Every year, thousands of trade shows are held across the globe. They are popular, not to mention effective, way to promote products and services to a wider audience. Trade shows have been effectively used to scale businesses and as an essential tactic in taking them to the next level. Startups can find particular success at trade shows as these shows thrive in key areas such as emerging technology and innovation.
The best thing about a trade show is that the startup or small business does will find a ready-made audience available to them. Pick the right event and you will find a significant audience of your target demographic available to you.
“Gearing up for a trade show is like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle. Pieces can come up missing, but companies should do their best in advance to make it all fits together to their advantage.” – Susan Friedmann, Author
Trade shows are equally popular with customers as they are with exhibitors for several reasons. Firstly, trade allows customers (whether B2C or B2B) to investigate all their options before purchasing goods or services. This is great for startups, too, because it allows them to have real-time interactions with customers and inform them about their product. Secondly, trade shows are frequented by investors because it is a well-known fact that these events are marketing hubs and allow investors to discover the latest startups worth investment. Investors are key players in growing your startup, which can be seen in this example of a startup’s incredible growth.
Once you have made the wise decision to attend a trade show, it is critical to make sure you make the most out of your attendance. Here are some trade show advice and tips for startups to maximize your trade show presence and use the event to attract new customers, drive sales and grow your business.
Trade Show Advice
1. Know Your Niche
Invest in a trade show that is geared towards your products and services. It is obvious that a car accessories company should exhibit their products at an automobile show instead of at an agricultural festival. However, you should dig into this a bit deeper, as within each industry there is a range of shows and you should make sure to attend the ones suitable to your niche in order to avoid wasting time and money. In the same way, you must find a trade show which has an audience relevant to your brand. Knowing your niche inside and out will help you to make such decisions.
2. Invest In Your Display
First impressions last forever. The very first impression your startup will give a potential customer is through your booth or display. A well-made booth will convince attendees that your is professional and is serious about business. Investing in a professional booth from a company like Fret Free Productions will be well worth the investment. A poorly designed display, on the other hand, will not attract consumers and may give an impression that something is lacking in your company, which is not what any startup wants! It pays to hire a professional to design your display because it is the first impression of your startup that people will have. Make it attractive, on-brand and sure to capture attention even in a busy trade show all!
Ahead of the trade show event, be sure to let people know that your startup will be attending! Marketing your attendance may attract people who have had an eye on your product for a while, or may help you attract brand new prospects. Use the power of social media to promote the trade show and send out invites to people in your network who may be interested in attending your display at the event. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are good platforms for this.
Before the show, gather your teammates and employees and decide on a game plan. Discuss ways to approach customers and promote your product and company. Being prepared in advance will pay off on the final day. You can even go as far as to have a “dress rehearsal” of how to set up the booth and how to talk to customers.
5. Encourage Your Team Members
Remember that the success of your startup depends on the performance of your team. Keep them motivated and happy to ensure they perform strongly at the show. Encourage them to do their best. Leadership skills are vital in such situations. Do your best to stay calm and work side by side with your employees. The result will be workers that are happily engaged in promoting the startup and introducing new customers to your company.
Allow your customers to ask questions. If you talk to them and be open to discussions, they will gain a better understanding of the product and will be more likely to purchase it. Samples are another brilliant way to capture your customer’s attention and interact with them. Testing the start up’s product or service first-hand is a sure way to boost sales! You could also set up other fun, interactive elements that will help draw attendees to your booth such as games.
7. Organize Your Time And Resources
Start planning your display well in advance to avoid any unwanted bumps in the road. Even if a problem does occur, by starting early, you will have ample time to resolve the issue. Being late to the event will make your startup look unprofessional. It is a sign of lack of commitment, so be sure to arrive well in advance! As for resources, create a detailed itinerary and check you have everything you. Also, make sure your employees all arrive. Employee presentation is critical. It is a part of what defines your brand. Ensure their outfits are well pressed and clean.
8. Give away stuff for free
Customers love free stuff. You can offer simple things such as freshly baked cookies. You can go a step further with promotional goods such as pens, hats, notebooks, or water bottles. Try to offer something relevant to your brand. When customer sees your product more, he or she will become more eager to find your booth and see what you’re about. This strategy is great for sales because once someone has tried something, they often feel obliged to make a purchase.
Keep a stack of printed flyers and contact cards ready to distribute amongst visitors. This will help them remember your startup and have a way to contact your team for future reference. Make sure they are well designed and professional. Flyers and cards can have a lasting impact on customers, so keep them well stocked and ready for distribution!
“Be audacious and memorable… but smart… and relevant.” -Ken Krogue
Conclusion
Keep these tips in mind when planning for your startup’s trade show. Whether it is the first one, or the last one, the event deserves your full attention. Trade shows can be the key to a successful entrepreneurial future for startups. Your next trade show might just be where you’ll meet your next investor, so make sure to give it your all. Stay on top of things, be organized, and on time. Be patient and responsive to your customers’ and employees’ needs. By following these suggestions, your trade show event is bound to be a roaring success!
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 Little App.
Connecting customers with merchants and retailers isn’t easy. There are various major and minor hurdles that need to be taken care of. The Bangalore-based startup Little app was started with the very aim of connecting customers with their nearby businesses.
Launched in 2015, Little App, (Little Internet Pvt. Ltd.) is a hyper-local deals discovery platform was started for connecting people to merchants across services like restaurants, spa, salons, activities, etc. It let customers discover services and offer at their favorite offline stores. In a way, it acted as a sales channel for shop merchants and created a win-win situation for both customers and merchants.
Founded by two seasoned entrepreneurs Manish Chopra and Satish Mani, Little App had an interesting journey from its inception in 2015, to its acquisition in 2017 by Paytm and later its merger with Nearbuy.com. Little App currently has over 3 million users and more than 40,000 live offers. Little App is one of the fastest-growing coupons and deal websites that is offering up to 70% off on fun activities and daily events.
Here is all you would love to know about Little App.
Little app co-founder Manish Chopra, also served as the CEO of India’s leading online fashion brand, Zovi from 2012-2018. Before starting his entrepreneurial journey with Zovi and Little App, Manish worked in different roles as (Strategy & Planning and Director) at Microsoft, (Director of Product Marketing) at Oracle, and Vice president of Intiqua.
He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from The University of Punjab and later went on to get his MBA from S.P Jain Institute of Management and Research. Manish, who served as the CEO of Little App, left Little App after its acquisition by Paytm, and its merger with Nearbuy. Currently, Manish is Director and Head of Partnerships at Facebook (India).
The founders of Little App
Little App co-founder Satish Mani is a die-hard tech and fitness enthusiast. He has created top-class portals and is a thought leader in his domain. He was also the Co-founder and CTO of Zovi.com. Satish did his Master’s in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from Old Dominion University. With more than 20 years of product and development experience in B2C as well as B2B environments, Satish helped build one of India’s most admired travel portals—Cleartrip.
Satish’s interests include system architecture for scalability, UI/UX, German shepherds, and product development. Satish served as the CTO of Little App from its inception till its acquisition by Paytm. Currently, he is SVP at MakeMyTrip Travel Services Private Limited.
Around 2015, Manish and Satish saw a lot of traction towards online marketplaces. They went after a huge opportunity at that time in the Indian mobile platform (O2O space). The duo realized O2O (Online To Offline) was about to explode alongside smartphone growth.
So, Manish and Satish built a team to create an app for connecting thousands of merchants who have services to sell across verticals like health and wellness, food and beverage, entertainment, and last-minute hotel bookings.
“Little is the “Connector” between the customer who wants to have great experiences and awesome deals and the merchant who is ready to offer the same to the customer. We are an online to offline market place, absolutely one of its kinds where customer has all the empowerment to make intelligent choices using our App. The problem solved here is the lack of an organized national player to make this happen. Little does it with finesse using world class app great deals at the right time and NOW, merchant strength and user experience. The real differentiator is the scale and depth of the merchant ecosystem. Fantastic Deals around you – can only be realized by having the largest ecosystem.” explained the co-founder of Little App, Manish Chopra.
