I have been an entrepreneur all my life. My biggest passion in life is to set up new ventures and grow them to an exponential level. I am an extreme go-getter and I am always on a fast-mode to share my roller-coaster experiences with young bright budding founders.

Let me share with you all my start-up experience process and how I managed to nail each milestone with my grit determination and strong will.

Like all budding businesses have a life-cycle start-up are no exceptions. Industry survey says that 90% of budding start-ups fail miserably at the IDEATION STAGE itself due to over-saturated ideas, unfavourable market conditions, hard-luck, complete unpreparedness, lack of group synergy, weird choices, or unpredictable challenges.

For an ideal set-up, a start-up needs to plan out an extremely niche micro-eco-system right from the ultimate idea to an awesome value-generating product to an extremely talented +committed founding team, a real-time scaling organization, to constantly design sustainable solution toolkits and utilize a proven framework to reduce failure risks.

A successful start-up journey begins with an ideation stage and goes on endlessly to scaling solid heights.

Let me give you a walk-through of my start-up journey on how I began to currently where I am standing right now.

STAGE 1—THE IDEATION STAGE

Every human walking on the globe is stuck with millions of ideas during a lifetime. But conceptualizing and materializing the right IDEA is the crux of your start-up journey. My young and dynamic son along with his buddy came up with an amazing idea in the wee hours of the morning during a party in a pub in the USA. Normally people tend to forget these idiocrancies the next morning but these two guys along with me started to conceptualize the idea on paper and within a week we were ready to boot.

We started a deep-rooted research on how to lay our business blueprint, on deciding who will be our hypothetical audience, designing surveys, checking on the potential competition we would face from upcoming industry giants, opinions of business specialists, testing out our assumptions with real consumers, establishing our roles and responsibilities [e.g. number of shareholders, investment management, 3rd party agreements, technology built, etc.], focusing on our collaborators, targeting the gaps, sales forecast, cash-flow statement, customer acquisition cost and so much more.

SEEP AND REWIND: What action plan will I set up to make all this happen?

STAGE 2—THE SHAPE

Once we perfectly designed and shaped our idea we created a prototype and started setting up a team. One suggestion over here is to decide at this very stage if you are going to bootstrap your idea or you are going to approach Venture capitalists for funding. [We have completely bootstrapped our idea as we did not want to dilute our stake-hold at the initial stage]. One little error we made here was we designed the entire product at one go instead of inching first towards a minimum viable product to test in the market. Anyway, you always learn from your mistakes.

SEEP AND REWIND: What kind of team do I need to build and mull over bootstrap v/s funding?

STAGE 3—FULL THROTTLE

Here we started validating and marketing an almost 98% bug-free product and tapping our initial set of customers. We started branding our product on various online and offline platforms with promotions in full throttle.

A small tip here– focus on growing your customer base to attain the right product-market you had conceptualized in stage- 1, rather than focusing on revenue generation. The customer base needs to be your main priority as they are the lifelines of your business.

SEEP AND REWIND: What strategies do I need to market my product and how do I grow my customer base?

STAGE 4—SKY-ROCKET SCALING

Once we started building our customer base, we started optimizing our marketing strategies and upselling our extended services so that we could efficiently pull in more customers and increase our conversion rates. Simultaneously we started building our scaling mechanisms like increasing our staff and enlarging our infrastructure, delegating more and more, refining our marketing strategies, and further developing our strengths.

On a lighter note, I would like to say that in the initial stage we thought that developing –launching-marketing a product is the toughest job. But NO! Scaling up is the toughest job, it’s like riding a ferocious lion. You cannot ride on a lion for too long and the minute you fall the ferocious lion is going to tear you apart.

SEEP AND REWIND: How do I build the right team and is this the right time to secure funding for exponential growth?

STAGE 5—THE BUSINESS CYCLE

Launching a start-up is not at all a smooth sailing Mercedes ride. It’s a big bumpy old cycle ride full of roadblocks. Prepare for the un-prepared first. We faced real-time peaks and valleys. Many a time we felt we were oscillating big time between success and set-backs. And the black cherry on the top was we designed our entire start-up during the harsh pandemic COVID-19. It was a complete roller coaster ride—unavailability of team and resources, lack of connect, cutting corners and so much more. But the best part was we could design the most awesome product because we had ample time due to a complete global lockdown which helped us to put in our best foot forward that led us to exponential GROWTH.

I would suggest a few quick triggers for all you budding buzzing minds:

• Patience and perseverance are the golden keys to rise high
• Resist to jump forward fast or else you will crash badly
• Play out each stage meticulously
• Keep an eagle eye on your competitors and make them your inspirations
• Value your customer’s needs and experiences
• Accept the oscillations between your trials and triumphs
• Take great pains to micro-manage your team and financial blueprint.

