StartupTalky

Tag: startup guide

  • Startup Guide: How can fashion startups build strong brands?

    This article is contributed by Karam Suri, Founder of Dusk Attire.

    The digital age is a widely used term across the globe for quite a long time now. Be it, toddlers or elders, everyone is hooked to social media and digital platforms for their personal reasons. Be it business or entertainment, digital platforms have something for everyone. From starting a home-based baking business to launching an online fashion brand to just watching your favorite shows, these platforms cater to everyone’s needs.

    Every time someone steps into the business world, they have a bigger picture in mind and strive day in and day out to make their dreams a reality. Something as trivial as essentials to luxury items, everything is attached to a brand name. Such is the influence of these brand names on our minds that it becomes unsettling if we don’t get the items from our desired brands.

    There are thousands of fashion brands in India, some selling similar products whereas others have created a niche for themselves. The competition is so high that some brands disappear into thin air, and some stand the test of time and go on for generations. Everyone starts from small. A small establishment in a busy market, a small counter in a flea market, a small home-run business, or a small brand launch operating only online. Each individual(s) starts from somewhere and how well are they able to market their brand is what the success of the brand depends on.

    Fashion startups start small, catering to their known circle in the initial stage. Gradually, word of mouth helps and they either launch their brand online or locally and nationally at various fleas and exhibitions. Moving on, if the finances allow, they might be opening a stand-alone store or putting up their outfits at multi-designer stores. In order to do all these things, marketing plays a huge role.

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    Building a brand requires marketing as much as passion and dedication to rise above just being a startup. Social media is the place to be if you want things to go viral. It will help you create the right kind of buzz to tap into the target audience. There are numerous ways to leverage the power of social media to your benefit. Marketing gimmicks depend on how creatively enabled a person is. There is truly no end to this. The basic idea like making a brand page and posting about the brand and outfits on the feed and stories worked for everyone initially. It still works as your customers have to be updated with what the new launches are, what the brand is doing if there is anything out of the box happening with the brand, or just a regular update of what’s taking place on a day to day basis. Another thing that helps fashion startups turn themselves into a brand is investing in influencer marketing.

    Influencer marketing is the way forward if you want to rise from the ground level, reach a wider mass and turn yourself into a brand. In Layman’s terms, you get a known or popular face on board to market your brand’s product(s), they reach out to their followers by putting it up on their stories, or social media feed or endorse the brand as a whole and influence their followers. This helps in tapping onto a larger mass and increasing the clientele. It automatically drives up the sales and eventually, the brand starts getting famous. A short-term influencer marketing plan has the possibility of running into a long-term commitment if the brand sees desired results. The shift change of an influencer marketer to being a brand ambassador can be beneficial to both the brand and influencer. The possibilities are endless, it is all about the action plan and how well you can execute it.

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    Speaking about fashion startups rising to being brands, Karam Suri, Co-Founder of Dusk Attire, says, “Today’s generation is extremely conscious about what they are buying. Trendy and versatile outfits are usually the popular choice as they can be worn at various occasions. Elegance is the word everyone is focused on. Be it party wear or loungewear, people want to pick the best of everything. When the demand is clear, brands should step up and cater to them in the best possible way. It is true that influencer marketing is essential and it is definitely the way forward, as the customers connect to the known faces faster than a random marketing advertisement.”

    Karam Suri further says, “At Dusk Attire we aim to fulfill everyone’s wishes of owning trendy loungewear. This pandemic gave us a huge lesson in comfortable clothing too. We aim to cater to the same demand and stay true to the name, all our collections are apt for the street to sheets whilst keeping excellent craftsmanship and comfort as a priority.

    No business is run on a 100% success module. The risk is always high, but the determination to keep pushing yourself towards the goal of establishing your startup as a brand is what makes the difference. Numerous marketing tools are at your disposal, use them wisely, and see how things start falling in place. As much as age-old techniques of word of mouth marketing and advertisements help, in today’s time investing in proper marketing options like celebrity gifting, influencer marketing, and social media marketing, to name a few will help equally. And once your audience connects with the brand, it becomes a responsibility to maintain that bond and make sure you are the first choice for your customers.

    Draw inspiration from the brands whose names are synonyms to the products. Yes, you read that write. Such is the impact of a strong brand like Cadbury that today nine out of ten people who go to local shops to buy chocolates, directly say Cadbury when in reality they might want some other chocolate. This is when you know you have established yourself as a brand and etched an image in people’s minds when the name of the brand becomes the product’s name.

