Solution to a problem or a sellable product? #SCRealityReports

With starting up becoming the new, to-do thing, it is very important for aspiring entrepreneurs to understand how important it is to have a sellable offering, because you would not want to end up looking like this, would you?

It is a beautiful and a motivational moment, when you hear reputed speakers, speak at events and seminars, especially when you are an aspiring entrepreneur and sitting amongst many similar minds in a beautiful lit hall, at an amazingly well organised event, minds filled with things to remember, hearts with all the push it requires and eyes for meeting the speakers in person and take more info. Even great when the speakers says the similar things which you have been reading about all along, from the time you started exploring, it makes you comfortable, it makes you believe you are on track, it makes you tell yourself, "Hey, Mr./Ms X, your doing good, see, the speaker, who has achieved so much more is saying the same things, I am so right" STOP.... just STOP for a minute...

You have to do an even more important thing, you have to remember, he/she is standing before a huge crowd, with people such as you and he/she has to say things which would keep many of you occupied, sometimes, just sometimes, things would not be the same as what is being said, except, ONLY if it is from experiences, because, experiences are real, are different for all and have lessons for oneself and all rest, said that, this is not what I wanted to write about today, Speakers and their problems (its a topic for some other time). Today, its about solving a problem or having a sellable product?

So, going back a bit, when you hear people say, "Solve a Problem" "Create an idea from a Solution" "Work towards solving the problems the masses have, simple way" we feel, that is so right, true and makes more sense. Once we have an amazing solution on hand, we would not be able to sell hard, the masses would accept it, would realise it, would appreciate it and I would have a winning startup under me. Right? I thought so too, once upon a time, I mentored many a startups with these same lines, I really believed it too. Trust me, I did...

But then, here is #SCRealityReports for you.....

We were proved wrong, we have been officially proved wrong. You can have the world's most easily adoptable solution to the biggest problem most of the masses have, but without making it a sellable product, you have nothing but solutions which are called dreams by many. When the masses, your end users, use your solutions, testify that its the best in the world, that they got the most out of the solution and turn a deaf ear to your cost, use the offering for free, ignore the charges and walk-away as if they least care for it especially when they know they need it most, you stop, you are confused, you as the solution provider are CONFUSED.. You know they need it, you see they benefit from it, you are sure they want it more, then what in the world is stopping them to buy it from you, to take it with a cost, why is it that the moment a cost tag is put on it, it becomes the least wanted, an option  ?

DON'T BE CONFUSED...

The masses are used to be sold at, they are more comfortable when they know that they are being sold at. The great history of businesses is such that, every one sold and sold hard, now, the new kinds, the startups think that they come up with a solution and the masses would adopt them, don't be mistaken. Habits are engraved deep in all.. They need to be sold. They need to feel the power of familiarity in the system. They need to be SOLD at and nothing more. NEW IDEAS, SOLUTIONS, COMFORT, SIMPLICITY, these things do mean a lot, they really really need it and there is no doubt in their minds that they need it, they are dying to adopt it, but they are helpless, they are used to being sold at, its in them, in their deepest of systems and subconscious so you cannot dig that out of them, you need to bloody sell. Sell, the best of offerings, the simple of solutions and the most needed offering, you still need to sell..

That leaves us with a clear answer here, when ever you start to build a solution to a problem the masses have, make sure you are designing it in such a way, that it is a sellable offering, make sure you design the sales strategy to it along with it as you build it. Understand your end users and the depths of their pockets. Talk to them on BUYING the solution you are building, FOR A COST, from the day one of interactions. Never ever in your mind or hearts believe that you are creating real value for money and your users would adopt it the moment they experience it, they WILL NOT. They are not equipped to do so, they are machined towards being sold at, so be an entrepreneur from the day one and that is, learning to SELL... The first step towards you winning is to be ready and well prepared to sell, even if you have the world's best solution to the biggest problem in hand.

The above #SCRealityReport is based out of experience of our own, we understand that it would be questioned by many out here, but that is why, it is considered a Reality Report right? That is why, me the founder are out here, to answer all your questions... Ask us, would be more than happy to answer them all for you...

If you would agree or disagree to this, feel free to mail to startupsclub@gmail.com and we could meet up for a cup of coffee, to brainstorm on this Reality Report from us, the founder and provider of thoughts to www.startupsclubpost.com and hey, don't forget to follow us on Twitter - @SClubPost

Signing off for now... Keep thinking...  

A sell out of a brand or a huge portion of your life

People talk out exits.. People talk about selling business and starting fresh with pride. It sounds so amazing, it sounds so exciting but is it actually that way, especially for those who have crafted a life around the brand, for people who have thought nothing more than the brand itself and not for a year, 2 or 3 but for almost a decade.

How do you get yourself to value the moments which you have lost with your family and loved ones to build this brand?

How do you get yourself to understand that it is most strategically wise decision, financially the most intelligent move but it's okay, if that sell out leaves you to keep taking the brand name by mistake instead of the name you must and say, your sorry and take the name you must?

What is it that matters to the business world? Many say, don't get attached, EMOTIONALLY attached to businesses/startups and build it to make money, to bring value and to exit with style but then, when you start working on it to do all that, you tend to start living it, how do u rip that suit off your body and be proud of it?

What is takes to be a successful Entreprneur... It takes this, the courage to fight yourself, your attachments, your passion and change it towards what's better, for the customers, stake holders and the world, learn to keep your emotional skeletons aside and be an ENTREPRENEUR..

Written on the morning of the day, when I first explored the possibilities of a sell out of MY PRUDENCE....

Love u all... Keep sharing my life with you, in short bits and peaches.... 

Being ALONE... Being ME at 45

Have always heard stories of individuals stepping out into the big bad world when they turn early 20s and have always thought to myself, how does it work? What makes a parent let them to do that, what makes them to choose to face the uncertainty willingly? Who in their sane minds would choose all those difficulties? I remember sitting with Dad in my early 20s, married, with kids but still the young mind wanting answers, asking daddy, why would anybody do that? he would tell me, that the world is anyway, uncertain in every way, there are uncertainty in which ever life we live, so, when someone walks out, they just choose to take a different set of uncertainties for themselves, but I did not believe him then, I laughed at him. I was certain of my life, I was married, happily married, as I think back, with kids, with protective parents, I knew how my life would turn out to be, at least I thought I knew....

