fluid feminine drapes in flattering international silhouettes.

We are a prêt fashion label for women. We specialize in western and fusion wear. Each garment is created with a story and a different silhouette.

The Tisharth team experiments with embroideries and fabrics to deliver high-quality apparels exuding quality and class. Moreover, Tisharth’s embroidery techniques are unique to the brand and can only be matched by haute couture labels.

Relevant Read: Escaro Royale – A Trusted Brand for Premium Men’s Accessories and Shoes

Tisharth Apparels Showcased at Paris Fashion Week

Tisharth – Business and Revenue Model

TISHARTH is based on a simple retail model. It launches two well planned collections every year. Each collection is inspired by a unique story. The collections often grace ramps and popular fashion events.

The company sells its products through various sales channels such as fashion exhibitions, collaborative stores, online platforms, social media handles, or from its flagship store in Gurgaon.

Tisharth – Customer Acquisition

A Model Wearing Tisharth Creations

Tisharth markets itself by participating in events, exhibitions, and fashion shows. It’s highly active on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

Tisharth – Funding

TISHARTH is a 100% sole proprietorship company. Currently, Tisharth has not resorted to any sort of funding and has sufficient capital to take care of its operational expenses.

Tisharth – Challenges

The early days of the startup were arduous since creating quality apparels at affordable prices was no easy feat. To break even, let alone creating profits, in such business models requires serious ingenuity. With solid determination and resolve, Tisharth started in-house production in order to achieve the standards it was looking for. When Shivani began her venture, there were only two markets for western wear in India—the retail stores of renowned designers, and the flea markets. Her challenge was to establish a brand that was high on fashion yet affordable and easily available, in the midst of intensive competition.

Relevant Read: Neeman’s – India’s First Brand to Make Merino Wool Shoes

Tisharth – Competitors

There is no direct competition for the label. However, Shivani tells Tisharth is on par with Michael Kors, Armani, and Calvin Klein in terms of the price bracket. She draws inspiration from established brands to create new designs.

Tisharth – Achievements

Tisharth has presence in both India and abroad. The label is sold across various stores in Delhi, Mumbai, and Jaipur. The company has been able to allure customers from different countries courtesy of its rich catalog.

Tisharth’s creations have been showcased at various Fashion Weeks. The company’s kitty consists of the India Runway Week 2017, the India Fashion Week London 2017, the New York Fashion Week 2018, the Times Fashion Week 2018, and the Paris Fashion Week 2019. Its collections have been appreciated by all and publicized by the industry big shots as; there has been press coverage from domestic and international media as well. The venture aims to have international celebrities endorse it in the coming time.

Nushrat Bharucha promoting Tisharth’s collections

Tisharth – Technology Used

Tisharth makes use of excellent craftsmanship. It has state of the art imported sewing machinery for achieving flawless stitching and detailing. The in-house craftsmen create and execute impeccable apparels through deft handwork.

Relevant Read: Fizzy Fern – The Best of Nature and Ayurveda for Your Skin

Tisharth – Future Plans

Shivani with her team is ready to disrupt the fashion industry.

I and want my label to be available at the stores all over the world. I want to be known as a designer with a global recognition

Tisharth – Founder’s Advice

Shivani believes it’s never too late to start living your dream.

You have to believe in yourself and work really hard to achieve your goals. Always be truthful and keep your eyes open at all times, as you never know when the inspiration strikes.

March 22, 2020

Startup Name	Tisharth
Headquarter	Gurugram
Founder	Shivani Jain
Sector	Fashion
Founded	2015

GoldSeat – Keeps You Entertained On the Go

On the go entertainment is still in its nascent stage in India. While today we are almost habituated to using fast internet all the times, most of us must have experienced the anxiety of not being able to access internet during long travel. Long journeys become boring in the absence of something to keep us entertained and engaged. So till now, it was like either you have to take the pain of loading your mobile with songs, videos and movies every-time before travelling long distance, or get bored. But thankfully now, on the go entertainment scenario is changing, and a startup that is making a major mark in this sector is GoldSeat. Gold Seat, is currently covering the bus travel segment, and offers WiFi-connectivity on bus, plus a vast collection of movies that travelers can enjoy either on their mobile phones by downloading the GoldSeat app or on the GoldSeat screens installed in the buses.

Startup Name	GoldSeat
Headquarter	Delhi
Sector	Tech-Entertainment Startup
Co-Founders	Gaurav Kapahi, Nishchal Khetarpal
Founded	2016
Parent Organization	Ideagami Pvt Ltd.
Website	GoldSeat

About GoldSeat and How it Works
Founders of GoldSeat and team
How was GoldSeat Started
GoldSeat – Name, Tagline and Logo
GoldSeat – Business Model and Revenue Model
GoldSeat – User Acquisition
GoldSeat – Startup Challenges
GoldSeat – Funding and Investors
GoldSeat – Future Plans

About GoldSeat and How it Works

GoldSeat is a Delhi based startup that is changing the traveling experience for many long distance bus travelers. GoldSeat offers two great ways to access seamless offline entertainment. One, it offers free WiFi to passengers inside the bus. Secondly, it has a wide collection of movies that travelers can access either on the GoldSeat screens installed in the bus, or on one’s mobile by downloading the GoldSeat mobile app.

