This article is contributed by multiple Startup founders from different fields.
The journey of an entrepreneur is filled with excitement, hard work, and a great lot of patience. In this journey, while building up your dream from the scratch, can sometimes feel exhausting. At this point, you need someone who you can look up to when there is a necessity. Those people not only have more experience than you, but they will also advise you and teach you new strategies and tactics to handle your business. These are the people who will give you ideas regarding your current situation and they are called Mentors.
In this article, we will find out, when an aspiring entrepreneur should look for a mentor. Some of the successful entrepreneurs presented their take on this topic. Let’s take a look.
Manav Shah | Founder, Eduvacancy
For me, a mentor is someone who I can look up to as a role model. I wanted to always find a mentor with whom I could discuss, share and debate about the obstacles, I am facing in my startup. When I started building Eduvacancy, I realized in the preliminary months that I needed a role model or mentor to guide me and prepare me for the various difficult decisions I’d have to make. When we began working on building the platform and implementation of the technical aspects, I thought of finding an ideal mentor who would be a strong guiding force and pillar of strength for me. Therefore, before I began full-fledged platform operations, I felt the need of finding the right mentor who would guide, hear and teach me to sail through the difficult phases of building a startup.
Kunal Ahirwar | CEO & Co-Founder, Earnvestt Technologies
Mentorship is an integral part of the entrepreneurial community. For the Earnvestt team, the biggest reason we needed mentors was when we were running our first beta test and we were not getting sufficient sign-ups from the users that we had personally spoken to, which indicated that our product and user flow was not good enough.
Neha Indoria | Co-Founder, Boingg!
It was an organic process that originated from us trying to find answers to problems that presented themselves as we tried to navigate the process of setting up a business by ourselves. Some advise seemed needless and, in some cases, the insights made us re-think our strategy entirely, and slowly we were able to identify the areas in which we will need continued guidance.
Utkarsh Gupta | Managing Director, Ramagya Mart
When I was pondering over a business idea, which finally culminated in the formation of Ramagya Mart, I wasn’t very sure if I should rely on the mentoring acumen prevalent in abundance in my family, or should I seek professional mentoring. As destiny would have it, I was at this crucial stage when I decided to look for a mentor who could professionally guide and personally navigate me to take the right direction.
There was never a defining moment in my life when I felt like I needed a mentor. It just happened organically through inspiring people who came into my life through my student and professional life. No one really wakes one day and says, ‘hey, I need a mentor’. You just feel the impact and connection with someone and reach out to them from time to time.
Ritesh Ujjwal | CEO & Co-Founder, Kofluence
As Sir Isaac Newton famously said in his 1675 letter, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants”, in my opinion, most of us need guidance for clarity of thoughts/ directions through individuals who have chartered similar paths earlier or for a fresh perspective. Thankfully, I realized the value of mentors right during my engineering days and I was fortunate enough to be able to find amazing folks across academic, industry leaders as well as a couple of batchmates in front of whom I could be absolutely transparent and leverage their insights. I have been continuing the same ever since and the ‘mentors’ circle has expanded with amazing new folks from different spectrums of life especially during the last 3 years of building Kofluence.
Conclusion
The need for a mentor can arise anytime. Maybe, at a time when just an idea for a startup is peeking inside your head or in the middle of launching a new product for your startup. You should definitely go for a mentor whenever you feel for one.
This article is contributed by multiple Startup founders from different fields.
Most of the time having a mentor really is a benefit for many entrepreneurs. the main job of a mentor is to guide, motivate and inspire you and will you out to find a way from any kind of challenging situation. Amongst millions of people, it can be a challenge to find the perfect mentor for yourself.
In this article, we will find out how to find a perfect mentor. Some of the successful entrepreneurs shared their views on this topic.
Kunal Ahirwar | CEO & Co-Founder, Earnvestt Technologies
We needed someone with experience and expertise and hence we decided to go through an incubation program. We found great mentors like Tanul, Kruti, and others along our journey through Afthonia.
Utkarsh Gupta | Managing Director, Ramagya Mart
This was a challenging task indeed! My office was given the task to identify a mentor for me who could assist me in taking the right decisions. After engaging with professional mentors, management gurus, and consulting organizations that were either recommended by references or identified by research, I finally found a perfect mentor that followed his organization’s philosophy to the tee- “I know that I don’t know”! I loved the philosophy the second I heard it!
The trait I liked the best about this mentor was that in our initial engagements, there was no mention about his 25 years of cross-industry experience, never failing to achieve a target ever, 100% success as a brand strategy consultant and in fact, I never got a feeling that he was a know-it-all guy! His confidence, his energy, and the way he emulates his consulting practice were just unconventional and incomparable to the rest, like a doctor that never prescribes a treatment unless the symptoms are thoroughly analyzed.
