Ten tips that will help launch your business faster

Every entrepreneur has dreams of watching their company become successful. But not everyone’s dream turns into reality. You might have great business ideas, but there is a big difference between having an idea and creating a successful business out of it. 

Advancing towards building startups sounds like a scary task for people who have never kicked off business before — no need to worry as we don’t mean to scare you.

Also Read: 75 per cent of startups fail: ways to increase your chances to be in the 25 per cent

Bu around 70 per cent of businesses do not survive within ten years. 

Once you have taken your business idea off the ground, it needs special considerations to get it going every year. 

 Those who want to launch their startup but don’t know where to start from, hang on.

We have compiled a list of ten tips that will help launch your business faster. Keep an eye on these tips, and your chances of failing will be less.

Create a business plan

For entrepreneurs, a business plan is nothing short of infinity stones. The future of your company will entirely depend on you. It does not just help you focus on the steps necessary to succeed in the startup community but also helps you to achieve your short and long-term goals. 

Even if your business fails, at least, it would be a planned failure.  

Let’s imagine you want to start a business that deals with logos like logo designing. While having a business plan looks essential for entrepreneurship, not everyone sees any requirement for it. Many entrepreneurs are hesitant to have their plans written down. 

However, according to business funding specialists, proper formulation, execution, and implementation are required to make the business plan work. In case you want to raise funds for your startup, having a plan in place is extremely important. 

A well-documented plan is critical to attracting lenders and investors. 

Sell whatever you like

 

Okay, you don’t have any product(s) in place to sell, no worries. There is no need to get panicked if you are confused about selling a particular product. If you have anything in mind, sell! You have logo ideas in mind, go ahead, and sell it! 

Take for an example, Warren Buffet, he started his entrepreneurial journey by selling other’s stock, Jeff Bezos began by selling books, and the list goes on. 

You will find people selling the same product(s) and earning profits. Remember, they aren’t selling anything different, but selling it differently in a better version or way. 

Also Read: “Nail it then scale it” – the new mantra for startups

In the entrepreneurial world, finding innovators is nearly impossible. It’s only because business owners aren’t innovators. They sell what others sell. So, go and do it! 

Know your market and audience well

 

If you don’t know your market or audience, it’s useless to plan out or create a long list of strategies. Use Twitter or create AdWord campaigns to get an idea of your niche and target audience. 

Although it appears simple, it’s widespread that business owners change the target audience. They do so while validating their business model. However, they need to assess deeper than discovering who they are. Businesses need to find out their interest, grievances, daily routine, and more. The more the information you gather, the better it becomes to step into the shoes of your target audience. 

Don’t focus on appealing to everyone but your market and audience. 

Build a capable workforce

You are not the jack of all trades, are you? When you kick your business idea off the ground, you might not have all the solutions and answers. For this, you need a team. Also, you need to ask an attorney to get the answers to all the legal implications your business would need.

Even after the attorney provides you with the answers, you need to consult an expert who would guide you to the best financial practices for your startup. Besides experts, you need a team of professionals who would work for your company.

For example, for logos, you need logo designers, and so on. 

Hire freelancers or remote workers

You can find the best and most affordable minds on a freelancing basis. You can hire them to get your work done without breaking your bank. Remote work concept is gaining momentum these days. You can communicate with them about your needs using various ways too.

It’s not only comfortable but fast process that gets things done on time. Find out freelancers by checking their websites or portfolios. This will give you a clue about their work and experience.

Get a co-founder

Sometimes, founding a business without a cofounder is tedious and nearly impossible. YEAH, it’s right that kicking off your startup takes more than just passion and hard work. It takes the skills and ideas of a co-founder. 

They are more likely to fund a business. Two or three co-founders running a business seem like a good idea. It helps in decision-making and creates a structural hierarchy system. On top of that, they provide the experience you lack. 

Focus on the product

Also Read: The nuances of fundraising: what startups need to know
Its a common mistake many entrepreneurs make. However, the focus should be on the quality of the product. This is the way to make money or else customers would run away after some time. 

Shifting your focus only on the financial ability of your startup would keep it off the track. Give capital, business loans, pricing models, and funding some time to evolve. A significant capital will not improve your business but it is the product which will attract more customers.

Leverage social media

Whether your business deals in graphics design or sells custom clothing, leveraging social media should be your top priority. With over 3.3 billion active users worldwide, social media proves to be the best platform to grow your business. Ignoring it can become fatal.

At first, it can be a bit challenging to grow your audience, but as followers come to your social profile and site, it becomes easier to grow. For a dedicated social media campaign, hire a social media manager. The person would be responsible for all the marketing efforts on these channels.

Make sure you improve your Google rankings too. 

Attend events

We live in a digital era, but that doesn’t mean we should forget networking events.

Growing online contacts is essential so as networking on the personal front.

Find out the events taking place in your target industry. This will help you steer clear of anyone who isn’t in your niche. Introduce yourself along with your products. Speaking face-to-face is the best way to grow your network and market your offerings. 

Don’t just focus on attending events, but sponsor and organise some activities to draw attention too.

Engage with your audience

Of course, the sole purpose of any business is to sell. But being a brand that customers could relate with isn’t wrong either. Returning customers are a significant factor in a business’ success.