SEEP AND REWIND: Am I prepared for the rough journey ahead and what strategies do I need to devise for my sustenance?

JUST BE POSITIVE AND ENTHUSIASTIC, KEEP ON REFINING YOUR PRODUCT, SET ACHIEVABLE PARAMETERS, OFFER EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMER SERVICE AND ROCK IT!

How Buyer Behaviour Should Change Your B2B Marketing in 2021

While researching for this article I came across tons of statistics to support the changes I am about to share. However, before I do that I want you to look more into the psychological aspects of changes in Buyer Behaviour that 2020 has brought in. 

2020 hasn’t exactly been the best for most businesses (unless they are uniquely placed to benefit from the pandemic). Under normal circumstances, it takes 90 days for a person to experience things that will start to shift buying behaviour. The pandemic has been affecting us for the last 9 months, that’s 3X more time to create radical shifts in purchasing decisions. 

Not only have we had time to think about the priorities in our personal lives, but also priorities in our businesses. Tightening of budgets or budget freezes, minimal wastage, optimal use of existing resources, and rethinking what we offer. While one can argue that this is how business should be run normally and I agree. But till the pandemic hit, none of this was as important as it is today. 

Everyone is looking for stability in the face of Chaos. Now imagine if you are experiencing this as a supplier, wouldn’t your customers be doing the same?

This leads me to the biggest B2B shifting trends that have been seen and documented over the last few months. Some of these are not new, they have been around for a while. However, due to the unique situation we are in, they are here to stay and those businesses that double down on using these to their advantage will sustain & win in the long run.

Shifting trends in B2B Buyer behaviour 

A shift towards the Digital-First Approach

This one is the most obvious and common. Yet, many of the B2B businesses in India are still taking time to adapt to this approach. The reasons are many, like the unfamiliar territory of the digital selling landscape, the fear of making the wrong decisions, trying to replicate the offline selling model directly to the online selling model. 

However, Digital Selling is not the same online as it is offline. Why? Because the way prospects communicate online is not the same as they would in person. The buyer journey of Digital sales is different and requires a non-linear approach. Just a website or posting something on social media is no longer enough. Sales teams need to understand how to use and take advantage of digital in their sales process. 

Using the website and social content as leverage to reach out not only to the prospects, but also to help close sales faster. 

The Gartner Future of Sales 2025 report predicts that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels. Chief sales officers (CSOs) and other senior sales leaders must accept that buying preferences have permanently changed and, as a result, so too will the role of sellers. (1)

Consumer like behaviour

While B2B Marketing and Sales has always been very different from B2C, the lines are starting to converge. And B2B Buyers are following the same non-linear purchase path that the B2C buyers follow. Access to information, mobile heavy usage, and with a tech-savvy generation in the buying seats, it has become imperative for B2B Companies to relook at their buyers with a new lens. 

With in-person events changing to virtual events and in-person selling changing to remote selling via zoom, B2B companies need to train and understand how to use these channels effectively in their sales and marketing. Data-driven content, virtual reality, and AI-based engagement are changing the landscape of Marketing and sales in B2B.

As per Gartner, in the next five years, sales leaders who fail to create rich, immersive digital experiences could risk alienating customers and losing business as a result.

In India, the scene is shifting slowly but surely, with larger companies shifting focus to virtual events and webinars for their distributors and customers. For those lagging in this journey to make the shift, one thing is for sure, these changes are here to stay.   

Personalization over automation

The best advice I’ve heard is what was given to the Airbnb founders when they were not getting enough sales from their site “Do things that don’t scale”. This helped them dive into a problem that their customers were facing to solve it in a non-scalable personalized way. Once they got the results from a small audience. They found a unique way to scale it up. 

Yes, personalization takes more time and you can’t get a larger volume if you’re not automating. But consider this, the marketing that is personalized or highly relevant to a smaller audience is more likely to get more conversions than marketing that is very mass. 

In the B2B Space, it is easier to create material that’s built for specific types of accounts instead of getting a directory of emails and sending a blast mass email that will more likely go into the spam filter or get deleted. If you are one of those companies that’s struggling to get more clients, quantity is not the answer, quality is. Research the companies you want to work with, connect with them in a personal way, and build a relationship with them. Personalize your outreach and you will see a very high conversion rate as opposed to regular spammy marketing tactics. 

Research-based purchases

Accessibility to information has changed the way the buying cycle works. The B2B Buyer Behaviour Study has shown that 77% of the buyers spend more time researching purchases and 73% use more than one source to research & evaluate their purchasing decisions. 