Little App Logo
Little App – Major Challenges Faced
Hiring the right kind of people quickly was a significant challenge that Little App faced. They needed senior leaders as well as young dynamic front-line business development executives. Training and retaining them was an obstacle on top of this. Little App also has a lot of competitors in the markets.
Little App website and app were designed to let the users browse through a vast number of deals across various platforms – restaurants, movies, salons, spas, and other interesting activities near them. Now Little App’s services can be accessed through the Nearbuy app. With a user-friendly interface, the Nearbuy app lets its users discover, buy and save on Little App merchants nearest to them.
The little app first user offer allows the customers to get extra offers, redeem coupons, discounts, and other offers where they can save money. The customer can also choose right from the budget to the premium ones. The customers can also find local event coupon deals and get additional cashback when they shop with TopCashback offers. The Little App services can also be used while booking theme parks, medical clinics, and outdoor activities.
Little App services
Little App – Business Model
Little App offered deals of outlets and charged a commission on every deal sold. Customers buy the Little App coupons or deals and pay for them. Little App in turn cuts its commission fee and returned the rest to the outlet.
Outlets: Sell their products/services on Little to attract more customers and fill their tables.
Little App: Has a huge customer base and offers free marketing platform to outlets. In turn, it charges commission for every deal sold.
Customers: Pay a lesser price for their choice. So it’s a win-win for all!
Little App website is a service marketplace that provides a platform for tens of thousands of merchant organizations to reach millions of consumers through smartphones. It charged the merchants a small fee between 6-8% for using its platform which including payment facilitation.
Little App – Acquisitions And Mergers
Little acquired Trideal, a Chandigarh based curated deals marketplace, in October 2015. It also acquired the beauty and wellness start-up Stylofie for an undisclosed amount. Through acquisition of Stylofie, Little App was able to penetrate further within the beauty and wellness segment. With this acquisition, Little Internet Pvt. Ltd. got access to more than 50,000 registered visitors and over 1,000 merchants on the Stylofie platform.
Little App – Funding
In January 2016, Little App raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pvt Ltd.
Little App raised $50 million (Rs. 318 crores) in July 2015, from One97Communications (which runs mobile payments venture Paytm), SAIF Partners, Tiger Global Management, and others.
The main competitor of Little App is MagicPin, as it is considered to be a top competitor of Little App. CouponDunia is Little App’s next rival. CouponDunia is headquartered in Mumbai and was founded in 2010. CouponDunia operates in the discount stores industry. Mydala is another rival. Besides, Deal Chaat, Cash Karo, and Coupon Raja have also competed with Little App. Prior to its merger, Nearbuy was also a major competitor of Little App.
Little App – Growth
Little App saw rapid growth with the rapid development of India’s mobile Internet ecosystem. The unprecedented success of the category has been facilitated by innovative technology solutions aimed at benefiting customers and merchants alike. Moreover, the company’s thought process is in sync with the much-needed move by the Indian Government towards digitizing payments.
In May 2017, Little App announced the launch of its operations in three new cities – Kochi, Bhubaneswar, and Nagpur. After the launch, Manish said:
“After our successful launch in 11 cities, we are excited to roll out our service in Kochi, Bhubaneswar, and Nagpur. They seem to be one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Little App has received phenomenal response and acceptance across all its functional cities. We look forward to revolutionizing these markets as well. We will leverage our technology prowess, deep operational experience, and excellence towards our customer satisfaction.”
Overall, Little App has been a successful startup. It claimed to have over 25,000 merchants across 15 cities offering more than 50,000 live deals across F&B, movies, last-minute hotels, and health & wellness. Little App will continue to serve its user base through the Nearbuy app. The Little App redeem voucher is also a unique feature that is not found in all its competitors. The Little App customer care is also very helpful in finding out the best deals in the town.
The founders of Little app are Manish Chopra and Satish Mani.
What is Little App?
Little App is a hyper-local deals discovery platform connecting customers and merchants across services like restaurants, spas, salons, activities, etc. It helps customers discover services and offers at their favorite offline stores.
How to use Little App?
Little app free download and not paid. Once the user installs the app on their device, they can launch the app and check out the eight categories of deals. After checking the categories, the user can look for Little App promo code and referral code to then avail of discounts and offers.
How does Little App work?
The search platform allows the user to access the best deals for restaurants, movies, salons and spas, and things to do . The customer can browse through a wide range of Little App deals across all platforms near them with the help of the little app nearby.
How does Little App make money?
Little App sells deals and offers of different outlets (events, restaurants, spas etc) and charges a commission on every deal sold.
Where is Little App available?
The Little App website and app are available on both android and apple devices.
What are the competitors of Little App?
The competitors of Little app are CouponDunia, MagicPin, Deal Chaat, Cash Karo, and Coupon Raja.
The most romantic day of the year is round the corner and everybody is rushing to buy the best gift for their loved ones. If you are looking for that unique gift, exploring pre-owned products are a good choice as they are budget-friendly and environment-friendly.
Quikr has analyzed what products Indian customers are falling in love with based on the search trends seen on Quikr Bazaar platform in January 2020. Check out the six most popular products that can make your V-day grand!
Most loved smartphone: iPhone
Everyone aspires to buy an iPhone but affordability is a question mark. The availability of these phones at an average price of 19K on platforms like Quikr can fulfil aspirations. By the way, 24% of India searched for pre-owned iPhones around this time. Every effort to reuse counts and we are in love with Delhities as they top Quikr’s pre-V-day search list with their interest in pre-owned iPhones, thus doing their bit towards the environment.
Most loved fitness equipment: Cycles
Want to look fit together but don’t know where to start? We say – Cycles, and that too at an average price of 6.7K! Nothing like enjoying the morning sun while riding together this Valentine’s Day!
According to Quikr data, about 21.1% of Indian consumers showed interest in cycles, out of which, Bangalore stands first for its interest. Although this could be the result of an endless traffic in the city, we believe Bangaloreans are already in love with the city’s cool weather, and cycles are just an excuse to enjoy it.
Most loved furniture: Sofa
Opting for a pre-owned sofa has more personality than you can imagine; whether it’s the story of how you got it or how you will be putting it to use. Doesn’t upgrading your living room with a pre-owned sofa for a movie night and some popcorn sound perfect? All this can happen at an average price of 13K! Quikr reveals that about 21.2% of people searched for the product with Bangalore being in the lead.
Most loved gadget: Laptop
First metros and now, non-metros. Refurbished laptops get a second chance at being loved as 15% of Indian consumers from cities across tiers have searched for it. This only means one thing – laptop love is spreading across India and that too at an average price of 22K and you don’t want to miss out on it!
Most loved accessory: Camera
Amongst the 13% of India that searched for cameras, surprisingly, Guwahati is in the lead. Their search for this product which is available at an average price of 19.9K is almost equivalent to that of a metro like Hyderabad. Given its scenic beauty and tourist attractions, a camera sure comes handy when one has to freeze this beautiful place through pictures. You can capture the soulful happiness of your loved ones too or gift it to them to capture yours.
Most loved home entertainment: Video Games
Many discounts and offers on gaming products contribute to its popularity in the country, especially in metros like Delhi and non-metros like Nagpur and Gondia in Maharashtra. Quikr says that 7% of India searched for video games that are available at an average price of 13K. Spread some love by gifting your gamer friend the best pre-owned video game in town!
Online platforms for such goods are becoming a treasure trove of personal gifts that gets appreciated in emotional value as well. By choosing the pre-owned route, you not only get a chance to reuse, but also, reduce the burden on your wallet.
There’s never been a better time for a start up. While many people are out there saying that the market is saturated, there are too many “fakers,” and that you can’t make money online. People are out here killing it every day.
So, why is it that some people have no trouble making a ton of money online while many can never make it out of the start up phase?
It all has to do with your strategy. The problem with online business is that it’s so easy and accessible. Back when you wanted to start a brick and mortar business, there was a lengthy process to go through. The steps of applying for loans, permits, licenses, getting a building, and all that weeded out the fakers.
