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Tag: uKnowva

  • SaaS Content Strategies that Drive SaaS Product – Bistriti Poddar, CCO, uKnowva

    The article has been contributed by Bistriti Poddar, Chief Communication Officer, uKnowva

    SaaS or software as a service makes use of cloud technology that allows users to access the software virtually from any location with the help of a device connected to the internet. With the proliferation of the SaaS market over the past few years, SaaS providers are eyeing to develop a solid marketing strategy that helps their products to stand out from the competition. Content marketing is a big part of the SaaS marketing strategy which if used effectively can produce the desired conversions and leads. However, the challenge comes in the form of offering engaging, relative and creative content in the $157 billion SaaS market. With millions of SaaS content already available on the internet, most companies make the mistake of repeating the same content over again or bore their audience with technical jargon. However, there are ways through which one can step up their content marketing strategy. Read on to know how!

    Ways to Create an Effective SaaS Content Marketing Strategy

    Ways to Create an Effective SaaS Content Marketing Strategy

    Software as a Service Market Size Worldwide from 2010 to 2020
    Software as a Service Market Size Worldwide from 2010 to 2020

    Creating good content for SaaS requires effort and time, however, it is an investment that can provide good results and generate leads in the future. Here are some of the ways to devise to step up the content marketing strategy:

    Define the Target Audience

    The most important strategy in SaaS content marketing is to first identify the target audience. When the audience is identified, it becomes easy to create a content strategy suited for them. Identifying the audience at first is important since different people have different preferences.

    To better know the audience, businesses must look at audience metrics or surveys that were conducted previously. Alternatively, they can seek market research to understand more about the people they are targeting.

    For instance, as uKnowva provides 360-degree AI-backed HR solutions, our target audience usually includes the HR fraternity, CXOs, CHROs, CEOs of businesses, HR leaders, and decision-makers.

    Identify the Issues or Pain Points of the Target Audience

    While learning about the target audience, it is also crucial to pay attention to their issues or pain points. These are actually the issues they wish to address through a SaaS product or service. For this to happen, deeper research is required so as to visualise the main obstacles that are holding them back from realising their goals.

    We identified the pain point by analyzing the industry and surveying with the help of our entrepreneur friends. The overall aspect of business growth is dependent on the kind of effort one puts in to make it stand out from the crowd. Human resources play a crucial role in making a business grow and prosper. When it comes to workforce management, the administrative burden is often projected onto the human resources department. To ensure easy management and smooth functioning of data, human resources, and different business processes, we have developed our AI-enabled HRMS. uKnowva HRMS allows businesses to create an AI-driven and on-cloud HRMS platform for modernising daily HR activities on one platform. These include Core HR, Payroll & Expenses, Employee Management & Collaborations, Recruitment, Training and Development, and more. uKnowva HRMS is a comprehensive tool for HRs to successfully acquire, manage, develop, and engage their employees with transparency, security, and fun.

    We also emphasize a lot on addressing ongoing topical content around workplaces/HR with our perspective and industry-backed data. We inform and educate our potential customers about how HRMS can greatly transform their business functions and digitally transform their organizations. Apart from that, we create content nuggets around tapping into key questions customers may have in their minds before they opt for an HRMS.

    uKnowva HRMS – Founders | Business Model | Competitors
    uKnowva HRMS helps to systematically acquire, manage, develop, and engage your employees. Read to know about uKnowva, founder, and startup story.
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    Analyse the Competition

    Competitor research is one of the key aspects of a successful content marketing strategy. However, it isn’t as easy as it sounds. Competing in the content space is totally different from competing with other companies in the SaaS space. That’s why it becomes all the more important to analyse a competitor’s backlinks as well as their content for topics and keywords. The data, when combined with intuitive browsing, can help businesses to get a better understanding of their competitor’s content marketing strategy. This data can be crucial to understanding weak links in a competitor’s content strategy, and this can be utilised to outcompete them in the market.

