Month: September 2021

  • Why creating an MVP is important?

    MVP

    By Anusha Bapat

    A minimum viable product (MVP)  is a prototype of a product idea with basic features and characteristics that can be used by a group of early customers for feedback and product development. MVP’s help in minimizing costs. A final product is developed after analyzing the preferences and response of your early customers.

    Here are 4 important points to remembering while creating your MVP offering: 

    1. Identify what problem your product intends to solve. This will give you an idea of the features that can be incorporated into the product. The key to coming up with a successful product is to identify market gaps. And then offer efficient solutions to cover the gap. Spot your success criteria. Identify your users and demography and strategise to ensure your product impacts your audience.

    1. After you know what your product is going to be, you will have to create a market offering. Build a compelling call to action. You have to create a brand that will attract customers and allow them to trust your brand enough. Credibility builds appeal. 

    1. Create different prototypes. A feature you might not deem important might end up being useful to a few customers. Focus and build on the features that receive a positive response. Eliminate the ones that don’t add to the utility of your product. Start building hype around the product to excite interested customers and attract new ones. 

    1. Consistently record data and assess your initial product. Evolve your product around the consumer response.  Filter your product to an optimal blend of the most used features. Once you’re satisfied with the response of your upgraded and optimized product, you will begin the “Minimum marketable product” (MMP) stage of your market offering. This is when you release your product for all customers and earn your initial revenue. 

    MVP is a very efficient strategy to spend as little time on product development. This helps you go to market while keeping costs to the minimum. This allows a better user interference and gives a clearer understanding of your customers needs. Instead of directly going through a stressful product release, creating a MVP helps you optimize your product to match the demand and increases your chances of success.

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  • Staying on top of your finances in business

    finances

    By Bhumika Ramesh

    Managing finances while handling a company at the same time can often be a little tricky. Disorganized piles of papers, cheques and various bank statements after a stressful day is well stressful. It’s important to feel in control of our finances. So staying on top of your tasks with a regular schedule is something to strive for.

    Consider the followings tips to help you in the process of doing so:

    • Review your costs, expenses and income everyday/weekly

    Keeping these up to date daily or weekly keeps away unnecessary stress at the end of the month. You wont have to rush to get those monthly statements in order. Record your expenditure and make sure you understand where the money is going. Retain your receipts – it makes this job easier.

    • Oversee accounting

    This can be done with the help of an accounting software or a first hand accountant. Cloud-based software helps you with daily updates and save time instead of those multiple excel sheets listing out your bills and transactions. Banks usually integrate with these software, and that just makes your job easier – linking accounts to software ensures seamless flow of cash. You can also hire an accountant to keep track of these financial operations. We like Zoho or Dubsado.

    • Monthly review of your main financial statements

    Sit down every month to track your business projections, cash flow, investments, budget and any other core financial aspect of your company. Instead of rushing over these at the end of the year, a cyclic review is the best route – calculating taxes becomes easier too. 

    • Developing cash flow charts

    Understanding the profits and inputs of your company from a financial standpoint can help you maintain a sort of equilibrium instead of over or under investing in one sector and closely see which part needs more attention so that it can grow. Keeping profits consistent is the main goal – inflow exceeding the outflows. We like doing courses and learning from platforms like Ellevest and Lxmeoffical regularly to keep us updated on Finances.

    • Have a payment process in place

    One of the regular problems faced by business owners which entail first hand interaction with their clients is not following up with payments. This can cause a delay in recording your weekly or monthly statements. Use small, positive or assertive reminders to prompt your customers to send those payments in. Set up a process and add now the invoicing software you use enables options like reminders for invoices that are due.

    • Take note of internal payments

    Every thing that concerns your business such as power bills, salaries, rent, subscriptions to various software and other maintenance come under your operating cost. When managing finances, people forget to keep an eye out of these small but crucial expenses. Lookout for hidden costs, apps and programs you don’t use as much and always ask yourself where can you reduce costs. Staying lean is key.

