Find Investors in India for startup capital funding

You quit your well-paying job to follow a wonderful business dream. Though you and your co-founders may have pulled in all your savings it just isn’t enough to get your business running- is it? This is the story of every StartUp. While adrenaline rush is a great driving force for entrepreneurs it is never enough to turn a great idea into a full-bodied business. You need to raise investment to furhter your idea and like most entrepreneurs are in a dilemma where to go and how to go about it. Here are the few doors that you can knock for your Startup funding:

Family & Friends or HNIs for Seed Funding

This is often the first door you need to knock as an entrepreneur. It can be your rich uncle, a businessman who has made money in another industry or even high-earning professionals. High Net worth Individuals or HNIs are the best source of seed funding for any budding company. It is interesting to note that it wasn’t easy for entrepreneurs to find such Startup Investors in India till about a few years back. The lack of awareness about technology-based startups meant that people who had surplus capital would prefer parking it in real estate, gold or other investment avenues that offered healthy returns. But with the success that Indian startups have shown in the last decade many HNIs are more than willing to invest large sums of money in an idea that promises healthy returns in the future.

For more info visit: http://veloztechform.com

Institutional Funding

Seed Funding often takes care of your days in cradle and till you have an MVP to show around, but once you start to work as a company you need more money to beat competition and improve your product for higher traction and an ROI. This is where Institutional Funding is the next go-to door for many startups. This funding is gathering steam in India as many medium and large companies are seeing the value in funding and mentoring startups. It works as a win-win situation for both. As a startup you get the much-needed Seed Capital Funding for running your business and expanding it while companies funding startups apart from lucrative returns in the future also get to see the next generation of businesses from upfront. Often they use this knowledge to streamline their own businesses and prevent their products, services and processes from becoming outdated in a rapidly changing economic environment.

Related topic: http://veloztechform.com/blog/startup-funding-basics-part-1/

Angel Network & Venture Capitalist

Angel investment, VC and startup businesses are often mentioned in the same breathe. The reason most startups turn towards the Angel Network or VC’s has more to do than merely raising capital for their enterprise. Angel investors & VC’s bring the experience of starting enterprises and making huge profits out of them. They are the best judge when it comes to valuation of an enterprise and more importantly viability of the idea in the first place. As an entrepreneur, while meeting an Angel investor or VC you should use the opportunity to get a SWOT analysis done around your business idea. Even if the investment doesn’t come through, this experience and knowledge would help you in future. An Angel or VC who invests in your business would guide you in future rounds of investment and also help you build a strong network that would pay dividends.

If you have any queries or suggestions, you can directly connect with us at: info@veloztechform.com

What is digital marketing? How does it impact your startup business?

 What is digital marketing?

It is the term used to describe the marketing services of integrated market used to attract, convert and even engage customers online. Digital marketing is basically the process of the promotion of material or anything with the help of one or more kind of electronic media. Nowadays you must be very good at digital marketing in online world to get more eyes on your merchandise.

For example, ways of advertising which might be used as the part of digital marketing strategy of any business must include promotional efforts made with the help of the social media, internet, online marketplace, electronic billboards and mobile phones, even also with the help of internet ads television and radio channels.

The role of digital platforms:

Its role in supporting multichannel marketing is very important sort or component part of digital marketing, oftenly overlook. Online channels also manage to support the buying process for small-scale to large-scale customer relationship.

How does it work?

Source:http://www.slideshare.net/liblog/cipraworkshop-future-communications-by-michael-slaby-edelman-digital 

Measuring The Effectiveness of Digital Marketing :

• The ultimate criteria to expand any type of business initiative should be its return on every investment or different financial metrics in common; the evaluation criteria for the digital marketing campaigns can be discussed in more briefly.
• All the criteria or metrics is classified according to their type and time of span. According the type, either we can evaluate these campaigns quantitatively or qualitatively. Quantitative metric includes “Sales Volume” and “Revenue Increase or Decrease”.
• On shifting the focus to the time of span, we may or may not need to measure some “Interim Metrics”, if the overall initiative was successful or not. As an example, most of social media metrics and indicators such as shares, likes and comments may be classified as interim metrics while the final increase/decrease in sales volume is clearly about from the final category.
• The correlation between these categories should exist for sure. Or else disappointing results will happen at the end in-spite of the illusion of success perceived early during the project.
• In contrast to traditional methods of marketing, Digital Marketing generates more revenue and is less time consuming.
• Digital Marketing provides exact data and figures whereas in traditional business, we work on Approximate data and figures, which are not exact.
• Due to changing trends and advancing technology, Internet has become a great medium for advertising. It provides marketing on one click.