In order to access the high-end entertainment services provided by GoldSeat on mobile, one needs to follow three simple steps listed below:

Connect to GoldSeat Wi-Fi
Download the GoldSeat App
Enjoy free Wi-Fi and Unlimited Entertainment.

GoldSeat provide licensed content that runs seamlessly on travelers’ devices without them having to worry about data costs

As a value-added to Bus Operators, GoldSeat also provides a host of live features under GoldLiv service such as Live Cameras, GPS, Passenger Information System, Automated GPS based announcements, live alerts. GoldLiv night vision cameras could carry a recording of up to 30 days and could be accessed remotely by the travel operator.

Latest HD content which runs seamlessly without any data cost and even without connectivity, multi network wifi, offline entertainment and IOT for a connected bus experience are the USPs that GoldSeat boasts off.

Relevant Read: Pickyourtrail – A DIY Platform to Plan Your Vacation

Founders of GoldSeat and team

GoldSeat was co-founded by Gaurav Kapahi and Nischal Khetarpal. The co-founders met each other at their common workplace, HCL technologies. It is here Gaurav discussed the idea of GoldSeat with Nischal, and soon they went working on the idea to make it a reality.

Gaurav Kapahi is CEO of GoldSeat. He is an MBA (Marketing) graduate from MDI Gurgaon with over 13 years of work experience. In his last assignment, he was the Marketing Head of HCL Technologies.

Nishchal Khetarpal is CTO of GoldSeat. He pursued marketing in MBA from Amity Business School. With an overall experience of 15 years, Nishchal has tried his hand in eight different businesses before GoldSeat. Previously, he headed Digital marketing at HCL Technologies.

The company is currently operating on the bootstrapped model. GoldSeat has 14 people on rolls, six people outsourced. This startup has an open work culture with a limited/ flat hierarchy to ensure a more agile setup and quick decision making.

How was GoldSeat Started

Gaurav Kapahi was once traveling from Bengaluru to Delhi, and the in-flight entertainment (IFE) system of the plane has stopped working. To keep himself occupied, Kapahi turned to his mobile phone. The phone, however, had limited content, making Kapahi’s overall journey quite boring.

I realized how important it was to have access to entertaining content, especially if you are one of those people who can’t sleep while traveling— whether on a bus or on an aircraft

This experience has sowed the seeds of an entrepreneurial idea. Now that idea has fructified to provide travelers access to quality entertainment content on their phone.

The GoldSeat team undertook extensive research to study the market. It mostly relied on secondary research while primary research was conducted in the Delhi NCR region. In secondary research, GoldSeat relied on the publicly available information concerning public transport and the sale of buses. Through the research findings, it was understood that the public mode of transportation was mostly neglected by large service providers. GoldSeat has calculated the total number of luxury and semi-luxury buses in India which are numbered at 45000 and are increasing at an average of 20% annually. This means that the market is growing faster than all other modes of public transport.

Going ahead with the idea Gaurav and his team conducted a demo for one of the largest bus services that catered to the tourist segment, mainly inbound tourists. This demo provided the team at GoldSeat comprehensive feedback, prior they commercially launched service for daily transit buses. GoldSeat with various pre-launch research and preparation was established in January 2017

Relevant Read: Kipstay – Beautiful Spaces that Makes You Feel Rejuvenated

GoldSeat – Name, Tagline and Logo

Idea for the name came from the fact that all journeys start by booking a seat or choosing a seat and we wanted to elevate that experience of someone’s journey to a GoldSeat experience which was entertaining, connected and premium – Gaurav says

GoldSeat Logo

GoldSeat – Business Model and Revenue Model

GoldSeat business is B2B while its offering is B2C. The company charges the owners of buses on a monthly basis based on a subscription model. Even both the hardware and software are on the subscription model with few options that are based on the needs of the operators.

GoldSeat – User Acquisition and Growth

GoldSeat, to gain its initial customers relied on establishing a direct connection with the bus operators. The GoldSeat team went to each of the bus operators and personally explained the benefits of using GoldSeats’ services. Gradually, they introduced their clients to newer technologies. Cold calling and persistent follow-ups are a few of the techniques that GoldSeat has managed to employ successfully in building a secure network of service.

Furthermore, continually adding new services to the portfolio has kept GoldSeat updated, accommodating, and relevant for bus operators. GoldSeat also partners with software providers, bus aggregators, and ticketing platforms to increase their presence across the country.

GoldSeat – Startup Challenges

Funding is a crucial thing for every startup to build a core team and begin operations. Previously, we struggled to determine the core target group, as customers are scattered and the sector is unorganized in India. Apart from that, recognizing their needs was a major barrier because they didn’t give much priority to licensed content – Gaurav says explaining the challenges the startup faced

The GoldSeat team emphasized on helping bus operators understand how the solution could engage customers. Once that was done, the next challenge was to get their payments on time; the company is consistently working to improve both, compliance from the clients’ side and to provide updated quality content from their team.

