5 key tips for engaging a startup mentor

December 5, 2011 Leave a comment

A business mentor has more entrepreneurial and domain expertise than you and can help in improving productivity, streamlining marketing initiatives, build better business relationships and in retaining key human capital for your Startup. Read ‘Importance of Business Mentoring’ to understand the relevance of a mentor.

Finding the ‘right’ mentor is not always easy and requires some research and hard work to get the best fit for the founders and the Startup. Here are five tips on finding and choosing a mentor for your Startup.

  1. Ask around for recommendations from your past & present colleagues, contractors, accountant, lawyer, and among your professional friends. The startups that I have mentored have all come through such recommendations.
  2. Mentors have a variety of expertise. To get the best out of them, you need to brainstorm the areas of guidance you need a mentor for. It can be from business structuring to helping with financial planning, or product strategies and marketing plans, to overall growth and development of your Startup.
  3. Once you have zeroed in on few choices, you need to thoroughly discuss the areas of engagement to gauge their views and see if they match your work principles. Before you meet a potential mentor either physically or virtually, prepare a set of questions and topics that you will discuss during the meeting. Don’t hesitate in asking for feedback on your business idea and status.
  4. An effective mentor helps you develop your own capacities and resources to undertake management challenges. It’s important that you and your mentor clearly understand the roles and therefore be vocal about what you want right from the beginning. This will ensure harmonious relationship with the mentor and you will achieve focused results.
  5. Robust relationships are built on trust and honesty. Big names may not always be the best fit for you. You do have to make a judicious decision while choosing your Startup mentor. And so finally believe in your instinctswhen you finally have to make the mentor choice.

All the best for your search!

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5 key bootstrapping strategies

December 5, 2011 Leave a comment

I have been a bootstrapper from day one since I got bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. I learnt important key lessons from my first Startup that I applied in the next to optimize the chances of its success. Based on my learning, am sharing the following strategies for bootstrapped startups,

  1. Network hard and get connected, but work the ways on your own. Look for business mentors, hire experts, and the rest ‘Do It Yourself’. Remember that all other kinds of help and support costs money that you don’t have. It’s fine that you are a rocket scientist, a specialist, but you can train yourself to do marketing, sales pitch, finance, websites, and other work that will help your Startup grow.
  2. Rent for office space is one of the biggest expenses for any Startup. Till you start making money from your business, try to work from a home office. Rent that garage the Bill Gates way. Work virtually. Spend the rock bottom minimum money to keep your Startup running. Look for innovative ways through which you can cut down your costs, be it setting up fees or the operational costs.
  3. You don’t need to start taking huge CXO salaries the moment your Startup starts making money. Take out survival money and re-invest the rest of profits back in your Startup. Before you get into the bootstrapping mode, plan your survival finances for 12 months, instead of the mythical 6 months break even period. Believe me, in most of the cases you are not going to see any real money coming to your Startup in its first year.
  4. You will have to constantly find ways to market your Startup creatively. Use social media to its fullest. Don’t go for the glittering marketing expenses, which are huge and will eat up your initial money that may not bring results to keep you and your confidence afloat for a long time. Either find interns from graduate schools around who can do marketing for you through twitter, Facebook, e-mail, LinkedIn etc. or just do it yourself.
  5. They key to any bootstrapped Startup is perseverance. If you don’t have patience and want to strike the jackpot from the word go then either you have to be the luckiest person around or you are living in a utopian world. For the real people, steady persistence with focused course of action leads to desirable results and success.

So keep a tight lid on your costs, trust your gut feeling, and march forward with all the passion in your dream. The growth may be slower with bootstrapping, but it’s all yours. All the very best in your endeavors!

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4 keys to startup advertising

December 5, 2011 2 Comments

Startups usually don’t do much advertising in their early stages. Entrepreneurs either think that it will be very expensive, or they don’t get this idea at all to advertise their startups and related offerings. Advertising does have the potential to make your biz get more eyeballs and hence more business. Advertising is an integral part of your overall marketing strategy . It can be done through either or a judicious mix of search engine advertising, banner advertising, magazines, newspapers, business directories, radio ads, TV commercials, billboards, mail campaigns, flyers etc. However you need to plan well before using advertising as your tactic for your Startup.

Well planned advertising can help you achieve the following,

  • Attract new customers
  • Enhance your reputation by building credibility in the market and establishing your brand image
  • Promote your product or service and boost your sales over time

Keys to successful Startup advertising,

  1. Research: The key step in your advertising is to research and know your audience. Whom do you want to target through your ads. Research into the demographics of your target customers. You should know this segment well and what mediums they generally use. That will cut down on your advertising costs and also will make your advertising focused.
  2. Planning: The mantra here is creating ‘to the point’ message that you are planning to convey, and keep it simple. You have to ensure that you are not putting across confusing messages to your potential customers. Plan your advertising carefully and use the right medium.
  3. Uniqueness: If your advertising is a boring one, it will not be effective. Try to make it distinctive and visually appealing. Also, frequency of your ads will deliver better outcomes.

Patience: And last but not the least, you need to have patience to see positive outcomes of your advertising. It will take time and effort before your targeted audience turns into your customers.

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Business mentoring for your startup

December 5, 2011 1 Comment

Even though you may have a constant stream of info through various sources based on which you make your startup decisions, but you may need wisdom of a business mentor to give the right direction and vision for your startup to steer towards the growth path. Mentoring can help improve productivity, build better business relationships and help to retain staff. Remember, a business mentor has more entrepreneurial business experience than you as they have ‘been there done it’ before. Read the full post HERE

However good your idea, there is no substitute for experience. A mentor will be your reliable sounding board, providing advice and guidance to help you overcome challenges as your business grows, and even give you emotional support in those dark times. Mentors can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and can also provide you with some useful contacts when it comes to raising finance or finding suppliers, resources, or even developing your market base. Remember, that mentors are NOT consultants. They usually don’t charge any fee. Their motive is non financial, and most of the times they do it to sharpen their business skills or position themselves as strategists or teachers.

Finding the right mentor(s) can be hard for your business. Identify the key issues you want help with and look for people who have faced similar challenges and overcome them. Also look for domain expertise and the current networks they have. ‘Linkedin’ is one of the best places while searching for a mentor. Also, don’t hesitate in asking your friends, family, former bosses and business contacts if they know anyone with relevant experience. You can approach people you already know too – however be confident about differentiating between professional and personal relationship with the person. NETWORKING is the key to find the most suitable mentor for your startup.

You will need to put in efforts to build a good relationship with your mentor that creates a win-win ecosystem. This is important if you want to get the best out of mentoring. Communication is the key. Keep in regular touch over email. Do share your small glories, and make an effort to meet them for a face-to-face discussion when you want their help in solving key issues. Also, though you take key business advice from your mentor, don’t expect that a mentor will solve your every startup problem. Remember that it’s your own startup, and a mentor is there to guide you and not spoon-feed.

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