Signs that shows you have a vision…

From: My Experience

Vision, most of the people think that it is just a statement that colorize the profile of their organization, but is that right..? Not at all. A vision stands for the reason for the existence of an organization or a vision makes the organization unique and focused in their growth.

Ultimately the vision of the entrepreneur drives the organization or the vision of the organization is same as the vision of the entrepreneur. It is very evident that most of the businesses were failed only because lack of vision about their end objective. So before jumping into any business, the entrepreneur should develop a vision and should make sure that the vision is the common goal of the team.

The following are the key signs that shows you have a vision…

1- You never find time to sleep: – People with a great vision will never have time to sleep for long hours until he meets his goal or vision. Just go through our own life, we can see that we have enough time to sleep while travelling, after our heavy lunch etc because we really don’t have a vision. Once John Sculley, Apple’s ex-CEO said about Steve Jobs “He was a person of huge vision and I don’t see any change in Steve’s first principles — except he’s gotten better and better at it..” that means visionaries will never change their vision for anything…

2- You try to get expertise in your competent area: – People with a vision will always find time to tune their skills in one special area or they are highly focused in a special area where they can shine. No any entrepreneurs can start their business with a focus on many areas, so getting expertise in a special area will help you to reach your vision easily. Like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates or any successful business people you can develop your unique identity.

3-You will never skip your values even in a tough situation:- When people with great vision face challenges, they will never let down their will power and will hold their values to their heart. No matter what happens, if you have a strong vision, you will keep your values because values let you to reach your vision. Like Thomas Edison.

4- You get excited in your small victories: – Small victories can help you to boost your confidence and will take you to your vision easily, people who got a vision would have milestones in their mind and when they achieve success in one milestone, they get excited that they are moving in the right path. Likewise, if you have a vision you will find happiness in even small success.

5- You dream a lot and your dreams will get updated:- If you dream the same thing for the past 5 years, then it is the symbol of you don’t have a vision. A visionary’s dream will get updated within a specified duration of time because they are moving with their time bounded goal and dream. If you dream the same thing for the past many years, you may have a vision but you are not realizing it.

6- You will enjoy what you do: – If you are passionate in your work, you will be enjoying it or you will be just doing it for a sake. People who have vision will be taking it as a passion rather than just a job and when you work, you may even forget to look at your watch. So without passion and vision you will not enjoy what you do and you will feel challenges rather than opportunities.

7- You know the meaning of your life: – It is the very simplest sign of a person with a vision in their life. He can easily express the aim of his life and living, ask this question to yourself, if you have a crystal clear answer and that is SMART then you are a person with a VISION and this is the right time to go for it…

 “Your future begins with your vision….”

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Is my business growing or will it grow…?

From: My Consulting Experience

It is one of the common questions that every entrepreneurs wish to ask, yes there are many answers like, if the business is growing then your sales will increase, your profit may also increase etc, in  a way or another all the answers are true.

In a consulting point of view, the answer is BRAND RECALL shows the growth of every business; that means, a potential customer from the farthest point of your target area will prefer your business as their first choice when they meet a requirement. So a brand recall says that your brand image is in the minds of the customers where you do business, if the brand recall is true, your business is growing or the scope of growth is much higher than others. So capitalize your brand image and make the business shine at its best.

So how it is possible to do a BRAND RECALL test?

It is quite easy if you got a marketing team otherwise outsource a consulting company for do the test and analysis. The test can be done by the following:-

• Define the target areas of your business (the reach of your business)
• Prepare q questionnaire (question should not contain your business name but ask indirectly)
• Train your marketing team with the questionnaire and the objective
• Take a sample of 25 customers from all the potential areas
• Meet the customers, fill the questionnaire and find out the no. of customers who said your business name as their first option
• Take the action

Why BRAND RECALLING is not happening..?

In most of the cases entrepreneurs start their business by identifying the scope in that market but majority of them fail to communicate what his business offers for the customers, this is the main reason that the customer is not aware about the products/service, the value and the specialty of your business, so before starting the business or not delaying too much after the opening of your business, the business should EDUCATE its customer about everything that the it offers.