Find out ways to engage with them. Ask for their opinions and feedback. 

Conclusion

All in all, being an entrepreneur isn’t easy, but the sooner you start, the better you become. So, follow the above tips and get ready to kick your business ideas! 

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What are ways to leverage video advertisements

 

“Videos manage to create three times more customer engagement than written content.”

Maybe you are reading this phrase for the 50th time in the last few months and have been completely overwhelmed by it.

But it’s the truth!

Videos seem to have weaved some magical spell among today’s online audience. As always, every other person is jumping into this trend wagon and, as always, only a few are able to make the most out of it.

Videos are not your regular TV ads.

They mandatorily require an “Inherent Engagement Factor” throughout their duration, or they are immediately rejected.

So how do you create and maintain this engagement factor?

Let’s find out.

Relevance

You are watching an interesting Instagram video and after a minute…

That dreaded message shows up on your screen, “Video ad starting soon.”

In my opinion, promoting your video ads between other videos is the most ineffective way one can promote his content. Majority of times, the viewer is so engrossed in the actual video he is watching that he barely pays any attention to yours.

Sometimes, he gets so frustrated that he quits watching the original video, the moment he gets notified that your ad is going to play.

So what’s the solution?

Also Read: Here are 3 types of kick-ass marketing videos you can create for your service or product

Well, for a start, you should drop the idea of promoting your content in between videos and focus on video ads that play, before a particular video begins.

Secondly, lay significant emphasis on the various platforms that you are promoting your content on, and ensure that there is a robust connection in terms of relevance, between the content you are promoting and the platform you are promoting it on.

Now let’s talk about the trump card –

 Something that can create strong customer engagement, and remove any form of disinterest that customers generally have with video ads:

These are “one-liners at the beginning of the video that focuses on providing immediate value to the customer”.

 If your introductory one-liner manages to woo your customer, then there is a high chance that he might go through the entirety of your video, to know more about your product or service.

Keeping viewers hooked

 As mentioned succinctly, in the previous part, hopefully, it has become apparent to you that the “instant wow factor” is crucial for creating engagement through video ads.

So what are some foolproof measures you can undertake to maintain this wow factor throughout the length of your video?

Featuring known personalities or a testimonial from them is something that always works.

However, random celebrities are a big no and can immediately raise eyebrows regarding the credibility of your content.

What works is if you can rope in online marketers like Neil Patel or Gary Vee in your next video regarding social media lead generation.

But, hiring such influencers is not a child’s play.

You need to produce some exclusive content and should have modest brand equity in the market, before even thinking of soliciting these guys.

How about something that is relatively more feasible for small and medium-sized businesses as well?

Have you ever thought of telling a story through your videos, and make your viewers part of that storyline?

Also Read: Video publisher platform iVideoSmart raises Series A+ funding

A story that has a hero, who faces a lot of hardships at first, but after following the guidelines given out by your video, is able to achieve his goal.

Let’s say…

Mike is a small online business owner who is not able to create sufficient lead generation to support his business.

He is facing stiff competition from his competitors who are much better off and established than him and can hire professional agencies to reach their lead generation goals.

One day he stumbles upon a retired ace marketer, who decides to help him with his lead generation.

The marketer tells him about certain sure-shot strategies that can help him generate quality leads.

Mike diligently follows the tips and is slowly able to increase his lead generation numbers.

Finally, after five years, he is a successful online entrepreneur.

The contribution a storyline brings to your Video marketing game is that a customer gets hooked to your story and its characters and watches the video in entirety to know about the outcome.

Leveraging the power of experiential marketing

 What else can effectively appeal your customer other than making them visually experience, how is it to use your product in real life?

Heard about surprise customer trials?

Yes, these should be your go-to thing while incorporating experience marketing in your video ads.

Check out how virgin airlines nailed their Surprise Customer Trial.

The USP of surprise trials is that they can capture, completely raw and natural reactions from your target audience.

 Something that has the ability to immediately excite your customer, who is watching it in a video, and encourage him to have a similar sort of experience.

So what’s the best way to include such surprise trials in your video ads?

Also Read: How do I create a memorable promotional brand or product video?

You can always create small video snippets of the actual surprise trial video that you have recorded and add these snippets in your video ads.

Adding a good introductory line before playing the snippet would always be a bonus.

A video editing software might come in quite handy in this scenario.

Emotions always work

 Are you explicitly communicating the value offerings of your product/service through your video ads?

That’s great, but so is your competitor.

So how can you create the much-needed exclusivity in your videos?

Associating the implicit benefit attached to your product, in your videos is an effective way to do this.

Your video should help the customer realize what he/she is missing out by not consuming your product/service.

For example

A video ad for an on-demand house cleaning app may portray a notion that

By booking their services a customer is gifted with the much needed free time to binge-watch his favourite TV show, during the weekend, as he doesn’t have to bear the responsibility of cleaning his house anymore.

In this manner, the customer is highly likely to develop an emotional connection with the added benefit that your product is offering.

Wrapping up…

 Before you start following these guidelines, there’s one crucial thing that you should do first.

Try to know your target customer in and out; their likes dislikes preferences, expectations, beliefs, etc.

It’s only then that you can do perfect justice to these guidelines and create highly engaging videos.