Conclusion:

Digital marketing is all about utilizing every digital technology to achieve your marketing goals or objectives. There is no necessary need for the digital marketing to be separate from the marketing department all the time. The objectives of both are very similar. For now, it remains a very useful term because of the requirements of certain skills for utilization of the digital technology necessarily. As per our developing skills report, many of the marketers are now spending more than 50% of their precious time on the digital marketing activities or terms and two of the three top job roles in marketing are digital, so clearly digital skills are needed.

How to maximize startup advisor's superpower for new business success?

Starting up your own business without any support or guidance may appear heroic but it you might be delaying your chances of success. Associating with a startup advisor or a guest advisor can impact your decision-making skill and introduce you to a new concept which otherwise, becomes difficult, because an entrepreneur is solely engaged making his/her business plan work and might overlook other areas which need attention.

Getting an advisor on board can improve the way your company operates. An external advice works as a complimentary source of information for running your business more effectively using the experience of others.

How Startup advisor can transmogrify your business:

Here is how startup advisor can help:

• A startup advisor will be honest with you. Since the advisor is not employed with you or working for you, he/she will always come up with most honest advice and feedbacks. If an advisor thinks that you are sailing on the wrong ship, they will immediately tell without hesitation. This helps in better deciphering the bottlenecks and nipping the bud at the right time and hence maximizing your chances to succeed.
• A good and efficient startup advisor can help new business startups with quiet advice and consultation. There’s an age-old adage,” A wise man learns from the mistakes of others”, startup advisors brings with them their experience, their reason for failure and success which works as a learning ground for the new startups for improvising their business plan which eventually help them to succeed. As a new business startup, you might face issues like aggravating employees, legal and documentation issues reference for business or reviewing your business model, a startup advisor works as a panacea for all your problems.
• Seeing around corners. As CEO, you have everything in front of you. An advisors or Startup Mentors help you see the situation apart from the normal field view which helps in ensuring that you have a 360-degree approach to embark upon a situation.
• An efficient startup advisor works as a coach whom who can entrust with all your issues and problems and they come up with a right and practical solution to it. Moreover, similar to a professional coach, a startup advisor will help you understand the nuts and bolts of your business and trains you to come up with the best solution for your business related problems. Startup advisor has relevant experience in the field and hence you can seek their advice when required. Also, they act as your agony aunt or punching bag where you can unwind yourself which otherwise is not possible.
• Your complete training ground, as a new startup business you need funding to run your business and manage the operational cost. Before hitting directly at the shot, Small business consultant works as training ground in front of whom you can pitch your startup business plan and they will always come up with honest feedback. Since they carry a heavy bag of experience, it is easy for them to suggest you with an alternative pitch which can fetch you funding to make your business successful.

Learnings:

To sum it up, we can say that the role of a startup advisor helps the entrepreneur suggest with design constraint, helps the founder focused on their goal and work on priorities without getting deflected or hindered by daily glitches that come in the business. As a new startup business owner, your focus should always be on increasing productivity achieving business goal, a good and efficient startup advisor ensures that you succeed in doing the same.  

7 must follow tips for startups before approaching angel investors

Thousands of ideas are born every day in the toilet seat, while driving back from the office, taking one’s pet out for a stroll or while sipping a drink at a party. But most ideas die as fast as they are born. A fraction of such ideas actually turn into a serious discussion and even minuscule percentage of ideas lead someone to quit a 9 to 5 job and chase their dreams. If you belong to this minuscule tribe you would need to raise investment to further your ideas. Wondering how to raise capital from an Angel Investor? Here is the right way to do it.

Send the Right Signals

Why should an Angel invest in your idea or product? ‘Big returns’ in the future you would say, but the fact is this isn’t quite going to convince people on the other side of the table who have ‘been there and done that’ before you. Have you invested your life’s savings into this idea? Are you willing to give it everything that you own? If not, you aren’t sending the right signals to the investor and in all likelihood, you aren’t going to find an ideal investor or raise the amount of money you are looking for. The logic behind this is quite simple – if you aren’t willing to risk your own money on this idea why should an Angel do so? So before you reach out to an angel make sure you reach out to your own deep pockets and have the business run on first gear.

