Getting from where you are to where you want to be

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Every business goes through dry spells. This often leads to the team losing confidence in their product/service, or their ability to sell it effectively. It is a natural progression of how things work. We have two options when we go through such spells :

1. Do nothing and hope things turn around.

2. Actively adjust strategy and keep plugging away with new approaches.

Option #1 is a no-brainer. However, I see way too many companies adopt this wait-and-see approach. The fear of actually making staff cuts, scaling back, and working out how to tell their investors, paralyzes executive teams from taking any sort of pro-active action that will yield results. At this point the management team only looks for quick fixes. The best being their ability to ramp up sales in a hurry to avoid any sort of backlash. Things however do not always work out so smoothly!

In the second option, the executive team realizes that a business does often go through cycles, and the best thing they can do for it is to continue plugging away, and focus on improving the value they provide their customers. The team must accept that quick fixes are not a long term viable strategy, and plugging away every single day will eventually yield larger upswing results when markets recover.

Unfortunately we live in a society which demands instant results and gratification. Taking paths that take months or years to realize their true potential are left to the side in lieu of faster get-rich schemes. The sooner we realize the wisdom in the ’slow and steady’ school of thought, the sooner we will end up achieving our goals and aspirations.

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DropBox is simply a file sharing tool with a drag and drop interface similar to native OS applications. I heard about DropBox a while back, initially during their launch and inception and Y-Combinator, and then through the acclaim it won at Techcrunch 50. At first I thought I did not need a file storage service as I was already with a ton of services where my files were hosted, and I could share them fairly easily. However, that was the problem! I had my files in way too many places, and the notion of logging into those services, uploading the files and then making relevant changes to those files was becoming increasingly more challenging. This facility has however turned out to be one of those services whose utility you only find out about once you start using the application. I recently got onto DropBox, I have been blown away by its simplistic setup and its seamless syncing capabilities across multiple machines.

Here are some reasons why getting a dropbox will make your life easier.

1. Sharing photographs and large files with multiple family members just became a whole lot easier. Sure everyone uses facebook, flickr etc. However, downloading higher res photographs and simply uploading them, making the folder shareable over Dropbox, is truly amazing.

2. Working with multiple partners remotely on several documents one at a time is challenging, sending files over skype, time and time again, gets really irritating. Working with DropBox to collaboratively work together on projects has made life a lot easier.

3. DropBox essentially creates a central repository for your critical data. For instance, you could upload all your proposals, invoices and other critical documents to DropBox, and access them from multiple platforms, your pc, laptop and mobile phone. It also makes it really easy for the rest of your team to access the most up-to-date documents without worrying about using a USB stick etc.

These are just some of the advantages I recently experienced using this service. If you work remotely with a team that is geographically spread out, I would highly recommend getting yourself a DropBox.

Are you already using DropBox? How have you used the service to make your business more efficient?

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This is that time of year, when many of us set our New Year’s goals and resolutions. Those who have set their goals have been able to overcome the primary force of resistance we all experience in committing to a goal to be realized sometime in the future. However, many of us set audacious goals without any thought or plan for a follow-through during the course of the year. This is when procrastination sets in, we feel scared, or the goal was too ambitious for us, and we fail to figure out how to achieve it. In each case we face resistance, and this holds us back from achieving what we wanted to.

If there is any one goal you set for yourself this year, make sure it involves focusing on getting things done, rather than giving it a half baked shot. During the course of the year most of us will deviate in one way or other from what we have set for ourselves. That is just being human. However, when we see ourselves drifting, we need to have the self discipline to bring ourselves back on track, or have someone become your resistance fighting coach, to help bring you back on track.

This is undoubtedly always going to be a challenging journey. The resistance we feel is not created from an external force, it is a constant struggle within ourselves. In order to overcome it, we must break through our limiting beliefs and focus solely on hitting milestones until we achieve what we set out to. One last word of advice, resistance is greatest as you reach closer to the finish line. This is the reason so many projects are abandoned at 95% completion. The thought of completing what we set out to do often overwhelms and scares us. Remember, this is the time you need to be at your most alert and focused. Make sure you get whatever you set out to do..DONE.

By winning this internal struggle against resistance, there is very little we cannot achieve in this world. I wish you all the very best in the year 2010.

