Owner: Recent Trends in Entrepreneurship URL:http://entrepreneurexpress.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:54:26 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Entrepreneur do things that are not generally done in the ordinary course of business. Some entrepreneurs become celebrities...others become ridiculed for their failed dreams. All contribute to the spirit of free enterprise. Entrepreneur Express is an Exp Site statistics:Click here
Cure is just a click away 2008-04-12 00:34:00 Life Force provides homeopathy treatment to patients across the continents online.IN Dr Rajesh Shah’s 5,000 sq ft clinic in Chembur, Mumbai, a team of nine doctors divide their time between treating visiting patients and chatting on the internet. Nowadays, they spend more and more time in front of the computer screen and their boss is not complaining. After all, they help run a global clinic in a combined offline-online format. And they’re winning more and more converts to their chosen practice, homeopathy.The clinic has received patients from the neighbourhood and from as far as Nigeria, Japan and Sweeden. But what sets apart Dr Shah’s business is his range of healthcare websites including Ask Dr Shah that caters realtime to patient queries on a variety of ailments. “Sometimes, I
Success Tips for Entrepreneurs 2008-04-03 21:37:00 Success - Tips for Entrepreneurs
1. Understand that you as an Entrepreneur is responsible for everything that happens in your business. You cannot delegate that responsibility. 2. The attitude of the Entrepreneur is reflected in the employees working in the business. If you don't like the attitude you see in your employees – look in the mirror. 3. Personal growth and business growth are not the same but they are closely related. When you stop growing as a person you stop growing your business. 4. Know that you don't know everything. It is not possible. When you come to that realization, investing in trusted advisors makes so much sense and it becomes an easy decision. 5. Life is short. Enjoy what you do and others will see that and be attracted to you. It is fun to work with and be around Read more:Success
, Success Tips
Business of Love. 2008-04-02 22:11:00 With Valentine’s Day creating a big buzz among Indians and even surpassing Diwali sales, Let us check out how well-prepared entrepreneurs are.START-UPS TAP A BIG POTENTIALIF BUSINESS is your first love, the coming time is yours to woo. The hesitant flirting the Indian entrepreneur started with February 14, St. Valentine’s Day, a few years ago has now turned into a fullfledged affair. Varied trades spruce up their offers in the run-up to the Festival of Love, which industry experts say has become the second-biggest business opportunity in the calendar, even surpassing Diwali and New Year. Business
es, so it seems, aren’t falling behind the changing festival mix of Indian youth.For K Vaitheeswaran, who co-founded online retailer Indiaplaza, business around valentine’s Day has been gro
Ten Steps to keep Cool after a Big Hit. 2008-04-01 11:10:00 Has your product become a hit and are orders pouring in? This 10-step survival guide will help you think fast and react quickly when you wake up one morning to find the world beating a path to your door.Take a Deep Breath: While it’s only natural to want to celebrate the good news, remember that a big contract or great press doesn’t mean dollars in your bank account — at least, not today. So hold off on that Ferrari or exotic vacation. Also, remember that the additional sales you ring up will probably require you to lay out more money for people, materials and overhead — and may require you to borrow additional capital as well.Map out a Strategy:Make a to-do list, crunch the numbers and marshal your human and production resources. It’s always easier to fight a battle on paper tha
The Google of Mobiles 2008-04-01 10:26:00 WILL COME FROM INDIAOver the past decade, Google
has been every entrepreneur’s benchmark for success through innovation. Besides its founding duo, Sergei Brin and Larry Page, there were a handful who saw the internet search engine’s potential and backed it when it was still being run from a garage. And here’s the Indian connection. Ram Shriram, who went to school in Chennai and later migrated to the Silicon Valley, was one of the pillars that built Google. Ram Shriram considers himself a guide for entrepreneurs rather than a mere cheque-writing angel investor. Known as the ‘Sherpa from Palo Alto’, he runs Sherpalo Ventures and also serves as the founder director at Google Inc.Fundamentally two biggest applications on the internet are search and email. And there was a quantum orde
Custom Courier Products get Startup Cash Registers Ringing. 2008-04-01 10:03:00 ONE key trait of entrepreneurs is to see opportunity in a crisis. When a company gets into financial trouble, it can make a typical employee quit in fear and find safety in another job. Then there are others, who will stick with the company and let events dictate to them. There are only a few who will use the chance to turn entrepreneurs. Ashis Nain is one of those who avoided the risk of job loss to embrace the risk of their own start-up.At the age of 36, Mr Nain was otherwise happy as the chief operating officer of Elbee Services, the express logistics company that was only second to Blue Dart. But Elbee Services was in trouble as its foray into air cargo was struggling to cope with the business impact of some air crashes. Losses suffered as of March 2000 were close to Rs 36 crore. “Th Read more:Courier