    We, at uKnowva, do a competitive content marketing analysis, taking a list of our content marketing competitors and following these three steps:

    • Take inventory of our competitors’ content (capture everything from blog articles to videos on and off their website. Each content type gives insight into the level of content investment, the format types their audience enjoys, and the range and relative importance of topics and keywords).
    • Evaluate content quantity and quality (Take stock of how many types of media and channels they are leveraging, as well as how frequently they are publishing that type or on which channel. We look for trends in engagement levels—shares, comments, etc.—to understand how well the content is performing.
    • Tag and analyze content topics (Tagging and analyzing the topics of each content piece helps surface content marketing gaps, which become opportunities for us).

    Besides that, we also factor in the most popular and trending/viral content assets that global organizations are pursuing in our space.

    Now, once the audience and the competition have been identified, it is time to start developing content, which takes us to our next point.

    Identify the Keywords

    Every SaaS business has its associated keywords. While developing content, it is essential to be aware of every keyword so as to make a strong impact. It is important to understand that these may not be just words that people use to search for SaaS businesses. It can be phrases as well. The Google AdWords Keywords Planner can be a good tool to understand how often people search for certain phrases on Google. Other than that, there are various other tools as well which can be used to identify what the audience is searching for.

    At uKnowva, we do our keyword research organically through Google-related searches, and we also use effective tools like Semrush and Sitechecker for audits and keyword ranking.

    Consider the Vision of the Business

    Every company has its own set of visions, which play a crucial part in its content marketing strategy. The content strategy must align with the vision of the business. For instance, if a business believes in education, then the way to go is to educate potential customers. This can involve teaching the audience about the different aspects of SaaS products or services so that they become more knowledgeable and, in turn, use a business’s product better. By empowering the audience, one can attract trust and faith in its own products or services.

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    Create Relevant and Interesting Content

    Content has to be relevant and interesting so as to engage people in it. If the content fails to be interesting and out of context, the audience will quickly move over to some other content. However, this doesn’t mean that the content has to be sales-focused always. To create a position of authority in the industry, businesses can also commission white papers and research.

    One has to take the time to understand what the target audience wants to read and then create content based on the same. While blogs are the preferred method for most companies to disseminate information, podcasts can also be leveraged to create a growing interest in a SaaS service or product.

    For uKnowva, we focus on relevant brand-oriented content paired with niche PR targeting, which helps to establish ourselves as an expert in the HR tech field. The goal is to be seen in publications and blogs that write about our industry, thus, maximizing our exposure to anyone searching and reading for their terms. We work on long-form or “deep-dive” content that provides customers with in-depth answers to the questions they are searching for. Other than that, we do a lot of thought leadership content on trending popular opinions across different platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook groups, etc. Whitepapers, case studies, blogs, and Slideshare are some other mediums we use to explain a topic to an interested audience.

    Monitor the Results

    To understand how the content strategy is working, one must keep a watch on the results. Depending on the results, the content marketing strategy can be altered or adjusted accordingly to bring a valuable experience to the customers. You have to come up with a set of KPIs that you should focus on. It is different for all.

    At uKnowva, the most important KPIs that we use to gauge the performance of our content strategy are:

    • Website Traffic
    • Organic website traffic
    • Keyword rankings/blogs ranking
    • Impressions
    • Engagements
    • Link clicks
    • Views and upvotes on Quora

    Conclusion

    If all these steps are properly adhered to, businesses can certainly excel at creating a winning content strategy. With a strong content marketing strategy in place, building online credibility and brand awareness becomes a lot easier. This can help businesses to get a step closer to their strategic goals and establish a strong foothold in the market.

    FAQs

    What is the value of the SaaS market?

    In 2020, the public SaaS market had a total value of $157 billion.

    How to create an effective SaaS content marketing strategy?

    The following are the ways in which one can create an effective SaaS content marketing strategy:

    • Define the Target Audience
    • Identify the Issues or Pain Points of the Target Audience
    • Analyse the Competition
    • Identify the Keywords
    • Consider the Vision of the Business
    • Create Relevant and Interesting Content
    • Monitor the Results

    How to define a target audience?

    To better know the audience, businesses must look at audience metrics or surveys that were conducted previously. Alternatively, they can seek market research to understand more about the people they are targeting.

  • uKnowva HRMS – Secure and User-Friendly Workforce Management Solution

    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 uKnowva.