    Finally if you haven’t already, be sure to pay yourself. Even if its a small fee at first – you are an integral part of the company too.

    Finances can be easy to manage, nothing can get in the way of a well-planned schedule! Staying on top of your finances can save a lot of worries, unwanted work at tax time. It can help you sleep peacefully at night instead of feeling frenzied and and anxious. Hopefully, these tips help you get there.

    Want to feel more confident around Money? Read this post

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  • Brand Design is a critical part of your Business

    brand design

    By Bhumika Ramesh

    Brand design and brand identity creation is one of the first and most crucial steps in any business. It defines the niche of audience you will be reaching out to. The type of branding you choose to implement can affect long term impressions and growth rates and eventually, your success rate. Today, brand design is one of the ways you can begin to stand out from your competitors – uniqueness and familiarity are what attracts people. Starting with a visual identity is one of the best ways to captivate potential customers – a preview of your brand shows the viewer the type of service they can expect.

    Here are a few tips that can help you enhance your brand and visual identity!

    • Lay out the foundation of your brand personality

    Brand personality refers to the unique style or voice your brand has. To develop this, delve deeper into what your brand stands for. You can think of the mission your brand aims to accomplish or the feelings and thoughts you want people to experience when they hear or visualize your brand. Keep your ideal customer in mind as you develop your brand personality.

    • Choosing the brand palette

    The colors you choose give your brand the ability to evoke feelings and bring out different moods. Choose colors that are in line with your brand personality. It influences recognition by a solid 50% ( just think of pink – brands such as Barbie or Cosmopolitan come to mind). Read into the psychology of colors to effectively develop primary and secondary palettes. Use a few specific fonts that fit in with your core colors. 

    • Designing the logo

    The logo is a vital part of your brand – it is what customers associate your brand with. An effective marketing strategy usually keeps the logo at the center. Explore the other logos out there before you settle on one – being unique is quite hard in today’s world. Test out the logo on various platforms and ensure you like the way it appears. Brand designers are a good investment for this process. 

    • The Website

    Your website represents your brand in the digital space, more so if your business is exclusively online. Customers will check your website before deciding to purchase your service or product so it’s important to pay attention to how your website is designed. The various images you use are also effective – choose photographs and graphic designs carefully such that they complement your brand.

    • Business Cards

    Although Business cards seem redundant now, it however depends on the industry you are in. Depending on who are meeting a Business card may still be expected. You can use this as a tool in reinforcing your brand when you meet clients and other connections in person. A well-designed card reflects your brand and its personality in one look. Keep it simple: use personal details, brand colors and your logo. 

    A brand encompasses the vision of your company and helps it stand out. In conclusion designing and developing factors that help enhance your Brand design is crucial. Brand identity is a great thing to depend upon to guarantee attraction and sales – if played along by the right rules. 

    See this post here on Branding Strategy.

    Here is a post on how to incorporate your brand elements into your social media posts with these Canva Hacks

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  • How to celebrate all your wins?

    celebrate

    By Vaishnavi Kumar

    “Celebrate every win, no matter how small”

    Jack Canfield

    Winning is something that everybody craves. The only difference is some people openly say that they want to win. And the others secretly wish for it deep down in their hearts. What as important as winning is celebrating your wins whether its small or big.  

    Celebrating wins gives us more confidence. This attracts more success as we feel motivated and practice gratitude. It also makes as happy as we share our accomplishments and in turn we receive love and appreciation. You will feel that all the hard work seems to have paid off. Celebrating wins also works to motivate to inspire others. 

    Here we share some ways to celebrate your wins :-

    • Share it with your loved ones-  This is important, often we underplay our success or dont think it is big enough to share. When you share your pain with others, it gets halved, but when you share your happiness it is doubled. Throw a small dinner party and invite your loved ones. Spend quality time with them, call up those who can’t make it and share with them the good news. This will also help you make memories which will last forever.

