Perspectives

I earlier wrote that, as an entrepreneur, nothing frustrated me more than power cuts. A true entrepreneur sees opportunities in difficulties. So, I sat down to think of how best to utilize the time when I had no access to Internet/power. Here is the list:

Unlike desktop computers, laptops are a boon to the Indian Entrepreneur. These days, you get a laptop for cheap. You probably have one already. Make full use of the built in battery time (roughly 2 hours).

Code: If you are a coder, now is the best time to create a dev environment on your laptop. If you are building sofware that needs two Operating systems, there are solutions. If your software needs two machines, there are solutions for that too. And the two hours without power is a gift. No twitter, no email. What more can you ask for as a coder?

Write: This is a great time to write posts for your blog. Having lost have lost the external world, you can go inward on a deep search of meaning and perspectives on the topics that you want to write on. Original content is a natural side effect of no wikipedia. Incidentally, this blog post itself was written when there was no power (Actually, power just came).

Meet: Every business has it’s customers. And every business owner needs to meet them. Over here in Bangalore, there isin’t really a load shedding schedule, but I roughly know when the power goes. And I head out to meet my customers, mentors, interesting people. I learn a ton lot more about my business than I would have, if I were to be sitting in front of my computer.

Think: Thinking is a bizarre activity. For me, the net result of thought on a task ends up un-necessitating the task. It seems to me that the more you think, the less you do. And doing takes more time than thinking. Your hands are much slower than your mind. As you can see, internalized thinking saves time. It may be different experience for you, depending on the person that you are, but all of us agree that it makes sense to put your mind to something before jumping on it.

Play: An instrument, football. Run. Yes, You are pursuing a hobby, it rejuvenates mental and physical health and all those other things. But Importantly, all of these are mind activities. You think analytically, mine patterns and crunch numbers when you play a guitar. Stuff that will help you in your business.

Read: Crossing the Chasm? Innovator’s dilemma? Good to Great?

What else do you think one can do?

This entry is a part of  “What is sales? – A blog book“. Read more about it here.

Sales Promotion goes hand-in-hand with advertisement and many manufacturers/dealers operate contest, quiz, etc., offering attractive prizes to winners. In most cases, the contestants are required to enclose the bill, labels, cartoon, etc., along with the entry forms to qualify for entry in the contest. In some cases, gift or discount coupons form part of the advertisement that could be exchanged or redeemed with the dealers/retailers for a discount on purchase of the product. During festive seasons, special discounts are announced and products sold at most competitive prices that help consumers get bargain deals. All these and many other Sales Promotion campaigns result in both the retailers/dealers stocking the items and inhibit the customers to make trial purchases. In other forms of Sales Promotion campaigns, door-to-door selling of new products and offered at prices lesser than the market with or without free offers motivate the customers to try the product and later patronise.

It would not be enough to manufacture products and advertise in order to create customer awareness and enquiries. It is most important to make the product available to the targeted customer at the nearest retail outlet so that the customer could purchase the product. This function is known as MERCHANDISING or DISTRIBUTION. The principal aim of Merchandising is to ensure that company products are made available with as many outlets as possible and also at close proximity to the customers. The retail dealers must be assured of adequate supply of the product range through a channel of distribution like distributors, stockists, wholesalers and/or company depots.

In industries that cater products which require installation, commissioning, servicing and after-sales-support, SERVICING and CUSTOMER SUPPORT become secondary function forming part of the sales contract and considered to be part of Marketing responsibility towards fulfilling customer requirements, specially during the warranty period obligations

Thus, Marketing is an integrated activity comprising of various functional aspects like Planning, Market Research, Sales, Distribution/Merchandising, Advertising, Sales Promotion. Servicing and related activities and is a complex subject by itself. Sales is one of the primary and core function of Marketing and gains importance in so far as identifying customer wants and needs and meeting with the requirements through company’s products and services by virtue of specific and innovative strategies and plans are concerned and is aimed at company’s productivity, profitability and growth.

Well, I will join them. I will tell them I will add value.

It seems like many business owners are afraid that a competitor or a new entrant will copy their idea and become successful. I can’t help but see the paradox here.

Your idea?

