Expert Speak: Mr. Ajay Wahi

SMEs : Your time has come but only if you focus on your people

India will sparkle for the next many decades. Our time has finally come. From being considered a slow, closed economy for years, we are now viewed as one of the most promising countries globally. India is everywhere. No company in the world can succeed without an India office. Our people are more educated now, and they are more demanding than ever before. Our citizens now want the latest: the latest in technology, the latest in consumer goods, the latest in everything.

Indian Market: Huge Opportunity

And who will service the Indian market? The entire world will! All global companies, small or big, want to enter India. Sensing this huge business opportunity, millions will exhibit entrepreneurship, wanting to grab a piece of the huge cake that is the ever-growing Indian economy.

So far, it is the bigger players who have been at our service. But with millions of entrepreneurs entering the fray, it will be the small and medium set-ups (SMEs) which will flourish because they will propel the drive to quench India’s economic hunger. Whether these SMEs service large companies or the consumer directly, their success or failure will determine the degree of the country’s economic success. With high passion and a deep-rooted sense of belonging to a country whose time has come, these SMEs have every chance to succeed.  However, to succeed, the SMEs need lot of support and guidance on sales, finances, market penetrations, strategy, automation, IT, branding and finally on people.

Focus on PEOPLE

I highlight PEOPLE for one main reason: they are the common factor across all the above areas. It is people who conclude sales deals, who invent better machinery for higher production, who think and create strategy, and who create efficient processes. So if people are not happy, then the best of strategies is doomed to fail!

  

There is another reason why focus on people is very important. Besides the fact that they make things happen, people will gradually become a scarce resource. The time is not far away when people will have 100 options to chose from. And they will choose to work with you only if you have built for yourself the reputation of taking care of your people. This problem will be exacerbated by the mushrooming of SMEs which will create unprecedented demand for the limited skilled manpower we have in the country. As the icing on the cake, it is expected that in 10 years from now, all the advanced countries like US, Japan, Europe, and China will have either too many young people or too many old people. India, on the other hand, will have the largest productive population (24 to 45 years). And it is this productive population which will be sought after globally to fill up junior- and middle-level executive / managerial vacancies!

You may say 10 years is a lot of time - why bother about it? But building up a company takes time, and in the few years it will take you to build a reputation for yourself as a desirable SME to work for, you will find the 10 years considerably shortened. 

So, if you are running an SME, focus on people from today so that years from now when you grow even faster and want more people, these limited people choose to join you! 

And if you are part of the Government or a large corporate player or a reputed consultant or a effective trainer or an association etc, kindly do your bit to help out the SMEs on how recruit, train, retain people because they really need this guidance as they will succeed only if the can make people happy and productive. If their people win, they win and if they win, India wins.

The author of the article is Mr. Ajay Wahi, MD, Management Treasures Group and author of management books.

VH Polymers Gains Distinct Advantage with Internet

VH Polymers, a company manufacturing industrial rubber items as well as teflon products was commenced by Mr. Alok Shah, Manager, VH Polymers in 1982 with an initial capital of less than Rs 10 lakh. The company offers a range of products in the moulded and extruded rubber and teflon components category. The company’s offerings find use in industries like sugar, engineering, chemical, textile and maintenance through replacement parts for earthmovers, conveyors, compressors, valves, etc. There is definite scope for the company in the cement industry.

Drive for Excellence

The company has two production facilities, which are located in Mumbai and employs a workforce of 15–20 people that have enabled it to earn a turnover of around Rs. 80 to 90 lakh. On its way to this exponential growth, VH Polymers faced several critical challenges relating to competition, quality and pricing. The company faces tough competition for industrial items in the regions of Baroda and Gujarat. To differentiate itself amongst other players in the market, VH Polymers has maintained and provided the best possible quality to customers. To Mr. Shah, the satisfaction expressed by customers they have served is the best compliment they have received so far.

http://www.indiamart.com/corporate/success-stories/vh-polymers.html






Areas for Value Addition

VH Polymers is one of those companies that believe in the potential of traditional business tools such as the Yellow Pages. But, ever since they were introduced to online b2b marketplace, internet has become a very important tool and an integral platform for their business.