Not surprisingly, most buying journeys started online, with a general web search, specific vendor websites, and review sites as the first resources buyers used to inform them about a specific topic area related to their purchase. (3)

This means that B2B sellers need to leverage buyer relevant content to influence purchasing decisions. The data also showed that more than 70% of buyers noted they noticed ads from the solution provider they chose during the research process, and 48% said those ads positively impacted their perception of the brand.

While all of these are in advanced stages abroad, B2B Companies in India have been slow to adopt content generation and research-based selling in their approach. In many cases, it does not even feature in their marketing & sales strategy. 

If used right, those companies that are looking to get a first-mover advantage in their space can easily command premium online niche space because it is so underutilized in India. 

More support for decision-making 

While Marketing and sales are interconnected, very rarely have we seen B2B companies leverage the two in a way that will help them shorten the sales cycle. Everyone is in a hurry to launch into a sales pitch even before the tea is served. 

The real job of the salesperson now has shifted from being the one who pitches to the one who helps his customers make the right decisions to solve their problems. Most customers are already inundated with information. They don’t need any more of it. What they need is someone to guide them to make the right decisions for their business. Also, 69% of the respondents in the B2B Buyer Study of 2020 (3) said that they picked their vendors based on who demonstrated a strong knowledge of the solution and business landscape. 

A whopping 77% of the B2B buyers in a Garter case study said that their purchases were complex or difficult involving multiple decision-makers, many sets of options, new technology or features. (2) This means that the sellers who increasingly help their customers navigate through the buying process win more often than not. 

While this has always been a good strategy for sales. The pandemic brought out a need to support our customers even more. It’s natural and human to trust and have confidence in someone who has your best interests in mind. So if the salesperson and you as a company can support your customers during their tough times, it is highly likely that they will come back to you during the good times.   

Another shift has observed is the way buyers are consuming information. They can easily find and verify what they are looking for on the internet. So the only way to differentiate would be to help them make sense of the information and give them insights on what could be the possible reasons they want to pick one product or service from another. 

While it’s not new information that the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating this transformation from an old fashioned way of selling in B2B to digital selling. B2B companies now must accept that buying preferences and consumption patterns have permanently changed and this will result in a change in how sellers need to drive their marketing and sales to effectively win a sale.

Back in 2014, India headed towards a majority government after 30 years. The formation of a stable government, without any coalitions, after a long period led to a flow of new and positive sentiments in the market. Ever since the recession in the year 2008, India had been experiencing high inflation and low GDP rates. The new government brought with its new policies and reforms which in turn brought changes in the economic conditions of the country. 

There were hundreds of laws that ruled the case of insolvency and bankruptcy, making it difficult for the creditors to recover their money, leading them to huge losses due to lack of a proper law governing the issue. 

In 2016, the new Bankruptcy and Insolvency Code was introduced which came as a huge turn in the financial economy of the country. The average debt recovery rate increased from 26% to 43% just in 2 years of the introduction of the act. The new code not only improved the credit recovery rate but also helped India in jumping up its position by 56 places in the Ease of Doing Business Ranking by the World Bank. 

The last 5 years brought so many changes in the Indian economy and one such major reform by the government was Demonetisation in 2016. The government banned 500 and 1000 currency notes as legal tender money. The Demonetisation had a negative impact on the GDP of the country which fell from 8.01% in 2015-16 to 7.11% in the year 2016-17. But one major change that it brought with it was a shift towards transforming the Indian economy to a Digital Economy. 

It marked the beginning up of the digital era of our country. One of the major aims of Demonetisation was to bring in more white money into the economy. The digital payments helped in the electronic record of the transactions thus creating more white money in the economy.

GST, was again, one of the most important reforms in the tax structure of the country by the government in over a decade. This reform came with the idea of “One Nation, One Taxation”. The introduction of this tax in lieu of the multiple indirect taxes helped the citizens to file their taxes without any hassles. 

GST eradicated the complexities of tax filing involved in the filing thus simplifying the taxation system. The composition scheme was also introduced under this taxation system to supports small and medium business enterprises. It not only helped in fostering the domestic business but also provided a competitive edge in exports. 

GST helped in reducing the customs duty on the exports and also led to a reduction in the manufacturing costs of the goods. India’s ease of doing business ranking made a jump from 77 in 2018 to 63 in 2019, and GST played a vital role in it. Also, the growth rate of GDP averaged 7.5% from 2014 to 2019 which was the highest amongst all the G-20 countries. 

There has also been a remarkable growth in the infrastructure sector of the country. Setting up of missions like “Housing for All” and “Smart City Mission” has shown considerable development in the infrastructure of the country. 

The government also launched a special infrastructure program known as the National Infrastructure Pipeline in 2019 to boost up the infrastructural progress of the country. In only 2019, 10855 km of national highway were constructed all across the country which is estimated to generate a toll revenue of around INR 1 Lakh Crore by the end of the year 2023. 