Neha Indoria | Co-Founder, Boingg!
A perfect mentor doesn’t exist. Just like a perfect business doesn’t. We essentially earmarked the areas where we needed help and identified 2-3 people we could trust to get advice from. Slowly this network of individuals helped us create a veritable sounding board for our areas of concern.
Manav Shah | Founder, Eduvacancy
I am an avid networker and I love meeting new people. The sole idea behind meeting new people is to learn about their life stories, habits, and personality. I found my perfect mentor by continuously networking and meeting different people from various walks of life. I would go into detail and understand the life learnings of the people I met. This helped me in understanding the characteristics and leadership styles of people with who I interacted. I would also chalk down my future plans and try to understand from different people’s experiences if anyone would add substantial value in my growth journey. However, it was a continuous process of networking at events, conferences, social media platforms that led me to find the right mentor for myself.
I wanted a mentor who was extremely disciplined and focused in their life journey. Besides that, I wanted someone who has experience in building/scaling and investing in different startup ventures. When one invests in different ventures, they start evaluating companies extremely critically. For me, it was necessary to focus on every small problem in the business and do anything to fix it. I wanted a mentor who personally had faced a lot of challenges in their phase of building up. This would really help me in evaluating and overcoming the challenges and mistakes that would come my way. More importantly, I wanted a mentor who would also sharpen my leadership skills and make me more efficient to scale my startup.
There was no wishlist, as such. But some of the most inspiring mentors have been the ones who have helped me see the bigger picture, have faith in myself, and call a spade, a spade. Professionally, most founders also seek out the investor community, including myself. I don’t come from a business family, I just had a vision for SuperBottoms. It was Kunal (Bahl) who was the north star in terms of bringing the vision alive and breathing life into SuperBottoms.
Ritesh Ujjwal | CEO & Co-Founder, Kofluence
Mentor mentee relationship is extremely important and it needs to be nurtured over time to understand each other’s and corresponding personality traits and thought processes. While nurturing this relationship is mostly conscious and the way is largely defined wherein you understand the strengths and weaknesses, one can also find a mentor in a serendipitous manner. In my case, it has been a mix of academic as well as professional life.
Conclusion
Mentors are the guide that will give you a clear picture of your situation and will be beside you when you need them. One needs to be careful while looking for a perfect mentor because in the long they are going to be your trusted confidante.
The situation in India is becoming worse day by day. The cases have been increasing and the NGOs, fundraising organizations, the frontline workers and the Government have been working continuously against the spread of the virus and containment of it.
Wearing a mask and maintaining social distance are not the only things that matter in these hard times. A lot of people are facing many difficulties and here are some simple but effective steps you can follow in order to help your community to fight during this unprecedented time.
If you have certain skills, you can use them to educate the people about the ongoing situation and support the community. Let’s say if you are a content creator or a social media influencer you can create content about awareness or something related to the ongoing situation in the country.
A graphic designer can design posters about the precautions to be taken, coming up with some informative posts or you can even create posts for some NGOs or Fundraising organizations and help them serve the community.
Educating your community
If you are a fitness enthusiast or a nutritional coach or even a social media influencer then you can share tips with your community on how to take necessary precautions, providing different techniques to stay safe, different breathing exercises to help increase oxygen levels.
If you don’t have a community to share you can build your own community in these hard times and help people stay fit and active. Make them practice yoga or make them active through certain physical activities. You can educate them about the importance of nutrition and how it helps them during these times.
Community help
Sharing positivity
Since most of the news or information which is consumed by people is negative, you can try sharing something positive. If you are a musician you can create new covers which people would enjoy or organize certain virtual jams which would keep the people entertained.
If you are a social media influencer or a motivational speaker you can share positive thoughts and keep your community motivated.
You can check in with your family members, friends your neighbours or your known people. Call them up to check on their status just to ensure that they are fine. Speak to them for some time and always try your best to help them in case they require your help.
Check in with your Family
If you are unable to help try finding someone who can help them in that case. Always support each other and being there for each other is very important during this hard time.
Social Media post
Always cross check what you share on your social media account. Ensure that you don’t share any fake news, double check to find the facts and always post factual news only after you are convinced and find it legitimate.
Try not to share any hateful posts or any triggering posts on your social media profiles. Try staying away from all the negative posts and information. Support a budding creator or a business that is trying to help people during these times and finding solutions for their problems. You can share memes or some funny videos on your social media platform.
You can share useful stories or posts on your social media account. For example, posts such as Covid helpline number of your locality or if there are any NGOs providing meals for the affected family or oxygen cylinders as your post may be helpful for some family which we would never know.
Share useful stories on social media
Always try supporting NGOs and fundraising organizations and a small help from your side can contribute a lot to the organizations and certain families. You can even share details about the Plasma donations or any help which would help the members in the community who are going through a difficult time.