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KPIs that Chief Marketing Officers should be concerned about and how to calculate it.

B2B businesses have the longest sales cycle and a wrong move can negatively impact the overall conversion ratio of your business. 

Around 58 per cent of B2B buyers said the decision process is longer in 2017 than it was in 2016. It is continuously growing with every passing year. 

This is the reason, data-driven B2B marketers always rely on clear KPIs to power up their marketing campaigns.

Startup founders who do not take their marketing KPIs seriously find themselves in a tricky situation later on.

Some of the key B2B metrics that every startup should track are discussed below:

1. Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)

MRR stands for Monthly Recurring Revenue. This is the amount that enters the account each month as subscription charges.

Suppose ABC company acquires 10 new customers who have subscribed to individual packages worth $99 each month. The total MRR for the month would be $99×10 =$990.

Now, after a month, the company again acquires 7 new customers who have subscribed to individual packages worth US$99 each. The existing MRR would be $990 while the new MRR would be US$99×7 = US$693.

Hence, the total MRR would be 990 + 693= USD$1683. 

2. Customer lifetime revenue (CLR)

Also Read: A day in the life of StashAways CEO and co-founder

This is a key metric that measures the revenue you receive from your repeat customers within a specified period of time. For a subscription-based business model, this period can be assumed to be of 14 months. New customers stay with the business for around 14 months before they quit. 

Identifying CLR values can help you determine the optimal cost of CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost). Suppose if your CLR is USD$250 and the CAC is USD$275 then you are at a loss. CLR should always be higher than CAC. 

Klipfolio is a great tool that lets you measure the CLR or the CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) accurately and displays it on the dashboard.

 

3. Website traffic

The total number of traffic the website receives is a great metric to track because it tells you about the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts.

You can use the free Google Analytics tool to track the number of visits to your site.

Moreover, you can sort the visits on the basis of desktop, mobile or on the basis of the top channels that are sending traffic to your site.

Also Read: A consolidation of digital marketing tricks for startups

4- Landing Page Conversion Rate

In order to optimize your entire website for conversions, it is important to track the pages that are converting the maximum visitors.

The average landing page conversion rate is a little more than 30 per cent.

Hence, you need to keep the landing pages conversion higher than the industry average. Analytics software like Finteza is essential to identify which campaigns are performing well and leading to sales.

You can apply filters according to your business goals to get the maximum details about a campaign. 

A lot of people browse through the landing page and exit without doing any transaction and only a few users reach the target stage.

In order to identify the well-performing campaigns, click on the landing page stage under the ad campaign tab. 

You don’t need to configure funnels. Finteza will link all the events with the same prefix into a single conversion funnel and will arrange actions accordingly.

In case you want to change a funnel, just click on the edit mode which can be found at the upper right corner of the corresponding button. 

It is very important for startups to analyze the marketing funnel as it will help them understand at which stage most of the users are finding difficulty. 

KPIs for B2B Advanced Marketing

When you have understood the importance of KPIs and have started evaluating the overall performance of your marketing team then the time is ripe to move on to apply advanced marketing KPIs into your B2B marketing strategy.

Trial conversion rate

The trial conversion rate measures the potential of your trial subscriptions to qualify into actual paid subscribers. 

Trial conversion can let you understand the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and ensure that you offer the right solution to the right people. 

Trial conversion rate can be high or low.

A high value indicates that your trial has the potential to qualify into paying customers while a low value indicates that your software isn’t liked by the people because it isn’t solving the most pressing problems.

Online order frequency

Also Read: Marketing tools and tips to grow your business online

Most B2B businesses focus on improving revenue rather than the flow of online orders. This is where measuring the online order frequency can come handy.

Online order frequency can be tracked using a tool like Google Analytics. The order frequency is directly proportional to the number of qualified prospects visiting your website. 

Conducting surveys about the experience of buying on your site from your existing customers can prove to be extremely beneficial in improving the online order frequency.

Average sales cycle (ASC)

The ASC  is the time taken by the customers to close the deal from the first interaction they had with the brand. 

This should not come as a surprise but most of the B2B marketers do not measure this value and are pretty unaware of the actual time the customer takes to convert.

The sales cycle should be as short as possible. Right after the lead is generated, all the strategies related to lead nurturing should be applied in order to convert the prospect at the earliest. 

InsightSquared is the tool that is pretty useful in tracking your current sales cycle and also provides forecasts to make accurate decisions on time.

Net promoter score (NPS)

The NPS measures customer experience. This score is correlated with revenue growth and is used to identify the loyalty of the customer towards a business. 

A Net Promoter Score divides your customers into 3 types:

• Detractors: They rate your business between 0-6 on a scale of 10 and are the biggest threat to your business. They aren’t satisfied with your product and often complain about your products or services. 

• Passives: They are also known as the uncommitted. They rate you between 7-8 on a scale of 10. They have the maximum chances of leaving your company if they find a good offer from your competitors.

• Promoters: They are your real fans and rate you 9-10 on a scale of 10. They are your real fans and have the potential to make your business go viral.

You can calculate the NPS using the below formula:

• (Number of Promoters — Number of Detractors) / (Number of Respondents) x 100. Suppose you have 100 promoters, 30 detractors and 200 respondents then your NPS would be (100-30)/200X100 = 35. NPS is always represented as an integer and not as a percentage.