Continuous liberalization has also made it easier to generate the flow of capital in the economy, which in turn helped the businesses to easily find investors for them at a lower cost. Liberalization has also helped in increasing Foreign Direct Investments in the country. 

On one hand, these investments foster the growth of the businesses but on the other hand, these reduce the stakes of government and the public sector in the economy especially in the banking and insurance sector. The entry of multinational companies has also become a threat to the local small and medium businesses providing them a cutthroat competition. 

There has been a significant improvement in people living in poverty in the country. The reduction is big as it has reduced to 5.0 crores in 2019 from 12.5 crores in 2016. It is also estimated that by the year 2030, the rate of poverty will be as low as 3%. 

The coronavirus pandemic has had a disruptive effect on the economy of India. The lockdown all over the country disturbed the business operating cycle and led them into deep uncertainties. The firms went towards reducing their manpower leading to high unemployment. 

The pandemic majorly affected the travel and tourism industry adversely bringing it to a standstill. These industries being a major contributor to the GDP brought a major toll on the growth of the GDP.

The government is proposing various policies and strategies like self-reliance and sanctioning huge funds for the recovery of the economy, but the journey is not so easy. As per various researches, the recovery of the Indian economy is expected to be a V-shaped recovery but it is not easy to make a judgment on the shape of recovery that the economy of the country will experience because of the uncertainty of the availability of the vaccine for the disease. The projects like “Make in India” and “Vocal for Local” is a huge step towards the recovery of the economy. 

The new year brings with it new hopes and scopes. The economy of India is expected to grow faster than the other major economies like Japan and several other European Nations. The government mainly aims for growth by the way of improved infrastructure, creating more job opportunities, and a more competitive manufacturing sector in the country. The government has also announced a package of INR 2.7 lakh crores as an incentive program to support medium and small-scale businesses. 

As stated by the Vice Chairman of Niti Ayog, the economy of the country is all set to see positive growth in the last quarter of the financial year 2020-21. The second quarter of the fiscal year has reported a contraction of 7.5% in GDP against the contraction of 23.9% in the first quarter, thus already showing the recovery of the economy. 

The study states the economic growth rate to be around 13% in the coming year. The growth rate involves are a high degree of uncertainty concerning the increase or decrease in the growth rate because the course of action would depend upon the availability of the vaccine to the coronavirus disease. Even after the hit of the coronavirus pandemic leading to a slowdown of the economy, there still exists hopes of India becoming a 5 trillion economy by the end of the year 2024.

Have your buying patterns and preferences changed due to COVID?

I am sure most of you would say, Yes. So have my spending patterns and buying preferences. I am now more thoughtful about where I spend, what I spend on, and how much I spend. 

COVID has brought uncertain times with it, and we are all making sure that we save enough and not overspend because we don’t know where we are heading.

If this is so with you and me, what makes you think it is different for B2B. 

How did COVID impact B2B business?

It has made businesses thoughtful about their spendings, and their preferences have certainly changed. But this does not mean that B2B isn’t spending!

If your offering is essential, they will purchase it.

Slack subscriptions spiked up while most physical office spaces became redundant.

Two things that can help you in a situation like this are-

• Positioning and On point Marketing.

You will have to redefine your positioning and frame your messages to talk about your offerings firmly. While you do this, you also have to have a healthy marketing game plan to tackle problems and situations like these.

So let me share some tips you should consider while putting together your Marketing Plan to wrestle through COVID times. 

5 Things You Should Be Doing to Bump up the Demand for your B2B Product

• Rethink your messaging – 

First things first, If your message is still the same as pre-Covid, you fail big time.

As I said earlier, there is so much difference in the B2B and B2C business. The decision-maker in B2B is also eventually a human.

If your messaging isn’t showing any concern about their problem, they will subconsciously blacklist you in their head. And as soon as your ad, email, or blog comes across them, they will be uninterested.

• Relationship Building –

It’s an ideal time to create content that adds value to your prospective clients.

You have to understand that I am building a relationship with my target audience. Today or tomorrow, they will buy from me if I continue to maintain a healthy relationship with them. 

Plus, the sales cycle in B2B will be much longer than it was before because of budget cuts and preference changes, so why not build a relationship with the prospect in the meantime, rather than keeping them unattended, leading to their drop off.

• Hyper Personalisation –

Gone are those days where personalization was enough. It’s time to create hyper-personalized content. Use data, analytics, and AI to make your marketing efforts as personalized as possible. Rather than just sending a newsletter with links to your blog. Personalize content based on problems they are facing and give them solutions. 