SK Pharma Machinery Unlocks Global Prospects

SK Pharma Machinery Pvt Ltd has its roots in 2000, when it was started by two ambitious entrepreneurs, Mr. Govind K Panchal and Mr. Shailesh K Panchal. The company started by three people conducting a range of pharma jobs, and is now a focused manufacturer of machinery for the pharmaceutical, beverage and cosmetic industries with offices in Thane and Mumbai as well as production facilities in Umargaon, Gujarat. Mr. Shailesh Panchal, Director, SK Pharma Machinery Pvt Ltd recalls that the company received its first order from Lark Laboratories, and since then, they have not looked back. Today, the company employs around 110 people, including 65 people working in their manufacturing facilities. From a humble figure, the company turnover has now grown to about Rs. 16 crore.

The Early Days

Since the company started with very little capital, the brothers faced several hardships. However, their quality of service led to several orders for machinery primarily due to references and word-of-mouth. “There is no competition since what we are manufacturing are totally different products. Because of our product quality, customers using our machines are quite satisfied with them. We don’t need any awards since our clients do not go anywhere else and we receive repeat orders. Our clients can go through our website and check all relevant details about the company. We have made some registrations for our safety as well as that of our clients,” commented Mr. Shailesh. The company is also a member of Indian Pharma Machinery Associations.

http://www.indiamart.com/corporate/success-stories/s-k-pharma-machinery.html

Global Opportunities

The main marketing strategy of SK Pharma Machienery as door-to-door marketing. But the company was already receiving bulk of its orders through references. The challenge came when the company was aiming for exports.  The company decided to leverage online service and since then have added three more countries to its market portfolio. Thus, came the knocjThe pharma industry is growing leaps and bounds everywhere in the world. SK Pharma hopes to grow in tune with this global surge with significant help from online B2B marketplace.

Expert Speak: Mr. Anand Pillai

Effective communication strategies which SMEs can adopt

Employees spend majority of their time at their work place and in interpersonal communication. Thus it is no surprise to find that most conflicts arise because people cannot sustain effective communication. Cultivating the art of effective communication and listening helps to build bridges and enhance relationships.

Given below are 5 essential cornerstones for ascertaining effective communication at workplace which every enterprise (small or big) should achieve:

1. Trust and transparency

In today’s virtual world and knowledge economy-Secrecy is bad strategy. I believe that the time has come to now stretch this beautiful muslin of transparency and trust over our organizations too. Managers’ needs to be transparent in their operations and openly communicate to the employees about the organization’s policy/ vision, challenges and strength. This will build trust among the employees (especially the increasing influx of Gen Y) turning everyone into business partners where they meaningfully contribute to the success of the organization through their innovation, creativity and commitment to deliver.

2. Etiquette

While effective communication needs to adhere to the principles of social etiquette (meaning it has to be polite) it cannot just restrict itself to this aspect and incorporates many more attributes. In my view for communication to be effective it has to inspire action and if possible change. And this is one common concern that business managers and leaders often mull about. A frequently heard complaint from most managers today is that while they work hard to create messages, most of these messages do not translate into action or positive thinking for the employees who it was intended for. I firmly believe that the problem lies in the message delivery. The message cannot be or rather should not be delivered in such a fashion that it comes across as an order. Instead recipients should feel that the message communicated to them is in their best interest and accommodates their well being, and growth and development.

In other words effective organizational communication should at one important level help in eradicating self deprecating behaviors and aid the development of new behaviors. And for this effective communication to happen managers have to become better teachers in terms of what to do and how to go about doing the same. Very often leaders think that because they are telling people what they want them to do; people are turning around and doing it. This is a profound fallacy. We need to realize that teaching, not telling, is a communication skill at which all leaders need to become effective—because the more you teach, the more people will learn and the more successful they will be.

3. Empathy

Another strategy for effective communication is effective or attentive listening and empathy. The communicator needs to be tuned to the sensitivities of his audience/message recipient and take into account his/her points of view. Most importantly the communicator should always have a clear goal in his/her mind that needs to be achieved from the communication.

