Business Model for a Successful Startup

Every time is the first time. And every new customer you meet, it is the first time that you would be making your presentation.

The key is to create your pitch to every prospect with the same spirit, hardwork, efforts, to establish your credibility.

Here is a sure-shot formula for success in your business, i.e. WxWx3Ws+H

a. The first W is the Why of your business. Mission of your organisation or your offering. Why are you in the business you are in. Be clear. Be specific. Till the time you take it beyond your own self, you won’t find the true mission of your work. This is the core, the entire spirit of your engagement, or in short, the purpose of your being.

Each one of us is Born to Serve others. Ask yourself, how does your product or service is making a difference in the life of others. What problems it is going to solve?

b. The second W is to be multiplied, because this is another crucial element to your success. Who? Who are the people whom you intend to serve. These are the people, your customers, for whom you have devised the product. Do you know all these ‘people’ who are going to make a success of your business? They are both internal and external.

Internally, they are your cofounders, collaborators, investors, board of directors, and the entire team members, down to your office boy and tea-wallah, sweeper, etc.

Externally, the ‘WHO’ form the largest chunk who are the reason for your existence. Your distributors, dealers, channel partners, logistics support, vendors, retailers, customers, and their families, the community,
the media, the government, financial institutions, etc.

Once you start drawing your list of ‘Who’, you will be surprised to know how you need to create strategy to reach out to all those people.

c. Theeafter we have 3Ws, i.e. What, When, and Where. They relate to your product/services, the team of experts, your USPs and technical advantages over competition, when can one get them (or the timing factor) and where.

d. The H, How, explains the process you are going to adopt to solve the people’s problems. In the online domain you would find thousands of replicas of various products, but only one amongst them excels and shines just because of the excellence in execution, which is the differentiator.

When you pitch to your client, your presentation should not be more than 6 to 7 slides, because no one has the patience and time to go through lengthy presentations.

Your passion and knowledge about your product and how it connects with the prospective customer, would not require longish explanations. Keep them Short and Sweet.

The first slide, Why would take care of your values and objectives, while your research on Who would matter the most.

Before the pitch, study your customer/prospect whom you are going to make the pitch.

Don’t keep it general.

Modify it to suit specific issues that your prospect is facing, which would require a little research about the organisation to whom you are approaching. Address their specific needs, and you have hit the nail.

Take care.

 

10 Business Tips for Startups

 Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay 

Here are the ten business tips for startups. 

1. Start with Why. If you are already in business write down the reasons or purpose of your business. Why are you in business? What niche area you are serving? What are the pain points that you intend to solve? How your business would address specific issues.
2. How you are different? Explore the businesses in your domain…the competition. What are they doing and what are their marketing strategies? What is the USP of the products in the market? Have you innovated?
3. Strategy to Excel: Compare your product/service or offering vis-a-vis the competition. How it is or going to be different from others? Are you building into your system some ease-of-usage, better turn-around-time, or improved quality with same or less pricing? What shall be your USP?
4. Design Excellence: Is there an improved design? In product, packaging, delivery, usage experience?
5. The Team: Do you have the team on board which are not square pegs in round holes.? People matter. Having the right team for each process is essential.
6. The Right Resources: Do you have the right financial resources to implement your plan, your ideas, and innovation? Who shall be providing the resources for your success? What kind of partnerships you shall evolve?
7. Do you know your customers? What are their psychographs and demographics? What are their preferences? Why should they be using your product? How do they make their choices?
8. What is the market size you intend to cater to? Local, national, or international?
9. Your Business Environment: Your organisation is affected and impacted by the business environment; be it government policies, economic or political situation, social or cultural considerations, international trade, etc. Are you aware of it as to how you can operate within existing business environment?
10. Communicate: List out all your internal and external stakeholders who matter to your organisation, your product or services. Be specific and develop communication strategy that resplonds to their needs, and which can influence them positively and create a favourable image for your organisation / brand.
    
    These are just some of the tips that a business management pro should look into. These may not be complete, but 10 most crucial pointers to start with for any startup, or an existing organisation. 