• If you are an innovator, you observed a market need. You applied your knowledge (that someone freely offered you) and you created a solution – USP
• Then you observed more and took more ideas from other sources and adapted them to work in your niche – Features
• Then, you took some more and did not even bother to change any of it and used it – Integration/Bells & whistles/Enhancements
• Then you worked with others who possess a USP in their niche to add value to yours – Partners
• Some more people saw something more than what you saw and joined you to help your cause – Employees
• You created Something – A company

And what do people like?  Your company.

As you can see, most of what most of us are doing is someone else’s idea. Your USP is probably yours (most often, even that is not true). And what is it? An observation. A thought. Did you get it because you are a genius? Is that observation such a big deal? E=MC²?

If someone is executing your idea better than you, join them. What are you doing all of this for anyway? To help make someone’s life better and happier isi’nt?

What did you lose that you cry about? What did you bring with you, which you think you have lost? What did you produce, which you think got destroyed? whatever you have, you received from here. – Bhagvad Gita.

Related articles:

• Vision, Mission and Value Statements Help Business Success (businessmanagement.suite101.com)

This entry is a part of  “What is sales? – A blog book“. Read more about it here.

The next functional area of Marketing is to ensure that goods manufactured reach the customers or they are made available to customers at their towns or cities through company’s offices or dealers who stock and sell the products.  This is known as DISTRIBUTION. In cases where goods are sold by the company or its agents directly to the actual user or customer, it is known as DIRECT MARKETING since the company maintains direct contact with its customers for selling and servicing its products.  In other cases of products of mass consumption, it may not be possible for the company to distribute or sell its products directly to the customers and so would choose to make the products available to the customers at their city, town or village through a supply chain of dealers who would stock, distribute or sell the products to the customers.  The chain may consist of wholesale stockists, distributors, redistribution stockists, semi-wholesalers, retailers, etc., who form the organised channel of distribution.

It would not just be sufficient to manufacture goods and make available for the customers to buy.  Customers must be aware of the product, its brand, its attributes, the benefits of the product over competitors, its availability, etc. The medium to create customer awareness is ADVERTISING.  Though goods marketed and sold to the customers through direct marketing can possibly be reached to customers through company’s own team of salesmen or agents, it will be practically impossible to reach all the customers directly to sell the products.  Further, there can be resistance from the customers before they patronise new products.  The awareness created through Advertising will not only generate customer enquiries but also help reduce the resistance level greatly while selling.  Advertising, therefore, induces and motivates a customer to try or purchase a product for the first time and also ensures the customer’s patronage and loyalty to the product for repeat purchase and clientele.

Advertising can be done through several media.  Advertisements made through newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, etc., reach the mass population and are known as Mass Media.  There are other forms of outdoor advertising like hoarding, neon signs, banners, posters, etc.  In the case of consumer products, despite creating the awareness and pushing the customer to the dealer through punchy advertisements and outdoor publicities, a further reminder medium known as Point of Purchase (PoP) is critical.  Posters, pla-cards, hangouts, danglers, banners, etc., exhibited at the counters of the shop induce customer interest & serve as a reminder to purchase the product across the counters and result in a sale.  To further insure a strong patronage, exclusive window displays are organised to attract the attention of the customers at the point of purchase.

Most salaried persons play a role in creation of wealth. A role, but not responsibility. I did something in creating every 1 re I earned as a salary, but I was a part of a larger scheme of things that created, maybe 10 Rupees. And I presumably got my rightful share of 1 Re from it.

In an absolute sense, every 1 rupee that you create as an entrepreneur is worth much more. I have read somewhere that for every IT job created in Bangalore, there are 72 other allied Jobs created (say folks working at coffee shops, Banking, house maid etc.). Drawing inspiration from the same line of thought, It is easy to see how the creation of every rupee seeded by you as an entrepreneur has a ripple effect throughout the society. This 1 rupee never existed before and you carefully seeded it’s creation which in turn will create, for example, 72 Rs for the people who are a part of it.

I am unable to decide if the flip side creates a network effect too. Will a loss of 1 Re that you incur wipe a lot more wealth in the society? I am not sure. What do you think?