Decades past, here I am today writing this blog, writing these thoughts out on paper for the world, for all of you who know me and see me as to what I am, I am 45, I am super ambitious, I am no less than a 25 when it comes to going out there and having fun and making the best of life, I have 3 individuals in my life who are suppose to be my kids but in actual are my guides, my teachers, my motivators and surely my friends, I have 4 BFFs, I have around 40+ close friends, I have around 600+ strong followers who look up to me for every business decision they take and I have around a minimum off 10000 friends and connects who enjoy my existence, yet, I feel the uncertainty in me as I stand in my life at 45, ALONE; thus fearful, nervous and surely sad.

Why is the word, ALONE related to all the negative feelings?? Fearful, Nervous, Sad.. It should not be. ALONE... Means ME, when I see ME, I see so many great people, things, dreams which I have achieved, so who has implanted in us from our childhood that being ALONE, has to be so negative...

So, walking the path in my life, ALONE at 45, I am a PROUD Woman, I am a SUCCESSFUL woman, I am ME....

Love you all for being a part of my journey in finding ME.... 

Dreaming of a great future or building one..

This has been one of the most the most talked about statement, "Dream big things, Coz only if you dream is when you set out to achieve it" it's post Steve Job's statement that dreaming became an even more sexy statement to quote, "only those who dream to change the world, set out to do so" something in those lines but today I understand that there is more to dreaming than just dreaming...

It's exactly 2 years, 9 months, 11 days that I had a dream, a dream which I, along with my co-founder / best friend, Vivek Srinivasan would be these two entities who would reach out to entrepreneurs from across the world, rather, the entrepreneurs from across the world would reach out to us, but yes, it was a dream, if you would have asked me then, I would have had that big smile as I tell you my dream, Coz I really believed that it was a dream, you know what dreams are right, you see them with closed eyes, so here I was seeing a dream with open eyes, so yes, I had that shyness, that, please don't take me to be mad look, when I dreamt this dream. Today, I know a very small portion of entrepreneurs of this world, would do anything to have us talk to them, have us spend an hour with them, have us focus on their startups for just a day and for us to be a small part of their huge growth.. 

So, how did this unbelievable dream become a small reality?? Did I sit on that couch in my small little living room, dreaming and smiling about it?? 

What do you think I did?? 

Yes, I did exactly what you are thinking, I did.. I stopped just dreaming about it and I got these contents of my dream into the real world of mine, which I can assure consisted of evil monsters called - bills, had ugly green beasts called - society, had small but dangerous piranhas called -responsibilities, which could eat me and my dreams along with it with no time, but I dared to bring it out and from that day, it was no more a dream, it was my fight for achieving my dreams, it was my struggle to make Vivek believe it is possible to achieve my dreams, it was the fight which I took on every day. 

Just like an alcoholic fighting hard to stay clean, I fought hard with myself and the monsters around to keep my dream alive in this real world. Every small success, I would jump, I would cheer, I would cry tears of happiness, I would hug my monsters with love, Coz it's them who let my dream grow from a figment of my imagination to this real thing called Startups Club, now I got warriors, an army slowly building within my dream, who would stand by me, when things get rough, who would guard me when I felt scared of these monsters, who would hug me (literally) when I felt lonely, I found my warriors in my Members of Startups Club from across the world. My dream was becoming a reality, a real entity and I was winning it, even today I am. 

So today, sitting in this flight to Pune, writing my blog contents on my phone notes, I have a thought, a day ahead of having 3 events in 3 different locations, 2 different countries and Vivek and I, in a position to reach out to lakhs of entrepreneurs in this world, I think back, is it okay to just dream and only dream? did I know I was practically implementing my dream into a reality? Did the universe play a larger part than I did for this to happen? What is it that has given me, today? 

My monsters, who pushed me to move ahead or else, they would get me down, 

My warriors, whose trust made me to go on? 

My Partner, who stood by me even if he at times did not believe it was possible 

Or ME????

Talking through Mails...

From the time we learned to speak, there has been a constant struggle and yearning in us to make sure the people we speak too, listen to us and remember us too.
- From "Ma, I am hungry" to "Mommmm... I am so very hungry"
- From "You can join me now" to "Hey, lets do it together now"

The story continues even today, with my Clients, my Friends, my Kids, my Co-Founder, my Community Members and so on..

So, what have we learnt from so may years of practice in making people listen to us?

 Today, the platform has changed, everything remains the same and the tactics to make people listen to us also remains the same but still, we just don't seem to get it on how we could make the mails be noticed. So, let us learn to talk through mails.

- Do, what you do best, add your expressions...
- Talk less to be heard more

Expressions through mails.. does matter

Every time we sit down to write mails, especially to a Client, associate or an important connect, the first thing we leave aside, are the expressions. Always remember to put your expressions into the mail. You don't have to send a mail, which just reads out the message, whats a message without an expression.

"Ma, I am hungry" means the same too "Mommmmm I am so very hungry"but the need for your mother to know she has to bring you to eat is more stressed with a little bit of expressions added to it. Said that, for a client, you write a "Would love to meet" and try "Look forward to meeting you eagerly" makes all the difference.

Talk less to be heard more

Take a shape of a blow horn, you must have seen it zillion times, but have you noticed, that the side you speak in is always smaller to the side where it is heard. This is exactly the same. 

Having specific few lines and clear, expressing language leaves behind a very loud, clear and an impressive mail, which can never be ignored. Never ever try to fit in everything into those few lines, a sale pitch, an introduction or an invite, needs to be very specific but definitely not missing out on your feelings, thoughts and passion. 

Try it always and see how magical it is...

Brand Association OR Brand Trust

When we set out to organise events, the first thought which crosses our minds is, will we bring the brand associations for the event, enough for us to be able to take the costs of the event and handle the logistics?

The fact of the story is, that it is never about associations, its about the BRAND TRUST...

What is BRAND TRUST?

Just like every startup has its trusted early users, in any event planning, budgeting, outreach & execution, the only motivation for any organiser is the early sponsors & partners who come forward to join with us. There is no clarity on the number of foot falls at the event, there is no clear Agenda to the event, there is no mention of the speakers, there is nothing, yet, they come forward to join with us for the event, then, what is this? what kind of association would you ever call this? This is nothing but a pure example of BRAND TRUST.

Taking forward this BRAND TRUST, I would like to share brands and their stories who showed to us, what matters is just trust and nothing more for our annual event under Startups Club DemoDay2015 on August 8th & 9th, just a week away...

Lets start with our Event Partners, Ignitus World founded by Anjali & Sarath, driven by pure passion but what stands out very clearly is the ability to adopt an event of their client's as if it was their very own. Taking up every challenge with an intention to bring about a solution for the same. They have in a very little time taken up weddings, corporate events, personal events & launches. But the fact they stood by us from the day they have known us and were very soon able to close on one of our key note speakers, motivated us to move ahead in bringing some of the best line of speakers and panel members.