• Alignment of Marketing and Sales –

You have to understand that Marketing and Sales both have to work in an alliance and not have distinct objectives and goals. The collective effort of both brings results, where Marketing takes charge to do all the top of the funnel activities and turn a cold lead into a hot lead before passing it on to sales and salespeople, who convert those leads.

Both work towards the same objective- sales. It happens so that there exists a lot of misalignment between the two.

• Questioning and Experimentation is part of the process –

B2B ads are boring! Let’s first agree on this. As I said earlier, the decision-maker is eventually a human, and if your ads are not talking to him in a way that it keeps him engaged there, it needs to change.

There is no harm in questioning the traditional way of doing things. Because these questions are what lights up curiosity and lead to Experimentation, and we only want that one experimentation to work for us and change everything. 

To validate and convey my point better, I would like to show you Netcore’s ad with Rahul Subramanian.

It’s different, It’s not dull, and it doesn’t appeal to the masses, and that is precisely what you want your ads to do. Because B2B ads aren’t made for everyone to understand, but the ad for mobile is made for everyone to understand. So keep experimenting and use your customer’s understanding to target them with those ads on the right platform.

Consumer behavior is Ever-Changing.

Before digital, Marketing was different, then digital came and changed consumer behavior. Marketers with evolving consumer behavior adopted the change and moved to digital.

Consumer behavior is ever-changing, and being a Marketer, it is your responsibility to adapt to the change in their behavior.

How Digital Marketing will benefit small and medium businesses in 2021?

Let’s begin with the facts and numbers, the world’s total population is 7,800,000,000 ( 7.8 Billion ), out of which 3.5 Billion+ people are having access to the Internet, either via Social Media or Search Engines or by other methods according to the Internet. 

If I talk about India only, there are over 687.6 million internet users and according to data estimations calculated by the Atlas VPN research team, these figures are going to hit 1 Billion by the year 2025. That means more than 30 crore Indians are going to come on the Internet, which is a huge number for any sort of Business to grow!

Let me give a simple example, If you’re a business owner who manufactures his/her products ( eg. clothing line) where you sell your products in bulk with very small margins, you can do a few changes to your distribution system by selling your products directly to the customer! 

How? By using an E-comm website! This way you can sell products with higher margins, you just need to establish yourself as a brand. This will increase your customer loyalty towards you, Customers would proudly use your product just as brands( like COBB). 

I know this ain’t that easy as it sounds, it requires experience, money, time, and other resources, but nowadays, even the traditional ways aren’t that easy nor are they that much cost-effective. It costs at least 50,000/- per month to rent a shop in a busy market, where a businessman can think about selling and making small profits that too after a year or so. Whereas, if that cost is invested in marketing/ branding of a less known product that ROI could be a lot more! 

There are a lot more real-life examples I’ve seen from my own eyes where Digital Marketing has been a game-changer for that business, to name a few food businesses in Delhi: Woodbox Cafe, Wong’s Kitchen, Baba ka Dhaba, etc.

A few Cosmetics businesses: Wow, Nykaa, etc.

Footwear Businesses: Roadster Shoes etc.

Business Trainers who went digital and started doing their sessions Online: Vivek Bindra, Rahul Bhatnagar, etc. The use of Internet Marketing has completely changed the way that these businesses used to operate, even small businesses can get benefited from Digital Marketing!

Let’s Talk about it, will it become a necessity?

Well, the answer for 95% of businesses would be YES, there might be only a handful of businesses that can not be benefitted from Digital Marketing, neither in sales nor in Marketing nor Branding. As we all know that India is advancing very fast in this Digital Age, where everything is going Digital, we have transformed our way of doing businesses in this year 2020, thanks to Corona Pandemic Situation, where even the most stubborn people were forced to either go online else putting a pause to their businesses! 

In my opinion Year, 2020 is an Alarm for all of us to realise that if we are not inculcating Digital Marketing Methods or Electronic Means to operate then we might go out of business very soon!

In this lockdown year we saw a major decline in most of the businesses which were completely functioning in traditional ways, but the ones which were Online or using Online means they weren’t affected much rather some of them grew in many aspects to name a few big players in the market are: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mukesh Ambani.

In the end, all I want to say is, it might not seem very important to traditional businesses to go Online TODAY, but honestly one day they will have to shift themselves online just to sustain in the market.

Remember: “ Prevention is always better than cure!”, Don’t wait for others to overtake you, go on the Internet search how your business can use Digital Marketing to get more revenue ASAP!

Around 89% of people in India are aware of life coaching and around 59% have partnered with a life coach at some time, with 97% being satisfied with the experience, revealed the 2017 ICF Global Consumer Awareness Study, which was also conducted by PwC Research. Even before COVID-19, mental health was recognized as a social issue with business implications. Worker anxiety and depression are tied to increased rates of absenteeism, employee turnover, distraction, and poor performance on the job. 