Raise Initial Seed Money

Keep in mind the thumb rule, ‘never go to an angel empty handed’. When you have a brilliant idea your friends and family should ideally be your first investors. You need to show them the value in your idea and how their investments can fetch healthy returns in the future. In entrepreneurial language, this is called ‘Seed Investment’ or ‘Seed Money’. Angel Investors would invariably ask you about ‘Seed Money’ in your business as it can easily portray your patience, resolve and marketing skills in managing the show. If you aren’t able to sell your idea amongst people you know perhaps you are in a wrong business!

Related article: Difference between Seed Funding and Venture Capital Funding

Business Plan First Money Second Always

Never jump out of the bed and seek an appointment with an Angel! There are some who make the mistake of looking for investment even when they don’t know how to execute their idea. The last think the Angel investors want is to pay you to ‘think’ and prepare a business plan. You need to acknowledge that every idea sounds brilliant on the paper but for it to turn into a profitable venture it needs to be backed up by a strong business plan. If you have a strong business plan that has all the ends worked up you won’t see too much trouble in finding the right investor. It is okay for your business plan to change or be replaced by a completely new and better one as the Angels are likely to give their input but you should focus on a business plan first and then start looking for money.

Research on The Angel

When you are looking for means to raise money for your idea you are likely to knock many doors and this is where most entrepreneurs get it wrong while reaching out to an angel. They create a business plan or an email template and send it over to as many angel investors as they have heard of and wait for their luck to shine. Remember Angels do receive dozens of such emails and business plans every week and hence you need to really be lucky for your mail not to get deleted or your business plan not to land up in a trash can. You need to research on the investor’s background, his/her interests in terms of investment and also what he/she has done in the past as an entrepreneur. This will help you in the next stage of the process.

Art of Writing an Email

Yes, writing email or even a hard copy of your business plan to an investor is an art and it can make or break the deal. Start by acknowledging the investor’s past ventures or saying how it inspired you. You can also compliment them on their latest interview or award that they have just received. This will separate your communication from dozen others that they receive every week and show them that you have researched on their background. Give a brief of your background as this is something they always look for. Next write about the gist of your business idea, make it brief as no angel would like to read through thousands of words to understand your business plan. And most importantly if you can’t explain your idea in brief, you can’t explain it at all.

Once you have written on typed these initial lines add a link to your website or its screenshots if it is under development. This is important as it would show that you have already worked on the idea and have something to discuss about when you physically meet the person. Without a link or a screen shot you aren’t likely to find too many takers for your idea as it hasn’t matured to the stage of what is known as Series ‘A’ Funding.

Investors love to see things rather than hear about them. In short, if you dream of becoming an Amazon you need to show your eCommerce store to the investor and how it solves problems and exploit opportunities that Amazon hasn’t yet addressed. Lastly end by seeking an appointment to discuss the idea and scope of investment at the Angel’s chosen date, time and location. Note that we have highlighted on the date, time and location as this would show the investor that you are willing to walk miles to realise your dreams. Remember an email that arouses interest and generates a response would do your confidence the world of good.

Network and Use the Network

Though writing an email is the easiest way to get in touch with an investor it doesn’t quite guarantee you a response. The tougher yet more effective way of garnering interest of Angels is to reach them through someone they know or someone who holds recognition in the industry. For instance, if you are planning to start a mobile wallet someone who is a big name in the financial industry introducing you to an investor would up your stakes. Angels always look to mitigate risk while investing in an idea and such introduction means that your idea has been vetted and is worthy of investments. So at the very nascent stage in your business, you need to start meeting people and build a network. The bigger the network you can put it through better use to your advantage.

Know Your Target Well

Finally, you need to know your targets well in advance. There are entrepreneurs who land up in a meeting with a startup investor without knowing what they are looking to get out of the Angels. You need to put a price to your idea and show the Angel the value in his/her investments. Here you need to show some realistic projections in terms of gaining a foothold in the market and turning your customers and sales into profits. Don’t try and take the Angel for a ride as they have a better sense of the market than you may have presumed. What you need to target is the top figure based on the prospects of your idea. If your idea is worth the money a seasoned investor won’t shy away from putting his/her money onto it.

Keep these things in mind and you would be able to successfully raise the required capital for your business.

Why is coworking space more convenient for entrepreneurs?

With the evolving professional work culture, the methods of work are also changing. Professionals are becoming more flexible with their working skills, geographies, time and money. The concept of working from home and freelancing is not new now. A lot of people cannot adjust with fix time and money that a typical job offers and that’s why some of them choose to become freelancers or entrepreneurs. Now, as every coin has two sides, this method of work also had some drawbacks. Freelancers and entrepreneurs got bored of working in home environment and they needed a place where they can feel like office and work on their own terms. This necessity caused the invention of the idea of coworking space!