One brand which just makes me go nostalgic is MyBabyCart headed by Mridula, one of the seasoned members of Startups Club, feels like just yesterday she had visited one of our meetings at Mr. Beans in Koramangala and shared with us on how she intends to start her own portal specially for women entrepreneurs, I remember she had shared "I will not give up, coz my last venture did not do well, learning from those mistakes, I will surely make it this time" those words mean so strong now, because she does not only successfully support many women entrepreneurs by posting their products on her platform but also has made a strong community of Women Entrepreneurs under Mompreneurs and conducts meetings every quarter and has a strong trust which has been built. One mail to Mridula, ensured her partnering with me, if this is not BRAND TRUST, what is??

Finally, last but not the least, a short and sweet story for all of you. I was going through a regular meet one morning, I get a call from a Facebook connect asking me if she was late for the meetup, I tell her that she is, but she must come over, as I get to see her in person and she agrees. Post 15 minutes she walks in, a young entrepreneur, excited and nervous and that moment, my life just became sweeter than I ever thought it could be. She, Priya, founder of KrispandCrumbls makes some of the world's most tasty chocolates and loves exploring with her skills. It has been some 8 months, but it feels like a life time we know each other. All my Club's gifting solutions is without doubt Priya's responsibility and she also makes some really beautiful gift packs as per our very own budgets. Once again coming as our trusted Gifting Partners. Taste it to understand...

With these three beautiful stories, can I confidently come to conclude that Brand Association can be created only if BRAND TRUST exists... Go out and build your trusted associations... without an ounce of fear in you... You never know, who your next title sponsor would be...

My father or my MBA

I have spent all most 25 years telling everyone who asked me what my qualifications are about how working with my father was like doing a MBA, starting today I share the stories (short for sure) my father made me learn working under him, on this special day, his birthday - 23/05 

Kandnery Mohammed Moosa (joined me spiritually on 13/8/2008) was his name, very typical Muslim name and with looks doing complete justice to his name, but for what ever reasons, there was never this one person who would ignore him, make him feel a mis-fit or not listen to him, he always got his way around things and people, so till the point you are done readying these serious of blogs, you would surely know how to get things your way and more.

Here starts my very few but important learnings I will carry all my life from him. Today's blog is for Trusting Yourself.. 

The day he called me to his office for the first time, and just asked me to jump into the car beside him and drive down to Chennai, my journey with him in business started from Chennai and so here I am sitting in Chennai on his birthday, writing this blog. He spoke about his product, a fuel stabiliser for internal combustion engines (could not understand a word what he said) followed by the fact that he was as of now making me the Managing Director of his company (I was exactly 18 years 4 months) and I kept looking at him and was fine it, after all it was just a post under him, I was cool with it. He drove down to IIT-M and in an auditorium full of faculty from mechanical department he put me on the stage announcing I was the MD of his company and will now talk in detail on his upcoming product. I wanted to kill him, myself, that very minute. So here I was on this stage, with no clue on what I am going to speak and I looked at him, my eyes to his, "Dad, I will ruin your chances you or your product have over here in this campus" and he looked back, "it's your dad's product to screw it up, no body else's" I knew he wanted me to do anything which I felt was right, trust myself and never to look back, what ever the outcome be. I did exactly that and I cannot deny that the talk went really well and we signed a R&D contract with IIT-M in not later than a month of that talk, but it's been 26 years and I have never let go of that learning, this is the reason you will never see me fear anything in life, you will never see me hesitate trying out something new, you will never see me doubt myself ever. 

So do that to yourself, trust yourself because the biggest and the most important asset you have with you is yourself and if you doubt that for start, there will be nothing in this world you will ever trust. Move ahead today and never look back and what you carry along with you is THE TRUST YOU HAVE ON YOURSELF..

Next one coming soon... 

How do u know if you're on the way to build the next big Startup?

How do u know if you're on the way to build the next big Startup?

After spending a decade between startups, hearing those beautiful stories of all the Facebooks, Apples, Whats app buy outs, Airbnbs and the list continues, I would always think, whats is it that our startups are missing out on? why does it feel like, it would never be the case with any of our entrepreneurs? There were moments when I would question our mentoring, our approach, our strategy, our suggestions and at times, sit back to consider if even continuing with this as our profiles. 

Then came across these two participants, totally unconnected with each other, for our annual event in Startups Club, DemoDay2014, Khuzema from Chennai & Arjun from Vellore. Both, no way similar to each other. On one side was this young, super aggressive, super naive and super loud and on the other was this young, super clear, super sensible, super passionate, super driven, super experienced in tech and I looked at both of them, as they got mentored to pitch their own ideas to the panel. I noticed them in various mentoring sessions, some together.. some in groups and they really did not look any thing similar.. their attitudes, their approach, their ideas.. The only three things common about them were 1. they both were young 2. they both wanted to be successful entrepreneurs 3. they both loved being associated with us.

Today, 1 year down the road, from those thoughts, long hours of discussions, longer hours of fights, unimaginable hours of working things out, we, the two young entrepreneurs and us, Prudence (Vivek, me and our team) are the three founders on board of this food related startup. Now, as I write this, I can clearly answer my question, will one of our Startups be the next BIG THING? Oh yes.. definitely it is and in fact we can see it happening already...

Lets see how, may be you could get the formula of making a successful one and if you do, don't forget to let me know through comments;

1. Team - not perfect, no way from the same age group, not from the same back ground.. BUT.. a team which is never ready to let go of the reins to make the progress. There is always this one of us who will always ensure the things move ahead. Trust me, we have taken turns.. all of us, at some point of time.

2. Idea - Idea was completely different from what it is today, but what we have today, is what our food lovers wanted & felt was missing, we were able to connect with our users at a very.. VERY early stage of the journey and get their problems, understand their needs, talk to them in person and make them realise that solution is on the way.

3. Fear Factors - Still exists, blogging here, just 1 day to go for the Beta (Soft launch) at 3:15 am, just saying a good night through a whats app message to the Tech Director, who had his whole team in Chennai sitting with him till now working on the website, we fear, his last message to me was.. "I am nervous" and just couple of hours back, my message to him was the same. So this has been on and this will be on.. but we are sure that at times one of us are at that point of time where we fear things ahead, the others will pull us up, so we know and are confident, that we will fight our fears.. that is the reason fears exist right? to fight them out.