Entrepreneurship is a little bit about all the glamor that people have  purported it to have, but it is a lot more about things like this. As an entrepreneur, You are making this world a better place for a lot of people simply by being one. Keep that going. Or if you wondering if entrepreneurship is for you, this should give you an additional point of view to consider.

“With great power comes great responsibility” – Uncle Ben, Spiderman

Related articles:

• You’re Not a Real Entrepreneur (steveblank.com)
• My Thoughts on the State of Entrepreneurship (somewhatfrank.com)

This entry is a part of  “What is sales? – A blog book“. Read more about it here.

Marketing & Sales:

In order to clearly understand the role of Sales in Marketing, it is important to know what is Marketing and what is Sales.

Marketing: For many, there is hardly any difference between Marketing & Sales and both are one on the same.  So it is necessary to know the complex and versatile areas of marketing before getting on to sell.

When someone decides to start an industry or business engaged in manufacturing, trading or servicing activity, he would first try to crystallise his ideas through an initial PROJECT PLANNING and perhaps study the pros and cons of the project by preparing the project report and feasibility report to substantiate the project viability.  This is where the marketing function actually begins.

When the basic project plans are ready, in most cases, an entrepreneur may like to convince himself that there would be adequate potential for the goods manufactured or traded before venturing into the project.  He would then conduct  MARKET RESEARCH/MARKET SURVEY in order to find the market potential for the product through DEMAND ANALYSIS and acceptance of the product or services either through OPINION SURVEY or by conducting a SAMPLE SURVEY.   In the process of Market Research, one can collect several data, both published and through data banks, to get detailed information on installed capacity of other existing units manufacturing similar products, utilised capacity or actual production/output by those units, total market demand for the product to be able to exactly analyse the gap between the demand and supply which would clearly enlighten the scope for selling the product after manufacturing. Market Research would also help plan the production level in the initial stages and to prepare relevant budgets.

It would also be possible to get detailed information on competitors and competitors’ products, their prices, strategies in marketing, distribution, etc. during the Market Research programme which will help plan or restructure the company’s own strategies and plans to suit demanding market situations, implied or based on customer needs.  Market Research is a continuous process and can also be performed at various levels and for different reasons.  Market Research may also be conducted prior to launching a new product, to test the impact or customer reaction to changes in product attributes like product appearance, colour of ingredients, taste, smell, fragrance, packing, packaging, etc., to try customer acceptance of a new product or concept, to check brand preferences, to verify and confirm market share of the company’s or competitors’ products, etc.   Market Research plays a key role for establishing customer feedback, which helps in decision making at large.

Though manufacturing is yet another key area like Marketing, Marketing plays important role in the process of manufacturing.  It is Market Research & Demand Forecast that help in production planning to decide on the quantity and specifications of products to be manufactured and made available for sales.  Both manufacturing and Marketing have to work in tandem since the manufacturing outfit should be in a position to meet the demands of the market and the marketing team should be able to sell the manufactured goods for faster liquidity.

Towards the last years of his life, my father spent a lot of time writing a book on Sales. He was a salesman at heart and at life. He is no more and he never finished the book. Foutunately, I found a soft copy of the transcript he was writing from his computer. I feel I am obligated to let the world know about his thoughts and I decided to present it as a “blog book”.

I will try not to make edits to his literature unless I find something glaringly incomplete. I know nothing about Sales anyway. You can find all the chapters of this book in this blog categorized in sales.

I know he will be very happy to know that this blog book helped someone in any small way possible. If it helped you, do let us know.

Presenting to you What is Sales? – A blog book

I have started a journey of entrepreneurship recently. It has’nt been that long but the transformation it has had on me is hard to ignore. It is satisfying to have “aha” moments many times in a single day.

I have had many frustrating/saddening experiences in these last few months, but nothing comes back to irritate me as much as power cuts. Philosophically, I wondered who should take responsibility for my frustration and I could not find an answer. Not the BESCOM guys. Not our politicians, maybe, us, for having grown to a billion people. I decided I am the one who is accountable and decided to find a solution. The cheapest and quickest solution.