In the digital world, anyone can call themselves an expert in something and start a business today.
What will give you a leg up over your competition is having the best webmarketing strategy for your start up. In this guide, I’m going to help you map out your strategy so you can achieve greatness.
What is a webmarketing strategy?
Your webmarketing strategy is the series of actions that you’ll take to help grow your company. You need to have everything figured out ahead of time, so you know what to do as each problem or issue arises.
You should have a firm understanding of all the following points before you ever spend a dime on marketing or start offering services of any kind. Let’s take a look.
What are you trying to accomplish?
First, what are you doing with your business? Are you trying to generate leads? Do you want to bring attention to something? Do you already have clients, but you’re trying to bring better results for them?
Whatever it is that you’re trying to do, you need to give it a name and stick with it. Your ultimate goal should be to achieve a business that satisfies you spiritually, emotionally, and financially.
Think about it this way. If you’re dating and you’re trying to find the perfect partner, you likely have a few traits in mind of your ideal person.
Maybe you’re looking for someone with brown hair, blue eyes, with a career-focused mindset, who likes to spend time outdoors.
You need to do this with your business.
Take note of all the things you want your business to do for your life and how you envision getting up and going to work every day. Once you’ve done that, under each point you made, figure out how you’ll get to the desired goal.
Understand your audience
One of the most powerful things you can do is create a buyer persona. This person is your ideal customer or client, and they need to have an exhaustive description. You’ll have a solid understanding of who your audience is, what they like, and what motivates them to buy something.
When you create a buyer persona, you want to keep some of the following things in mind:
What motivates them
What discourages them
Pain points they might have
Why are they here?
What excites them
What exhausts them
You can go on and on with this, but you want to be as comprehensive as possible. When you understand your buyer, you’ll have an easier time writing copy, crafting emails, and building funnels that appeal to that specific person.
Here’s an example of a buyer person named Supermom:
“My buyer persona is a stay-at-home mom between the age of 25-35. She has two kids under the age of 10, and she values her health and the health of her family. She tries to eat healthy and cook quality meals every night, but between wrestling her kids, yoga classes, her kid’s soccer practices, and volunteering at the church; she’s left with little time at the end of the day.”
That buyer persona might work for a company that sells pre-packaged healthy meal plans that you can purchase a week ahead of time and plan into the week. It allows the mom to feed her family a healthy dinner, and she can always have one available when the day drags on longer than planned.
Understanding the steps of a funnel
In this section, let’s break down the four steps of every sales funnel. You’ll find a lot of variations, but these are the four primary steps you should always refer back to.
Awareness
Interest
Desire
Action
With Systeme.io, we focus on making it easy to create funnels using these four steps. Our funnel builder allows you to appeal to the psychological side of these steps.
Let’s work our way down from the top.
Awareness
Here is where you are teaching people about your brand. You’re introducing them to your company but not trying to sell them something. A lot of businesses skip this step, and they wonder why they aren’t having success. Think of this as going up and introducing yourself to someone you’ve never met before.
Interest
At this step of the funnel, the customer has seen your brand, and they are opening their ears to listen a little. They may even show that they’re interested in the company and they want to learn more about what you can do for them. Here is where you want to start preaching the benefits of your product or service.
Desire
At the desire stage, the customer is now interested in doing business with you. They’ve decided that your product or service is useful and they want to purchase it. Now you don’t have to sell anymore, you need to provide them with the information they need to buy. Here is where upsells will occur as well.
Action
Finally, the customer is taking action, and you might even be up selling them on something else. At this stage is where retargeting occurs as well. Many people, even though they seemed interested at first, will back out.
Where are your buyers?
Okay, so now you know who your buyer is, and you have an awesome funnel that is bound to convert traffic. Now you need to get people into that funnel.
To do this, you need to find your buyers. Let’s go back to our buyer persona to do this.
So, we have a stay-at-home mom who values her health, loves her family, does yoga, and is young enough to be on the cutting edge of technology.
Where do you think she might hang out online?
She might be on Pinterest, checking out design ideas for her home.
Maybe she’s on Facebook during her short period of free time when the kids are running around
Or she could be googling information about cheap and healthy weeknight recipes for children
If you’re trying to build a webmarketing strategy around this buyer persona, you need to know where she is and what she is doing there. Understanding this will not only help you create the right ads and copy, but it will help with your funnel as well.
Remember that personalization is key with your sales funnel, so the individual needs to think that this funnel was explicitly made for them.
You hear it all the time on platforms like Clickfunnels; they talk about funnel hacking. With Systeme.io, we like to call it “customer research.” (subtle stab)
It’s important to know where you find your audience because each platform has a different intent.
People on Google are usually there to find information or buy something
People on Facebook are there for entertainment
People on Youtube are often there for information or entertainment
People on Pinterest are there for ideas and inspiration
You get the point!
Have the right tools at your disposal
Your start up will perish if you don’t have the right webmarketing strategy. But, in addition to strategy, you need the right platform to run your business. In 2020 and beyond, it’s essential that you have a highly functioning and well-converting sales funnel as well as the best landing pages.
You also need email marketing tools, customization options, a blog, a place to sell your stuff, and automations that take some of the grunt work out of your hands.
For that, you have two options.
You can scour the internet to find five or six different marketing platforms and see if they work well together.
Systeme.io provides easy to use funnel building tools, email marketing, automations, and more. Best of all, you can get started for free and take your business from a start up to wild success in no time.
Be sure to keep all the points outlined in this article in your mind while you’re building your funnel. Remember:
Know what you want to accomplish
Understand your audience and create a buyer persona
Books are distinct from visceral forms of entertainment for various reasons. They can be a game-changer, often for the greater good. Entrepreneurs must read books which are enriched with words of wisdom put forth by experienced entrepreneurs and market leaders who have years of experience good and bad in the industry.
We have compiled a list of 10 best books for entrepreneur, that you should read, no matter you’re an established entrepreneur or just starting out in that direction.
One of thee best books on startups is penned by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters, a self-made billionaire, Zero to One gives an insight into his journey from co-founding PayPal to selling it to eBay for a cool $1.5 billion along with investing in Facebook. Peter highlights important lessons and valuable techniques that entrepreneurs can incorporate in their ventures.
Think and Grow Rich
Think & Grow Rich-best books for entrepreneurs
Author : Napoleon Hill
Publication Year : 1937
Arguably one of the most motivational pieces of writing that the world has come across, and therefore a must read for every entrepreneur. This self-help book published by Napoleon Hill in 1939 is the amalgamation of powerful thoughts that were the driving factor behind prominent personalities of the 18th and 19th century. Andrew Carnegie was the wealthy philanthropist whose proposal compelled Napoleon to bring this 250-page book to fruition. It took him nearly 20 years before the perfected version to come up with the perfected version of ‘Think and Grow Rich’.
The Warren Buffett Way
The Warren Buffet Way
Author : Robert G. Hagstrom Publication Year : 1994
Not a fairy-tale by any means, the book talks of Buffett’s initial years, such as his first stock and important lessons he learned from legends such as Philip Fresher. The core of the writing is his four principles of investment methodology- Business, management, finance, and markets; there are nine case studies elucidating how he used these tenets to invest in some of his holdings. It has been written by Robert G. Hagstrom.
How We Make Stuff Now: Turn Ideas Into Products That Build Successful Businesses
How We Make Stuff Now
Author : Jules Pieri Publication Year : 2019
This book is a must read book for entrepreneurs who are working on a physical product. There are 16 chapters like Design and Documentation, Prototyping, Funding, Manufacturing, Packaging, Direct to Consumer, Logistics, and Inventory Management for hardware and product business. These chapters are filled with case study examples from companies that have had products in The Grommet.