What is Coworking Space?

If we define coworking in professional language, it is work setup that offers a shared working environment, often an office, but an independent activity. People who are coworking, are generally not employed by a single organization like the mainstream office culture. These people can be freelance web developers, artists, contractors or entrepreneurs.

Coworking Stats

The trend of coworking spaces is still limited to some geographies only but it’s evolving faster and some people are really nailing at investing in it at this early stage and looking at multiplying their money when the concept is on boom! Currently, there are around 7000 coworking spaces across the globe which is expected to touch the 10000 mark by the end of 2016. But, why is it looked as a very attractive business idea? Why are professionals choosing to use a co-working space?

Reasons for choosing Coworking space

Professionals respect some common work values when they are looking to work for someone else or themselves which are Community, Openness, Collaboration, Accessibility, and Sustainability. They need a proper mix of these values in their work environment which has very less chances of existing while they are operating from home and even in a typical office environment, there is not guarantee of this mix. Coworking offers something far more than simply that of people working in the same place or operating from home, a fundamentally new way of thinking about how to work and share with others.

Some businesses are working dedicatedly towards the concept of coworking and offering coworking spaces to people who crave to work in an organizational setup without losing out much from their pockets. They offer creative infrastructure which includes dedicated working space with furniture, internet connection, print, scan and other basic facilities, food and some free events and trainings as well. Above all these, they offer a collaborative environment where people get the motivation to work.

The concept of coworking space is currently in the incubation stage itself as the trend is only prevailing in the major cities across the globe and it will take time to target professionals in smaller towns or villages. But, the future of the concept of coworking space looks brighter to many startup gurus!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/18267309/?claim=afe8d3te5px">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Growth hacking – your tool to success

Growth hacking has been around and the word has taken many business owners in its grip. Every new start-up is looking for growth hackers to make millions of money and ridiculously increase their sales figure. Those who are aware of the word, know what we are talking about but those who are new to this term, let me explain a bit about growth hacking.

Growth Hacking Overview:

Growth hacking is only a few years old, around 6 years old. The term was first coined in 2010 by Sean Ellis. Growth hacking is a way to increase the social reach of the brand or product. The word hack means a way which is different than the traditional way of doing things; the hacker uses innovative and creative ways to get the job done. Unlike the detailed marketing strategy, the focus of growth hacking and growth hacker is to focus on end result i.e. increasing sales and generate more and more brand awareness. Growth hackers, with their knowledge of product and distribution, find new and technologically advanced ways to promote the product and find new avenues of growth.

Growth hacking has 4 different phases:

• Product-market fit
• Growth is hacked
• Viral
• Retention and optimization

Why has growth hacking become a survival guide for startups?

Growth hacking is kind of marketing; the only difference is that it is only result oriented. Most of the startups initially lack funds and cannot afford to have a big marketing team to plan and strategize their growth. The upsurge of growth hacking has brought forth a modern and new approach that transmogrifies their business without spending much on marketing team and implementation of strategies.

The crux of the matter is that growth hacking is important for startups because:

• They are uncertain about the market response and a good growth hacking strategy works well for them.
• They need quick growth , although growing numbers is a dream of any business but the start-ups need to work fast and grow faster to make their name established in the market.
• They don’t have access to so many resources and brand equity.

There are various tools available which work as a survival guide for the startup, few of them include the following :

• Analytics
• Conversion Rate Optimization
• Lead Generation
• Email Marketing
• Content Marketing
• SEO
• Marketing Automation
• Landing Pages
• Social Media

Growth hacking and Digital marketing, what’s the difference?

Well, for most of the people the terms are chaotic or sometimes used interchangeably but there is borderline between growth hacking and digital marketing. Growth hacking deals scalable methods to increase sales and generate brand awareness. It includes everything that drives traffic to your website, retention of customers, word of mouth or anything that promotes your business and motivates the customers to come back to your website. It can be your email signature or a leaderboard in your website or anything that entices and engages the prospective customer.

On the other hand, when it comes to digital marketing, it’s about promoting brands through different ways and medium.

To sum it up, it can be said that growth marketing is a level up of digital marketing.

How can marketing automation support startups through festive season?

The festive season has already knocked the door and this is the right time for most of the retailers especially the one dealing in consumer good to make the most out of ,or over, it’s the right time to convert your prospective leads into long-term clients. But, how does one do that? Well, the answer lies in technology. All of you who would be reading this right now would agree with me on the fact that technology is a panacea and is helpful in finding out the right way to make more business. Marketing automation can prove as one shot that will hit the dart right at the point.