Final Thoughts

There are so many KPIs that Chief Marketing Officers should be concerned about. The best ones have been discussed in this article.

Listing down all the KPIs in one centralized place and taking appropriate actions to improve their numbers is one of the best ways to maximize the performance of your B2B marketing strategies. 

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A short difference between AI and Machine Learning

 

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are changing the world entirely, but some are confused between the two terms that what they truly are.

Sometimes they used as synonyms while in other cases; they are used as discrete or parallel advancements. But if you want to use these two in an effective and useful manner, you must understand the differences between these.

Differences between AI and Machine

Also Read: 75 per cent of startups fail: ways to increase your chances to be in the 25 per cent

Learning

If you are confused between the two terms such as their meaning, uses and advantages. Below are the key differences between AI and machine learning. 

What is Machine Learning?

It is the branch of artificial intelligence where you study computer algorithms to allow computer programs to improve through the experience automatically.

For example, if you are providing a list of your favourite songs to a machine learning model along with the audio statics like dance, instruments or tempo, etc, it will automate and generate the recommender system to suggest the music in the future you would like to enjoy.

This type of machine learning is known as supervised learning where its algorithms can model relationships and dependencies between the target prediction output and input features so that we could predict the output value of new data through the relationships.

According to Case Study Assignment Help, Another type of machine learning is unsupervised learning which is the family of machine learning algorithms to be used in pattern detection and descriptive modelling.

Also Read: AI, singularity, and machine learning explained in 5 minutes

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Apart from machine learning, artificial intelligence is, on the other hand, is completely wide and different in scope. You can understand with the use of the word “Artificial” which refers to something made by a human, i.e. nonnatural thing while “Intelligence” means the ability to understand and think.

Most of the people believe that artificial intelligence is a system, but that is not correct.

It is not a system; rather AI is implemented in the system. You can take the meaning of AI with other definitions like, it is the study of providing training to computers to make them do things which humans can do better in the present. 

Therefore, we can say that AI is intelligence, where we have the opportunity to add all the capabilities to the machine, are being contained by humans.

AI aims to increase the chances of success instead of accuracy to simulate natural intelligence for solving complex problems, and it works like a computer program for smart working. 

Also Read: What you probably didnt know about machine learning

Conclusion 

Now you know the critical differences in AI and machine learning and to be summarized, we can say that machine learning is all about the experience to look for the pattern it learned while AI uses its experiences for getting knowledge and skills and applying that knowledge for new environments.

Afterwards, many organisations are attempting to separate themselves with the AI to enhance its better use.

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Creativity, personal branding, and learning from failure

Widely-available, high-quality public schooling is one of the many hallmarks of a successful country. Without public schools, literacy rates would plummet, countries’ gross domestic product would drop, and life would generally be harder for everyone. When each generation is adequately educated, it leads to success for everyone.

One of the subjects that isn’t often taught in public schools is entrepreneurship. Considering that the United States is home to the world’s most active economy and roughly 99.7 percent of all businesses are small businesses, not being taught about entrepreneurship cuts potential students short and makes it more difficult for them to find possible careers they can pursue in the future.

It’s safe to say that entrepreneurship should be taught in schools from a young age. If you need more convincing, here are a handful of lessons about entrepreneurship all school kids should learn that can be applicable later in life.

1. Being creative

Creativity doesn’t just apply to entrepreneurship; it applies to just about everything in life. Creativity is especially important to thriving in an entrepreneurial capacity. A survey of over 100 failed startups conducted by CB Insights found that the most common reason why they failed was that owners simply didn’t provide customers with products they actually wanted to use. If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, you need to embrace creativity and create something the consumer actually wants.

Telling someone that businesses should create goods and services customers want to buy sounds overly simple, but it’s really not. To work in business, you need to cultivate your creativity.

Also read: Innovation will win, not a trade war

2. Making a brand

Young people struggle to find themselves and accept who they truly are. Schools should help students locate their own “brand”. Focusing on the type of professional persona you want to present to the rest of the world can be helpful to students of any age, especially those beginning to look for colleges and jobs. Understanding how to create a personal brand and market that brand is a skill that can be applied to any business venture.

3. Accepting failure and moving on

Allowing children the chance to fail at a task or project, but avoiding being too harsh on them, shows them that failure sometimes happens and it’s okay. However, it’s also important to help them work toward a new goal and focus on success. Just like in business, it’s important for kids to understand that failure is okay and shouldn’t discourage you from trying again.

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This article was first published on e27, on August 29, 2018.

e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Photo by Raj Eiamworakul on Unsplash

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Rebranding can be a challenging move, and Sorabel is one of those startups who managed to do it successfully. Find out how

Ever since their first claim to fame in 2018, Indonesian fashion e-commerce platform Sorabel –who was known as Sale Stock Indonesia back then– has made an impression with their rapid growth.

In addition to securing 10 million downloads, this year the company has also begun its international debut by introducing its platform in the Philippines under the brand Yabel.

According to Co-Founder and CEO Jeffrey Yuwono, the international expansion is meant to be an experiment.

“We quickly put it together to see what is going to happen, but the traction has been growing … it gives us the confidence that the kind of product that we put in Indonesia can also work in the Philippines. At some point, we would like to do a proper launch in the country,” he explains.