    Be it a small, medium scale, or large organization, all types of businesses need HRMS software to manage their workforce efficiently. HRMS facilitates employee satisfaction and productivity and helps the Human Resource department with all the employee details and their activity tracks. As entrepreneurship is evolving with advancements in technology, the need for HRMS software is also increasing. Human Resources Management Software (HRMS) Market is estimated to hit 33.57 Billion by 2030. Different Businesses need different software to manage, develop and engage their workforce. uKnowva HRMS provides a holistic HRMS to systematically acquire, manage, develop, and engage your employees. It has all the advanced features like dashboard and analytics, E-recruitment, automated payroll & appraisal management, and more. It can be fully customized according to your business needs.

    Read the startup story of uKnowva, its founders, product, growth, and more about it.

    uKnowva – Company Highlights

    Startup Name uKnowva
    Headquarters Mumbai
    Industry HRMS
    Founders Vicky Jain, Priyanka Jain,and Abhay Talekar
    Founded 2012
    Website uknowva.com

    uKnowva – About
    uKnowva – Industry
    uKnowva – Founders and Team
    uKnowva – The Idea and Startup Story
    uKnowva – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    uKnowva – Product
    uKnowva – Business Model
    uKnowva – Customer Acquisition
    uKnowva – Challenges Faced
    uKnowva – Marketing
    uKnowva – Growth
    uKnowva – Advisors and Mentors
    uKnowva – Acquisitions
    uKnowva – Competitors
    uKnowva – Tools Used in the Company
    uKnowva – Recognition and Achievements
    uKnowva – Future Plans

    About uKnowva HRMS

    uKnowva – About

    uKnowva is a cloud-based HRMS that offers a secure and private platform to employees for engaging in seamless communication and networking, knowledge-sharing and utilising the capabilities of high-yielding tools to attain increased productivity and accelerated growth.

    Their vision is to become the world’s SMARTEST HR platform. SMART means 360 degree HRMS software that is easy to use and administer, cost-effective and highly intelligent.

    They work with the core belief that growth should be encouraged within the organisation and that work should be enjoyable. They constantly adapt their approach and embrace transformation to stay ahead of the curve.

    uKnowva – Industry

    There are nearly 3 billion employees/workers across the globe as per the World Bank Data, which makes the overall market size to be around 24 billion USD per year. The HRMS market is gaining significant traction. HRMS provides digital solutions to manage human and material resources with versatility. Using HRMS results in increased efficiency through minimal errors due to automation of manual HR activities and assists HR departments to analyze the organization’s operational trends. Also, the rapidly evolving IoT and wireless technology have a positive impact on the market value. According to a report by Market Research Future (MRFR), the HRMS market is forecasted to reach USD 33.57 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 12.2%.

    Additionally, the cloud-based HRMS segment is anticipated to gain more traction during the forecast period.

    uKnowva – Founders and Team

    uKnowva Founders - Vicky Jain, Priyanka Jain,and Abhay Talekar
    uKnowva Founders – Vicky Jain, Priyanka Jain,and Abhay Talekar

    Vicky Jain, Priyanka Jain, and Abhay Talekar have founded uKnowva in 2012.

    After completing his engineering and MBA, Vicky Jain started to learn languages like Java, Oracle and Applets. It was when his cousin asked him to develop a certain software, life took him to a new course. His work was well appreciated and he got a complete assignment to build a website for his cousin’s company. Vicky along with Priyanka Jain, who also completed her engineering at the same college, worked on this project. As work started to come in, they decided to set up a company, Convergence Services. Since they started off as a service company they had to go through numerous challenges while developing their first flagship product, uKnowva. Vicky, Priyanka and Abhay Talekar (also co-founder of Convergence Services) started uKnowva back in 2012. While they all have individual roles to play within the organisation, they all come together to make sure that the business operates smoothly. It takes plenty of time and energy to juggle everything involved. Startup founders need to be self-motivated to keep up with the challenges at all times.

    uKnowva – The Idea and Startup Story

    uKnowva initially started off as a web development company. They created a few tools for better collaboration and people management, internally. When some customers approached them with similar requirements, they came to realize that this could be developed as a product and offered to consumers. They then tweaked some of its features and gave it to a few customers like Prime focus technologies, Capital first, etc., and the response was awesome. That gave them the confidence to take this initiative to a whole new level to develop uKnowva HRMS.