To create a brand recall, every businesses should EDUCATE its customer, for that the business should use all the available channels and the expenses of doing this should be considered as an investment for the growth of the business, then you will be able to create the BRAND IMAGE and by continuing the same quality of service and dealing, the brand image will be stamped in the mindset of the people and this will lead to brand recall, the symbol of your growth…

The Three Life Changing Answers- Live a New Life

From: My Life

Recently when I was on the way to my hometown for a function, my mind was wandering through the memories of the past seven years in my life, especially my friends, the incidents, the surprises and everything that happened in those years. I was knowingly or unknowingly searching for the answers to make me feel better than before also to clear my mind and finally I found the answers; here are those:-

• Nobody can cheat you unless and until you let them – It’s a fact
• You are the only reason for your happiness – It’s an attitude
• If you avoid the reality, you will realize the consequences of avoiding the reality – It’s a breakthrough

1- Nobody can cheat you unless and until you let them- It’s a fact: People including me sometimes say “he/she cheated me etc…” but think once again, is that true? no its not. What I have experienced is that I failed to understand that person to the core, so I made a chance for him/her to cheat me by trusting him/her. So when you trust people, always ensure that you know about him/her in detail also you should feel comfortable when you are with him/her otherwise never trust them. Trust comes only through real understanding and commitment, not through any demands or requests. Like pure love, there is no any condition for trust…

2- You are the only reason for your happiness- It’s an attitude: As a social animal, the attitude and the reactions of the society may affect us both positively and negatively. There may be many situations when we feel exhausted, depressed and terminated because of the people and incidents around us. It’s true that we cannot change anybody unless and until they are ready, so what we can do is change our attitude. When you start believing in this concept, means “you are the only reason for your happiness” you will feel comfortable in every situation even it is bad or worst. You will start filtering the emotions, reactions and the responses from the people around you; finally you will learn to accept the positive things and the happiness from everything.

3- If you avoid the reality, you will realize the consequences of avoiding the reality- It’s a breakthrough: Sometimes we know something that is going to happen wrong but we used to say “let’s see”; in all those situations we might faced some challenges only because of avoiding the reality. I had an experience in this. So long before, I knew it would happen and finally I realized that the consequence was more that I could manage. So never try to avoid the reality, still if you want to take risk, take calculated risk only so that you can manage consequences effectively and without any harm.

 So keep the answers in your heart and live your life the way you want it…

Complicated Life..? Follow These Two Ideas

From: My Experience

Like everyone in the world, I also want to celebrate and live a very simple life. So here the question starts:-

How to live a very simple life or how to avoid complicated life situations..? This question made me to think about my past experiences where I felt my life was complicated and tough, finally I could find and summarize all those ways to simplify the life by just following two ideas in life…

1. Take A Break
2. Make Room For What You Really Love

Take A Break:- It means, avoid the stuffs that squeeze your energy and spirit. In most of the complicated life we can see that they are always in tie up with the things that they don’t really need. This means take a break from:-

• Negative people: One of the main reason for complicated life is because of the unhealthy relationship with people around us. Just let them go if they only spread negative energy and emotions and if possible wipe out the memories too.
• Changing others: Nobody can change anyone without there willingness, so stop trying to change people who never willing to simplify there life.
• Overtime work: Are we working for the living or living for working..? Think about it and ensure that you get enough breathing time to spent with the people and to do the things that you like to do.
• Online presence: The modern trend, just take a break for sometime from the social and other online media, and try to find the time to make real friends. There are people who desperately looking for the status updates of others and the notification symbol to pop up. I believe you will definitely get enough time to do what you love.
• Over expressing: Never show your emotions and feelings to those who don’t deserve it, you will feel exhausted so take a break from showing your feelings to everyone. Be selective and make it better.
• Untidy rooms: The youngsters special, it is quite true that the place where we spent the time should be neat and comfortable or you will feel messy everywhere even in your daily routine. Take a break from messing up your room.
• Being diplomatic: Diplomatic people never enjoy a relaxed life because they don’t know how to say “NO”, the single word that can minimize most of the issues. Try to say when you don’t like something, people will respect you and they will change the way they see you.

Make Room For What You Really Love: Always find the time to live for what you love. If you find your passion, no more you will work but you will start living a life that you really love. Identify what makes you happy, energetic, comfortable, freshness and feel special, so make a room for the following:-

• The people: Spent time with the people who care for you, who loves you and they think you are important to them. It will give you the best life even if you don’t have anything else.
• The passion: Always give the room for passion; without passion you will never happy with your work, career and life. Follow your passion, you will find the hardest thing like the easiest one. If photography is your passion, do it and spent time, you will get the best soon or later.
• Simple celebration: Never miss a chance to celebrate your life. Celebrate your birthday, celebrate the hangouts with your friends, make each day a celebration by finding happiness in even the smallest thing and finally you will witness a life with simplicity and happiness.
• Dream: Find the time to dream what you love and like, slowly and slowly you are making the path easier. The more you dream, the more you enjoy your life.