The global economy loses about US$1 trillion annually in productivity because of depression and anxiety, according to the World Bank. Additionally, mental, neurological, and substance-use disorders are estimated to contribute to yearly economic output losses of $2.5 trillion to $8.5 trillion worldwide.

Many employers in recent years have attempted to address employee mental well-being. The vast majority (95 percent) of employers around the globe now include emotional and mental health programs including coaching in their corporate well-being platforms, according to a survey from Fidelity Investments and the Business Group on Health that was fielded between October 2019 and January 2020. 

It found that for 2020, 69 percent of the 152 responding businesses planned to provide mental health teletherapy, and 50 percent planned to offer stress management assistance. Given the magnitude of the pandemic’s mental health impact, employers are embarking on new initiatives or strengthening existing programs. 

Companies have used a variety of approaches, including encouraging employees to take time off for their mental health, holding virtual town halls to address employees’ worries, and expanding workers’ health benefits and programs (especially digital ones).

In April 2020, Starbucks began offering its U.S. employees and eligible family members access to 20 free sessions a year through a California-based mental health benefits provider, which offers virtual appointments and digital lessons. 

Starbucks also made related training sessions available to store managers in the U.S. and Canada in partnership with the National Council for Behavioural Health PwC US introduced new benefits to address employees’ needs during COVID-19 by redeploying executive coaches to provide one-on-one and group well-being coaching sessions, chief people Officer Michael Fenlon noted in a recent blog post. 

PwC UK has made Garmin watches available to 1,000 employees to track how they are coping with stress during the pandemic. Because of new ways of working and a blurring between professional and personal boundaries, companies are seeking ways to help employees get downtime and recharge. PwC India last summer instituted a firm-wide “Pens Down Day,” in which employees were urged to take a Friday off and cancel all meetings.

November 1, 2020; free press journal wrote an article stating that the coronavirus-induced lockdown put a strain on several businesses’ world over where start-ups and smaller enterprises were the worst affected and how business coaches helped them tide through difficult times. 

I have even personally seen that so many people from a Human Recourse background express their interest in taking up courses on coaching that will give them the skill needed to make a better impact on the employees of their organization. In the United States, it’s estimated that there are over 50,000 coaches and recent studies show that a total coaching marketplace, including the various kinds of coaching the estimated revenues are at $15B (USD) currently.  

The coaching federation reported on a survey of executive coaches, found a strong, shared, expectation that coaching will continue to rise in demand, particularly as part of larger, organized, leadership development training initiatives. 

Even if you look at the books that are now bestsellers, you will find a majority of the books promoted are self-help books. It is remarkable how the coaching industry has boomed over the years and how its growth is further accelerated due to the pandemic. If you are reading this article and are someone that has a passion for helping people you should consider coaching as a profession.

On twelfth May 2020, Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared the mission of Atma Nirbhar Bharat to make India self-reliant. It is the vision of India’s administration to make “New India.” No doubt the plan of Atma Nirbhar Bharat is an incredible move to deal with the economy during a period of crisis. 

Prior in the year 2014, the government dispatched a similar mission as “Make in India” however it was not that effective. The re-dispatch of this plan as “Atma Nirbhar Bharat” during the pandemic boomed the market and encouraged the public.

Making India ‘self-reliant’ during crisis days was like a gift in adversity for some organizations affected by the pandemic. It has not just offered opportunities to the all-around thriving areas of our nation rather it has offered opportunities to all the smothered areas to make a rebound on the lookout.

Aatma Nirbhar Bharat has assisted with being Vocal about Local, to profit homegrown organizations, help businesses, advancement, and boost entrepreneurship. By embracing this plan we can distinguish our innate qualities that would prompt the natural monetary development of our country.

The plan of Atma Nirbhar Bharat isn’t confined to act naturally dependent, it likewise focuses on “make for the world”. He discussed the five mainstays of self-reliance i.e., economy, framework, framework, demography, and request. This will make India a crucial piece of the worldwide production network. It is an opening of monetary ways to the world.

The controversies of China with other nations have opened many exchange entryways for us. Numerous brands moved their creation from China to India. Around 24 organizations intended to move their creation units to India and set up cell phone plants. To support homegrown assembling and tempt interests in telephone fabricating the public authority has dispatched PLI (production linked incentive) scheme for enormous scope hardware production.

Many organizations have chosen to migrate their base to India from Japan, South Korea, and the USA. Furthermore, shockingly numerous brands of China are additionally ready to move their organizations to India and that has made an open door for India to remain as a beneficial locale for business. 