4. Credibility

Credibility is yet another pertinent hallmark of effective organizational communication. In other words ascertaining the accuracy of the communication is of pivotal importance. This is especially critical as faulty or incorrect communication can lead to a lot of chaos and confusion.

5. Implementation

Often the message is not communicated by the leaders clearly or they hesitate to share complete information with the employees. Doing this the leaders in the organization discourages to promote an organizational culture which promotes open and clear communication, and this results can have negative repercussions on the work culture and the employee productivity.

So, an organization to leverage and unleash its people’s potential today should create and fosters a work culture wherein problems, plans, issues, opinions, thoughts and ideas pertaining to work, are discussed and handled in a professional, transparent, proficient manner through positive, effective communication.

All this about effective communication may sound like common sense but “common sense is not common practice. Let us be painfully be aware of what George Bernard Shaw said "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."

The author of the article is Mr. Anand Pillai, Sr. Vice President and Global Head, Talent Transformation, Intrapreneurship Development & EFCS Transformation Initiatives, HCL Technologies Ltd.

Create Private Video Chat Sessions with Google Video Chat

Technology is a crucial element today which enables growth for every business. With its proper use, businesses can move to the next level. Internet has specifically created new opportunities for companies, especially the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It is a great enabler which the SMEs can leverage toge benefits out of it.

One of the best advantages of the Internet is fostering faster communication. Free online tools have created many new opportunities for SMEs to increase effectiveness and hence, productivity. One of the best examples of leveraging the Internet is by collaborating teams. Teams which are working on projects and are located either across campuses or across the globe, require key elements of technology to help them collaborate in just the right time and with just the right effort.

Let Google Video Work for You!
Google video is one of the basic options which Google chat module provides. It basically enables people to get connected across the globe and have a video chat that too at no cost.

As shown in the screen-shot above, initiating a Google video chat is easy. All you need to do is login to your Google mail and choose the person you wish to invite for a video chat. Its obvious that the other person also has to have access to a web camera. The button marked with RED once clicked, sends a video chat invite from your side to the other user. This loads the video chat environment.

Once this is achieved, both the users in the chat conversation can see each other while hearing each others' voices. All this is enabled by google at no cost at all. The video chat is a great tool for SMEs as it allows for better communication and collaboration. Especially amongst team members around projects. It also helps SMEs reduce the cost and time of travel, hence they can be far more effective and productive.

Team IndiaMART Knowledge Services is committed to enable SMEs with tools, tips and techniques to help them reach up the value chain and hence achieve the next level of growth. For more information on how you can create new opportunities for your business, drop in a comment to this post and we will get in touch with you!

Manage Your Business's Reputation On facebook With: Use Facebook As Feature

One of the key concerns for any organization leveraging services of social media is its online reputation. Social Media is free when it comes to expressing and sharing views online. Your customers have more power in their hands to express themselves better. Hence, today they go online and tell thousands of other people about their experience with your product/ brand. For Small and Medium enterprises, its a lot more different challenge. Being small and emerging, SMEs have to ensure that they always win the customer's trust. Though its obvious that not every business can be perfect and that not every business can go to great extents in satisfying the customer. Hence, it becomes all the more critical to manage online reputation.

Be present on your facebook fan page as the brand and as yourself!
One of the key strategies almost every SME should implement in their social media efforts is to keep a constant and closer touch with their customers. This is one USP which SMEs has over its larger counterparts. The customers love personalized experience.

Facebook now allows you to manage your Facebook fan pages (of which you are an admin) as the "brand/ page name" and while being on the page "as yourself/ individual user".

How do I do this?
All you need to do is to click on the "Account" link on the top right of the facebook profile, it will show a drop-down option as "Use facebook as Page" as shown in the screen capture below:

Once you click on the link, you will get the following screen which will show you all the various facebook fan pages of which you are an admin.

Clicking on the option of a "switch" on the right end of every page will allow you to manage and operate that page as the brand/ the page's identity itself.

What if the customer is looking for a personalized answer from the management?