Staying home is the most important and the best way you can help the community. It would cut down the spreading of the virus and ensure that you go outside only if it very necessary. Every time you go out take the necessary precautions such as using double masking or using an N95 mask, sanitize and maintain social distance.
FAQ
How can I help my community?
Get involved as a volunteer, Support local businesses, Tidy up, Help your neighbours, and Donate things. These are few ways to help your community.
Why is helping the community important?
It will enrich your life, familiarize you with your community, and connect you to people and ideas that will positively impact your perspective for the rest of your life.
How can I protect myself and others from getting COVID-19?
Avoid close contact with people who are sick, Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol, Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash, Maintain at least 1 meter (3 feet) distance between yourself and other people, and Wear cloth face coverings in public settings.
Conclusion
Take all the precautions so that you and the members of your family would remain safe and secure. Do your part of the help in order to support the community and together we can break the chain and cut down the rise of the cases in the country.
The digital fintech startup Paytm has recently announced that it has launched a platform for its users to learn about investing. It has launched a video-based wealth community platform(Currently in beta stage) for the users to learn investing. Let’s look at the further details of the New Community Platform Launched by Paytm for Learning Investments.
Paytm is an Indian based multinational startup company. They are an e-commerce payment system and a financial technology company that has its headquarters located in Uttar Pradesh, India. The company was founded in the year 2010.
The abbreviation of Paytm stands for “Pay Through Mobile” and it encourages it with its famous tagline ‘Paytm karo’. The company was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Some of the company’s products are Paytm Mall, Paytm Payments Bank, Paytm Money, Gamepind, Paytm Smart Retail.
The services offered by Paytm are Payment systems, digital wallets, mobile payments banking, online shopping, etc. Some of the key investors of the company are Ant Group, SoftBank Vision Fund, Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, etc.
Paytm Wealth Community
On 26 April 2021, Paytm which is one of the largest fintech companies in India announced that it has launched a platform that is a video-based wealth community to revolutionize the Indians to learn, discuss and trade in the capital markets.
Paytm Wealth Community is considered to be India’s first community which will be based on investing. The platform will be video based and there will be live sessions conducted for the users of the community to ask doubts and discuss on the topics.
The live sessions will be conducted by the industry experts and will cover a wide range of topics for the users such as stocks, futures and options, ETFs, Mutual Funds, IPO, Gold, Fixed Income and Personal Finance.
Paytm Wealth Community
The platform will provide a chance for users to learn from the experts in the industry, discuss their doubts with them and also chat and grow together with their fellow learners. The users on the platform will discuss on various wealth related topics.
In today’s world, the way the youth learn, interact and transact has seen a rapid evolvement. The social interaction between peers has been greatly influenced by the growth of apps and other social media platforms.
It is seen that the social media platform and communities on various other sectors have seen a considerable growth, the digital platforms communities and groups have grown over the years, but there has not been a trustworthy digital platform and a reliable platform for wealth management.
Paytm intends to cover it up and build a trustworthy and reliable wealth management platform for the youth through its new community. It is taking a step to fulfill the requirements of the Indian Investors by launching the platform.
The platform will contain live video content with an interactive chat platform and creators are planning to conduct the sessions for a time period ranging from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. The sessions are expected to be launched in various languages such as Hindi, Gujarati, English and many more.
The platform is under beta testing and Paytm has onboarded a limited set of users. All the creators will have to go through a KYC process which will be a step for ensuring the safety of the retail investors. All the contents will be recorded and checked.
The roadmap of the product and technology is expected to completely transform the user experience. Over the period of time, the users will be able to create a customized discussion room by setting up their creator account and will also be able to chat in a controlled environment.
Paytm expects that the next 100 million capital market investors will be originated through investment communities and social groups and the wealth community of Paytm intends to be a leader and helping the investors to save, trade and invest better.
Beta testing
Paytm has said that users who have received the access to the wealth community launched by Paytm will be able to see a calendar that will have a list of the video sessions available on the platform. The beta testing feature is expected to be for the period of two months and later it will be opened to access to all.
The CEO of Paytm money, Varun Sridhar said that Paytm money was a natural choice by the company for its beta testing platform for the wealth community. Paytm money has direct access to a broad range of investment communities and has a reach across India.
Paytm Wealth Community also offers an opportunity for the experts in the industry to create a personal brand by creating their content and sharing their knowledge with millions of budding investors. This will be a platform to create a personal brand in the capital markets industry.
The company is supporting anyone with the required skills and has a significant social impact to create a personal brand. For starting the registration process, they will have to mail to pwc@paytm.com.
FAQ
Who is the current owner of Paytm?
One97 Communications Ltd is the owner of Paytm.