How marketing automation will help your business this festive season?

If you have been using marketing automation, I’m sure you would have noticed the difference in your war of working from what it was before but for those who still haven’t experienced the difference, you must immediately get this tool on board so that your sales and marketing performance escalates.

The success of any business lies in the fact that how well-connected you are with your customer. Marketing automation helps in regular and continuous interaction with the customer on time and real-time.

Marketing automation helps in managing action points of communication with consumers in advance to avoid any indistinctness especially when the flow of traffic is high during the festive season.

Application of marketing automation:

Here we will be focussing on a case study which shows how marketing automation tool can help business flourish during the festive season. We all know that all the e-commerce companies come up with various offers and sale during the festive season and they promote offers during a limited period and date, thus, it becomes paramount that the information about the date of offer and details of offer should be intimated to the customer well in advance. Here comes the role of marketing automation which helps pre-planning the communication workflow with the consumer. The tool runs through the historical data of the consumer and identifies the preferred channel of interaction like email, messages, social media, mobile apps etc. and then this data is used to interact with the customer and disseminate information accordingly. Marketing automation allows traction with consumer and hence, is the best tool to gain back the interest of the consumer in buying a particular product or service.

Let’s take another example, suppose a person buys mobile phone online, then there is a high probability that the person will also buy a mobile accessory in future. Marketing automation can help the company reach out the customer with various offers related to mobile accessory thereby leading to purchase from the same portal.

The applicability of marketing automation is not restricted to e-commerce or online purchase, rather, companies and retailers can use this tool in their store as well. For example, when a customer visits a store and is connected to Wi-Fi, marketing automation tool identifies the customer and can send information related to offers that the store is offering on a particular day. This real-time interaction can help in increasing the probability of sales, especially during festive season.

Email marketing is yet another version of marketing automation which will help you gain your customer’s interest and regularly engage customer with the brand and its offers.

Marketing automation has proven to be a tool that can help your business grow and escalate to the high level of success.

Marketing automation – The secret element that will make your startup thrive

Any new business has a lot of work on its to-do list, but as compared to the earlier times, the modern world and entrepreneurs are blessed with technologies and tools that have simplified the task. As the time is passing, we are witnessing new tools and techniques unfolding and showing a new way of doing business. Whether its ways of promotion, marketing, connecting and advertising, business in every form has a strong influence of technology. Marketing automation is one such tool which has simplified business and has helped in streamlining the process which helps in removing bottlenecks.

What is marketing automation?

It’s a software platform which helps in automating your marketing and sales engagements such that you are able to generate more leads and gain your customers’ loyalty. Overall it ensures making your business a success by removing bottlenecks.

Marketing automation can be a great help if merged with sales and marketing team, it allows the team to work together and helps in optimizing leads.

Here are the benefits of marketing automation:

• It helps in generation of more leads
• It helps in qualifying leads
• It helps in prioritizing the leads so that you can convert them
• It helps in managing all marketing emailers
• It helps in generation more leads

The benefits of the marketing automation can be reaped by entrepreneurs who have newly entered the business and those who are a well-established name in the market.

Related post: How can market automation support startups through festive season?

The sole objective of implementing marketing automation is that it helps in enhancing the performance of the sales and marketing team by streamlining their way of work and also prioritizing the leads which help enclosure and sales. Under marketing automation, you don’t have to micromanage the work; instead, everything runs on autopilot which gives you enough time to focus on your core area of work. It enables you to have a 360-degree view of how your prospects are communicating with the tool and how this tool is working on converting the prospects into clients.

Overview of how marketing automation helps in enhancing the business performance:

• Saves time – The newbies and the established class in the business face the problem of time crunch, most of you will agree with me that sending emails, prioritising leads etc. bag more share in your daily work life, with marketing automation, all these tasks can be deployed to an automated tool which works as your team member so that you can focus on your work.
• One stop shop- In order to use the best of technology, most of the companies end up using an array of marketing tools which only gets you webbed in using series of marketing tools, however, with marketing automation , you have a single tool to perform multiple tasks. It gives you a complete picture of your customers likes, interest to submit up, marketing automation helps you create, deploy, manage and measure your entire asset in one place.
• Identifying sales leads- Marketing automation if merged with the CRM tool can help in understanding how customers are interacting with your marketing campaign and marketing materials, it also helps in aligning the process of sales lead prioritizing and thus helping sales team focus more on hot leads for closure.

