Cordially Yours

It is a known fact that recession has hit global economy and it may take some time before the economy regains its missing verve. The situation warrants a major change in the mindset of the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs should now find out what the customers want and should stop focusing on what they have to offer to the customers. As an entrepreneur, you may have been doing business for decades, but the present marketing trend is purely customer-centric. Hence you should find out if your products or services have that element which meets the requirements of the customers. If the requirements of the customers are not met, you must modify the products accordingly. This amounts to say that you should have a market to buy the products you offer for which you produce or procure the products. In other words, finding out the market comes first before having a product and searching for the market to sell. To quote an example, I was selling apartments built by a leading construction company. T...

Plan Your Marketing Techniques

August 18, 2009

You are an entrepreneur, you have a product to sell and what are your plans to get customers? There are several ways to do marketing. Some of these ideas may help you to launch your marketing campaign: 1. If your business is small, you can engage in a direct marketing campaign. Keeping a couple of marketing executives to do the marketing is enough in the initial stages. Once the business grows, you can think of expanding your marketing team. 2. You can use advertisement services of the media like newspapers, journals, magazines, and also electronic media like Television, Radio, etc. 3. If the business is a large one, you can resort to dealer marketing. You can appoint dealers for distributing the products in different areas where you think you have large concentrations of customers. 4. The modern day trend of franchising is very useful in selling your products. Franchising is a win-win concept. You succeed when the franchisees succeed in their businesses. You train the franchisees ...

Doing Customer-centric Business

August 16, 2009

Day in and day out, we hear businesses that proclaim from roof tops of their low and unbeatable rates, impeccable service, best possible quality, etc. But, do these advertisements end up in more sales? The answer is a big "MAY NOT"'. Customers have become very smart. They want to know what they get out of purchasing the product. Customers have requirements of their own. Your products should fulfill their requirements. Hence your sales efforts should be more customer-centric and your advertisements should speak loudly that their requirements are being taken care of by your products. The only way to understand customers' requirements is to listen to them intently. The plan for studying the requirements of customers should be a dynamic one. You can not adopt a uniform strategy with all the customers because their requirements vary. When there is so much competition around, innovative and unique strategies should be adopted for satisfying customers. You should also be ...

Business and Ethics

August 16, 2009

As an entrepreneur, sometimes, you may be forced adopt austerity measures for managing the finances of the company or there may be so many allurements that you may be tempted to make compromises on the quality of the products you manufacture or to terminate the services of some of the existing employees so as to increase profits. The situation may demand your immediate decision and the easy and simple way out may be to make such compromises. But if you are steadfast in observing ethics in your business, you may be equipped with the far-sightedness to foresee such eventualities and may have taken the appropriate steps that may free you from such tricky situations. Some people may argue that business and ethics can not go together. This is not true. If you respect values in life, you will definitely understand that ethical business will definitely give you the leverage of peace of mind in doing your business . To understand the situations in the right perspective and consider ethical d...

Competition and Customers

August 16, 2009

If you start your business without doing research on the market potential of your products or services and the strategies you are going to adopt for marketing your products, you are heading for failure. This market research should not be limited to finding out the market potential alone but it should cover the prevailing competition. The strengths and weaknesses of the competitors should be thoroughly studied and this will give you enough inputs to evolve your own strategy. Customers have many sources to choose from and hence only if you are unique in your own way and have an edge over your competitors, you can win over the customers . Competition comes not only from manufacturers and dealers of the same products but from those who have equivalent products. Competitors may be following a particular strategy to market their products. Therefore you should study their strategy, how they impress their customers, their pricing patterns, support services, if any, offered by them to the cus...

Persistence, The Great Propellant

August 15, 2009

As an entrepreneur, the only quality you require to make your goals a reality is persistence. During the course of your business, you may be facing various stumbling blocks. But, if you are persistent and persevere for achieving your goals, you are on the right track and you are sure to achieve your goals . You may also commit mistakes, may be, in taking decisions, in executing your plans, or in your judgments. But, if you adopt a flexible approach and correct the wrongs, you can put your plans back on the right path. Persistence gives you success and the self-confidence you gain out of the success will immensely help you in accomplishing bigger goals. Hence it is always suggested to break your big goals into achievable smaller ones and each small accomplishment will take you one step nearer to your bigger goal. All successful people possess this attribute of persistence as their strongest ammunition. The steely resolve to progress in their endeavors and achieve what they target is ...

Rise Like A Phoenix

August 14, 2009

Statistics show that more than 60% of the businesses face closure within 3 years of the start. What is this due to? In spite of your best efforts, your business may fail. Failure of the business is not a disease but it is just a symptom of a hidden malaise, which has to be diagnosed rightly. Failure of the business should not be a disturbing factor but if you become inactive due to panic, then it is wrong. You should explore avenues to correct the situation and rise again like the proverbial Phoenix. Failure might have occurred If you have not bestowed enough attention to the business. You suddenly woke up to find unacceptably low sales. This means that you failed to monitor your sales, customer base, customer satisfaction and morale of your employees. The situation hence went from bad to worse. Had you ascertained why sales were plunging and taken remedial measures, such a situation would not have arisen. You might have also failed to keep your employees motivated and inspired enough...