More than everything believe “Nobody can create a simple life unless and until they try…”.

“Design your life and live in your passion…”

3 Impacts: The People Effect in Life

From: My Life

We are living in a society where we share happiness, sorrows, exchange our ideas and build relationships and also break some relationships too. It is true that as a human we cannot live alone in the world; when you think about this, you will find and summarize the people effects into three:

1. They Mold You
2. They Love You
3. They will teach you

They Mold You: When we are living in a society where each everybody is different in both physically and mentally, the experience that you learn from each person will be entirely different, the knowledge that you receive from them will be immense. Likewise, each and every person whom you meet in your life will contribute something to your life; this is why when you are growing and this why you are changing the way you behave, the way you see things and the way you believe. That’s why all of us are going to school, religious institution etc to shape and mold our physical, mental and emotional abilities and qualities.

They Love You: This is one of the great reasons that you cannot live alone and the best people effect in your life, you would feel love only and only when you are living in a society where you are having a role in somebody’s life. People will love you unconditionally and for sure we all want it without any doubt, this is the one thing that gives you the life even though you are living physically. You can easily identify the person who is in love for that you only need five minutes with him/her, that is the impact of love in life.

They will teach you lessons: Last but not least, all the people who come across your life will teach you some great lessons. You just think about your friends, families, colleagues or anybody else, for sure that they would contributed something to your life, it may be hard or soft but you will learn something from them. One of the great lessons that you might learned is “You will get only what you deserve”.

The lessons that you learned from others will help you to light up your life, you will find your real potential and you will find for what/whom you are living in this world.

 

 

Creating Opinion Leaders: The Best Practice to Sell Your Products or Services

From: My Consulting Experience

Opinion Leader: – They don’t wear a uniform or belong to a union. You can’t identify them by sight. Opinion leaders are anyone who’s an active voice in a community. It’s somebody who speaks out and  gets asked for advice a lot.

So why opinion leaders are important to business..?

All the businesses are either providing a service or a product to its target customers, in that case the success or the failure of the product purely depends upon the comments of the target customers who used or experienced it.

So to make a positive and strong recommendation or reference about the product or service, the business should plan for making opinion leaders in the market because they can really influence the people around them. This is one of the best method to create an effective marketing in the target segment. This is why opinion leaders are important in business.

How can we identify the opinion leaders..?

Opinion leaders can be anyone or anything the customers ask for suggestion or recommendation. They are usually famous, knowledgeable and accepted by everyone in the target segment. Some of the example for opinion leaders are given below:-

a. Celebrities: They are common opinion leaders because they got huge fans and they tend to follow the celebrities even in the stuffs that they are using.

b. mouthshut.com: This one is kind of an online opinion leader, people are really looking at this site to get a clear review about the products in the market.

c. Magazine: There are magazines like ‘the automobile’, they got a relevancy in the mind of customers before buying a vehicle.

Likewise anything can be opinion leader in the market, the real success of the company is in identifying the real opinion leaders.

How to create opinion leaders..?

1- Tell the truth: – Always tell the truth to the the opinion leaders, or it will harm your company and the goodwill of the opinion leader. When a company believes its products, then that is the best method to create opinion leaders.

2- Do not create enemies: – Creating enemies is also like creating negative opinion leaders, they will kill your brand and you will find it difficult to enter in such target segment. So always believe in creating better relationship with everyone in and out of the organization.

3- The brand value: – Brand value is the most simple and the best thing that can make opinion leaders, for example we can say Apple, obviously the opinion leaders are high for that company because of its brand value and the trust.

4- Experience: – Opinion leaders must have experienced the quality, value and the benefits of the product or service without that there is no opinion leader. This is why celebrities are acting as opinion leader for almost all the personal care products.

“If you give values rather than cost, your product or service will find its opinion leaders…”

Building A Successful Organization: The fundamental Stages

From: My Consulting Experience

The stages in forming a successful organization can be compared to a construction of a strong building with strong foundation, hard pillars and safe roof. Like the same, an organization must have the following three major stages which consist of combinations of many elements:-

1. The foundation: –The basic elements that make a clear and strong foundation which can take any kind of pressure and expansion or change in the organization.