Relevant Read: ScoutMyTrip – Helps You Plan those Memorable Road Trips

GoldSeat – Funding and Investors

In June 2018, GoldSeat raised $ 3 million funding.

Date	Stage	Amount	Investor
June, 2018	Series A	$3m	Undisclosed

GoldSeat – Future Plans

GoldSeat has recently collaborated with Railyatri.in for its Intercity Smart Buses. It currently offers services to private players across Northern and Western regions, including Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Delhi, and cities in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Karnataka.

Gaurav founded GoldSeat with the idea of providing entertainment services to travelers in all forms of transports. By 2020, the brand plans to be the leader in the bus segment and has already started initiating operations in railways and airlines. The company plans to have a well-established distribution network spread-out pan India over the next five years. The brand aims to have visibility in each and every part of the country and to be the top-notch player of travel entertainment.

March 22, 2020

What will be the Scenario after Coronavirus Outbreak?

Humankind is now facing a global crisis due to Coronavirus outbreak. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. If the growing novel coronavirus outbreak becomes a long lasting pandemic, it could result into fundamental changes in the economy, politics and the workplace. With the increasing number of COVID-19 cases growing worldwide, business leaders are scrambling to deal with a wide variety of problems, from depressing sales and supply chains to keeping employees healthy and making sure they can continue working. Many companies are taking precautions to contain the spread by asking their employees to work from home. But down the line, the impact on future might be more severe as the impacts of such major pandemics can be felt well beyond the sheer death toll. A truly global infectious disease event like COVID-19 can be every bit as transformative for the future as a global war or economic depression.

The decisions & steps people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. They will shape not just our healthcare systems but also our economy, politics and culture and every other aspect of human life. We must act quickly and effectively. We should also take into account the long-term consequences of our actions. We can already see the companies laying employees off resulting into growth in unemployment. When choosing between alternatives, we should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but also what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes. After getting past this storm, we will inhabit a totally different world.

Recession is likely to Occur

Many economists suggest that recession is bound to happen considering the ongoing threats and situation in which businesses are shutting down. After the pandemic, the recession is certain to follow, which is going to threaten the efforts or way to shape the future of work. This will certainly lead to many questions like how to create good jobs, reduce poverty and redefine relationships and structures to narrow the enormous income inequality that overshadows the state’s wealth and success. Economists say it is harder to predict the bottom and how long it will take to climb back.

The coronavirus will have a silver lining if it serves as the effective for constructive changes such as way that the sudden forced reliance on telecommunication is already having an impact. There are two sides to the globalization coin. On the positive side, the cross-border flow of people, goods, money and information creates new wealth and opportunity. On the negative side, it can worsen global relations, enable international terrorism and cross-border crime and allow for the rapid spread of disease. If we see, in spite of having both positive & negative outcomes, there are more negative & worse outcomes than positive ones arising due to Coronavirus outbreak.

The Unemployment rate is increasing fast due to Lay-offs

Impact on Future

Considering a long term impact of novel coronavirus, smaller businesses, companies or startups will be hit harder than large ones because of their limited access to credit and less cash in the bank. The chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley, Ms. Zentner quoted, “There will be a swath of small businesses that simply won’t be able to survive this crisis.” Similarly, Gabriel Mathy, an assistant professor at American University, has said, “We can see employment falling much faster than G.D.P. This will probably be the world’s first recession that starts in the service sector.” The chief U.S. economist at TS Lombard, Steven Blitz expects that the unemployment rate will rise from 3.5% in February to 10.6% by April.

Also Read: These Brands will Generate Massive Revenue During the Coronavirus Outbreak

As of March 6, 2020, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft have all encouraged employees to work remotely where the virus has been identified. Offering remote work is an easy option for these large corporations since they have built the infrastructure to support it. Considering reports given in today’s job market, 85% of employees report a desire to work remote. Also, providing employees with the opportunity to work remotely will also allow companies to attract top talent. Due to communication platforms like Zoom, Slack, Zoho, etc., it has become really convenient to work from home. Due to this fact, some experts are predicting that remote work will increase in future also. Business travel has become crucial part of any business. When you take into account travel’s impact on global health, the workforce may not rely on travel as heavily in the future. Crisis like this has inspired innovators to create new technology for businesses. So, in future, instead of spending money on travel & stay at hotels, companies would consider alternatives such as artificial intelligence and advanced machinery to solve issues before sending employees abroad. So, it is predicted that that there will be increased reliance on technology and less on travel in future.

At the same time, we will need to work towards eliminating problems such as social and economic differences caused by globalization. If failed to do so, we might see countries turning increasingly inward with a mindset of narrow-minded nationalism. We must hope that this recession due to Coronavirus outbreak will not be as big as Great Depression of 1929.