  • How to build a strong branding strategy for your startup

    This Article is contributed by Vivek Singh, Co-founder & CEO of ThriveCo.

    The startup world is tough. Every minute you are going to be faced with challenges. The rapid highs and lows of the startup world would enthrall and overpower you sometimes. Branding becomes an important tool to ground you in these overwhelming times. As an entrepreneur, your priority should be identifying and projecting your brand image to your audience.

    Branding is the first step a startup takes towards success. Creating a recognizable and powerful brand image ensures that your customers stay loyal to you and you remain in the public consciousness.

    What is Branding?
    Why is Branding important?
    Do’s and Don’ts of Branding

    What is Branding?

    Lisa Gansky, co-founder and CEO of Global Network Navigator and Ofoto says, “A brand is a voice and a product is a souvenir.” Branding helps create a positive image of a company and its products in the minds of a customer. It is a deliberate attempt at value-based communication through mission statements, logos, and design. Your brand is what you present to the world.

    As an entrepreneur, you have to remember that your brand is an overall experience that people get from your product. There is a lot of visual and verbal communication that goes into branding. ThriveCo, a brand that invests in highly specialized and clinical skin and hair-care products, bases its branding on how they help the Indian skin and hair thrive with their scientifically accurate products. Their logos, mission statement, and design indicate their values as a company, the experience that they are going to provide their customers with and this is how they differentiate themselves from all the other companies out there in the market.

    Why is Branding important?

    The world recognizes you based on your branding. Branding helps you connect with the customer and exist in the minds of your audience. It helps create brand loyalty and get customers back by making an impression on them. Branding is extremely important, especially for startups, because it helps make your company more visible. A powerful brand image also helps draw in investors and stakeholders. You can show your customers what makes you unique through your branding. You can use your brand identity to highlight what makes you better than your competition.

    Brand identity is important for marketing relationships with your audience. A strong brand image also imbibes a sense of trust in the minds of the customer and gains their loyalty. One of the strong points of ThriveCo. is their commitment to making their products environment-friendly and non-toxic. This brand identity has helped them cater to customers looking for sustainable alternatives to traditional skin and hair-care products.

    There are a lot of ways you can express your brand identity. It can be physical with the help of signs, logos, designs, and identifiers. This is what your customer will think of first when they think of you. Then, you’d have to consider your brand personality and how the brand expresses itself to the world. ThriveCo. has made sure that their cutting-edge technology-based research and their transparency with their products will signify their commitment towards the safety of their consumers and the efficacy of their product.

    You should also look at the values and principles that your brand will promote. These values sync with your target audience and help draw out people with similar values. The relationship that your brand shares with the customer are also very important. Having a friendly relationship with the target audience will help maintain brand loyalty and increase customer satisfaction. ThriveCo. especially markets towards its customers by constantly getting and working towards their feedback. These mechanisms are very important to establish customer trust and loyalty.

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    Do’s and Don’ts of Branding

    While there are numerous challenges, the brand’s identity is what makes a start-up stronger. Needless to say, the brand is the heart and soul of any business, and developing an identity from scratch is difficult. It should be distinct from competitors and have an edge as well as a unique feature. Every brand, like every individual, requires a personality, and developing one is the first and most important checkbox when developing a strong brand.

    • Do have a unique value proposition. It is critical to have an interesting brand approach that extends beyond the realms of just business. Maintaining consistency aids in the development of a brand’s uniqueness, which aids in catching the attention and impacting potential customers.
    • Don’t have a product or service that fails to meet a certain virtue that your brand embodies and look for ways to incorporate that virtue into the product to create a cohesive branding approach. A critical factor around branding is developing a belief system around what the brand has to offer. It is critical to articulate the brand’s philosophy; demonstrate how the brand can improve the lives of those around you.
    • Do remember that a recognizable brand is a huge asset, so figuring out how to create one is critical. It is critical to use the right logo, a catchy name, and a set of colors that reflect the brand’s personality and messaging. While there are big names in the industry, having uniqueness throughout the brand’s products is critical. It is critical to figure out how to stand out. This will assist customers in perceiving the brand in the way that the brand owner desires.
    • Don’t rely on the “fix it later” strategy with branding. It will only lead to monotony and mediocrity for the brand. Long-term planning should be the goal. It is another important aspect of establishing a strong startup. Long-term planning, immediate action, quick solutions, and sincere effort are thus required to build a strong startup.
    • Do focus on refining your customer experience. You should constantly interact with your customers and establish a point of contact to maintain brand loyalty. This includes return policies, marketing, the in-store experience and discounts, and giveaways. The customer should feel like a priority and the customer should be the focus of your branding.
    • Don’t neglect your brand audits. Having a brand audit every 6 months is extremely important and will help you understand where you stand as a company. Brand audits are an evaluation of your brand’s position and perception in the market. You can perform brand audits to determine what your strengths and weaknesses are so that you can work on them.