Who is CEO of Paytm?
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the current CEO of Paytm.
Is Paytm Chinese company?
PayTM is owned by an Indian company by the name of One97 Communications Ltd.
Conclusion
The capital investors in India have seen a significant rise in the last two years because of the pandemic. People are looking forward to growing their wealth through capital markets due to the layoff of jobs. Platforms such as Upstox, Groww, Zerodha and Paytm money has seen a subsequent increase in their user base.
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 SHEROES
When India was busy talking about feminism and how it will change humanity for good, some entrepreneurs were actually taking steps towards making life better for the female section of the society. One such entrepreneur is Sairee Chahal, who founded SHEROES in the year 2013.
SHEROES is a platform to build a community for women by offering support, resources, opportunities, and interactions via the portal named Sheroes.com and the application- SHEROES.
Lets go through the Success Story of SHEROES along with getting a glance on SHEROES Founder, Business Model, How it Started, Funding, Revenue Model & more…
SHEROES, the women-only community is a safe and trusted space founded by Sairee Chahal. Here, women can discuss various aspects of their life like health, careers, relationships and also share their life stories, achievements and moments. The SHEROES application also offers a dedicated helpline where the community members can talk to counselors on aspects of their growth journeys.
SHEROES follows a platform-centric model that aims at connecting companies to women professionals. These include mechanisms like the digital product, channel programs, hiring initiatives, employee branding, custom and of course special projects. Also, this is an engagement platform for brand marketers who are looking to engage with urban educated women. SHEROES.in today’s powers some of the largest diversity initiatives, channel programs and returning professionals programs.
SHEROES being an intermediary platform offers its enterprise customers a wide array of products which includes Brand Solutions, SHE – which is originated for the prevention of sexual harassment at work platform and also there is a Managed Remote Solutions program. Additionally, this platform also hosts the #SHEROES Summit which is a multi-city annual flagship event and #theshift Series which is envisioned for changing the gender narrative, alongside the community meets across geographies.
Sairee Chahal is the Founder and CEO of SHEROES. Sairee is a technology entrepreneur and has straddled the best of both worlds in her multiple ventures like Newslink, Fleximoms and now SHEROES.
She started Fleximoms.com to help women in India to discover new opportunities. Sairee is widely credited for building up women at work and future-of-work conversations in India. Also, she is renowned for building a strong technology play to solve the problems of gender disparity in India. This brilliant entrepreneur is also the convener of The SHEROES Summit which is India’s largest women’s forum.
Sairee has an M.Phil from JNU and a PGDM from IMT Ghaziabad. She kicks started her professional career while she was still in college before cofounding her first startup. Back then she was working at corporates like Heidrick and Struggles and CII. Sairee seems to be the icon of the modern woman. She has spoken on the TEDx stage and has been featured in India Today.
The idea behind SHEROES is very simple. It is to partner with every woman in India so that she can stay on a career path of her choice and meticulously excel at it. Now, this includes all types of working women, be it that of a first-time intern, work at home mom or a top corporate strategist or an entrepreneur.
According to Sairee Chahal, “I have been an entrepreneur more than once and have also been on the corporate side story, with its own trappings of success and career ladder. However, one does realize the need to address what looks like a reducing peer group as you grow into your career. SHEROES.in was set up with the view of converting the talk about diversity into the action. We all know the figures, the data, the gender and women at work debate but how do we bring out solutions. SHEROES.in is a step in that direction. The response has been great and we are very early into this. This can only go one way – towards more and more solution-oriented change concerning the women at work”.
SHEROES revenue is mainly driven by companies, who pay for 3 things:
For set up of women centric programs and initiatives
For premium products provided in platform like Ad Space, Micro sites, postings etc.,
For helping the companies to establish diversity program for companies, do benchmark studies etc.,
SHEROES – Startup Challenges
When it comes to startups that create business alignment with what will be financial value plus social impact is definitely a challenge. When you are at an early stage in the process, you are likely to be written off easily. Also, being a bootstrapped startup with a big audacious goal is not easily acceptable in the community. SHEROES as an enterprise defies many startup formulas, making way for new and contemporary concepts, but germinating these ideas is tough
When it comes to women’s employment and platforms that create and mediate those, the market seems to be fairly crowded and competitive. SHEROES competes with big and small industry affiliates like LinkedIn, TheMuse, Jobs for Her, Women for Hire to name a few.
SHEROES – Funding and Investors
SHEROES has raised over $2.58M in 3 rounds of funding. Its most recent funding was led by Leo Capital and Facebook executive Anand Chandrasekaran for an undisclosed amount.
Otipy, the social commerce venture of farm-to-retail agritech startup Crofarm partnered with SHEROES to empower women.