When to Jump: If the Job You Have Isn’t the Life You Want
Author : Mike Lewis Publication Year : 2018
Mike Lewis gives the much-needed guidance for those planning to step into the entrepreneurial waters. With a foreword from Sheryl Sandberg, the book is a collection of short stories by numerous successful founders describing their journey in the first place. A must read, especially for those who are hesitant to ditch their 9 to 5 job for entrepreneurship.
“Habits make a man”, and taking a cue from individuals known for being effective and efficient won’t do any harm. After all, almost everyone tries to emulate the most intelligent kid in the class. Summarizing the seven points into one-liners would do injustice the book, for the explanation behind each habit is worth reading!
Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do
Author : Jennifer Eberhardt Publication Year : 2019
Jennifer Eberhardt writes about her decades of experience studying race and everyday interactions. She suggests that in order to overcome our own racial biases, we must acknowledge them. This book helps us to view how racial bias works in our own minds and throughout society. Her research shows critical information which can help leaders better understand how biases can impact our judgment and how we are perceived by the communities we are sworn to serve.
Start With Why
Author : Simon Sinek Publication Year : 2009
Simon Sinek’s Ted talk is amazing and I’d personally recommend you to watch it before reading ‘Start With Why’. In this book, Simon puts forward the idea that throughout history, renowned leaders have valued the why over how and what. His philosophy and real-life examples ought to inspire the reader to inspire those around him or her. Such is the ripple effect produced by this wonderful writing!
Networking Like a Pro: Turning Contacts Into Connections
Author : Ivan Misner, Brian Hilliard Publication Year : 2009
The cumulative work of three writers– Ivan R. Misner, David Alexander and Brian Hilliard, this guide teaches the art of networking and how businesses can leverage the power of connecting to turn successful. A useful technique known as ‘four streams of networking rivers’, outlining how to have a well-developed referral network, is just one among the various reasons as to why every entrepreneur must read this masterpiece.
Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?
Author : Aaron Dignan Publication Year : 2019
Aaron Dignan helps teams around the world completely reinvent their operating systems which is fundamental principles and practices that shape their culture—with extraordinary success. He helps them see that organizations aren’t machines to be predicted and controlled. Instead, Organization is a complex human system full of potential waiting to be released. In Brave New Work, you’ll learn exactly how to reinvent the way you work, not through top-down mandates, but through a groundswell of autonomy, trust, and transparency.
Tim Ferris introduces the concept of the ‘New Rich’, one that encourages the lifestyle of doing, having and being whatever the person wants. The technique known as DEAL: Definition, Elimination, Automation and finally Liberation, is what the author feels every man should follow in order to gain financial freedom and thus live life better.
The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup
Author : Noam T. Wasserman Publication Year : 2012
Noam Wasserman’s efforts bring to notice a topic that is often downplayed in the process of launching a startup: Difficulties and adversities. Through research, Wasserman talks of the most common pitfalls that founders have to endure. To better prepare such future leaders, this book serves as an essential toolbox; this gem of a book transcends a self-improvement guide!
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done
Author : Peter Drucker Publication Year : 1966
Peter F. Ducker is considered to be the most influential management thinker ever. In this book, Ducker highlights the constraints that executives and those in similar positions are subjected to. He then provides excellent suggestions for maintaining the business effectiveness that is imperative for being productive. A classic must read for entrepreneurs that was first published in 1966!
Author : Edwin Catmull, Amy Wallace Publication Year : 2014
In Creativity, Inc., Ed Catmull, President of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation, shares what happens behind-the-scenes in these two great companies. Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights. You can enter into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture.
The book is centered around the concepts of validated learning and build-measure-learn feedback loop which means build a product, measure your customers’ reactions, and learn if your idea has been validated or if you need to adapt. Repeat this cycle until your customers send you a clear signal that your product fits a market need. It tries to bring in a systematic approach to measuring the progress at a startup. According to the author of book, one must begin with the customers in the form of interviews and research discovery. Ries also recommends using a process called the Five Whys which is a technique designed to reach the core of an issue.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things is written by Ben Horowitz who is a cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and he is one of Silicon Valley’s most respected and experienced entrepreneurs. He writes his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don’t cover.
Author : Nir Eyal, Ryan Hoover Publication Year : 2014
Why do we use certain products regularly though many such products are available in the market? – like Google- What makes us habituated with certain products? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?
Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.
Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries
Author : Safi Bahcall Publication Year : 2019
Safi Bahcall is a cofounder of the biotech company Synta Pharmaceuticals. This book explains about lessons learned in wartime as well as from Polaroid and space exploration, among other periods and events. Using examples that range from the spread of fires in forests to the hunt for terrorists online, and stories of thieves and geniuses and kings, Bahcall shows how this new kind of science helps us understand the behavior of companies and the fate of empires.
The $100 StartUp put out the possibility of starting and running a successful business with a ridiculously small team (1 to 5 members) with many real-life case studies. Chris Guillebeau writes a step-by-step framework you can use to find where your passion meets your skills and turn those into an income from your couch, based on his own case studies. Using nothing but a laptop and some wifi in most cases, you can build a thriving software, freelance or education business and scale it as far as you want.
Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World
Author : Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall Publication Year : 2019
The new book ‘Nine Lies About Work’ explains the inherent flaws of traditional attempts to define effective leadership. Authors Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall explains the disconnect between the ways you know you work best and the ways you are told to work. They examine the practices that organisations do to exert control and impose uniformity: practices that have become common wisdom but that have failed to result in improved productivity and employee motivation.
Author : Michael E. Gerber Publication Year : 1995
Michael E. Gerber originally published as “The E Myth” in 1986. Michael Gerber revised and updated the book in 1995. Michael E. Gerber explains how you can set up a company that depends much more on systems, than on people, and anyone can look after it with set of right instructions. He explains running a business and getting technical work done are two different things and shows you how you can set up a system dependent company rather than people dependent.
Steve Blank explains hands-on instructions on how to handle customers, sales, marketing and building your company at different stages of your business. He explains how Customer Development Model is more useful than Product Development Model for new startups. There are four steps to the Customer Development Model: Customer Discovery, Customer Validation, Customer Creation and Company Building.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
Author : David Epstein Publication Year : 2019
The book, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World explains diverse experiences are helpful in business, science, music, parenting and even sports. This book says that you can be more successful in life if you learn different things and don’t try to be an expert. The book also says generalization is the key to parenting, especially when it comes to guiding your children towards areas where they can excel: “The best thing [parents] can do is to expose [children] to a lot of things, help them to reflect on those things, that’s called self-regulatory learning.“
Rockonomics: A Backstage Tour of What the Music Industry Can Teach Us About Economics and Life
Author : Alan B. Krueger Publication Year : 2019
Alan B. Krueger uses the music industry, from superstar artists to music executives, from managers to promoters, as a way in to explain key principles of economics, and the forces shaping our economic lives. Mr. Krueger surveys studies on the healing qualities of music — both its ability to “stir memories and emotions in people afflicted by neurological disorders,” and to make us happier.
Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Consumer Disruption
Author : Thales S. Teixeira Publication Year : 2019
The book, “Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Consumer Disruption” says how and why consumer industries are disrupted, and what established companies can do about it—while highlighting the specific strategies potential startups use to gain a competitive edge. Thales Teixeira is a Harvard Business School professor. Thales Teixeira explains the nature of competition has fundamentally changed. Using innovative new business models, startups are stealing customers by breaking the links in how consumers discover, buy and use products and services.
The Vagabonds: The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s Ten-Year Road Trip
Author : Jeff Guinn Publication Year : 2019
The Vagabonds is the fascinating story of two American giants, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. They were accompanied by Harvey Firestone, and naturalist John Burroughs too. The Vagabonds is an evenhanded look at four men who helped define their time. Author Jeff Guinn wrote the exciting parts of the vagabonds’ road trips and the impact they had on the populace without shying away from the profound character flaws of Ford and Edison. While not a detailed biography of these men, you get a good sense of who they were and what motivated them.
Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We’re Thriving in a New World of Possibility
Author : David Weinberger Publication Year : 2019
Everyday Chaos says how we’ve been busily, silently overturning our most basic ideas about change. That affects how we plan, measure success, make predictions, model and explain our world, and design strategies — and ultimately how we think the future emerges from the present. Through stories from history, business, and technology, philosopher and technologist David Weinberger finds the unifying truths lying below the surface of the tools we take for granted–and a future in which our best strategy often requires holding back from anticipating and instead creating as many possibilities as we can. The book’s imperative for business and beyond is simple: Make. More. Future.
What You Do Is Who You Are: How To Create Your Business Culture
Author : Ben Horowitz Publication Year : 2019
“What You Do Is Who You Are: How To Create Your Business Culture” takes readers through the process of designing a company culture and imbuing it with the values one wants to espouse as well as the level of performance one expects. The author combines lessons both from history and modern organisational practice with practical and often surprising advice to help us build cultures that can weather both good and bad times. This book is a journey through cultures ancient to modern, spotlighting models of leadership and culture-building from the samurai to prison gangs.
Author : F. Scott Fitzgerald Publication Year : 1925
An American business magnate, co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. He is a great lover of books. He has always books on the roll to read. One of his all-time recommended books is ‘TheGreat Gatsby’ written by F.Scott Fitzgerald, which is a tragic love story, a mystery, and a social commentary on American life.
This is the story of Jay Gatsby’s who has a desperate quest to win back his first love. It also shows the importance of honesty, the temptations of wealth, and the struggle to escape the past.
An Indian IT industrialist and the co-founder of Infosys is a good reader and writer. One of his recommended books is ‘Winners Never cheat even in DifficultTimes’ by Jon M Huntsman.
This book shows how the author himself built a $12 billion company from scratch, Huntsman tells how he struggled to get to the highest level and how you can too. This book is about remembering why you work and why you were chosen to lead. It’s about finding the courage to act on what you know is right. It’s all about winning in the right way.
Author : William Shakespeare Publication Year : 1606
An American inventor, designer, entrepreneur, who was the co-founder, chief executive, and chairman of Apple Computer. He has a different collection of books. One of his recommended books is ‘KingLear’ by William Shakespeare.
This story portrays how misguided judgments can lead to tragedies. King Lear is fooled by his two hypocritical daughters and makes a mistake by giving them his property. Fogged by illusion, he even missed to see the true love his third daughter had for him, the book gives a vivid depiction of what can go wrong if you lose your grip on your empire.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Author : Thomas S.Kuhn Publication Year : 1962
This book presents a revolutionary approach to how science functions and progresses. Against the normal perception of science as a linear accumulation of knowledge. Kuhn attempts to view science as progressing in leaps from one “paradigm” to the next.
An American Internet and aerospace entrepreneur founder, chief executive officer of Amazon. He is very passionate about books and reading. One of his recommended books is ‘The Remains of the Day’ by Kazuo Ishiguro.
It tells of a man’s journey into the past during a motoring trip through the English countryside, Told. From a first-person perspective, the story is narrated in the form of a diary by an English butler named Stevens. It begins in July 1956 at Darlington Hall, where Stevens has worked for 34 years.
Entrepreneurs have to get along with creativity and management side by side, books are often a golden treasure to them.
Reading is one smart way of helping them to think in various ways to achieve success. Learning is a never-ending process, successful people learn something new every single day through their habit of reading.
The book includes stories about Wall Street with drama and adventure.
Conscious Capitalism
Author: John Mackey and Raj Sisodia
Publication Year: 2013
The book illustrates how business and capitalism can work most powerfully to create value for all stakeholders.
As a Man Thinketh
Author: James Allen
Publishing Year: 1903
As a Man Thinketh explores the central idea of self-empowerment writing.
Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World
Author: Rene Girard
Publishing Year: 1987
The book is an analysis of three core mechanisms that leads the widespread social interactions.
Do let us know if you have read any other book which should have been in the list. We would love to read it and feature it in this list of the books for entrepreneurs.
"Entrepreneurs are people born to influence and inspire".This February will witness the biggest happening event for all entrepreneurs and start-up enthusiasts out there as hundreds of like-minded people throng the halls of NIT Trichy!
E-Cell NITT is proud to present its theme for the E-Summit 2020,
*'A Confluence to Influence'*.
Come join us from Feb 14-16 and meet India's budding leaders and get inspired!
E-Cell, NIT Trichy ಅವರಿಂದ ಈ ದಿನದಂದು ಪೋಸ್ಟ್ ಮಾಡಲಾಗಿದೆ ಮಂಗಳವಾರ, ಫೆಬ್ರವರಿ 4, 2020
The advancement and progress in society today would not have been possible if not for the inventors and engineers of yesteryear. Their constant pursuit for the most sophisticated applications using scientific principles has resulted in our comfortable and luxurious living.
In just about half a century, we have achieved substantial changes – from the first personal computer to the smartphone, from objectively no connectivity to the mammoth internet-services today, from the heavy fossil-fuel consumption to renewable energy sources, and more. Though all of them seem to be disjointed, they have two important elements in common; An innovation and a forward-thinking vision.
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were unrivalled visionaries for technology. Jeff Bezos and Jack Ma brilliantly exploited the first movers’ advantage to disrupt consumerism. Everywhere we look, we find the effects of true entrepreneurialism.
Engineering and entrepreneurialism go hand-in-hand.With this in mind, the Entrepreneurship Cell of NIT Trichy was formed to adhere to the doctrine of spreading, encouraging and fostering the idea of entrepreneurialism among the students and providing the necessary platforms to secure a chance of succeeding.
E-Summit’20 is E-CELL NITT’s flagship event that brings, an assortment of diverse, intriguing and enlightening workshops, guest lectures, interactive sessions with accomplished experts and informal events to every aspiring entrepreneur. E-Summit seeks to develop the inherent potential of students, nurture incredible ideas and instill the qualities one must possess for adopting entrepreneurship as a way of life.
E-Summit Feb 14-16
The event is being conducted from the 14th to 16th of February at NIT Trichy. With cash prizes worth around Rs. 2 Lakhs, it is a hub for numerous start-up enthusiasts, venture capitalists, angel investors, industry experts, accomplished entrepreneurs and successful alumni of the Institute to network and collaborate.
Kicking off the 3-day long event, the Chief Guest, Mr. Apoorv Bajaj, the Executive President of Bajaj Corporation, will be delivering the guest lecture for the inaugural event of E-Summit’20. An avid exponent of sustainable development and humanitarian causes, Mr. Bajaj is involved with several projects that have contributed to the same cause.
Immediately in succession is one of the most anticipated events, Quora Meetup where participants of the event interact with the top writers on Quora in an open session. The event begins with addresses and is followed by an interactive Q&A session. It is headed by three remarkably proficient experts in their respective fields :
Mr. Rohan Jain, an IIT Kanpur and IIM Ahmedabad graduate, an excellent orator and consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Mr. Divyansh Mundra, a top-selling author, great story-teller and awarded the top writer of Quora for the year 2018.
Mr. Kirubakaran Rajendran, a revolutionary stock market investor utilizing self-developed algorithms to trade on the Indian Stock Market, an NSE certified Analyst and an exceptional entrepreneur.
Leadership Conclave, an event for the most aspiring students and enthusiasts, includes guest lectures from eminent personalities, thought-provoking panel discussions and debates, quick-thoughtout solutions, case – studies and networking sessions. The event is headed by:
Dr. Srinivasan Sundarrajan, the former NIT Trichy director, who successfully catapulted NIT Trichy to the top among NITs and among the top ten Engineering Institutes across India, currently works as a consultant.
Mr. Ravi Garikipati, the former CTO and head of FinTech of one of India’s most valuable companies, the E-commerce giant, Flipkart is heading his own venture in FinTech with his incredible wealth of experience.
Mr. Vivek Atray, an ex-IAS officer, a motivational speaker who has given multiple TEDx talks and the author of the best-seller “Finding success within“.
Any event is incomplete without hands-on experience. Filling this roles are three amazing workshops and one case-study conducted on:
Theme: Consulting 101 Workshop – by Mr. Rohan Jain,Top Quora Writer,Consultant at Boston Consulting Group, and an alumnus of IITK,IIMA – India’s premier B-School and EBS Business School,Germany.