Conclusion

Technology has come as a boon for many businesses to survive and succeed, marketing automation is the revolution in work of business and is working wonders for those who are start-ups and need to focus solely on their increasing the productivity of their business.

Are you a teenager interested to enter the startup world? Tips for young entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is the new buzz word that seems to be becoming the talk of the town. The latest development can be traced from the fact that most of the young brigade is getting inclined to become the proud owners of business rather becoming a mediator to fulfill someone else’s dreams. The passion for chasing the dreams have become so strong that many colleges have introduced entrepreneurship development classes wherein students are encouraged to come up with new ideas that can shape their as well as the nation’s future.

Advantages of having young blood as entrepreneurs:

It’s no denial that there is a rising inclination of youth to become job-giver rather job-seeker. The path-breaking contributions by these young entrepreneurs lead to employment generation which eventually helps in the growth of the economy. Entrepreneurs are an important asset for any economy as they bring forth the ideas and concepts that directly or indirectly act as a catalyst for the growth of the nation. Entrepreneurial endeavors lead to the influx of money into the economic machinery of the nation, whereas on one side the established business may hit the glass ceiling in terms of their services, offerings, and money generation, the entrepreneurial ventures will boost new products and technologies in the market resulting in income and wealth generation.

Entrepreneurs are breaking tradition, following the path-breaking rules to create something that was never thought of. Today we are experiencing the high rise of that stratum of people who believe in themselves rather than believing in the predefined systems and protocols. The latest examples of Facebook, Linkedin, Alibaba etc. are few examples of providing service to people in a manner that no had ever thought of and all this became successful because there were strong determination and perseverance of people who wanted to make it happen.

There is another side to the positivity of entrepreneurship and Italy is quite an example where self-employment has proved to be inefficient for the economic growth. Here I remember a famous phrase that says, “Too many chefs and not enough cooks spoil the soup”. Thus, it the role of the government and the state becomes very important here. They need to establish policies and rule that can work as a guideline for entrepreneurs. Unfettered entrepreneurship might result in some unsocial activities like pervasive corruption, criminal activity, unfair market etc.

Must read: 10 mistakes that you should avoid if you want to make your startup successful

Hence , the state needs to strike a balance when it comes to promoting the idea of entrepreneurship which will not only help the economy grow but will also lead to establishment of a regulated society. In order for entrepreneurs to grow, there are a few tips that will work wonder for you :

Fire in the belly

As a young entrepreneur you should be passionate about your idea and concept. Accept your failure with open arms as they are bound to happen however, don’t worry they are just a part of running a business. Your passion for your idea and zeal to succeed will help you come over this failure and make your way to success.

Delegating work

The success of any entrepreneur lies in delegating the right person right work. Your sole objective is to make your business run and increase the productivity ; technology has given us many options like Virtual Assistant, online work etc. which can be of great help .This not only reduces your workload but also lets you focus on your business.

Understand what market needs

Need analysis is the most important aspect of any business. Your product or service should match the customer requirement; make sure you run a pilot project r conduct a survey to understand what will be the probable response of people towards your product or service.

Look for mentors

Having a Startup mentor or a guide will not only help you get a third party view of your business model but at the same time they work as an excellent source to drive your business in a right direction. An important point to note here is that the mentor and the experienced brains in the business know the rules of the game, you might be good at technology but the experienced class has already, mastered the art of networking which is the key to success for any new venture.

Optimally use social media marketing

It’s never bad to use social media to market your product after all, people are now more driven by social media messages but remember to optimally use it. Don’t solely rely on social media as your only tool to market your product or service, see which is the best medium and best time to market your product.

It’s never bad to use social media to market your product after all, people are now more driven by social media messages but remember to optimally use it. Don’t solely rely on social media as your only tool to market your product or service, see which is the best medium and best time to market your product.