Sorabel also sets itself apart from other fashion e-commerce companies by introducing a Coba Dulu Baru Bayar (“Try first then pay”) scheme that enables customers to order clothes, have it delivered to their door, and give them a try before they decide on purchasing the clothes.

Also Read: 5 mind-blowing quotes by startup founders at Echelon Asia Summit 2019

Launched nationwide in 2018, the feature is now running in more than 4,300 districts in Indonesia and has been able to improve their basket size –though Yuwono also does not hesitate to admit that return rates are also increasing.

“But I was happy to see that because it means people are using the programme. If the return rate does not change, then I would think of it as a failure,” he says.

In early 2019, the company made headline when it announced a rebrand to Sorabel. Generally, rebranding has been known as a challenging move that even bigger companies such as Mastercard and Pizza Hut had failed miserably at it.

But following the rebrand, Sorabel was able to increase new customer purchase by four times.

So what is the company’s secret sauce to a successful rebrand? Yuwono sits down with e27 to spill them out.

Also Read: Why timing is everything

Quality first

Before we can talk about Sorabel’s rebrand, first of all, we need to understand how the company operated and the challenge it faced.

When it first began, what Sorabel did was to buy and sell clothing products from Tanah Abang, a leading textile market in Central Jakarta. But the startup soon learned that their customers did not come back. While the price of the products was affordable, the quality was far from expectation.

“One thing to understand about our local fashion industry is that 95 per cent of all the fashion made in Indonesia, is made in very small factories or convection … The problem with these home industries is that the margin is very thin and there is no quality control,” Yuwono elaborates.

“It’s not a big deal when you buy offline because you can touch and feel the product, but online … It’d be like gambling,” the CEO stresses.

Understanding the problem, Sorabel then decided to build their own private label, which enables them to play a more active role in quality control.

Also Read: [Exclusive] Raising a new funding round, The Shonet aims to push for greater growth

“One of the reasons why we rebranded from Sale Stock to Sorabel because we are not just about the low price; we are also about the most up-to-date fashion, good quality, trustworthy services,” Yuwono says.

A familiar new face

 

Now here comes the part about the rebrand.

Following the launch of its new identity, Sorabel hired a brand research agency to measure the public’s perception of the brand. They discovered that within just three months, the brand Sorabel has replaced Sale Stock in every brand perception metric that the company tracked.

“We created the brand in just two months, which is crazy because a lot of brand agencies said that we need at least six months,” Yuwono points out.

The CEO concludes that they were able to get to that point because they understand their customer well –and they did intend to create a brand that connects well to the customers.

Also Read: Grab joins China’s ZhongAn Insurance to build digital insurance marketplace

“During the Sale Stock days, we had a customer service mascot called Soraya … I have talked to random people about online shopping and I asked our customers, have you ever shopped at Sale Stock before? And they would be, ‘Sale Stock? You mean Soraya?’” Yuwono says.

“Then for the rest of the conversation, they would refer to us as Soraya. They have an emotional connection with Soraya and not Sale Stock. Sale Stock as a brand is cold and functional, but what they remember was the warmth, chit-chat, banter with our customer service,” he continues.

The next move

 

Their successful rebrand has opened up plenty of exciting opportunities, including a foray into the offline. The startup is looking forward to expanding their offline footprint by opening a retail store.

“Now that we actually have a brand that stands for fashion, we are ready to try offline. So I am hoping to open one as soon as possible,” Yuwono says.

Sorabel is also on the process of fundraising, and the funds will be used to support their international and offline expansion.

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Image Credit: Sorabel

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The painful truth is that, as founder, the toughest segment of your user base to spend time with is those you will learn the most from

In one of their most popular posts covering the Philippines, Humans of New York profiled a 75-year-old taxi driver who found himself raising six grandchildren as his own kids after his daughter suddenly passed away from cancer.

“If I get too worn down, the children will take a ‘vacation’ at their auntie’s house. But that never lasts long. Because I miss them too much and want them back,” he said in his pithy 190-word capsule profile.

The piece was subsequently shared over 11,000 times, received 2,700 comments, and liked over 200,000 times, as of this writing. The story struck such a nerve with Filipino readers because it was one of contrasts. The Filipino public doesn’t usually sympathize, much less admire, taxi drivers, yet here was one with the mask pulled back and he was like one of us: He was hard-working, honest, and family oriented, perhaps even to a fault. How could you not like him?

Unfortunately, his story was so striking because there are also many other taxi drivers who are not like him, and as a team member of taxi-hailing platform, Micab, I have to spend time with these less inspirational characters. I’ll admit: This is tough. When I first founded Micab back in 2012 and people advised me that I would have to spend a lot of time with users — in my case both drivers and passengers, since we’re a platform. I thought it would be a piece of cake. It was just interacting with them and learning their pain points, after all. How hard could that possibly be? I could not have been more wrong.

Many taxi drivers are stubborn, difficult, inefficient, and exhibit a host of other unsavory traits, and the painful truth is that, as founder, the toughest segment of your user base to spend time with is those you will learn the most from.