Theme: Marketing and Competitive Analysis – by Mr. Erik Azulay, Executive Director, ACIR & Nexus Startup Hub @US Embassy.
Theme: Design Thinking – by Mr. Babu Vittal, founder YUGEN EDUCATION, and a former strategic and creative executive at Flipkart.
Case-Study Workshop: Netcon Technologies. The workshop is focused on project management and customer satisfaction.
E-Summit’20 will be concluded with a valedictory speech from Mahalingam Ramaswamy, the MD of Netcon technologies and a visionary in the field of customized infrastructure for project management and IT solutions.
Business does not run merely on the products and advertisements. It runs on the people of the company and the investors which supports it time to time. You will have to go through sales pitching someday. You might have to pitch your product in some seminar, some meetup or to the investors. In this post, we will tell you about some sales pitch tips to generate leads.
“Filter everything you’re doing, saying and pitching through the customer point of view, and you’ll improve just about every metric you care about today.” – Matt Heinz
1. Tell a Story
No one gonna listen to you if you come on the stage and start bragging about your product. People don’t wanna know about your product if you don’t make them feel good. You can start the pitch by telling a story of someone or something which inspired the creation of the product.
Once you get the people’s attention, you can get into their head and pitch your product directly to their minds. Just don’t talk only facts but some personal experience in the form of a story to make the people feel connected to the pitch. You can generate leads when people will be connected with you.
“How you sell matters. What your process is matters. But how your customers feel when they engage with you matters more.” – Tiffani Bova, Sales Innovation Evangelist and Salesforce Speaker
2. Understand their Need
Understand the need of your audience. You have to observe what your audience wants to hear. Make your speech according to your audience. Even if your audience is not interested in your product, you can tell them something which balance their interests and your product. It will motivate them to listen and engage in your pitch. Nevertheless, the key is to sell your pitch to the investors or audiences. So, cater their need to generate leads through your pitch.
“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” – Seth Godin, American Author
3. Create a beautiful Presentation
Create a beautiful and interesting presentation which grab people’s attention. Use infographics and interesting pictures in your presentation. Make it more colourful. Add real life expediences of the presentation to make it relatable. Put up some straight facts about the product to make it more effective to the customers or investors who you are pitching the idea.
You can create an explainer video to pitch your product. However, you cannot leave it all on the video alone. You will have to explain the explainer video after it ends, to add it with your sales pitch presentation.
Videos are always great to grab the mass attention. It will be great if the video is full of facts, stats and clips showing customer experience and maybe some funny memes to lighten up the mood, in midst of the heavy, strong pitch presentation. Facts and stats are not only interesting but they will create a buzz and people are not gonna forget them so easily and neither your pitch.
It is so obvious. Focus on benefits but explain the problem first. Once you let your prospect realise how big the problem is, they will start listening to you and will get convinced why they should start using the product. Because the more you let your public realize that their problem is huge, the more they will listen that why they should use or invest in the product.
“Sales is not about selling anymore, but about building trust and educating.” – Siva Devaki, CEO – MassMailer
6. Your Own Story
People love life stories. While pitching, you can tell people how you got to where you are today. Let them know your good and bad moments. But focus on emotional moments. It touches their emotions and forces them to see themselves in your position. It will make their mind concentrate on your story. With this, you can easily get their attention and they will not forget about your product for a pretty long time.
You don’t have to stretch it all. In fact, you have to make it short. Keep it all short and simple. But, of course, you can’t do this all in a short period. However, the easy way to make it possible is to divide the time for each task and topic. This way, you will be able to plan it all better. You cannot pitch a product just in some seconds, anyway. So if you have 5 minutes, you will have to focus on the main aspects of the product and pitch whats important for the client, investor or the audience to know.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” -Thomas Edison, American Inventor
8. CTA
CTA or the Call To Action is important for all types of marketing. And the sales pitch is the most important marketing opportunity. At the end of the presentation, you can ask them to sign up on your website, visit it or provide you emails, etc. But call to action is very important at the end of the pitch. Just don’t do it if you are pitching it to investors or clients.
Lastly, wear a smile and put on the coat of confidence. A smile makes you more attractive as people will not fear to reach you out and talk to you. And confidence works as a shield to your bad moves. If you make any minor mistake, your confidence will cover it.
“There is little success where there is little laughter.” –Andrew Carnegie, American industrialist
Conclusion
Sales pitching can be one of the toughest work for you, but once you did it, you will realize how wrong you are. Maybe not in the first chance, but you will develop yourself gradually and become an expert in sales pitching. Experience is the best teacher. These tips are just words unless you go and do it yourself. Prepare yourself as you will never get another chance.
How was your first Sales pitch experience? Please comment below.
India is one of the most favorite destinations of tourists to travel and explore to. And due to the development of the infrastructure and globalization, it has become a top tourist hotspots of the world. Travel and tourist industry directly benefited the hospitality business. Tourism in India is the third largest foreign exchange earner of the country. In this article, we will take a look at one specific sector – the Hotel Business, how you can start one and what all steps are needed to be followed.
The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report by World Economic Forum, has ranked India at the sixth place in tourism and hospitality.
There are many places, cities, beaches, mountains, valleys, monuments, malls and hill stations to experience in our country. And tourists would obviously look for an accommodation while they’re here. And this gives an ample amount of opportunities to the hotel industry to operate in and make a handsome profit too. So, here is the first clue to the initial decision to be made. There is an emergence of budget hotels in India to cater to much of the population who seek affordable stay.
“A hotel should relieve travelers of their insecurity and loneliness. It should make them feel warm and cozy.” — Bill Kimpton, founder of Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group
Location and Type
Location has traditionally been the most important critical success factor. In the right location, where competitors are not fulfilling all customer needs, a hotel can thrive. However, in a neighborhood that has heavy competition from existing hotels, success may not be so forthcoming. So, in order to get started with your hotel business, you will have to decide the location it will be set in. It is going to be the most important decision and a mistake here could cause repercussions in the future.
Now, the hotel could be for business (one which will accommodate business and corporate activities, like business meetings) or one which is solely for tourists and travelers (so, it would be more commercial, emphasis on aesthetics will be there). The entrepreneur would need to determine which location will work best for the hotel to be situated at.
So it would be most profitable and effective if the hotel is located near a tourist destination, in major cities like Delhi, Goa, Kerala, Rajasthan, Mumbai, etc. An intensive research about the potential prospects of a specific region should be done. It would work better if the hotel is located near a parameter of 1 to 10 kms from the tourist hotspot.
A simple, clear, but persuasive hotel business plan is necessary not only for you to think through how you will take on the opportunity, but for you to convince any investor or lender that you have the ability to do so.
If you wish to start your business with best potential prospects in future, don’t cut your investments on great logistics. Logistics play a vital role in the beginning stage of business and working of lodging legitimately. A close proximity to commercial destinations, e.g. a shopping mall, or a multiplex, is desirable. It is crucial to be at the closest to these hotspots for the smooth and fruitful operating of the business.
“The key is to set realistic customer expectations and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them — preferably in unexpected and helpful ways.” — César Ritz, King of luxury hotels
Area
A decision about the area requirement of the hotel business also has to be made. The entrepreneur will need to decide the zone that he will require for setting up the infrastructure appropriately. The number of rooms, the spacious aspect of the room and building, the area in square feet, and the type of hotel would determine the area.
A good amount of emphasis on the “start” should also be made, for instance a 5 star hotel would have a lodging with good amount of rooms and be spread over a huge area. It is essential to know the scope of your hotel business in the particular area where you are planning to start the hotel.
Hence, you have to conduct a market survey within 10 kms of the hotel location. This will help you to know whether it will be profitable in starting the hotel in that location. If there is any competition from similar hotels, you can create a business plan with unique facilities and features to offer for the customers. If you have something new and unique to offer, it will attract more customers to your hotel than your competitor hotels.