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Image by hernan.seoane

It was in December 2007, when thinking about New Year’s resolutions, that I resolved to start a blog . Not quite knowing what I was getting myself into, I submitted my first blog entry on the 31st of Dec 2007 and set myself a goal to blog every single day, and then, I made a public commitment to the same effect on my blog ! Fast forward 2 years, December 2009, and I am so very happy that I started this journey. It has helped me grow by leaps and bounds in terms of my own knowledge, connections, and as a person. If you have not started writing a blog yet, and there is something in your life that you are truly passionate about, then a strong suggestion for a New Year’s resolution is….. start a blog! On the other hand, if you have not yet found something that you are passionate about, use a blog to discover your interests in greater detail. That is the beauty of writing regularly! Sooner or later, we start to zero in on the things that we care about and are most important in our lives.

Last year around this time, I published a post which outlined my top posts of 2008. To make this a tradition, here are my top 5 posts of 2009:

1. Do What You Love
2. Dark Berry Mocha Frappuccino
3. Designations & Startups
4. Do I need a Co-Founder?
5. 5 Mistakes to Avoid as an Entrepreneur

Wishing you all the very best for the year 2010. I hope to see many of you launch your own blogs, and achieve great success in all your future endeavors.

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I came across Larry Page’s commencement speech at the University Michigan recently, and it really got me thinking. Two major takeaways from the speech are :

1. Dream Big…there is less competition: Larry talks about how we should all dare to dream as big as we can. Life is too short for us not to take chances and live quietly within our comfort circles. If what you want to do, is not scaring the daylights out of you, then take a look around and see whether that is really something you want to be doing. The benefit of this sort of thinking is there will always be lesser competition along the way. Very few people stray from the main roads of life. If you want to achieve something extraordinary, it is time to break away from conventional paths laid out for us, and create your own extraordinary paths. 2010 is a great year to do just that!

2. Family is all we have: At the end of the day, we can achieve all the success that we ever wanted, and still feel that something is missing from the picture. That something is usually our family, those people who have been neglected along the way. It is true that most entrepreneurs have lives that result in ridiculous work hours, and have very little personal interaction other than with the people they work with. However, your work must not be used as an excuse or reason to break away from the people who truly mean the most to us. Without them success feels incomplete, and life loses its meaning. I know that this is an aspect of my life that needs to be looked into in 2010. I hope you will keep it high on your priority list as well.

Life moves at a frightfully fast pace in our world today. The only way that things actually get done is by sitting down and writing down the things we want to do and achieve in life. The new year is a great time to do just that. It is a time to reflect on our life so far, and think about the changes we want to bring into it from this moment on. This is no time for procrastination, rather, it should be used to discover what truly drives you and what you want to achieve.

I wish you all the very best for the New Year. I want to thank you for your continued support through the year. I greatly appreciate it.

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I have yet to finalize my list of resolutions for the new year. There are some key areas I really want to focus on for 2010. One of the areas which needs great emphasis is my health. I do think this is an area I have been neglecting, and need to rectify, since it is critical to our ability to function and perform. Some small changes I plan on integrating into my daily routine are:

1. Take a 5 minute break every hour that I am on the computer. I plan to use a nifty app for this called FocusBooster.

2. Eat a proper breakfast, at a set time, every morning. This should include cereal & fruit at the very least.

3. Exercise for at least 30 minutes a day. This could be anything from a stroll to hitting the gym.

4. Increase water intake to a minimum of 5-6 glasses a day.

5. Sleep a minimum of 5 hours everyday and around 8 hours on Sunday.

6. Replace junk food snacks with healthier variations.

7. Set 15 minutes at the start of every day to meditate.

8. Switch completely off coffee, and replace it with green tea.

9. Segment my day & time appropriately to manage & reduce stress. Use Things to manage this.

10. Take up Yoga, and do it at least twice a week.

I will be tracking progress on the above through my blog, and may even blog once a week about the adjustments, and how I am integrating them into my daily routine. I really have been neglecting this part of my life. Since it is one of those things that will truly be of vital importance and benefit with age , I need to start working on it seriously now!

Is leading a healthier life on your list of resolutions for 2010? If so, what are some of the things you plan to do, and how do you plan to integrate them into your daily routine? Would really like your comments, feedback and suggestions.

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I can hardly believe it has been almost 2 years since I started this blog. With only 2 more posts left for this year, I think it is a good time to put down the nature of changes to expect in 2010.