2. The Pillars: – The elements that support the growth, sustainability and the security of the organization.

3. The Roof: – The combination of elements that ensure the completion of the organization and its objectives.

1. The Foundation Elements

a. Vision: – This is the most basic and crucial element that defines the reason for building the organization or vision explains the reason for the existence of the organization, without vision it will be like constructing a building without defining the purpose that the building is going to meet.

b. Solution: – The second most elements is the solution; which means what the organization is going to provide, or what issue the business will address. All the business should provide a solution to its customer, then only the business can sustain in the market, also remember that no any issue is going to be unsolved till the end.

c. Accessibility: – This area is to identify the real beneficiaries of the organization, entrepreneur should identify the place where the business should take off and it should be accessible by all the customers who need it. There is no point in starting a business where entrepreneur doesn’t know the real beneficiaries of the solution.

d. Value: – The solution that is going to provided by the business should have a value in the industry or among the customers. The value should be unique and clear to the customers then only they will understand the difference between your company and the competitors.

2. The Pillars

a. Structure:- Structure is called as the organizational communication and information flow chart. This will clearly define who is who and where the decision making happens. A well defined organization will never give a chance for conflicts or role ambiguity and it will results in a stage where the organization receives the desired output from all levels. Key Result Area lies in the structure so there can be three levels; visionary, strategic and executive level, without these levels, no organizations run effectively.

b. Process:- A defined process flow will give a standard output for the organization, this will ensure the quality in the output even though there is frequent changes in the manpower or designation.

c. System: – A systematic organization gives a stable output in quantitative and qualitative level. This will help the top management to make the decision making faster and effective, a systematic organization can foresee what is going to happen next.

3. The Roof Elements

a. Growth Strategy: – Most of the companies face the same issue when they reach a steady level of growth, they don’t see the way to expand or diversify their business. When a business is focusing on a single service or a product, they will reach a time where there is no more growth, so the organization should have a clear plan about its growth in the industry otherwise the product or service will get obsolete. So for a healthy and long term existence, the organization should have long term and short term plans.

b. Exit Strategy: – This is also something very important; a company with a good exit strategy can keep its goodwill and the liquidity. It’s a strategy of the visionary or the entrepreneur to choose the exit strategy, many of the entrepreneurs prefer to keep the brand name as their surname, others let the company grow and later they sell it for a better value.

Make an organization which speaks about itself with pride…

Everything Happens For a Reason…

From: www.phoenixmasonry.org  

One of the best thoughts about life…

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there, to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson, or to help you figure out who you are or who you want to become.  You never know who these people may be (possibly your roommate, neighbor, teacher, fraternal brother or sister, long lost friend, lover, or even a complete stranger), but when you lock eyes with them, you know that at that very moment they will affect your life in some profound way.

And sometimes things happen to you that may seem horrible, painful, and unfair at first, but in reflection you find that without overcoming those obstacles you would have never realized your potential, strength, willpower, or heart.

Everything happens for a reason.  Nothing happens by chance or by means of good luck. Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness, and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of your soul. Without the small tests, whatever they may be, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight flat road to nowhere.  It would be safe and comfortable, but dull and utterly pointless.

The people you meet who affect your life, and the success and downfalls you experience, help to create who you are and who you become.  Even the bad experiences can be learned from.  In fact, they are probably the most poignant and important ones. If someone hurts you, betrays you, or breaks your heart, forgive them, for they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to when you open your heart.  If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but because in a way, they are teaching you to love and how to open your heart and eyes to things. Make every day count.

Appreciate every moment and take from those moments everything that you possibly can for you may never be able to experience it again. Talk to people that you have never talked to before, and actually listen.  Let yourself fall in love, break free, and set your sights high. Hold your head up because you have every right to.

Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you don’t believe in yourself, it will be hard for others to believe in you.  You can make your life anything you wish.  Create your own life and then go out and live it with absolutely no regrets.  Most importantly, if you love someone tell them, for you never know what tomorrow may have in store.

And finally, enjoy looking forward to learning a new lesson each day and enjoying the journey.

Why Entrepreneurs Fail..?

From: My Own

2014 – 15 a new business year for all entrepreneurs, so before planning for the next year let’s have a small review about why most of the budding and growing entrepreneurs fail in their business. This article is just to reshape our views and vision about the business that we run today and the businesses that we are going to  start in future.

We can see, most of the billionaires were started their business from a scratch and now they are enjoying the value of their brand and they are growing and growing, at the same time there are entrepreneurs who are burning out because of loss and frustration in the business.

So why entrepreneurs fail even though they invest their time and effort in their business..? 

1. Survival Driven- (Trying to make money before creating value):- This is one of the most difference between successful and failed entrepreneurs. Successful entrepreneurs always give importance on creating value than making immediate profit.