What’s the use, after all, of preaching to the choir? You want to reach out to the people who don’t buy into what you’re doing and find out why. I’ve rode taxis 1,175 times last year, and the most valuable instances were ones where the driver still had a long way to go as a customer service professional. In every interaction with these drivers, I think to myself:

What will it take for more Filipinos to use these cabs? What needs to be addressed in their training, pricing, or systems?

Through my interactions, I learned that they are never born this way. No cab driver enters into the profession wanting to ask every passenger to add additional fare on top of the meter or contract a higher rate — they are always forced by circumstance to. If they do not ask for an extra fifty pesos, they may only break even on the trip, or even incur a loss; if they do not contract a flat rate from one location to another, they may not be able to buy groceries that week. By no means am I excusing away their behavior, I’m just explaining the root causes of what manifests to users as unsavory practices.

Because the fare structure for cabs has gone unchanged in eight years, traffic being what it is in the Philippines, and inflation rapidly increasing, they often return home to their families with no income to speak of, having barely passed the “boundary” that their operators have set(Editor’s note: in the Philippines, public utility drivers pay a daily rent to the operator, called the “boundary” — they take whatever is left as their profit) . They thus have to make ends meet, even if it means illegally trying to top up their fare.

This problem is the root of all bad taxi driving experiences. To think anything otherwise assumes an inherent maliciousness in a group of professionals that is just not there — like any other collection of blue-collar or white-collar Filipinos, they just want to survive. The key to helping them is in understanding this fact and building a sustainable business solution that can help them in the long-term. The operative word there is sustainable. As we saw in Uber’s operational exit of Southeast Asia through a deal with Grab, subsidizing fares, and in turn, incurring massive losses, is not sustainable.

Also read: The Grab-Uber deal is just the beginning for homegrown SEA startups

Because I’ve taken pains to spend time with difficult drivers and learned the root cause of their untoward behavior, I developed Micab with our team in such a way that it forces everyone of them to be their best. From the beginning, we have a best-in-class training program that culminates in a test and professional oath, brown bag seminars that upskill them with various skills, such as business English, and a feedback system on the app itself that produces a virtuous cycle: Good drivers rise to the top, and bad drivers must improve, or find themselves removed from the platform. Moreover, these systems are supported by a business model — B2B advertising on the taxi toppers that ride atop each Micab cab – that is a successful revenue generator, and thus sustainable.

On a regulatory level, Micab is one of the biggest private supporters of taxi companies, associations, and drivers, and our pet cause of the moment is the long awaited fare hike. We are consistently lobbying to federal policymakers, legislators, and regulators to increase the base fare for taxi drivers, so that they can focus on providing the best possible customer experience to Manila’s passengers. The increase has yet to be implemented, but our advocacy has rallied a growing body of support for the change and what it will bring: the advent of “Taxi 2.0” for our country’s commuters, evidenced in cabs – many of them Micab’s own – that are clean, modern, and driven by friendly, courteous, and kind drivers.

If we make all these changes to both cabs in particular and the industry as a whole, will you now patronize our cabs? Like every other founder in Asia, I will stop at nothing till that answer becomes a resounding yes!

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Thie article was first published on e27 on April 26, 2018.

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Ways to give B2B businesses a more customer-centric approach

The notion “the customer is always right” or “the customer is king” must have been heard by us all. Usually, we hear all these phrases in the context of the foodservice industry, retail shops, or B2C business, but shouldn’t this be the motto for every type of business?

True is the fact, an effective marketing or sales strategy must assimilate a deep-rooted knowledge and understanding of customers.

It would be near to impossible for any business to entertain the requirements of their customers unless they understand them. Keep in mind, formulating a customer-centric approach will be beneficial your business in more ways than one.

Despite the availability of all the evidence pointing in favour of customer-centric policies, B2B marketers still appear to fail in devising a lasting connection with their customers.

It was concluded with the Gallup survey that almost 70% of the B2B customers were totally disengaged with their vendors. With the competition navigating all up high in every direction, it has morphed into less of choice and more of a necessity to adapt customer-centric marketing strategy!

In the light of events happen in the last decade, we witnessed a shift of B2B marketing strategies from conventional tactics to the approaches applicable in the digital-savvy world.

Along with the acceptance of contemporary techniques, the old methodologies are also dying, and so is the concept of attracting a customer for B2B sales and neglecting it after the deal closure.

B2B businesses in correspondence with the B2C marketing is formulating a way for all the phenomenon that all the products and services should revolve around the customers to lure them into continuing business with your platform.

Also Read:

Lack of personal connection with vendors – hurting the business?

The reasons behind the lack of connection between B2B buyers and vendors can be a product of impersonality that arises from the nature of the business since the inception of B2B marketplaces, it was presumed unnecessary to connect with customers in the manner as B2C marketers.

But all these resulted in formulating an air of impersonality, curtailing the possibility to form a true connection.

As per studies conducted by Forbes, it is enhancing customer experience that was found to be the number one trend that needed to be developed within the realm of B2B marketers.

To collect all the useful data is crucial to transform the ongoing marketing approach and building a meaningful relationship with clients.

In particular, B2B business needs to learn and observe the patterns and structure based on what the purchase decisions are made. How to engage in B2B companies? What drives their purchase decisions? When do they purchase? Who control the strings for the final decision?

It does sound like a hell lot of an effort to put in, to understand the customer behaviour as well as continuously delight them, but it no reason not to opt for it.