4. Investments - Woooo.. this is one word.. which just typing the word out, gives me some crazy thoughts of all the time we have changed our strategy, thanks to this one word. There was a point of time, some 6 months back, the complete initiative had seen a dead end, if it was not for the youngest student founder who pulled us all back together and took this up, maybe this blog would never have been written.. So, yes, Investments has and will be one of the issues but then, do you know what we believe? if there is no need for investments, we would not be going ahead anywhere, the fact that we need funds is a proof in itself that we are progressing.

5. What now?? - We do not know, it is the bloody truth.. You can ask us all together or ask us individually, we would have the same answer to this question, we have no clue whats going to happen, but we are happy at the place we are in, that matters to us. We have our users waiting for the launch, who are joining us for the launch on 15th May at 5 pm, our HomeChefs cooking for all the foodies, we have not come across one person who heard us talk about our Startup, say a WOWWWW.. we are getting stronger by the day as a team and we are progressing, that is all matters to us for now and what lies ahead of us, is left on our hard work and our users, so why break our heads on that.

So, here it is, just 5 things which could come to me for now, but by the end of this, I am so glad to write that I am so sure, clear, confident and aware that we are building the NEXT BIG THING in Startups.. 

Give your thoughts or try our HOME CHEF's yummy foods by being our FOODIE on...

www.kuixine.com 

Why do Startups talk less?

Meeting around 100 startups on weekly basis, one question which always haunted me was, Why do Startups measure how much they speak? What stops them from talking about what is theirs after all?

Reasons, understood, through some close interactions, some heated discussions, some through understanding their actions and some through long late night discussions with entrepreneurs who have become close friends with time.. I have to warn you, because if you are a person who does not respect other's opinions, it is now time for you to close this blog now...

Lets start with the REASONS....

1. They are just reasons, entrepreneurs love giving reasons all the time...

2. Fear failure, failure of getting what they actually are looking for, fear of faulting, fearing others to copy what they have created. If its yours, why fear, if its not, why do it? Plain and simple FEAR..

3. Expecting the whole world to be able to do it for them. Thanks to the growing eco-system of startups, every category of work which a Startup needs to do is converted into a business model and for some reason most of the startups feel that, that service provider will take care of their talking. If the startup themselves don't talk, then how in the world can they expect others too.

Finally, Startups talk.. they surely do.. but they talk less and what little talk they do is surely not what will bring them to what they are looking for.. Don't fear mistakes, MISTAKES, make you what you will be tomorrow, it will teach you to do exactly the opposite to the time when you failed by your mistakes, so you will surely succeed...

So.. talk.. let the whole world be.. U JUST TALK.. & WATCH THE FUN.. 

Europe & Me

Work and responsibilities takes up so much of our time in life that we always stop to think what is that which covers most of our inner most thoughts.. l have realised mine is Europe.. I was destined to be there... I was destined to spend most of my best years there.. but other elements came in force. Others played a key role in keeping me away from where I was destined to be, not one but many years.. It took me lot of struggle, lot of fights, externally and internally to fight the demons and get the way cleared to where I belong. At this point of my life, I feel I have cleared those demons well enough for me to carve the path towards MY DESTINATION...

Why do we do that to ourselves? why do we make it a point to let other play our game? why do we feel its important, others take the decisions for us, even if it is going to be the worst for us? Why can't we be us? Why can't I be I?? Just I???

Saying that, I am sure that many have tried and succeeded, many have tried and failed.. which is okay?? but not trying at all.. is a sin.. Something which is unforgivable. You have been gifted with one life, if you don't dare.. who will?? Don't go down without a TRY...

Find your place... your destination.. a place on earth where you feel ur complete, does not matter with or without anyone... U r U.....

Europe... France.... more specific... South of France... is that special destination for me... How??? Why??? When???? just does not matter.. It is..

Every time I feel.. I have done enough and have had enough or just feel I have not connected with that ME, you will find me searching Lufthansa... Mariott.... Costs.. Budgets... Timelines.. I am doing it again and you will find me doing that many more times again.. If you try to find out why I do it, you will never come to know why, if you try to reason it out with me, you will never get me to give you any practical valid reason for it.. But you will find me there.. All very comfy.. coz it is for sure my DESTINATION..

Why do i love France??? Ohhhhhhhh its FRANCE.... Its me.... Love you 

DO STATISTICS SELL?

We have heard brands so many times pitch statistics to customers on how the industry is growing, how the product is performing in the markets they are in & etc, but lets give a thought.. does these statistics actually sell? I have always wondered that and I am sure we have direct, indirect marketers who have also thought of this. Ya, this is another topic of blog which I will cover in the next coming weeks, WHO IS NOT A MARKETER?

For now, lets run a reality check on the Q if Statistics Sell....

My Club, Startups Club is having its annual event in a month and I have been using every strategy in my book of strategies to ensure maximum participation. The pricing is to its lowest and the is totally sellable, an easy product to sell, its about entrepreneurship, its investors, its validation and BP pitch... you do not need a more sellable product. So, we have a winner in hand as a product. Finally the reach, ok, I am being humble when I say, I have a reach to around 40k souls across the world, all first connections. So we have the reach as well. So in this coming 1 week, all of us (meaning those who have read this Blog and are following it) will know if Statistics Sell.

I have just today checked out the exact number of tickets sold till this minute and have posted some exact statistics across my connects.. will be talking about it also in chats and blogs (such as this) for 1 week. Post the week, till the date of sales, that is 18th in Chennai, we will see, how many tickets gets sold in actual. I will conclude this blog on the 20th on the number of tickets sold through this presentation on Statistics. So, are we all in??? 

Here goes the Statistics for you as well...

Dear Members/ Friends/ Associates,

Very Soon, on the 18th of July, we will be in Marriott Courtyard, Chennai & 26th July in Hyderabad, for our Open House meetup, but most importantly, it is on that day, that you can come over and save your Rs.100/- and also lessen the chances of missing out on the availability of tickets for DemoDay coming up next month on the 9th. This a note to tell you that there are huge chances of you loosing on a great event, if you dont pick up the DemoDay tickets on the 18th itself. some fact;

1. The GRT Convention Center can accommodate only 150 people comfortably, and we have until now sold out exactly 27 tickets for the event, paid and confirmed.

2. We will have 10 Participants, so we will be mailing to the 10 participants that they can pick up the tickets for their family, friends and team members, last year the statistics show that each participant took around 2 Visitors pass, so that leaves us with 47 tickets sold.

3. Plus, it is also a tradition that the core committee team keeps around 50 tickets for last minute desperate requests and sudden walk-ins and their friends & associates. Last year DemoDay in Bangalore had 107 walk-ins apart from around 86 on line purchases. so that leaves us with a very small number of 53 tickets left.