This partnership will be based on a revenue-sharing model, with strong synergies between both the app-based platforms. With an aim to empower women pan-India by providing them with an earning opportunity as Otipy partner resellers, this partnership was fueled. The initiative is looking to partner with 1000+ women in becoming Otipy resellers
SHEROES – Growth
Has members from over 20,000 locations
Over 12,000 companies actively use the platform
Currently active in all the major metro cities of India
SHEROES till date (2020) has acquired 6 startups, thereby strengthening its offering to the community.
Date
Company/Acquiree
About
September 2016
LoveDoctor
A health counselling platform
October 2016
Gharkamai
An online platform that assists professional women in finding work from home opportunities
August 2017
Women Restart
supports women returning to work after career break
September 2017
Babygogo
A healthcare startup that offers a parenting platform helping new moms keep their children healthy
January 2019
Maya
It enables women to keep track of their health via a mobile application
June 2020
Naaree.com
Women-focused publishing platform
SHEROES – Awards
SHEROES was awarded by the IAMAI Digital Awards in the “Social & Economic Empowerment” category in the year 2018.
Onalytica’s “Future of work Top 100 influencers and brands” featured the founder of SHEROES, Sairee Chahal at number 53 in the influencer list and SHEROES at number 30 in the brand’s category.
In the coming five years, SHEROES aims to put more than 100 million women on the growth road map in the country. SHEROES plans on expanding its footprint and go deeper into TIER 1 and 2 cities in India, where the need for opportunities is vast and there are lesser resources or help available to women.
SHEROES – Frequently Asked Questions
What will I find on SHEROES.in?
The part of being on SHEROES is that you will be a part of urban, educated, and empowered women. You can find job opportunities, career guidance from the panel of mentors and access to career resources. If you are woman looking for career opportunities and other women like you, SHEROES.in is the best platform for you.
Who is Sairee Chahal?
Sairee Chahal is the Founder and CEO of Sheroes, A woman only community.
Can I find jobs on SHEROES?
Yes, you can. You need to complete your profile, search and apply for jobs of your interest. You can find jobs on sheroes.in/jobs. Nont only jobs but you can also get career guidance and resources.
How to join bloggers network on SHEROES?
You just have to sign up on the website. Being a blogger on SHEROES you can get blogging opportunities, work as affiliate partners, be an official and verified SHEROES.in blogger.
We all have something that we want to change. It might be that you want to change your boss’s attitude towards you at your workplace or you might want to win the heart of your clients. Maybe you want to change your child’s behavior towards you or you want to change your parent’s mindset. But what is pertinent is that change is not flexible.
While we try to change the mind of people we often do not choose the right approach. We tend to push our thoughts and opinions on others. We try to overwhelm others with the answers that we think are right and hence this approach becomes ineffective. While pushing opinions won’t work, there are other ways to change someone’s views. Here in this article, you will find tips to get people to change their minds.
People never want to be in someone else’s control. If you want to change their mind or thought you need to give them the control of making a choice among the two or more possible options. All you need to do is give them a choice, a chance to select from the available options. Leaders never like the words mandatory or compulsory as people never want to feel obligated to do something. When you give them a choice and all the options work in your favor, you can easily persuade them to change their mind.
Make it their Idea
In a healthy discussion, there is always a common ground, a point where both or all the parties agree upon. All you need to do is to find that common ground, take that idea and move to the place where you wish to go. For example, you might say that “from your idea, A to B think about C and D as well, what you suggest?” Give them the credit of thinking about B, C, and D as well. All you are doing in this way is that you are convincing the opponent that the answer or the solution you want is their idea. This is one of the most effective persuasive tactics.
Don’t Argue
Arguments are unnecessary
There might be arguments which do not have an end or a concrete solution and you are strongly advised to stay away from such debates because you cannot change people’s mind this way. While in an argument, even if you are technically and logically correct, even if you have evidence to prove your point, the other person’s ego and emotions will start dominating him/her and they will be completely blind your logic and rationale, thus, resulting in the rigidness of opinion.
Be Humble
Humble people always rule. Whenever you would tell people that they were wrong and you were right, they will create a bigger wall of ego around them and this crossfire will always increase. One of the best ways to deal with people and change their minds is to act humble. While a discussion might be going on, you might enter the discussion saying “hey, I might be wrong but…’ and there you drop the guard of the opponent whom you want to persuade. The statement ‘I might be wrong’ can influence a lot of people as it is far more open to admitting being wrong.
To make any conversation meaningful and logical, you should hear the other person out and listen to what they have with them. Let us stop for a second and look at the flip side of the conversation, the perspective of the person whose mind we are trying to change. If you want to change the other person’s thoughts and influence him, it is important that you listen to him otherwise he might be waving his hands around their head and ignoring what you’re trying to say and will walk off the conversation. So before you indulge the other person into your logical responses, understand their emotional state, hear them out, and then convince them to change their opinion wisely.
