Posts Tagged: entrepreneur

Increase Profit Margins: Tips From 30 Small Business Experts – Published on Direct Capital

Jasmeet-Sawhney-Increase-Profit-Margins

Jasmeet Sawhney is a serial entrepreneur who has been in digital marketing and social technologies for over 10 years. He has helped both startups and large corporations in their branding, product marketing, and lead generation efforts.

I think the single best way for small business owners to increase their profit margins is…

A 30-20 rate increase.

Every year, we analyze revenue generated from each distinct solution area. The objective is to identify offerings where we can increase our rates by 20 percent without losing the customer. We then select accounts that generate 30 percent of our total revenue across these identified solution offerings. Sometimes, this means that one of our clients may get the same service at a lower cost than the one we identify for rate increase. We have not lost a single customer because of this strategy.

via Increase Profit Margins: Tips From 30 Small Business Experts | Direct Capital | Blog.

12 Hiring Tips For Your Early Stage Startup

12 hiring tips for your early stage startup

Startups live or die based on their ability to attract talent. All other factors that can affect startup success are secondary. This is even more pronounced when you are an early stage startup (read ‘resource constrained to the extreme’) as you have little or no room for bad hiring decisions. Having said that, everyone makes hiring mistakes and it is a process that you hope to get better at with experience. If you are like me and most other entrepreneurs, you would dump conventional wisdom and techniques, and build your own set of hiring rules that are driven by your unique style and situation. Over the years, I have been involved in several startups and here are some of the things I have learned in hiring during early days of the startup (i.e., first 2-5 employees).

Entrepreneurial Journey – How to raise your first round? – #Startup Meetup Event

 

meetup

Raising capital is one of the most arduous tasks for an entrepreneur. As part of the “Entrepreneurial Journey” series, we are bringing rockstar entrepreneurs from the NYC ecosystem to help you in your fund raising journey. These serial entrepreneurs have raised multiple rounds of funding and know in-and-out of raising startup money. They will share their experience and provide tips on fund raising and avoiding mistakes. More details about panelists and moderator below. There will also be good food and drinks at the event.

via Entrepreneurial Journey – How to raise your first round? – # Startup – Premium Events for Entrepreneurs & Investors (New York, NY) – Meetup.

Sikh Tech Startup Founders – On Satjot’s Blog

sikh entrepreneursIt is sometimes very lonely to work on a technology startup.  The ups and downs are unimaginable.  The culmination of all the hard work is generally binary: (0) huge success, (1) failure.  And it’s an emotional roller coaster that only other founders can relate to.

So, I’ve always wanted to learn about fellow sikhs who are running technology startups.  I’ll try to kick off the list of founders here and hopefully you can add to it in the comments.

via Satjot’s Blog — Sikh Tech Startup Founders.

The Productivity Value of ‘Sent From My iPhone’ – Published On Inc

 

Sent from iPhone

If you email from an iPhone, maybe that line that automatically plugs into your signature–”Sent from my iPhone”–feels tacky, like you’re being used as a marketing arm for Apple. Or maybe you do in fact love your iPhone, but the signature makes you feel uncomfortable because you’re not the type to humblebrag.

While many have opted to turn off the setting, though, others have found professional use for it. In a post on Boston tech news site BetaBoston, WorkLife.io CEO Jasmeet Sawhney explores unintended benefits of the signature line. His ideas might convince you to reactivate your iPhone signature, or if you’re not the Apple type, to create a similar tagline on your phone. (Microsoft employs a “Sent from my Windows phone” signature on its smartphones.)

Check out Sawhney’s post for his entire ode, but a couple of his points show how the brief note can actually serve as a productivity hack.

via The Productivity Value of ‘Sent From My iPhone’ | Inc.com.

The Unintended Benefits Of “Sent from my iPhone” – Published On BetaBoston

sent from my iphone

When iPhone was first launched, these 4 words – “Sent from my iPhone” – were perceived by many as a way to flaunt your new device via emails. When I got my first iPhone, I made sure to remove the email signature fearing I would come across as a swagger. But, what started as an annoying display of status (or brand marketing for Apple), has become a very practical aid for professionals. This is primarily due to the fact that expectations and perceptions of the email recipient are very different when email comes from a smartphone instead of a desktop. It may not seem as apparent, but here are some unintended benefits of this ubiquitous signature, which beg the question – should this signature be included in some of your desktop email replies as well?

via The unintended benefits of “Sent from my iPhone” | BetaBoston.

Value of LinkedIn Groups — Published On Medium

 

value linkedin groups

  • Group email digest are too burdensome. If you’re a member of 10+ groups.
  • Most groups have few active or new discussions. Which means old posts are repeated for several days in group digest emails.
  • A lot of discussions are actually marketing promotions or jobs. So lots of popular groups have spam issues.
  • So what value/challenges do you see in LinkedIn groups? How do you solve these challenges today?

Originally posted by Jasmeet Singh.

via Value of LinkedIn Groups — Writers on Writing — Medium.

Why Is e-Commerce Such a Hot Area In Venture Capital Now? – Posted On Quora

 

ecommerce-hot-area-quora

For years, there was little innovation in eCommerce (both in technology and business model). Online price comparisons was the biggest (and pretty much only) value-add for consumers for many years.

This has changed in the last 3-4 years – think Social Commerce, Group Shopping, Private Sales, Open Source Technologies, Effectiveness of Marketplaces and Mashups to name a few. All this has led to great shopping experiences.

Then there are other factors – market growth and potential (only about 6% of retail is online, but influences about 80% in most segments), more and more consumers are comfortable shopping online, capital efficiency of setting up a business, easy (and relatively) immediate validation of business models, and still a huge potential for improvements on all ends – customer experience, supply chain, shipping & handling.

It is not hard for anyone to notice this potential. For VCs, well, it is their bread & butter!

- JASMEET SAWHNEY

via (61) Why is e-commerce such a hot area in venture capital now? – Quora.