March 22, 2020
Chatbot – Perfect SaaS Business Tool
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a high engagement affair with its users. Modern businesses face crucial challenges related to customer retention and business development. Due to a shift in focus from primarily sales-driven organizations to more service-driven systems, businesses are trying to improve revenues by engaging customers in better ways. With the rise in popularity of communication services such as Facebook Messenger, LiveChat, Whatsapp, and others, it has changed the way consumers interact, both in their personal and professional lives.

Chatbot

Research shows that customers become angry when businesses do not satisfy or provide proper customer support. By improving customer support functions, businesses can build brand loyalty and boost revenue in a short time.

Also read:
What is a Chatbot?

In short, a chatbot is a computer program which mimics conversation between users, usually powered by artificial intelligence. A user could ask the chatbot a question or provide it with an instruction and the chatbot will respond. Chatbots are the new-age tool for helping businesses improve customer satisfaction, thereby, improving sales. They’re typically considered either an informational bot or a utility bot; a utility bot is generally one that takes instructions such as scheduling an appointment, and an informational bot is one which is pretty self-explanatory – it provides the user with information, usually about the website they’re on.

How Chatbot Works?

Why use chatbots?

Chatbots are becoming an effective tool for lead capturing and are being integrated into websites to help businesses get prospects in efficient and cost-effective ways. They are more than simply a traditional live chat. They have assisted the startup world with scaling operations, building customer bases and boosting revenues.
Users tend to favour an interactive medium for making their online purchases, and ultimately users want their information as quickly as possible. Chatbots allow your user to get their answer straight away, and if the bot is integrated with an app such as Facebook Messenger, there’s no need for them to download an additional app or keep changing between screens.

Use cases for chatbot

A chatbots’ ability to understand and respond to customers’ questions make them a popular and powerful application. Chatbots help companies by offering better customer engagement. In turn, this drives companies to grow stronger globally through their outreach. Benefits also include saving time and money as well as optimally use human resources.
SaaS businesses would not exist without the invention of the internet. Over the last 30 years, though, the playing field has been levelled. It is time for SaaS platforms to find a new differentiator, not only against other businesses but also against other SaaS. Chatbots are the perfect tool to bring that differentiation.

Relevant read:
Here are six ways chatbots can positively impact your SaaS business.

They’re fast

One of the biggest things that chatbots bring to the table is their ability to take a huge burden off customer support. Unlike executives who cannot handle more than 3 or 4 customers at a time in real-time conversations, chatbots can tackle many customers at once.
Conventional CRM forces customers to wait to have their grievances addressed. In addition to the problems they’re facing, the long wait adds to a customer’s anxiety. By dropping a (knowledgeable) chatbot on your website or within your platform, you instantly give your audience what they want: help, now.

Lead Filtering and Identification

If you run an ecommerce business or a sales website, you may be receiving significant traffic due to promotional expenditure, but does it convert into tangible sales? The answer is, highly unlikely. Even a sales funnel will only work if the user follows through with the content. However, when you position a Chatbot, it prompts the user when looking for something specific. You feed the Chatbot with keywords and once the user responds, the Chatbot connects them with an actual salesperson.
You may be unsure about retaining a 24/7 sales representative because you don’t want to waste resources on casual ‘digital dwellers’ who have no intention to purchase. This is where the Chatbot can help you identify the lead at the right time, putting your sales team into action just when you need them.

Benefits of Chatbot

They’re Smart and Quick

Customers prefer quick and immediate responses as opposed to slow and tedious email threads. The fact that customers can get quick responses gives credence to chatbots. Chatbots are a better alternative to both Interactive Voice Response mechanism and email resolution methods. Chatbots are trained to respond with relevant and precise answers in an instant.

Information Gathering and Recording

Data shows that people talk more freely when they know who they are interacting with, whether it be with Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google’s Home or Amazon’s Echo. This same principle applies to Chatbots. When posting casual comments, most users can provide vital information showing their importance to your business. The data voluntarily provided by consumers regarding recent purchases, hobbies, likenesses and residential areas can be leveraged by the sales team to reach out to specific buyers. While human sales personnel may miss these red flags, a pre-programmed Chatbot will not.

Must read:
Branding and first mover

Finally, being a first mover. The first mover advantage, which gives the upper hand to the first company to adopt a new piece of technology, doesn’t last. Chatbots are super early. There aren’t that many SaaS companies leveraging them just yet. You can still be a first mover. You probably have a couple of years tops, though, so you might have to act fast.
Being a first mover has several advantages beyond just ‘being first’ and grabbing all the money. Namely, being a first mover offers a branding advantage. Position your company as an innovator in your field and reap the beautiful branding rewards.

A Happy Customer Stays

Customers whose problems are solved are more likely to stay loyal to the company, instead of migrating to the competitor. In fact, customers will be receptive to receive information about new offers and products. Developers are training chatbots to interact with customers like a friend.
This informality is likely to create a shift from conventional marketing techniques towards revolutionary methods. These are times where going ‘mobile and digital first’ is the order of the day. Companies use chatbots during aggressive marketing campaigns to out maneuver their competition.