Fill in the Gap they Created
If you really want to change someone’s behavior one of the brilliant ways to do so is to figure out the gap between their actions and their attitude towards what they are doing. It is psychologically proven that one should never point out the mistakes of others or what they are doing wrong, instead find out the gap that they have created and fill it with your thoughts or corrective actions.
There might be times when you feel that people are too stubborn to change. Their attitude and mentality are so rigid that none of your techniques would work out to change their minds. At such times one of the promising ways to mend their opinion is to put social pressure on them. Tell the opponent that this is a general norm or this is what the majority of people think and do, point out the norm, and compel them to change their mind by putting such social pressure.
Ask them What it would take to Believe you
This is one of the final or closure tricks when all your efforts go in vain or there is no other option left to change someone’s mind. Ask them this question – ‘What would it take for you to change your mind or perspective?’ Negotiate with them and ask them what it would take them to believe you. Even then if the person is not ready to give you a justification, it is then when you will realize that you are fighting for a lost cause and there is no point in arguing any further.
When you are on the verge of ending the conversation with someone, let them know your opinion in the most humble and polite way. At the same time also ensure that you give honest and right feedback in a very constructive way to the opponent. You can do this by using the CRC (Commendation – Recommendation – Commendation) method of giving feedback. Tell them where they were good and where they can improve. Maybe with the help of your just feedback, the opponent realizes your facts and changes his/her mind.
These small steps can be taken to change people’s mind over time. But remember, forcing your opinion on someone is not appreciated by anyone. You can however talk to people respectfully and convince them to see your side of the argument. We hope this article helps you in solving any minor miscommunications you have in your professional or personal life. Stay calm and hydrated!
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
How do you convince a stubborn person to change their mind?
This is a tricky thing to do. All you can do is calmly explain your side of the argument and give them a list of the pros and cons of the situation and hope they change their mind. If their ego does not get in the way, then they will see the benefits of changing their mind eventually.
Can we change someone’s mind?
Absolutely! If the new idea is beneficial to them then they are bound to change their mind eventually. It might take a whole for people with big egos though!
How do you talk to someone who won’t listen?
You don’t. You let them talk and you listen. After they are done just point out the flaws in their way of thinking and give them alternatives that solve it. After they’ve gotten everything off their chest, they’ll be much more willing to listen.
In the recent times of cut-throat competition among brands, community building has become an essential task for the companies to keep their customers engaged and keep the communication flow intact. More and more companies are turning to leveraging community to connect with their customers and interact with them in a less sales driven way.
Community building also helps the companies with customer support and marketing. It also offers opportunities to understand the behaviour of your customers. Communities create shared experiences, when built on the same values. Many businesses have already understood the importance of customer communities.
However, not all communities are the same. There are many different kinds. The one that you settle on will depend on your business, your audience and your resources. Thus, we interacted with top executives from different companies and they shared their views on ‘How are companies leveraging community to connect and engage with customers.‘
Akhand Swaroop Pandit- Founder and CEO, The Catalyst Group
During disruptive situations like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial to focus on business-critical initiatives. As a brand, you must continue to remain relevant, affable and approachable in such times to foster trust and dependency. The objective cannot be to leverage the ongoing crisis to attract newer customers; your actions have to be rooted in advising your customers, and ensuring brand recall among your existing customers and partners. Marketers play a critical role in enabling seamless engagement with customers, salesforce, partners and employees.
While you can always plan ahead for contingencies, there are behavioural and attitudinal changes that are required to cope with such situations. Marketers have to be agile, quick, and fast thinkers to adapt to these situations. The existing product communication has to overhauled to make it more relevant, and one must realise that customers are adapting to the situation with you.
At Catalyst Group we are using such techniques through providing quality online lectures on our YouTube channel and other social media platforms for free. This is to encourage the students and to make them comfortable with online learning which will be a definite requirement in the near future. Even during interaction with students who want to enroll for our courses, we provide expert advice and career counselling.
This helps the students select courses that fits their requirement and skillset. Adventurism and experimentation has to take a back seat and concentrating on the development needs of the society as a whole must come into focus. Further on this, for our existing students, we are also providing free mental counselling sessions. While in the recent years digital has been the buzz word, every brand has been forced to transform their processes and operations to digital. Especially for the education sector which was always traditionally relied on physical interaction, it is important to make a quick transition to newer platforms, which in today’s age is digital.
Most important of all, you have to be cognisant of the fact that the situation will normalise. So, prepare for that impending normalcy and how your brand will make that transition too.
