5 Simple Steps to Keep Your Business Agile

Productivity is vital for any business whether it is a startup or an established one. You need to be organized and efficient to keep the best control over top and bottom lines of the business. In the fiercely competitive business world today, you can’t afford to be a lazy duck. Smart entrepreneurs in Mumbai believe in agile and swift things that keep the business moving.

According to the organization behavior experts, a company is recognized by the attitude of its employees more than the aptitude. It means that a committed workforce can take the business to new heights even if the working knowledge is a little bit inferior.

Five steps that keep a business agile

Meticulous planning

An agile business is always able to face the challenges because of the strong planning skills. The team members have the capability of quickly sensing the change in the business environment. They stay on top of the situation with high levels of planning and remain one step ahead of the competition. Many startup companies in Mumbai have made their effective presence by using the best planning skills.

Find out the business priorities

Business priorities should be clear as crystal if you are a successful entrepreneur. It is the pathway to success. What is business critical for you, the launch of the online business or new product development? An aggressive marketing plan would take the business to new heights or a new supply chain module? You have to be always clear about the precedence.

Make the best use of the tools you have

The secret of the success is not in possessing the best tools but making the best use of the tools. An agile organization takes the maximum benefit of the potential of each team member. The teams communicate well and effectively. They share the knowledge and add value to the work.

Everyone works for the common goal

An agile team works for the common goal. Experts say that when each member of the team thinks about each step and evaluates the validity of it on the common business goal, there is no chance of unproductive steps. They always evaluate the short-term and long-term benefits. Incubators in Mumbai always prefer promoting agile organizations because they are productive and cost-effective.

Synergy by coordinated efforts

A team that works with utmost coordination achieves business synergy. Common efforts bring achievements beyond expectations.

Keeping the business agile and swift is not the responsibility of business leaders only, but it is a common goal of every member of the team. The five steps keep the momentum high.

Personality traits that is perfect for entrepreneurship

A strategic business plan helps in achieving business goals in a systematic and effective manner. When you think about launching a business startup in India, it is incredibly important to start with a right thrust. Here is a ten-step guide developed by seasoned business mentors:

1.       You must jot down the business vision first. When you formulate a statement that defines the goals and values along with the very purpose of starting the business. It is not more than two lines, preferably a one liner.

2.       Write a mission statement. Again, it is a short and sweet description of your business. What are your plans and how you are going to achieve it? The mission statement is always positive and assertive.

3.       Sit with the team and list out factors that are critical to achieve the vision and mission. Remember, critical aspects for each business are different. You need to think about it by having multiple meetings.

4.       Formulate business strategies and actions. Make a committee of stakeholders and decide the actions required for achieving business objectives. It is not a generic document, but a concrete action plan.

5.       Determine the starting point. If you are a startup venture, then you are starting from the scratch. If you are already in a business and diversifying, then assess yourself in the competitive environment. Gather the right understanding of the startup competition India marketplace.

6.       Decide priorities and assign timeline. You must keep in mind that any action plan is incomplete till there is no d-date assigned. The date should be realistic, achievable and challenging.

Marketing tips for startups that bootstrapped their way to success

When building your startup, you have two options; raise funds or bootstrap. The business plan way of raising money for your venture still has its place. However, intense competition among startups makes raising funds a long shot for most entrepreneurs.

For the most part, you will be better off bootstrapping your startup until you have some traction to raise the eyebrows of keen investors. Marketing can make or break your startup.

Establish Networks & Connect

Prepare a list of professionals to connect with them, dig-out your full resources to get a contact detail of professionals. The best source is internet where you will find bunch of professionals.  Join relevant groups on LinkedIn, YCombinator, and Reddit to connect with people that can help you. Conferences are also great; just attend the right ones.

Get Customer Input

Get feedback for your product before you build it. Interview your prospective customers to determine their problems. Then, provide different solutions and identify the ones the prospects seem to favor. Finally, ask the prospects if they will be willing to pay for the solution.

Listen to Customers

Listen to the needs of your customers. Use your customers to determine what to provide and how to provide it. Before you make a full offer, test the waters with your customers and let them drive your offer and marketing strategy.

Use Partnerships

Use partnerships to grow your business. When promoting your startup or product, identify other people in your space that can help you get the word out. Partnering with an established company can help to build credibility for your startup.

Use Influencers

Identify a number of key influencers in your industry and form a good relationship with them. Focus your efforts in building a relationship with influencers that have followers and that can market your startup to the right audience.

Trending Topics

Generate buzz for your startup by riding on the coattails of a currently trending “hot topic.” 99designs used this strategy to create buzz on their startup. When GAP unveiled a logo design, which was heavily criticized on the web, 99 designs took advantage of the happening with a crowdsourcing competition to show what its community can deliver.

Use Email

Use email to reach your prospects. There are many cost-effective email solutions that will work for your startup. MailChimp has a free plan that allows sending emails to up to 12,000 subscribers per month. If you can invest in paid email solutions, you can set up autoresponders and run more elaborate email campaigns.

Use Video

Many startups tend to forget the power of video. YouTube is a must if you are bootstrapping your business. Video can not only build your brand, but also get subscribers and visitors to your website. Sevenly.org leveraged YouTube to generate over 40,000 unique visitors in less than 30 days.

 Focus on Benefits

People always buy the benefit, not the feature. Do not lose sight of your business value proposition. You do not have to be better, different or expensive in the market. What matters is how you frame the differences in terms of the benefits, associated risks and value that resonate with your customers.

Cold Calling

Do not be afraid to do cold calling. If you have a great product that will be useful to your target market, call people and ask them to use it. Liam Martin got initial traction for his business through cold calling.

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.

4 Reliable Ways To Fund A Start-Up

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The majority of startup ideas get stuck at funding. At the end of the day, capital is highly important. It is like the lifeline for the entrepreneur. Whatever revolutionary the business idea may be, it can’t be brought into the reality without finance. Particularly, in India the situation is different. Entrepreneurs still rely on the conventional methods. The concepts of angel funding Mumbai, or seed funding Mumbai, are still in the beginning stage. When the right source of money is tapped, it is possible to take the business to towering heights. Smart entrepreneurs do it rightly in the first attempt.

Compare all sources

When you want to start a business venture, always look at every possibility of raising funds. Do not leave any stone unturned because you don’t know where is the key to success? Be careful while choosing one as a wrong decision may take you to square one. Mentors suggest a few useful sources to entrepreneurs in Mumbai.

·        Bank loan or credit: You should have a clean and creditable history before you move ahead with this option. You may get funding easily if everything is fair and positive. However, things are not that simple if the credit history is not spotless.

 Search for startup incubators in Mumbai: Many people prefer incubators or accelerators who offer funds to startup companies. They are associated with organizations that work for community development. Even big business groups also provide it. They offer free of charge (or at nominal charge) resources, consultation, and office setup. Some offer seed funding as well.

·         Find out Mumbai angel network for funding: Nowadays, several groups of individuals offer startup support to entrepreneurs. These investors are generally big business owners who form a syndicate and build a huge corpus for funding new ventures. However, it is very much important that you find the right group and showcase your business plan effectively.

• Self-finance your business: If you are an established entrepreneur and starting up a new venture, then diverting funds from another business is a good idea. The government offers tax benefits to such business ventures, e.g. excise duty or sales tax is levied for a limited time.

Funding a startup is not rocket science if you follow the right path. Detailed analysis crystals down two or three right choices for you. Select the one that fulfills your needs to the most.