AI and chatbots

Chatbots can do much more than just customer service, the list of use cases grows every day. Besides basic script-based customer support, chatbots using NLP and machine learning are being used across industries to enable support in different functions. For example –
- Chatbots can provide virtual assistance – One can reserve events, doctor appointments, restaurant reservations, movie tickets and more. E-commerce chatbots help in ordering food and just about anything from websites. Chatbots can help manage a person’s health, grocery etc.
- Chatbots can help in content delivery for news updates and sports content. Some chatbots exist to give basic diagnosis advice based on symptoms. The bot can then refer users to a live doctor for further consulting.
- Additionally, Chatbots are used in real estate to identify and convert leads. The chatbot field is diverse and rapidly growing and has since surpassed the realm of customer service.
Conclusion

Organizations all over the globe are trying to come up with new initiatives to make their workplaces more productive. Chatbots can help here too. Automation can create a lot of free time to enhance efficiency or allow people to devote that time for creative work. Chatbots are here to stay and are growing in intelligence to support different functions in multiple industries. It is essential that organizations understand chatbots and their usage at the primary level. There is little doubt that the number of complex tasks that will be handled by chatbots will also grow exponentially in the future. What do you think about the use of Chatbot in SaaS industry? Please let us know in the comments section.
March 21, 2020
How to Remotely Manage your Workforce?
The rise of remote work might be unavoidable, and you should want to take advantage. Allowing remote work can benefit not only your employees, but you as a manager and the organization as a whole. Not only do remote workers tend to enjoy what they do more and find remote work less stressful in general, but they’re more willing to put in extra hours as a result. However, that’s just one of the potential benefits of remote work for employees, managers, and companies alike. Remote work is about more than just the advancement of technology, it’s something that has the potential to help the way we work, manage, and lead.

Remote work

With 50% of the workforce working in some sort of telecommuting role and 80 to 90% of all employees saying they would like to work remotely at least part of the time, according to Global Workplace Analytics, offering remote opportunities is an attractive way to gain productive workers. That’s just the beginning, though. According to Owl Labs State of Remote Work 2019, 42% of remote workers have plans to work remotely more often over the next five years than they do now.

Also read:
The Challenges of Managing Remote Employees

While there are great potential benefits of allowing remote work on your team, there’s a problem: most founders and managers still aren’t familiar with the challenges of managing remote employees. Remote work is different from the typical work structure in a few big ways. And while there are big benefits, there are also new and unique challenges with both hiring and managing remote employees that managers never see coming.

According to Buffer’s State of Remote Work report, these are the major challenges with remote work in general: Without any prior experience working remote it can be hard anticipating the challenges your remote employees will face.

Challenges of working remotely
- Loneliness and isolation – Regular human interaction can be easy to take for granted, until you don’t have an office full of people to be around every day. Do what you can to engage them socially with the rest of the team whenever possible.
- Communication issues due to a lack of non-verbal cues – When you don’t have enough face-to-face communication, it can become difficult to sense intent in messages between you and your employee. It’s harder to understand a message when it’s only text, or you don’t know them as well as other, in-office employees.
- Feeling left out – The feeling of being left out– of company celebrations, consideration for a promotion, and your opinion in general– is more common among remote employees than those on-site. When you work remotely, you miss out on so many opportunities to connect with your colleagues and managers.
- Monitoring – You can’t physically monitor them.
- Feedback system – Reviewing work and providing feedback is difficult.
- If you have multiple remote employees, it’s hard to keep them moving in the same direction.
Relevant read:
Top 7 Tips for Managing Remote Employees

Remote management can feel like a totally different challenge than managing people you work side by side with. Things that work in an office don’t always translate exactly to remote employees. Use these tips to be more conscious of the unique approaches you should take for managing remote employees.

Hire the Right People

Let’s face it- not everyone can be a remote worker. Everyone loves the flexibility of working remotely. But only some have the attitude and discipline to be productive as remote employees. When hiring a remote employee, look for people who can work independently.

Good remote workers have a positive attitude and motivation to do their job well. You don’t want people who always need a push to complete the task. It will be a nightmare if you have to micro manage your remote employees. A good remote employee will not wait for you to ask for updates or assign tasks. Rather, he or she will proactively update you on the status and schedule.

Hire the right people

Always hire employees who communicate well as it’s the key to a successful remote team. The better your remote employees understand your instructions and communicate with you, the easier it will be to manage them.

Set Clear Expectations

Everyone has a different idea of what doing something “quickly” or “well” means. Whether showing examples of what you expect to be done, calendar sharing, etc., make sure you have clear expectations from those you work online. The more prepared they are, the better they can serve.

Set clear expectations

Explain what you want from your remote employees and when you want it. There is no better way for managing remote employees than using well-defined and measurable goals.

How to:
Engage Regularly

It’s hard to keep all employees on the same page if you have multiple remote employees. Engage with your remote workers on a daily basis through some kind of communication. Use multiple channels to communicate. Then, plan a regularly scheduled face-to-face meeting.

Engage regularly

This can be weekly, monthly, or annually, and could be combined with a training or coaching program. This constant interaction and engagement will help remote workers feel included in an important aspect of the organization. You can identify issues early and manage them better with frequent communication.