    • Gratitude – It’s always important to show gratitude towards those who helped you. However small or big the contribution may be. The easiest way to express gratitude is by saying thank you. You can also give them flowers or chocolates or whatever they love. It needn’t be something expensive as long as it is meaningful. Writing down your what your grateful for is also another way of expressing it.

    • Reward yourself– Watch a movie, go to a spa, order in your favorite food or anything else that you love to do. Sometimes the reward may be self care and quiet time.

    • Track your journey- Always remember where you started, and where you are today. One way to mark the date and occasion in your Diary, Journal, Yearly wins. This will give you all the more happiness as the progress you have made will make you proud of yourself. 

    These are just some ways of celebrating your win. How you celebrate your wins is not what is important. Instead the celebration is!

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  • Have you set boundaries with your clients?

    success with savitha

    7 Tips to set Client Boundaries

    Building good relationships with your clients is quintessential to ensuring customer satisfaction. It’s important to find clients that value what you bring to the table and match your energy. You want to deliver such great work that customers give you good testimonials and keep coming back to work with you.

    There has to be a nurturing process in your customer experience. You need to nurture your clients’ needs by having a good relationship with them.You want to be friendly and personal and make them feel like you truly care about their success.

    However, in order to have a healthy relationship, you need to put in place certain boundaries. Consistent boundaries are essential for building a trusting partnership. You may go above and beyond what the customer expects but you need to have clear communication channels that makes it easy for a customer to work with you.

    Here are 7 tips to work on your relationship with your clients :

    1. Decide on your hours of operation and when you will be available to your customers. Modern technology allows us to be at a customer’s beck and call around the clock but there’s a reason why companies establish set hours of business. Choose your hours of operation keeping in mind the needs of your customer and make them known to your client. Having said that, great customer experiences also involve having a certain amount of flexibility and customization. Sometimes your client will have a crisis and you will have to take that call or send that email. 

    2. Decide how you will communicate with your customers. Email and social media are both appropriate for business communications these days. However, you might want to be careful about texting or chatting apps. It can infringe on your personal time. This can sometimes feel too personal and invasive. WhatsApp groups or telegram groups, end up being a place where people just send a tonne of forwards, jokes and videos. If you use Whatsapp for personal and business use and you see a lot of notifications, you might end up getting distracted or miss some important messages. Establish clear forms of communication channels with your client. 

    3. Make allowances for urgent issues. As stated before, always have a certain degree of flexibility. There may be some cases where you can bend the boundaries you set. For example, you might tell clients that they can reach you for urgent issues over the phone. So make allowances for urgent issues. But be clear on what’s urgent and what isn’t.

    4. Define your services. Although you’d like to be there for anything your clients need, you should define exactly what services you can and can’t offer. If they want you to do something outside of your defined services, decide whether you will do it for an additional fee. Be very clear on what you do or don’t do. 

    5. Keep your distance. You will experience people who don’t understand or respect professional boundaries. Identify these people early on and put strategies in place to deal with them. Some strategies include diverting conversations away from personal topics. You need to decide to tell them or you’ve got to let them go. 

    6. Learn how to say no. We instinctively don’t like to say no. We all want to be helpful and don’t want to offend someone by rejecting their request. But it’s sometimes necessary to formally decline and you should have techniques in place for doing that. You can suggest someone else who can help when you’re busy. Say no clearly and politely and explain why. 

    7. Building trust. By defining the terms of your relationship, you are building trust and mutual respect. This should be one of your key values, to keep in mind when you’re building a relationship with a client. It is important for both parties to respect each other’s processes and be open to each other. 

    Always let people know at the start about all of these boundaries. You should have a process in place where you send them an email when you begin working with them. This should have information about how they can communicate with you, what are the right ways to reach out to you and what the office hours are.  

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