CorePR: 5 Things You Need to Do

CorePR: 5 Things You Need to Do: Holed up at home?   Everyone is.  World over. It could be a blessing in disguise. For many of us, who remain busy day-in...

5 Things You Need to Do

Holed up at home?   Everyone is.  World over.

It could be a blessing in disguise.

For many of us, who remain busy day-in-and-day-out in our worldly pursuits, hardly get time to introspect.

All of us are on Fast Forward Mode.  There had not been any Pause button in our lives. Come what may.  Until now.

As curfew and lockdown has forced us into our homes, it is time to reflect and do things that you always wanted to do, but never did.

Here's a list of 5 things that you should be doing every day.

1. Maintain a Journal
Pick up a small notebook, diary or download 'Keep', a Gmail app on your mobile to take note daily.
The morning ritual should be to jot down what you intend to accomplish today.   Have a schedule.  Go over it and get into action.

2. Get Ready
When you are locked down and no one is there to look you up, you tend to relax and stay in your night suit.   Getup in time.  Get Ready.  And start working on your 'to do' list.  If you are working, reflect on the new things you would do at your job to make work much more efficient and productive.   And if you are an entrepreneur, it is time to plan and prepare a strategy to take your business to newer heights as soon as the normalcy returns.

3. Learn a New Skill 
You wanted to play a musical instrument, set up a blog, or learn cooking....just go ahead and do it.  Enough YouTube videos are available to revive your hobby or learn a new skill and utilise your time more fruitfully.  For entrepreneurs, this is the time to look for more opportunities for your enterprise to grow.

3. Reconnect with a Friend/Colleague/Relative
Haven't we lost touch with the people around us?  Many have not talked to their parents. Though they might be there on social media, remember, there is nothing like getting in touch with them and reconnecting.  You would simply love it. 
For business people, stay in touch with your employees and customers.

5. List Your Gratitude
Before sleeping gets back to your journal and jot down your list of Gratitude.   All the people you talked to, all the loving care that you got from your family, the food that was served to you, the air that you breathed and a whole lot of things you feel you are grateful for.  Thank the Almighty for all those gifts that you received today.

There is much more that every one of us can do.   But in the next 21 days, this is the habit-forming schedule if practised regularly, religiously and with a commitment.  It would turn you into an amazing person.

Indian wireline broadband pricing likely to fall by 50%; segment to generate Rs 80,000 crore over 5 years

Indian wireline broadband pricing likely to fall by 50%; segment to generate Rs 80,000 crore over 5 years

Journey of CorePR since 1986

Thirty-three years of managing communication for diverse industry sectors and organisations makes me look back with satisfaction for having helped organisations, brands, and individual celebs including authors, garner limelight for themselves in a highly competitive world.

CorePR was born in September 1986 as a one-man startup (the term did not exist at that time) which gradually graduated into a private limited company. 

That was the time when little did corporate know about public relations as a profession or business, except a few beyond Delhi.  But that was the time when some of the big corporate like Crompton Greaves and Pepsi were looking at Punjab and gave me the opportunity to begin. 

Already I had met several leading PR professionals in reputed companies across the country during my stint in PR with a German company, which included Mr KS Neelakandan, Vice President at Pfizer, Mr Ajit Gopal, the PR head with Indian Airlines, Mr Anil Basu of Goodyear, who had helped in my journey as a PR practitioner. 

The firm belief that effective communication practice can help resolve any issue  in the world, whether it is improving employees sense of belonging, internal communication, training the stakeholders, or reaching out to different external audiences like customers, financial institutions, or the need for changing the government's policies.  The holistic approach to communicate the right message in a desired format through right media at the right time, made the difference. 

The best part remains in PR practice, especially working with small enterprises and startups who have a long journey to traverse, to seem them achieve their goals through effective communication practice. 

From the initial years of concept selling and educating clients about the PR Power, till date, the outcome-based approach to address specific pain points has continued to reap tangible results for our clients.