The entrepreneur needs to plan the hotel’s layout after deciding the type, location, logistics and area for the same. Getting a professional assistance and consulting an interior designer for the same would be of great value. They will guide you regarding the various intrinsic details and specifications of hotel décor and other methods to attract visitors.
An aesthetic theme and an appealing furnished hotel will run better as the word of mouth spreads the advertisement for it. There are consultants and professional service providers for the same, and one should definitely consider getting it as it will add more to the future returns.
Finances
This is an important aspect in every business – the finances should be given major importance and assurance that there are enough for every other section of the business activity. Whether you buy an existing hotel, build one from scratch, or renovate a building into a hotel, you will need lot of money to invest.
The funds can be obtained from various sources. An entrepreneur need to make the decision of how the funding would be fetched. And exhaustive research and thought should be given to this part. You can also consult with a financial agent for the same. The agent will require a specific commission for the services, you can even search for their services online. Finances can be attained from existing savings, selling of a property, a friend or family member, financial institutes, banks, shares or bonds, and other such sources. The entrepreneur should see that the funds collected will yield in the future, be returned to the bank on time if loan is taken and that no wastage of these resources is done.
Recruit Staff Members
Once the physical aspect of the business is handled, the entrepreneur should start the process of recruiting the staff members. A hotel requires a team of staff that will include housekeeping, chefs, managers, office workers, waiters, servers and customer care executives and cleaning staff being most important ones, the businessman can hire other people to work for him too. You could start the staff member’s team with known people who are willing to work with you and for you, and conduct other recruitment process thereafter and hire more people into your business.
By concentrating on employee satisfaction as well as customer service, a hotel can increase the likelihood that employees are happy and, in turn, provide excellent customer service.
“Motivate them, train them, care about them, and make winners out of them… they’ll treat the customers right. And if customers are treated right, they’ll come back.” — J. Willard Marriott, founder of the Marriott Corporation
Licenses and Registration Requirements
There are many licenses and registration requirements that you will be need for hotel business in India. The licenses needed would have to be renewed on an annual basis. They pertain to building property, safety, police, trade, registrations, ESI, Employee PF, FSSAI, GST and other such permits. Let us discuss them in a bit more detail.
A building permit would be required according to the National Building Code. All hotel in India must have this legitimate business license according to the significant Town Planning Act or Development Act or Municipal Act and other such relevant statutes for format, designing of building, water supply, sewerage, seepage, electric charge, and so forth.
Fire Safety Permit is required for the fire well being declaration. The fire safety license is an important requirement for working of a lodging business. A Fire security endorsement is usually given to if the building has fused appropriate fire avoidance and fire wellbeing measures as required under the guidelines and controls of the Act. The hotels are checked intently by the Police Department to check if the lodgings are kept up to dated.
A Health Trade license is required from the Health Department for eateries and Hotels in India which is typically issued by the Municipal Corporation.
To make your business a legal working entity, you will require a business registration for your hotel business. ESI i.e. Employee’s State Insurance is an independent enterprise requirement under the Ministry of Labor and Employment Act, Govt. of India.
The business needs to contribute 4.75% of the wages for all representatives procuring RS. 15,000 or less toward ES manager levy.
An Employee Provident Fund (PF) Registration is also required for any establishment that uses more than 20 individuals in India.
A Bar license is required if the hotel also serves liquor in the eateries. An FSSAI Food business license under the Food Safety and Standard Act is required for working a Food Business in India and Restaurant in India.
And lastly, your business will require a GST registration in India and you can contact a legal service provider for the same.
Another important requirement for your hotel business would be to obtain appraisal from the Indian Tourism Board. These appraisals typically work inside 1*, 4*, 2*, 5*, 3*, and 5 deluxe * system. And hence the owner should look at every possible way to promote its business locally and globally, both.
Hotel business in India is one of the most lucrative and best business ideas to start up with. One should definitely consider the idea for opening up a business in the hospitality sector as it is the fastest growing industry, especially in India. Hotel businesses are thriving today, and hence lodging business can be one of the most gainful organization to begin.
For a business venture, funding is important to survive the market drill. From, time to time, the businessentrepreneurs and the business ventures, pitch their companies in front of the investors and Venture Capitalist, to get funding and grow their business. These funds are necessary to grow the market aspects of the business and good funding can change the whole face of the brand.
2019 has been a great year, in terms of Indian business and entrepreneurship. In just half way through the year (July report), there was total of $5.8 Billion were funded to Indian startups from different investors. The businesses were able to grow a lot because of the funding they have received.
So here are the Top 10 Funding rounds of 2019:-
Zomato
Zomato is an Indian restaurant aggregator and food delivery startup.It was founded in 2008 by Deepindar Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. It is known for providing information, menus, user-reviews of restaurants and food delivery options from the partner restaurants.
Zomato has raised over $600 million of funding from Chinese investors Alibaba’s Ant Financial. The other important investors for Zomato are Infoedge, Temasek. Zomato’s valuation has crossed over $3 billion in the new funding round, as they have managed to raise over $2 billion in funding in the earlier part of 2019.
Zomato has acquired the Indian operations of Uber Eats for around $350 million. Uber Eats is the food delivery biz run by Uber.
Ola has been the dominating player in the Indian-ride platform. It is a service that allows booking a range of cabs, bikes, rentals and other vehicles through a mobile app.
Ola has raised a total of $3.8B in funding over 25 rounds. Ola has raised over 1 billion dollars in funding through seed funding in 2019 and the funding is provided by Tiger Global and Matrix India. It raised $250 million in funding from Softbank in JULY 2019.
After the successful e-wallet, paying bills, recharges, transferring money etc, PayTm introduced the Paytm Mall. It is a platform, where users can shop like any other e-commerce website or application. The user can sometimes get some extra benefits like cash backs,discounts, etc.
Paytm mall finalized investment deals from eBay of $160 at a 5.5% stake, at a valuation of $3 Billion. The investment also allowed eBay to sell their inventory on the platform of the Paytm mall.
PolicyBazaar is an Indian insurance aggregator and global financial technology startups. It was founded in June 2008 by Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal and Avaneesh Nirjar. It is a digital platform where users can compare financial services from major insurance companies.
In 2019, PolicyBazaar raised over $150 million in funding from Chinese Technology giant Tencent Holdings Pvt.Ltd. The funding will be used to start newer financial services verticals and to venture into newer segments’ financial services, which will be a mix of B2B as well as B2C businesses.
Cure.fit is an Indian health and fitness company, which offers digital and offline experiences across various activities like fitness, nutrition, mental well-being and operates gyms under Cult.Fit and healthy food offerings under Eat.Fit.
In 2019, Cure.fit raised a funding of over $75 million in April 2019 as a part of their round and then, further raised about $45 million dollars, making it a close of $120 million of funding for the company. The funding is a mix of both debt and equity funding and is led by Chiratae Ventures, Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Oaktree capital. Some new investors who also took part in the funding round are Kotak Mahindra Bank, Epiq Capital, Unilever Ventures and Innoven capital.
BYJU’S
BYJU’S is one of the leading learning apps. It is the simple name of the brand “think and learn Pvt.ltd”. BYJU’S is a Banglore-based educational technology and online tutoring firm, which was founded in 2011 and gained its popularity in India. The founder of BYJU’S is Byju Raveendran.
In the year 2016, Byju’s became the first company in Asia to receive funding from Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, which is a joint initiative by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.By 2019, it has funded over $785 million by investors like Sequoia Capital India, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Tencent, Sofina, Lightspeed Venture Partners, etc. In 2019, it has collected funding over $540 million. Recently in January 2020, Byju’s raised $ 200 million from Tiger Global Management, after which the company was valued at $8 Million. Again in February 2020, Byju’s confirmed raising another $200 Million from New York based private equity firm General Atlantic.
OYO is an Indian hotel chain startup. It is the world’s third-largest and fastest-growing hospitality chain of leased and franchised hotels, homes and a variety of living spaces. It was founded by the Ritesh Agarwal in 2013 and soon became one of the largest hotel chains in India. It has its services in cities of Malaysia, India, UAE, Nepal, China, Saudi Arabia, etc.