Wealth is a result of consistently providing solutions to the problems of humanity. If you doubt me, go ask Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg and the likes. These are people who simply followed their passion (purpose driven) rather than following money (survival driven) and yet made a great fortune. (from Mr. Philip)

2. Lack of Business IQ (No proper planning and preparation):- The quest for making a business sometimes results in learning zero knowledge about the industry and the business. To grow a business the businessmen should learn day by day about the changing trends in the industry, people and the style.

I would tell an example: In a motivational training class, a man asked to the speaker “My industry is filled with bargaining customers and I could make only very minimum profit. So how can I make a better business..? The speaker told him you made a better profit in the beginning of your business but you were blind in analyzing the changes in the industry, you could have started a diversification when you felt the changes in the industry.” (Thanks to one of my clients).

This is sometimes happening, getting knowledge will help you to take right decision at right time. 

3. Lack of focus (Wandering here and there): – This is the another difference, successful business people would have a focus and they invest their time and effort to nurture that special area. Take an example of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg  etc all those people have the focus.

“genius is the ability to focus on one particular thing for a long time without losing concentration.”

So when you start or run a business, try to focus on the area where you can excel and never go for a randomized business before you got a clear path.

4. Risk Averse (Fear of Failure) : – This is one of the most challenging thing. Successful business people are ready to take challenges, they see opportunities in every risk and challenges, and that is why they are remembered and successful. But failed entrepreneurs lack this quality

If you are passionate in doing business, you never mind you challenges, risk or anything, you will do it. So have a passion about your business. You can be free from risk averse by improving your business knowledge, passion and focus also by concentrating on the end result. 

5. Poor Money Management (Extravagance) : – Manage your money, never let the money to manage you. Successful entrepreneurs are good in money management, they know where to invest and when to harvest their investment, like Warren Buffet’s words “Never invest in a business you can’t understand.” 

Always remember that there are ups and downs, you should be prepared to meet the unexpected.

6. I can do well all by myself (Insecurity) : – There is a limit to what an individual can achieve alone, thus the need for team work. Successful people know what to hold and what to delegate, so entrepreneurs should encourage team work and you should act as a leader and a guide.

“Together Towards Success…” follow the line literally, you will enjoy the happiness and success.

So, you must get rid of any insecurity and every scarcity mentality you might have that someone is going to beat you to it. There are many things that are unknown to you, so you should seek help from your team, may be from outside consultants etc, this is how business grows. 

7. Lack of Vision (The shortsightedness) : – “Vision is the reason for your existence”, never start or run a business without vision or with shortsightedness, the business will sink somewhere. The businessmen should be clear about his path and the end result, then only the business can move forward.

So, it is the high time that you need to have a vision for your business and life and let the vision shows the value that you are going to provide.

“Let the business speaks about you rather than you speak about the business…”

 

THE SIXTH SENSE

From: My Own

The title seems very supernatural but the meaning is very simple and almost all the people might experienced this thing in their life, I believe so.

It is true that the unexpected is always expected, I really believe that people got a sixth sense and it will work when something is going to happen that you don’t want in your life. In most of the situations we really think too much and that is one of the key reasons for the unexpected, always believe in your first thought, because that is the one that you really want and your mind knows it.

So, what is sixth sense..?

It is an instinct thought or spark that we feel when we are stuck in a situation and we usually skip it.

In my life, i skipped many of my first thoughts and opportunities for the better one but finally what happened was, most of the results were unpleasant and unexpected, really its a fact. The 6th sense is real and in my life I experienced it many times, whenever I skipped it, I faced unexpected things.

So, how can we identify our Sixth Sense thought..?

It is quite simple, just think, when you really wanted to do something that was really like “there’s many a slip twixt cup and lip”, there might be a first thought that came into your mind but you might skipped it by forcing your brain to think again, then the first thought that came to your mind is called the Sixth Sense. Yes, the thought that comes directly into your mind is the sixth sense thought, all other thoughts from your brain.

I am sure that most of the times you regretted because of not taking your first thought and decision. So when you are really in a confusion, let your mind work on it and let the sixth sense act, it will give you a better result.

Here are some situations where you felt sixth sense working:-

It is applicable in all your life incidents whether you are in a confusion to catch a bus or a train, start a business or not to start, even it will make you feel whether your love is successful or not, or when you go for a higher studies and you are stuck in the middle of courses, just think about your life and the above situations, you might feel it. You will feel regret when you neglect your sixth sense.

Why sixth sense is working..?

Sixth Sense means the real things that we need in our life and that are going to happen in our life. More than our brain, our mind knows what we really need in our life, this is what is the reason behind the sixth sense.