, Products
, Startup
Leadership through Delegation. 2008-04-01 09:46:00 HERE are five steps, each with specific actions you can take, to get you on the road to delegating effectively.DETERMINE WHAT TO GIVE AWAY AND WHAT TO KEEP.First, consider your strengths. What are you directly contributing to your business that is making it successful? Those are the things you should continue doing. The tasks that are outside your expertise or those that could easily be performed by others are the first things to delegate.YOUR ACTIONS: Make a list of everything you do on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Then go through the list and determine what’s essential for you to keep doing and what can be given away.CREATE A PLANConsider what you need to accomplish and how you want the task done. In order for delegation to be effective, you must be able to tell someone what exact Read more:Leadership
, Delegation
Seven Ways to defuse Angry Customers. 2008-04-01 09:31:00 IT’S the nightmare that every businessperson experiences: a shouting match with a customer or client. Here are seven at the-ready responses that may help tame even the most unpleasant situation:“Let’s go over what’s happened.”This simple phrase covers several powerful areas. For one thing, by asking your client to recount the wrong, you’re forcing him to think, not just vent. That unto itself can smooth things considerably. On top of that, you’re letting the other person know that you’re genuinely interested in his or her version of what happened. Lastly, it deals you some time to listen and, hopefully, devise a solution to the problem at hand.“Let’s get together to talk about this.”If a client is screeching at you over the phone, suggest that you meet face to face to Read more:Seven
, Seven Ways
There is always a way to do things... if we really WANT to do it 2008-04-01 09:00:00 Lessons of the Square WatermelonJapanese grocery stores had a problem. They are much smaller than shops in the USA and therefore don't have room to waste. Watermelons, big and round, wasted a lot of space. Most people would simply tell the grocery stores that watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it.That is how majority of people would respond. But some Japanese farmers took a different approach. If the supermarkets wanted a square watermelon, they asked themselves, "How can we provide one?" It wasn't long before they invented the square watermelon. The solution to the problem of round watermelons was not to solve as the farmers did not assume it was impossible - and simply asked how it could be done.They found out that if you put the watermelon in a square b Read more:always
, things
Start-ups need to balance processes with CREATIVE FREEDOM 2008-04-01 06:33:00 As an entrepreneur, your idea of the business needs to be complemented with your sensitivity to the demands of the creative team.ANYONE who has watched music channels in the late 1990s will recall the MTV Lift Man. It was a 70-plusyear-old man, with a horrible set of teeth, standing in a iron-grilled lift, cursing MTV in a raspy voice. Does “Mad in India” and “Blousefull” ring a bell? It did for Amitabh Bachchan. The Lift Man’s popular impact was so widespread that at a social event, the actor who played the part was recognised by Big B himself. That’s when everybody knew that the ‘dentally-challenged’ actor had made his mark. Before the promo was aired, however, few were sure of its success. The promo was not a raving hit. Creative director Cyrus Oshidar says, “There was Read more:Start
, processes
Biggest Customer Service Blunders . 2008-04-01 06:09:00 While howls of protest over poor customer service continue to be heard worldwide, there remain some businesses that manage to consistently deliver superior customer service year in and year out. Foremost among the lessons to be learned from such flashpoint businesses are the blunders to avoid — those fatal mistakes that trip up just about everybody else.MAKING CUSTOMER SERVICE A TRAINING ISSUEBusinesses of all kinds invest huge amounts of money in training programmes that do not — and simply cannot — work. The function of such training is to identify the behaviours workers are supposed to engage in, and then coax, bully or legislate these behaviours into the workplace. At best, this is almost always a recipe for conduct that feels mechanised and insincere; at worst, it intensifies em Read more:Customer
, Service
Fuel the Future. 2008-03-20 21:20:00 Entrepreneurs should not rush to show profits in fledgling ventures, but focus on building long-term value.OHIT Dubey, chief executive officer of online vehicle dealer Carwale.com, had two options before him. He could run his ship on a tight budget, entice customers with discounts and make a quick profit. Or, he could invest in infrastructure and improvement in service standards. The second strategy would mean slower ramp-up in the client base and postponement of the date with profit. It was simply a toss up between quick profit and long-term value. First-generation entrepreneurs often look at their first profits as the vindication of their business model and are hence quite eager to reach there as soon as possible. After all, the ultimate goal of any business is profit and why not early? Read more:Future