1. Post Frequency: In 2008 I posted every single day. This required a serious time commitment, and I often struggled to make sure I would have a post of substance up, on a daily basis. In 2009 I thought I could handle a post every second day, but my time commitments in other areas expanded, and I had a few spells in the middle where I could not post for a while. The learning experience of the last two years has made me realize that I will have to reduce my core blog posts (topics related to my personal experiences) to once a week in 2010. These would be more comprehensive posts. During the week however, I plan to start blogging views on happenings in the entrepreneurship space, as well as more general posts about life .

2. Get Social: I seriously feel that I have not put enough effort into utilizing some of the great social media tools that we have at our disposal. These include video, podcasts and even ebooks. The reason I stayed away from them was the additional time required to add these components and generate regular content for them. I am open to suggestions on how some of you have leveraged these tools. Look forward to integrating some of your suggestions into my blog.

3. Design Format: Next month I hope to start working on a major overhaul of my blog in 2010. I plan to make the search for my blog’s content easier, add a lot more information about the companies I work with, and rework the entire design.

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These are some of the changes I am looking at for the year 2010. What I am more interested in however is, what changes you, the readers of my blog would like to see on it in 2010. Is there something missing in my blog? What would you like me to add or cover? I would really appreciate all your suggestions, feedback and comments.

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Over the years, several mentors have given me some great advice, advice that has really helped me on this journey as an entrepreneur. In this post I will share 3 pivotal ones that have had a definitive effect on my journey.

1. Only work with or hire A+ players: One of the reasons I struggled in my earlier ventures was my inability to partner the right people. I was connecting with people who were like me, or shared similar competencies. This resulted in an inability to effectively execute plans because there was always some critical skill set that was missing on the team to help us achieve our goals. I did some extensive research on partnerships, it resulted in my ideal 8 characteristics checklist. Since then, I have had much greater success. Getting the best to work with you on a startup is challenging. However, if you want to succeed in your venture, this has got to be the main focus of your startup efforts. I firmly believe that a strong team is far superior than coming up with the next big idea/concept.

2. Product to market as soon as possible: Startups are all about speed. At this very moment you can be sure that all around the world there are multiple teams working on the same business model as you. The deciding factor between success or not, is the ability to show your product to prospects and illicit feedback as quickly as possible. This is vital to ensure that iterations take place at a faster clip, and the product meets the demands and expectations of the target customer. Sitting on your idea, spending time perfecting it, is the fastest way to burn through all your startup funds. You are then placed in an extremely vulnerable situation, since customers do not really need/want what you have spent all that time and money perfecting. Rapid prototyping is essential for success.

3. In the end it is all about cash flow: Without revenue, a startup can literally count the days it will take them to reach the dead pool. The concept of building first and then figuring out how to monetize later, may work for companies who have the ability to raise millions of dollars, for the rest of us working on extremely limited budgets, this is a mistake. Misappropriation of funds leads to product delays, layoffs, low morale and essentially, failure. If you have inventory cycles, figure out ways to optimize them, if you use several vendors for your product development, find ways to extend credit terms, if you sell big ticket items, devise smaller offerings to complement them etc. Models of recurring revenue streams create stability and take a massive load off business shoulders. From the day you launch your business, the focus has to be on how to start generating revenue with what you have right now. I wrote a related post a while back on 5 tips for better cash flow management.

What has been the best piece of advice you have been given as an entrepreneur? I look forward to hearing from you.

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These days I have been thinking about how to be revamp my blog for next year. I have also been taking an increasing and active interest in design in the companies that I am involved with. From a business perspective, a well designed product is always talked about a lot more, shared among friends, and has a unique advantage over competitors who are not thinking ahead of the curve. This is a strategy that Apple has used most effectively, also making it into one of their strongest competitive advantages.

Startups usually do not have access to the best designers available to create their user interfaces, web designs, packaging materials etc. However, this should not be the reason to put something out there, without paying adequate attention to detail. The web is full of examples of companies who have put serious thought into their design processes:

1. Apple (iMac & iPhone)
2. Tiffany
3. Mint
4. 37Signals
5. Audi
6. Action Method
7. Wufoo
8. Aeron Chairs
9. Samsung
10. Bang & Olufsen

These are just some examples that come to mind. Each one of them has used their design or interface, to not just create a strong brand for themselves, they have also created emotional bonds that are very difficult to displace. For example Tiffany!

In the final analysis, great design should be a critical component that someone on your team is always thinking about. It could start from simpler things such as your logo, name card design, stationary, website etc. Use that to fuel greater design inspiration into other parts of your business, thereby giving yourself a greater edge.

I am interested to know if you have come across a really well designed personal blog lately? If so, please send me the link. Thank you.

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