OYO has existing investors like Softbank, with a capital of $800 million and in 2019, the founder Ritesh Agarwal has raised over $2.2 billion in debt from a series of Japanese institutions, including Nomura Holdings and Mizuho
Swiggy
Swiggy is also one of the largest and popular online food ordering platform in India. As of 2019, it has been operating in more than 100 cities. It was founded in 2014 by Nandan Reddy, Sriharsha Majety and Rahul Jaimini. The services include restaurant search, online ordering and table reservations.
In 2019 , Swiggy raised over $1 billion in fresh capital which made it the biggest funding in India’s food-tech sector. The existing investors on Swiggy are DTS Global, China’s Meituan Dianping and Coatue Management and the new investors are Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management CO. Swiggy raised over $2 million investment from Accel and SAIF partners in 2015, after their launch.
Razorpay is an online payment solution that enables Indian Businesses to accept, process and also arrange payments. It is known as the best payment gateway app in India. It grants access to multiple modes of payments including credit card, debit card, online banking, unified payments interface, etc.
Razopay has raised over $75 million dollars in 2019, in the latest round of equity financing which has led by financial technology-focused investment firm Ribbit Capital. Reportedly, Razorpay also managed to raise $450 million in funding from marquee venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, disclosed by a close source.
Snapdeal
Snapdeal is an Indian e-commerce company, known for selling over 3 million products from 800+ categories from over 1,25,000 regional, national and international brands and retailers and has a reach in more than 6,000 towns and cities across the countries.
In 2019, Snapdeal raised over $1.8 billion in funding ad has been backed by investors like Alibaba, Foxconn, and Softbank.
2019 has been a very smooth and fast year for many startups while others were struggling hard. We hear the news about funding each and every day, which we even cover on StartupTalky’s social media handles. Funding has helped a lot to these companies to evolve and help the country to grow this year.
If you know any other startup which was funded in 2019, do let us know in the comments.
Customer churn is the SaaS kryptonite. It is what scares SaaS founders the most, and they are always innovating ways to beat it. Customer Retention is one of the most crucial and cost-effective SaaS retention strategies.
Customer Retention = (Number of Customers at End of Time Period – Number of Customers Acquired During Time Period) X 100 / No. of Customers at Start of Time Period) For example: Imagine you start the year with 10 customers, gain 5 new customers in the first quarter, and have 1 customer churn. Customer Retention = ((14-5)/10)) x 100 = 90%
If you’re not doing customer retention right, it can result in a loss as you acquire more customers. The SaaS model gets you profitability over time, and if your users churn before completing enough payment cycles to break even on the acquisition costs, all your growth strategies will be ineffective. Customer retention, in this sense, means getting your customer to stay and engage with your product long enough till it becomes a habit/ part of their daily lives. As they become long-term users, it will give you more opportunities to upsell, increasing their LTV (lifetime value).
Now, we will discuss some ideas with which we can boost customer retention:
Personalized marketing with email
The first area to search for low-hanging fruit is in the emails you write. Most email programs come with the ability to record personal data alongside email addresses, so you can quickly personalize based on the needs of your subscribers. To use this simple strategy, send an introductory email with a compelling subject line asking subscribers to self-select their interest. Are they using your software for a small business, for personal use, or something in-between?
Personalized email marketing
A subscriber’s interests aren’t the only way you can segment. Turn also to the life cycle of your SaaS product. For example, recent signups might be more interested in learning about your biggest features, while power users will find details, advanced tips, and hidden shortcuts more valuable. Thankfully, this information is easy to gather from within your app analytics. Understand where users are in the customer journey and appeal to those stages.
Time discounts and offers to free trial progress
The most powerful feature that distinguishes SaaS companies from other products and services is the ability to provide a free trial. This is the perfect time to optimize your emails and take advantage of the buying mechanisms at play—urgency, a sense of trust, and the excitement of starting with your product. This is also a good time to offer a discount or other promotions related to the soon-to-expire trial offer. A great example is Zapier’s email reminder, which you can see below, lifted straight from the inbox:
Zapier’s email reminder
The email is customized to each user, reminding him or her how many tasks have been automated and providing a custom recommendation for which upgrade to choose based on usage. In short, it’s the perfect email to convert a free trial user to a happy paying customer.
Information gathered in the CRM software can tell you which of your accounts are your most profitable. These are the customers you really don’t want to let go of, your key accounts. For this purpose, let’s call them the VIPs. Knowing who brings you most revenue allows you to allocate your time and resources efficiently, as well as increase your chances of cross- or up-selling.
Example: Let’s say you have a number of incentives to give away. Use them to reward your VIPs to further increase their loyalty. The Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes
Pareto principle
It’s easy: just create a list of your VIP customers in your CRM software. Now, you can start to follow up and let them know about the rewards and incentives in order to make them feel special, so they continue to be your most profitable customers, which, if you consider the 80/20 rule, this investment is bound to pay off!
Customer Referrals
If you’re not already tracking customer referrals, you need to start. Your best customers are also your best salespeople. When they are happy, they will provide testimonials, leave reviews, and most importantly, refer their friends, family, and co-workers to your brand. Having a lot of customer referrals indicates that customer satisfaction is very high. Affiliate or refer-a-friend incentive programs are very powerful tools that marketers have been using forever.
Not only do they reward customers for providing you with new business, but they provide you with several valuable insights. In addition to detailed tracking of your customer referrals, affiliate programs provide you with insight into why people recommend your brand. Referral programs might not be ideal for all types of businesses, but all businesses should be tracking customer referrals to determine if it ever could present a word-of-mouth marketing opportunity.
Use automation to re-engage customers
Automation is allowing some of your routines to be handled automatically by a software. The most popular is “marketing automation.” Monitoring and keeping your customers abreast manually are time consuming. Because there are so many processes to be repeated daily, in order to keep your brand fresh in the customer’s mind.
Marketing automation
The idea here is to use automation to re-engage your customers. Sure, you’ll see a boost in conversion rate as you engage customers manually, however, you can communicate stronger and faster through automation. Through automation, you can manage your customer contacts, drip feed education emails, schedule promotional emails, text messages, and event notifications.
Excellent customer support makes a difference to your business’s success. Using chatbots for minor inquiries can help reduce the time taken to meet such concerns. Information like tracking updates, delivery details, reservations, and more don’t need human intervention. Chatbots save time when users need information that can be extracted from a database.
Customer support vs Chatbot
Your live customer support staff can focus on critical issues, giving attention to problems that matter. You’ll offer faster support, saving time and resources. A chatbot strategy can improve your customer support and influence a customer’s decision to stay with your business. This leads to greater loyalty and improved retention rates. Successful businesses are the ones that recognize that customers form the backbone of their business. Support your customers with retention strategies, and they’ll support you.
Leverage customer feedback surveys
Surveys are powerful tools for building customer engagement. Surveys may look boring, but people like it. According to Fluid Survey University, “The Average Response Rate for email surveys is 24.8%.” Hearing from customers directly to know how they feel about your products and services is a great way to cement the bond that already exist. In essence, it can help you develop engaging custom content for customer retention. When customers are given the chance to express themselves, they reveal their minds and feelings about your brand.
In their complaints, be sensitive enough to catch the pain points. Get to know the areas they’re not satisfied about and why. Adjusting in those areas will turn things around. Remember that through feedback, you can re-engage a customer that’s about giving up on your brand. No matter how you look at it, automation can help your business in so many ways. Most striking is the fact that it can help you engage and retain your customers.
Conclusion
The goal of inbound marketing is to build a mutually beneficial relationship between brands and customers. This opens the door for special offers that extend far beyond a coupon. Keeping your customers happy is more than continuing to receive their money, it also helps you improve your company to make them even happier – and in turn, they’re happy to spend more money. By the way, which of these customer retention strategies have you implemented, and how did it work for you?