The public authority has given numerous relaxations to the organizations intrigued to enter India. This would make working together in India all the more simple, agreeable, and serve long term benefits.

Under the scheme of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat India expanded the creation of PPE kits which was restricted toward the start of the pandemic and over 200000 PPE units were arranged each day in India. Indeed, even the creation of masks has expanded and lakhs of them are arranged each day. The target of this plan is to re-establish monetary development and continue with the stockpile of everything without being reliant on different countries. Such changes are not just assistance to create in a specific area rather it’s for the general and overall advancement of the country. 

This plan encourages local manufacturers to improve and modernize the nature of their items and production network. It has profited MSME, working-class individuals, limited scope industry, cottage industry, and farmers.

This campaign has demonstrated the proverb that “Necessity is the mother of invention”. As we have suppressed the significance of “self-reliance” prior yet the pandemic has caused us to understand the need and significance of it.

This mission has again given a boost to the “Indian Swadeshi Dream” but still, there is a long way to go. In a globalised world being self-reliant in most sectors is a tough task. To continue this momentum in the mission the government will have to focus on reforms in various sectors and invest heavily on infrastructure. This being ensured, Slowly but Steadily India will achieve its goal of self-reliance.

Future is Digital. Let’s compare, today even e-papers are read digitally, people have shifted from print to digital as they are impatient, they want to come to the point immediately. The first 5 seconds have to attract them to watch further. Also due to the content being watched on their smartphones, sometimes they watch on mute, so the ad films have to have a visual impact, as people have started listening with their eyes and not ears.

As far as entertainment is concerned People have a lot of options today, so the content that we make should be as per the target audiences we are catering to, it needs to be fresh, original, and captivating. Seeing is believing, so none of the products/services can be described or sold without a visual description.

Even if we are buying a product of around Rupees 500/- people will read reviews, and at e-commerce sites, if a video of the relevant product is available, the product is purchased easily. Which is why I feel this profession may have competition today, but everyone would have some work or the other, therefore more and more colleges have started offering courses in film making, mass media colleges are offering degree/diploma courses. BUT according to me, practical knowledge only makes you understand this industry.

If you have an eye for detailing, an inquisitive nature, madness for creativity, ready to work at odd hours, and prepared for a ride on a giant wheel where right from scripting to delivery- it’s all by approval of the client/agency.

It’s not a cakewalk, but it’s exactly as awesome as making a cake, patience is the key as it’s not easy to entertain people, to entertain them you have to be seriously involved, so if you are ready to devote your complete life to this mad mad profession and you are mad enough to enjoy frame by frame welcome to this profession called Film making.

How LinkedIn Can Help Out Students, Individuals and Brands To Grow In Their Careers?

LinkedIn is more like an online resume that can be utilized for showcasing one’s skills and achievements. It allows professionals to learn, grow, engage, and collaborate together. Students, professionals, and brands can leverage the platform to enhance their online presence and visibility to get the right kind of engagements that they are looking for. Let us dive deep into understanding the nuances of the platform and understanding its crucial role in the growth of one’s career. 

What makes LinkedIn stand out in the crowd is the fact that building meaningful connections and networking with the right people can actually provide you the opportunities you desire. In this competitive era, building one’s brand is central to connecting with high ticket clients and establishing one’s credibility., Hence, LinkedIn can play an instrumental role in achieving these objectives.

I started using the platform around two years back. With consistency and hard work, I have been able to build my target audience. It won’t be wrong to say that I get 90% of my leads through LinkedIn organically after a lot of hard work and patience. The platform has helped me get amazing gigs to sustain a decent stable income over the years. I strongly feel that the platform has the potential to unlock great opportunities with continual usage.

How can LinkedIn turn out to be a goldmine for students and college graduates?

Be it promising freelance opportunities, right internships, or learning skills, LinkedIn can turn out to be the best-sought alternative in every possible way. Recruiters are always on a lookout to hire fresh talent and LinkedIn always tops their list in terms of hiring an enthusiastic bunch of graduates who are willing to learn. 

From doing the right type of certifications and courses to working with professionals, LinkedIn gives amazing opportunities to students who wish to learn and grow. If you possess the skillset then all you need to do is update your profile to get started. The next step is to post regular content to get enhanced engagements and increase visibility on your profile. 

The best part is that you don’t have to apply to various platforms like Internshala, etc to connect with others. You can simply get the right opportunities according to your skills by enhancing your social media presence. Apart from that, you can also get exquisite freelancing opportunities in the fields of content writing, graphic designing, website development, and more. 

Takeaway:
Get started by building a credible profile. Make sure you add certifications and recommendations to build the authority of your profile which can help you in leveraging the platform in an efficient way.