15 Steps to Fulfilling Your Wildest Dreams 2008-03-19 04:10:00 According to Bill Gates there are 3 keys to success in any new venture. Being in the right place at the right time. (You could well be already there ). Have a vision of where the industry / business you’re working in is going. Taking Massive and Immediate Action. (It is time to act). “The future belongs to those who believe in the quality of their dreams” Was it Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, the famous German poet and philosopher who said those words?Here are my 15 steps to fulfilling my wildest dreams. 1. Know Yourself : Know and accept your weaknesses and faults (we all have them), but even more so your strengths, abilities and gifts. Build on your strengths and try to minimize or improve on your weaknesses. An honest, objective analysis of yourself is the first step in preparing you Read more:Wildest
, Dreams
VC investments jump five-fold to $777 m 2008-03-13 10:58:00 IT Attracts Highest InflowsVENTURE capital investment in India is growing at a furious pace. The Quarterly India Venture Capital Report published by Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst & Young reveals that venture capitalists invested more than $777 million in 57 deals in the first nine months of 2007. This represents a nearly five-fold jump over the comparable period last year.The study also shows that early stage investment accounted for 63% of the deals in the first three quarters of the current year. The information technology sector attracted $327 million in 31 deals, while the business/consumer/retail sector attracted $376 million.Dilip Dusija, associate director for private equity group at Ernst & Young, gives a perspective on the venture capital scene in the country:The largest
Data reporting through ‘1Key’ 2008-03-12 10:56:00 MAIA’s Innovative Product Strikes The Right Chord With ClientsAMERICAN scientist Carl Sagan once said, knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart. Intelligence is not information alone, but also judgement, the manner in which information is collected and used. This holds as good for companies as it holds good for individuals. Companies are accumulating information all the time, sometimes much more than they can manage. The collective corporate memory of all such information can be mindboggling and companies may struggle, and eventually fail, to effectively use it for decision making. One fallout of such complexity is that a company might be sitting on information that it desperately seeks, but simply does not know that it exists.It was this problem that gripped the minds of Sanj
Money Matters 2008-03-12 10:39:00 Making the Right Pitch for CapitalMany financing efforts fail because of avoidable mistakes that are made in pitching potential lenders, structuring the agreement or managing the money once the deal is done.HALF-BAKED BUSINESS PLANSThere’s nothing worse than going into a money meeting unprepared. If you haven’t put the time and energy into writing a full-blown business plan complete with elements, such as a cogent description, financial projections and a competitive market analysis, the people with the cash won’t put the time into evaluating your proposal.FOCUSING TOO MUCH ON THE IDEA AND TOO LITTLE ON THE MANAGEMENTIt’s not enough to convince potential backers that you’ve invented the next must-have gadget or can’t-miss clothing store concept. You also need a team that can gen Read more:Money
8 strategies of Wise Negotiators 2008-03-12 10:22:00 LET’S look at the most profound yet subtle strategies for wise negotiating…as practised at the top.PICK YOUR BATTLES CAREFULLY CEOs who sell and negotiate successfully know that sometimes even the most valiant fight may not be worth the potential loss it entails. They know it’s up to them to assign value to the campaign they decide to take on or decline — not outside forces like sales vice-presidents or prospective customers. In other words, good CEOs are more likely to ‘walk’ when they sense there will be no alternative to a bad deal. They don’t negotiate a deal just to say they’ve negotiated something.LEAVE NO LOOSE ENDSOnce they take on a negotiating project — or any project, for that matter, — CEOs ensure everything on the ‘hot list’gets taken care of. They can
Top 10 tips to save money for your start-up 2008-03-12 09:36:00 Before you turn to the bank for a loan, think about creative ways to finance your entrepreneurial venture without raising start-up capital from external sources.Here are 10 top tips: Start small: Even if you have a grand vision for your business, concentrate on generating short-term revenue to get enough cash to fund the long-term business idea. Focus on sales: Get on the phone and start cold calling. Go for quick wins — contracts that bring in cash and will lead to other sales. Generating cash flow is the immediate goal in order to start building your business. Concentrate on networking: Don’t waste money on expensive advertising which can be a hit or a miss. Concentrate on networking and building up contacts, as word of mouth is the most effective form of promotion. Keep overh