Is coworking right for you? Arguments both for and against coworking space

With the rise in real estate prices, it became very easy and convenient option for start-ups or freelancers to pay a small amount to operate in a readymade office kind of environment (actually better than that), rather than investing bundles of money in buying an office. Coworking spaces are often confused with collaborative office rental facilities and incubators. It is not exclusive to people looking to build tech startups and it is also not limited to a better way to rent space, it offers a lot more than that

Let’s look at what really are the advantages of working in a coworking space that professional are not able to resist themselves:

• First of all, it offers the office like infrastructure that has facilities like dedicated desks, conference rooms, cafeteria, wifi/internet connection, print & scan facilities, power backups, etc. at single cost and also saves time in maintaining records of such overheads.
• These spaces organize some events or conferences for its members, sometimes just as a part of motivational activities and sometimes specific to particular topics.
• It offers the most wanted feeling of an office environment to the freelancers or startups who cannot or don’t want to invest in their own office spaces.
• Contact building becomes very easy for the young entrepreneurs and that will help them grow their businesses in future.
• A very important advantage of a coworking setup is it has variety of business ideas and concepts operating from a single place which can really be helpful for its members as some of them can find the services helpful for their businesses right on the next desk which will provide prospective clients to that service provider who’s also a member.
• Idea-sharing becomes easy and insightful which makes the environment exciting.
• Because generally the members of coworking spaces are young or open minded freelancer or startups, the culture is highly energetic and rocking.

But, it is said that something that glitters is not always gold, same as that this highly aspiring concept of coworking space also has it’s own drawbacks which make it avoidable for some professionals:

• The biggest disadvantage one will have opting for a coworking space will be spending money just to have an office environment which is not always affordable for the freshers or people who do not earn much. Coworking spaces are not always cheaper as currently the concept is quite new and is only available in big cities.
• If a coworking space is not available nearby, one will have to incur the transportation cost and also time to reach at the location.
• Coworking spaces sometimes observe too many changes. Coworkers are never the same and same goes with the desk that one uses. Their staff and location are also bound to change if they have very low-profit margins.
• Coworking spaces are sometimes more noisy than what members who like peaceful working environment would have expected. Constant noise sometimes becomes annoying and distractive.
  Such places are not really meant for people who are working on some top secret projects. Privacy of ideas becomes very rare in coworking spaces, especially when members are of same work domain.
• Coworking spaces are not complete substitutes of typical offices. Sometimes, you might not get the same level of guidance or help from the coworkers that you get from your office colleagues.

Understanding how e-wallet is changing definition of transactions

Basically, a wallet is something which holds money, credit card, debit card, shopping cards, ID proof etc. When you are already out for shopping and you forget your wallet at home then do you think it is a done thing ? No, it is not. In this fast moving world, everyone believes in smart work which will save their time and make work easier.

eWallet trend

E-wallet is a digital wallet in which you can preload some amount, credit card number, user’s identification and contact information behind a secured password. With the help of e-wallets, everyone can shop efficiently. According to open source survey, more people prefer online marketplace platform for shopping and e-wallet become its payment arm. Not only online stores, but e- wallet is helpful in physical stores too. E-wallet has made tedious paperwork transactions easy and fast. A person can pay for goods just by transmitting a number from one device to another and the transaction is done. Isn’t it Fast and Interesting?

E-wallet can be classified into three parts:

1. Closed E-wallet : Closed e-wallet can be used at particular places authorized by e-wallet offering organisations and it does not allow cash withdrawal. e.g.Freecharge.
2. Semi-closed E-wallet : Semi-closed E-wallet like Paytm can be used as prepaid online accounts. One can buy services and products from merchants having tie-up with the issuing entity. It does not allow cash withdrawal
3. Open E-wallet : Open E-wallet can be used for purchasing products and services. Unlike closed e-wallet & semi-closed e-wallet, it allows cash withdrawal at ATM’s. e.g. MasterCard, Visa card, Rupay card.

Digital wallet uses various methods to accomplish transactions such as Pull method, Push method & Tap-and-go method. In Pull method, a merchant will ask you for your mobile phone number and will enter it on their payment terminal, after that you will get one-time password (OTP) on your mobile phone then you have to share that OTP with the merchant, and in this way, money gets pulled from your e-wallet. Another is Push method, in which you have to send quick response (QR)code to merchant for scanning, which will help you to transfer money. The merchant will send you a QR code with the bill. QR code is nothing but a barcode which has details of the merchant’s establishment, bill details, etc. When code scanning is done, money from your e-wallet gets deducted and merchant’s account gets credited. Tap-and-go is an interesting and easy method in which you just have to tap your mobile phone with merchant’s terminal for money transfer. Both phones should be NFC (Near Field Communication) enabled phones to perform transactions by tap-and-go method.

What is making E-wallet a boom

• It is time saving.
• It comes up with various offers and coupons.
• Password security service is provided to maintain the confidentiality.
• People can track their expenditures as it facilitates them with their transaction history.
• Some of them offer data retention till 40 years.
• It is easy to use and easy to access.