    Vicky Jain and Priyanka were in Lonavala, Maharashtra just brainstorming on the ideas to keep an apt name for the start-up. Their main objective was to have the letters U, V and W in the name as some renowned numerologists had suggested keeping U, V and W in the startup name to attract good growth. And after hours of brainstorming, they decided upon the name uKnowva. The logo was designed by Priyanka who is the creative director and the tagline of extending collaboration was adopted over a period of time.

    uKnowva – Product

    uKnowva HRMS
    uKnowva HRMS

    uKnowva HRMS has every core component of Human Resource Management starting from an employee directory to a self-service portal to automated payroll to leave management and work reports to a special disability feature to virtual biometrics and much more that employees and HRs love to use. By adopting uKnowva’s HRMS, one can step up productivity and manage everyday activities much more efficiently. The Employee Payroll system automatically calculates salary from the data available i.e. leaves, investment declarations, holidays, tax deductions etc. Virtual attendance management allows employees to punch in and out from any device. Also, uKnowva is the first HR tech company in India to launch the disability feature within uKnowva HRMS for visually challenged employees.

    Easy to use, Cost-effective, Intelligent and Flexible are some of the major USPs of their product. In general, cloud-based HRMS are developed to be intuitive and user-friendly to those who need to access or use them. That’s why uKnowva’s HRMS has been designed keeping the end-user in mind, based on the requests/suggestions of real HR and payroll administrators.

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    uKnowva – Business Model

    Our’s is a SaaS based product and the pricing model is simple with per user per month pricing, which starts at USD 2 per user per month.

    uKnowva – Customer Acquisition

    uKnowva had a few customers who appreciated uKnowva product and the word of mouth also proved to be beneficial. They tried to onboard their existing customers initially. Other than that, they focused their efforts on building their website and enhanced their SEO efforts to reach out to more customers. This significantly helped them to expand their customer base and strengthen their efforts to maintain business continuity.

    Over the years, while they have invested in increasing their reach and making more businesses aware of what they do and how uKnowva can help, a good product and support system has helped them retain their customers. So far, attracting new customers has worked best via referral channels.

    uKnowva – Challenges Faced

    While they were transforming from a “Service” company to a “Product” company, the major challenge was changing the mindset of the people involved. Initially it was like they visited the customers and asked them about their requirements and then built a product based on their needs or preferences. But, while transforming into a “product” company, things changed completely as they needed to ask themselves what would customers need and then build it and sell it to the customers. This entire process actually involved a change in the mindset of the entire team which was the biggest challenge. They overcame it through regular sessions with the team and made them understand how to think like a product owner.

    uKnowva – Marketing

    When it comes to content and social media, their main focus is on brand awareness and organic visibility. uKnowva is mostly active on Linkedin and they don’t promote and/or boost their posts or campaigns as such. It’s all organic and for brand awareness predominantly.

    They had done a campaign called #InsideuKnowva where they introduced relevant topical memes featuring Shark Tank India. The memes garnered good impressions.

    Also on Quora, they have crossed 65,000 views within a span of 2 months. Their polls do extremely well and garner good impressions on LinkedIn.

    uKnowva – Growth

    As technology continues to be at the forefront of a transforming business environment, there are vast opportunities for growth for HR tech companies. So far, their journey has been satisfactory and uKnowva is doing pretty well in terms of growth, innovation, and extending its footprint. They have more than 75+ customers with a doubling ARR per year. uKnowva is all set for further developments in the future.