Love Story of Narayana Murthy and Sudha (From Sudha's Autobiography) 2008-03-11 05:35:00 It was in Pune that I met Narayan Murty through my friend Prasanna who is now the Wipro chief, who was also training in Telco. Most of the books that Prasanna lent me had Murty's name on them which meant that I had a preconceived image of the man.Contrary to expectation, Murty was shy,bespectacled and an introvert. When he invited us for dinner.. I was a bit taken aback as I thought the young man was making a very fast move. I refused since I was the only girl in the group. But Murty was relentless and we all decided to meet for dinner the next day at 7.30 p.m. at Green Fields hotel on the Main Road,Pune. The next day I went there at 7' o clock since I had togo to the tailor near the hotel. And what do I see?Mr. Murty waiting in front of the hotel and it was only seven. Till today, Murty m Read more:Narayana
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, Love Story
Brand building’s key to LONG-TERM SUCCESS 2008-02-19 12:46:00 Becoming An Entrepreneur Is Nice, But Building A Brand
Is Quite Special. How Early Should Start-Ups Seek To Build Brands.BRAND building started on day one for Riyaaz Amlani’s new venture six years ago. His Mocha coffee shop chain wanted to differentiate itself from others, which Amlani thought had followed the Starbucks template faithfully. He spent several weeks planning nuances such as the quantity of the dessert scoop and the mix ‘n’ match of furniture. He designed the whole project with a belief that a coffee shop is not a restaurant, but a place for socialising. All this got early visitors talking about how different the experience was. And Mocha had got its brand baptism.On the other hand, Internet portal Sulekha.com didn’t begin a brand-building exercise until this year, tho
Long Leap: From Setting up Websites to Big-ticket Embedded Solutions 2008-02-19 12:35:00 STORIES of companies that perished when the dotcom bubble burst and those that survived the crisis with grit and innovation are now the stuff of entrepreneur lore. Chennai-based GoDB Tech is one such company that has reinvented itself successfully. Today, its success as a player to be counted in the service delivery applications in partnership with top companies such as Texas Instruments (TI) is a long leap for a company that was once building websites.Though lesser-known than some of its counterparts, GoDB has managed to grow substantially and get contracts from multinational customers that use TI chips in their devices. Its embedded software business is less than a year old, but already the company is working on a partnership with Analog Devices, another major chip player. GoDB’s appli Read more:Setting
, Websites
Looking Beyond Mere Ideas 2008-02-19 12:26:00 Poor execution skills, shoddy homework and an unhelpful ecosystem have bogged down the country’s bubbling start-up scene.IT ISthe dawn of the golden age of entrepreneurship in the country. From farmers to government servants to management graduates, a growing legion of aspirants is getting hooked on to the thought of bossing their own business. There are thousands of novel ideas floating about in the ether, and one might expect to see as many new businesses to start any moment. After all, money is no longer a big problem. Even a decade ago, raising funds for a new business was a frustrating uncertainty, but today, venture capitalists, bankers and angel investors are vying with each other to hunt down the next big idea. The domestic market for goods and services is growing rapidly and so
Crossing the Rubicon and tapping into a Niche Drug Delivery System 2008-02-19 12:10:00 RUBICON is the Italian word for Rubico, the Latin name of a small river in Northern Italy. To protect the republic from internal military threat, the Roman law forbade any general with a standing army, from crossing that river, as it formed a boundary between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul and the Roman heartland. When Julius Caesar crossed the river in 49 BC, supposedly on January 10 of the Roman calendar, in pursuit of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, thus breaking the law and making armed conflict inevitable, he uttered the famous phrase ‘the die is cast’. Today, the phrase ‘crossing the Rubicon
’ refers to a person committing himself irrevocably to a risky course of action.And that’s what three scientists committed to, when they set up Rubicon Research in Mumbai in 1999. With no Read more:Crossing
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, Delivery
, System
small size BIG OPPORTUNITY 2008-02-19 12:00:00 TATA's small car is spawning so many business oppurtunities that you can even assemble and sell it.Preeti Burde, who owns a chain of driver training schools in Maharashtra’s Thane city, plans to buy Tata’s Nano the moment it is launched later this year. She is not exactly from the price-sensitive middle class family that the world’s cheapest car is targeted at. She is a businesswoman trying to profit from it. Ms Burde believes a large part of her future customers will be Nano buyers and she may have to migrate at least part of her fleet to the new car to help them learn on the car they’ll drive. “We definitely see a growth in the business as more and more people would come in wanting to learn how to drive in a Nano, which means we too would have to buy more of the Nano model,”