Have Reliable Tools First

If remote employees can’t download files, struggle hearing on a conference call, and consistently receive meeting invitations for times when they are still asleep, you have failed to address the basics. First, invest in reliable tools to make collaboration possible. Then develop clear processes to use such tools.
These are some of the Tools to Help You Boost Team Collaboration.

Track Progress of Your Remote Employees

Be sure to track the progress of your remote employees daily. You stay on top of project status and eliminate nasty surprises later by reviewing work every day. Give your remote workers periodic feedback to ensure they are heading in the right direction.

Here are some tools you can use to track time, project status, and tasks:
1. HiveDesk is a time tracking software for managing remote employees. You can create automatic timesheets, capture screenshots, track project & tasks, and measure productivity with HiveDesk. Start your 14-day free trial.
2. Hubstaff is a staff monitoring software which screenshots the activity levels.
3. Asana is a project management software that allows you to organize to-do lists, projects & meeting information, conversations, and emails in an easy-to-read dashboard.
4. Trello is a project management tool that allows you to manage tasks and projects.
Must read:
Stay Focused on Goals, Not Activity

It is important to manage expectations and stay focused on goals when embracing a remote workforce. Don’t worry as much about what is being done. Instead, concentrate on what is being accomplished. If we are meeting our goals, then great. If not, we need to look into the situation further. It is all about accomplishment, not activity.

Conclusion

There’s a lot about managing remote teams that’s exactly the same as managing those on-location. However, it’s a mistake to assume that a remote employee is the same as one working in the same office as you. Remote employees are faced with unique challenges and you have to understand those challenges to effectively manage your entire team. What do you think of this list of tips to for managing remote employees? Please share it with your team and followers on social media.
March 21, 2020
Effect of Coronavirus Crisis on Employment

Since the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the Covid-19 or Coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, many companies are taking precautions against the impact and spread of the virus. The government also plans to close restaurants, bars and hotels nationwide along with non-essential stores. Companies are asking their employees to work from home for their safety. The Coronavirus outbreak has forced companies to slow or halt their physical operations, impacting production in the upstream sector. Meanwhile, downstream operations are upgrading their systems and pushing to work more flexibly. Many industries such as tourism, hospitality, retail, forestry and transport industry, etc. are facing great troubles. While many companies now allow their employees to work at home, telecommuting isn’t an option for many people. Restaurants also had to close except for pickup and delivery service. Also, vehicle manufactures Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler are suspending production until the end of March.

But many people are unable to work due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as their job or work profile does not allow this work flexibility. This is just making employers cut the jobs as the employers cannot pay the wages. This situation is really severe in many countries. Now, the Coronavirus outbreak is resulting into huge lay-off which is again not a good sign. While there are state and federal measures coming to help those impacted financially, in the more immediate future people can file for unemployment benefits. While some employers are asking their employees to take unpaid leaves as a solution to this. This is all resulting into a global economic slowdown.

Also Read: 8 Tips to Stay Productive while Working Remotely

Job Losses due to Coronavirus crisis

Ronojoy Dutta, CEO of IndiGo – India’s largest airline, announced on March 19, that the airline was instituting pay cuts for their senior employees and he would himself take the highest cut of 25 % amid the novel coronavirus pandemic that has hit the aviation industry hard. Also the Apollo Tyres chairperson, Onkar Kanwar announced a 25 per cent cut in their remuneration. GoAir, Indian low-cost airline has already sent 80 of its expat staff home. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO of Paytm, told that he would not take his salary of this month and next. Not only Indian companies but many foreign national companies have also decided to cut off wages.

Many companies are laying off Employees due to coronvirus crisis

U.S. airlines, which directly employ close to 750,000 people, are on edge about how quickly lawmakers will provide aid to the industry, dealing with a collapse in demand. The executives have described this collapse even worse than 9/11. United and its competitors have decided to slash flights, freeze hiring and ask employees to take unpaid leaves. In tourism industry, job losses could reach 67,000 as coronavirus sees international tourism dry up and consumers pocket their wallets. Tourism, hospitality, retail, forestry and transport sectors are all expecting to shed thousands of workers with claims 5000 jobs are on the line unless there is immediate assistance for 65 large tourism businesses facing full or partial closure. Westpac NZ chief economist Dominick Stephens has quoted that the overall unemployment is likely to rise from 4 per cent to 5.5 per cent or 45,000 unemployed people. He further added that the drop in jobs could reach up to 67,000 when “shadow unemployment” is taken into account. Kenya Flower firms have sent home more than 1,000 employees after huge losses following a closed European market.

On the other hand, several companies also promised that they would not cut salaries of their staff and were not considering layoffs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Rajiv Bajaj, managing director and chief executive officer of Bajaj Auto, has said, “I will cut my salary to zero before a single employee is laid off.” Similarly, other Indian business groups like The Aditya Birla group, the Vedanta group and the Essar group have also promised not to cut any jobs or salaries of their staff. U.S. airlines are asking for $58 billion in government aid, including direct grants.

Also Read: How Hiring is Affected due to Coronavirus Outbreak?