4. We have a total of 78 RSVPs on Meetup from Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. We usually get an advance booking and on line purchase of tickets of around 20%, that means around 20 tickets could be purchased on line in the coming days by members. leaving us with just 33 tickets in hand for any pick-ups from all of you, who are sure that they will be apart of this event. 33 TICKETS MEMBERS...

So, if your having second thoughts or doubts about what this events going to be, it is not a regular monthly event by Startups Club, its our annual event for which we count down all our activities into this month. Its a whole day event. know more on www.scdemoday.com

The Startups Club FB group story - 1 to 1001

It had been 2 months since the core team of Startups Club had started the group in meetup and had around 200 members and core committee meetings were considered very important by the core team.. We had no idea what we had started off, was it just another run of the mill thing, just another meetup group, just another reaction which will die with time or something good.. Nothing great for sure.  After all, we were all a set of 5 strangers who knew each other just from 60 days.. We met at 6 pm.. Raining cats and dogs and we still did meet at Barista, Koramangala and we laughed and chatted for something.. Every one had just one thing at the back of our heads.. We are all fools.. We are making a hill out of a mole, instead of going back home and hitting the sack, here we were at a coffee shop in a rainy dreadful evening, traffic jams when we hit the road back home was a bigger problem for us than anything else.. Niladri.. Always the person other than me to start business talk in these meetings starts off.. All try to pay attention.. He says we are doing good.. Startups Club has had one successful meeting at Mr. Beans with 38 attendees and 200 members and counting and we had to now at least have some presence other than meetup.. I as usual, the attention seeker in meetings barges in and says "we do have a FB page and we have some 40 likes" very proud of myself.. He and the others are really happy and suddenly we all very interested to know things and our very own technically more qualified core team member Najmul comes up by saying we need to go on LinkedIn as it has serious business people and our marketing expert.. All fun guy Arnab jumps in saying it must be Twitter as it enables a lot of fellowship and within minutes we had all 5 of us talking together and loudly, trying to make our own point.. Just not aware or not caring about people around us, the rain, the time or our own urge to head back home.. Finally, the coffee shop boy cuts in to ask if we would order something (maybe that was his sweet way to let us know how noisy and chaotic we all were) that put all of us to silence, we brushed him off by lying to him and saying we were waiting for few other.. He was even more shocked to know that there were few more like us coming. We all sat silent and Vivek, our most intelligent and person with a knack for numbers, spoke " this Club is for members so that they could promote and reach out other members and a FB close group would be the best" immediately every one started speaking.. How many things can we handle.. Having is not the problem, managing is the thing, leaving it dead will even more demotivated our members blah blah blah.. Finally.. I do not know who spoke this but a line went like "WE CANNOT MANAGE A GROUP, AFTER HAVING A PAGE, LINKEDIN & TWITTER" that was it.. I looked so shocked that all thought I would faint.. The CAN'T word was used and I could not take it.. I proposed to the core team that we would try the FB group out if it does not catch momentum and it does not grow, we leave it and for some reason - no one opposed, maybe all wanted to go back home.. We parted off from Barista and headed home, long, wet and traffic clogged drive.. Vivek driving the car and I acted as if I was asleep but all I wanted to do was reach home and make that group of Startups Club.. How can anyone say we can't.. That was like sin, like the end of the world.. I kept playing a plan.. Reached home, did not even remove my foot ware, pulled out my system and there I was.. Created the Group.. Put a googled picture on networking as my group picture and then there is was.. 1 member.. ME.. Must I send an invite to the core team?? Would they be pissed off.. Would they feel I challenged them, I loved them all and my intention was not to hurt them but I had heard the CAN'T word.. I was helpless.. Anyway.. I decided that I was happy that I had created the group and would just share the link on my timeline and not invite any body and would talk to my core team and then do the rest.. I went to my room to change and freshen up and I heard 4 notifications came by on my phone.. My dearest core team.. All of them had sent a request to join.. I knew even more today why I loved them all so very much.. We stood beside each other for everything that is good for the club.. In 5 minutes we grew from 1 to 5. We had no plans, no SEO, no keywords.. All we, the core team did was just communicated to all our 200 members on meetup, our friends and contacts on FB and slowly it kept growing in numbers.. Every meetings we would tell our members, "please join our group & the page, and the Twitter & the LinkedIn".. We at times would feel so bad to make so many announcements..  Promote ur offerings there... Every day and every meeting.. Most importantly, even today.. What the group does to you is let's you talk about yourself, your idea, your offerings to a set of people who at times read it and at times just brush through but also at times who end up being your co-founders, ur customers and your trusted associations. 

So, this is the story of your Startups Club.. Your platform for your selling.. Your voice to the 1001  & counting pairs or eyes who could be one and all to you.. Love you all people for giving me this opportunity to share this little story of that rainy evening, the loud talks between trusted associations and the result got today and the great future for all of us.... 

Journey of a Startup

1980s.. Startup as a word did not exist, there were companies being formed, ideas being implemented, breakthrough inventions happening, big names turn to dust and new names become a trend setter overnight but the word Startups did not exist, there did not exist a need for a mentor or a guide to sit you down to tell you what you need to do for your growth. We had our parents, teachers, friends and fools who would always advice us on how to go about, we would listen to them and move on to do what we felt was right, so heres to the journey of Startups, the speed, the hurdles, the highs and the lows...

SPEED... When we begin the first step towards becoming an entrepreneur, we start to believe that we are on a flight, we are the pilots and we just have to fly and fly fast, we never stop to ever think that it is now that we need to be steady, slow and careful about the steps we take ahead. Lets take an example of everything we do regularly, slow and steady has actually won races but we forget that, very easily.

I experienced the same urge for speed in a aspiring entrepreneur who has just started her journey. With all my mentoring hours spent with her, we have become good friends and I am able to know, why she says things she says and she as well knows when she has really pushed me over the edge with her questions. So, as friends as we are, Satamita calls me up exactly after 3 days of her decision to go ahead with the new found idea and tell me that she needs to travel for a month in January and she needs the business up and running before that.. She is surely not abnormal or wrong, there are many out there like her, in fact, just few years back, I was exactly like that, my co-founder suggested to me that we must get into hospitality marketing as we were associated with few boutique resorts being set up and the next thing I do is, register a website and put a count down for 20 days down the line for it to go live.. check out www.exoticexplorers.com it did happen, we also made sales, in 20 days, we had the strategic tie-ups, we had the website, the operations and processes going but what we did not have is the TIME.. Business Mentoring is our core services and we just let that idea be, and moved ahead with our core interests. 