What if your customer tomorrow comes on your page and gives a feedback which is not very pleasing, instead of quickly removing it, you must go ahead and try and resolve the issue first as a brand on facebook. Once the issue is resolved, you can then quickly switch to use the facebook fan page as "yourself" and thank your customer.

This will create a very powerful connect of your customer with you and your brand as they will know that as a brand you own up responsibilities and are ready and prepared to resolve it in a public medium.

Team IndiaMART Knowledge Services is committed to enable SMEs with tools, tips and techniques to help them reach up the value chain and hence achieve the next level of growth. For more information on how you can create new opportunities for your business, drop in a comment to this post and we will get in touch with you!

Your First Lesson in E-Commerce: OLX

With the Internet spreading its reach in India and the customer being more aware, it is one of the most positively impacted areas in business in E-commerce. As more and more people are getting aware of the benefits and advantages of being online,they are becoming open to use their credit cards and other such information with care and safety online. With increasing consumption and online buying patterns, there is a whole genre of online users who are entering the online space while selling items to online buyers.

Now you can sell and buy online while sitting in the comfort of your own home. There are many such online platforms enabling such dealing. Your first lesson in online buying and selling comes from OLX. OLX is a free to use online classified portal. Its like your usual newspaper converted online, where you can search for various items which you are interested in and if you like them at their price, you can buy them. Such a platform is an advantage for both the buyer and the seller, as the time is being saved and so is the hassle of giving costly advertising in news papers. Such simple and straight buying and selling obviously can help you with your first lessons in leveraging the internet for doing e-commerce.

How to do it?

All you need to do is to login to olx.in and register as buyer/ seller. Obviously you can switch roles as you proceed. Once registered, if you are a seller, you can post your product online for free at OLX and it will hence become a part of the classified listing under the category of the products mentioned on OLX. Once your listing is complete, you will tart receiving updates if someone shows interest in buying your product.

Understanding your online customer!

Part of your first lesson in E-commerce, is understanding your online customer. Each customer online has a different view to your product. You can quickly understand the perceptive value of your offering according to the customer and how does the customer react to your postings. This will help you understand the customer better and hence reduce down your sales cycle, by pitching in just the right prices in future.

The next steps!

Once you are well aware of the customers perceptive values and other nitty gritties of e-commerce, you can then move onto setting up an online store/ shop either of your own or on partner sites like E-bay etc. and hence you can make money while being at home.

Team IndiaMART Knowledge Services is committed to enable SMEs with tools, tips and techniques to help them reach up the value chain and hence achieve the next level of growth. For more information on how you can create new opportunities for your business, drop in a comment to this post and we will get in touch with you!

Sabin Enterprises Reaches Beyond Its Horizons

Sabin Enterprises was started in Mumbai in 1993, with the intent of exporting medium level concession machinery. Mrs. Bindu Sasidharan is the proprietor of the company, while her spouse, Mr. Sasidharan Govindan, CEO, Sabin Enterprises, has played a dominant role in developing their operating markets for better business. Back when they started, the company did not have any manufacturing facilities and their staff capacity stood at around five people. However, increased study of the trends in the concessionary machinery market enabled them to effectively tap booming markets for their main offerings and related equipment. With considerable prior experience, Mr. Govindan enjoyed favourable support from buyers. He also had the advantage of being savvy with the terms of payments, marketing and business communications in the field.

Eventually, they started manufacturing in a small way and set up a production unit in Coimbatore, around 6 kms from the city. Sabin Enterprises has manufactured machinery for eight years and is exporting them since 1998. The company that had commenced with a turnover of around Rs 10 million at that time now earns about Rs. 50 million in the export markets. Sensing wide potential in exports, the company has almost fully turned to export marketing. It now enjoys a prominent presence in markets like western and eastern Africa—Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda as well as markets like Ghana, Nigeria, among many others.

http://www.indiamart.com/corporate/success-stories/sabin-enterprises.html

Marketing Challenges

Understandably, an exporting company faces the challenge of reaching overseas target markets. Since the company’s offerings were not consumer items but machinery, they faced problems with reaching new buyers every time. “It is not a regular market, so our job is very challenging. Whenever we need to make a sale, we have to look out and source a new buyer,” explained Mr. Govindan. For this activity, they relied on internet, and mainly B2B websites. “Internet is definitely a potential marketing tool provided you update regularly. Quick communication is required to develop the market well,” he mulled.