This unemployment will have direct impact on country’s GDP and will result into much slower economic slowdown. As due to unemployment, majority of the laid off people will totally refrain from buying or using new products or services. This is directly going to affect the economic progress of many nations. According to some reports, new claims for unemployment benefits climbed to 281,000 last week as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered businesses and left people out of work. The Labor Department said that it was the highest level since Sept. 2, 2017, when they totalled 299,000.

Governments are helping companies Cope with Crisis

At the same time, many governments are trying to help the affected businesses & people cope with the coronavirus crisis. For instance, the UK government said that it will subsidize the wages of any worker facing unemployment because of the coronavirus pandemic as it ordered the closure of pubs and restaurants to try to contain the outbreak. Their finance minister Rishi Sunak told reporters that the government will cover 80% of worker salaries for at least the next three months up to a maximum of £2,500 ($2,900) a month. The Danish government announced that it will cover 75% of the salaries of employees paid on a monthly basis who would otherwise have been fired, with companies paying the remaining amount. But as of now, many governments have not taken any action to deal with the issue of lay-offs. It will be interesting to see how Indian government will react to the this phase of lay-off and unemployment.

March 21, 2020
Top Time Tracking Softwares for SaaS
Time tracking software tracks the total time spent by employees on tasks and projects. This software captures employee time, hourly wages, and client billing rates and uses this information to automate invoicing and payroll management functions. This software is used by employees and employers in many industries and helps small- and mid-sized business owners stay organized and up-to-date in managing their employees’ time. Time tracking software increases productivity in employees because it allows for accountability, helps to discover which activities or events cause time wasting, and keeps all time data in one location.

Benefits of Time-Tracking Software

Here are some of the prominent benefits of time-tracking software:

Effective Tracking for Freelancers and Remote Workers

As businesses increasingly move toward mobile workforces, this trend poses multiple time-tracking challenges. It is frustrating to track attendance and time worked for each freelancer or remote employee separately. Time tracking software records attendance and time worked for employees and collects it on a dashboard for managers. Some time-tracking tool also offers automated screen capture, which enables users to monitor the total time spent on non-work activities by remote workers and freelancers.

Efficient Payroll Management

Payroll calculation is a time-consuming process. Payroll managers need to coordinate with employees and their managers to collect a series of information such as timesheets, hourly wages, leave records, and overtime pay to calculate employee compensation. Time tracking tool captures in and out-time for employees and provides users with reports on total hours worked and leave taken. The software also incorporates other payroll calculation factors such as differential wages and employee incentives.

Mobile Access

Due to an increasing trend of remote workforces, mobile access has become a necessity in today’s software market. A time-tracking mobile application allows remote workers to record their schedules, submit time-off requests, and view changes to their schedules on the go. Some products also offer GPS tracking, which enables managers to track the time spent by their field staff at a client location.

Compliance Requirements

Today’s businesses are subject to a number of payroll and wage-related compliances. They mandate strict standards regarding minimum wages and overtime pay and imposes severe penalties on business that do not comply. A time-tracking tool that tracks these compliances alerts managers when employee hours go beyond the recommended levels and ensures that overtime pay is incorporated into the employee payroll. Time tracking tool also provides standard reports related to these compliances.

Also read:
Typical Features of Time-Tracking Software
1. Billable and non-billable hours: Track billable and non-billable hours related to a project.
2. Online time tracking: Capture employee and task times using online applications that can be accessed and synced through a browser, mobile app, or desktop application.
3. Automatic time capture: Record in and out-time of employees and calculate the number of hours worked. Users can also capture time using biometrics and other electronic time-capture methods.
4. Employee database: Store staff contact information and project statuses.
5. Overtime calculation: Record and manage overtime hours for employees.
Top SaaS Products for Tracking Time and Activity

Here is our list of top SaaS products that can effectively help you track the time and activities of your employees.

Celoxis

Celoxis

Celoxis’ project management software integrates seamlessly with over 400 popular business applications and it’s easy to use and powerful API makes it easy to integrate with any custom or in-house software that you use. With Celoxis, you can identify project requests that boost business value, build project plans that adapt to the real-world and visually monitor progress to fix problems before they start. You can also optimally allocate resources based on skills and availability and make pro-active hiring decisions based on future capacity and demand.

Some of the features of Celoxis are:
- Get automatic cost and revenue estimates from your project plans.
- Monitor profits in real-time.
- Stop billing leaks by invoicing your clients without delay.
- Share files, apprise progress and exchange ideas with your team and your clients.
- With fully customizable client portal, clients can do a whole lot more.
- Customize prebuilt workflow apps to track issues, bugs, risks, change requests and approvals, or create your own unique app from scratch.
- You will never go back to spreadsheets again. Slice, dice and visualize data your way.
- Create and share dashboards that save time and accelerate decision making.
- Schedule reports directly to your CEO’s inbox.
Celoxis pricing

Pricing: Celoxis has 2 pricing options – Cloud (US $25 per user/month) and On-premise (US $450 per user).