So, as we move ahead with our journey, we the startups need to remember that the first steps are the most crucial and you need to take them slowly, carefully and understand each and every thing you get your hands into.. Not stop completely but move ahead.. Structure your plans, put the first things first and also get down to doing it. If you plan to put the complete end to end plan perfectly, it would never happen, so put a plan which looks more feasible and practical and proceed with it.

HURDLES... Now, is that word familiar or what? Have we not come across that in everything we did ever. Going back to the teacher who hated you, to your parents who never allowed to take up what you wanted to do in life, to your girl/boy friend who would always seem to need something different to your needs. So, now why are the hurdles in the journey of making your idea into a practical business considered a huge issue. Hurdles are meant to happen, to sharpen your views, to strengthen your visions, to make you a better entrepreneur, so welcome it with open arms, take it as it comes, face it with a smile and come over it with confidence. See, how much you will learn from each of the experiences of overcoming your hurdles. 

Another example is one of my client again, who just launched his healthcare product on the 16th November, Anshil, not to forget, he is also a good friend of mine (the question I always ask is, do I make my client, my friends intentionally or it just seems to happen all the time), has had so many hurdles he has to over come, that I cannot imagine that an 8 month old startup and also an 8 month old entrepreneur could have ever overcome that. He has had to handle his financial crises, his father's expectations, his best friends and their tantrums, his mentor's anger :), his girl friends fights for not giving her time, his desire to booze in the night with friends and sleep late on weekends, you name it and he has got it all and he has faced all of it and he moves ahead. Clear in his mind and sure about his vision. Even as I write this, I get a call from him to update me on the progress and tell me that he has a another small war to win, I am confident he will and plus, he is confident he will see me beside him if he needs our services as his mentors. So, my dearest entrepreneurs, hurdles are a gift to all entrepreneurs to make them into the best ones the industry every produced.

Finally, HIGHS & LOWS of your life and mine.. It is we who make the high points and the low points of our entrepreneurial journey. Is it hard to believe? It is always the case when the world decides that we have had it very easy, it gifts us with all the low points in life and when we make up our mind; "Fuck the World" and move ahead, we gift our selves with High Moments.. So, are you ready to create your high moments as you move ahead?

I am, I was very low today morning when I read the news about Paul Walker, someone I adored and drooled upon. It just took him a drive to end it all and I suddenly felt, "Y am I working so hard to build something when it takes just that much?" and then, it happened, I said exactly the same, Fuck the world and logged into my Club's website (www.startupsclub.org) and there it was my HIGH MOMENT.. we had crossed 1500 members just in all most 10 months... I won.. again...

Journey from a 10th grade to ISB in 25 years

It takes you just that one minute to sign in and still it took me more than two decades to do that. As I sit just 10 days away from the first day when I walk into the gates of the University for my course on Business Management, I look back to see an endless chain of events and circumstances which became the road blocks to stop me from doing this many many years ago.

At this point, many such big and small events come to my mind, which makes me think why it was so impossible for me to do it then and how it is this possible to do it now. The timing could just not be worse. Having a huge family property deal closed, Prudence Advisors (means for my bread n butter, literally) at its best with 3 kids, all eager to grow into successful individuals and my own early 40s mindset of traveling to every place the dart strikes on the map but still here I am preparing for my course and reading up materials at 5 am in the morning. All this sets me to think, why we do not take that moment out and just do what we want to do?

If this means I have some sleepless nights studding, I have some embarrassing moments at the University, have some tough moments at work with clients or have some emotionally tiring moments with kids when I temporary loose focus on them, it must be fine with me and I must be good to go, anyway, in these past years, I have had sleepless night, embarrassing moments, tough moments and emotionally tiring moments and had it zillion number of times and most of it was for someone else, someone close or not, but surely for someone else but I am proud today that I am ready to face these moments for myself.

We as ladies must never give up on ourselves, its never too late for us, its never over for us. We created life, I created life and you created life but then, lets not loose ourselves living this life.

I will write soon and very soon, one of my Blogs will be written by a GRADUATE FROM INDIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS..     

Rich people network others look for work...

After 17 years of setting up several companies from the scratch, running few of them and running few down I have come to realise that the biggest lesson of my life. All my years as an entrepreneur, I have had every kind of day on my calendar. Days I am excited of getting business to my firm, days I am down about no projects; gloomy days and bright sunny days but today is an enlightening day for me.

I have had some really tough lessons to learn from the past few years and the reason has been me all the way. In situations of distress, we tend to forget that one important fact, its when we are down that we need to pick ourself up as there is no stopping to hitting the bottom we are about to reach. We just go deeper and deeper down and I was all fuelled up to ensure that my speed down was at its maximum. Its then that I realised that my most closest to heart company, a company in which I had put many years, loads of efforts and even more finances was just about to go down under. This was sure to be the rock bottom and I assured myself that I will bounce back but bounce back on what was lost.

In my final attempt to condense all my experience, my strengths and weaknesses that it hit me on my face. My strengths; something which can over run every weakness, every trouble, every hurdle which stood ahead of me. There were not many to be listed as well, just this one, which kept dancing in front my eyes, as if to yell out for my attention. MY NETWORKING SKILLS.

I could network and network good, I could build relationships and maintain them as well within minutes. I can still remember, I could just wait in a line in a bank ( remember in 1980's, we had a line of 20 people always waiting to deposit cash in banks and many more waiting with tokens to receive the cash) and create friendships which would go down many years. Then, there was this fact which always surprised all my friends, associates and family and that was, that I would never market my company services and we would always get my clients through local helpline leads or word of mouth. But until this moment when I was desperately looking for a string to hold on too, just before we go down under that I realised that in all this, it was very clear that one thing I was good at was Networking and yet, I did nothing to reach people or connect with them.

Surprisingly, few months back I was elected the Secretary of my School's Former Students Association and I was doing a great job; knew this because there were few who were delighted with the work and then there were these very old members who hated my guts, so it was clear, I was doing super great and even then, it never struck me that I need to connect to people for them to know me, my company and my services. But then again, everything has its right time and this was my time and I had to wait. Every individual has to wait for their time to come and I did too but with a lot of pain, restlessness and everything negative which can exist in this world.

Its now, 1 week since I have started my networking and a whole new world has been revealed to me. I now know, its so true when Cafe Coffee Day said - A LOT CAN HAPPEN WITH COFFEE. It did to me. I suddenly am making friends by the minute, I do not have business lined up for me and I actually do not care about it now that it happens because I get to meet with so many people and I get to know that I am not the only one with problems with bottom lines and its fine to have these problems and its only when we have these problems that we work towards getting a solution.