A Virtual Whiteboard for Your Meetings: Dabbleboard

Almost every meeting which happens in the premises of an SME has a crucial element which helps in ensuring that every member who is a part of the meeting is on the same page as the meeting convenes. This element is the whiteboard on which most of the data/ pointers/ quick ideas are scribbled down to ensure that they are followed up and pursued strongly.

Now you can hold virtual meetings with the same effect online with Dabbleboard

You can simply invite other collaborators to work with you on the sheet, in a LIVE environment who would want to collaborate around a certain topic and hold your meetings.

This is a fantastic solution for teams which are spread across wide and over different geographical areas. Dabbleboard helps your business reduce down the cost of collaborative sharing and still hold successful meetings.

As shown in the screen capture above, all you need to do to ask other collaborators to join in the meeting is to share the URL provided on the screen with them on Email and you are done. There is no setup requireed and almost anyone over the web can be a part of the meeting.

Team IndiaMART Knowledge Services is committed to enable SMEs with tools, tips and techniques to help them reach up the value chain and hence achieve the next level of growth. For more information on how you can create new opportunities for your business, drop in a comment to this post and we will get in touch with you!

Access to Only Relevant Information With facebook Subscribe

Social Networking for businesses has always been a lesser understood value proposition. Many businesses both large and small still struggle to generate engaging content such that their target audience is interested enough to interact and take a suggested action. Eg; buying a product.

One of the major drawbacks of being social media platforms like facebook, is all sorts of information floating around. Eg: if you have 500 friends on facebook, you will by default be receiving their updates on your wall, though for you that piece of information might be irrelevant. Hence, content creation and consumption on facebook is a major challenge which needs strong addressing.

facebook subscribe and business information!
Users who have always felt that facebook is only a teen craze and has no real relevance for businesses, other than the brand pages it allows, can now start seeing the good. facebook recently launched the
'subscribe' button, which you can see in the screen capture below:

If you see on your facebook profile, you will see two new options of "subscriptions" and "subscribers". Now you can subscribe to the public updates of anyone around the world on facebook. So if you want to see what Mark Zuxkerberg is saying in his public updates, you can easily subscribe to his public updates and get to know the same in your timeline.

How does this help your business?

Now your customers/ prospective target audience can subscribe to the various team members from your company and get a sense of what's happening. With social networking, as businesses are becoming more and more personal, ensuring that the right set of information reaches out to the customers is crucial. Now with subscriptions, your customers have the choice to subscribe to personal public updates from your business/ your competitors. These public updates create a sense of belonging to the business and hence more bonding on a personal level between the business and the customer.

Also what it does for the business is that businesses now can subscribe to the public updates of prospective hires and other employees to check on what's happening in the social circles. Obviously the information kept by the employees private is not shared. But this obviously helps companies in accessing critical views through access to real information.

The subscribe feature might just increase the public sharing by people more than ever.

Team IndiaMART Knowledge Services is committed to enable SMEs with tools, tips and techniques to help them reach up the value chain and hence achieve the next level of growth. For more information on how you can create new opportunities for your business, drop in a comment to this post and we will get in touch with you!

Regal Sales Corporation Leverage Online Services for Global Exposure

Regal Sales Corporation is a leading manufacturer of industrial raw materials such as pipes, tubes and several other fittings. Its products are used in petrochemicals, power, heat transfer equipment, fertilizers, dairy, refrigeration, metallurgy, fabrication, pharma, paper, cement, transformers and electrical appliances, among others. The company’s current turnover is about Rs. 10 crore, and this figure is expected to grow to around Rs. 15 crore in the next year. Mr. Jayantilal Mehta, Partner, Regal Sales Corporation hopes that this target can be achieved as a team. The family business which was started by Mr. Jayantilal Mehta’s elder brother, Mr. Nemichand Jain, MD, Regal Sales Corporation, has two branches now, in the cities of —Hyderabad and Indore. The company’s production unit is located are Silvasa, Gujarat.