How can LinkedIn turn out to be a goldmine for young professionals and freelancers?  

If you are passionate about writing, photography, graphic designing, etc then you can slowly and steadily start building your portfolio on the platform. Showcase your subject knowledge by creating engaging posts and posters to captivate your target audience. With a plethora of opportunities on the platform, you will soon start getting the right kind of opportunities matching your skillset. That is how you can easily grow and expand your professional endeavors.

LinkedIn is the ideal platform where people reach out to for getting the work done. Professionals are always on a lookout to find talented individuals for their companies and if you are an active user on the platform then it will become easy for people to reach out to you. Two things which you need to do religiously is pos regularly and engage with others. The right approach involves posting quality content on a regular basis without any fail. LinkedIn ranks you in top charts if you are a regular user of the platform.

Takeaway:
Engaging with others is as important as posting content consistently. There is no shortcut to success. Therefore, make sure that you know the right ways to enhance your social media presence.

How can LinkedIn turn out to be a goldmine for brands?   

Content can play an instrumental role in striking the chord with your target audience. Hence, LinkedIn can turn out to be the best platform for subtly promoting your brand and creating awareness about your products and services. 

With increasing competition in the market, strategizing the content on LinkedIn can help the brands to enhance their engagements and connect with their potential customers. Bridging the gap between potential customers and actual customers becomes easy with rigorous social media visibility.

Posting content can help you to build trust with your customers and share stories of your versatile experiences with customers and in-depth insights of your products and services. LinkedIn can turn out to be most sought after alternative for those who are looking to increase their conversion rates and build loyal customers.

Having worked extensively with various reputed brands for LinkedIn marketing, I feel that what needs to be prioritized is the art of writing brand stories to get the right traction. People resonate with what you hold as a brand and your USPs can turn out to be your selling points if the content is writing effectively.

Conclusion:

Hence, in a nutshell, it will not be wrong to say that LinkedIn is one of the best professional platforms for anyone looking to build their personal brand without spending a single penny. The key to winning on LinkedIn is to post high-quality content showcasing your extensive knowledge of the subject you are expert in.

It is a sheer misconception that LinkedIn is just about finding suitable jobs. If you have the right skill set then you can start out by showcasing your expertise in your specialized area to get the type of projects you want to do. With a plethora of opportunities at your disposal, you can easily make the most of the platform.

Writing copy is an art, it’s not merely writing words. It’s a study of how people behave and make decisions.It requires extensive research, an understanding of the brand you’re working with, and a perspective of selling the product/service without explicitly promoting it.

Copywriting sells, it uses a persuasive approach to sell the customer a product by putting forth a value proposition.It could be 300 words or 3 words, but the idea is to persuade, sell and compel the consumer to buy the product.

Here, when you’re a writer, you can’t write as yourself. You need to be in the customer’s shoes to understand what will make them want to purchase a product and why.This thinking mixed with the brand’s personality together defines what you write and if it will persuade the consumer.

A very simple approach I follow while writing copy for any brand is:-

• Ask the right questions
• Study the right resources
• Analyze like a customer
• Write like a brand

As a writer who works with different kinds of brands, you can’t let the same perspective guide you. I can’t write like Komal, I must write like X brand and to write like the brand, you need to understand every tiny detail about them.

This could be their story, journey, clientele, brand personality, customer relationships and employees. Along with this, it includes 3 important aspects of a brand:

• What, 
• Why,
• For whom.

Once you’ve understood a brand, identifying its value proposition and creating a story behind it is very important. Even if you use 4 words to write a copy for an ad, it needs to convey a message which has a story and evokes a certain emotion.Copy is such that it makes the consumer want to stop, stare and take an action

With a truckload of content creation and consumption on digital media, breaking through the noise is difficult. But when you listen to the audience, think like a customer and write like a brand, it can do wonders.Stories sell. If your brand can evoke an emotion through its story and convey that through words, there is nothing better than that.

While you may write a 1000-word blog post in a day, a 10 word tagline may take you 2-3 days because you understand the brand, the competitors, the customers and then frame your thought process.

A major effort in copywriting is the mindset you have towards writing a particular piece of copy. This mindset is formed by:

• Asking your client questions
• Going through all the brand’s resources to understand it in depth
• Analyzing the competitors
• Understanding the brand’s voice and personality.
• Studying the target audience and their habits
• There is no such thing as a perfect copy, but making it near to perfect is the idea. When it addresses the customer’s pain points, evokes emotion, communicates intent and persuades the consumer to take an action, you win!
  

Copywriting requires an open mind, a will to explore, and a mindset of equilibrium which portrays the copy in a perfect balance of:

What the brand wants to offer vs what the customer wants

It’s a skill, a form of art and a salute to creativity!