Results are granted to those who put in great work.

Just as it is crucial to for B2B marketers to show their needs and requirements can be met the following services and products, it is vital to stimulate their connections with customers using relationship-building approaches that are widely employed in B2C structures, like communication and sales framework.

Using connective approaches will fortify that not only their vendors understand the business objective, but the vendor has invested time and effort in personalizing the services or products to tailor them to accommodate the purchasing actions of that precise business.

These traits, coming from any B2B marketplace, exhibit thoughtfulness and compatibility.

Furthermore, it implies that the vendor has put effort into materialising the mechanisms and decision making actions of their clients. This can serve to be the start of a meaningful vendor-customer relationship.

Still not convinced? Let’s come out form the indirect advantageousness and put it in terms of direct benefiting acts.

If a B2B is successful in charming and captivating their customers, there are thicker chances that not only they will stick with that vendor for a more extended period of time and make more purchases in future, but they will also become their campaigners.

These campaigners will advantage your business with word-of-mouth marketing, which is still in this digitally savvy generation considered to be the best and most effective marketing technique, driving a lot more traffic to the business with already convinced and willing customers. Now, this does sound a return to all the invested efforts!

What it takes to devise a good customer-centric marketing strategy

B2C customer-centric strategy differs immensely with what is enquired from B2B. B2B businesses have a vast audience that works and act on logic-based facts.

B2B marketing has the challenge to understand and implement a diverse strategy with diverse business to satisfy them, making the experience remarkable for each one of them.

The complicated part for any B2B Customer-Centric approach is knowing how to go about executing this type of strategy.

There are various things that could be altered in order to assimilate a meaningful plan, applicable for all business types, following are the few essential things that should be incorporated in every B2B Customer-Centric Marketing Strategy.

Expectation is everything

The primary ground for devising an excellent customer-centric strategy is definitely standing on aligned expectations. These expectations can be in between sales and services, salesperson and the prospect, sales, and marketing, or business and customer.

It is advised to communicate the timeline clearly, and the nature of services being promised to the customers to amplify the level of trust. It is the basic and most trusted way to develop confidence and align your services in accordance with customer’s expectations to fashion pleased customers.

Prospects are to be treated like customers

If you wish to transform your potential customers into your loyal customers, demonstration them what it would be like if they decide to become a part of your organisation.

Be sure to pay attention and concentrate on listening to their requirements for a tailored experience. Also, convincing customers to buy is one thing, never try to shove an offer down their throat, nothing drives a prospect customer away faster than this.

Provide support

Naturally, it is crucial to stay connected with the probable customers and customers for both B2B business and B2C business. Starting of B2B E-commerce marketplace witnessed the lack of connectivity.

But with advanced need surfaced to engage prospects, various B2B platforms like Alibaba.com, Amazon.com, etc. devised a 24/7 active support system to ensure customer satisfaction and provide them solutions whenever they need.

Almost every B2B business have fallen into these footsteps to ensure that the customers will experience no change in attention even after the deal is done. Even after the sales, be certain to be listening to their feedback and problems they are facing, the last thing that they need is to feel ignored after the purchase.

Customers should be catered like prospects

If you are efficient in solving and tailoring the service according to the requisites of prospects, then they can become your loyal customers, but for B2B job is not done just yet.

With a sound and modern-day applicable customer-centric strategy, B2B business will have to guarantee a continual connection with the customer to retain them and also work towards up-selling.

A great way to do this with the help of a dedicated key account manager who works devotedly with a particular client. This phenomenon is widely accepted, and all emerging B2B business like BeauteTrade.com, etc. are compelling with this requirement.

Put customers in the spotlight

Since we have already established the fact customer engagement is crucial, another way a B2B business can keep their clients engaged is by putting them on the highlight.

Numerous B2B businesses are involved in the act where a specific customer is selected, and then his problems or issues are then solved on priority. This directly gives to the impact the customers that they are valued and cherished.

Outcomes to expect from a customer-centric approach

The entire case of developing customer-centric approach will not only benefit in terms of obtaining more and more clients or in retaining them, but it will also help to make the employees more efficient than before.

With customer centricity, businesses are arming their people with the understanding of what they are working on. It helps in removing a lot of confusion back and forth. It also helps the company growth by ensuring that what you make or what services you provide are in accordance with the requirement of the industry.

Most importantly, a good customer engagement strategy will surely help you surpass your own revenue-generating goals.

As narrated through the Forrester report, customer-centric companies are more likely to leave behind their revenue goals when associated with less-obsessed peers. As an estimate, it could be said that almost 42 per cent of customer-centric business acclaimed to grew their revenue by 10 per cent or more.

In rake of building an expressive, long-lasting, and mutual rapport with clients, a salesperson must treat them with as much attention and carefulness as they would do for any individual customer.

Because under the lights of contemporary digitalization and high tide competition, the alternative model will surely demonstrate to be ultimately ineffective, and in that case, it would be the business who will end up taking the fall.

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What is reward based crowdfunding and successful campaign tips on it

Crowdfunding is a novel form of alternative funding for a variety of ventures, allowing individuals to raise capital quickly by opening up to investments from the public.

Drawing inspiration from micro-financing and crowdsourcing, crowdfunding occupies its niche in the alternative investing space.