Eliminating Hindrances

Like all companies, Regal Sales faced a number of challenges at its inception. “We had problems regarding the initial finance, and especially those concerning expansion; so we have had to work very hard. Today, we are entrenched in the Indian market. We have already covered 90% of markets all over the country. We started exporting in 2008, and are looking at increasing exports. The company is a member of various metal associations and a true believer in quality over accolades. IPCA Laboratories, a significant client of the company has shown appreciation to Regal Sales for its excellence in service and quality, and the company considers this its true achievement.

Another challenge the company faced during growth was that of connecting with prospective clients. “We used to do door-to-door marketing,” says Mr. Jayantilal Mehta. But, the company saw a turnaround in 1995, when they came onboard with IndiaMART.com. Mr. Mehta stated, “I came to know about IndiaMART.com through an advertisement in the newspaper. Based on recommendations, we decided to go with IndiaMART.com. There is tremendous competition in the metal market. IndiaMART.com is significantly helping us beat the competition. The enquiries that are being generated from IndiaMART.com are very genuine. We are getting 50% of our business through the internet and we are more recognizable now.”

http://www.indiamart.com/corporate/success-stories/regal-sales-corporation.html

IndiaMART.com Lends the Edge

Along with the growth of infrastructure, demand will surge in the metal industry. All the projects that will appear in India over the next few years will need suppliers. In today’s world, most people surf the internet for leads and ideas. Mr. Jayantilal Mehta opines that presence through IndiaMART.com can help companies like his to connect with potential customers.

Let Your Presentations Stand Out With Great Fonts: Font Squirrel

For any business, delivering proposals, making presentations is a crucial part of the business. Business presentations are many times the first point of contact for the sales team with the prospective customers. In the world of social networks such as SlideShare, there is much emphasis on creating powerful presentations and documents which present the best foot forward for your business. Even while you are not actively promoting your business, your content appears in search results worldwide and it gives your prospects a certain sense of your business, which creates a powerful propositional value for them.

Let Your Presentations Stand Out With Great Fonts
One of the biggest challenge with SMEs is that they cannot afford to hire great designers to create world class presentations, which obviously is essential for any business reaching out to prospects. To make great presentations, other than powerful content which you want to deliver across, great images and "fonts" help in making powerful impact on the user.

You can now download free fonts which can be used commercially, from Font Squirrel.

How do I install these fonts?
Whether you have a windows OS or a Mac, all you need to do is to download these fonts from the website and they will auto install on your system, depending upon the OS.

You can use these fonts in your presentations and make your text stand out with much emphasis. This helps you keep your message clear and direct and helps in keeping the communication strong.

Team IndiaMART Knowledge Services is committed to enable SMEs with tools, tips and techniques to help them reach up the value chain and hence achieve the next level of growth. For more information on how you can create new opportunities for your business, drop in a comment to this post and we will get in touch with you!

Scan Files for Viruses and Other Malicious Stuff Online

Anti Virus softwares are easy to find but not something that every start-up business can invest into. Some of the best anti-virus softwares come at a good price which always acts as a deterrent for small and medium businesses. Today, when almost every thing really works around the internet and information is being accessed through connected devices, its imperative to have access to a good anti-virus software. It can at least help us scan smaller files and email-attachments.

The screen capture above shows an interesting solution for SME's which want to remain safe from viruses etc. while All that you need to do with Virus Total, is to upload any file which is less than 20MB in size, and the file would automatically be scanned for viruses, trojans and all other malicious spywares etc. which can any given point in time affect your data online.

How do I start?

Using Virus Total is a fairly easy process as listed below:

• Create a new message with scan@virustotal.com as the destination address.
• If you wish to receive the results as plain text, write SCAN in the subject field. If you wish to receive an XML attachment with the results, write SCAN+XML in the subject field.
• Attach the file to be scanned. Such file must not exceed 20 MB in size. If the attached file is larger, the system will reject it automatically.

Hence now you can intelligently save on critical cost by using Virus Total, till the time its an absolute essential to buy anti-virus software for your business.