Let’s see the downside of E-wallet

• E-wallet of one country can not be used in another country.
• Yet few merchants do not offer digital wallets. e.g. Amazon.
• In some conditions like lack of network, a Dead battery of the device or device is not in a working condition then one can not access E-wallet.
• It does not provide 3D secure password which helps to avoid unauthorized access of data.
• E-wallet does not assure you the security of your money if the device is lost.

A deep dive into online marketplace : how does it works, pros and cons

A marketplace is generally a location where people purchase or sell goods and services. It is the place where the seller meets the buyer, whether it is a B2B or B2C type of market. A market can be a wholesale market, retail market, high end or a street market according to the brands available, and the target customers of the locality. There are concepts like Supermarkets and Hypermarkets where one can find everything, from Safety pin to High-End cars under one roof.

Online Marketplace is an e-Commerce marketplace where products/goods/services are provided on an online interface. Here the transactions are facilitated by the operators of such online marketplace. e.g Amazon, Flipkart etc. the online marketplace is a dais from where the sellers display their products with the help of online marketplace operators, who in turn facilitate the financial transactions on a commission basis, while the final delivery of the goods, the after sales services responsibilities lie with the sellers. Hence and online marketplace provides a vast array of goods /services as compared to retail stores, where the prices are also competitive due to huge inventories of goods.

Sellers/Wholesalers have started selling their products through the online marketplace with the help of marketplace operators. Sometimes, these sellers also concern business mentor who guide them to select the best suited platform for business. Sellers can sell their products to the customers through multiple online marketplace operators, simultaneously. The inventories/ stock, never lie with these online marketplace operators. These online marketplace operators enable buyers meet sellers online and facilitate financial transactions thereof. The sellers usually make a list of products they intend to sell and thus upload them with the online marketplace operators. In few cases the sellers give the responsibilities of advertising, financial transactions, delivery of the goods, and after sales services of their product entirely wit the online marketplace operators, while in some cases the responsibility of delivery and after sales services lie with the sellers, while the responsibility of advertising the product lies with the online marketplace operators. The online marketplace operators generally pay the sellers for the goods sold in 7 days. On an average, the online marketplace operators charge around 15% commission for the products on their portal.

Worldwide Statistical Analysis :

Customers prefer online marketplace because,

• 73% find it time-saving.
• 67% think there are more varieties.
• 58% feel relaxed because it is less crowded.
• 59% think it’s easy to compare prices.

From a sales perspective, in 2016 global B2C e-commerce sales is expected to reach 1.92 trillion US dollars which will increase to 2.14 trillion, 2.36 trillion and 3.42 trillion US dollars in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. In 2020, it is expected to grow almost double the figure of 2016 to 4.06 trillion US dollars.

In India, the sales figure of e-commerce marketplace in 2016 will be around 23.39 billion US dollars which will zoom to 37.5 billion US dollars in 2017, 52.54 billion US dollars in 2018, 65.09 billion US dollars in 2019 and 79.41 billion US dollars in 2020.

In 2016, Worldwide number of digital buyers is expected to reach 1.61 billion which will increase to 1.77 billion, 1.91 billion, 2.07 billion in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. The forecast for a number of digital buyers in 2020 is 2.59 billion.

A number of digital buyers in India is expected to touch 112.7 million from there it will go on increasing to 153.2 million in 2017, 192.6 million in 2018 and 239.7 million in 2019. Further, it will go on and reach 288.9 million in 2020.

Let’s look at some benefits of online marketplace:

• The online shopping trends are increasing day by day and the sellers have also started catering to the demands of the consumers.
• The online marketplace is having its own numerous profits and positive points involved, both for the consumers as well as the sellers.
• All the products are just a couple of clicks away, as one can shop right from his home, flexible payment options, the customers can easily return the products if no satisfied with the products, can review his shopping etc. the buyers can compare thousands of products and prices to purchase accordingly.
• A consumer can shop anytime as the online marketplaces are open throughout the entire day and night.
• A local seller gets an opportunity to sell his products to the customers of the entire world with the help of online market.

There are some drawbacks as well:

• The consumers cannot check the product quality before the delivery of the products.
• The consumers in few cases, incur losses due to the faulty products and faulty handling during delivery.
• The sellers incur losses due to the return of the products, logistics involved in it and in some cases return of used products (used by the customers for 5-7 days).
• The online marketplace operators take around 7-30 days for the payment of goods to the sellers.
• Sellers have to offer coupons and discounts to stay ahead in the competition which will affect their profitably.
• Apart from product cost, a buyer has to pay shipping cost as well.