While the concept of crowdfunding seems to be evolving, it can be broadly defined as the entrepreneurial efforts of individuals or corporations to fund their ventures by drawing on relatively small contributions from a large number of people through internet platforms, bypassing the need for traditional financial institutions.

The advent of the internet has created platforms offering different types of crowdfunding, the most common of which is rewards-based crowdfunding.

What is rewards-based crowdfunding?

Rewards-based crowdfunding offers a product or service in return for monetary contributions to the project.

They usually take place over an online platform which charges a small fee for successful projects. These include major players like Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

How does it work?

Backers are those who buy from startups on crowdfunding platforms. They can usually be categorised into two categories: those who appreciate the value of the cause and those who see value in rewards promised by the campaign.

The reward is commonly offered in three ways:

Also Read: 5 tips for successfully marketing your crowdfunding campaign

1.Pre-orders

This has quickly become one of the most attractive rewards in funding. In exchange for a small contribution, backers are rewarded with exclusive early access to the product.

This can be observed in the music and gaming industry.

Artist often provides an exclusive preview of albums, and video game developers provide beta access to backers, which can also serve as a conduit for feedback and evaluation. Also, startups offer to buy their future product at idea stage with a substantial discount, which is always appealing to those who look for innovative products.

2. Services

Used when the nature of the project is unsuitable for providing pre-orders. Services include developers writing code, campaigners offering backers a free meal or entrepreneurs offering a free trip to their headquarters

3. Recognition

Recognition is often used as a tokenistic measure of gratitude for relatively small contributions. As a show of appreciation, campaigns can offer to list backers’ names on their website, issue collaterals related to the campaigns (t-shirts and mugs) or even craft a thank-you note!

Why choose to fund this way? 

Rewards-based crowdfunding is an attractive option for funding entrepreneurial ventures to gain much-needed capital, especially in the infant stages of a start-up.

Reasons such as the immaturity of product or asymmetry of information in the investors’ space may prevent entrepreneurs from obtaining sufficient funds from angel investors and venture capitalists.

Also, rewards-based crowdfunding represents a rather simple and low-cost option for fundraising. Entrepreneurs can reach their funding goals without committing their capital or requiring financial and legal advice.

Unlike other forms of crowdfunding, they retain equity in the business and are not under obligation to finance borrowed capital.

Lastly, it also serves as a helpful gauge in estimating public interest and validating one’s idea.

Disruptive innovations or a sound product will naturally gain a large following on crowdfunding platforms. Conversely, a project that does not gain enough traction is an indicator that it lacks market value.

Hence, this is a great way to “fail fast”. Rewards-based crowdfunding has the additional benefit of creating a truly passionate army of advocates behind your business.

Research has shown that rewards-based platforms are more likely to attract individuals that fundamentally “like” or “enjoy” the project. They are intrinsical to support the cause, even if there are little monetary returns.

Tips for a successful campaign

Also Read: 3 ways to avoid being a victim of a crowdfunding scam

Social networking

Research has shown the importance of social networking in boosting the probability of success. Entrepreneurs can leverage online presence and public relations to garner more attention.

Constant updates

Projects with frequent updates can almost double the probability of successful fundraising. They show a constant desire to update and reinvent the product regularly.

These can include multiple sample testing, answering community questions and providing updates on optimisation and innovation.

Display signals of quality

The importance of multimedia cannot be underestimated. Having multimedia tools to pitch ideas to the public is a clear sign of preparedness.

Not including a video on Kickstarter decreases the chances of a successful campaign by 26 per cent. Interestingly, spelling errors also decrease the chances of a successful campaign by 13 per cent and are also seen as signal of quality.

The fact that backers respond to signal of quality suggests that their decision largely hinges on a rational assessment of the likelihood of the project succeeding.

Also Read: Five trends in crowdfunding to watch in 2019

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Listening is very important for good leadership

The Millennials interview with Chan, founder of Exabytes, zeroes in on his experience of managing a regional tech company with over 300 employees.

In his own words, a leader should have to “be a listener at the very least.” Maybe you wouldn’t be able to talk to every employees you have, or you might not even know some of them, but you should always try to listen to everyone. For example, when you have a town hall meeting, avoid talking too much. Let your employees speak their mind.

Most of the time, when leaders take the stage, they gave a lot of info without making a connection with the employees. Chan believes that listening is very important for good leadership. A leader should listen to the voices among the colleagues, customers’ needs and what the market needs.

“Once you listen and absorb the information, you can then understand what they need and execute the right action,” says Chan.

Also read: In video, 5 tips to note when interviewing for a Grab engineering position

He strongly believes that trust is very important when it comes to leading a team. With trust among one another in the team, it becomes stronger and moves faster. With trust, a leader can delegate more tasks and roles to team members, thus, driving more efficiency in the company.

Chan also shared one of the fun ways he used to gather feedbacks from the employees. There’s a wishlist at the pantry for employees to submit their wishes. It could be ‘new PS4 Pro’ or even ‘free drinks’, quoted from Chan. It’s an example of how you can engage with your employees when your company is of a certain scale.

Find out more management tips in the full video.

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This article was first published on e27, on March 27, 2018.

Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Featured Image Copyright: 123RF

 

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