A Perfect Balance... 2008-02-19 11:49:00 Entrepreneurs running seasonal businesses have to be always on the lookout for ways to keep revenues coming in during the lean period. WITH Christmas celebrated, New Year ushered in, partying done and shopping wound up, the spacious shop floor of David and Co in south Mumbai wears a calmer look once again. This past month has been back-breakingly busy for its owner, Felix Dias, who sells Christmas ornaments and trinkets to scores of families that have bought from him for generations. But with one more profitable season behind it, Dias’ enterprise has now transformed itself into a wedding card business. It’ll remain that way until it’s time again for candles, carols and the call of Christ. Entrepreneurs, who run seasonal businesses, are among the most adventurous of their lot, having Read more:Perfect
, Balance
Nothing succeeds like failure. 2008-04-23 13:12:00 TM Inputs Has Come A Long Way From Being A Seed Supplier To A Talent HunterTHERE’S no successful entrepreneur who hasn’t failed. But failure
can be daunting when it happens and some business aspirants give it all up too soon. Only a fraction of those who start with grandiose dreams, persist in the face of failure and live to see success. Hyderabad-based entrepreneur, T Muralidharan, is one of the few who have floated with the ups and downs. Today, he runs a successful talent spotting business, but it was the failure of his attempt to sell seeds to farmers that made him a gritty entrepreneur.Mr Muralidharan, chairman and managing director of TMI Group, believes in fate. “I believe in serendipity. I would have never been an entrepreneur had it not been there,” he says. It was this fa Read more:Nothing
Let’s celebrate the business OF BIG FAT WEDDINGS 2008-04-23 13:07:00 Indian marriages may be a very private family affair, but organising them is increasingly becoming a pursuit for professionals.THEY say gods and angels shower their blessings from heaven when two young people get married. But at a wedding in Andhra Pradesh, there were also three helicopters. As the daughter of a rich timber merchant went round the holy fire and stuck her neck out for the mangalasutra, the choppers showered flowers on the entire town. The 10-minute adventure cost the father about Rs 10 lakh. It had a more lasting impact on Deepak Chawla, then 22-year-old, who began marvelling at the great business opportunity that Indian weddings have become.Mr Chawla soon quit the event management company that organised the chopper spin and the rain of flowers and has started his own firm,
A guide to survive tough times.. 2008-04-23 13:04:00 In these globalised times, a US economic recession or a slowdown in the domestic economy could hit your business. A survival guide for the tough times.CUT COSTSHave a look at your business and figure out where you could save. If three employees are doing the job of one, you may need to make job cuts. Additionally, if you have two product lines and one is successful while the other one isn’t, consider selling off that division. When times are tough, it’s best to focus on core markets and spend money in those areas, not in areas that haven’t been more profitable.RATCHET DOWN INVENTORYThe last thing you’ll want to do is get stuck with shelves of needless inventory. For a better idea of what you’ll need as the year progresses, keep an eye on leading consumer indicators. Also, establi Read more:survive
Answering the local call pays. 2008-04-23 13:00:00 Infovision’s domestic focus is a winner at a time when the glamour of BPO exports is fading.STAYING power was what distinguished many successful entrepreneurs of the dotcom era who weathered the bad times and went on to make it big when the internet became a way of business. Till not long ago, Aditya Gupta’s business offering business process services to the domestic market was unfashionable because it did not earn the same kind of handsome profits or tax breaks that a BPO-focused on overseas clients enjoyed. Since then, however, the recession in the US, currency fluctuations and an attractive domestic market have turned many export BPOs looking back at India. This has, at last, vindicated the home-bound model that Mr Gupta’s Infovision has been pursuing.Mr Gupta started his firm in
Bowling change at the right time. 2008-04-24 11:34:00 Cricinfo Founders Seamlessly Shift From A Web Portal To PublishingSOME might call it entrepreneurship in reverse gear. But what did Badri Seshadri and K Satyanarayan, founders of cricinfo.com, do after they sold their immensely popular cricket website to Wisden? They did not start another online venture hoping to hit pay dirt the second time. They did not become technology gurus and hit the lecture circuit. They did not even stay on at Cricinfo as employees. They went back to the old economy and started publishing books.Over the past four years, the Chennai duo have shown that innovation need not be confined to the online world, but can happen even in a seemingly routine business such as book publishing. They have sought to change the rules of the game in publishing, bringing in new ideas Read more:Bowling
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