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    uKnowva – Advisors and Mentors

    These are the people who mentor/advise the startup:

    • Ganesh Sankaran: COO and Business Head-WUBS & New Initiatives at Weizmann Forex Ltd
    • Deepak Agarwal: Cofounder and CEO at TurboHire
    • Krishna Kabra: Head of Major Service Center, Orange Business Services
    • Ranu Parwal: COO & Business Head at Weizmann Forex Ltd.

    uKnowva – Acquisitions

    uKnowva acquired a company called Apptroid which is a digital agency helping businesses of all size get a better return from online activities like Website Design, Mobile Apps Development , SEO, etc.

    uKnowva – Competitors

    Following are some of the top competitors of uKnowva:

    • Darwinbox
    • SAP Successfactors
    • Workday
    • Keka
    • Oracle Peoplesoft
    • ZingHR

    uKnowva – Tools Used in the Company

    A few tools that they use to run the startups are:

    • uKnowva HRMS
    • Metabase
    • Azure Dev Ops
    • Intuit
    • Zoho CRM

    uKnowva – Recognition and Achievements

    uKnowva recently received the “Entrepreneurial Company of the Year” award from Frost & Sullivan. The award recognises the efforts in keeping growth and innovation at the forefront of their vision while effectively addressing upcoming new opportunities and challenges for their business. In the Product Excellence Matrix Report in 2014 by Nasscom in association with Frost and Sullivan, uKnowva was featured in the “Unified Communication And Collaboration” category.

    uKnowva – Future Plans

    Currently, they are focused on increasing its footprints in India and the MENA region. The MENA region has huge potential for Indian technology start-ups as the region has a highly diverse, tech-savvy and distributed workforce whose priorities are flexibility and ease of access in their flow of work. The countries they are basically targeting include KSA, UAE, and Egypt to start and then we’ll cover the complete gulf region. Few customers they have onboarded in the MENA region are Ravin, Masdar, Khansaheb, Puregroup, etc.

    FAQs

    Who is the founder of uKnowva?

    Vicky Jain, Priyanka Jain, and Abhay Talekar are the founders of uKnowva.

    When was uKnowva founded?

    uKnowva was founded in 2012.

    What is uKnowva HRMS?

    uKnowva HRMS is Human Resource Management tool that offers employee directory, automated payroll, leave management, work reports, and more employee management features.

    Who are the competitors of uKnowva?

    Top competitors of uKnowva are:

    • Darwinbox
    • Keka
    • Oracle Peoplesoft
    • SAP Successfactors
    • Workday
    • ZingHR

  • How to Get Global Clients for Your Business?

    Regardless of the industry you are serving or the product/services your business is offering, customers are crucial. Small-to mid-size business owners, all are quite excited to go global. Getting global clients is the first step to expanding your business globally. It is one of the milestones any startup founder aims at. Getting few overseas clients can helps you get to a wider audience and the business can grow globally. It gives a check to your business compatibility in global market.

    Here are some opinions shared by some entrepreneurs about how to get global clients for your business.

    Vicky Jain – Founder, uKnowva
    Sharan Goyal – Founder and Director, Crozzo
    Nitin Gupta – Co-Founder and Managing Director at TezMinds, QRCodeChimp
    Shrikant Pandey – Managing Director, Indiamanthan Publications

    Vicky Jain – Founder, uKnowva

    Vicky Jain - Founder, uKnowva
    Vicky Jain – Founder, uKnowva

    To reach out to the global audience, a business must have an online presence so that people are easily able to find and identify the business. Side by side, a strong social media presence can work wonders for a business trying to attract global clients.

    Businesses that wish to target different countries must provide their website in different languages so that people find it easier to search and learn about their products and/or services. Customer service must also be of the highest standards to create a good experience that can lead to repeat customers. Joining a trade association, the local chamber of commerce and networking organizations along with attending meetup events increases the chances of building a good network that in turn, can create new business opportunities.

    Sharan Goyal – Founder and Director, Crozzo

    Sharan Goyal - Founder and Director, Crozzo
    Sharan Goyal – Founder and Director, Crozzo

    We only serve in India since our product is perishable. However, being an e-commerce enthusiast, could tell you that good performance marketing and targeted advertising through social media get you good global exposure.

    Nitin Gupta – Co-Founder and Managing Director at TezMinds, QRCodeChimp

    Nitin Gupta - Co-Founder and Managing Director at TezMinds, QRCodeChimp
    Nitin Gupta – Co-Founder and Managing Director at TezMinds, QRCodeChimp

    If you’re an agency or service provider, getting more global clients is probably one of your key business objectives. More international clients mean higher revenue and improved reputation.

