5-Step Guide to Success In the Digital Era

Technology makes the work of marketing department quite simple. They needn’t put extraordinary efforts to reach potential customers or to establish the brand. The majority of the work is done by a powerful tool, the social media. However, experts say that making the optimum use of new-age digital tools s a tricky business. Not everyone is proficient in it. How to take the maximum advantage of it? Here is a five-step guide.

Make a wise use of social media

Remember, there is no point in following the trend always. You have to be logical and rational. It is a common observation that people start online venture when they don’t have sufficient resources to handle the load. Don’t get carried away with the statistics about business ventures that made a fortune by leveraging social media. Yes, it is true but not fully. As a matter of the pact, most of the business ventures that rely heavily on social media close within a year or so.

Do not believe much in the search results

Sounds strange, uh? When everyone is going crazy about search results and visibility, you can choose a path of showcasing your product exclusively in the virtual world. Special brands know the secret, and they leverage it . When you restrict the access to your product, service or brand, it becomes precious.

Derive a marketing strategy that suits you

As per experts, it isn’t a wise thing to copy a digital marketing strategy from others. Each business is different and so is the marketing strategy. What proves excellent for others may not be effective in your case at all. Hence, set the goal before you start. Share the content about your product, service or brand on the social media.

Choose right marketing channels

Digital marketing is a vast niche with so many choices. You should choose channels that are most appropriate to you. Search engine, social media advertizing, mobile marketing, and paid marketing to name a few. You should be quite clear about the use of the right channel.

Monitor the strategy and tweak if necessary

Nothing is constant in the world, including the digital marketing strategy of your company. You should monitor the effectiveness of it and make necessary changes wherever needed. There is no point in spending huge money on a strategy that doesn’t perform well. Give some time to establish it. If you feel that it isn’t performing even after that, then revamp it.

4 Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs

Building your business is the fun and easy part of the process. Selling it is the difficult and fraught ‘end game’.

The Chinese proverb, ‘start with the end in mind‘ is never more aptly applied than when you are looking to dispose of your business and the end game is discussed at length with personal stories from leading entrepreneurs in my book, Drive Like a Real Entrepreneur, the process is split in to 8 constituent parts, being: Deciding to sell, Finding the buyer, The negotiation, Reasons deals fail, Pitching the price and the deal, Due diligence, Looking at the deal in its totality, What next?

So 4 exit strategies may be:

1. Trade sale

This is effectively selling to an organisation, in the same field or industry that may be seen as a market leader and takes your business in as a division, because of its customer, geographical or supply chain. The sale should be trouble free as the buyer knows your ‘game’. They will be experienced and keen to make savings in overheads to extract more gross profit. Be aware that that process must mean they will be keen to pay a suitable price.

2. Management buy out

Possibly the most seamless transition for your customers and suppliers because the same people will go forward running your organisation, it is just that it will be without you. Make sure that you can extract yourself from the organisation and that you become one of the least important people. Your key staff will love you for this, but they may be less able to carry this off, than you think. Be aware that they may not have the entire funds, need some financial help and that the commitment to buy is a heavy load for them to bear. What did you bring to the party, perhaps sales and market knowledge so ensure that this is in place.

3. Sell to a competitor

Selling to a direct competitor is interesting not because of the actual concept but being in a position to approach them to say, ‘we are up for sale’. This is probably fraught with difficulties because trust and a rigid confidentiality agreement is required. Again improving purchasing power and overheads will be the end game and will provide a suitable return for the buyer. Factor this in to your negotiations.

4. Sell to a complimentary business

Selling to a complimentary business is interesting in itself. It may be that you have a customer base that can take on board this new company’s products which may be complimentary, an example would be of course, tax and accounting and then leading to financial services. Perhaps even in building materials that need plumbing and or electrical supplies.

Whatever happens next, take care ensuring the trustworthiness of the buyer, their intentions post sale and that there is something left in the deal for them. It is not just about you.

Good luck!

Ola launched Ola Operator a new B2B app for fleet owners

Online taxi hailing firm Ola introduced ‘Ola Operator’- a first of its kind mobile technology solution with its new ‘Ola Operator’ app – built for entrepreneurs who have grown from one car to many on the Ola platform over the years, as well as operators who own cars, but employ drivers, to work on the platform.

With this launch, Ola aims to add tens of thousands of new Operators onto its platform, including driver-partners who have turned entrepreneurs, operators in the business of transportation, as well as aspiring first-time entrepreneurs who would like to be part of the mobility ecosystem with minimal time commitment.

“Ola Operator has been built for entrepreneurs who have grown from one car to many on the Ola platform over the years, as well as operators who own cars, and employ drivers,” Anand Subramanian, the senior director of marketing communications at Ola told reporters.

“We expect this initiative, and our other recent initiatives to help Ola double its fleet size from 4.5 lakh, in the near-term. While we haven’t set a target, we are adding at least 1,200-1,300 cars everyday, and expect to grow exponentially with this initiative,” he added.

The app will help operators conveniently track the location of each one of their registered vehicles, in real-time as well as receive live alerts on their running status. Operators can monitor log-in details, daily earnings, and performance, all from a single window in real time. The app dashboard will display details on the Operator’s current balance, total number of rides completed and earnings with break-up in cash and online payments made for selected period with detailing at a vehicle and driver-level. The app will also act as a repository for requisite documents such as vehicle registration, insurance and license of appointed drivers, amongst others.