I have been investing in my firm earlier too and I am doing it now but the difference is that there are so many people out here every day that I know with time, my name, my company and my services will be recognised and then business will come looking for us.

It is with this that I have realised why the rich do not speak about their networking efforts and talk about their company's success. They keep this secret to themselves. After all they want to be the very few who are the HNIs and they would not want those numbers to increase. So, they earn money through all the networking for years, all those hours on flight, all those empty beer glasses, all those moments of walking aimlessly trying to put a ball in a hole; a game called GOLF, all those reasonless parties and here we thought that they have worked so hard to earn the money and now they are spending it. But the fact is that they were all working when they were doing everything under the name of networking and getting their businesses through this and then they hire dozens of really well qualified, intelligent, smart,  young and experienced individuals and let them to do their dirty jobs of slogging all the hours at office and yahhhhhh!!!! money is earned. What do they say for others to learn, they worked hard for what they created, BULLSHIT!

Its now that I am clear and I know where the money lies and I am on my way to get it all right and trust me, when I get there, I will not be alone. I will take many of those individuals who worked for these actors called HNIs and make sure that the same HNIs are one of the many and not one of the few.

Are you in?

Brave

Sat down to write after watching the movie BRAVE. Trying to recollect all the incidents, characters, names, incidents and people who have been brave after all. Let me see....

- I put myself first, after all I am an Indian.. its in my blood, it will always be me first... I think I am BRAVE to start a week with a Movie at 10 am on Monday, a week filled with workloads, pending bills, loaded expectations and a never ending process of BD at work.

- BRAVE is Mahi - the 4 year old who fell the bore well some 80 hours back and came to fame with media taking a good bite of the news to raise their TRPs. I think she was really BRAVE for her age to be alive for 6 hours post her fall, if me in her place, I'm out the very next minute, not by physical hurt but just the thought that I fell into that hole. Add to it all, the parents are all out blaming the authorities and politicians, army, workers, neighbors, media and all who tried getting their child out for not doing a good job. I just have one question for them, why had they not called all this help when they saw that hole open and they knew they had a 4 year old moving around. i remember when we have kids who start crawling around for the first time, the first thing we do is close the plug points and take away sharp items, now, was that hole dug just when Mahi went down to play... mmmmmm.. anyway, to this great effort taken by the parents TOI wants the authorities to give 10 lacs INR to the parents... good good.... so parents be ready to be irresponsible and get paid for it too... anyway, Mahi is my BRAVE for now.

- BRAVE is my son, Faraz, who has diarrhea for a week now and is ensuring he went out with friends every single day and ate junk food for every meal in the day. What can I say, if I have to go according to the parents of Mahi, I need to sue all the brands which advertise their products on the TV for making my son eat their junk food and fall sick. Actually I can earn more this way than working my self off through projects. Imagine if I can sue Mac Donalds, KFC, Pepsi, Coca cola and ITC for bingo etc... wow.. I see myself as a millionaire already...

I'm tired now and am satisfied that I have passed off half of my Monday morning with a movie and blog writing and so, I now try to go get some work done..

The Confused Investor

Slowly moving around this foreign world called "Finance" I regret the day when I decided to chose to take up the role of being an investor. It looked so great out then, I had the money, the opportunities looked so great and so tailor made for me and today as I write this blog, my money has now become a toilet paper for the various potential project promoters...

It all started from one of those days when everything went really great, greater than usual and I suddenly felt that what ever I touch would turn into Gold, (I surely did take my bed time stories just a lil too far) and there I was discussing the possibilities with my associates and circle of trusted friends of taking out my funds lying there in the savings account, doing nothing. Doing Nothing??? what do I mean by that, did I want it to run away some place and make my life exciting, looking and hunting for it, trying to bring it back, guess, that is exactly what I wanted to do, now that I decided to invest it through potential projects.  Anyway, I cannot recall when I started the discussions and soon I was this....

What is so special about being an Investor that pulls people to them like Magnet does to metal?

Let me turn the table around now, let us think, I am the one looking for investments, what would my priorities be? 

1. To create a project which would protect the funds invested to the best possible way

2. To form a structure which would just not eat into the core of funds but ensures a best feasible growth plan is in place, a practical one for starters

3. Build a strong trust between my investors, my team and my project by having clear cut plans which are not meant to be altered or changed, not even for the investor himself, to some extent, if I cannot stick to my Business & Revenue Model, trust it and make it fool proof, then how can I expect a total stranger to believe on my business model and also invest in it

and last but not the least

4. Invest myself into my project, well in advance, even before you are expecting some one to dump in large chunks of dough on to us. This shows the commitment and the drive in me to take this ship to its destination.

But, all this seem to just not exist anymore with me being the investor and looking for opportunities. I need not mention all the things which exist as all you have to do is put the opposite to everything I wrote above. Why is this?

People say, India is becoming a heaven for Investor, I guess this is the reason they say that. The  investments are done on angels. Angels who show the best possible projects, angels who are the best example of a character, angels who would sell their blood to return your investments but we investors are not looking at angels who can also disappear with a blink of an eye. We are looking at humans who have the fire and drive to make my funds grow, who have it in them to understand the art of the kill in the jungle of business and who knows to survive. Especially, in this "Recession Age". Recession is become "The thing", a fashion statement in the business world. So, we look out for this...

 No angel would ever know to get this for me, just incase, it is the hard core survivor, who would be able to do that and it is that person I am looking for... will my search end is a question yet to be answered but what I am excited is the power to understand people, in this hunting spree which I am in, I have learnt so much that I do not think, I would have learnt it with another 3 decades of existence in the business world. 

I am sure when you read the title of this blog, you expected to get some really big finance terms, some real stylish blog on finance and investments and opportunities and more, my writing would never have that, you would get many out here with all that. I would just be able to write about the practical world out here and that is all I am made off. Practical Writing, Practical Business, Practical Marketing, Practical Solutions, Practical Ideas, Practical everything. 

I agree that not many investors would like to agree to many things I wrote here, but I also know that I write what I believe and this is what I believe. Making your own rules, believing in them and walking on them. Standing out in a crowd is a tough job, but it feels great when you actually do it. You have no fears once you reach there. As an Investor, as a promoter or as an individual. 

For both Parties, Investors & Promoters, I have realized that you need to have your priorities in place. Once, you have that, you have nothing to fear. I for one, have my priorities in place. I would be moving my funds, only if the project has a promoter with a straight head, his/her priorities are intact, his/her marketing team is strong and someone who know to pull him or herself from any sticky situation.