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  • Startup Guide: How an Indian Startup can expand to the UK

    This article is contributed by Mr. Yash Dubal, Director, A‌ ‌Y‌ ‌&‌ ‌J‌ ‌Solicitors‌.

    When the UK voted to leave the European Union in a national referendum in 2016 one of the defining issues that led to the leave vote was immigration. One of the conditions of membership of the European Union was the free movement of people across all borders. In effect, this meant a pattern of movement from poorer nation-states in the East of the bloc, to the richer states in the West and North. Great Britain saw an uncontrolled influx of migrants, mainly from nations such as Poland and Romania, and many people worried that these hard-working people were driving down wages and out-competing domestic workers. Brexit – the process of leaving the EU- effectively returned full control of immigration back to the UK government.

    On January 1 this year the government introduced a new points-based immigration system which included several new visa routes. The system does not include any routes for migrant workers classed as low-skilled. Instead, the political aim is to attract ‘the brightest and best’ workers from around the world. The new routes have a particular emphasis on workers in technology, IT, fintech, science, engineering, and research and are designed to encourage investment. The aim is to lure skilled people to the UK and to attract investment from successful startups wishing to expand into the British market.

    The new immigration regime in the UK is designed to make it easier for the ‘brightest and best’ from the rest of the world to invest in and work in the UK.

    It is fair to say that the policy has not gone entirely to plan. Brexit and the pandemic led to an exodus of workers returning to their home nations in Europe. The result has been acute shortages of personnel in several key industries including care, hospitality, and logistics. Short-term visas to fill certain vacancies have been introduced. Additionally, reports this week show that zero applications have been made for one of the new headline-grabbing visa routes. The fast-track route for award-winners in science, engineering, the humanities, and medicine received no applications.

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    While these teething problems are undoubtedly embarrassing for British politicians, they are good news for Indian startups wishing to expand and invest in the UK. For example, startups from outside the EU wishing to expand into Britain will now be playing on a level playing field. There is no longer an inherent bias towards European businesses. Everyone is welcome and the same rules apply to all.

    Those startups that do set up branches and subsidiaries in the UK will find a fertile environment. The British SME economy is booming. According to the UK Federation of Small Businesses, at the start of 2021, there were 5.5 million small businesses in the UK, making 99.2% of the total business. SMEs account for 99.9% of the business population employing 16.3 million people, or 61% of the working population. The combined UK SME turnover was estimated at £2.3 trillion. The legislative, investment, and logistical frameworks within the UK encourage start-ups and contribute to the success of this sector.

    UK internationalist political will is geared towards cross-border links and investment in trade and commerce. As a result of Brexit, the UK is on a global mission to make new trade deals with other countries. One of its key targets is India. The British government is eager to build business and trade links with India, with a view to signing a free trade agreement, and, over the past year has already signed a raft of agreements and joint initiatives covering sectors such as hydrogen energy and green energy grids. There are already strong historic and cultural links between the two nations and the UK government is intent on cementing these links further. There is also a large, well-established community of Indian ex-pat business owners already established in the UK with many examples of Indian businesses recently investing and expanding successfully in the UK.

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    One of the key routes Indian start-ups are eligible to take when expanding into the UK is via the Sole Representative visa. This visa route allows a senior representative of an Indian business to locate in the UK for the purposes of establishing a satellite office, branch, or subsidiary of the parent company. There are criteria that need to be met in order to qualify for this visa route and I would urge any business considering expansion into the UK to seek professional legal advice on immigration and visa legislation, which will save time and money and maximize the chances of success.

    Once all the correct paperwork is in place and the move is made, however, the rewards are great.

  • The Art of delegation and Pitching – Creating Fundworthy Pitchdecks

    This article is contributed by the founder & CEO of PitchKrafts, Mr. Aayush Sachdeva. He is is a driven professional who has supported numerous investment bankers, consultants, founders, and company owners in generating important fundraising collateral.

    The thought of presenting an idea to a potential investor could take on anyone’s nerves. Even if an entrepreneur has creativity, business sense, and a great business idea in hand, a lot can go wrong if not organized properly. Pitching an idea to someone is not easy for everyone, but it can add to your strength if you are an entrepreneur. In the digital era, there are endless opportunities to present your idea to investors to realize your ideas. The goal of pitching an idea to a potential investor is to convince them to put their money, time, or effort into it. This is where the art of delegation and pitching needs to go hand in hand.