    However, getting global clients isn’t easy. The competition in the agency industry is fierce, with all agencies battling to get international, high-paying clients. How can you stand out from the crowd and get more global consumers?

    Keep reading to increase your chances of landing more foreign clients.

    Why should you focus on international clients?

    Agencies and service providers should always aim at going global. Global clients
    have bigger budgets, so you can charge more and increase your revenue.
    Suppose you’re a software development agency based in India. The software
    development rates in India are $20-45 per hour. Local clients are aware of these
    rates, and thus, they’d not pay more than that. On the other hand, software
    development rates in the USA are $70-150 per hour.

    SaaS Founders Shared How they reach out to Foreign Clients?
    Every business wants to get a diverse range of growth opportunities. Expanding overseas and seeking international growth is always a temptation for businesses. Ambitious entrepreneurs are always keen to grow globally. International expansion is a huge opportunity for SaaS businesses. Thus, getting f…
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    Shrikant Pandey – Managing Director, Indiamanthan Publications

    Shrikant Pandey - Managing Director, Indiamanthan Publications
    Shrikant Pandey – Managing Director, Indiamanthan Publications

    Bringing in new clients is a crucial skill for companies to get a steady stream of revenue and growth!

    Creating your website and social media accounts is just the initial step of this process. As a business owner, you need to invest enough time and resources to attract the target audience, build connections with potential clients, and convenience them to take the service while keeping the strategies consistent. Also, you need to come up with smart tactics if you wish to take your business globally.

    Fortunately, there is a whole wide world waiting for you with a target audience interested in what service or product you have to offer. Do not stay within your comfort zone anymore – your city, state, or country borders, be ready to forge new territories and take on the world. To help you navigate through this adventurous journey smoothly, I have listed below 7 actionable methods on how to get global clients for your business.

    1. Define Your Ideal Clients

    It is impossible to serve every industry equally whether you are working on a national level or international level. This is considered a wrong marketing tactic. Many businesses focus on targeting everyone using their resources in all directions which lead the company to fail.

    The right approach is first having a defined niche, then targeting clients based on their needs, industries, or company sizes to establish themselves as an expert. You can define an ideal client by understanding your experience or efficiency. Now, list down the clients you prefer working with and look for their demographic details like income level and industry. This way, you will have a good overview of your ideas for customers. It would help you to captivate the right audience and get more global clients for your business.

    2. Take Advantage of all Social Sites

    Social media is something you cannot miss! Make sure you have a strong presence on all the major platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc., and constantly update your social media accounts with interesting and insightful posts. You need to create you’re based on each side, even if some social sites work better for others. You may be surprised to see which kind of account works best for you.

    3. Capture Leads on Your Website

    Your website’s goal is to attract new clients. It is high time to maximize your site’s potential. No matter how big or small your business is, create an enticing pop-up that offers something valuable to your clients. It could be anything from a PDF guide to an eBook or a quiz that will catch your client’s attention and convince them to provide their contact details.

    Unlike a simple contact form, go for a uniquely designed pop-up with attractive content that can entice visitors and get them interested in a specific piece of content. The process on how to get global clients for your business is quite easy – create a piece of content that your customers find valuable, then create your site pop-up, and you are done. When each new lead comes in, make sure to give them a warm welcome.

    4. Host Virtual Events to Find Potential Clients

    Hosting a virtual event is a creative way to get new clients on a global and national level. With these techniques, you can collect attendees’ contact details, to whom you can send follow-up emails to, and provide an opportunity to work with a business partner.

    There are diverse types of virtual events like webinars, live streaming, online workshops, and trade shows. You can any of them depending on your target audience. Before the event begins, share the event details on all your marketing channels.

    5. Share Your Knowledge with the World

    When you are serving clients globally, your clients hardly get to meet you physically, here your valuable clients trust your knowledge and expertise to get the work done right and work as an authority in your field.

    There are numerous ways, you can follow to establish yourself as an authority, when you share your knowledge with the world, it helps you to build your reputation as an expert in the community.