We have a very vibrant and engaged community of coworkers from diverse companies who have got to know each other through various events organized at YesssWorks. We introduced a Community Testing program wherein individuals can opt-in to support beta testing and provide valuable user feedback to startups looking to launch their products or services.
Companies have found this feedback immensely helpful in tweaking their products potentially saving time and money. We are now evaluating formal rollout of the Community Testing program across all YesssWorks hub by building tools into our tech platform to deploy product, garner feedback and interact directly with the community.
Shivjeet Ghatge- CEO & Co-founder, StepSetGo
It is very important to understand that in most cases it’s an individual that introduces a specific brand or product to a certain community. Whether an influencer, a peer, or a family member, the ability for that one person to successfully convert another, depends on two factors – one, the uniqueness or trendiness of the brand or product, and two, an actual positive display of proof-of-concept. This was something that we experienced first hand with StepSetGo.
When we opened our platform to the public, we started off by doing a small dipstick at the NMIMS college. I personally went to the college grounds, explained, and enrolled members onto the platform, and on that first day itself, we had about 200 users. Initially, a lot of individuals looked at us with absolute disbelief, that through simply earning SSG coins by walking they could potentially buy clothes, gadgets etc.
However, the minute one user witnessed a member within their social circle actually reap the benefits of their walking rewards, a proof-of-concept was established and it created a ripple effect where we landed up gaining almost 55,000+ users everyday within out first quarter.
Anshul Gupta- Co-founder of BOX8 (Poncho Hospitality Pvt Ltd) and MOJO Pizza
The community that we largely focus on is our repeat customer audience. We do everything to pass on maximum value to them – whether it is providing 2X toppings on the pizzas, or delivering the orders within 30 minutes, or giving them the best discount offers.
We listen to their feedback at every step through various channels. Our Brand Managers write to customers personally asking them about their experience, and go through every response. We have a dedicated team that constantly works on analyzing the feedback & making necessary changes.
A large chunk of our orders come from repeat customers. Focusing on them helps us gain customer loyalty and word of mouth. Most of our customers have told us that they got to know about MOJO Pizza via their friends & family.
Rohit Gera- Managing Director, Gera Developments
Rohit Gera- Managing Director, Gera Developments
We have been conducting on-ground workshops and events for our customers anchored in our goal to nurture communities. With celebrity academy tie-ups as part of our ChildCentric® Homes product segment, these have ranged from star-studded events with Shankar Mahadevan, Shiamak Davar, Mahesh Bhupathi, Bhaichung Bhutia to name a few, to concerts by Shankar Ehsaan and Loy to tailored learning and engagement workshops for children to launching our business engagement platform, LINT expanded as Learning Inspiration Networking Training, for our commercial project customers.
We believe in going beyond just constructing homes and offices to building communities and nurturing ecosystems. Through the lockdown, while everyone was adhering to the lockdown guidelines, the monotony of the routine, we learnt, was becoming a dampener. To enliven the situation and give our customers’ families fun opportunities to bond over, we initiated virtual workshops with experts from our celebrity learning academies.
This initiative is our way of telling our loyal customers that we are with them even in these difficult times. Excelling at customer service and giving them the best experiences, is at the core of our service philosophy. Businesses will go through changes so also customer engagement approaches, we must adapt quickly and embrace the new normal to be relevant and outdo.
Sujay Kalele- Founder, Trurealty
Sujay Kalele- Founder, Trurealty
At TRU Realty, the concept of keeping our customers at the heart of all our activities has been etched in our very fabric. We put tremendous efforts in delighting our customers at each stage of the sales cycle and hence, have created many touchpoints for flawless experience with the help of AI, big data analytics and 24*7 access to TRU portal. Simultaneously, we strongly believe that communities have the potential to run businesses with lower risks and higher returns.
An exhilarating experience coupled with risk free investment in a project can be the most sought-after proposition for customers. When we create a community of such delighted customers, we inevitably get accepted in their closed circles, and word of mouth and personal references lead to higher reliability and trustworthiness. Apart from customers, we also work with other stakeholders and create communities for them.
We recently concluded an event for the Architects community (Design Competition) wherein approx. 1000 Architects registered with us.
Globalization processes have resulted in greater complexity, interdependence and limited resources. Non-government organizations and corporations are increasingly engaging each other in recognition that shareholder and societal value are intrinsically linked. For both sectors, these partnerships can create an enabling environment to address social issues and can generate social capital.
This is because entrepreneurs and the business sector has realised that the true potential of customers is not with the size or the number of customers but most importantly, it is with the depth of engagement and interaction. Thus, there has been a global trend where brands have put community building at the heart of marketing strategies.
There is a growing genuine desire among business people to run a business for a profit, but at the same time to be contributing to the investment and the growth in the community, of a strong community. This is because the entrepreneurs have realised that they actually derive their profits from within a society, they live in society, their employees are citizens within a society, their customers are citizens and they abide by the rules of society. That means they have the same responsibilities and duties to society as anyone else who lives and breathes in the society.