    A proper presentation to a potential investor is an art and everyone is not aware of this fact. It is challenging for Startups at an early stage to reach out to a potential investor and get funding. The process of perfecting a pitch deck, identifying the key investors consumes a lot of time. A startup wins half of the battle if the pitch deck they create for a potential investor hits the right keynote. A pitch deck not only gets entrepreneurs the much-needed capital but also the support, strategy, network, and more. It is the most important aesthetic in the fund-raising ecosystem.

    With an inadequate pitching style and documentations, on many occasions, startup founders often fail in front of potential investors. A well-prepared Pitch deck helps to talk about the business idea, market, and customer. It also tells a story, challenges, and tension in the market. There are plenty of companies, PitchKrafts, Canva, Adobe that help startups to prepare the pitch decks to present their ideas in front of investors in an effective way. They provide all the essential data including market forecasts, financial projections, etc to help investors to understand better your ideas.

    Pitch deck proves an essential document to put an impression in front of the VCs. So, it becomes important to identify what goes into the pitch deck. It should not sound verbose. It should emphasize the startups’ market, consumer, and revenue numbers, among others.

    A pitch deck helps a potential investor to understand and learn more about the company. It should help to learn four key elements of the business opportunity, which forms the outline of the pitch deck:

    1. Product: A product overview should answer the critical questions. Such as ‘What are the unmet demands our product is fulfilling?’ and ‘How different is your product or service different from the existing competitors’. A good pitch deck should highlight these two questions for a better understanding of VCs. Further, A graph or simple table easily proves effective in understanding the data.

    2. Market: A pitch deck has to address the market size penetration, strategy and if any, the market traction of the company. You may lose credibility if it becomes evident that the real market addressable by your product is smaller than the total market size you have claimed. It is hard to get customers for most businesses. So, any potential investor would want to understand the plan to make that happen and the cost budgeted to achieve the targeted market penetration. Customer testimonials are one of the most compelling things to have in a pitch deck. Market survey results help to understand the feedback from the target audience.

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    3. People: Potential investors only invest and trust in the businesses if they have confidence and trust in the management team. To maximize the chances, a pitch deck must explain the key roles of the current employees and why they are fit for their roles. Including pictures and brief bios of the people can make it easy to know about the company’s potential. It’s better to add specific skill sets and achievements and highlight those.

    The CEO is the most critical to the company’s success. By convincing investors about the potential of your CEO, you can land towards successful fundraising.

    4. Money: A pitch deck must cover the information related to fund spending. A summary of financial projections or the amount of capital currently raising or the milestones you plan to achieve with it. It should also mention the projected investors’ return.

    Additionally, presenting the high-end results of the financial model, it must explain the basic business model of the company. How is revenue generated? What are the major cost drivers? Are you acquiring paid or unpaid content? It is advisable to highlight the current raise and use projected proceeds. A pitch deck should include the returns that investors are projected to receive on their investment if the plan is implemented.

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    There is no perfect pitch deck that fits all the potential investors. With the mushrooming startups, Every investor has their unique way of looking at the opportunity. A pitch deck should address every possible question that anyone might ask. It should be short and crisp and explain your ideas. Let the investors ask to explain the points so you can better explain your ideas.

    It becomes important to consider these points to present your ideas effectively and attract an investor with a fund-worthy pitch deck for your business with all necessary research documents, achievements, and attractive designs. Considering these points would lead you to higher chances of convincing an investor and landing an investment.

    About the Author

    Mr. Aayush Sachdeva, Founder & CEO of PitchKrafts is a driven professional who has supported numerous investment bankers, consultants, founders, and company owners in generating important fundraising collateral. He continues to assist startups and other new business models in receiving numerous rounds of funding and finding additional possible investors with all of the insightful information he has accumulated over the years.

    Aayush’s ability to create and place the initial communication tool between entrepreneurs and investors has always given premature companies a strong opportunity to have a financial forecast and run a profitable firm. He continues to succeed and dominate the pitching routine, owing to his extensive expertise in generating Pitch Decks, Financial Modeling & Forecasting, Business Planning, and Valuations.

    He is a powerful networker; he and his team have established partnerships with HNIs, VCs, and Angel Investors all around the world, instilling PitchKrafts into the ecosystem with a stronghold through creating close relationships and providing quality. He has guided businesses through their financing path by creating collateral that not only impresses but also imprints in the minds of investors, increasing their chances of acquiring the funds they require.

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