    Offering a free online course is an effective way to establish your expertise. Another way of sharing your knowledge is to speak at events in your industry. Stay updated on what is happening in your industry and contact even organizers to share the topic you want to speak about.

    6. Consider the Currency Exchange Facility

    If you are looking at how to get global clients for your business, you need to first cater to their basic needs. Consider having a system where they can pay in their currency. When you first reach outside of your nation you do not need to have every single currency on there, being with just one destination.

    You can simplify the payment easy for US and European customers by allowing them to pay in dollars and euros. Here, the online payment system providers can help you through the process.

    7. Go for Ad Campaigns

    Another effective method of getting more global clients is to use paid advertising. With this marketing strategy, you get the opportunity to show ads on a platform by paying for keywords or ad space.

    There are three popular paid advertising channels – social media ads, search engine ads, and content promotion networks.

    By using these channels, you get to target a specific audience with a fixed budget. In some cases, paid ads have been proven to reach the target audience faster than organic approaches.

    Ready to get global clients for your business?

    The boundaries that once impeded our ability to work with global clients no longer exist. Present-day, it has become easier to do business with someone on the other side of the world.

    But there is no single formula tactic that will bring your global clients to your door. It is a combination of different techniques, and each method needs to be followed well.

    The ideas shared above are based on my personal experience and experiments. While growing my business ventures- The CEO Magazine & Startup City Magazine, we went through numerous hurdles especially while growing globally. But these tactics helped me to constantly grow and achieve milestones along the way. Hopefully, these techniques would empower your business growth too! All the best for your future endeavors. Keep growing, Keep shining!!

  • How to Calculate Valuation of Your Startup?

    In the competitive entrepreneurship world today, entrepreneurs are quite excited about adding value to their startups. It is one of the most essential things to do for founders as it helps in further equity and funding decisions. Quantifying the worth of a startup is the most complex task to do. There are several methodologies and approaches to determine the valuation of your startup. The worth of a startup depends on several factors:

    • The business idea of the Startup
    • Stage of the startup
    • Product Prototype
    • Market risks and competition
    • Technical Adaptability
    • Customer traction
    • Investors

    Let’s know about the approaches used by startup founders and entrepreneurs on how to calculate the valuation of your startup.

    Mehul Sharma – Founder & CEO, Signum Hotels & Resorts

    Mehul Sharma - Founder & CEO, Signum Hotels & Resorts
    Mehul Sharma – Founder & CEO, Signum Hotels & Resorts

    Pre-revenue start-up valuation may be a complicated endeavour. There are many factors to take into consideration, from the control group and marketplace traits to the call for the product and the advertising dangers involved. And a hard truth associated is that even after comparing everything, despite the only pre-revenue valuation formula, the first level you may get continues to be simply an ESTIMATE!

    The world of the start-up is a place full of enthusiasts. A start-up is initiated every 3 seconds around the world! Every big company you can think of started from a garage with a computer bought with savings money or some sort of gift. But not all start-ups share the same start.

    Business proprietors will wish for an excessive valuation, while pre-revenue investors might opt for a lower price that guarantees a larger go back on investment (ROI).

    So, how does pre-revenue start-up valuation evaluate with a mature commercial enterprise valuation?

    Unlike early-stage start-ups, a mature publicly-indexed commercial enterprise will have extra information and figures to head on. Regular circulation of sales and monetary statistics make it less difficult to calculate the price of the commercial enterprise. More often than not, early-stage startups are valued somewhere within the middle, which means founders don’t get quite the amount they anticipated, and investors pay higher than what they intended to invest.

    For most start-ups especially pre-revenue, Traction is one of the significant indicators for assessing the worth. The true story of a start-up can be brought into the daylight by taking a look at its effectiveness in the market, the number of users, and its growth rate.

    Estimating the actual worth of an unlisted startup before the seed funding is actually of equal importance to having a business idea while going in.

    There are various ways to estimate the current worth of a business, but only a few are used as a daily pill by entrepreneurs.

    The most basic method to assess the value is by analyzing the previous year’s Balance sheet. Under this method, the total debt and liabilities are subtracted from the aggregate value of assets owned by the business. This method is less complicated, easy to assess, and comes in handy.