Team IndiaMART Knowledge Services is committed to enable SMEs with tools, tips and techniques to help them reach up the value chain and hence achieve the next level of growth. For more information on how you can create new opportunities for your business, drop in a comment to this post and we will get in touch with you!

A Game to Engage Your Customers

For Small and Medium enterprises, its absolute essential to ensure that they have engaged customers. An engaged customer is a great source of reference and a great word of mouth. Internet has changed the game for businesses today. SMEs are leveraging internet in more ways than one to reach out to both their existing set of customers and prospects (customers and employees). While social networks are one way to achieve this objective, an interesting manner is to leverage the power of gaming.

Games and your business
Games are one format of engagement for businesses to reach out and engage their target audience. There are many small and medium businesses which are exploring new ways and methodologies to engage their customers into their messaging. One of the emerging and interesting ways of engaging your target base is to motivate them to engage with your product and know more about it, while playing a game!

Yes, its an interesting way to keep your customers hooked onto your propositions and ensure that they understand the value add they are getting for their business.

There are many companies which can get this work done for you. Though creating a game requires much patience and money. And not just that one of the critical resources for any SME is time and creating a game is not a one day process

Its all about the idea and the timing
Recently a game launched by an Indian online gaming company called angry anna (which is really modelled on the anna hazare) movement, got great reviews online and in the  process, the company was able to crack the engagement and visibility code with it. Your business can be greatly affected in the positive by making intelligent use of such available outreach and engagement options

Its all about how engaging can you make your business communication such that your customers appreciate your innovative thought process, that you save on cost of outreach and take your business to the next level of growth and online gaming provides the perfect opportunity for small businesses to leverage.

Team IndiaMART Knowledge Services is committed to enable SMEs with tools, tips and techniques to help them reach up the value chain and hence achieve the next level of growth. For more information on how you can create new opportunities for your business, drop in a comment to this post and we will get in touch with you!

Create Powerful Demo Videos for Your Business

One of the many ways to engage your customers online is to provide them access to useful content which adds value to them/their business. Example, if you produce specific kind of LED bulbs and you wish to engage your prospective customer with your product, one of the best ways to do the same is to create a powerful experience for your customer to engage with your product. There are many ways to do it, though an introductory video is the most powerful way.

The Challenge
For most start-ups and small businesses creating a product introduction video is challenging, as it requires professional intervention and this might cost much, depending upon how do you wish the video to be done. Such costs might not be feasible to be taken up by small and medium businesses.

Now you can easily create powerful product demo videos!
The video below shows, how you can quickly create demo videos for your products, without really getting external intervention and hence maintaining costs.

Your business can engage existing clients and reach out to potential customers through self explanatory videos about your products and offerings, which will help your customers better understand your product. This impacts your business in the positive in two ways:

1. Reducing down time to generate leads

For any business a good video goes a long way to engage its customers into the value proposition and hence generate interest and feedback about your value offering for the market.

Team IndiaMART Knowledge Services is committed to enable SMEs with tools, tips and techniques to help them reach up the value chain and hence achieve the next level of growth. For more information on how you can create new opportunities for your business, drop in a comment to this post and we will get in touch with you!

5 Business Apps You Must Have

Mobility has changed the game for businesses. Especially the small and medium businesses, are far more connected today. With mobile devices such as the iPAD, iPhone and other such touch screen devices, people are sharing information and engaging with information in a more personal manner and in a far lesser time. Information is available at your fingertips and there is faster collaboration happening within teams at businesses. There is a powerful change happening in how businesses operate and how they are saving resources, cost in terms of time and energy. Businesses have become more smarter as they are embracing technology, making it faster and easier to operate and hence be more productive.

There are many business apps which are available on platforms like the apple ios, blackberry, android etc. we are listing down the 6 interesting business apps which we feel every SME must leverage to the best extent.

• Square

Using this app you can process credit card payments anywhere using the credit card accessory which you get along with your touch screen device (iPhone, iPad) etc. All kinds of credit cards are accepted by Square. This app is a great source for those in businesses with COD and also event organizers who many a times face the query from people who turn up at events and wish to pay by their credit cards.