Relevant read:
Trackabi

Trackabi is a perfect web-based tool for time tracking and leave management for freelancers, small and medium-sized companies.

Trackabi

With trackabi, you can report time worked manually or use a timer and configure your timesheet with custom fields. You can also generate reports from timesheet, export them into PDF or Excel, print, or share with your clients via a link.

Some of the features of trackabi are:
- Prepare a vacation schedule. Approve or reject leave requests from employees.
- Maintain a directory of current and former employees with their contact details.
- Apply flexible access permissions via roles assigned to users.
- Group employees into teams to assign to projects and manage access roles on the team level.
- Invite your clients to join and gain access to time reports for their projects.
- Get an extract of what is happening in your company every day, week, or month.
- Import data from the most popular time trackers, project management, and source control systems.
Trackabi pricing

Pricing: Trackabi has 3 pricing options – Starter which costs $0 for 5 users, Business which costs $16/month for every 5 users, and Business Plus which costs $20/month for every 5 users. It also provides a 30 days free trial.

TSheets

TSheets is an employee time tracking and scheduling solution that saves business owners time and money. Get rid of that old punch clock or spreadsheet and simplify payroll, invoicing, and job costing. Whether they’re in the office or on the road, your employees can track time from any location—using a smartphone, tablet, desktop or laptop—in real time.

TSheets

Plus, TSheets is the only time tracking system embedded inside QuickBooks. You can review and approve employee time cards to run payroll, do job costing, or create invoices—without ever leaving QuickBooks!

Some of the features of TSheets are:
- Accurate time for client invoicing and painless payroll
- Track billable time against customers, projects or jobs, classes, and service items.
- GPS time tracking and timesheet compliance
- Managers can assign workers to jobs or shifts to keep the workforce in sync
- Time tracking and scheduling work in perfect harmony
- Mobile time tracking with GPS and geofencing
- Real-time project tracking
- Customer support that lives up to the hype
TSheets pricing

Pricing: There are two plans available – Premium ($8/user/month + $20 base fee/month) and Elite ($10/user/month + $40 base fee/month).

Must read:
ProofHub

ProofHub

ProofHub helps you to plan and collaborate while having a seamless user experience that keeps everyone in the loop and focuses on the necessary with little to no learning curve. It can Integrate with the apps you already use. You can access Freshbooks, Google Calendar, iCal, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and Outlook, bringing them all together within ProofHub.

Some of the features of ProofHub are:
- Create discussion topics and bring all your team and client discussions at one place eliminating long email threads.
- Prioritize tasks with clear deadlines and set tasks to recur to never miss the ones that need to be done regularly.
- Plan and visualize how pieces of your project fit together in a timeline view.
- Define custom roles and stay in ultimate control of who gets access to what according to your organizational workflow.
- You can get answers to where’s the team’s time going and what are the billable hours of projects
- In ProofHub, you can choose who manages which project. A project manager will receive all the important notifications for the missed deadlines and overdue tasks and stay accountable.
- Stay updated with all the activities happening in ProofHub through real-time in-app, desktop, email, and mobile notifications.
Proofhub pricing

Pricing: ProofHub provides you two different options – Ultimate control which is charged $89/month billed annually ($99/m billed monthly) and Essential which is charged $45/month billed annually ($50/m billed monthly). It also provides you with a 14-day free trial.

Zoho People

Zoho People

Zoho people is a 360-degree HR solution. It takes care of your HR processes while you take care of your employees. From onboarding and attendance management to time tracking and appraisals, it has all the features. One of the best things about Zoho People is its flexibility. It is not used just by HR department but also can be used by Delivery Leaders, Office Management, Training Department and Finance Departments

Some features of Zoho People are:
- Streamline both your data collection and secure storage with our employee database management system.
- Set up your organization and maintain all your employee records in one central location.
- Zoho People provides all the tools you need to help your HR staff and employees stay efficient, up-to-date, and productive, even on the go.
- Set your organization’s hours, track your employee attendance, and make your payday stress-free.
- Add clients, break down your projects into smaller tasks, and record hours in a timesheet.
- Invoicing projects is a breeze because Zoho People is fully integrated with Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice, and Quickbooks.
- Zoho People’s LMS is an intuitive platform to easily create and manage your organization’s training programs. Create courses, track employee progress, and help your team master new skills.
Zoho People pricing

Pricing: Zoho People gives you four different pricing options – Essential HR (₹42 /user/month billed annually), Professional (₹83 /user/month billed annually), Premium (₹125 /user/month billed annually), and Enterprise (₹167 /user/month billed annually). It also provides a feature of 15-day free trial.

Conclusion

Ideally, time-tracking software can tweak discrepancies in workflows to fix what is and isn’t working to increase profits and automate companies’ payroll and billing operations. Many time tracking software solutions work with other softwares like workforce management software, as well as payroll software and talent management suites. Time tracking software can be integrated either directly into time clock hardware or deployed in the cloud. Above is a list of tools that can be treated as a reference. You can choose a tool which suits your needs. How are you tracking the time of your employees? Please let us know in the comments section below.
March 21, 2020