    Although, the Balance sheet method does not provide the whole picture of the situation. The problem here is that this methodology considers the start-up in its current state and not how it’ll be in the future. Investors are inquisitive about the latter, and so, as an asset-based valuation doesn’t take that into account, this method has its drawbacks.

    Another method of assessing the valuation of a business is by calculating the EPS (Earnings Per Share). EPS is calculated by subtracting the Preferred dividends from the Net income and further dividing it by the average of outstanding common shares. For an individual investor, EPS shows the exact value of revenues and makes more sense.

    The valuation of a start-up is a complex task and there is no straight jacket solution or method to be put into use each time. Often, the valuation is calculated using a combination of ratios, and ordinal values.

    The angel capitalist Dave Berkus believes investors ought to be ready to envision the corporate breaking of $20M in 5 years. His technique assesses five important aspects of a start-up, namely, Concept, Prototype, Quality Management, Connections, and Launch plan. The Berkus technique is an easy estimation, typically used for IT start-ups. It is a good way to gauge value, however, because the market into account isn’t taken into account, it’s not going to provide the scope that some folks desire.

    Furthermore, a few more methods like EDITBA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), top-line method, and GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) have been proven to provide significance for the estimations.

    EDITBA is another easy-to-use method that provides ordinal values by using the previous financial statements. Varied business segments face varied rates of tax payment based on the industry they fall into.  A business with a higher revenue may have an NPV (Net Present Value) lower than the one with lesser revenues due to the different industries they fall into.

    Another interesting method for assessing the value is the Top Line method, which is a reference to gross figures reported by a company, such as sales or revenue. This method gets the name because these are shown at the top of a company’s income statement and are kept aside for the reporting of revenue and or gross sales.

    GMV method ascertains the gross value of sales in the market. Under this, the gross value of the merchandise is calculated as the Sales price of goods with the number of goods sold. It shall be noticed that GMV is calculated in conjunction with net sales, which takes deductions into account.

    The first-time valuation of a start-up is bound to foresee at least a few mistakes. Hence, while evaluating the value of your start-up two big pitfalls one shall avoid are:

    1. Never assume a valuation is Permanent, i.e., after all, a startup is going to be valued at what investors are willing to speculate in it. Ultimately, it shall be kept in mind that the variables are at play, and perceive that no valuation, high or low, is ever permanent- or maybe even correct with certainty.

    2. A Valuation is never straightforward, i.e., even after getting a pre-revenue start-up valuation you’re happy with, it’s best to debate things in nice detail with potential investors simply to ascertain that everyone is on the same page regarding the way to proceed.

    It is rightly said that only a fool would make peace with the first valuation he gets of his business as there are complexities and human factors involved.

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    Vicky Jain – Founder, uKnowva

    Vicky Jain - Founder, uKnowva
    Vicky Jain – Founder, uKnowva

    Startup valuation is not an exact science. Factors can include the industry, the present market, the team’s credentials, and other forces that might be taken into account. The valuation of a start-up is the measure of how much investors think the company is worth right now. One of the simplest ways to measure the value of a startup is with the scorecard method. By weighing up parameters of success like team experience, competition, the strength of the product, etc.) subjectively, this method enables comparisons between a startup and other “average” startups within the industry and area. If the startup looks to have more than average qualities as per the calculations, then the chances of getting a higher valuation increases and so does the investment opportunity. There is another method known as the discounted cash flow method that approximates how much flow of cash a startup will produce over a long period of the term. By predicting this and calculating the expected return on the rate of investment, assumptions can be made about a start-up’s value.

    Sharan Goyal – Founder and Director, Crozzo

    Sharan Goyal - Founder and Director, Crozzo
    Sharan Goyal – Founder and Director, Crozzo

    Valuation in today’s day and age has taken a very sinister meaning. Valuations are through the roof, with no stopping in sight. I prefer to find a reasonable multiple of EBITDA or revenue (in the case of a cash flow negative company) and compare that to that of an existing business which has raised funds at a particular multiple. For example, a D2C business in the food space with a solid distribution network is often valued at 15-20 times forward revenue. It would be fair to assume that a company with a similar profile can be valued at a similar multiple.