Benefits of Building Community
Why should Community building be followed by the entrepreneurs?
Corporate social responsibility is the commitment of business to pursue policies, make decisions and follow directions for actions that are congruent with the overriding objectives and values of the societies in which that business is embedded. The business benefits for doing this are convincing.
Socially responsible behaviour within a community minimizes the possibility of regulation and tighter controls that will inhibit performance. Loss of reputation, criticism and distrust from the community inevitably threaten the sustainability of business. In this view, therefore, economic performance is dependent on social performance and thus it is important that entrepreneurs dedicate themselves to engage with the community.
5 Strategies to build community
In a nutshell, community engagement strategies are a process to help your customers to gain trust in your service. Behavioural studies show, human beings are more attached to groups where they feel more respected and cared for.
You can use these simple strategies, in your daily business to keep up with your customers within the community and spread a smile.
Provide a platform for your community members to freely express their needs:
First, plan and chalk out why do you need to have the community and then work towards it to build a space where the members of the community can express and provide opinions. A big part of the community building strategy is understanding the community members.
Community Building as a part of customer satisfaction
Your feedback form must always consist of these few things:
Whether they liked your service?
Do they think there is any scope of improvement, if yes what?
How can you serve them better?
How has the behaviour and overall service of the employee been?
Will they recommend your service to any of their friends?
These questions would help your customers to gain trust in your service and they would feel cared for. Also, feedbacks would help you build upon your business easily and fill up any gaps which you weren’t aware of. The more the community members feel that they are being heard and valued, the more likely they are to remain loyal to your company and express their needs. This makes community engagement a very interesting tool for retention.
If you are working on creating an idea and spreading your art into the world, you would definitely want it to grow. You would obviously be looking for attention among the community. This is simply, what marketing does. Be it a small-scale banner that is put along the roadway of a steel bar or having a fashion icon speak about a particular beauty secret, there has been various ways of promoting business which entrepreneurs follow.
But you need to keep in mind, what appeals most to your community. Is your community a fan of cricket, then you can use cricketers as models to advertise your product. If most of your community members are at an older age group, you must invent ways so that it is beneficial for them. For example, you may introduce a door step delivery of your product to the old members of your community. You can also arrange and sponsor for programs around your community.
Providing sponsorships engage a lot of attention as it mutually benefits both the businessmen and also the community members. The community members can rely on your service and would continue to reach out to you whenever they need. Some of the benefits in building up the loyalty for your community are listed below:
Always keep in mind, business is like a democracy, the power is in the hands of the customers, if they do not like your service, they can very well provide bad ratings or give negative feedback which would affect your business in a tremendous way in the future. Thus, always keep in mind to do the best from your end.
Creating user generated content implies, you design a tailor-made service or product that is best suited for your community members. For example, not all requires the same shampoo which protects against hair fall. Some might need the shampoo to enrich their hair or have a better shine. Some just need to retain the colour of their hair while some might need a shampoo for their pets. Demands differ according to the needs of your community. Going out of your way to adjust with the desires of a customer makes them feel respected and controlled. Whenever possible, try to provide your customers more than what they expect.
Use social media to build your own community
Most people with a fanbase have derived their customers easily from the social media. Social media can be a great way to engage in building a brand community and attract fans. Digital marketing does not imply only reaching through blog post, but also other mediums such as a YouTube video or simply a social media shoutout. Facebook, Instagram, Twiter, Youtube Channels, LinkedIN are some of the most trending areas where you can freely open up your page and promote your work by attracting attention to the vast majority of people without any political barriers.
You can also be extremely adored by your community members if you follow up their posts, like and share your followers’ posts, comment on them and get to know your followers.
Be responsive
Communities are all about interaction. So, it is insane to expect that you can be unresponsive to your customers when they need help and support.
Relationships between organizations and clients develop with trust. Thus always be patient and Listen and Respond to the problems of your community members regarding your services. We have always been taught to respond and not react, but it becomes quite a challenge to follow this on our daily lives, especially when we deal with customers who provide us with monetary benefits. Whenever there is complaint raised from the end of customers, always listen to all the problems they have been facing, take their side and ask them generously what solutions do they want. See if it is possible for you to provide the community with their demands. Try and do as best as possible for them.
Conclusion
Community involvement includes contributing money, products, services and human resources such as time, skills and leadership to meet the social and economic needs of the community by connecting the objectives of the business with the communities. The strategy is to devise new ways in which business interests can be aligned with community interests so that there is a win–win solution to community problems and issues. The commitment to working together strategically, in order to grow business together sustainably, is good business sense and can create an enabling environment to address social issues.