Finally, two statements which keeps rushing through my head, every single time I am working out my investments... Questions, hope you would be able to answer them for me....

1.  Why do the people who ride the Rolls Royce take advice from those who take the Subway 

2. It is only when the tide goes out that you can see who is swimming naked - so, are we as Investors ready to wait up for the tide to go out?

Marketing - Facebook - You ?

Facebook... a success story for all young entrepreneur and I am sure every young mind out here does challenge itself "If Mark could do it, I can do it too" and then moving on a little further, we are positive that to climb the steps of success, we will use the same tool Mark used to become so successful. We are positive that we do not need to keep any huge budget to market our offerings to the masses, why? The answer just pops up - " I am on Facebook and I have 800 friends on line and I can reach out to another 3 times of that, why do I need to spend on any kind of marketing."

Very nice... sounds good to read about it or even hear it but trust me when I say, WAKE UP FRIENDS.... IT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY... I mean it.

Look at the picture above, what do you see? It is my official Facebook group page of Exotic Explorers, through which we try to promote exotic holiday destinations across the world. In the past 5 months, we have added around 400 and more members and we keep putting up various events and offers exclusively for the group members. Result or conversions - Zilch - Zero... On line friends do help, I would be wrong to say that they do not, but you cannot depend on Facebook as any kind of marketing for your offerings. You would get many likes, one odd comments here and there and a lot of "May Be" for your events but even "Will Attend" will also not make it. So, let Mark's success story be just an inspiration of being at the right place at the right time and create our own success stories. What ever the size of the success be.

Business has only 2 factors to be taken care to be successful - Innovations & Marketing. Innovations are your products and / or services and Marketing is the backbone to keep any business intact. It is very important that you need to sell your products, your services and yourself. Create a brand for yourself, no matter which industry you are in. Names sell... Names are trusted... people connect each service / product with its promoter (individual) and the connect is created with your customers. Let us play a small game out here... I shall mention the product and leave it to you to tell me what comes to your head first.

IPod - ......................
Nano - .....................
Big Bazaar - ....................
Microsoft - .....................
Indian Independence - ..................

I hope I am right, when I say this but for me, the first thing which came to my mind were the names behind those products / services. There would be people who would think of companies but I believe that the individual behind the product / services matters a lot. I have been working in creating that with my clients, my guests who travel through Exotic Explorers. I would not have reached very far but I know I am on that road, when I get calls from my clients and travelers asking exclusively for me, even if I am away.

How do you know that you are a good marketer? It took me some time to realize that myself but today, I know that I am a true Marketer and that realization is something I see as my first step towards success.

I have realized from the past 2 decades that marketing can be really easy with just one tool with you. Your tone of speech. It is very important that you have a clear tone and loud enough to be heard clearly. Your communications play a vital role in you being a successful marketer. I would come face to face with a sales person of a product which I desperately needed but if he/she is whispering and it takes a lot of effort from my side to understand that sales person, I do not think twice before letting that product go. It is that simple.

Believing in what you sell. You would have heard and read this many times by now but I would like to share an experience with you. My father was an inventor and he would invent new gadgets and machines, sometime in the industrial side or sometimes in the automobile segment but I, the Managing Director of the company was to sell the products or its patents, when it is on the drawing board itself because by doing so, we get the funding support for the development which usually runs in Crores. If I am not able to sell those products, the fundings needs to be provided by my marketing company into the R&D company which is developing the product. So, with a sword on my neck, I would get the marketing plans in place, my team and its training and get firing and I can very confidently write today that what ever the potential of the end product be in the market, I always failed to bring in a investor or funder for those products, which I had doubts on. I am not a technical person, nor do I have anything to do with Engineering but if there was any doubt in my head that what ever the inventor or engineers team are predicting (even with all calculations and formulas working out) will not work out, then, with every effort and with all the initiatives, I have never been able to bring about a tie-up but on the other hand, there was this product which my father was working on. A fuel stabilizer, for the efficient use of Petrol for Internal Combustion Engines, I believed it from the moment I saw the first Lab type of the product and trust me when I write this, that in a matter of 3 months, I had two investor lined up, one from Singapore and one from Chennai. So, the moral of the story... believe it the product / services you have to sell... and watch the fun...

Bottom line... Marketing is a very interesting and fun filled profession to take up but are you the fun loving person is the question only you can answer....
  

Hectic Days

Hectic day for a person at a 9 to 5 workplace would be a number of open windows on the desktop which never seem to close, a phone which never seem to stop ringing and a colleague, who just does not seem to stop cribbing about his/her busy schedules. But, a hectic day for a self employed person like me, a person who choose to set up a business entity for herself, is self created business meetings which seem to pop up from all directions, the mails, calls and many times, sudden drop-in at the office. A phone which never stops ringing which, I willingly carry with me every where and willingly answer every call and a set of employees who I have hired with my free will who seem to just not do anything the right way. This hectic day is my own creation.

Have always told my self for many years “Skills pay the bills” but I am yet to understand what kind of Skills actually pay the bills. It is 1 am and I am still working and I am satisfied with it, so what if my day begins at 9 am, Good, but never seem to end. Even at 1 am I feel bad that I could put in some more hours and here I am filling out my journal of the day. So, the Skill which would pay my bill is actually the skill to work my self out endlessly, then, yes, I do not think I need to worry about my bills any more.

Anyway, coming back to my today’s schedule. Something really interesting for all those readers out here, who would have just started in a Self-Employed role or ones who have moved on with it long time back. I, for the first time in my professional life was able to put a point across to a business associate who had all the experience in a line of Hospitality and I am a new born here and I was proved right as well. How was I able to do it? It was complete confidence on myself and nothing else that I did this and won my case as well.

We are in the process of setting up a resort in a hill station and we had our projections ready as well but something bothered me about it, something did not seem right, I wanted it to be more heavy on investments so that we could focus on guest satisfaction, HR training modules and not bog ourselves down for sales from the first year it self. I am happy I took the right decision and put my point across and got it my way too. We are re-structuring the complete financials as per my discussions. My lesson for the day – do not give up on your gut feeling, if you feel you are in the right, then, stand up for it, you would not have the qualifications for it, you would not have the experience but if your business mind tells you to put your foot down, then you do exactly that, the worst that can happen is your decision would slow down the growth of your business a little bit, so be it, it is your business after all, who else would have more rights to screw it up than you, so why fear and always remember, “Every successful business has at least 2 or 3 failed business ideas behind it” – Good Night…