Being a technology entrepreneur, all I missed during power cuts was internet. Laptop was on battery and would run for a couple of hours and that was enough to juggle through. In my case, Internet was a wifi router and a modem. Both DC appliances with less than 10 VA (turn your device around and you will find a voltage and ampere specification. Power would then be Volts*Amperes) consumption. To power them, I should be able to buy a few re-chargeable batteries and load them on to a battery tray and that should do the trick. Batteries (cells) come with a certain voltage specification (typically 1.5v). But my internet devices had an awkward voltage requirement that wasnt a multiple of  any battery’s voltage specification I found in the market (Thippasandra). Half a day wasted.

Next, I wanted to get an Old desktop UPS and hook it up to just these DC appliances. A PC ups will be 0.5 kva (500 va). My internet devices together needed 10 VA. So, the UPS should be able to run these devices for 50 Hours. Hmm. I sensed something was wrong about the number “50″. A UPS cannot run for that long. I didnt know why.

I found something called power factor. Most people take 0.8 to be the power factor. I presume power factor represents power losses in way of resistance and anything else along the way. With that, the UPS should run for 40 Hours. That still didnt make sense.

I asked a  few electrical engineers, computer shop owners etc. but none of them seem to know. Some of them hinted that a PC UPS needs a certain load to even work. There is supposedly an automatic trip that will kick in after a couple of minutes if no reasonable load was found. None of them told me why it had to be that way.

I found a generous internet cafe owner who gave me a 3 year old UPS to hack around with for no payment. Thanks to him. On trial and error, I did find that the UPS tripped in 2 minutes. An explanation a friend’s father gave was that a UPS is designed to provide un-interrupted power supply before you switch over to another power source (like a generator). But that still did not answer why it needs to have a certain load. A plausible explanation I came up with was that the UPS may be designed to prevent leakage of current. I also found out that there are specific UPSes designed for internet backup floating in the market and it was a tad costlier (2700 Rs) than a PC UPS.

Ok, back to the experiment, I started connecting small appliances to the UPS to provide the minimum load. First was a USB hub, then an external hard drive. Wasn’t enough. Then a CFL blub. At this point, the UPS lasted longer than 2 minutes. For 20 minutes. Considering it was a 3 year old UPS, the Storage battery inside must have outlived it’s life. A new UPS may have worked for longer, but I decided to find a proper solution if I am going to spend thousands anyway.

The next option is to find an old car battery and muck around with it. But I realised that an inverter is just that and that it is the storage battery that takes up most of the cost. Generator is another option but they make a lot of noise and are costlier. I found this excellent article which helped me decide what specifications I needed for the inverter. But unlike what is mentioned in the article, I chose a provider who gave me the entire solution rather than shop around for a UPS and battery separately. They also took care of the wiring.

Finally, I ended up shelling out 16000 Rs and am now left with significant interest in creating a commoditized renewable energy power station for a home. An energy unit that makes use of solar, water, bio waste and anything else a home may produce and creates enough energy  to minimalistically power the home back. A dream, and I hope to undertake it sometime.

I hope this helps someone out there. Ensure that you solve your power issues once and for all. As an entrepreneur, there are many other issues to get worked up about. Power shouldnt be one.

Yahoo! India has now introduced Local/Business search in India starting with a few cities (Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi ). It is the usual, Find “what” in “where” local search destination except there are a few cheeky cool things.

Locality pages: for Koramangala, Indiranagar, Bandra West and Andheri West.

Essentialist: On the Koramangala Locality page, I found a couple of interesting questions such as “Are you getting married?” , “Moving to Koramangala?” being asked at me. And on click, it gives an essential list of all businesses you may ever need in the process of getting married (Assuming you already have a girl) or moving. Pretty cool.

Footprints: Assuming you have visited that business, then you could click on a “foot” looking icon and it will bump up a number. Something like digging a web page, I guess. I guess higher the footprint, more the listing will feature in your search, frontpage etc.

If you are business owner of if you know a business, you could add details of it using the “Add a Business”. I did’nt quite find a page/link to do that. But Y! Local did ask me about it when my search query did not yield a result. Such as this

There is a fair amount of Maps integration as well, but is not useful practically yet. You can do stuff like move around the marker of a business to it’s correct location, vote on it, save it etc.

You can also send the listing on SMS, email etc. I also like the UI and the layout, but I also wish the frontpage was a little light and plain. Right now, it has one too many links.

Cheers! to Yahoo! India.