• Linkedin

One of world's largest professional social networking tools, the Linkedin app for iPad and iphone and Blackberry are fantastic tools to quickly connect with your target audience. One of the quickest uses which you can make of this app is, when you meet someone at a conference/ event, you can quickly search them on Linkedin, get through their profiles and obviously chart out a better and more firm conversation with them, which obviously gets you more relevant and closer to the individual.

• Evernote

As the name suggests, Evernote helps you take down notes in the form of text, pictures, voice, data and store them quickly. The note taking app helps you ensure that you never forget anything and your task list is powerfully created and managed. You can make virtual memo's on-demand using Evernote.

• Gist

Business networking is the name of the game today and Gist is on top of the game. Gist helps you organize and update all your contacts in a single location. It obviously is not the easiest task for a business pro to have multiple contacts spread over multiple networks. Gist helps you manage all the information like Email, Phone, Address, at a single location. Gist automatically updates the same by fetching information from various social networks and other online sources which helps you with updated information about your contacts all the time.

• MightyMeeting

Making sales presentations and presentations otherwise is an obvious for any business. This is one part of the business which exists for almost every business and obviously over years of experience its essential to ensure that you have access to your presentations at all times, everywhere. MightyMeeting helps you do just that. You can now upload your presentations on the cloud and then access them anywhere, anytime, from any place with an internet connection. This makes it easier for you to pitch your clients with smarter tablets.

Team IndiaMART Knowledge Services is committed to enable SMEs with tools, tips and techniques to help them reach up the value chain and hence achieve the next level of growth. For more information on how you can create new opportunities for your business, drop in a comment to this post and we will get in touch with you!

FollowUpThen - Free and Efficient Email Reminder

Emails are the most common method of business communication today. Especially for the small and medium businesses, Emails are the first, simplest and the fastest way of communicating with anyone and everyone. The major most challenge which is faced with Emails is, many a times, Emails, which have to be followed-up with get lost and we lose track of the same.

Example, if you are a sales person and your client asks you to follow up in a week, obviously you can put enough reminders which keep reminding you of the fact that you have to follow up with your client on this particular Email. Such missed Emails also result in lost business many a times.

Followup Then ensures that you remember your followups on Email
The video below shows, how followup then leverages the power of Email reminders and ensures that you are always in touch with your follow-ups and that you never miss one.

This is the simplest way of ensuring that you always keep your follow-ups on your Emails strong and that you never miss a single follow-up.

How to use followup then?

Team IndiaMART Knowledge Services is committed to enable SMEs with tools, tips and techniques to help them reach up the value chain and hence achieve the next level of growth. For more information on how you can create new opportunities for your business, drop in a comment to this post and we will get in touch with you!

Create Audio Documentations for Your Projects with: SoundCloud

For a Small and Medium Enterprise it becomes very critical to ensure that their teams working on and across all the different projects they have, are well in sync and that they completely have all the requirement specifications noted down to the T, such that what they create and what the customer actually wants are both the same versions. Capturing requirements is one of the most critical aspects for any project to be successfully managed and moderated.

Now capture requirements as your client speaks of them in sound!
SoundCloud, a free cloud based application helps you capture audio and host it in the cloud, such that it could be played later on and also shared with anyone online.

As the screen capture above shows, you can capture sound and share it across platforms to collaborate around it. All you need to do to start using SoundCloud is, to simply either upload a recorded sound OR record a sound LIVE online, which will then be converted by the platform automatically into waveforms. Each minute of the waveform can be commented upon by various people who are relevant to the sound being played. Hence if your project team has to collaborate around a sound (client requirements) they can share their comments at various times of the sound being played, which can make it far easier for your team to ensure that they get the right context of what the client is speaking of.

SoundCloud hence ensures that you capture requirements to the best of its quality and collaborate around it, such that you never lose anything said by the client. It also ensures that your project team is always in sync and understands the work they are doing in the same light as what the client expects them to.

Team IndiaMART Knowledge Services is committed to enable SMEs with tools, tips and techniques to help them reach up the value chain and hence achieve the next level of growth. For more information on how you can create new opportunities for your business, drop in a comment to this post and we will get in touch with you!